Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel, I'm Matt, and
Speaker 1: today we're talking how you can butcher your grocery bill.
Speaker 1: And this episode is brought to you by butcher Box.
Speaker 1: Just kidding, that would be way too on the nose.
Speaker 1: I don't even know what butcher box. Butcher box is.
Speaker 1: I want to say butcher blox. For some reason, I
Speaker 1: don't know. I think it's an expensive way to get
Speaker 1: seat delivered you. Yeah, it's like a meat delivery service. Right.
Speaker 1: That would actually probably the opposite thing you want to
Speaker 1: do if you want to save money on stitch fix,
Speaker 1: where they just automatically send you clothes and you're tempted
Speaker 1: into keeping it. And again for some people it's it's
Speaker 1: a wild splurge, but for most folks, that's not how
Speaker 1: you're going to save the most money doing it right.
Speaker 1: That's right, And by the way, but we want people
Speaker 1: to take a cleaver to their monthly gross your budget,
Speaker 1: especially now people just feel the pain and groceries more so,
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about give a bunch of suggestions about
Speaker 1: how to like relieve that pain today, which cleavers, like
Speaker 1: Chinese cleavers, are totally in. By the way, have you
Speaker 1: seen kates over at our house. Oh yeah, it looks fancy.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't know how to use it though. Let me
Speaker 1: just use it like a regular chef's knife. But it's
Speaker 1: just another tool to add to the toolkit, right, It's
Speaker 1: another tool in the arsenal when it comes to cooking.
Speaker 1: But this is going to be a great topic because
Speaker 1: I'll readily admit there are some topics that I know
Speaker 1: we talk about that we discuss that may not appeal
Speaker 1: to everyone out there. There are certain things that we
Speaker 1: discussed that aren't applicable to everybody. That is not the
Speaker 1: case today. We sometimes talk about real estate investing and
Speaker 1: some people be like, dude, snooze fest. I don't care,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to do that, but everybody not going
Speaker 1: to be well. And we want to encourage folks to
Speaker 1: listen to those episodes because I still think that there
Speaker 1: are some little nuggets of information that you are going
Speaker 1: to be able to glean from those episodes. But this
Speaker 1: one is going to be a topic that is most
Speaker 1: definitely applicable to everyone out there for sure. All Right,
Speaker 1: something else, it's applicable to a lot of people. That
Speaker 1: a site that I've heard about Matt but I just
Speaker 1: gave it a test this week because I wanted to know, Okay,
Speaker 1: is this actually a good way to go about saving
Speaker 1: money on getting something shipped across the country. So there's
Speaker 1: an Instagram account I followed. They sell mid century furniture
Speaker 1: and did you buy a fancy piece of furniture? No,
Speaker 1: I didn't yet, I'm thinking about it. But I was like,
Speaker 1: they're in North Carolina, and I was like, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna go pick this thing up. What's It's
Speaker 1: just like a barcart. Basically, we have a space that
Speaker 1: has been sitting empty since we moved in in July,
Speaker 1: and I've beenactly where you're talking about and looking for
Speaker 1: some sort of barkart essentially to fill that space, or
Speaker 1: like a display cabinet. But and I'm looking for something
Speaker 1: that fits in with the rest of our furniture. And
Speaker 1: I this, you know, seller on Instagram that I've been
Speaker 1: following for years posted one and I was like, that's
Speaker 1: really reasonably priced and it looks good. But I was like,
Speaker 1: how can I get someone to bring it to me.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to drive up there wait for too
Speaker 1: much money. Where in North Carolina? Maybe we can it's
Speaker 1: a Nashville, which we should. Dude, Okay, I'd be a
Speaker 1: good Why would you not want to take it? Give
Speaker 1: up that to Ashville? I guess it's actually getting it.
Speaker 1: Could you fit it in your vein? Yeah? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: can totally fit it into So maybe I should do that.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's maybe we'll take a road trip the best
Speaker 1: way around it. But I was like, okay, what would
Speaker 1: it cost to have someone bring it here? And they mentioned, hey,
Speaker 1: we've got this white Glove service reach out to them.
Speaker 1: The cost is pretty expensive. It was more than the
Speaker 1: cost of the item I was looking to buy. I
Speaker 1: was like, ouch, no way, not interested. Not a deal now.
Speaker 1: But I looked up there's a website called Shipley, and
Speaker 1: Shipley is basically putting it out for bids to all
Speaker 1: the people who are are interested in moving the piece
Speaker 1: of furniture. First couple of bids were like seven hundred,
Speaker 1: six hundred, five hundred, and I was like, that's still
Speaker 1: really really, really really expensive. And by the end of
Speaker 1: the bid, because everyone's competing against each other, the bids
Speaker 1: were in the low two's low two hundred dollars to
Speaker 1: move this thing. And so I'm like, okay, cool. I
Speaker 1: still haven't pounced. I haven't decided to buy this thing
Speaker 1: or to have it to you hire someone to ship
Speaker 1: it to bring it to me. But I was like,
Speaker 1: now it's reasonable, So that's kind of cool, and they
Speaker 1: have like reviews and stuff and I love it. Dude.
Speaker 1: How do you spell it? Shi Ply Shipley? Yeah. So
Speaker 1: it's again, not something I've actually used yet except for
Speaker 1: an attempt to get these bids. But if you're looking
Speaker 1: to get something moved across country or at least just
Speaker 1: even just a couple states Ober, because yeah, you're off
Speaker 1: the time to go to Ashville or whatever, even though
Speaker 1: you want to desperately because the beer scene is so good.
Speaker 1: I think Shipley's kind of a cool site work checking
Speaker 1: out very cool. Yeah, anytime there is a platform, a
Speaker 1: website that facilitates a free and open, competitive marketplace like that.
Speaker 1: All for that, but let's introduce the beer you and
Speaker 1: I are going to enjoy during this episode. This is
Speaker 1: a barrel age sour brown ale. That is I believe
Speaker 1: it's called Darken. That's you know, it's written in the
Speaker 1: biggest letters I guess on the label. But this is
Speaker 1: by upland sour Ales. I assume they only make sour beers,
Speaker 1: but I'm looking forward to enjoying. I don't think we've
Speaker 1: ever had a beer by these guys for so definitely
Speaker 1: looking forward to this one. And stick around to the
Speaker 1: end of the episode because that's when we will share
Speaker 1: our thoughts on it, for sure. But for now, let's
Speaker 1: get onto the topic of hand. We're talking abo out
Speaker 1: how to butcher your grocery Bill and Matt, everybody eats food.
Speaker 1: That is what you need to sustain life. You gotta
Speaker 1: have water, gotta have food, gotta have air, and so
Speaker 1: air makes me think of the fact that we all
Speaker 1: have to breathe, right. Well, I didn't really realize this
Speaker 1: until just I don't know, six months ago, until I
Speaker 1: read a new book. But I didn't realize that we
Speaker 1: could all breathe better. It had just not really crossed
Speaker 1: my mind. And then I read this book called Breath,
Speaker 1: which is aptly titled to Makes Sense by James Nestor,
Speaker 1: who's a journalist. He like looked into the science of breathing,
Speaker 1: and he gave a bunch of tips, and it was
Speaker 1: just this thoroughly fascinating excursion of something that I thought
Speaker 1: was basically mundy and boring that there just wasn't much
Speaker 1: to discuss. But a couple of his main tips from
Speaker 1: that book were to breathe through your nose, not your mouth.
Speaker 1: I've heard of that one, apparently, like the conditions of
Speaker 1: your nose just make it so much better. Like you
Speaker 1: get twenty percent more oxygen because of the conditioning that
Speaker 1: your nose is doing versus just breathing and straight in
Speaker 1: through your mouth. Right, I'm breathing through my nose, right,
Speaker 1: I see you look healthier already. The color of my
Speaker 1: cheeks they're rosie. Yes, it's it's just kind of makes sense, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess he goes through this your sinuses and I'm
Speaker 1: assuming it adds moisture to the air, that's right, warms
Speaker 1: it up a little bit. Yeah. So there's a bunch
Speaker 1: there's like a bunch of different like sciency reasons that
Speaker 1: breathing through your nose is better than breathing through your mouth.
Speaker 1: And just like one other quick tip from the book,
Speaker 1: if you're if you're like I'm not gonna read it,
Speaker 1: give me the cliff notes. Well, fewer deeper breaths is
Speaker 1: another way to breathe effectively. It's just because like that
Speaker 1: it regulates your body because like you just try just
Speaker 1: breathing short breath like you're having a panic. Yeah, you're
Speaker 1: gonna feel bad really quickly. But if you take those
Speaker 1: I think he said five and a half second in,
Speaker 1: five and a half second out is kind of the
Speaker 1: ideal duration of a breath. I love it. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: all sorts of interesting things to something that you're like,
Speaker 1: I didn't know there was much to learn on that front, dude.
