Credit Crunch: A Survivor’s Guide – Shopping Intelligently: Part 2

We’re talking about groceries here, if you’re even thinking about any other kind of shop you need to stop right now. Unless you can’t eat it or drink it, or need it for washing, then don’t buy it.

Never ever go shopping without a list. Big mistake. Also, have something to eat and drink before you go, so you won’t be tempted to buy yourself a snack (this is my biggest problem, I go to buy myself some lunch and eat up with £20.00 worth of crisps, biscuits and chocolate!).

Stick to the list!

You will need to buy essentials, food, drinks, cleaning stuff, washing powders, you know the type of thing. Check out the offers, half price and buy one get one free (BOGOF) are the best. If they have something you will use, shampoo, shower gel, frozen pizza, toothpaste, get double you normally would. If it’s something you use all year-round such as shower gel, then stock up when it’s BOGOF. I recently bought sixteen bottles of Original Source Shower Gel in Tesco when they had a BOGOF offer which will keep me going for several months, at half the cost.

It’s important you don’t get carried away with offers. Never buy anything you might use just because it’s on sale, only things you will definitely use and are on your list.

If you do internet shopping it’s much easier to check all the offers, it’s how I choose half my shopping.

It’s also worth changing your supermarket once in a while. The big supermarkets will often send you a discount voucher to use online to entice you back, if you haven’t been there for a couple of months.

Shopping intelligently is about not buying more than you need, making offers work for you, and adding value to every purchase.

Credit Crunch: A Survivor’s Guide

The credit crunch has hit me hard. I haven’t lost my job (so far), but my income has decreased significantly (about 25%), the threat of redundancy has loomed over me for the whole of 2009 and is likely to be an issue again in 2010. During this time of difficulties I’ve had to tighten my belt, to cut costs, I’ve had to crunch my own credit, look at my needs and expenses and try to put together a back-up fund for emergencies.

It has been hard. The credit crunch was unexpected by most people, including me, and because there was no warning I found myself unprepared.

To give you some background, I have a full-time job (the joy!), I live in rented accommodation (which until recently I enjoyed alone). I enjoy good food, regular holidays, lots of tv channels, unrestricted broadband internet access, buying things when I want them, not having to save forever to get an iPod touch, and being in control of my money.

That is until I realised how precariously balanced I was on the financial divide. The divide between the haves and have-nots. Because of the credit-crisis it’s not so much of a divide any more, and there’s no border patrol stopping you going over to the other side now.

I plan to put together a series of articles aimed at making you look at your money and getting you to think about how you spend it. This isn’t a get rich quick scheme, it’s not a 12-step debt removal system, it’s just a common-sense way of looking at money and how you use it. The idea is to take in this information and use it to save yourself some money without having to go without too much.

Next time: Budgeting