Any time we go to the supermarket we always try and buy any specials if we see them. Like most budget conscience shoppers we have a list of things we want to purchase but on some occasions extra special bargains appear on the scene. These MUST be taken advantage of!

If for example we went to the supermarket to buy bread and milk, then we would take advantage of the lower petrol price (with a 6 cent discount per litre) and fill up the car while we’re there. The supermarket we normally shop at is Lower Hutt Pak ‘n’ Save and the petrol is 99.9% of the time cheaper than what we could get from BP, Z, Caltex or any of the other New Zealand petrol retailers.

Depending on what we might need, on occasions we will shop at the local Countdown supermarket and they have some items there which are better than Pak ‘n’ Save however in terms of what we buy this only amounts to 5 or so items.

These items are:

Champagne Ham – $2.20 per 100 grams

Baked Beans (Woolworths brand) – 80c per tin

Essentials Oven Chips (Straight or Crinkle Cut) – $2.00 per 1kg bag

Soft Drink – 99 Brand – $1.00 per 1.25 litre bottle (Sugar free)

Choice Brand 2 minute noodles – $1.80 per 5 pack

99% of the other product range at Countdown is more expensive than Pak ‘n’ Save but these items are things we would normally buy and are cheaper at Countdown for similar quality products.

The other day we went to Pak ‘n’ Save and picked up some instant coffee which was “Pams Smooth Roast”. Not only is this one of the cheapest avaialble, it’s also our favourite and it was on special.l So what did we do? We purchased 13 packets. We love coffee, it’s going to get consumed in our household and at $1.88 per 100 gram packet it was an absolute bargain. In hindsight I should have brought another 20 packets:

And on the way home we stopped at the local countdown. We tested one particular brand of baked beans and found they were the equal to our normal “Oak” brand except instead of paying $1.50 a can, we ended up paying the regular price of 80 cents a can. Before inflation bit in the last 3 or 4 months the original Oak brand could be found for around 99 cents to $1.20 but at $1.50 a can we decided to look elsewhere. Not only are these good for long term storage, these will be useful for additional stock piling. It’s a matter of time living in the Wellington region before we have another earthquake or man made economic disaster. Better to be prepared that not! SO, 36 cans later:

We’ll make sure we rotate these before they expire and ensure we mark the expiry dates so we don’t end up wasting any of them. By buying items that we normally consume in bulk at discounted prices we not only save on additional shopping trips, time and petrol, but we end up saving a whole lot of extra money in the process as well.

Next time you go shopping, compare prices at your food suppliers and if it’s on special or just a great deal then make sure you take advantage of it!