Dishwashing liquid – I do not have a dishwasher so grate good old Sunlight soap and it is great.

I make my own laundry products from Binn Inn – Baking soda and again grated Sunlight soap and a few drops of essential oils where necessary, likewise I have a container of 1/2 water and 1/2 white vinegar instead of fabric softener and again a drop or two of essential oil. The savings have been huge, not to mention sheets and clothes are all better and the washing machine is not clogged with all that gooey stuff and smells clean and no black rubber any more.

We avoid the supermarket (as much as possible) and use our local butcher and vege shop and own bags and containers.

We have gone back to good old soap instead of dispensers. It may sound hard initially, but once you are in the routine it is just second nature and easy.

The nearest Binn Inn to me is the same area as my hairdresser so I do two things every 6 – 7 weeks out that way. Love the local cheap markets on a Sunday morning too!

Eat and live well on the smell of an oily rag and will be able to retire comfortably and well by starting now.

Sometimes buying meat from a butcher is cheaper than the supermarket. Shop later in the day and make friends with your butcher. S/he will be happy to tell you how to get the best out of cheaper cuts.

Comment from Oily Rag Ed’ – J.P. is correct! The IRD website confirms donated goods and services sold by non-profit bodies are exempt from GST. That means they do not include GST in their prices.

While on the topic of Op’ shops, Oily Rag Ed’ was browsing the local Hospice charity shop the other day and was amazed at how busy it was! And there was lots of good stuff too.

Auckland
Initials

Caron also has a tip for frugal shopping. “I discovered that I can make good savings by buying milk and yoghurt at my local ‘ethnic’ store: they have the best milk prices in my neighbourhood – if you buy 2. The same with 1-litre tubs of very good plain yoghurt. Next, I discovered they have frozen chicken frames – a pack of 2 for $2. In winter I make stock overnight in the slow cooker adding some black peppercorns and fresh herbs from the garden such as bay leaves, sage and parsley. I pour it through a colander to strain, then pick off any usable chicken meat to use as a base for soups. Then I spotted one-kilo packs of good quality dates for an excellent price. They were not stoned, but when used for date scones and sticky date pudding it takes only a minute to remove the stones when I halve or chop them. I’m exploring other products in the store and find familiar ones that are much cheaper than the supermarket – including bulk baking ingredients.”

Here are some more better-buying tips.

If you don’t like supermarket prices, shop elsewhere. Try your local butcher, deli, greengrocer, bakery, or farmers market. They want your business too and will often have great deals.

Buy fresh fruit and veges directly from local vege growers and orchards, especially road-side stalls and ‘pick-your-own’ places.

Rotate your supermarket excursions around two or more supermarkets so you can see which are offering the best deals.

Don’t shop when you are hungry. Those rotisserie chickens are just too tempting, and the cream donuts… irresistible!

If you pay cash, rather than plastic for groceries, you will not only see the money going out of your bank account but you will ‘feel’ it slipping through your fingers like goo! Some oily raggers use their credit card to buy everything – even groceries – to gain reward points. While this may suit some, we doubt most will have the discipline required to avoid the occasional missed payment, which would then erase the relatively small benefits gained from loyalty schemes.

Think of your grocery bill in terms of hours of work. If your after-tax pay is say $20 an hour (in the hand) then a $160 grocery shop is eight hours of hard and gruelling labour!

Always check out the specials before you shop.

If you do buy fruit and vegetables then only buy in-season. Better still, grow your own.

Allow plenty of time to compare prices and find those hidden specials. This may involve complex calculations like dividing the price by the weight of the contents, so make sure you take your calculator!

Don’t buy highly processed food – like “microwave meals in a minute”. You are simply paying for food preparation that you could do yourself.

If necessary, attend SA (Shopaholics Anonymous) – and if you can’t find SA in the phone book it may be listed under the less imaginative name of ‘Budgeting Advisory Service’!

I have found that with online shopping I stick to exactly what is on my list so stick to my budget. Apart from the sweets/snack aisle I look at!

We consumers are getting bombarded with reasons to part with our money, and supermarkets are of course no different. Here are some things to keep in mind as you cruise the aisles of your favourite supermarket.

Impulse and temptation have quite a lot to do with store layout. Ever noticed that getting to the milk fridge usually involves a maze-like journey through various isles of really tempting products, like chocolate bars and biscuits – all positioned at hand height to minimise the time between the eye seeing the temptations and the hand placing the items in your trolley? It’s no coincidence!

