How Supermarkets Get You to Spend More Than You Should

When it comes to budgeting for your regular monthly expenses, the importance of monitoring your spending cannot be overstated. In order to make the most out of your money every month, you need to have a clear understanding of where your money is actually going. If you’re not really aware of what you’re spending your money on, how can you ever know where you can cut back to save more?

In this post, we’ll be looking at 3 ways in which supermarkets encourage you to spend more than you really need to. If you’re aware of the clever strategies and marketing ploys used by supermarkets to get you spending more than you should, you will be more equipped to make better purchasing and budgeting decisions.

Those X-For-The-Price-Of-Y Deals

We’ve all seen those 2-for-the-price-of-1 or 3-for-the-price-of-2 offers at most supermarkets and retail stores.
Even though these deals might seem like they’re great value for money, they’re really just a tactic to get you to spend more.

If you’re interested in one of those 2-for-1 deals, rather than just throwing the items into your trolley, work out exactly how much each item costs at the advertised price by dividing what you’ll pay by the number of items in the deal. Only go for the deal if the price per individual item is within your budget.

Convenience Produce

Even though we all love the ease and convenience of pre-packaged, pre-cut and pre-washed produce, these products are almost always more expensive than their whole, unpackaged and uncut counterparts.
Besides being more expensive pre-cut and packaged fruit and vegetables tend to go off much faster and are worse for the environment. 

Instead of buying pre-cut produce, opt for whole fruit and vegetables and prepare a large batch of fruit and vegetables to last you through the week. Get the kids involved for some great family bonding time. 

That Infamous Checkout Line

We’ve all seen the aisles leading up to the till that are overflowing with brightly coloured treats and random goodies. While most of us already know that supermarkets place these items there solely to entice us into spending more than we planned to, oftentimes people succumb to temptation and grab a chocolate or two and a magazine while waiting to pay.
While the price of one small packet of sweets or cold drink might not break the bank, continuously falling for this trick will add up and cut into your monthly budget.

It requires strict self-discipline not to be tempted into buying something from the checkout aisle. Make sure you always have a set list of what you want/need to purchase when going into the store and whatever you do, don’t veer off that pre-defined list. Your wallet and budget will thank you for it later.

Original article: https://blog.moneysmart.co.za/budgeting-tips-supermarkets/ 

November 01 2017 By By MoneySmart Financial Planning