Know Your Prices

If you know the standard prices of groceries you regularly buy, you can save yourself a nice chunk of money as you hunt for specials and do your grocery shopping each month. Knowing my prices certainly helps me! So I’ve decided to share my list of the lowest prices of grocery items on special. I keep track of each item’s regular price as well as the lowest price on special advertised for in the shops lately. This list includes prices that are valid as of October 2016.

Why is it important to keep track of prices? Well, when the items you regularly buy go on special you would need to know if it really is the lowest price available on that product of if it a reduced price only at a specific store. Quite a few of our local supermarkets run specials on the same items in the same period, and one of those deals will usually be the best deal, so it’s important to know which one it is.

Also, if you don’t know the standard price of items in shops, how can you tell if the advertised amount on special is a good deal or not? I’m sure that many of you have learnt this the hard way, as I have! In fact, I am still learning and I still make a mistake sometimes – just the other day I returned a bottle of shampoo to a shop as it was R10.00 more expensive than in another shop, almost right next door!

Buying in bulk can be misleading. Often, the prices are cheaper per item, yes, that’s true. At other times, the price is cheaper by 20c or 50c which makes you wonder if you are really going to save much by spending money in fuel and driving or paying for public transport to get to a certain shop.

And quite often retailers will advertise buying a certain item in bulk at a certain price when you can actually buy the single item cheaper in another shop! Yes, I know, I am one of those people who walks around the stores doing my end-of-month grocery shopping with a calculator in my hand as I calculate the price per unit of advertised items in bulk but that’s the only way I can check if I am really getting the cheapest deal available!

Whenever I can get items that we regularly buy and use at their lowest price, that’s when I will buy a few, or more if my budget allows it, to add to my stockpile. I’m especially a fan of stockpiling non-perishable items when I can get them at rock-bottom prices and I will usually wait for the specials to come, and stock up as needed, so that I don’t have to buy these items at their regular prices. I will also stash cuts of meat or vegetables in our freezer when I see them at the lowest price possible.

Here is my list of the lowest prices of grocery and household items on special. These prices are up-to-date as of October 2016.

General Groceries

• Sugar (no name brand): R27.99 for 2.5kg.
• Cake Flour: R19.99 for 2.5kg.
• Sunflower oil (non-GMO): R34.00 for 2-litre bottle.
• Eggs: R36.00 for a crate of 30 grain-fed eggs.
• Soya Mince: R9.99 for a 200gr. packet.
• Puff Pastry (Today): R8.90 for 400gr. roll.
• Frozen Pies (Makro): R8.30 per pie (when bought in bulk of 12).
• Noodles (various): R3.30 per 100gr. packet.
• Rice (Tastic): R10.00 for 1kg (bought in bulk).
• Pasta: Fatti & Moni’s R9.99 or Woolworths R10.00 for 500gr. packet

Meat

• Beef shin stewing meat: R39.99 for 1kg.
• Boerewors: R39.99 for 1kg.
• Biltong: R120.00 for 1kg.
• Minced meat: R49.99 for 1kg.
• Whole chicken: R24.99 for 1kg.
• Chicken pieces in brine: R37.99 for 2kg bag.

Dairy

• Long-life Milk (no name brand): R9.99 for 1 litre (in a 6-pack).
• Plain Yoghurt (various): R23.99 for a 1-litre tub.
• Fruit Yoghurt (various): R10.00 for 6 cups.
• Maas (no name brand): R21.00 for a 2-litre bottle.
• Margarine: Blossom R24.99 for 1kg, Canola R36.00/Flora Gold for 1kg.
• Butter: (Woolworths) R39.99 for 500gr or (Emerald’s) R34.99 for 500gr.
• Cream cheese: R17.00 for a 250gr. tub.
• Gouda or Cheddar: (Lancewood) R79.00 for 900gr.

Tinned Food

• Baked Beans (no name brand): R5.30 for 410gr. tin.
• Corn kernels (Koo): R10.99 for 410gr. tin.
• Tuna: R9.99 for 175 gr. tin.

Household cleaning supplies

• Automatic washing powder (Ariel, Sunlight or Skip): R39.99 for 2kg.
• Fabric Softener (Comfort): R25.00 for 800ml bottle.
• Window cleaner (no name): R22.00 for 750ml bottle
• Handy Andy (no name brand): R9.99 for 750 ml bottle.
• Kitchen cleaner (Handy Andy Actifizz): R19.00 per 750ml refill.
• Dishwashing liquid (no name brand): R16.00 for 1-litre bottle.
• Tile Cleaner (Glade): R16.00 for 1-litre bottle.
• Dishwasher tablets (Mr.Sheen): R72.00 for 36 tablets.
• Pine Gel (Westpack): R68.00 for a 5-litre bucket.

Toiletries

• Toothpaste (Colgate/Aquafresh): R7.00 for 100 ml tube.
• Mouthwash (Colgate): R42.00 for 500ml + 250ml bottles.
• Soap (Protex, Dettol or Pears): R7.00 or R7.30 for 200 gr.
• Cotton Buds (Dove): R9.99 for a packet of 200.
• Shampoo or Conditioner (Tres Semme): R49.99 for 900ml.
• Razors (no name brand): R6.00 for a packet of 2 disposable razors.
• Tissues (Twinsaver): R9.99 for a packet of 200.
• Toilet paper (Baby-Soft): R74.00 for 18s.

Fruits

• Bananas: R7.00 for 1kg.
• Oranges: R20.00 for a 7kg pocket.
• Apples: R6,60 for 1kg (when bough in bulk of 3kg)
• Strawberries: R10.00 for a punnet.

Vegetables

• Carrots: R10.00 for 5kg.
• Potatoes: R34.00 for a 7kg pocket.
• Cabbage: R10.00 for 2.
• Lettuce: R10.00 for 3.
• Spinach: R10.00 for 3.
• Butternut: R20.00 for 7kg.
• Mushrooms: R10.00 for a punnet.

I do hope you will find this list useful. There are, of course, once-off specials I may come across from time to time, but unfortunately, these do not repeat (though I wish they did!) and I have not included them in this list.

If you know of any prices that are lower than these though, or if there are any items that you would like to see included in this list, please do let me know by leaving me a comment below.

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