Likewise, the low price-point temptations found at the checkout, that are there crying out “don’t forget me” – just in case there still happens to be a gold coin that hasn’t been shaken loose from the bottom of your purse!

Another trick is the placing of products on shelves, with expensive items in the most convenient position. This can be a real nuisance for those of advancing years, with backs that have lost the flexibility of youth, since the best value buys tend to be in locations requiring the suppleness of a circus trapeze artist – but the pain and effort is still worth it!

The thing that most excites the frugal shopper is not the eye level temptations but the specials. By our reckoning, bargain buying can save 10% off the grocery bill. The trick is to buy bargains that are either needed or store well in the pantry.

The other thing to watch is what we call the “getting lost in the crowd” effect, where the effect of adding another item gets lost in an already crowded trolley. The trick here is to see every item as a single purchase that is run through the scrutiny and interrogation test for value and need.

There are indeed many alternatives to the traditional store. Some time ago we compared the same-day prices paid at a local growers market with prices from a nearby low-price supermarket. We found there was not a lot of difference in prices generally – there were unders and overs but the best deals were to be had by bargain hunting at both places.

Putting aside all of the ideological reasons for buying local, we think the best deals and best produce come from your own backyard. Many oily raggers take the view that a lawn is a wasted opportunity. Nowadays it’s quite mainstream to see a family to transforming their green space into garden space. The Localised Food Project that JB mentioned has quite a few examples of back-yard gardens (see localisingfood.com). You don’t need a lot of space, especially if you make use of boundary fences for trees and vines. Putting in a highly productive garden and orchard is simpler than most people think and more satisfying.

Sometimes shopping is dangerous, so dangerous that special forces need to be marshalled. Early one morning we sent the oily rag ‘Shopping Warfare And Tactics’ (SWAT) team out in their fatigues and flak jackets. Their dangerous, and seemingly impossible, mission was to see which grocery chain offered the best buy for oily rag shoppers.

They started out with a list of 25 everyday items that we all put in our shopping basket – flour, sugar, baked beans, spaghetti, milk, cereals, cheese, tea, coffee, biscuits and the like. With shopping list in hand, the team convoyed their way to their local supermarket, stormed the turn styles and invaded the isles.

The first raid was on a discount supermarket that promotes itself as having New Zealand’s lowest food prices. The second assault was on a competing supermarket chain that promotes service and selection. Finally the team was patched through to a local internet café where they had a latté while surfing the web to see how much the items would cost if they were bought online from the very same service and selection supermarket chain. Here are extracts from their debrief.

The discount chain was true to its word. The every-day retail prices for all 25 items on the list were cheaper. The total cost of the basket was $94.52. In comparison, the regular cost of the basket at the “big-range, great service” chain was $115.46.

Six of the 25 items at the second supermarket were on “special”. The specials reduced the total cost by $10 to $104.84, but that was still $10 more than the discount chain. Of the six items on special only two were cheaper than the discount supermarket.

Those who shopped for specials and bought the best buys from each store (23 from the discount store and the two best buy specials from the other store), would have saved another $2.50, reducing the total cost of the 25 items to $92.02.

There was no difference between the online prices for the 25 items and that supermarket’s in-store prices. Even the day’s specials were the same. However, there is of course a packing and delivery charge, which was $19.95 in the example they looked at. This cost can be reduced in some cases as some stores offer a “buy online and pick up” service whereby a shopper places their order on-line then collects the box of groceries themselves – on their way home from work!

On-line specials were found by simply clicking an icon – a great way for frugal shoppers to ferret out bargains and compare them against the checkout tape from their regular supermarket.

The best grocery buying strategy for those watching their pennies is to shop at the chain that has the cheapest everyday prices, but to keep a lookout for those extra special specials offered by the other chains. The easiest way to find these specials is to look at the supermarket flyers and advertisements, or go on-line and search their list of specials.

An important finding was that products sold online by a major grocery chain do not cost any more than if they were bought directly off the supermarket shelf. On-line buying is not likely to suit most oily rag shoppers, but the convenience of having someone else do your shopping for you, and then deliver the goods to your door, will suit some, especially those with limited mobility or limited time.

We are pleased to say all members of the SWAT team returned safely.

Unit pricing is mandatory in Kiwioilyragaroa. We think it should be, given the savings that can be had. On their website, Consumer says a recent trial by the Queensland University of Technology found that shoppers armed with unit-pricing information saved on average 11 percent of their grocery bill. That’s pretty tidy sum over a whole year.