Most of us take it for granted that we know how to shop for groceries. After all, we spent a lot of time doing it.

Experts say, however, that it isn't as easy as it looks and that there are many ways consumers can save money as they navigate the grocery aisles.

Americans, in fact, spend a lot of their money on food. Department of Labor statistics indicate that food at home and in restaurants takes 13 percent of the consumer dollar, behind the 32 percent for housing and 18 percent for transportation.

The average family spent $280 a month, or nearly $3,350 a year, at the grocery store in 2004, the most recent year for which Labor Department data is available.

Gary Foreman, a former financial planner who publishers 'The Dollar Stretcher' newsletter, said a recent survey of his readers found a slightly higher grocery spending rate: $149 a month for a single person, $257 for a couple and $396 for a family of four.

Foreman said some people appear to be changing their shopping styles as they try to hold down costs.

'It used to be that people would buy the same brand for their entire life - say a certain ketchup or a certain brand of bread,' he said. 'We're seeing more willingness among people to change, sometimes based on price and sometimes to try something different.'

Phil Lempert, who has been writing about food trends since the 1970s and operates the Supermarket Guru Web site, noted that our grandparents' generation probably went to a supermarket once a week - and likely went back time and again to the same supermarket.

The current generation, he said, shops on average more than twice a week and, in the course of a month, shops at seven different food distributors, from warehouse clubs to drugstore chains.

'So even though we say we're busier than ever before and working hard and don't have time, the truth is that we will make time to go to a secondary or tertiary shopping location for value,' Lempert said.

For example, he said, someone may do their regular shopping at a ShopRite store, then go to the wholesale club Costco for meat.

Although moving around like that makes it harder to save consistently, Lempert says it is possible. His suggestions:

_ Always shop with a list

_ Draw three horizontal lines at the bottom of the list

'We all buy on impulse,' Lempert says. 'This means, OK, I'll allow myself three impulse items - but no more.'

_ Never shop when hungry

_ Shop the produce department last.

'Produce is at the front of the store for a reason - it sets the stage for a better shopping experience because it's evocative of nature with beautiful colors, good aromas,' he said. 'You'll spend more money at a store if you start in the produce department.'

Lempert also said he believes consumers are trying harder to buy the correct size of products so they don't waste food. Some studies have found that consumers can't use - and therefore, throw away - as much as 20 percent to 25 percent of the food they buy.

One example of people trying to 'right size' purchases is the new 100-calorie pack, he said.

'People are buying them to control calories,' he said. 'But they're popular from a cost-saving point, too. Better that than a larger size, but half the contents being thrown out.'

Foreman of 'The Dollar Stretcher' says that people learned the hard way that bigger isn't necessarily better.

Families that shopped at big warehouse stores and buying clubs assumed they would save money by buying in quantity. But some quickly discovered that the cost per pound for a huge sack of beans might be higher than that for a small sack.

'So people have become more careful about where they buy and the size they buy,' Foreman said.

Foreman thinks that even good shoppers could become better if they start using a 'price book.' Buy a small loose-leaf binder or a spiral notebook, and on each page list a single product - say ground beef. When you find it on sale, write down the date, the store and the price.

'You don't do it for every product, just the ones you use regularly,' he said. 'Then when you're in a store and you see a sign advertising canned tomatoes at $2.25 and you've bought the same product recently for $1.75, you won't stock up.'

Susan Westmoreland, food director for the Good Housekeeping Research Institute in New York, said that one reason consumers tend to overspend on groceries is that they don't invest much time planning menus so they don't know what they want - or how much - when they hit the store.

'Surveys have found over and over that a lot of women don't know at 4 p.m. what they're making for dinner,' she said.

Westmoreland said that one of the best ways to save was do some planning.

'I'll always take a quick look around a store to see what's good, new and fresh, but I'm a list person,' she said.

Surprisingly, Westmoreland isn't a big fan of coupons, which many families do use to try to reduce their food bills. Many are prepackaged, presweetened, high-cost items rather than cooking basics, she said.

'People who shop with coupons may be spending more money than they would otherwise to try products,' she said.

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