Diet Shopping

Each I go shopping to a Mall. I often always spend over budget. After am back, I check out my bill and it easily goes beyond my expectations or budget. I tried keeping myself away from the mall, that way I have seen over spending for the same item I used to pick up at the mall. Indeed, Shopping Malls do attract us with their great offers. But how do we avail these offers and yet keep our Shopping on a diet.

Let me tell you what. I tried skipping my trip to the mall for a month (after all I used to make only two trips a month). Yet I thought I was successful in saving and stopping myself from spending on un-wanted or un-expected expenditures at the mall. Here's what happened. Rice, which I used to purchase from the Mall was around Rs.24 / KG (well its only 24 when one buys a 25KG pack). The same quality Rice outside was around 31 – 34 /KG. Eh! This is just an example. Imagine what would happen if each of our daily consumables are a few bugs more than what we know we can get them for. That was exactly what happened. But, I was amazed the way this made a great difference. Well Know what? When I tried calculating the price difference from a general stores to that of the Mall, it was around 25% (this added up because of the fact that the less one purchases the more expensive it would be).

But there are positive points to purchasing on a General stores. You can get smaller quantity, but there is often a chance you wouldn't get Groceries the same quality that you might expect from a Shopping Mall.

When I knew it didn't help me much while purchasing from a General Stores, I made up a plan. Before my next visit to the Mall, I have taken a printout of things that I have already purchased (things that we use each month). Now I had a definite list to stick to. Went up shopping, and purchased only things which were good to be taken from the Mall. I had to leave vegetables for my visit to vegetable market. This actually helped.

Shopping in a Mall actually helps, we feel we get reminded of things to be purchased when in the Mall. Yes! We do, but it only becomes sticky when we do not have a list. We just go shopping. That's where we get trapped. We tend to pay for things we might seldom use. Maybe there's a new flavor of Corn-flakes in the market, and we take it for a taste, less realizing that we might already have some left out at home and would not be requiring it for another month.

It is indeed good to go shopping with plastic money. At times you find cash-back offers or even discounts which do certainly counts. Here's where we can use our credit card or preferably a debit card to purchase. I just remember, some of the shopping malls do offer their own branded cash-back cards, where you get back money for every purchase and accumulate it to pay for your shopping expenses.

Buy quality; do not go by the-cheaper-the-best. Well if not, when shopping for clothes and apparels, you go for the best branded t-shirt or trousers. You can opt for a better brand which you know would last for a couple of months – at least. If you are a brand freak, then maybe you could be interested in picking up clothes from 'The Brand Factory'. Haven't personally went shopping but am sure you'd find your kind of brands for as less as it'd allow you to purchase two or three at the price of one.

So, always carry a list when visiting a Shopping mall. This would help.