NU12 #4, New Spending Habits/Routine: How to Control Your Self in a Grocery Store - Alvin Bilolo

NU12 #4, New Spending Habits/Routine: How to Control Your Self in a Grocery Store - Alvin Bilolo

We usually go to the supermarket to buy groceries every week. Since we are doing it in a weekly basis, it is indeed expected of us to buy a lot of things that we usually need such as food, toiletries, detergents and similar stuffs. I noticed that whenever we do this, we usually run out of our budget. We spend more than what we should! Because of this, I thought of things that we might have been doing wrong and how we can resolve this recurring problem every week. I am proposing the following things to be done whenever we have our grocery and develop these as a habit:

• Never go to the grocery store if you are hungry. We have the tendency to buy more food when we are hungry. Believe it or not, we can easily be tempted to buy more since our system tells us that we need more. We cannot easily think of those things that we really need. We should already eat our meal before we go to the grocery store. This will give us a sound mind to stick to our budget and buy only those that are essentials.
• List everything that you need before going to supermarket. This will make allow us to do our grocery experience faster. We must buy only those things that are included in our list. This will require us an ample time to list everything beforehand.
• Never bring your credit card if it is not needed. The more we know that we have a spare credit card to buy things that are not included in our grocery list, the more we are tempted to spend more. Our goal must be to buy only those things that we need.
• Change our grocery schedule from weekly to bimonthly. We must limit our grocery experience to only twice a month. This will help us not to be tempted more often.
• Refrain from buying bulk stuffs. An example of this is that if we are going to buy 5 dozens of detergent powder, we'll have a piece of detergent bar free. This will induce us to buy things that we really do not need.

Our grocery experience should be great. And this will only be great as it is if we will always stick to our budget and save a lot of money and time. 3