Speaker 1: This is like the Huberman lap, kind of stuffed into
Speaker 1: Like you tell me all these things and I will
Speaker 1: start doing them. Well, you're gonna like this book then
Speaker 1: the rest of my life. If you have you read it,
Speaker 1: ID be into it. I think we've talked about it before,
Speaker 1: which is why I think I know some of these things,
Speaker 1: or maybe I read a summary on it, but I
Speaker 1: don't think i've actually picked up the actual book. Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, well, maybe get the audiobook. It's it's not
Speaker 1: too bad, but after like just a few tweaks, yea,
Speaker 1: you might be breathing better, living better. But the same
Speaker 1: thing is true with groceries. So we've got kind of
Speaker 1: a basic subject today. But something that I think seems
Speaker 1: simple on the surface, maybe, but there are a lot
Speaker 1: of ways to improve your grocery store habits to save
Speaker 1: more money. Yeah, just like everyone out there that they've
Speaker 1: got to breathe air, we all have to eat food.
Speaker 1: And literally, like I was saying earlier, like everyone out
Speaker 1: there has to buy groceries. This isn't one of those
Speaker 1: expenses where you're thinking, oh, you know, this isn't an
Speaker 1: expense that applies to me. No way, We've all got
Speaker 1: to eat and we've all probably seen from personal experience,
Speaker 1: like groceries are the third largest line item in the
Speaker 1: average person's budget, which means this is a smart place
Speaker 1: to start working on being more efficient with your dollars.
Speaker 1: And also inflation. Inflation has also taken a toll on
Speaker 1: food prices now the Labor Department, so that grocery prices
Speaker 1: went up by almost twelve percent back in December air
Speaker 1: to a year prior. And obviously, you know inflation, it
Speaker 1: is starting starting to come down. We've seen some encouraging headlines,
Speaker 1: some encouraging news from the Fed. That being said, it's
Speaker 1: not happening overnight, and groceries seem to be one of
Speaker 1: the stickiest sectors where inflation is hanging out, hanging around
Speaker 1: even longer. So that's just another reason for us to
Speaker 1: discuss savings techniques on the show today when it comes
Speaker 1: to food and how you can save money. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: saw an article about Whole Foods. They're asking their suppliers
Speaker 1: to trim costs in order to drive their cost down
Speaker 1: so they can kind of pass some of those onto
Speaker 1: the consumer. And it makes sense, especially for one of
Speaker 1: the more expensive grocery stores like Whole Foods. They're feeling
Speaker 1: the pinch in a bigger way as people are trying
Speaker 1: to trim their grocery bill. Go figure, why isn't everybody
Speaker 1: doing them right well? And Whole Foods is skin for
Speaker 1: that nice guy discount. That's one of the things that
Speaker 1: people kind of instinctively do is they trade down in
Speaker 1: an environment where costs are rising rapidly, and so Whole Foods,
Speaker 1: I'm sure of seeing people walk out the door, go
Speaker 1: down the street to another less expensive grocery store, and
Speaker 1: so they're saying, hey, guys, can you loader these prices
Speaker 1: for us, because we got to make sure our customers
Speaker 1: stick around, right, keep coming, keep going in the store. Yeah,
Speaker 1: their customers are going to Trader Joe's trader. Joe's customers
Speaker 1: are going to Walmart. Smart customers are I don't know
Speaker 1: where going all the yeah, or at playing a garden
Speaker 1: in their backyard. But enough about the negative. I think
Speaker 1: that you know, the truth is that there's there's a
Speaker 1: joy that we often associate with food. Right. I can
Speaker 1: still vividly remember Matt meals that I've had on a trip,
Speaker 1: or even just like cooking something together with my kids
Speaker 1: at home, like the communal aspect of food that we
Speaker 1: can enjoy together. There's there's a clear reason that we're
Speaker 1: all not just drinking soilent three times a day, like
Speaker 1: our three square meals are just you know, in some
Speaker 1: sort of prepackaged through a straw, Right, I mean, because
Speaker 1: what we eat it goes beyond just nutrition and an
Speaker 1: attempt to stay alive. Like three soilents a day might
Speaker 1: get me by, but I'm gonna hate my life by
Speaker 1: the end by the end of a week. And making
Speaker 1: strides with your grocery shopping and your cooking, I think
Speaker 1: it could lead to two years, even a lifetime of
Speaker 1: happiness you're able to experience where your meals are enjoyable
Speaker 1: and what you're paying for groceries is leading to like
Speaker 1: delicious things? Did you get to enjoy with people that
Speaker 1: you love? So much of life revolves around the table, right,
Speaker 1: and like when you think about how how often it
Speaker 1: is that we do eat, this is something to pay
Speaker 1: attention to. And also this makes me think of a
Speaker 1: recent movie that was out the Menu, which I would
Speaker 1: not recommend. I don't know. It wasn't that great. I
Speaker 1: didn't like it either, yea all that much. I thought
Speaker 1: I would, but I didn't. It was it was weird,
Speaker 1: I mean, and obviously like not the whole premise of
Speaker 1: the show, but just the way that they did it.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't want to sitting here in Bash.
Speaker 1: My one line review was that the social commentary felt
Speaker 1: just super basic and if it had been more interesting
Speaker 1: fell flat. I could have been down with the whole
Speaker 1: premise didn't. Yeah, there wasn't enough depth. Ye anyway, So
Speaker 1: one maybe shining point within the movie maybe my favorite part.
Speaker 1: One of the main characters. He's like a foodie and
Speaker 1: he's just talking. He's kind of like waxing poetic about
Speaker 1: food or specifically too about chefs, and he's talking about
Speaker 1: how so many people were up or pay a lot
Speaker 1: attention to athletes, and he's like, well, and they're just
Speaker 1: down there playing with a rubber ball. It's it's really dumb.
Speaker 1: Whereas chefs, they're working with the actual elements of life
Speaker 1: and he's just talking about why he's so into food
Speaker 1: and that part of that. Actually it kind of resonated
Speaker 1: with me, not to the extent that it does with him.
Speaker 1: Like where you are looking to, you know, drop like
Speaker 1: a you know, twelve thousand dollars on a single meal,
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. But when you recognize truly how
Speaker 1: central food is to our lives, there are some steps
Speaker 1: I think that we can take in order to make
Speaker 1: it more pleasurable in order, like you said, to garner
Speaker 1: some more joy from it. And one of the ways
Speaker 1: that hopefully you can begin to see meals that's something
Speaker 1: you know that brings you joy as opposed to just
Speaker 1: seeing it as a chore is by learning how to
Speaker 1: cook better. Nobody likes doing something that they're not good at.
Speaker 1: But you're also going to be able to save money
Speaker 1: by increasing your kitchen skills. And so if we're talking
Speaker 1: about your holistic food budget, you're less likely to go
Speaker 1: out to eat and you're more likely going to opt
Speaker 1: for eating in, which is going to be far less expensive,
Speaker 1: and so we would recommend for folks to find ways
Speaker 1: to increase some of those different skills that they might have.
Speaker 1: Early on, Kate and I we took some cooking classes
Speaker 1: actually here in Atlanta, some affordable cooking classes, which was
Speaker 1: a It was a ton of fun. We actually did
Speaker 1: it for like a couple of dates. But also we
Speaker 1: were able to formally learn some of the techniques that
Speaker 1: you would regularly put to use in a kitchen. But
Speaker 1: even before that, so that was after maybe we've been
Speaker 1: married for like a few years or something like that. Well,
Speaker 1: right after we got married, we hadn't launched our business yet,
Speaker 1: and she didn't have a job, so she was just
Speaker 1: hanging out at home. And this is when she watched
Speaker 1: a lot of the Food Network. And no joke, she
Speaker 1: literally credits watching folks cook on TV with her ability
Speaker 1: to just sort of where she is now. I mean,
Speaker 1: she's over the years, she's about her day guy Fiet.
Speaker 1: Everybody says that back then, I think it was it
Speaker 1: was Rachel Ray and her hair looks just like his.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, if she's got the shades as well.
