Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I'm Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we're talking about cutting your grocery bills. Like crazy, Yedjuel,
Speaker 1: what are we talking about food? What do you eat today?
Speaker 1: All right? So I had I asked, because we're talking
Speaker 1: about groceries and trying to catch me off guard, like
Speaker 1: I caught you off guard last episode. I see that
Speaker 1: totally stumbled over my words. Yeah, the fourth of America
Speaker 1: are referred to that. I was listening to that and
Speaker 1: when we're kind of proofing that, and I was like,
Speaker 1: it sounds like a freaking idiot, Like what what was
Speaker 1: I thinking? That's pretty funny. Sometimes it just happens. So,
Speaker 1: you know, today it was a random day. I almost
Speaker 1: never skipp breakfast. Usually I have two eggs for breakfast,
Speaker 1: but I skip breakfast today. Weird, just kind of busy.
Speaker 1: That's weird because I look up this morning not feeling
Speaker 1: hungry either, and I normally have a couple of eggs,
Speaker 1: couple of fried eggs. Before getting the girls up, actually
Speaker 1: ran into the kitchen. I told Kate. I was like, hey,
Speaker 1: could you only cook me one egg? Because I'm just
Speaker 1: not hungry this morning. Weird, that is weird, dude. And
Speaker 1: then for lunch, I had very little too. I pretty
Speaker 1: much just had some pistachios for lunch, and then I
Speaker 1: had a full fledged dinner this evening. Um, we grilled salmon,
Speaker 1: zucchinia zu kinian squash and the potatoes. So that was
Speaker 1: like that salmon swimming up stream right Heck yeah, man,
Speaker 1: always dude, that sounds delicious. Yeah. I actually had a
Speaker 1: full dinner with the family at home. But uh, for lunch,
Speaker 1: I had pie toth Uh. Yeah. So I'm a wedding
Speaker 1: photographer and sometimes I get good ease on the weekends
Speaker 1: after the reception is all said and done. And I
Speaker 1: knew the planner at this one, and they were just
Speaker 1: going to be getting rid of all of this pie.
Speaker 1: And so I got multiple pies, dude, like caramel, chocolate, pecan, buttermilk,
Speaker 1: and then tons of peach and apple slices as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a ridiculous amount of pie. Share the wealth, buddy, dude,
Speaker 1: you want to check? Yeah, I do. What are you
Speaker 1: into that? Don't? Buttermilk sounds interesting? Is a good? Actually
Speaker 1: gave that to our smiths. Thanks, Sorry, I just remembered.
Speaker 1: We'll get that to the smiths. I'll pick your slice
Speaker 1: out later. But it's not like he said, yeah, I said.
Speaker 1: The reception was at a local brewery Three Taverns, which
Speaker 1: is a great brewery, and the groom is nice enough.
Speaker 1: At the end of the night, dude, he picked me
Speaker 1: up a growler and he got me a hat. There
Speaker 1: we go. Yeah, how sweet is that? Dude? Look at that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I got me a snap back hat. I think this
Speaker 1: might be the first cap I owned that might fit
Speaker 1: my huge head. Yeah, you don't wear hats because they're
Speaker 1: too small. Ka. It always makes fun of me because
Speaker 1: I put them on and she's just like, you can't.
Speaker 1: You can't rock the dad cap, you know, like the
Speaker 1: flimsy dad cap or whatever. But yeah, it's one of
Speaker 1: the perks of being a wedding photographers, you know. I
Speaker 1: guess getting a growler of beer every now and then. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for real, dude, Speaking of job parks, So my perks
Speaker 1: on the job, My boss uh like one of the
Speaker 1: greatest perks of all time takes the entire staff on
Speaker 1: a trip every year. So your perk is better the No.
Speaker 1: I mean, your hat's really nice, buddy, wait till you
Speaker 1: see it. So we just booked our staff trip for
Speaker 1: next year. We usually, you know, when you go wherever's
Speaker 1: on sale, and we kind of have a predetermined week.
Speaker 1: And so, like we talked about on our episode Matt
Speaker 1: traveling with Purpose on the Cheap, Yeah, that was a
Speaker 1: good episode. It was a fun one, at least it
Speaker 1: was in my mind. And so the same thing applies, right, Like,
Speaker 1: that's what we do when we're booking travel as a staff.
