Posted on March 15th, 2016

Going grocery shopping can either be a fun or a dreaded activity, often involving the purchasing of many items that were not on your grocery list, if you actually had one to begin with!

New products are forever being advertised along with constant “ON SPECIAL” signs that invite and encourage us to spend more to save more or to try something new. Lollies, chocolate and soft drinks are terrible for always being on special!

To avoid over spending the best way to grocery shop is on the outside of the grocery store with travelling down minimal isles. Buying certain foods in bulk is also a great idea and more cost effective long term. Also a great idea to eat before going grocery shopping to avoid the temptation of purchasing foods that you would not ordinarily buy.

When you first walk into the Supermarket start here:

• Fruits and vegetables
• Meats
• Natural Yoghurts and Organic Dairy
• Eggs

Once you have found all of the produce you like from these areas, it is sometimes necessary to travel down isles to find other staple foods.

Isles that are often good to travel down:

• Health food isle (for products such as; nut butters, quinoa, buckwheat, millet, amaranth, brown/black rice, cold pressed oils, nuts and seeds)
• Long life milk isle (almond, coconut, oat and rice milks)
• Biscuit isle (wholegrain crackers)
• Tinned food isle (tin lentils, chickpeas and beans or dried ones)

It is always best if you can pre-plan your meals for the week so you know in advance what to purchase, however this is not always practicable for everyone and I don’t always do this myself.

When you do see specials on nuts milk, health foods or tinned legumes and pulses for example, if you can afford to buy extra it may be worthwhile if you use these foods on a weekly basis.

If you see specials on vegetables and fruits, you can always buy extra and freeze. Frozen fruits make great additions to smoothies when you are time poor and creating your own frozen vegetables comes in very handy when you come home late from work or when you have run out of fresh produce.

If you try and stick to the outside of the grocery shop as much as possible you will often be able to purchase a lot of good quality and healthy foods while avoiding the temptation of packaged/processed foods.