Money

Thinking the household grocery bill is a bit too high? Try writing your shopping list a day in advance and then culling it before you hit the store.

Shopping with a list (and a full stomach) is a well-established principle for avoiding impulse buys, but this tip from reader Claire Bielski in a recent issue of Healthy Food Guide caught my eye as a means of taking it a step further:

Write your grocery list the day before shopping day. The next day, before shopping, go through it again and delete what you can do without. There are usually some ‘wish’ purchases there!

This might not work well if you’re already a lean and mean shopper, but otherwise a bit of deliberate cutting back might be just the trick for stretching your shopping dollar. Picture from Wikimedia Commons