How to save money every week and invest slowly!
Currently my weekly grocery budget is about $130 and I challenge myself to save about 20% of that.
Here are some strategy is working quite for me in last few years:
1. Try to shop from a grocery that not located in an expensive neighborhood. I found this way I can easily save 10% of budget.
2. Always compare store-brands with traditionally popular name-brands. What I observers that store-brands are overall 25-35% cheaper than popular name-brands but hardly much difference in quality. For an example, last week I bought 2 roll of store brand kitchen towel for $1.5. Same pair from Kimberly-Clarke costs almost twice around $3.5. Same lower cost goes for diapers, toilet paper and the list goes on and on.
3. Look for sale in the produce department. I observed every week, there are sale going on several produce items. So if green bell peppers on sale why bother buying red bell peppers:)
4. For non-perishable items, it might be cheaper to buy in bulk from Costco or Sams Club. Usually you can easily save about 30% on things like Olive oil, nuts, dry snacks etc.
5. Always try to have a written-list of things (at least in my mind) to buy for the coming week. Otherwise I would end up impulse buying few things while wandering between aisles in store.
This strategy may sound bit daunting at first but once you practice few times, its kinda addictive. I still remember first time I tried this few years back and saved around 30 bucks on a nice sunny sunday:) Once back home, I opened my laptop and put an order for 1 AT & T stock at $ 29. I guess today AT & T stock is at $39. So without doing much I got about $10 capital gain and also received another $9 in dividends.
This strategy might be helpful for folks who don't have a large sum to invest. It does not seem a lot at first but replicating every week in a year will make a big difference in savings and investing.
Disclaimer: This article is my personal opinion only. This is not professional financial advice.