Speaker 1: I love it, but no joke. I mean it's one
Speaker 1: thing to like look up a recipe online, but like,
Speaker 1: how is it that you actually execute that recipe? And
Speaker 1: that's when I think, whether it be affordable cooking classes
Speaker 1: or but just literally watching something on TV and seeing
Speaker 1: how they cut, seeing how they blanch vegetables, just all
Speaker 1: all the different techniques that you might be able to
Speaker 1: read about, but when you can see somebody doing it,
Speaker 1: I think that can oftentimes help. And now she just
Speaker 1: honestly she follows a lot of folks on social media
Speaker 1: as well. I mean, just like anything in life, just
Speaker 1: learning a couple of techniques can help you enjoy the
Speaker 1: thing more. Like I played disc golf, not as much
Speaker 1: as i'd like to, probably three or four times a year.
Speaker 1: I wish I went once a month, But it's one
Speaker 1: of those things where you just learn a couple of
Speaker 1: basic mechanics of throwing the disc and if you try
Speaker 1: to throw it like a frisbee and you're just annoyed,
Speaker 1: you're just angry because like I have to it takes
Speaker 1: me twenty throws to get it to the pin. But
Speaker 1: if you do, it's just certain way that he had
Speaker 1: to do it. Learn a couple of specific techniques. You're like, okay, cool,
Speaker 1: it took me four or five throws and to get
Speaker 1: to the pin instead of instead of twenty, and that
Speaker 1: just makes it way more enjoyable exactly. But then regarding
Speaker 1: what to actually make, of course, you're going to want
Speaker 1: to make some inexpensive meals, and so we suggest following
Speaker 1: some of the folks that we've had on the show.
Speaker 1: I'm specifically thinking of Beth Mansell from Budget Bites as
Speaker 1: well as Leanne Brown, she wrote the Good and Cheap Cookbook.
Speaker 1: They both prioritize cooking healthy, tasty food without breaking the bank.
Speaker 1: And we'll make sure to link to those interviews where
Speaker 1: we have those ladies on for sure. Yeah, and Matt,
Speaker 1: I'll readily admit I'm no kitchen expert, like there's room
Speaker 1: for growth for me, right, but I've grown, i would say,
Speaker 1: in my ability to cook for our family, and it's
Speaker 1: like learning those disc golf techniques. It's rewarding to kind
Speaker 1: of make progress in that area. But I think one
Speaker 1: thing that might help if you feel like a complete
Speaker 1: kitchen novice is to check out meal delivery kits. And
Speaker 1: they're not the best option for saving money on groceries,
Speaker 1: and whether or not you should try one of these
Speaker 1: services really depends on how much you're currently spending on
Speaker 1: when it comes to food and how good in the
Speaker 1: kitchen you actually are. But services like Blue Apron, they
Speaker 1: might be a smart decision, particularly for the novice home chef,
Speaker 1: and it could be like a happy medium for a
Speaker 1: lot of people. It has been for us at different
Speaker 1: seasons in our life, depending on how busy we are,
Speaker 1: and Emily really likes using these services. We don't use
Speaker 1: them regularly, but when we get a discount or something,
Speaker 1: we'll go back to them and test them out again.
Speaker 1: And I think largely a good reason to test these
Speaker 1: outis because it could be kind of like a gateway drug,
Speaker 1: leading you back towards home cooking and eating out less.
Speaker 1: Signing up for these kits in perpetuity is probably going
Speaker 1: to be a budgetbuster at getting three or four of
Speaker 1: these every single week, but using them to get you
Speaker 1: back in the kitchen at least totally and then weaning
Speaker 1: yourself back to meal planning and grocery store shopping in
Speaker 1: a smart way that could be a good plan for
Speaker 1: a lot of people. I think, yeah, absolutely so. This
Speaker 1: reminds me of a listener who wrote in and he
Speaker 1: was talking about how him I think him and his wife,
Speaker 1: I think they're empty nesters. But he was pointing out
Speaker 1: how this was something that they did that was fun
Speaker 1: and it allowed them to do something together, but it
Speaker 1: also introduced them to just some different foods, like different
Speaker 1: meals that they otherwise would never have thought to pursue.
Speaker 1: Look up how to make this thing, and it's not
Speaker 1: just delivered directly to them and tells them. You know,
Speaker 1: they've got all the pre measured ingredients, they've got all
Speaker 1: the instructions, and all of a sudden they're eating something
Speaker 1: that they would never have otherwise eaten. It's not just
Speaker 1: a friend passing on a recipe. It's literally all the
Speaker 1: pre measured stuff that goes with it. And so it
Speaker 1: makes it kind of like, yeah, fun thing to attempt.
Speaker 1: But again, it can be expensive if that's your go
Speaker 1: to every single week. But I think it can be
Speaker 1: kind of like a paint by numbers for a lot
Speaker 1: of people who are like I kinda want to get
Speaker 1: into painting, that's a good place maybe to start. Well,
Speaker 1: And I love again what you said about it being fun,
Speaker 1: because we do things that are fun to us. If
Speaker 1: something is fun, it doesn't matter if it necessarily is
Speaker 1: going to save you money, you will continue to do
Speaker 1: that thing. And so by tricking yourself back into the
Speaker 1: kitchen where you're cooking more, you're intentionally cultivating the joy
Speaker 1: of cooking. Yeah, right, Julia Child. And not to mention,
Speaker 1: like you said, over time you win yourself off of
Speaker 1: that and all of a sudden you have built up
Speaker 1: this joy for cooking food. Yeah, And all the while
Speaker 1: you're likely going to be able to save money. Now
Speaker 1: you just like being in the kitchen. Yes, that matters
Speaker 1: a lot if it's something that you're going to continue
Speaker 1: to do right, it's the it's the psychology of cooking
Speaker 1: right and trigging yourself into some of the different ways,
Speaker 1: which how many personal finance nerds to talk about the
Speaker 1: psychology if the kitchen. You and I we are doing
Speaker 1: it more and more because I think we've realized how
Speaker 1: important it is not to just know the steps to take,
Speaker 1: but how important it is to approach something with a
Speaker 1: certain mental state and based on how it is that
Speaker 1: we actually live our lives. Yes, yeah, exactly. You could
Speaker 1: talk about theoretically the best things to do, but if
Speaker 1: that's not what people want to do. We need to
Speaker 1: give practice. Practical advice is necessary. And I think this
Speaker 1: is one of those things where it's like a lot
Speaker 1: of personal finance X works would be like those medal
Speaker 1: kids are way more expensive than shove to the grocery store.
Speaker 1: And and it's true, like that is true. But what's
Speaker 1: going to get you back in the kitchen over the
Speaker 1: long term, just like what's going to get you working
Speaker 1: out over the long term is it is it the
Speaker 1: most efficient, best three hour workout now? And so you
Speaker 1: got to find the thing that's gonna let you show
Speaker 1: up and continue to do the thing day after day. Exactly.
Speaker 1: It's it's not just about winning this one battle. We're
Speaker 1: here to like win the overall war. And so like
Speaker 1: we're not just focused on what it is that you're
Speaker 1: going to spend on groceries the last week in February.
Speaker 1: We're talking about how much you're gonna spend groceries over
Speaker 1: the course of the year. Yes, and I guess so
Speaker 1: far we've essentially made a case for why it is
Speaker 1: that you should be paying more attention to your groceries.
Speaker 1: But we're gonna get to some practical tips on how
Speaker 1: it is that you can butcher your grocery bill. And
Speaker 1: we'll get to some of those right after this. All right, Matt,
Speaker 1: let's keep going. Let's talk about butchering your grocery bill.
Speaker 1: It makes me think of Sam the butcher from The
Speaker 1: Brady Bunch. I thought you're gonna say butcher Bill from Oh,
Speaker 1: that'd be a good one too, gangs in New York. Yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: that was a good one. Some good butchers in classic
Speaker 1: American film and TV history. But you know, we were
Speaker 1: just talking about recipes before the break and how it
Speaker 1: might make sense to order a meal kit to help
Speaker 1: you out. But one of the advantages of going with
Speaker 1: a recipe is that you can plan and buy your
Speaker 1: groceries in a very precise way. You're also not following
Speaker 1: a recipe for every single meal that you're making at
Speaker 1: home today, right there's something that you're just going from memory.
