Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody in the Harry Potter universe was famous for his saying “Constant vigilance”. I wish it wasn’t true that we have to use that advice when grocery shopping…but sadly it is. There are plenty of ways that grocery stores try to influence your buying, from the size of the cart to the music they pipe in to the location of items on the shelves. When I started work on this post about how I save money at the grocery store, it became apparent that I employ a vast number of strategies to save money.

In the Hectic Household, there’s a fine line between convenience and cost. There are times when I just can’t make something from scratch, so I’ll spend a little extra on convenience. At other times, I’m more careful with my costs and will accept the fact that I’ve got to put in time to save money.

It’s also true that the Hectic Clan is big. It’s pretty easy to buy large quantities of an item and have no waste. On the other hand, there are times when I’ve bought more of an item than we could ever consume. Like the time I bought 50 pounds of potatoes because they were on sale. On a really ridiculous sale. Fortunately, I got called on the carpet by Hectic Mom and had to find ways to prepare the potatoes and then freeze them. Nothing went to waste, but it could have been a messy disaster. If I were one to drink, I might’ve been researching vodka recipes, but I didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, there are some conveniences worth paying for. Some things will appeal to one family (bagged salads) that may never enter the home of another. Hopefully this list will contain a number of methods that you can employ on your next trip!

This post isn’t about extreme couponing. In fact, I try to use coupons, but that takes a lot of time to coordinate. I go on binges, collecting coupons, only to have them expire before I can use them. I try to use the weekly grocery store flyers when I’m planning our meals, but I do our planning on Sundays at present and the sales are over on Tuesday. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve planned a week’s worth of meals around the spectacular sales at the grocery store, only to fail at making the trip before the sales expire. Talk about being angered at myself when that happens!

If you’re good with coupons, just add that as another layer of savings that you can apply to the tips I’ve listed below. If you have any tips for me, that I can apply in my Hectic Life, please add them to the comments.

In the meantime, here are some tips and tricks that I’ve come across that help me when I’m out shopping.

