A Basket Case: Spend Less By Reducing Your Carrying Capacity

Today’s shopping tip follows a logic you might already be familiar with from other areas of life as apparently dissimilar as hiking and dieting: only use a container (whether a backpack, plate, or shopping basket) as large as you actually need. Because you might think you’re ok with a larger one because you’ll just leave some empty space. But the truth is, you’ll just end up filling it with extra stuff you don’t need.

The same holds true for when you’re shopping. There can be a temptation to buy the larger size or that extra item that’s on sale – if it fits in the cart.

And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It can be good to stock up, especially if it means saving money in the long run.

But if you’re on a pretty tight weekly or monthly budget, those few extra things can mean the difference between coming in comfortably under budget and struggling to make ends meet – or worse, spending more than you earn.

And if that extra space is going not to the larger bottle of olive oil and the bigger bag of lentils but to the club size box of cookies or the special-treat wedge of imported cheese (guilty!) or the local, organic, handmade biscuits that just caught your eye on the display at the end of the aisle, then you might be overspending without even noticing.

Sometimes limiting our spending can be as simple as adjusting our capacity to bring things home.

Here are three simple suggestions that you can easily implement to create physical limits on your grocery store spending:

1. Use a basket

A week’s worth of groceries for a single person can fit comfortably in the average shopping basket (the one you carry on your arm or in your hand, not the rolling kind, which are larger). If you find you haven’t reached the end of your shop and your basket is overflowing, assess what items you can leave behind. I guarantee you you’ve picked up things you don’t really need.

Now, obviously, this method won’t work if you’re picking up toilet paper or a watermelon, and it might not be appropriate for your particular situation, but with a little imagination, you might be able to adjust the idea accordingly.

2. Bring a limited number of bags and stick to them

One way to adjust the previous method to a larger amount (or even a smaller one) would be to create an artificial, self-determined capacity. But you have to be strong and not use the additional bags available to you at the store. In Canada, they’re making this easier for us by outlawing the free, single-use plastic bags we once used with reckless abandon.

It can be a good method for those emergency trips to the store. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve stopped by the store on the way home from work to pick up something I really need – just one thing. Oh, but then I see avocadoes are on sale and I remember that we’re running low on tonic water (which is always a better deal if you buy two six-packs). And before you know it, I’m on my way to filling the basket.

But then I look at my backpack, which already has in it my laptop and my sweater and my lunch container and my book for the subway. So back go the 12 cans of tonic water – but maybe I can squeeze in the avocadoes. And I put the tonic water on my running shopping list on my phone so I can buy it during my regularly scheduled trip to the grocery store, where I can keep better track of it.

3. Walk to the store

I once lived in Wichita, Kansas, which is a city built for people who drive everywhere. The closest grocery store was a 30-minute walk away (there were actually two in different directions exactly the same distance from my house), but I didn’t have a car.

Let me tell you, nothing will cure you of overspending faster than having to walk a mile and a half in the Kansas summer heat with too many groceries.

When you have to carry your groceries, it really does give you a better understanding of how much you are buying than if you are wheeling your cart to the car and only carrying your items from the trunk to the pantry.

But don’t make the mistake of thinking you are limited to flimsy shopping bags. Nowadays, I usually alternate between an ordinary backpack and a slightly larger hiking backpack depending on how many groceries I need. On the other hand, when I was in Wichita, I went through a period of only shopping every other Saturday, and for that I used my massive 65-litre backpack. It was a surprisingly accurate capacity both for my regular biweekly food needs and for my ability to carry it, full, for a mile and a half fairly comfortably.

It might be helpful to point out that I am above average height, of medium build, and not particularly athletic. So if I can do it, so can most people, though, obviously, you know your ability best.

…or take the smaller car

One adjustment you can make to use this idea while shopping for a family is to use the smaller car. Many families have more than one car, and it makes sense to take the larger one – probably an SUV – to help with the grocery shopping. But try taking the smaller one instead and see if that helps you cut back on unnecessary spending.

You might forget the first couple of times, but you’ll quickly adjust mentally and adapt. Adapting is something we humans do well.