What’s On Your Weekly Grocery List? Clever ways to shop for your family!

Is doing the weekly shopping with your children becoming a gargantuan task? Are you spending more money than you would like to on your weekly grocery bill? It is time to squeeze every cent.

If the daily expenses of eating and living have come to the point where you are screaming for a loan ASAP, then have a read below and receive some extra handy tips to keep in mind when shopping for the family.

Learn more about Fast Cash Loans.

Write a shopping list

First of all, never walk into Coles, Woolworths or Aldi blind. When you go shopping without a list or even an idea of what you need, you end up buying more and spending extra dollars on unnecessary items.

Get a magnet notepad. With a pad of paper and a pen permanently on the kitchen, you can’t go wrong. Writing down what food items you need for the week is easy; the hard part is remembering to take the list to the shops with you!

Try and make a rule: if it isn’t on the list, it isn’t going in the trolley. This will mean that once you get to checkout, your shopping bags will be full with everything you need, not everything you want.

The receipt will show the benefits too! No taking out a loan ASAP to cover the costs.

Plan your meals

Before you even write your shopping list, sit down by yourself or with your family, and think about what you want to cook during the week. Spaghetti? Lasagne? Vegetable soup? What ingredients will you need?

This tactic is not only great in cutting costs, but also in reducing time spent shopping. You know exactly what you are looking for, and you may only need to shop once a week instead of ducking into the grocer after work to grab something for dinner.

How is your organisation? By grabbing enough of everything in the one shop, you can ensure you have enough food to make leftovers for the following day’s lunch. Much better than eating out, and it is much better than waking up earlier to make a sandwich.

Keep the kids at home

This option isn’t viable for everyone. Perhaps one parent is working, and perhaps you don’t want to take out a loan to cover the increasing cost of childcare.

But if you do have grandparents or some friends in the area, get them around ASAP to look after your kids while you shop!

Kids can get distracted quite easily and you might feel you want to leave the shops sooner rather than later, before they get a bit agitated. This can lead to rushed decisions and poor health choices.

By leaving the kids in someone else’s care, you will have all the time in the world to compare prices and read the ingredients labels. You won’t have the young ones throwing chocolate bars into your trolley either!

Don’t be tempted keep the kids on loan to your grandparents. Pick them up ASAP after shopping so you can go home and cook them a wholesome meal.

Set a budget

Long before the days of credit cards and loans, shoppers used to use cash. Seems like forever ago, but maybe you should try it. Using cash is a great way to keep costs down.

Obviously you will need a debit or some other form of card to withdraw the cash from an ATM, but once you do, leave the card at home or somewhere safe. The cash in hand is all you have to spend at the shops, so you better stick to it!

You can’t grab a chocolate bar or packet of chips while you walk around the shops because you may blow your budget. This is also a good reason why you should never shop when you are hungry. Go on a full stomach and you won’t be tempted by the impulse purchases.

There are so many great grocery apps for list keeping and budgeting. Here is one of our favourite budget planners.

And here is our favourite grocery app for keeping track of expenses!

In summary, there are plenty of resources out there to help you shop for your family. Save money and save time by doing just a bit of research, and adopting these helpful hints.

If there is one takeaway from this article, it is to keep it simple. Make a list ASAP! The longer you continue shopping without one, the quicker you will be needing a loan.

*Learn more about responsible lending by reading: Payday Loans In A Nutshell