The act of shopping from a surplus will help you save money on groceries. When you shop from a deficit, you will always pay more money. Here is some information that will help explain the practice of shopping from a surplus and how you can do it to lower your grocery bill.
Imagine a typical grocery shopping week. You sit down and make your list, or maybe you just hot the store knowing what it is you need. Chances are your list contains ingredients that you know you will need for that week. You are in the mood for hamburgers, for example, so you have ground meat, plus buns, plus the seasonings needed for the meal. You might add a salad and some french fries, too, right?
Maybe you go to your pantry and find that you are out of something, such as pasta sauce or cereal. So that goes on the list. You need something or are in deficit of it, so you buy it. The problem with this method (which is what most of us use) is that you’ll wind up paying full price on almost everything.
Shopping from a surplus, meaning that you already have everything you need, allows you to stock up on food when the prices are lowest. You can then purchase things only when they are on sale and you have a coupon. The idea is to replenish the stock when you get the best prices. You never let anything run out, because if it doesn’t. You’ll have to pay full price to replace it.
To make shopping from a surplus easier to do, you should understand how much of a particular food item you generally need and then purchase as much as you can to last you until the next good sale or coupon. Creating a price book can help with this. Sales and coupon are usually cyclical and seasonal. If tuna sales come around every six weeks, then stock a surplus to last you at least that long.
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Stocking the Pantry on a Budget
Five Reasons to Stockpile Food
Common Pitfalls of Stockpiling