How to Spot When Prices are Going Up
So, the government would have us believe that inflation currently stands at 2.5%, huh? Well, if like me, you have filled a car with fuel or bought a loaf of bread recently, you’ll possibly share my opinion that they’re not *exactly* giving us the whole story.
The problem is that prices are creeping up in some places, whilst loss leaders are still being touted by the big supermarkets. What’s the best way around this? Well, what I’m planning on doing is starting to keep a price book.
I’m almost subconsciously aware of the prices of various things – I know that milk is £1.00 for four pints at Iceland. Teabags are 99p for 100 at Lidl. Cheese is … cheaper … at my local butcher. But how much? I’m not sure, because I haven’t made a note of it. The key is to buy a small book, possibly an address book with handy-dandy alphabetical tabs. The first time you go round a supermarket, write down the prices of things that you buy regularly in the appropriate tabs, along with which shops set which prices. It’s a pain in the rear end the first time you go shopping, but from thereon afterwards, you have a point of reference for how much things cost. If you know that milk is 75p cheaper in Iceland than in the corner shop (which it is for me), then you can plan to visit that supermarket and buy several pints and freeze it (I drink semi-skimmed milk, and freezing it doesn’t affect the taste at all, and means that I never find myself without milk for breakfast the next day after the corner shop is shut at 9pm.).
I’m going to try it next time I go shopping, anyway. Anything that promises to save some money in today’s volatile economy has got to be good!
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Comment by Jane
Some supermarkets have online shopping. Not that I use it for buying things (I go round there, see what’s at half price, and base dinner around that), but it means you can compare prices from the comfort of your own home.
Comment by Andrea Dale
I really like the idea of using a small address book for that kind of information.
Thanks!
Here’s a question, how do *you* physically keep track of what you’re spending? That’s a huge challenge for me . . .(Maybe you’ve addressed it in another post, if so, feel free to send me in that direction).
Comment by Chris C
I don’t know how they calculate ‘inflation’. It obviously doesn’t include the price of any sort of fuel (car or heating oil, gas or electricity) or most food. Or council tax. If it included those things then for it to be as low as they say a lot of other things would have had to fall drastically in price, which hasn’t happened as far as I can see.
A lot of local shops seem to be pricing themselves out of the market. Yes, supermarkets often have “loss leaders” but they can’t make a loss on everything otherwise they’d go bust, so when they do “2 for 1″ offers they must still be making some profit. When the cost of a half gallon of milk or a pound of cheese at my local shops is almost double the price in Tesco it actually costs me less to drive to Tesco just for that than to use the local shop!
Another thing to look for is stuff which is almost at the sell-by date, especially just before they close for Sunday. Most of it is actually good for a lot longer than the sell-by date but they have to get rid of it so you can get some very drastic reductions, often things sell at under 25% of the normal price just to get it off the shelf (any money they make on it is a bonus to them, because otherwise they would have to dispose of it).
Comment by The Magician
Chris C said “Yes, supermarkets often have “loss leaders” but they can’t make a loss on everything otherwise they’d go bust, so when they do “2 for 1? offers they must still be making some profit.”
I’ve worked on the computerised ordering systems for both supermarkets and for suppliers (farmers, middlemen, importers etc.) … often when a supermarket does “2 for 1″ they effectively force the supplier to provide the product at half price and take the loss, because otherwise the supermarket will take their business elsewhere. So the supermarket still makes a profit but the farmer or small businessman (or Coca-Cola or Heinz) end up losing money for a week or two in exchange for keeping a big contract for 52 weeks. That’s why there are different “2 for 1″ offers every couple of weeks, to spread the pain around.
I found the problem with “sell-by date bargains” is that I bought things I wouldn’t buy otherwise, and that I’d buy things I didn’t need. This often led to them staying in the fridge for a few days until they then got thrown out. So it was spending money to throw away Tesco’s rubbish for them. I’m a lot more disciplined in that area now. I only buy stuff I am sure I will eat within two days and I leave something else out of the shopping basket.
I do buy milk and bread at my local shop, partly because it means I don’t use the car (so saving not only petrol, but pollution/climate change) and it supports a local business that I want to be there next week. For the extra 19p for a loaf of bread (which will last me a week) and the extra 20p for four pints of milk (ditto) I consider it a worthwhile investment … and especially when I think of all the extra stuff (that I don’t need) that I usually end up buying at the supermarket if I go there.
But for me the corner shop is easy as it is on the walk home from the train station to my house. If I had to drive from the station (or from my office) then I would almost certainly choose to stop at the supermarket instead.
Comment by Marion
I don’t actually keep a notebook of such things, but I do have at least a mental image of price comparisons. I’m fairly lucky in that I have four small supermarkets in walking distance – Nisa, Co-op, Sainsbury’s Local/Express, and Budgens. I can get most of what I need there without actually going to a ‘corner shop’; if I need to do a bigger shop, then I will either drive or take a bus to a larger Tesco or Sainsbury’s.
As an aside, and for Andrea: I have a cashbook in which I keep a record of cash spending – I’ve actually been rather lax about it over the past couple of years, but have now forced myself to start recording everything again. When you can see that last week you spent £16.07, and this week you’ve already spent £9.35 (or whatever), it’s a great help. However, it’s all backed up by the banking program I run on my ageing Psion organiser, which keeps track of everything that comes directly out of my bank accounts (or, of course, what goes in, though that’s not much these days!), so I have a good idea of how much I have available at any time. I also keep the ’spending’ (i.e. cash) account on there, but bundled by week – so the cash book tots up to £17.93, and on the Psion I enter that much as a week’s out-goings. Cash withdrawals from the bank get transferred into the spending account. So at the end of a week, the total on the Psion *should* match what I’ve got in the purse!
Comment by Jessica
I like http://www.mysupermarket.com, but the problem is it only compares the four main stores for home delivery (Tesco, Sainsbury, Waitrose, Ocado). I can tell you that I can normally save money by shopping at Tesco rather than Sainsbury, but it’s also 16 miles further away so I can only do that if I am in the vicinity anyway. I’m sure Lidl is cheaper still but I haven’t got round to trying it yet. And they want a debit card not a credit card so no amazon points for me there!
Comment by Jessica
Which weblink works better if it hadn’t included the comma!