Personal Finance Lesson: Being a Savvy Grocery Shopper
The Key to Saving Money is Having a Good Game Plan
Lesson Background
Fortunately, there are a lot of ways to save money at the grocery store. My Personal Finance classes participate in two different activities that help drive home this point.
The first activity, which I outlined in an earlier post, is a Name Brand/Private Label taste test and classroom discussion that emphasizes the ways in which marketers try to lure us into purchasing higher priced items.
The second activity covers the actual mechanics of grocery shopping with an emphasis on the use of money saving coupons.
The lesson begins with the class reading a news article on couponing. The Wall Street Journal ran a nice article on “Extreme Couponing” last week that works perfectly.
After the article, I show a short video clip from http://www.couponmom.com/ that depicts a woman getting over $100 worth of groceries from Kroger by using her Kroger Card and coupons. This video provides a real eye-opener for students.
The classroom discussion portion concludes with an introduction to some of the coupon websites that are available.
Having introduced the concept of coupons to students, I have them complete a grocery research project that consists
Are There Any Bargains in the Juice Aisle?
of three different parts.
Part I (Completed in Class): Students prepare a menu for a week’s worth of meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks). After they have completed their menu, they write out the ingredients needed to make the meals and estimate the price for each item on their list.
Part II (Completed Outside of Class): Students visit a local grocery store and gather the actual prices for each of the items on their list. They then calculate their total grocery bill using the actual prices and compare this number to their total estimated cost from Part I.
Part III (Completed in Class): Finally, students use the internet coupon links discussed in class to research money saving deals for the items purchased from their completed grocery list. For each coupon found, they document the amount off and the website.
The students then calculate the total amount they could have saved by using coupons.
Lesson Extensions
I like to offer students an extra credit opportunity during this project. I give students 1 bonus point for every $1 they save their family using coupons from the websites we discussed in class. All they have to do is bring me the bottom of their grocery receipts so I can verify the amounts.
Lesson Resources
Worksheet: Personal Finance Grocery Shopping Project
Article: Couponing is an Extreme Sport – From the Wall Street Journal
Video Clip: How to Spend $1.62 on groceries
Website: www.couponforum.com
Website: www.slickdeals.net
Website: www.coupons.com
Website: www.hotcouponworld.com
Website: www.thekrazycouponlady.com
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