Speaker 1: A lot of things I cook or the same seven
Speaker 1: or eight things I cook every time. I don't have
Speaker 1: this wide arrange, and I'm not always testing out new things,
Speaker 1: although you know that's something I hope to do more
Speaker 1: over time. But there's a lot of things that you're
Speaker 1: doing on the fly and The same thing is true
Speaker 1: when it comes to setting up a realistic budget, which
Speaker 1: is an important part of butchering that grocery bill and
Speaker 1: lowering your grocery costs. There's a learning curve and you're
Speaker 1: likely to get better over time. And so when it
Speaker 1: comes to budgeting, we don't necessarily once you just spend
Speaker 1: what you spent last month. Depends on how thoughtful you
Speaker 1: are about grocery purchases last month, I guess. But it's
Speaker 1: crucial to know how much money you spent on groceries
Speaker 1: in February so that it can at least inform your
Speaker 1: March budget and you can take a realistic approach. Right,
Speaker 1: you can put a line item in your budget for
Speaker 1: groceries that is absurd that you'll never hit. You can say,
Speaker 1: I'm a family is six, We're going to spend two
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty dollars on groceries, and that is just
Speaker 1: setting yourself up for failure. Right, Well, what use is
Speaker 1: that really of coming up with a number that you're
Speaker 1: you're never going to be able to actually meet, or less,
Speaker 1: you just really like the feeling of defeat, right, Yes,
Speaker 1: so we would suggest using previous numbers to help you
Speaker 1: come up with an attainable dollar amount to shoot for,
Speaker 1: But at the same time, you'll probably want to use
Speaker 1: that number and then challenge yourself to improve upon previous
Speaker 1: spending levels two in order to free up more cash
Speaker 1: for other goals that shop got. That's the whole point
Speaker 1: of saving money at the grocery store. So you can
Speaker 1: take extra dollars that you were putting towards feeding your
Speaker 1: family and funnel them towards more exciting, more fun areas. Yeah,
Speaker 1: even feeding your family in the future by investing those dollars. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But so maybe you're thinking, well, I have no clue
Speaker 1: how much I should be spending on groceries. I can
Speaker 1: see what I have spent. But if that is you,
Speaker 1: a decent rule of thumb is to not spend more
Speaker 1: than ten percent of your take home pay on groceries.
Speaker 1: So let's say you make a round one hundred thousand
Speaker 1: dollars a year, So after taxes and withholding you you're
Speaker 1: taking home a little less than seventy five thousand dollars
Speaker 1: depending on your eight but meaning your monthly take home
Speaker 1: pay is around six thousand dollars. So that means it's
Speaker 1: a good goal to try and spend no more than
Speaker 1: six hundred dollars a month on groceries. If you are
Speaker 1: spending more than that, or you know, maybe you are
Speaker 1: spending a little more than you want to, then we
Speaker 1: would recommend to work on reducing that amount. Don't do
Speaker 1: it all at once, but look at doing that over
Speaker 1: like two or three months, instead of just doing it
Speaker 1: instantaneously like you're flipping a light switch now, Because again
Speaker 1: we're trying to be realistic here and we want you
Speaker 1: to implement changes that are going to actually stick. We
Speaker 1: don't want you to feel the sting of defeat yet again.
Speaker 1: So another way to help keep you on track then
Speaker 1: is to split up that monthly budget amount just into
Speaker 1: those equal installments for each trip. So again, if you
Speaker 1: have a six hundred grocery budget per month, so let's
Speaker 1: say you hit up the store once a week, well
Speaker 1: we're talking about one hundred and fifty bucks. One hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty dollars like that is roughly what you should
Speaker 1: be spending each time. And so we're taking that large,
Speaker 1: larger amount six hundred dollars, and we're breaking it down
Speaker 1: it's a smaller, more manageable amounts of money. In particular,
Speaker 1: that are anchored to time, that are anchored to each week,
Speaker 1: because I think for a lot of people, they might
Speaker 1: say six hundred bucks, that's my grocery budget for the month.
Speaker 1: They go at the very beginning of March, they drop
Speaker 1: three fifty because they buy some stuff they wouldn't normally
Speaker 1: otherwise have gotten, and then they find themselves towards the
Speaker 1: end of the month like, holy crap, how am I
Speaker 1: going to keep this under wraps? Because but if you
Speaker 1: think about it as one hundred and fifty dollars per
Speaker 1: trip that you make, you're more likely to actually hit
Speaker 1: the goal that you set. You're more you're more likely
Speaker 1: to keep your spending in check because you've brought it
Speaker 1: down to an even more bite size, more manageable spend amount,
Speaker 1: right right, Yeah, you're pacing yourself. Yeah, okay, And so
Speaker 1: I think meal planning is something else that needs to
Speaker 1: be mentioned, but not I think budgeting is massively helpful,
Speaker 1: and I think that rule of thumb is going to
Speaker 1: help a lot of folks make more sense of their
Speaker 1: grocery budget and at least kind of see cool, what
Speaker 1: are we spending of our take on pay? Oh? Fifteen percent? Okay,
Speaker 1: well we can get it down into ten percent through
Speaker 1: some of the tips and tricks that Matt and Joel
Speaker 1: talked about. But while we're discussing like a weekly strategy,
Speaker 1: it's a good idea to plan your meals in advance too.
Speaker 1: You know, pick a time each week where you're gonna
Speaker 1: spend I don't know, like thirty minutes or so thinking
Speaker 1: about the meals for the week, for the family or
Speaker 1: for you as an individual, and what they're going to be.
Speaker 1: You know, knowing what you're going to be eating helps
Speaker 1: you make a grocery list, and sticking to the list
Speaker 1: is one of the best ways to make sure you
Speaker 1: don't overdo it and spend too much at the store.
Speaker 1: So yeah, consider making extra two, I'd say, but only
Speaker 1: if you're actually going to eat it. Matt is the
Speaker 1: leftover king. I don't know anyone who left love leftovers
Speaker 1: more than Matt. I don't know if I love them
Speaker 1: because I know they saved me money and so I
Speaker 1: you know, like when you have something that's associated with
Speaker 1: something else that you like, you like that thing, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you like it even more of that one exactly. It's
Speaker 1: sort of like we're talking about cooking earlier, Like if
Speaker 1: you can trick yourself into doing something that will ultimately
Speaker 1: save you money. Well, it's like win win. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: don't know if I like actually like leftovers because I've
Speaker 1: convinced myself that they taste better because I know that
Speaker 1: I'm saving myself money, or if actually the flavors melt
Speaker 1: together and better. Yeah, after being in the fridge for
Speaker 1: an as things that you know where that's the case.
Speaker 1: Obviously not some things like French fries, but other things
Speaker 1: like a lasagna. I left over French fries is just
Speaker 1: the worst, the worst. Yeah, But I think like meal
Speaker 1: plans and planning for leftovers and then planning how to
Speaker 1: use and eat those leftovers is smart. And a lot
Speaker 1: of people will like make everything on a Sunday and
Speaker 1: then they'll put it in the freezer. They'll freeze breakfast
Speaker 1: literally at like breakfast burritos or something like that, pull
Speaker 1: them out every single morning, heat them up, and then
Speaker 1: it's like boom. I don't even have to think about it,
Speaker 1: already made it. And I also know that I'm not
Speaker 1: going to be stopping to get fast food on the
Speaker 1: way to work because I planned my meals and I
Speaker 1: had it ready in advance, so I think meal planning
Speaker 1: makes a lot of sense, but you just also have
Speaker 1: to like have a plan to eat the stuff that
Speaker 1: you're making too, if you're making extra that's right man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So that's enough about planning, right, Let's get more tactical
Speaker 1: with it. Listen, envision that you're there in the grocery store.
Speaker 1: What about sales? I'd like you're about to say. So,
Speaker 1: I was just thinking. You said, envision you're in the
Speaker 1: grocery store, and I was like, what if there was
Speaker 1: like a metaverse app where you could put yourself in
Speaker 1: an aldi. I mean, that's ideal. I'd consider going of
Speaker 1: the metaverse for that. I've not been interested in the
Speaker 1: metaverse until I just thought of that pot. So let's
Speaker 1: but for real, though, if if you are at the
Speaker 1: grocery story, do you see a sale, do you take
Speaker 1: advantage of that sale or not? Well, I like the
Speaker 1: idea of making a little bit of wiggle room for
Speaker 1: some incredibly discounted food within your budget. So, for instance,
Speaker 1: getting that pork shoulder when it's been marked down to
Speaker 1: a dollar per pound that is when you pounce sounds
Speaker 1: like a recent example out of You're like that something
Speaker 1: I did recently bought two of those jokers, smoked them both.
