The Family Money Mentor

in Frugal Family Living, Spending Strategy

How to shop for groceries on a budget… and rethinking low-enjoyment food choices

Food gets and deserves a fair bit of attention in our life. We eat too much, we eat the wrong things, we eat too often, too early, too late. Bah! And now I’m trying to tell you you’re probably spending too much money on food too? Hang with me. I too resent this category in case you couldn’t already tell.

I couldn’t chop an onion properly til my mid-30s. Every time I gathered the gusto to cook up a real meal, well, everyone just ate it and then I had to do it all again the next meal! What a lot of work for nothing! 😉 Rushing to squeeze breakfast in before hitting the road to the office (well, pre-pandemic anyway), trying to find something to eat for lunch, trying not too buy lunch out yet constantly failing to pack a lunch, trying not to scowl at the first person in my house that asked “What’s the dinner plan?” Food is just not my gig.

The four types of food spending

But given all the above listed stressors associated with food and meals in our lives, I like to take a step back before digging into “25 ways to save money on groceries.” Let’s break down the food we spend money on.

I see food spending as four categories: 1) groceries, 2) takeout, 3) counter/fast restaurants, and 4) nice dining out.

They represent a spectrum of who is preparing the food and where we’re eating it while increasing in cost along that spectrum: prepare yourself and eat a home/work (least expensive)…. all the way to prepared by a real chef and enjoyed at a table with a waiter (most expensive). These two factors (who’s cooking and what’s the environment… or who’s cleaning up) also weigh differently for each of us on the pleasure factor.

Which choices bring you the most and least enjoyment?

So before I jump straight to recommending you cut out any expensive restaurant meals, avoid takeout, and put yourself on a grocery budget… it’s important to weigh which of these areas YOU value most. For example, my frugal self was frustrated for a long time that I got lunch out nearly every day at the office with my coworkers. I would go through periods of packing lunch and turning down the lunch invitation and then back to eating out with them again.

But over time I began to view these team work lunches out very differently. It was much less about the food, as compared to the investment in relationships with my team, people who were very important to me on a personal and professional level. Those lunches really mattered to me; they had value. Therefore, the $40 per week I was spending on rice bowl lunches at the mall food court were actually an investment worth making to me.

When you think about getting groceries and cooking, are you inspired thinking about the interesting new ingredients you’re going to pick up for a new recipe you found? Or are you dreading the grocery trip and aiming for the least painful way to just keep yourself fed another week? When you think about your use of takeout (think ordering pizza or Chinese, or bringing home Chipotle), do you revel in the ease of it and that you got a night off from battling your kitchen that’s still half-way remodeled, or are you annoyed that you spent money on food you don’t really like much anyway? Same thing for counter restaurants/fast food- fun to sit in Panera or you never really like huddling around the soda machines waiting for your tray and vying for a chair?

Restaurants are a bit of a luxury, of course, so should bring some pleasure, but still think carefully about this one. When you decide to eat out, are you picking unexciting places you’ve been to 50 times because you’re bringing kids? Or if you’re sans kids, are you picking so-so dining spots because it seemed more responsible to pick the $50 night out than the $100 night out? Does this affect your enjoyment factor?

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After thinking about each type of noshing you do, which one brings YOU the most value? Not economical value, but enjoyment value. Which area feels most WORTH it. That’s the one to leave alone for now and realize by making changes elsewhere you’re ‘protecting’ this expenditure that actually is important to you or brings you joy. And to get the most out of that, make sure you savor your choices that you intentionally invest in to bring you enjoyment, not lament them.

Now which one feels the most ‘eh, like it happens but if you could get a work around you’d rather save the money? For example, I concluded my $40 per week was worth it for lunches with my team at the office. By comparison, however, our standing ‘Friday Night Pizza Night’ at home was supposed to be an easy way to end the week and not worry about food. But ordering pizza on the commute home I’d spend $30-40 usually. It was fine, but not food we really looked forward to, and always felt a little annoying trying to get the pick up timing right with driving home from work, or paying and waiting for delivery.

