Tuesday 2 April 2013

Don't Pay More - Substitute!

A few days ago I went shopping to replenish my perishables - milk, fresh fruits and vegetables. I was in luck with the milk, bananas, broccoli and cucumbers because they were all on sale, but the price of head lettuce – and a small head at that – was unreal. It was priced at $2.79 which is way beyond my ‘don’t pay more than’ price of $1.50. As I was standing there debating which of the sale products I would choose to substitute for the lettuce salad I had planned, I spotted a bin with nice big bunches of leaf lettuce at $1.27 each. The leaves were beautifully crisp and dark green and later turned into an excellent salad with superior flavour. I have had this happen many times before where the substitutions turn out to be better than the original choice.

Not being too specific when making up the grocery list is a good way to exercise flexibility when it comes to choosing products. Instead of writing head lettuce on the list, it pays to just write salad fixings. That seems to create a different mindset and basically says all that's required is something to make a salad - it doesn't need to be lettuce, there are lots of other options. Since both cucumber and broccoli were on sale, I could easily have made a great salad with either one of those products to replace a lettuce salad.

This shows that being frugal is not about cutting standards or buying lesser quality products, but about looking differently at the many choices available.

My Kindle e-book, Frugal for Everyone-Cutting the Grocery Budget, provides a lot of money-saving tips that take no time and effort to implement and which can be readily adopted by everyone..





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I want this blog to be interesting, informative and current. Your comments let me know if I'm on track, so comments are greatly appreciated.
Thanks - Lenie