Speaker 1: Even though it wasn't necessarily planning on buying one that day,
Speaker 1: the price necessitated it. But just make sure that you
Speaker 1: aren't using a big time sale like a manager special
Speaker 1: to justify a purchase that you shouldn't make. Well, in
Speaker 1: this case, it sounds like the parkness it forced your
Speaker 1: hand on this, right, I had no choice? Yeah, No,
Speaker 1: Like you definitely don't want to make a purchase that
Speaker 1: fits that that doesn't fit within how it is that
Speaker 1: you approach your groceries, right, Like it needs to fit
Speaker 1: within your your general grocery buying. Yeah. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think a lot of people might walk through the grocery
Speaker 1: shore and then they walk through the chip bio and
Speaker 1: they're like, thirty cents off to ritos. Okay, I guess
Speaker 1: I'll sale, I'll toss it in. And there's a lot
Speaker 1: of like fake sales that go on in a lot
Speaker 1: of retailers, right, and so it's just as if they're
Speaker 1: cool range or not. It repeat. His joke is like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, that electric the electric tingle, It's like sticking
Speaker 1: your tongue to a nine volt battery. It's so good,
Speaker 1: which is true. How do you resist? Cool range to
Speaker 1: ritos are delightful, but they're also really expensive, and they're
Speaker 1: and they're terrible, and they're terrible for you, and they're
Speaker 1: the kind of thing that's gonna, you know, bust your
Speaker 1: grocery budget. And it's not it's you know, if you
Speaker 1: like the nine bolt battery tingle of a cool range
Speaker 1: torito from time to time, but put it on your
Speaker 1: list once a month or something like that, that's fine,
Speaker 1: Like you deserve you treat yourself every now and again.
Speaker 1: But I think a lot of people are prone to
Speaker 1: do it in the moment just because there's a minor
Speaker 1: discount or minor sale. But when you're talking like a
Speaker 1: dollar pound for part shoulder, that's that's different. Now, that's
Speaker 1: like that's a lot of meals from you know, one
Speaker 1: one one by right there. Totally. Yeah, even if it
Speaker 1: wasn't on the list, I think it makes sense to
Speaker 1: hop on it. Well, sure, And that's a basic proach
Speaker 1: that you can then incorporate into other meals. And again,
Speaker 1: some folks don't cook this way, but if you know
Speaker 1: that you've got a couple containers of pulled pork in
Speaker 1: your fridge, the ability to then use that. Oh all right,
Speaker 1: let's make some barbecue sandwiches. Oh okay, let's let's make
Speaker 1: some fried rice O Tuesday. Let's take that meat and
Speaker 1: incorporate it into a pazzole. That's literally something. These are
Speaker 1: all meals that I've our family made last week. And
Speaker 1: so when something like that comes along and it's got
Speaker 1: legs right that you can then apply to other meals.
Speaker 1: That's something you want to pounce off. Yeah, okay. So
Speaker 1: one other thing I think they can help when you
Speaker 1: are buying something like a pork shoulder, which just because
Speaker 1: it's on discount, is if you have a deep freezer,
Speaker 1: and that's yeah. Like, one of the biggest problems when
Speaker 1: you're when you're stocking up or something like that because
Speaker 1: of a sale is when groceries are are perishable. That
Speaker 1: can make it more difficult to do that, right. So,
Speaker 1: non perishable is buying extra cans of something that you
Speaker 1: know you're going to use because it's on sale. Oh hey,
Speaker 1: soup is half price, boom, let me get a couple
Speaker 1: of extra those. That's fine. But when you're talking about
Speaker 1: things that are parish, it's harder to justify that. But
Speaker 1: I think a deep freezer can make that more justifiable
Speaker 1: because you then you haven't wasted money. I completely wasted money.
Speaker 1: I'm buying the thing and not using which would be
Speaker 1: the absolute worst. There's nothing that gets get under my skin.
Speaker 1: Is like an ingredient that we haven't used, in particular
Speaker 1: live vegetables, right Like, you got that produce and sometimes
Speaker 1: it starts getting slimy and you have to freak and
Speaker 1: toss it. I hate that. There's nothing that strikes out
Speaker 1: my heart more than taking food that we've purchased with
Speaker 1: our own money and we just didn't have a chance,
Speaker 1: or we chose not to use that vegetable and something
Speaker 1: and I got to toss in the trash. Well, eating
Speaker 1: and not wasting what you buy is one of the
Speaker 1: biggest biggest ways to save money too, because such a
Speaker 1: huge percentage of our grocery bill goes to stuff that
Speaker 1: we throw in the trash, which is a crying shame.
Speaker 1: So we do have to get better at at that.
Speaker 1: But I think the like the freezer. A lot of
Speaker 1: us think that's where we just put the ice cream
Speaker 1: or something like that. But depending on the size of
Speaker 1: your family, how you shop, what you eat, and the
Speaker 1: amount of space in your house. You know, getting a
Speaker 1: deep freezer might pay off in the long run. For example, Matt,
Speaker 1: my my father in law, he buys like half a
Speaker 1: cow at a time. Yeah, and so it's chopped up
Speaker 1: into all these different ways. But the price per pound
Speaker 1: is I want to say, he said, like three dollars
Speaker 1: a pound, which is insane because that's what you pay
Speaker 1: just for ground beef. And he's getting steaks and roasts
Speaker 1: and stuff like that out of it. The yeah, but
Speaker 1: he had to buy the whole rack of ribis sure. Well, sure,
Speaker 1: but he had to buy a deep freeze in order
Speaker 1: to make that makes sense. And so for some folks,
Speaker 1: spending money on a deep freeze can actually pay off
Speaker 1: in the long runs. Or you're making a case for
Speaker 1: me wanting a deep freeze right now. But let's talk
Speaker 1: about coupons, and generally speaking, Joel, you and I were
Speaker 1: both in agreement that coupons are overrated. The typical family,
Speaker 1: they save somewhere between five to nine dollars a week
Speaker 1: using coupons, and depending on how much you're spending on
Speaker 1: groceries every week, this could be chump change or it
Speaker 1: could actually be a meaningful amount of money. But just
Speaker 1: make sure that you're thinking about the overall ROI before
Speaker 1: you go coupon crazy. Right, Like, it's possible to be
Speaker 1: penny wise and pound foolish here just by hunting and
Speaker 1: clipping actual physical coupons when the savings that they'll net
Speaker 1: you they may not necessarily be worth the time Kuponi.
Speaker 1: It might make sense for some folks out there, but
Speaker 1: others should probably spend that time focused on more important
Speaker 1: aspects of their money. Some stores out there that you know,
Speaker 1: they've got apps that make it easy. Certainly make sure
Speaker 1: that you're a part of their loyalty program, give them
Speaker 1: that phone number if they've got that program, if they've
Speaker 1: got that as an option. And also check out the
Speaker 1: site flip dot com. That's flipp dot com, but they
Speaker 1: it's a it's a site, man. I love aggregate sites
Speaker 1: that bring together all bits of information that you would
Speaker 1: normally have to kind of go scouring for. But they
Speaker 1: combine all the different circulars that the different grocery stores have,
Speaker 1: so you can see what is going to be marked down,
Speaker 1: what's going to be on clearance, what's going to be
Speaker 1: on sale. It's easy to kind of plot your plan
Speaker 1: of attack for where you're going to go shopping that
Speaker 1: week based on sale flyers by looking at Flip as
Speaker 1: opposed to waiting for this Sunday actual print section to
Speaker 1: come out. Flips really cool to makes it easy. Well,
Speaker 1: and Matt, I don't really I'm with you. I'm against
Speaker 1: cuponing as well. I use coupons when they're easy, and Kroger.
Speaker 1: When I go to Kroger for some of the things
Speaker 1: that I can't get it all to your costco, I
Speaker 1: use Kroger cupons because the digital coupons are pretty simple
Speaker 1: and they send actual cuponds and stuff that I typically
Speaker 1: buy directly to my house. It's literally based on things
Speaker 1: that I bought in the past, and they say, here's
Speaker 1: sixty percent off a thing of spinach because you buy
Speaker 1: spinach here sometimes, so that kind of stuff is I'll
Speaker 1: use those coupons when it's low hanging fruit. But I'm
Speaker 1: not like searching the internet for cupons because I think
Speaker 1: for most people that's a waste of time. Kroger's They've
Speaker 1: actually got a pretty decent app as well that you
Speaker 1: can keep on your phone. Yeah, so I think it's
Speaker 1: helpful to ye have that app for the stores that
Speaker 1: you're most loyal to. I have the Legal app on
Speaker 1: my phone as well because sometimes I get discounts there.
Speaker 1: And speaking of Leetle, I think where you shop, it's
Speaker 1: probably one of the biggest difference makers when it comes
Speaker 1: to butchering your grocery budget. And Leedle and Aldi we
Speaker 1: talked about them all time because they're two of the
Speaker 1: best nationwide discount grocery chains that you can shop at.
Speaker 1: Trader Joe's are a lovely, slightly more expensive alternative, but
Speaker 1: like if you have one of those three close to you,
Speaker 1: you're going to save money by going there. And these
Speaker 1: stores they don't even have to play the coupon game.