• Stick to your shopping list
  • Make a list. I’ll repeat that, make a list. You can use paper, a napkin, an old envelope, or an app (I use OurGroceries). No matter how you do it, make a danged list. Then stick to that list. I’m an old softie, so anybody who comes to the grocery store with me and helps, gets to choose one item for their personal reward. One item. Not two, not six. Not a dozen. One item. Yeah, I’m a meany, but I don’t care.
• Watch out for the ginormous carts
  • We buy a lot for Hectic Manor, but cart sizes seem to be on an expansive trend. The larger the cart, the more likely I am to fill it up. And that often means purchasing more than I should. Even when I’m sticking to my list (see above), I still sometimes overbuy on the quantity of an item. It’ll say Diet Dr. Pepper – 2 liter and my ginormous cart can hold 12 bottles easily, so I’ll buy 12. If you don’t have the discipline to put the quantity your supposed to be buying (yeah, the finger is pointing directly at me!), then at least control yourself as you’re pulling things off the shelf. Seriously, do you need 36 cans of creamed corn?
• Avoid the Eww Factor
  • Speaking of grocery carts, think back to the hundreds of times you’ve been to the store. Have you ever seen a cart-wash there? You know, a nifty little drive-through where the carts are washed, removing all the chicken drippings, grunge,  etc? Ya, me neither. I hadn’t really thought about it much until I started researching about grocery stores for this post. I’m this close to wearing a hazmat suit the next time I go shopping. You may think I’m joking, but the stories I read were yuck. Eww. Gross. At the very least, take advantage of those cleaning wipes they have by so many cart garages now and clean off the handle. Especially clean off any surface that your little ones might touch. Seriously, do it!
• Listen to your own music
  • I don’t get to shop alone very often, so I don’t get to use this trick all that much. But think about the music that your local grocer plays. Is it something that makes your blood pump? Does it make you want to dance down the aisles? Or is it music that is straight out of the old-folks home, something they play on EZ-99 the station to slow you down and put you to sleep? Your store doesn’t want you to rush through there, they want you to stay. They want to wear you down. They want you to make impulse purchases and buy high-priced items. Avoid it, if you can and listen to your own pump-you-up music. It’s amazing what a difference this makes in what you buy and how fast you can get your shopping done!
• Get the family involved at the store
  • As I’ve mentioned, I’m seldom alone at the store. But I figure every moment is a teachable moment. So I’ll send my kids off on a scavenger hunt for a particular item. When they succeed, and bring back what I would’ve purchased, I give them a high-five and another mission. If they fail, we talk about how I would have done things differently and they get a second shot. Sometimes I’ll accept the wrong item if they got close enough. If I don’t accept it, they learn to ask questions before heading out on a mission.
• Don’t pay for mist!
  • If your expensive and precious fresh vegetables have been misted, shake them off to reduce their weight at checkout. It’s so sweet that the grocery store powers-that-be want to ensure that your fresh produce has taken a shower before you buy it. We want clean, shiny produce in our carts. But for items that are sold by weight, that fresh layer or mist adds weight…and added weight means added expense. So, as Taylor Swift so aptly advises, Shake It Off before you bag it. And try not to immediately laugh at the old lady you just got all wet. That’s not polite! Wait until you get home and you can share the story with your family!
• Deal or No Deal…the mystery of 10-for-10
  • Be careful what you wish for. We all want to find great deals. Even when you’re a very smart shopper (I’m looking at you!), you can still get caught up in the merry-go-round of if it’s on sale, it must be a bargain. But face it, how many items do you really know the price of? Lots of sites mentioned that we all know the price of bananas, bread, milk, and cheese. I know bread and usually milk. Bananas are a staple at our house, so the price isn’t really relevant to me, when we need them, we need them. They don’t keep, so I don’t store the price in my brain. I just buy ’em when we need ’em. Same for cheese. We eat the entire output of Madison County, Wisconsin every year in cheese, so we just buy it. The chances that I’m going to know the value of every 10-for-10 deal is slim. So here’s a newsflash, that 89-cent can of beans on a 10-for-10 isn’t a bargain! If the beans usually cost $1.39 per can, then it’s a bargain, but if the friendly grocer increases the price on a 10-for-10, you’re getting ripped off. I’m getting better at watching this one, but I’m still not all that good at it. So caveat emptor and beware of what you’re buying…you buyer you!
• Get cheesy
  • Have you ever noticed the fancy cheeses by the deli counter in the uppity part of the store? If you shop at Whole Foods you won’t have any clue…that entire store is uppity. But in normal grocery stores, they’re trying to make you feel special by having cheeses in and around the deli counter. But those cheeses might as well be wrapped in gold. Sure, there are times when you actually need Gruyere, but more often a simple Swiss will do. Zip through the pricey part of the store and get the more pedestrian cheese. It’ll save you a bundle in the long run. (P.S. The only time I really need Gruyere is when we make Cheese Fondue for New Year’s Eve. I’m still searching for a Swiss that will do the trick, but I haven’t found it yet.)
• Scratch that itch
  • If you’ve got the time and energy, consider making some items from scratch. Seriously, we’re not talking rocket science here. Prepackaged anything is usually loaded with salt, might have flavors you don’t really like all that much, and has ingredients that look like my college Chemistry Professor had a field day writing them down. While you can buy pre-made versions of all the items below, none of them are all that difficult to make. Plus you can get the family involved and make it into one of the DIY projects that actually succeeds. If you’re like me, it’s nice to have one work out every once in a while. Just get after it and save yourself some money by making a bunch of any of the following:
