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"I don't look at prices when I go grocery shopping"

Mendrox

Member
The replies in this thread are surprising.

For example, the price of 16 oz of bacon around here can range from 1,99$ to 7,49$ depending on the brand/week/store.

If it's on sale in one store, you buy 3-4 packages and put them in the freezer. You saved 7-15$ for a few weeks of bacon. That's one item for one month. Extend that for a few other items for a year and it's hundreds of dollars, possibly thousands if you have a big family. Even with a good salary, what's the point of wasting that money? It takes like 15 minutes to go through the flyers once a week so it's not like it's gonna stop you from learning French or reading War and Peace.

People are lazy and stupid and then complain about not having enough money for a Nintendo Switch or vacation. It's also something that you dont learn in school how shops take the money out of your pockets with these tricks or rather how they rely on these people.
 

KHarvey16

Member
People are lazy and stupid and then complain about not having enough money for a Nintendo Switch or vacation. It's also something that you dont learn in school how shops take the money out of your pockets with these tricks or rather how they rely on these people.

Or people like the $8 bacon and don't mind paying for it. Could be that.
 

TaterTots

Banned
Now that I make more money I still buy the cheapest shit I can find because it leaves more money in my pocket for other things. You can save hundreds of dollars if not pushing a thousand a year. I'd rather take that money and put it towards a vacation or entertainment.
 

Pedrito

Member
Or people like the $8 bacon and don't mind paying for it. Could be that.

The 8$ bacon will often go down to 3.99$-4.99$ though. It's not about going for the lesser quality stuff. The price of an item (same size, same brand) can vary wildly from store to store, week to week.
 

Mendrox

Member
Or people like the $8 bacon and don't mind paying for it. Could be that.

If there is no difference in quality than it's stupid. Of course if I like that one cheese more than the other one than I will buy that too, but many people also dont realize that many companies have the exact same product just with another name from a subsidairy company and it's the exact same thing.

There is also a psychological effect that often leads people to think that more expensive = tastes better and it works.

Also buying good bacon at a grocery shop lolol
 

waxer

Member
Sometimes you get what you pay for. Also time is money.

Personally I season shop for fruit veg etc depending on price and things I can stock up on like meats I'll grab if on special. But most items are things/brands/flavour i like so price doesn't factor.

I do enjoy hunting for bargains. Once I'm in a better financial situation I could see myself bothering less.
 
I don't look at the prices really either. Not out of a "this is too expensive" but because here the price is dependent on the quality of the item. This is for meats, veggies, and fish that is. So I do a visual check, then glance at the other prices. If I see something for a few yen more I check to see if it looks visually better before deciding if I want to save like 20yen because its been sitting there an hour longer. If I'm going to be using it soon as I get home I don't mind getting the cheapest one.

I don't particularly buy certain foods because they are cheaper or more expensive though.
 
The 8$ bacon will often go down to 3.99$-4.99$ though. It's not about going for the lesser quality stuff. The price of an item (same size, same brand) can vary wildly from store to store, week to week.

But I'm in this store now and I want my nice bacon.
 

zeemumu

Member
Imagine that mindset while making a movie

220px-TheRoomMovie.jpg
 

big_z

Member
The 8$ bacon will often go down to 4.99$. It's not about going for the lesser quality stuff. The price of an item (same size, same brand) can vary wildly from store to store, week to week.


This. I was going to buy yogurt but it was priced $9.75 at one store and $4 at another. Pint of ben and jerrys ice cream $11 one store $4.75 at another. Head of iceberg lettuce... $1.79 vs $5.89

Prices in Canada have gotten really bad since our dollar is worthless now. If you don't watch out you'll easily spend 2-4x more than the regular price.
 

ZOONAMI

Junior Member
Surprised at the number of people in here not looking at prices.

Are you all super brand loyal or something?

There's so much variety in stores these days, without even sacrificing quality whatsoever, it's stupid to not look at the prices.

I'm not saying even hunt for bargains between different stores, but if you aren't doing a little bit of bargain hunting in the store you are actually in, just surprised I guess.

My go to is Super Target and using the cartwheel app. Occasionally Cub Foods as well using their discount card.

Using Cartwheel I have literally saved about $250 in only a year of using it. It tracks how much you are saving.

Coffee for example there are probably about 3-4 brands of the same relative quality, but one might be $3-4 cheaper a bag. Bacon y'all must be tripping because unless you're getting uncured bacon, thick cut bacon is thick cut bacon. Even the uncured bacon is sometimes on sale for $4-5 dollars. My $4 bacon that I put pepper and maple syrup on and bake in the oven will put any $8 bacon to shame. Preparation is a lot to do with it as well. Virtually any food there isn't really a gulf in quality any more, you're just paying extra for brand loyalty. Organic produce and range fed meat is sort of a different story but even that stuff can be had on sale for very close to regular prices, or go the farm share route and you get tons of awesome veggies for pretty cheap per week. Meat find a local butcher if you can and you'll be set.
 

