Changing habits is challenging but every small step you take is progress. Set a couple goals or strategies to focus on and then add more as each new goal becomes a habit. Use these tips to help you shop and spend smart at the store...
Know the regular prices of items you generally buy. This way you will recognize when an advertised special is really a bargain. Figure out the sales cycles for your supermarket. Many supermarkets cycle the various categories of food on sale approximately every 12 weeks. If you shop for just what you need every week, you miss out on many of the sales. Buy larger quantities of shelf-stable foods, including canned, dried, and non-perishable foods when they are on sale an stock your pantry.
If you shop in stores where individual items do not have price tags attached to them, you may want to write the price on each package after you get home, on the shopping list, or your grocery price list.
Be alert for unadvertised specials in the store. These can save you money. But not all items displayed at the end of aisles in the store are necessarily on special sale.
Be aware of downsizing. An ongoing trend for manufacturers in recent years is to keep the same sized packaging, same product price, but downsizing the quantity of product inside the package. This trend has been most commonly seen in products such as 
paper products, baby food, coffee, and cleaning products.
We are used to grabbing our most commonly used products and dashing for the checkout line. Taking a few extra moments to check out how much product is actually inside the box will help insure you are getting what you think you have purchased in the past. Keeping a small notebook of this information on your favorite products is handy for comparison purposes. Downsized packages are designed to be unnoticeable to most consumers. See unit pricing...
Ask for a rain check. If a specially priced item is sold out, ask for a rain check. It allows you to purchase the item at the sale price at a later date. While checking out, watch to be sure breakable and crushable items are correctly bagged. Also, food items that are easily bruised must be carefully packed. Bananas crushed by a can of peas aren't very appetizing.
At the checkout. Take a quick inventory of your cart before hitting the check out. Remove impulse items. Do you really need that giant bag of chips? The candy? It’s easy to pick up items you want (but don’t really need).
Check your receipt. Make sure your prices are scanned correctly. Make sure your coupons are scanned correctly. Sale items, especially, have a tendency to be in the computer wrong, and yet few people ever challenge the price at the register. You don’t need to hold up the line: simply watch the price of each item as it’s scanned. If you suspect an error, step to the side and check the receipt as the clerk begins the next order. If there’s a problem, politely point it out. It’s your money. Ask for it.
Smart Shopping Tips at the store:
- Compare prices of different sizes and brands of the food you're buying
- Use coupons only for the things you usually buy
- Try to buy just the amount you need or have space to store
Try these tips and check out Supermarket Savings:16 tips that total BIG BUCKS!