Then we got the idea for make-your-own pizzas from family friends. It was super easy (and fun for the kids when we let them participate) to make a couple flatbread pizzas by adding flatbreads to our weekly grocery list, plop on some marinara sauce, cheese, and whatever we were in the mood for from the ‘fridge. Kids loved it, it was probably healthier, and was a whole lot less money each week.

So, that was a good swap for a ‘not worth it’ food expenditure. Alternatively, a big take and bake pizza at Aldi is about $6, grab a bottle of wine for $3 (that’s actually really good!) while you’re there and you have another easy, inexpensive pizza night option. Swap your low enjoyment food spending for money in the bank instead.

Your ‘low enjoyment’ food purchasing will be the easiest to turn away from, making it the best place to start.

Thinking like this will help you drill down on the first area where you can save money before you start implementing restrictions on yourself that have a low likelihood of long term success. Your ‘low enjoyment’ food purchasing will be the easiest to turn away from, making it the best place to start. So, once you’ve identified your target, focus only on work-arounds for those particular behaviors.

In targeting your low enjoyment food spending, do you need to do a challenge to skip drive thrus for 30 days? Plan a non-drive thru reward at the end.

As for restaurants, if you really enjoy your nights out as is, great! If you feel like you’re getting not much out of it for the $50 you spend on a so-so meal, maybe do a great restaurant where you know you’ll truly enjoy the food and service, but go half as often. (Chances are you can choose a more pleasurable experience for around 50-75% more in cost, so if you go half as often, you’re still spending less).

The no-budget, no-coupon, one-step way to save big on groceries

Now, back to groceries. No one can really cut out buying groceries, so everyone can use some tips on making this more affordable. By far, the number one thing you can do to reduce your grocery spending without even trying is to shop at Aldi if it’s available in your region (alternatively, Walmart, buying store brand only and with blinders on to avoid seeing aaaallll the things).

Even if you go to Aldi once a month because it’s 45 minutes away to buy all your staples and utilize the freezer (which works for dairy too!), you will save enormously by purchasing same quality basics (which is probably 80% of your list) at prices at least 25% less expensive that standard stores. AND you will save even more by shopping in a small, simple store that isn’t enticing you to impulse purchase so many beautiful delicious things each available in 10 varieties and sizes.

So, get your quarter to stick in the cart rack slot (you’ll get it back when you return your cart, you good Aldi citizen), bring your bags which you will pack yourself, and revel in the satisfaction of buying really nice sandwich bread for under $2 instead of for $4- and with no couponing (a job unto itself) required!

Is their produce the largest and always perfect? No. Can you buy butternut squash in April? No. But do you really need perfect produce while paying half as much? And I believe the frozen butternut squash is still available if you’re cooking autumn soup in April (ahem… I totally do that)!

That’s it. Just switch your store. Done.

Are there other ways to learn to spend less at the grocery store? Sure- stick to a list, make a meal plan, etc., and more specific food-related frugal living info will come up elsewhere in the blog. But as far as making that first, simple, practical change in behavior you can implement immediately- just switch your store. Be a snob about your savings account balance and credit score, but not what brand of cereal or cheese you buy!

Be a snob about your savings account balance and credit score, but not what brand of cereal or cheese you buy!

Key Takeaways

I hope you find a few key spots in your eating life that just aren’t bringing you enjoyment. Then, I hope you get some pleasure from reallocating that much more money to your broader goals.

Just saving $30 per week on our pizza night approach adds up to over $1,500 in a year. If a priority was being able to have a vacation, for example, our family could rent a camper for a week and get away with that money, something way more fun and memorable than weekly carry-out pizza. For me, it’s about building up that savings for transitioning to a new entrepreneurial life in the coming year and every chunk of change you can put towards these bigger goals really counts. Good luck!

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