Nine Strategies for Supermarket Savings

Never underestimate a grocery store manager's marketing savvy. No other store is organized so cunningly to get you to buy things you don't need. Only need milk? Funny how you have to walk by the fresh-baked cookies, cheese crackers and discount videos to get it. At the register, you're surrounded by muffins, candy bars, magazines and tabloids. So here's how to manage a supermarket frugally and happily:

Have a sense of purpose: Know what you are going to buy when you enter the store, and leave the store with just that. It's so obvious, yet we so often go astray.

Shop the perimeter: Food essentials (produce, meats, dairy and bread) are usually on the store's perimeter. The middle aisles have the more costly prepared foods. The more you concentrate your shopping on the edges of the store, the healthier and cheaper your food-buying will be.

Turn your head: Eye-catching displays of cookies, chips and convenience foods are everywhere. Ignore them. Unless they are truly staples of your home, they should be off limits.

Know your aisles: Every store has an aisle or two that has no temptations for you (pet food, paper goods, baby supplies, cosmetics and so forth). Make that aisle your passageway to the departments you need at the back of the store.

Study sales patterns: Grocery store sales often occur in patterns. For example, we know of a grocery store that puts our favorite ice cream on a "buy one, get one free" sale one week every month. Many items regularly rotate between on sale and off. Learn the patterns, and never buy at full retail!

Look up, look down, look all around: Generally, the most expensive brand-name items are on shelves at eye level. Less expensive store brands are on the upper and lower shelves.

Weigh it yourself: Preweighed produce is convenient, but reweigh them, just in case. A 5-pound bag of carrots will end up being anywhere from 4.5 pounds to 6 pounds!

Calculated savings: When comparing prices, always always always compare price per pound. It's the only objective way to do it. Most stores put that number on the shelf product tags. But the tags are often missing. And always have a calculator with you. It makes comparison shopping a breeze.

Twenty-four hours a day: If your store is a 24-hour operation, try shopping during off hours. Just being able to take your time can help you make better choices and save money.

Excerpted from Penny Pinchers Almanac: 1,743 Surprising Ideas for Getting the Most Value Out of Your Money, Home and Possessions (Reader's Digest, 2003).