Speaker 1: And so we booked a four hundred and six dollar
Speaker 1: round trip flight to Ireland at the end of April
Speaker 1: next year. So uh man, yeah, it's gonna be really fun.
Speaker 1: You and I actually at the only time we've ever
Speaker 1: traveled internationally. Yeah, we took our wives to Ireland like
Speaker 1: six years ago and we had a blast. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: was a fantastic trip. That was actually right after Kate
Speaker 1: and I came back from France for work, and I
Speaker 1: think we kind of had the travel bug. This is
Speaker 1: pre kids, and I specifically remember sitting on the front
Speaker 1: porch with you guys. We're either drinking wine because I
Speaker 1: think Kate was wanting to be fancy or more and
Speaker 1: likely beer though, and yeah, we got to talk and
Speaker 1: we're like, you know, what we need to do we
Speaker 1: need to travel together internationally. And then a few weeks
Speaker 1: later a deal popped up. I forgot. Do you remember
Speaker 1: how much we paid then for that one. I think
Speaker 1: we paid just over, which is awesome. It's amazing considering
Speaker 1: inflation and stuff, that it's a hundred dollars cheaper. That's
Speaker 1: so now. So yeah, flights to Europe have never been cheaper.
Speaker 1: And so if you didn't get to listen to that
Speaker 1: episode about traveling with purpose on the cheap, you should
Speaker 1: check that out. But also quick tip, uh, sign up
Speaker 1: for the emails from Scott's Cheap Flights. That's how we
Speaker 1: find out on the crew about so many of the
Speaker 1: good airfare sales going on, and that's how I personally,
Speaker 1: you know, look for air fair deals to pretty much.
Speaker 1: That gets me started, you know, to at least know
Speaker 1: what's on sale and when, and then I can kind
Speaker 1: of start digging from there. Nice tip man, that's right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So let's get into the beer for today's episode, Matt
Speaker 1: uh it is again. We teased last week this awesome
Speaker 1: listener Mike from Minnesota sent us a few different beers,
Speaker 1: and so we wanted to drink two of them on
Speaker 1: the show and to day's beer is Surly Brewing Company Darkness. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and this is a beer, uh that we both have
Speaker 1: had before, and I'm so looking forward to having this whole,
Speaker 1: this old Russian Imperial stout. It's a huge beer, lots
Speaker 1: of flavor. Yes, we have this beer a long time ago,
Speaker 1: but I'm excited to try it again because it's been like,
Speaker 1: for real, many many years since since we get to
Speaker 1: try that together. What do you think about wax on
Speaker 1: these bigger bottles like this. It looks really cool, but
Speaker 1: it's kind of annoying. Yeah, it's kind of it's it's
Speaker 1: a pain. So lately you've been doing all the all
Speaker 1: the pouring. Do you enjoy point the beer? It's meaningful
Speaker 1: to me. Have you ever been a waiter? No? Never,
Speaker 1: but I've always wanted to be. That's interesting that you
Speaker 1: say that, because I I've totally said the same thing.
Speaker 1: Back when Kate and I first got married, I told
Speaker 1: her I was like that, I wish that at some
Speaker 1: point in college I would have had a weight service job,
Speaker 1: or you know, just being a waiter. I think there's
Speaker 1: a lot of lessons you learn and certain qualities that
Speaker 1: you pick up, mostly probably on how to treat waiters. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I've always thought that like perfect job for me, that, uh,
Speaker 1: if income didn't matter at all, was probably a bartender
Speaker 1: because I love beer. I love talking to people about beer,
Speaker 1: and I love talking to people in general, and the
Speaker 1: bartender is kind of that person that you're able to
Speaker 1: just have a conversation with, especially about beer. Right, So
Speaker 1: for me, it always just seems like that would be
Speaker 1: the perfect gig. But also, you know, the late nights,
Speaker 1: being away from family, just that kind of whole in
Speaker 1: the industry vibe and stuff. Maybe I don't know how
Speaker 1: much I would enjoy that, but yeah, I guess I
Speaker 1: get to talk about beer on the podcast right and
Speaker 1: right now, so that kind of actually gives me a
Speaker 1: lot of what I was what I think would be
Speaker 1: awesome about being a bartender. Certainly, all right, so quickly, Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is surly darkness Russian Imperial stout. It contains notes
Speaker 1: of chocolate, coffee, dry tart, cherries and raisins, and it
Speaker 1: finishes suite with a piny, resinous hop character is what
Speaker 1: it says, which you don't always find in a stout.
