When you shop at a supermarket or grocery store, how good is your estimate of what the total comes up to when you reach the checkout?
I recognise that multiple options may apply to you, so feel free to elaborate in a comment. Also mention any other reasons I may have missed.
Defiantly
That's the spirit, mate! :)
Fight the power!
Unless I'm trying to reach a particular amount - eg for some kind of coupon, or limited cash on me - I just pay up. I do check the receipt/amounts though to make sure it's scanned right.
Nearly all of my grocery shopping is what I call "target" shopping. I'm usually spending the exact minimum amount in order to qualify for the maximum number of flybuys or Everyday Rewards offers. I use a calculator instore but I usually do an estimate before hand of my shopping list, partly to see whether it is worth taking up the offers avaialable. If I have to fill the trolley with too much stockpile groceries that I will use much later, it isn't worth taking up the offers at all and I just buy the basics plus the weekly half price specials.
The only other time I just get the basics and don't have a specific total in mind is when I don't have any offers. This is very rare for me.
I am pretty good at keeping track of numbers in my head so I used to just use estimate and just add things and take out things at the checkout but I try to be more accurate now in order to fit in exactly with the targets I want to spend, which is usually between $30 and $80 at a time. Keeping track of exact spend before the checkout process gets harder when I spend over $80 and I avoid it as much as possible.
Using this practice I can usually pick up pricing errors before I finalise the transaction. I then have to decide whether to get the item as free as part of the main transaction or whether to get back the cash at the customer service desk after I've already paid for everything else. There are advantages and disadvantages both ways.
Having numerous loyalty cards from coles and woolies, they always offer $10 off or $50 bonus if you spend x amount.
So I always keep a running total of what I spend and try to keep it just over the required amount.
Once I even went into woolies twice; spent $35 got $10 off and used it with the remaining $10 worth of groceries and then did this again for a spend $50 off get $10.
The went into Coles and spent $40 then $50 to get my 2 lots of free $50 in four weeks…
So Yes generally I know within a few cents how much I am spending.
Defiantly just pay up! Cant go without redbull can we?