Recession Shopping Tips: Think like Your Grandparents

A tight economy calls for tighter budgets and smarter shoppers. As the recession continues, shop like your grandparents. Learn the benefits on saving a few pennies at a time with these recession shopping tips.

Buy a bulk roll of solid colored wrapping paper instead of patterns for different holidays. Choose a color like red or a metallic color like silver so the paper will work for Christmas as well as other gift giving events throughout the year: Valentine's Day, birthdays for any age, office gifts, Easter or anniversaries. Decorated wrapping paper is usually way overpriced anyway and spending as much on the wrapping as the gift makes no since in a recession. Buy bows and ribbon in bulk after holidays like Christmas to get the best price. Keep a recession mindset when shopping and think about how much money you are wasting on materials which will be thrown away.

Keep a calculator in your purse or car to use when grocery shopping during the recession. Always double check the math on "Great Deals" to make sure you are actually paying less per volume. Advertised cat litter may appear to be a good deal if the box looks bigger than the cheaper bag next to it. However, by dividing the price by the volume (ounce or pound) you may discover that scoop for scoop the unadvertised bag is much cheaper. Also, the cheapest ticket price may have you paying more for volume weight. A 20 pound box of kitty litter for $12 is not a better deal than a 28 pound box for $16. In this case the "more expensive" box is actually 10 cents a pound cheaper. This may not sound like much, but with the current economy every little bit adds up. Most families have already cut the big costs when the recession first hit. To make a dent on your budget now, you have to attack the small leaks in your money.

Try to purchase items like toilet paper, paper towels, cat littler, cat and dog food and bottled beverages like water and sodas in bulk for the best deal. This requires a little forethought, but avoiding emergency runs for a 4-pack of toilet paper can save you a lot over the course of a year. Recessions also cause prices to rise making these prices more unreasonable than before.

Keep a list when recession shopping and do not buy anything not on the list. This goes for clothing shopping as well as grocery shopping. If you see something you think you need, but is not on your list, write it down. Do not purchase the item until you have returned home, checked to see that you really do need it, and have waited at least a few hours. This will cut impulse buying from smart grocery marketers down. As everyone's budgets get tighter, marketers are getting smarter to separate us from our money during the recession. Stay on your game to keep your budget from blowing.

Avoid snack and soda machines entirely during recessions. Processed, packaged foods cost more per ounce than any other food items, especially when purchased individually from snack machines. A box of packaged cheese crackers will usually run you about $4 and contain 12 packs of crackers which average a little over 30 cents a pack. Paying for a single package from the snack machine at work costs you two to three times as much at 50 to 75 cents each. May not sound like much, but it adds up quickly. Saving an extra 50 cents a day adds up to over $150 a year. Purchase a large pack of snacks when grocery shopping and keep them in your desk drawer at the office. Do the same with sodas and bottled water which can have over 100 percent mark-ups when purchased individually in beverage machines.