Top Up Shopping

Now my focus this month is to curb my top up shopping, the old popping to the shop for a loaf of bread and coming out £14 later……  I am determined not to be seduced by goods I had no intention of buying or to pay over the top prices.  Today I was tested and I am proud that my conscious self rose to the challenge J. 

I needed some margarine and bin bags, so I stopped at the local Tesco Express on my way home from work.  In a lot of ways these convenience stores have taken the place of a Spar shop; however they are canny shops as although they have the Tesco name, to the uninitiated you believe you are going to get the Tesco value for money.  This my dear friends is a cunning folly, whilst there is the odd deal you won’t find any of the value range in a Tesco Express, in fact they seem to mainly stock items which have the highest profit margin and are at the more expensive end of the range; presumably the psychology of this is they rely upon people using them who have run out of something and therefore by limiting your choice to the more expensive variety, they are forcing you to spend more than perhaps you would if you had had the choice available in the larger store.  Don’t get me wrong I like Tesco’s (as much as you can like a supermarket) particularly their value range and their reward points J

So I managed to get some Bertolli spread for £1.15 it was the cheapest brand they had and as I no longer have any brand loyalty and instead opt for the cheapest available, that was fine J  So onto bin bags the cheapest they had was a pack of 20 bin bags for a whopping £2.49, wow practically wrapping my rubbish in gold.  I passed on this and left just spending £1.15, thankfully the local B&M bargains a few doors down was open for just 5 minutes more and I ran in and out and picked up a roll of 40 bin bags for 99p, twice the amount of bin bags for £1.50 less.  I am sure they are not as thick and luxurious as the ones on offer at Tesco’s but they do the job that a bin bag needs to do very well.

Looking back at my old self I would have just picked up the Tesco bin bags as I needed them and would have done it without even realizing I was paying an exorbitant price, I was one of the many unconscious shoppers out there.    I am sure supermarkets huge profits are reliant upon the majority paying more, as they either shop unconsciously or feel they don’t have a choice, as they have run out of something and it’s the only variety on offer.  I just hope those days are now long behind me J