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Groceries...Invest your Time not your Money

​This is a tip probably most useful to newbie Cheapskaters. I find this the best way to budget for, and stick to spending a certain amount when shopping for the family groceries. Start with a menu plan (of course). Then I use an excel spreadsheet to list all the items I will need based on that menu plan. Have one column for each of the different options of store, i.e. one column for Woolies, one for Coles and one for Aldi. I complete the shopping list by taking advantage of Woolies and Coles online shopping (although I do not actually shop online) as their website allows you to get an accurate price for each item. Once armed with this info you can easily identify where to shop for different items. And by having the list in hand, when in store you can make sure you are getting the best deal and most importantly know that when you get to the checkout that the total amount will not be a shock. It's definitely working for me and although it takes that bit longer to prepare to shop I think it is definitely worth it in the end. And from week to week it gets easier to prepare the list as you do quickly learn which items do not really change in price (milk etc).
Contributed by Jenni Sketche