5 grocery hacks to help you beat inflation

The grocery bills are getting higher by the day and you are probably getting lesser tomatoes and potatoes than you used to a few months back. Well, inflation is pinching our wallets and everyone can feel the impact. Be it at the Dmart store or your local vegetable vendor, a cake shop, or a restaurant, everyone is charging way too much for literally everything. So how do you survive and thrive in this atmosphere? 

Well, here are a few hacks:

1. GET GENERIC STUFF OVER BRANDED

Have you felt the urge to buy popular branded items? They usually charge a higher price than others as they have to recover their other costs from their products (like advertisement costs and better (and cute) packaging costs) from you and me. So, if you feel the inflation pinch, go for generic products or experiment with unadvertised brands that are new in the market. Unadvertised brands will have no large advertisement costs to recover from you, hence will be lesser priced. Also, similar goods are produced in the same factories, on parallel lines using the same ingredients. So it's not a big deal.  

2. BUYING IN BULK? CHECK PRICE PER UNIT

We often have this idea that buying in bulk means buying cheap. But this is not really true. Here's what you can do instead: Check the price per unit instead of the total price mentioned on the packet and choose the least one. For eg: If a 500 ml shampoo bottle costs Rs 160 (so Rs 0.32/ml) and an 800ml bottle costs Rs 270 (so Rs 0.3375/ml), you might feel like buying a bigger bottle for convenience's sake since you can use it for a longer duration. But since the cost/ml is lower for a 500 ml bottle, that is an economical choice. Yes, it will take more time to calculate the cost per unit since you have been used to buying based on a comparison of the total figures, but this is a hack that can help you beat inflation. 

3. BUY ONLY WHAT YOU WILL EAT 

Wasting food feels terrible, especially when you have paid a bomb for it. The best way to stop wasting food is to buy what you like and those items that you know you will eat without a fuss. When your leftover food consists of food that you love, you can easily spice it up with something else and create a different combination, instead of throwing it out simply because you don't like the item itself. The idea is to increase utility per purchase to beat inflation. 

4. DO IT YOURSELF 

In the US, buying a bell pepper costs about 64 cents (Rs 50) while buying a box of pre-cut bell peppers costs about $2 (Rs 156). Pre-cut veggies, shredded coconut, and food items that are ready to eat will always cost more than those items which you have to work on separately. 

5. BUY REFILLS 

Everyone needs liquid detergents like Vim and we always look to get a new bottle after the old bottle is used up completely. But instead of throwing away the old bottle and getting a new one, this time just keep the old bottle and fill it with a new refill that comes in a plastic bag. The old bottle can be reused for months and can save you money since plastic bag refills are cheaper as companies have to charge more when they sell you the detergent with the bottle.     

BONUS HACK

6. SHOP FOR ALTERNATIVES

You are trying to make something interesting and the recipe wants you to add that one ingredient that you have never ever bought in your life. Now you won't be making this recipe every week, and nor will you be using this new exotic ingredient regularly. So look for an alternative instead of harping about this new ingredient. Eg: Need fresh corn and cannot get it? Try canned or frozen versions. Also, shop for stuff that is currently in season. Items that are being harvested by farmers in that particular season are cheaper and fresher than items that are off-season.    

How are you beating inflation?