    • Hummus
    • Trail Mix
    • Bread
    • Hamburgers
    • Salad Dressing
    • Pasta Sauce
• Take along a giant and a little person while shopping
  • The height of the average American woman is 5′ 5″ and the average British woman is 5′ 3″. That means that eye level is slightly below that. Our friends in the grocery business know this. They are smart men and women, albeit a bit sneaky. They know that items at eye level are going to be….well…right in front of your eyes. They also know that you’re minding your mini-mes while shopping, and have a lot on your mind. So they put convenience items right in front of you. After your 30th no you can’t have that to your minions, you’re going to be tempted to grab the item at eye level and be done with this aisle. But wait…the middle shelf usually has the priciest of items! That’s where the name brands live. That’s where the highest cost-per-ounce packages are. I understand there are certain things you won’t compromise on. In Hectic Manor we don’t compromise on marshmallows. We buy Kraft Jet-Puffed marshmallows. Purchasing another brand will lead to dire consequences. I know, I compromised once and had the wonderful experience of being sent back to the store. But for most other items the store brand will do. I have an advantage, being 6′ 2″ the upper shelves are well within my viewing range. For the lower shelves, I bring along one of the kids and make them tell me what’s down there. On a really bad day, I’ve actually had kids sitting on the bottom of the cart calling things out to me as they see them at Hobbit-level. So think about taking a look above and below your eye level to see if you can get virtually the same product at a great savings!
• A single-serve never won a match!
  1. Despite being a really bad pun, there’s a ton of truth in that statement. Avoid single-serve packaging if at all possible. Somebody is going to bear the additional cost of portioning and packaging your single-serve packs, and I’ll guarantee that it’s not the grocery chain. Spend some money upfront for reusable containers that are the right size for single servings, then repackage any of the following items into single-serve packages. Better yet, have the kids do it! We buy the most cost-effective size of all of the following and then repackage them into single serve containers. As an added bonus, we put the single-serve containers in a large storage container in the fridge or pantry. Then when it’s time to make lunches, we get the storage containers out and voilà we have a way for everybody to select what they want in their own lunch. Some of the items we repackage at Hectic Manor are:
     • Yogurt
     • Applesauce
     • Pretzels
     • Crackers
     • Raisins
     • Dry-roasted Peanuts
     • Almonds
     • Potato Chips
• Make checkout a game!
  • If you’re like me, when you get to checkout your this close to strangling the kids, you’re not excited to be in line behind a bunch of people, and you’re ready to be done with the entire concept of grocery shopping. But don’t drop the ball now. You’re almost done. Time to turn the end of the trip into a game, get the family involved (again), and help your friendly checker do their job more efficient.
  • You’ve fended off close to one hundred can I buy this requests from your kids as you dragged them through the store. Your resistance is low. You’re tired and the kids are still driving you nuts. And the lady in front of you has 20 items and 50 coupons. And she’s paying in pennies, stuck together with denture cream. The longer you stand there, the longer the impulse items start to look inviting to you. Those candy bars are calling your name. The gum. The mints. The pork rinds…they all look great. Seriously, you just considered jalapeño flavored pork rinds as a viable item to purchase. Smack yourself upside your head and put them back on the rack. It’s called an impulse purchase for a reason…avoid it! Don’t buy in the checkout line
  • As we approach checkout I have the kids pick the checkout lane we’re going to use. That puts a little of their skin in the game regarding how quickly we can get out of the store. Then I send them to get a spare cart and meet me at whatever lane they picked. The idea is that as the bags are filled, they go into the spare cart. Often we end up pushing two partially full carts out of the store, but that’s ok, I don’t have to work so hard pushing uphill away from the store, and they have something to do rather than sitting there looking at those danged jalapeño flavored pork rinds.
• It’s not Sometimes Vigilant, it’s Constant Vigilance
  • You just want to pay for what you bought and get it home. But it’s not quite that easy. You know that wonderful kid working the register? Yeah, the friendly one who seems so efficient. Watch his or her scanning like a hawk. How many teenagers do you know who can tell the difference between lettuce and cabbage? A single digit entered incorrectly from the label, or god-forbid, from their memory could lead to paying a lot more for an item than it’s worth. Also watch that the 10-for-10 deal that brought you into the store actually rings up that way. Is this a pain in the backside while you’re trying to manage three kids and watch the bagger who insists on putting the eggs in the bottom of the reusable bag that you brought? Sure. Is it worth it…yup, to the tune of a couple hundred dollars the last year in my experience.

So there you have it, 13 little tips that may help you save a bit of cash and a whole lot of frustration at the grocery store. Someday we’ll be able to send our robots to the store to do the shopping, and they will never come home with the wrong brand of marshmallows. Until that day, these tips might make it easier for you on your next trip to the grocers.

If you have any more, please let me know in the comments. I’m always looking for ways to tweak my shopping experience…in a good way!