How to save at the grocery store as food inflation continues to soar

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Jim Dandy reads the grocery retailer flyers each week.

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It’s a behavior the 79-year-old retiree picked up in childhood and continued whereas elevating three youngsters throughout legislation college.

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“I realized the significance of saving 5 cents, and that has caught with me,” Dandy stated in an interview from his dwelling in Niagara Falls, Ont.

Grocery costs have been up 11 per cent in December in contrast with a 12 months in the past, Statistics Canada stated this week. Total, grocery costs have been up 9.8 per cent in 2022 in contrast with a 12 months earlier — the quickest tempo since 1981.

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As customers grapple with spiralling meals prices, some are turning for the primary time to ideas and methods lengthy utilized by older Canadians.

Dandy, a septuagenarian who lived via the skyrocketing inflation of the early Nineteen Eighties, has recommendation to supply shoppers who could also be apprehensive about meals costs for the primary time.

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His prime tip is to learn grocery retailer flyers usually to turn into aware of costs.

You’ll want to know spot a deal

Jim Dandy

“You’ll want to know spot a deal,” Dandy stated. “Generally the gross sales aren’t pretty much as good as they appear.”

Along with the paper model of grocery store flyers, customers also can discover them on-line or utilizing an app on their telephone.

“Flyers stay a tried-and-true means to economize on groceries,” stated Natasha Macmillan, director of on a regular basis banking at Ratehub.ca. “Even when it isn’t a retailer the place you usually store, it’s good to know what’s on sale after which use worth matching.”

Worth matching — when a grocery retailer matches a sale worth marketed by one other retailer — is a technique Dandy stated he makes use of usually.

“Most supermarkets will worth match so long as they’re the identical (product),” he stated. “The financial savings do actually add up.”

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Flyers stay a tried-and-true means to economize on groceries

Natasha Macmillan

Dandy additionally recommends making a purchasing listing — and sticking to it.

Whereas the senior is simply searching for himself — preserving the listing pretty easy — Macmillan stated households could need to plan meals earlier than beginning their listing.

“I personally begin with a meal plan for the week after which determine what components we’d like,” she stated. “From there I examine what’s already in my kitchen and make a listing of what I’m lacking.”

In the meantime, there are alternatives now accessible to customers that weren’t round within the early Nineteen Eighties.

For instance, individuals who have bother sticking to a listing when searching for groceries in individual might think about ordering groceries on-line, Macmillan stated.

For in-store customers, she recommends objects above and beneath eye degree.

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“The upper-priced objects are typically proper at eye degree, whereas the cheaper manufacturers are greater and decrease on the shelf,” Macmillan stated.

Dandy additionally identified that many grocery shops will promote a worth if a client buys a number of of the identical merchandise, but when a family can’t devour that a lot of the product earlier than one of the best earlier than date then it might simply go to waste.

“I’m a senior and I reside alone, so these offers don’t work for me,” he stated.

Nevertheless, regardless that grocery shops promote the value of two objects bought collectively, generally the unit worth for one is similar as shopping for multiples.

He has additionally seen shrinkflation sweeping retailer cabinets as meals makers promote smaller product sizes on the identical or a better worth.

“Most shops have the unit worth on the sticker and if not I’ll calculate it myself,” Dandy stated. “To my sheer amazement generally the majority measurement is dearer, so it’s value checking.”