Cracklox

Member
Yep I'm usually a major tight ass when grocery shopping as well, and try to only by stuff that's on sale. I recently moved a couple of minutes walk from an Aldi (is that a thing in the US?) and thats been pretty damn eye opening with how cheap stuff is there. Don't really even need to look for the sale signs anymore
 
Surprised at the number of people in here not looking at prices.

Are you all super brand loyal or something?

There's so much variety in stores these days, without even sacrificing quality whatsoever, it's stupid to not look at the prices.

I'm not saying even hunt for bargains between different stores, but if you aren't doing a little bit of bargain hunting in the store you are actually in, just surprised I guess.

My go to is Super Target and using the cartwheel app. Occasionally Cub Foods as well using their discount card.

Using Cartwheel I have literally saved about $250 in only a year of using it. It tracks how much you are saving.

For some people, it just isn't worth the extra time. I have been pretty poor throughout my life, always pinching pennies, etc. When I started out in business 3 years ago, I had to maximize the little money I had, because there were no clients and not much income. So that's fine.
But at some point, you have enough money and your time is more valuable than the extra time it takes to constantly compare everything, use apps, etc. You used this app for a year to save $250, but I could spend an hour working and make more than that (at my billable hourly rate). If you're lucky, you get to the point in life where it's easier to just pay more to save that valuable time. Plus, sometimes you just wanna get what you want.
I'd rather spend the time cooking, having fun, relaxing, tracking my macros, learning languages, working on my blog/podcast/business, or literally a million things other than making sure I save a couple bucks on bacon.
I understand the scarcity mindset - I lived it for 30-some years. It's actually really freeing when you get to the point where you have your retirement savings allocated, your bills taken care of, all of your annual expenses allocated, etc., and you have some money to spend on whatever the hell you want. It also helps that I live in a ridiculously cheap city like Bangkok, so my money goes a lot further here.
Waiting on that Alucard guy to come in and talk about how I'm on IBR and I'll be poor soon.
 

ZOONAMI

Junior Member
For some people, it just isn't worth the extra time. I have been pretty poor throughout my life, always pinching pennies, etc. When I started out in business 3 years ago, I had to maximize the little money I had, because there were no clients and not much income. So that's fine.
But at some point, you have enough money and your time is more valuable than the extra time it takes to constantly compare everything, use apps, etc. You used this app for a year to save $250, but I could spend an hour working and make more than that (at my billable hourly rate). If you're lucky, you get to the point in life where it's easier to just pay more to save that valuable time. Plus, sometimes you just wanna get what you want.
I'd rather spend the time cooking, having fun, relaxing, tracking my macros, learning languages, working on my blog/podcast/business, or literally a million things other than making sure I save a couple bucks on bacon.
I understand the scarcity mindset - I lived it for 30-some years. It's actually really freeing when you get to the point where you have your retirement savings allocated, your bills taken care of, all of your annual expenses allocated, etc., and you have some money to spend on whatever the hell you want. It also helps that I live in a ridiculously cheap city like Bangkok, so my money goes a lot further here.
Waiting on that Alucard guy to come in and talk about how I'm on IBR and I'll be poor soon.

Well good for you (in Christian Bale voice).
 
But at some point, you have enough money and your time is more valuable than the extra time it takes to constantly compare everything, use apps, etc.

We're talking about literally comparing like items and making a decision based on their sale price
 

oti

Banned
I love comparing prices and I always get the cheapest stuff. I really don't care about the brand tbh. There's an ALDI in walking distance so that's great.
 

hateradio

The Most Dangerous Yes Man
That's the world we live in OP. Some of us are born with a silver spoon, others with a ball and chain.
Not really.


I mean as a kid I couldn't afford things, but now can afford to and tend not to look at the prices as much as I should.

Then I look at the near $100 spent on random groceries. 😫

Believe me, I'm not bragging. Just explaining my take on the premise of the thread. A few years ago I was counting change to buy a burger from Checkers :(
Don't worry. You're not the only one with the humble brag.
 

