Chasing the Fionist Dream

One of our very first posts on this blog was about how to save money at the supermarket. (Make sure to read it if you haven’t yet!) Now that you have implemented our previous tips, we are excited to share ten more with you, to bring your grocery bill down further.

1. Shuk Day – Many supermarkets have repeating sales throughout the week to keep you coming back. Our local supermarket has dairy sales on Sundays and Mondays, meat sales on Tuesdays, and produce sales on Wednesday (shuk day). For this reason, we do our weekly produce shop on Wednesday and are able to buy fruit and veggies for half the usual price.
2. Do your homework – Check your supermarket app and sites like Pricez to learn about sales before you get to the store or while you’re there. Sometimes sales are unmarked or mismarked at the store and you’d never know about them otherwise.
3. Coupons – While extreme couponing isn’t exactly a pastime here like it is in the US, coupons do exist and are usually issued by the supermarket chain itself. Unlike the paper coupons of our youth, today’s coupons are usually digital and can be found on your app or supermarket membership account. They will often be personalized to your shopping habits (based on your previous shops) and you will have to actively “activate” them to get the discount.
4. Clearance shelf – Some big supermarkets have a special section with heavily discounted banged up items or food near its sell-by date.
5. Ditch the shopping cart – If you are popping into the supermarket for a few items, don’t take a shopping cart or basket. You will be less tempted to buy extras not on your list if you have to carry them.
6. Avoid the crowds – In our experience, shopping on certain days is better than others. We find that Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays are the best days for a shop as the stores are fully stocked and most people aren’t doing their weekly shop then.
7. Buy less prepared food – Prepared food costs more because some else had to prepare it for you. Can you make your own pizza instead of buying a frozen pie? Can you add your own fruit/jam/crunchies to yogurt?
8. Meal plan – You don’t need to plan your meals to the day, but you do know which meals you repeat on a regular basis. Figure out which stores sell your various staples cheaply and stock up so you are always are ready. Having all of the ingredients on hand and ready to go will also help you avoid resorting to takeout.
9. Pantry shop –  Go shopping in your pantry first before going out to the store. Are you actually out of everything on your list?
10. Set yourself a price limit – Decide what you are willing to pay for a particular item or category. If you can’t find something under that price, don’t buy it. For example, we are willing to pay up to 65 shekels a kilo for frozen salmon. If salmon costs more than that, we don’t buy it. We don’t buy vegetables that are over 8 shekel a kilo or fruits that are over 10. (Usually we get them for much less at Shuk Day anyway.)

Which of these do you already do? Which ones do you plan to try?