When I’m checking out at the grocery store I try to watch the price as each item is scanned. We all know that occasionally an item will ring up for the wrong price and it’s well worth the time to speak up. The extra 30 seconds at checkout might save 50 cents. Do the math: that’s $60/hour for speaking up.

But sometimes it’s just not practical to watch every item. I might be busy loading 2 carts full of groceries onto the conveyor belt as the clerk begins, or I might be wrangling little ones – I rarely shop alone, but I often don’t have all my big helpers with me.
And because I’m not alone and I probably have a lot of highly perishable groceries, I really don’t want to find the mistake after I’ve taken the kids and groceries out to the van.

So here’s my tip: As I load the groceries onto the conveyor belt, I try to group the items most likely to ring up wrong: clearance and sale items. By setting those items together on the conveyor belt, I know exactly when to give the prices my undivided attention and I find that I am very likely to catch all the mistakes this way.

This efficient use of all my available brain cells saves me both time and money…and brain cells – and we need all we can get, right?

For more frugal tips, go see Crystal’s Frugal Friday.

When I’m checking out at the grocery store I try to watch the price as each item is scanned. We all know that occasionally an item will ring up for the wrong price and it’s well worth the time to speak up. The extra 30 seconds at checkout might save 50 cents. Do the math: that’s $60/hour for speaking up.

But sometimes it’s just not practical to watch every item. I might be busy loading 2 carts full of groceries onto the conveyor belt as the clerk begins, or I might be wrangling little ones – I rarely shop alone, but I often don’t have all my big helpers with me.
And because I’m not alone and I probably have a lot of highly perishable groceries, I really don’t want to find the mistake after I’ve taken the kids and groceries out to the van.

So here’s my tip: As I load the groceries onto the conveyor belt, I try to group the items most likely to ring up wrong: clearance and sale items. By setting those items together on the conveyor belt, I know exactly when to give the prices my undivided attention and I find that I am very likely to catch all the mistakes this way.

This efficient use of all my available brain cells saves me both time and money…and brain cells – and we need all we can get, right?

For more frugal tips, go see Crystal’s Frugal Friday.