Mendrox

Member
For some people, it just isn't worth the extra time. I have been pretty poor throughout my life, always pinching pennies, etc. When I started out in business 3 years ago, I had to maximize the little money I had, because there were no clients and not much income. So that's fine.
But at some point, you have enough money and your time is more valuable than the extra time it takes to constantly compare everything, use apps, etc. You used this app for a year to save $250, but I could spend an hour working and make more than that (at my billable hourly rate). If you're lucky, you get to the point in life where it's easier to just pay more to save that valuable time. Plus, sometimes you just wanna get what you want.
I'd rather spend the time cooking, having fun, relaxing, tracking my macros, learning languages, working on my blog/podcast/business, or literally a million things other than making sure I save a couple bucks on bacon.
I understand the scarcity mindset - I lived it for 30-some years. It's actually really freeing when you get to the point where you have your retirement savings allocated, your bills taken care of, all of your annual expenses allocated, etc., and you have some money to spend on whatever the hell you want. It also helps that I live in a ridiculously cheap city like Bangkok, so my money goes a lot further here.
Waiting on that Alucard guy to come in and talk about how I'm on IBR and I'll be poor soon.

It takes seconds to compare prices. Also Bangkok lol where everything is cheap except tissues. I am currently on Samui and with my weekly budget I can live like a king here. Food is way cheaper here compared to the rest of the world.
 

keuja

Member
I don't really need to but I still like to compare prices and products. Why waste money when you can pay less...
 
It takes seconds to compare prices. Also Bangkok lol where everything is cheap except tissues. I am currently on Samui and with my weekly budget I can live like a king here. Food is way cheaper here compared to the rest of the world.
It takes seconds to compare two products sitting next to each other but it takes longer and more effort when you factor in prices at other stores in comparison and pricing history. If you're not factoring in the other two price comparisons, you'd also be "wasting" money. For some, the time and effort isn't worth saving a nickel.
 
Dude's a dick, everyone checks prices. Everyone has special items they'll only pick up when they're on sale/special offer. And will stock up on staples they see are on offer.

This is the age of the internet, you don't have to pretend you go out every Friday/Saturday night, and you don't have to pretend you don't get excited when it's 3 for the price of 2 on Classic Magnum Ice creams.
 
The replies in this thread are surprising.

For example, the price of 16 oz of bacon around here can range from 1,99$ to 7,49$ depending on the brand/week/store.

If it's on sale in one store, you buy 3-4 packages and put them in the freezer. You saved 7-15$ for a few weeks of bacon. That's one item for one month. Extend that for a few other items for a year and it's hundreds of dollars, possibly thousands if you have a big family. Even with a good salary, what's the point of wasting that money? It takes like 15 minutes to go through the flyers once a week so it's not like it's gonna stop you from learning French or reading War and Peace.

You could also just go to Costco and save yourself the time and effort
 

TaterTots

Banned
Sure, but is anyone doing that?

Personally? I hear it every other day at my work. People spend nearly 3 bucks for a turkey sandwhich from a machine or $6 for one taco and a small bag of chips from a vendor and then complain about how broke they are. It's not difficult to imagine people make poor decisions regarding their money.
 
I've never been shopping without thinking of prices. It must feel like a completely different world to not even think about how much something costs.
 

beril

Member
I'm generally quite frugal and has lived on a very strict budget with little or no income for periods of my life, but I still have never paid much attention to the exact prices of groceries.
 

xxracerxx

Don't worry, I'll vouch for them.
Or people like the $8 bacon and don't mind paying for it. Could be that.
Or people just know what bacon is really expensive by the look of it because they have been shopping for over a decade.

If I am going for my normal stuff I hardly bother with the price, it is when I get into the unknown that I will start to register if it will fit my budget.
 

Fliesen

Member
the only stuff i really price check is cat food, because that's what i buy in bulk. There's always a deal on some name brand cat food.

Otherwise - since i basically go grocery shopping every other day on my way home from work, and we're a 2 people household, i just buy what we're out of or what we'd be wanting to have for dinner that day. - so i think whatever i could save by shopping super smartly, isn't really worth the hassle.

I wouldn't wait for a deal to pick up a pint of Ben and Jerries or a box of cereal. And i do try to buy organic / fair-trade / vegan stuff, which usually is on the more expensive side.

I don't think like there's these huge kind of price variations here, neither from store to store nor from week to week that would require me to check the price of every single item. Might be due to how competitive the supermarket landscape is where i live, and how it's mostly chains that don't really do regional pricing, and that wouldn't wanna be caught being more thank 20% more expensive than their competitors on the same item.

edit: Jam! I compare prices on jam, too ... and detergent, and tooth paste, and toilet paper. All household supplies, really. Whatever lasts me more than a few meals, really, i compare the price per load / price per 100g.
 
I went to target with my brother and watched him price match 1 can of soup to save 9 cents. I think the lady at customer service thought he was crazy.
 

GHG

Member
I haven't looked at prices when I go shopping for food for years either. When you're buying roughly the same things week in week out from the same places you just know what to expect roughly. It's really not that big a deal.

I'm not going to spend time inspecting the price of every single item I buy.
 
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