SHOPPING Government Grants

SHOPPING

Low-Cost Shopping and Healthy Eating

• Buy in quantity and freeze meats, bread, and butter.
• Avoid costly convenience foods that are precooked, presweeted, spiced, instant, or individually packaged.
• Encourage children to help with cooking. If they helped make it, they'll probably eat it.
• Eat before shopping to avoid impulse buying. Make a shopping list and stick to it.
• Buy nutritious snacks for children such as apples, oranges, bananas, carrots, celery, raisins, peanut butter, and popcorn. They are healthier and cheaper than most sweets.
• For a sweet tooth, buy graham crackers, animal crackers, or gingersnaps.
• Encourage children to drink more water by giving them their own water bottles.
• Use coupons only for items you normally purchase.
• Shop on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings for the shortest lines.
• Shop at discount food warehouse and buy in bulk. If your household is small, shop with a friend and share purchases.

General Shopping. Most retailers hold winter sales around the holidays. Prices are reduced to bring consumers back into the store after the holiday-spending period. Also, it pays to be knowledgeable about the item or service you're about to purchase. Take the time to polish your comparison shopping skills:

• Read the information on the label.
• Understand the maintenance requirements.
• Pay attention to differences in quality.
• Make a purchasing decision after you've researched the item.

Internet Shopping. The world has become your personal in-home shopping mall. You need to be cautious when buying online.

• Do not disclose your personal Internet password.
• Think twice before giving out your social security number over the Internet.
• Shop with companies you know and trust.
• Use a secure browser that complies with industry standards, like Secure Hypertext Protocol (S-HTTP) or Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).

Instead of money, spend time to plan and prepare.