When you shop for groceries you have one goal in mind. You want to buy the things you need and spend the least amount of money doing it. When you shop for groceries the one goal the store has in mind is to get you to spend the most money it can. Those are diametrically opposed goals.

When you shop, whose goal wins out? Do you spend the least amount you can or does the store win by getting you to spend more than you wanted. Unfortunately for most individuals the store wins. You end up spending a lot more than you planned on by the time you leave the store.

How can you stop the store from winning? How can you shop and spend the least amount possible? To do that, you should know about how stores operate.

Stores operate with what are called loss leaders. Loss leaders are items that the store reduces the price on to the point where they may even be selling them at a loss. That’s why they are called loss leaders because the store is taking a loss on them.

Of course you know that a store in not in business to loose money. For every loss leader a store sells, they have to sell some high profit items to make up it. That is how they utilize loss leaders to get you spend money you don’t need or want to.

The great sale prices you see in the store’s ads are usually loss leaders. They may not all be loss leaders, but the main sale items, the ones that seem too good to be true are the loss leaders. You find a few items that are really low and you decide that you must go to that store to take advantage of the terrific sale prices.

If you walk into the store without any preparation or plan on how you are going to shop, then the store will be successful. The store will persuade you to buy way more than you were planning on. You will spend a lot more overall than you had planned on spending.

The first thing the store will do is to put a high profit item right next to the item it is using as a loss leader. It is usually in the form of a display of some items that are related to the loss leader. The store assumes that you will find the loss leader, then see the display of the high profit item, decide to buy that too, and viola, the store now has a profit. You are out the money you just spent on that impulse item you were not planning on buying but bought anyway.

How can you protect yourself from the techniques used by the supermarket to take money out of your pocket. It is very simple. If you are going to a store for some sale items, just buy the sale items. Don’t buy anything else. That strategy will work. If you stick to it, you will only buy the sale items and you will save money.

This is not the most efficient way to shop as you should only shop once per week. If you have to go to every store that has a great item on sale then you could spend your whole week just going from store to store.

If you want to take advantage of one stores great prices on some loss leaders then make a list of those items and any other items you need for the week. When you get to the store, just buy the items on your list. Ignore the impulse items on display. If you stick to your list you will be fine.

Stick to your list and ignore the displays of impulse items. Buy only what you planned to buy and then you can take advantage of the loss leaders and still stay within your overall budget. One more way you can successfully live cheap!

Living cheap expert Scott Siegel can show you how you can live cheap! Learn how you can master the art of cheap living. See how in the guide to living cheap. Visit LivingCheapGuide.com

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