Frugal Kitchens 101 - Buying Incentives

Buying incentives are a normal way of manufacturers, growers and stores to get you to buy there.  The premise is if they offer you a little extra or some type of reward, you will not only buy the first time around but you may even become a repeat customer.  This is a proven method to get folks to buy.  If you shop the way we do for a large portion of our food by going to the source you will come across the baker's dozen.  A baker's dozen is thirteen meaning you pay for a dozen and get one free.  It was common in old fashioned bakeries hence it's name and it remains a common practice at many farmer's markets and roadside stands as well as mom & pop bakeries.  There are several other buying incentives for food, some of them better than others.  Today's Frugal Kitchens 101 focuses on food buying incentives.

• baker's dozen - Essentially you buy a dozen and get one free.  This is a common practice when buying corn at roadside stands.  The main caveat is to know the current going price for any produce where this special may be offered so you aren't inadvertently paying a higher price for thirteen than you would for twelve.
• the prize - A prize in the package was first started by Cracker Jacks then spread to other foods.  During the Great Depression it was common to offer by today's standards some rather nice prizes for buying the product.  Now, prizes are still included in Red Rose Tea in the form of collectible porcelain figurines and before discounting these some of the earlier figurines bring in a rather pretty penny for their antique value.  By far the heaviest users of prizes in the box are the cereal manufacturers.  In most cases the prize is just a gimmic and you are paying for it in the price of the product.
• the free offer - Some manufacturers use free offers as a buying incentive.  Usually you have to collect a certain number of the require proofs of purchase (eg. UPC codes).  Since this is an offer over and above the cost of the product some can end up being rather good deals basically for the price of the samp to send in the proofs of purchase.
• BOGO - This acronym stands for buy one get one free.  It is a common grocery store technique that is also used by manufacturers.  In this case it is important to know the regular price of the item and if it is an item that goes on sale often the regular sale price in order to determine whether the BOGO price is a good deal.
• coupons - Coupons have long been a manufacturer's way to get consumers to buy their product as well as try new products.  There are several problem with coupons though.  First they tend to be for brand name products that are often still more expensive even with the coupon discount than similar generic products.  Second, coupons tend to be for heavily processed foods that a significantly higher priced than the whole foods.  For example a store bought cake mix with coupon off may end up costing 99¢ but the ingredients from scratch total less than 20¢ meaning even with the coupon you pay 79¢ for the packaging.
• in store specials - Along with advertised sales many grocery stores have in store specials that aren't advertised.  In most cases these are rather decent savings.  For example last year one of the grocery stores had an in store special on 50 lb bags of potatoes for $3.99 when the going rate at that time was $7.99.  Another time one of the stores had a whole frozen salmon about 20 inches long as an in store special for $2.  In store specials tend to be very much being at the right place at the right time.  This is one reason why $10 to $20 of your grocery store budget per shopping trip should be set aside to take advantage of these types of specials that are always an excellent deal.