How Houston shoppers are saving money during inflation
HOUSTON - Consumers are trying to cut costs wherever they can in the face of 7% inflation, as it's driving up the cost of many necessities.
We hit grocery store parking lots and asked shoppers to show us how they're saving money.
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While there are many strategies and apps to help save money, we found most people are going back to basics: coupons and sales.
"It definitely went up a good bit," said shopper Patrick Bennett. "We’ve noticed in the last, we've come from Ohio, and we’ve definitely seen an increase."
"Meat especially, it’s very expensive," added his wife Lisa Bennett. "We do have to budget shop and try to find the best deals."
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"We notice it at the final check out. We eat a lot of fresh vegetables, and that’s gone up. And some of the things that are not on the shelves," observed shopper Beverly McGaughey.
"We shop coupons. We can see prices are about 10 – 15% higher," added shopper Cleveland Brent.
"I coupon shop. I find that helps a lot. And we tend to eat basically the same thing, so I can see the prices as we go. We switch cereals or something like that, I go down to a different grade," said McGaughey.
Lisa Bennett added, "we come prepared. We know things we can buy on sale and incorporate that into our shopping."
"We found some good deals today, so we bought extra," Patrick Bennett showed us in their cart. "Like these cookie kits. It was only $1.50 and regularly 6 bucks. So we got those and these were like a dollar. So we stocked up some because we have children."
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Shoppers are also looking for lower-cost alternatives to those high-priced meats.
"We eat a lot more chicken than beef because chicken is less expensive than beef," said Lisa Bennett. "So we do try to find things incorporated with chicken. Things like that, tuna, that’s not as expensive as beef."
Many shoppers also say they choose grocery stores that offer discounts on gas.
"We shop at Kroger, so we get the points and save on gas, so we kind of cut our costs," said McGaughey.
And they say they're preparing for the long haul.
"If you don’t need it, don’t buy it," said Brent. "If you’re going to need it, and it’s on sale, you think you're going to need it, buy it."