Our strategy for saving on groceries
Before analyzing our spending, we were blowing $400 a week on groceries plus another $400 eating out—$42,000 a year in 2003! WTF?! No wonder cutting food costs was key to our financial freedom. Here’s how we fixed that.
Saving on groceries made us debt free
It’s totally ridiculous—we were spending more on groceries for two people than the average family of four! Okay, fine, part of that included our wine budget, but let’s save that confession for another time.
Seriously, what the heck were we doing?
Ironically, this was when we were at peak fitness. Sure, maybe we ate like pro athletes trying to bulk up, but we definitely weren’t overeating—well, probably not.
After finally doing a spending analysis (spoiler: painful), we realized our grocery and dining habits needed a serious makeover. Here’s how we tackled it:
- We went from impulse shopping—grabbing whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted, with zero planning—to becoming the superheroes of meticulous grocery shopping.
- We started basing our weekly menus entirely around coupons and weekly sales.
Yes, the first few weeks felt like preparing for the Grocery Olympics, taking nearly three hours to figure out. But soon, we nailed down a process, and shopping became faster and easier.
Heads up: there’s a learning curve. But once you’ve conquered yours, you’ll save not just a ton of cash but a lot of time. And maybe you’ll still have enough left over for a decent bottle of wine.
Cheers!
1. Shop on optimal days
Back in the day, we did what any budget-savvy, Sunday-paper-wielding warriors would do—we subscribed just for the coupon packs. That’s right, the actual news was just a bonus. We became coupon-clipping machines, filing our little paper treasures into a well-organized (and slightly obsessive) system. Before long, we had a full-on arsenal—think of it as the Avengers of savings, ready to swoop in and rescue our wallets.
Fast-forward to today, and we’ve gone digital. No more ink-stained fingers or piles of newspaper confetti on the floor. Now, we use a slew of brilliant apps and websites that do the heavy lifting for us, helping us snag deals without ever picking up a pair of scissors.
Next, we embarked on a digital reconnaissance mission, scouring our favorite grocery stores’ websites for in-store sales. Because why pay full price when stores practically beg us to save money?
Armed with our coupons, the best in-store sales, and a clear idea of what we already had in our kitchen (no more buying yet another bottle of mustard—seriously, why do we always have so much mustard?), we crafted our weekly menu.
Our #1 goal: buy as little as possible at full price. Our #2 goal: waste zero food.
Which brings us to point #2… and trust us, it’s a game-changer.
2. Create a menu and grocery list
Before we even thought about stepping foot in a grocery store, we took a deep dive into our fridge and cabinets—a full-scale inventory check. This wasn’t just about seeing what we had; it was a survival mission to rescue any forgotten leftovers or ingredients before they crossed over to the dark side. That lonely zucchini in the crisper? It had 24 hours to live unless we found a recipe for it. That half-full container of Greek yogurt? It was either going into a smoothie or into the trash in shame.
With our ingredient intel in hand, we built our weekly menu—not just randomly picking meals we felt like eating but strategically planning breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and dinners around what was already in our kitchen. This way, nothing got wasted, and we avoided the heartbreak of tossing out food we swore we’d eat last week.
Next up, the grocery list. This was our sacred scroll, carefully crafted to include only what we actually needed. No impulse purchases, no “but it was calling to me from the bakery section” excuses—just the essentials to complete our meal plan.
Then came the main event: grocery shopping. We hit the stores like seasoned pros, sticking to the list as if our financial well-being depended on it (because, well, it did). Our coupons? Sorted, clipped, and categorized by store—because nothing ruins a money-saving mission like scrambling through a pile of coupons at checkout while the cashier and everyone in line silently judge you.
Oh, and we weren’t about to leave any discounts on the table. We brought our own bags to score that glorious bag discount. Because when you’re out here trying to save every last penny, even five cents per bag feels like a personal victory.
3. Shop once a week
We get it. You’re driving home, stomach growling, no clue what’s actually in your fridge or cabinets. In a moment of pure optimism (or maybe desperation), you decide to wing it—a quick stop at the grocery store to grab a few things for dinner.
You mentally craft a menu on the fly (because, obviously, you’re a culinary genius under pressure). You grab a few essentials… then a few more. You’re pretty sure you need eggs you can’t even afford today. And maybe some more cheese? Oh, and let’s throw in that fancy artisanal bread because why not?
Boom. $50 later, you walk out with enough for one meal—except, plot twist, you already had half those ingredients at home, hiding in the back of your fridge like a well-camouflaged army.
Now, repeat that scenario a few times a week, and suddenly, your food budget is gasping for air. These impromptu shopping trips add up fast, sabotaging your carefully planned finances and leaving you wondering why your grocery bill looks more like a rent payment.
How we saved $30,000 a year
We won’t lie—at first, this whole grocery strategy sounded like a chore. But instead of treating it like some budgetary bootcamp, we turned it into a game. Each week, we challenged ourselves to beat our previous savings percentage. Could we hit 40% off? What about 50%? One glorious week, we slashed our bill by 62%, which honestly felt like winning an Olympic gold medal in frugality.
Now, we weren’t quite at Extreme Couponing levels—we didn’t have a stockpile of 87 bottles of mustard or a garage full of cereal boxes. (Besides, where would we park?) But compared to our old spending habits, we were crushing it.
And here’s the best part: Every dollar we didn’t spend at the store went straight toward paying off our credit card debt. We’re talking $30,000 thrown at those soul-sucking balances—all thanks to some serious grocery discipline.
Before we got our act together, we were spending a ridiculous $42,000 a year on food—both dining out and groceries. And because we loved our credit cards a little too much, a big chunk of that was going straight onto plastic.
Once we cracked the grocery savings code, we flipped the script. We ate at home way more, slashed our grocery bill to just $100 a week, and kept dining out to about $75 a week—opting for quick casual over full-blown restaurant binges. That put our new annual food spend at roughly $9,000—a jaw-dropping $30,000+ less than before.
That’s not just a little savings—that’s life-changing money. And spoiler alert: it got us out of debt way faster than we ever expected.
You can do it, too!
It’ll take a hot minute to get into the groove of strategic grocery shopping, but trust us—it’s worth it. At first, you might feel like you’re starring in your own personal episode of Grocery Shopping: The Reckoning, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll start seeing the magic happen.
Here’s the deal: every dollar you don’t waste on overpriced, impulse-bought, “I’ll totally cook this fancy ingredient” items is a dollar that can actually work for you—paying off debt, stacking up in your retirement account or funding something way more fun than, say, your third emergency tub of sour cream.
So start saving on groceries today and start living better—because financial freedom tastes way better than overpriced takeout.
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