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Aarati Krishnan

HAVE you clamped down on your weekend family outings to FoodWorld so that you can free up some cash to meet those looming house and car loan instalments? Maybe you can begin making those trips again. With some informed shopping and a bit of discipline on your shopping trips, you can still lop 10-15 per cent off your monthly grocery bills with ease. Here are some suggestions that may help you splurge less on your grocery purchases:

Carry a list: This may sound elementary, but jotting down what you need may help you spend less time in the store and avoid unnecessary purchases. This will mean less time spent on idle browsing, when you are tempted to pick that expensive bottle of Hershey's chocolate syrup! Squeezing more of your monthly purchases into a single bill may also entitle you to volume discounts and special store offers, which are often available for customers who buy specified brands or raise more than Rs 500 or Rs 1,000 in a single bill. Ask your children to make separate lists, to discourage them from piling up the shopping cart with expensive goodies.

Where you shop: Where you shop for your monthly groceries is often as important as how you do your shopping. Many retailers are willing to sell you branded FMCG products at discount to the printed MRP (maximum retail price), as they share their retail margins with you. Some retailers may be more willing to make such sacrifices than others. Discount stores, such as the Subhiksha and Margin-Free, peg their stickers at a 10-15 per cent discount to normal retail prices for some products. Your neighbourhood provision store may be willing to slash a few rupees from the MRPs of all of your purchases, if you are a regular customer. Also, look out for specially-designated stores such as Hindustan Lever's "Supervalue" ones, these outlets run special HLL offers and discounts not available at the other stores.

Small is economical: You may be brought up to believe that "economy" pack means a really big pack. Things have changed. With marketers trying to reach out to new consumers through affordable "trial" packs, sachets and small packs are often sold at hefty discounts to mid- and large-sized packs. A 7 ml "trial" pack of Ayush shampoo, priced at Rs.2. would cost you 28 paise per ml. But if you choose the 100-ml pack, you would effectively shell out about 49 paise per ml, 70 per cent more! A 10-gram "trial" pack of Fair & Lovely ayurvedic cream retails for Rs.10, at an effective cost of Rs.1.11 per gram. But if you choose the 25-gram pack (MRP- Rs.35) your effective cost is Rs.1.40 per gram- 26 per cent more than what you pay for the trial pack. This is true of the sachets and small packs for many other shampoo, cosmetic and detergent brands in the market. Many FMCG marketers and retailers actually allow you to exploit the economies of small packs, by bundling together 10-12 sachets and selling them as one unit. Use these to lower your outgo. But do not presume that low-unit packs are always cheaper. They could be more expensive for select brands and products such as chocolates or instant coffee.

Check out best-before dates: Most of us do remember to check "best-before" dates when we buy food products. But do you look at the "best-before" date when you buy toiletries or cosmetics? Did you know that toothpastes, toilet soaps and fairness creams usually expire two years after their manufacture? It may be harmful to use them beyond this date. Be especially careful with expiry dates when you buy baby products. It is often impossible to check the expiry dates when baby products are bundled together in gift packs; it may be best to buy these products separately.

Also remember that a packed product may have one "best before" date when it is packed and sealed and another, after it is opened. When buying a product, try and estimate how long it is likely to remain unused or partly used in your fridge or kitchen shelf. If that 500-gram bottle of tomato ketchup is going to sit on your shelf for over a year, it may be better to play it safe and buy a smaller pack size, so that the best-before date does not run out mid-way.

Take usage instructions seriously: Most of us use FMCG products as we have always used them. If I have always used a handful of ordinary detergent powder to wash a bucketful of clothes, I continue to use a handful, even when I buy an expensive compact detergent. I am probably using 25-50 per cent more than necessary! The same logic applies to shower gels, dishwash concentrates and cleaner concentrates. Stick to usage instructions. And factor in lower usage while comparing prices of products with different concentration levels of their active ingredients. A 250 ml pack of shower gel priced at Rs 90 may seem expensive if you compare it to a bar of soap which retails at Rs15. But if it lasts you eight months, while the bar will last you for just one-and-a-half, it may still be worth it!

Value from freebies: If the word "free" always strikes a chord with you, resist the temptation. Do not buy something that you do not urgently need, just for the freebie. Also stop to think, will you really use that "attractive plastic container" that comes free with your packet of tea? If not, check if there are packs available without the offer (many FMCG companies do make such packs available). This may help you save a bit on the price. "Scratch cards" and "diamond necklaces" are only for a lucky few; so do not buy an unheard-of product just so that you can try your hand at a lottery!

But there is really no need to view every freebie with suspicion; competition is forcing manufacturers to offer genuine discounts on price through the freebie route. The freebies that may be most useful would be those that offer more of the product for the same price. That would help you stock up and postpone your next purchase. Cross-promos offered by retailers such as FoodWorld also allow you to substantially trim your grocery bills, just by choosing your brands carefully. For instance, the purchase of a 1-kg pack of Henko Stain Champion in a Chennai FoodWorld outlet entitles you to Rs.12 off on a kg of sugar.

Check your bill: True, it is rare these days that you are required to stand twiddling your thumbs, while your kirana store merchant painstakingly totals up your bill by hand. Most stores use calculators or electronic billing machines.

But remember, even bills generated electronically at department stores are subject to human error. The billing clerk can make a mistake when manually entering the product code for one of your purchases. Or he may fail to give effect to a discount that is promised on the store-front (in some stores, products are billed at MRP and discounts are deducted separately). There is even the off-chance that a few items bought by the shopper next to you have been included in your bill!

So stand aside, and check your bill before leaving, especially on crowded Sunday evenings, when the frazzled billing clerk is being hassled by a long line of eager customers. Of course, the best option may be to do your grocery shopping at mid-week, when you can go about it in a more leisurely fashion.

And do not forget to check if you have got the freebies that had you filling up your shopping cart! Nowadays, with every second brand offering a freebie, stores have a hard time keeping track of how freebies are stocked and distributed. So, if you are really, really, keen on getting the most value from your shopping, remind the store helpers to pack them while you leave!

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