Speaker 1: They don't really get into it at all, largely because
Speaker 1: their prices are so incredibly low already. But just changing
Speaker 1: this one part of the grocery equation in your life,
Speaker 1: you could claw back a huge percentage of your grocery
Speaker 1: budget seemingly overnight. And even when you compare a list
Speaker 1: of basic items between Aldi and Walmart, Walmart, which prides
Speaker 1: themselves on low prices, they're known for low prices. If
Speaker 1: you compare Walmart to Aldi, Aldi wins by a landslide.
Speaker 1: Even still, yeah, even still, even though Walmart is cheaper
Speaker 1: than a lot of the alternatives. All they's cheaper than them,
Speaker 1: And it wouldn't be outrageous to see something like a
Speaker 1: twenty percent reduction and what you're spending each month just
Speaker 1: by doing this one thing. And if you're shopping at
Speaker 1: Whole Foods, you're going to see an even bigger discount
Speaker 1: in what you're spending if you moved to Aldi, Yes, right,
Speaker 1: but simultaneously there might be some items that you can't
Speaker 1: get at Aldi that you would you know that you
Speaker 1: might have to go to Walmart. Four But you mentioned
Speaker 1: twenty percent, dude. Back when we before the Aldi near
Speaker 1: us had opened up, we were doing like the majority
Speaker 1: of our grocery shopping at Kroger. And once we started
Speaker 1: shopping at Aldi, literally overnight, we saw a thirty percent
Speaker 1: reduction in our grocery budgets. Like it literally felt like
Speaker 1: magic because we weren't even necessarily trying to reduce how
Speaker 1: much we were spending. We just switched where it was
Speaker 1: that we were shopping. We saw a massive decline. That's
Speaker 1: like it really is like the easiest thing to do.
Speaker 1: There's all these little ways. It really eat around the edges.
Speaker 1: It's the easy button. But that's the easy button to
Speaker 1: save the because it is. But we were kind of
Speaker 1: talking about Walmart and how they certainly have more options
Speaker 1: than Aldi. The trade offs of stores like letal like
Speaker 1: Aldi are that you're going to have fewer options and
Speaker 1: so ins. Instead of their being like eighty two ketchup
Speaker 1: bottles that you can you can pick from, you're going
Speaker 1: to only have like one, maybe two if you're lucky,
Speaker 1: And we actually kind of see this as a plus.
Speaker 1: But also, your grocery trips are going to be shorter
Speaker 1: just because of the food print of these stores are
Speaker 1: going to be smaller, and you're not gonna have to
Speaker 1: spend as much time comparing the unit prices between all
Speaker 1: those different varieties of this you know, exact same thing.
Speaker 1: And you know, we get that this is not for
Speaker 1: everyone out there, but if you haven't tried some of
Speaker 1: the discount grocery stores like Aldi, like Leedle, and you
Speaker 1: are looking to trim your grocery budget, then you have
Speaker 1: got to at least give us one a shot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So not only are you gonna save money at those
Speaker 1: discount grocers, but also you're gonna spend less time, which
Speaker 1: sounds nice too. And plagues out In reality, man, my
Speaker 1: trips to Leedle are quicker, although in all these the
Speaker 1: little parts for the kids and so I did take
Speaker 1: a little longer. Letals are bigger, dude, like leaders are
Speaker 1: twice as I bet on average. If there's any sort
Speaker 1: of research out there, the size of still much smaller
Speaker 1: than Kroger, way smaller than Costco. But I mean I
Speaker 1: used to pride myself and being able to literally get
Speaker 1: in and out of an Aldi with a thing of
Speaker 1: milk and eggs in like ninety secs because they're just
Speaker 1: they're so quick at the register and it's so easy
Speaker 1: to get back there to the cool they really are.
Speaker 1: I will say that all the people are working, all
Speaker 1: are incredible. They know what I want. They have fewer people,
Speaker 1: they get out of there as fast as possible, but
Speaker 1: they pay them more and they like they crush it
Speaker 1: so well. Okay, something else though on that front, like
Speaker 1: it's not just a major discount, so you can check
Speaker 1: out there are also like smaller independent discount stores and
Speaker 1: you can find one near you at a site like
Speaker 1: buy Salvage food dot com and Matt there's one thirty
Speaker 1: minutes from us. I haven't been there yet because it's
Speaker 1: thirty minutes from us. It's not four minutes away like
Speaker 1: the grocery store I typically go to, but it's it's
Speaker 1: one that I want to go to because they're they're
Speaker 1: selling kind of salvage dented, secondhand food items, but it's
Speaker 1: still good food and they're selling it for a whole
Speaker 1: lot less. And yeah, so we'll put a link to
Speaker 1: that one in the show notes. But it's one that
Speaker 1: you can totally check, like check out find if there's
Speaker 1: one within five or ten minutes of you. It might
Speaker 1: save you a ton of money by going to one
Speaker 1: of these stores that's not doesn't have a nationally recognized name,
Speaker 1: but you can you know they've got great prices that
Speaker 1: are gonna save you money. Misfit Market is kind of
Speaker 1: the modern version of these independent discount stores as well.
Speaker 1: You know that you would find on that by Salvage website.
Speaker 1: They've got lots of organic items as well. I just
Speaker 1: signed up. I'm gonna give this one a chance. I've
Speaker 1: I've never given it ago yet, but like it's basically
Speaker 1: giving you access to nice foods and a discount that
Speaker 1: they will shift directly to your door. Very cool, and
Speaker 1: if you are not interested in the mega discounters or
Speaker 1: in trying a new service like that. Don't forget about
Speaker 1: one of the easiest ways to save at the grocery store,
Speaker 1: which is buying store brands. Name brand items are going
Speaker 1: to crush your grocery bild most of the time. Trader
Speaker 1: Joe's and Costco they have some of the best store
Speaker 1: brands in my opinion. I feel like Trader Joe's in particularly,
Speaker 1: they've got they've got certain items that have a cult
Speaker 1: light follow. Yeah, although did you do we talk about
Speaker 1: the lead and cadmium and Dart chocolate, we haven't some
Speaker 1: of the Trader Joe's dark chocolates are on the list
Speaker 1: of like high Well, it's a lot of the dark chocolates, right,
Speaker 1: it is, But maybe we'll link to that story as well.
Speaker 1: But there are some certainly some ones out there that
Speaker 1: are a little bit safer if you like to eat
Speaker 1: a little bit of Dart chocolate every day. It's funny
Speaker 1: because you talk about how like there's certain things like
Speaker 1: dark chocolate that are good for your health. They got
Speaker 1: those flavonoids and all that kind of action going on,
Speaker 1: But you can't. You never want to overdo it in
Speaker 1: any one area before it like turns around and like bites.
Speaker 1: You know, by the way, flavonoids totally sounds like a
Speaker 1: word you just made up. Maybe I did. I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure that's a real word. But we're talking about name
Speaker 1: brands and data from Consumer Reports they say that store
Speaker 1: brands cost between five and seventy two percent less than
Speaker 1: their name brand counterparts. And actually when Consumer Reports, when
Speaker 1: they ran a taste test, they found that seventy six
Speaker 1: percent of store brand products tasted just as good as
Speaker 1: the name brand. So we wanted to mention that because
Speaker 1: maybe you're you're being name brand loyal for no reason.
Speaker 1: And while we're talking about some of these different stores
Speaker 1: as well, I want to give Costco a little more
Speaker 1: love since, in particular for our family, there are latest
Speaker 1: store that is certainly getting more of our dollars. But
Speaker 1: the ability to buy bulk is huge. And when you're
Speaker 1: used to buying small packs of stuff at some stores,
Speaker 1: but then you can go to a store like Costco
Speaker 1: and buy a massive, double or triple pack of something,
Speaker 1: there is serious savings involved there, whether it's chicken thighs
Speaker 1: or whether it's like a giant thing of rice, or
Speaker 1: giant thing of oil. But what's key, and this kind
Speaker 1: of speaks to like the waist side of things. What's
Speaker 1: key is to when you get home to break those
Speaker 1: things down. And so if we're talking like we're talking
Speaker 1: about chicken thighs, like literally take them out of the
Speaker 1: packaging and just go ahead and package of those into
Speaker 1: like ziplock bags of portion sizes that you know that
Speaker 1: you will typically cook with same thing with like oil,
Speaker 1: because like at Costco they got like that, I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's like a gallon and a half container thing of
Speaker 1: olive oil. And you think, how the heck am I
Speaker 1: supposed to cook with that? Well, you don't. You take
Speaker 1: that home and fill up your little small oil bottle
Speaker 1: that you keep next to your stove, and you're gonna
Speaker 1: fry up some eggs. There are things like you buy
Speaker 1: a bulk in order to save, but then you break
Speaker 1: it down in order to actually use those things and
Speaker 1: not let them go to waste. Ye no, I like that,
Speaker 1: all right, Matt. We've got more grocery store saving tips
Speaker 1: that we want to get to, including like apps they
Speaker 1: can help be saved. We'll talk about that. And there
Speaker 1: are a couple others will get to as well. We'll
Speaker 1: get to those right for this all right, we are
Speaker 1: still talking about some of the different ways that you
Speaker 1: can butcher your grocery bill. Joel, do you do you
Speaker 1: think that folks are getting hungry as we're sitting here
Speaker 1: talking about all the different kind of money. They probably
Speaker 1: want to taste your like pork and panatas or whatever
Speaker 1: it was that you were making fizzole. It's like Mexican soup.
