TAIPING: Haggling is unnecessary when you know your vendors and have a nose for sales, says 49-year-old clerk Tan Guat Sim.

She rushed to Giant supermarket one Saturday when she saw a flyer advertising cheap Mi Sedap instant noodles and Milo between 7pm and midnight on that day.

The next day, the mother of two completed her grocery shopping for the week in 15 minutes, picking out four types of vegetables, some prawns and a handful of ginger, onions and garlic.

"My family loves prawns fried with batter. I have a good idea of what to buy after years of cooking for them."

Her 8-year-old daughter, Loh Wei Zhen, who usually tags along on shopping trips, helped with choosing onions.

"She knows the names of the vegetables, but not the prices. She always tells me to buy her favourite vegetable, fish and prawns," said Tan.

She spent RM13 in the market at Plaza Perbandaran Taiping, with the bulk of the money going for prawns, which cost her RM7.50 for 500g.

With an income of RM2,000 to support a family of four, the family is accustomed to simple meals consisting of rice and a few dishes, she said.

Tan wakes up at 6am daily to prepare breakfast and lunch for Wei Zhen and her son, Loh Wei Jun, 11, before she leaves for work.

Breakfast is bread or instant noodles, washed down with Milo or coffee.

For lunch, she and her husband eat at a hawker centre, paying RM3.50 for rice and dishes, and 30 sen for a glass of Chinese tea each.

At night, the family has a simple dinner, either at their ancestral home in a shop- house in Cross Street or at their home in Bukit Mas in Kamunting.

"Eating home-cooked meals is much cheaper than eating out. It's even cheaper after we decided to eat less meat, as we've read so much about hormone-injected animals."

The wet market at Plaza Perbandaran Taiping, situated opposite her ancestral home, offered better prices for vegetables as it handled wholesale goods, she said. However, fish was cheaper at the old Taiping wet market, a few minutes' walk away.

"I've shopped at the plaza for more than a decade, so I'm familiar with the vendors. They offer reasonable prices."