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You can keep it in check by shopping wisely

The Consumer Association of Singapore (Case) has just completed its survey of popular supermarkets.

It shows what many of us suspected: NTUC FairPrice has the lowest prices, by a wide margin.

Shop N Save came in second, followed by Sheng Siong, Giant, Cold Storage and Carrefour.

The survey covered 21 household items such as eggs, rice, sugar, cooking oil, instant noodles, toothpaste and soap.

BUY HOUSEBRANDS

As you know, a good way to fight inflation is to buy housebrands. NTUC FairPrice has a big advantage with 2,000 of them.

Mr Tan Kian Chew, Group CEO of NTUC FairPrice, says the co-op ‘… aims to increase its housebrand products to 3,000 in the next five years’.

A tip: FairPrice’s gold-label brands are more expensive. Stay with its budget brands for greatest savings.

A second result from Case’s survey is that some prices have risen a lot.

Take rice. Its world price has jumped 50 per cent in the past two months. That’s 300 per cent a year.

We are also seeing higher rice prices here. But skilful shopping helps.

For example, the Case survey reveals that a 10kg bag of Umbrella Fragrant Rice rose from $18.65 to $26.80 in the past two months - a 44 per cent jump.

During the same period, a 5kg bag of FairPrice Jasmine Fragrant Rice rose from $5.75 to $6.50 - an increase of only 13 per cent.

MRS MONEY’S SHOPPING ADVICE

Here are useful tips from a self-declared shopping expert, my wife, Mrs Money.

She favours the store brands and tells me the quality is usually no different from famous-name brands.

An example is soap. It doesn’t matter if it’s called ‘Soap’ or ‘Best Beauty Soap’.

All soap ingredients are practically the same. The premium you pay is for the brand’s name.

Wait a minute. Does it mean you can wash your hair with dishwashing soap and not notice a difference?

Yes, that’s what the evidence shows. Give it a try.

Now, for Doc Money’s personal grooming tip: Over the past 10 years, I have washed my hair by rubbing a bar of soap on my head when I bathe.

It is cheaper than those girly shampoos in fancy bottles and the result is the same. No falling hair yet.

HOMEMADE DEFLATION

The other thing to keep in mind is that most of us don’t dash from one store to another, looking for bargains. We are one-stop shoppers.

That led to my own survey, to see what bargains you can find within a single store.

I compared the highest and lowest prices for two brands of an item within a store. It reveals substantial savings opportunities.

For example, the price of 1,000ml of Watson’s housebrand shampoo is $7.95. The costlier name brand is $14.20 for 750ml, which comes to $18.93 for 1,000ml.

It means Watson’s housebrand shampoo costs 58 per cent less. Buying it lowers your inflation rate by 58 per cent for that item.

Keep in mind that inflation is just the average price rise for more than 3,000 goods and services, surveyed by the department of statistics.

But no one of us is average. We each have our own individual set of purchases.

That gives every person their own personal inflation rate which they can move up or down at will.

It means you are not trapped by rising prices. If inflation registers 5, 10 or even 15 per cent, you can bring it down through your own actions.

So, don’t worry. Go shopping!
By Larry Haverkamp (Doc Money)

Disclosure: Larry Haverkamp is a member of the Case Central Committee (Board of Trustees).
 
Source : New Paper - 6 May 2008