Speaker 1: But let's kind of tackle some I guess some of
Speaker 1: these more actionable practical tips that we've got for folks
Speaker 1: in order to reduce the grocery bild, and one of
Speaker 1: those is to avoid processed foods. The old maximum of
Speaker 1: shopping around the periphery of the grocery store is pretty
Speaker 1: accurate because that is where you're gonna find fruits and veggies.
Speaker 1: That's what we're gonna find the meat and the eggs,
Speaker 1: the milk. Right, Like, what we're talking about here is
Speaker 1: real foods as opposed to potato chips, the cookies, candy,
Speaker 1: pre prepared foods. And I'm saying those totinos pizzas aren't
Speaker 1: good for me, Matt. They don't count, man, And those
Speaker 1: often aren't going to be as good for you right
Speaker 1: or as feeling, and so we want to encourage folks
Speaker 1: to eat real foods whenever you can. You are your
Speaker 1: own person, so you can eat whatever you want. We're
Speaker 1: not your mom. But by eating eating these whole real foods,
Speaker 1: it's going to be better for you. It's gonna help
Speaker 1: your waistline, it'll help your like what you're spending on
Speaker 1: groceries as well, not just processed foods, but the ability
Speaker 1: to avoid processed drinks as well. I think that's an
Speaker 1: area where a lot of folks can say of like
Speaker 1: juices and spending money on coke sunny d These are
Speaker 1: I mean, for one, they're empty calories, but too like man,
Speaker 1: those things, these things are loaded with sugar, and you
Speaker 1: don't necessarily need to be spending your money on that. Again,
Speaker 1: you are you're You're an adult. You do what you
Speaker 1: want to do. And I know this is coming from
Speaker 1: the dude who likes They always hear me talking about
Speaker 1: how my beer, Oh I should have had a little
Speaker 1: more sugar. Yeah, I get it, like I like things
Speaker 1: to be a little bit sweet, but I'm owning it,
Speaker 1: you know, Like craft beer, it's my craft beer equivalent. Right,
Speaker 1: I'm willing to spend money that isn't necessarily helping my
Speaker 1: health because I really enjoy ways. If you really love
Speaker 1: sunny dijol, you buy that sunny d but don't think
Speaker 1: you're necessarily buying groceries with it. I'm sure. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: those are the kind of expenditures you're right, that are.
Speaker 1: It's you're getting calories, but you're not necessarily getting the
Speaker 1: good kind, getting the feeling stuff exactly. Well. On that note,
Speaker 1: like should people buy organics, I think that's another question
Speaker 1: that people have because organics are certainly more expensive, and
Speaker 1: different folks have different priorities on this front too, So
Speaker 1: we're not trying to be uber prescriptive here, but the
Speaker 1: price gap between organics and non it often depends on
Speaker 1: this specific item, right, Because organic eggs, they're not much
Speaker 1: more than regular ones at costco organic milk, it feels
Speaker 1: like it's like twice as expensive, if not more, it's
Speaker 1: a bit more. So, Yeah, it depends on what your
Speaker 1: priorities are, and you might say, yeah, cool, I'm like me,
Speaker 1: I don't mind spending a dollar more for the organic eggs,
Speaker 1: but I'm not going to spend six dollars more for
Speaker 1: the organic milk, and so yeah, this is another example
Speaker 1: of how where you shop play such a massive role
Speaker 1: in how much you spend because Walmart is the largest
Speaker 1: organic retailer in existence, and their prices are going to
Speaker 1: be much more afford then a whole Foods, for example.
Speaker 1: But you know, we can all make different trade offs
Speaker 1: at different stages of our lives as we have different
Speaker 1: amounts of disposable income specifically to spend on food. And
Speaker 1: for some you might prioritize cost over everything else, so
Speaker 1: you might say no to organic at every turn. But
Speaker 1: there are ways to buy affordable organic products too. I
Speaker 1: think that deserves to be mentioned. And there are a
Speaker 1: lot of people who just prioritize that strongly for like
Speaker 1: everything they buy. And there are other people who say,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pick and choose the organics I want to
Speaker 1: bring into my life. But I think it's possible to
Speaker 1: do the organic thing without completely breaking your budget. That's right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Costco that's where you buy your organic toilet paper, only
Speaker 1: the finale for your tush. Another tip is we would
Speaker 1: recommend for folks to use the right credit card. We've
Speaker 1: recently talked about this, but the American Express Blue Cash
Speaker 1: Preferred will snag you six percent cash back at the
Speaker 1: grocery store on up to six thousand dollars of expenses
Speaker 1: a year. And man, speaking of all d again, when
Speaker 1: they started taking credit cards a few years back, the
Speaker 1: choir of angels we're singing it might still remember that day.
Speaker 1: It was such a big stinking deal because, like, that's
Speaker 1: an extra six percent I'm saving on all groceries from
Speaker 1: here on out. It was the only place I was
Speaker 1: using my stupid debit card. Yes, every single it was
Speaker 1: like literally the only place I used a debit card too.
Speaker 1: I don't think I've pulled that thing out ever since.
Speaker 1: But being able to shop with this card is going
Speaker 1: to mean that they're already low prices. If you use
Speaker 1: that card, they're going to get six percent better overnight,
Speaker 1: like instantly. But of course, only use this card or
Speaker 1: any credit card, like we discussed last week, if you
Speaker 1: can pay that bill off on time and in full
Speaker 1: every month. But if we're talking about easy ways to
Speaker 1: save more money on groceries, this is certainly one of them.
Speaker 1: And you can get the annual fee wave for the
Speaker 1: first year right now. In addition to that, two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty dollars sign up Bonus will make sure to
Speaker 1: link to that card in the show notes for this episode,
Speaker 1: for sure. That's the one that both of us use weekly,
Speaker 1: for sure. Yeah, and okay, so what about apps that
Speaker 1: help you save two And we've talked about the actual
Speaker 1: proprietary apps that the grocery stores have themselves. Almost every
Speaker 1: grocery store has their own app, and you can download
Speaker 1: that and find ways to save there, which I think
Speaker 1: is good. When you buy into their ecosystem, they offer
Speaker 1: you extra perks, and that's great. You should totally do that.
Speaker 1: But there are other third party apps that are worth
Speaker 1: considering too. Flash Food is a new one, at least
Speaker 1: one that I hadn't heard of until recently, that offers
Speaker 1: significant discounts, at least in some parts of the country
Speaker 1: for buying items from grocery stores that are just about
Speaker 1: to expire. So that's kind of cool. You're kind of
Speaker 1: preventing something from going into the landfill, and you're getting
Speaker 1: a sweet discount at the same time. I like that one.
Speaker 1: I look to see if it was available here near
Speaker 1: where we live. Matt sadly no, but maybe soon, maybe soon.
Speaker 1: But Ibota is probably one of the best known apps
Speaker 1: that will earn you cash back for taking a picture
Speaker 1: of your receipt after you check out. You gotta jump
Speaker 1: through a couple of hoops. But these can be kind
Speaker 1: of like, you know, the coupons we talked about earlier.
Speaker 1: They might be easier than going out there and pecking
Speaker 1: and hunting for coupons to use at the grocery store,
Speaker 1: but they also might not be worth the hassle. But
Speaker 1: it's at least worth looking into. You know, some people
Speaker 1: swear by apps like I boughta and they say they
Speaker 1: save they get tough to cash back just by kind
Speaker 1: of doing the shopping they normally do. But so much
Speaker 1: really comes down to you, how you shop and how
Speaker 1: annoyed you get by these apps trying to like having
Speaker 1: to constantly interact with them. That's true. All right. Let's
Speaker 1: get to the most dadlike advice that we can offer
Speaker 1: when it comes to saving more on groceries, and this
Speaker 1: advice is to eat what you've got. And yes, again,
Speaker 1: I want a clean plate out there, folks, Happy plate Club.
