Split your shopping to cut costs

Spreading the weekly grocery shop over different stores can really pay off, writes Anthony Keane

SPLITTING weekly grocery shopping between different stores can save most households serious money.

While many shoppers already buy their meat, fruit and vegetables from smaller shops, they can split things further by dividing purchases among major supermarkets, according to budgeting specialists.

Woolworths, Coles, Aldi and other supermarkets would obviously prefer you buy everything from them, but doing that won’t potentially save you more than $3000 a year.

Trolley Saver founder Sam Lee said consumers could maximise savings by shopping at different stores. “The majority of specials in any given week is different between the big supermarkets,” said Mr Lee, whose app links people’s shopping lists with supermarket catalogue specials in their area.

“This means that if shoppers split their shopping into multiple supermarkets they can take advantage of the deep discounts offered across them.

“Our users can save over $70 a shop when they split their shopping list, especially for big items,” he said.

David Rankin, the founder of personal budgeting service Sort My Money, said it was good to have different grocery shopping sources “and to cherry pick from those different sources”.

“These days you don’t need to split yourself in two to split your shopping – you have online shopping,” he said.

Mr Rankin said doing some grocery shopping online removed the risk of impulse buying. After all, there’s a reason why supermarket checkouts are stacked with chocolates and magazines.

“You tend to shop in a more rational way online,” he said.

Delivery costs typically ranged from $4 to $10, Mr Rankin said, “but I think it more than pays for itself because you do get value”.

He said whatever way you shopped, it was a good idea to keep a whiteboard or a chalkboard in the kitchen and write down items as they ran out. The list could then be photographed on a smartphone.

“Stick to the list – you are shopping for needs, not wants. You can have two or three different sources of groceries but you are going to be disciplined,” he said. Splitting shopping options can get tricky when extra time or travel is involved, as things such as petrol costs – and how much you value spare time – may be a deterrent. “Some shoppers will be lucky because their Coles and Woolworths might be right next to each other, otherwise I suggest splitting the shopping into different days,” Mr Lee said. “For example, Coles might be on the way home from work and Woolworths might be on the way to footy practice – so splitting it this way doesn’t take any extra time in total or require additional cost in petrol.

Shoppers also can benefit from some reconnaissance at different stores, to prevent wandering aisles in frustration looking for items on their list.

“It is a good idea to know where the items are. Supermarkets want shoppers to slowly walk around the aisles as research shows that causes shoppers to purchase more, so having a plan of attack will definitely save time and money,” Mr Lee said.

He said a drawback of split shopping was having to visit multiple supermarkets in different places “but I think it beats paying full price for anything”.