Speaker 1: Did y'all ever do that? I know a lot of
Speaker 1: folks do the Happy Place sometimes, but you know, definitely
Speaker 1: each your leftovers, of course, but this also means that
Speaker 1: you should be cleaning out your pantry or your fridge
Speaker 1: or your freezer. Super cook this is a cool site
Speaker 1: that can help you to create a recipe based on
Speaker 1: the items that you have on hand. Of course, if
Speaker 1: it's just cookies, right, like if you just got oreos
Speaker 1: and some burritos and like a random chicken thigh, you're
Speaker 1: gonna have a tough time. Would be really interesting meal,
Speaker 1: though most likely hopefully you make a crumble and bake it.
Speaker 1: Bake that chicken thigh in it over. You're not down
Speaker 1: to like the drugs to the point, but it's smart
Speaker 1: I think to make this a game like that, right
Speaker 1: because if you're aiming high and an attempt to keep
Speaker 1: your grocery budget low, we'll trying to make meals out
Speaker 1: of what you've got on hand. Is a way to
Speaker 1: gamify things in order to stretch your budget. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of Oftentimes you'll see different folks taking on the
Speaker 1: challenge of like just only eating out of your pantry
Speaker 1: or you're cupboard where you're only allowed to go to
Speaker 1: the grocery store for like for fresh veggies or milk
Speaker 1: and eggs, right, but a, of course, we do want
Speaker 1: you to eat healthy, balanced meals. But I think there's
Speaker 1: a way that we could also challenge ourselves to not
Speaker 1: buy more of the non perishables that are already lining
Speaker 1: the shelves of our pintry. All right, So another last
Speaker 1: suggestion would be just to eat less in general. And
Speaker 1: I think we get especially when we want to eat.
Speaker 1: Think about the portion sizes. When you go out to
Speaker 1: eat in a foreign country, you don't get portions that big.
Speaker 1: But for some reason here in the States, we just
Speaker 1: have just something in ore, and if it's on our plate,
Speaker 1: we just assume that's what we're supposed to eat, and
Speaker 1: so we do. And so a lot of us are
Speaker 1: just eating more than we actually should, and it's led
Speaker 1: to us becoming a pretty fat and overweight nation. In reality,
Speaker 1: the latest data reports to something like forty two percent
Speaker 1: of US adults are considered to be medically obese. Yeah,
Speaker 1: nearly half of which tragic, all adults tragic, because not
Speaker 1: only is that expanding your food budget, it's just massively
Speaker 1: harmful to your health. And now we're like prescribing drugs
Speaker 1: to help kuro Obesi instead of making a national push
Speaker 1: towards changing habits which would lead to healthier outcomes. I
Speaker 1: think so, yeah, it's just eating less in general and
Speaker 1: eating healthier whole food's kind of like you talked about earlier, man,
Speaker 1: instead of eating a lot of the process craft that
Speaker 1: we normally get in the center of the grocery store.
Speaker 1: That's going to make a big difference in how we
Speaker 1: feel and how much we spend on money on food. Totally. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And unfortunately I think it's it's sort of become taboo
Speaker 1: to say that, and we will acknowledge that, like genetics
Speaker 1: play role, right, Like not everybody can work out multiple
Speaker 1: times a week if they're looking to lose weight, but
Speaker 1: the ability to reduce how much we're consuming like that
Speaker 1: is something that is available to everybody, And it's just
Speaker 1: it's kind of crazy that that is not something that
Speaker 1: is talked about more not to mention and this is
Speaker 1: our whole angle. It also saves you money, and so
Speaker 1: for some reason it's become off limits, which I don't like, because, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's kind of something we've been able to talk about
Speaker 1: openly for decades and decades and decades and hundreds and
Speaker 1: thousands of years. Yeah, and if you but if you
Speaker 1: if you make it off limits to talk about, then
Speaker 1: people can't receive the help they need. I think. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so bottom line groceries are a big line item in
Speaker 1: all of our lives. In the past year has certainly
Speaker 1: made shopping for food feel even worse because inflation, it's
Speaker 1: been a massive pain for everyone. Egg prices are actually
Speaker 1: coming down now, but they're still expensive. But the tactics
Speaker 1: that we mentioned today, if they're not going to stop
Speaker 1: the macroeconomic environment, but it can help you to take
Speaker 1: some more control over the expenses in your own life.
Speaker 1: And you know, when this is with food and cooking,
Speaker 1: when that's something that you do multiple times a day,
Speaker 1: you may as well get good at it. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: know you're talking about breathing earlier. It kind of makes
Speaker 1: me think about driving, like that's something that most people
Speaker 1: do and there might be some folks who are better
Speaker 1: at it, who enjoy more, there might be some folks
Speaker 1: who don't enjoy it as much, or there might be
Speaker 1: some folks who are terrible at it. But just because
Speaker 1: if you were to say, though, well I'm just not
Speaker 1: good at it and you get in like a fender
Speaker 1: bender every single week, you don't just like throw in
Speaker 1: the towel and say I'm just not good at driving. No,
Speaker 1: like you take stetakeing ubers everywhere, you take steps to
Speaker 1: make sure that you turn into a better driver, right like,
Speaker 1: whether that's paying closer attention to the road, or driving slower,
Speaker 1: or finding different times of the day to get to
Speaker 1: where you need to go. There are steps at doing
Speaker 1: a coach but in a similar way. I feel similarly
Speaker 1: about food, you may as well learn how to do
Speaker 1: it well, you may as well enjoy it. And obviously
Speaker 1: along the way, by doing those things, you're going to
Speaker 1: find ways to make it more affordable, saving you money
Speaker 1: that you'll then be able to funnel into other areas
Speaker 1: of your life. For sure, all right, I agree, And
Speaker 1: so hopefully all of our listeners are able to cut
Speaker 1: back in big ways at the grocery store. And you know,
Speaker 1: if you've got other grocery shopping tips we'd love to hear,
Speaker 1: you can always reach out to us where it had
Speaker 1: a money pott email dot Matt. Let's get back to
Speaker 1: the beer that we had on this episode. This one
Speaker 1: was called Darkened. It's a barrel age sour brown ale
Speaker 1: from upland Sour Ales in Bloomington, Indiana. What were your
Speaker 1: thoughts on this one, man? Yeah, I see on the
Speaker 1: back of a bottle here it says a blended work
Speaker 1: of art. This was a really really interesting beer. So
Speaker 1: it's a brown ale, but it was a sour brown.
Speaker 1: What tasted like was then married with the spices from
Speaker 1: a Belgian quad, not the yeasts, right, So it doesn't
Speaker 1: have like that the sweetness that you get with Belgian
Speaker 1: beers that you get from the yeast, but it totally
Speaker 1: had the like the Belgian spices going on, and so
Speaker 1: it had the darker sour funk, but then it had
Speaker 1: these notes of like Christmas. It's almost like when you
Speaker 1: get a song stuck in your head and you're like, wait,
Speaker 1: why can't I get this? Like what is it about this?
Speaker 1: I feel like that's what this sort of had going
Speaker 1: on with those Baltian spices. Yes. On the back it
Speaker 1: says that it was kind of trying to imitate the
Speaker 1: ud Bruin style, which is like sour brown, right, which
Speaker 1: is a traditionally Belgian style sour and which I love
Speaker 1: in the style beer so much sense. But that being said,
Speaker 1: this had this is incredibly unique. Yeah, that very differently
Speaker 1: than a nude bruin. Well, of course, Americans, you don't
Speaker 1: like to shake it up, do things differently. So there's
Speaker 1: an American take on a Belgian style beer. And I
Speaker 1: really like, I really liked it. But you're right, it
Speaker 1: definitely had some different vibes and different spice action going on.
Speaker 1: But I mean, anytime someone says they're making an ude bruin, like,
Speaker 1: give it to me, I'm gonna take it. Anytime that
Speaker 1: there's somebody making a barrel aged yeah, anything. Yeah, the oak.
Speaker 1: The oak came through in a big way on this
Speaker 1: one too, for sure. So all right, that's gonna do
Speaker 1: it for this episode, though, Matt. For for folks who
Speaker 1: want links to some of the resources we mentioned, we
Speaker 1: mentioned a lot today specific apps and sites where you
Speaker 1: can go to save money on groceries, well we'll list
Speaker 1: all of those up on our site at howtmoney dot com.
Speaker 1: And not only are the resources up there from this
Speaker 1: specific episode, but we've got a lot of new content
Speaker 1: up there on the site. We've got obviously the show notes,
Speaker 1: but just other articles other helpful content to the credit
Speaker 1: card tool. There are a ton of fantastic resources up
Speaker 1: there for you. So we wanted to mention those as well,
Speaker 1: but Joel, that's going to be it for this episode
Speaker 1: until next time. Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,