Speaker 1: So it's gonna be interesting. Yeah, man, it's thurarly as
Speaker 1: you know, this isn't a read that distributes in Georgia,
Speaker 1: and so this is us a really rare treat for us,
Speaker 1: and and this one in particular, Yeah, darkness stuff to
Speaker 1: get ahold of the labels pretty gnarly. It's got like
Speaker 1: a three headed dog on it. It's like Fluffy from
Speaker 1: Harry Potter. Let's have a taste, bottoms up a great beer.
Speaker 1: And I would completely recommend this if you like flavor. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all the fans of flavor out there, it really does.
Speaker 1: Like the flavor is so good. The flavor profile I
Speaker 1: read off the label, it's got all that yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: And it's as dark as night, as thick as motor
Speaker 1: oil and um, but just has like for a Russian
Speaker 1: Imperial stout. Sometimes they can be just pure bitter dark chocolate,
Speaker 1: and this has like a lot more notes going on.
Speaker 1: It's really interesting. And you do get that kind of
Speaker 1: hot finish at the end, which is kind of rare
Speaker 1: for a stout, which is that resume resume finished. I
Speaker 1: completely agree, man, you should take as motor oil, though
Speaker 1: I don't think this is I don't think the body
Speaker 1: is too heavy. Sometimes you get some of those milkstouts
Speaker 1: and some of those other styles where it really does
Speaker 1: feel like it's just too thick. I feel like this
Speaker 1: is right right there where I want it. Still drinkable
Speaker 1: enough for sure, but but it's a beast. So yeah,
Speaker 1: if you can pick up a bottle of Surly Brewing
Speaker 1: Companies of Darkness where you live, man, grab you some.
Speaker 1: This is going to be especially great in the winter,
Speaker 1: but it's definitely not bad here in the middle of
Speaker 1: the summer to switch it up. Agreed, Thanks again the
Speaker 1: listener Mike for sending these beers are away man these
Speaker 1: Minnesota Beer Week for us. It's an amazing If you're
Speaker 1: interested in the beers that we're drinking and you don't
Speaker 1: want to send us a message, necessarily look us up
Speaker 1: on untapped. Uh not Poor Joel and not Poor Matt.
Speaker 1: You can see what we're drinking, what we're rating them,
Speaker 1: and uh keep in touch there. And it's just a
Speaker 1: kind of fun app to be on so you can
Speaker 1: log your own beers. That's kind of why I started.
Speaker 1: And then it's just kind of fun to see what
Speaker 1: your friends are drinking too. So alright, Matt, onto the
Speaker 1: topic of hand cutting your grocery bills like crazy and
Speaker 1: let's talk about what the problem is first, right, The
Speaker 1: problem is that the average American family spends way too
Speaker 1: much every week on groceries. Every week, the average American family,
Speaker 1: and this stat is from five years ago. I couldn't
Speaker 1: find like the most current that, but five years ago,
Speaker 1: the average American family spent between a hundred and forty
Speaker 1: six and two nine dollars a week. That's a family
Speaker 1: of four with two grade school kids. So you're talking
Speaker 1: if you extrapolate that out at the higher end, I mean,
Speaker 1: you're talking about a thousand dollars a month on groceries
Speaker 1: for a family of four. Yeah, that's a lot, which
Speaker 1: is overkill, right, Um, So that's the problem. And you
Speaker 1: teased a couple of weeks ago about how your family
Speaker 1: of five has gotten it down to one dollar per
Speaker 1: meal per person, and so, uh, you and Kate kind
Speaker 1: of worked through the outline for this episode, and I'm
Speaker 1: really interested to hear some of the takeaways that you
Speaker 1: have for us, um, because you know, I have some
Speaker 1: thoughts on this too, and I'm going to chime in,
Speaker 1: but really, this is kind of your pet project. Your
Speaker 1: family has really taken to this and has acts your
Speaker 1: grocery bills because your family has taken some actionable steps
Speaker 1: that I think everyone out there listening can follow. That's right, man.
Speaker 1: And before we even start, I want to give all
Speaker 1: credit to Kate because even though I help set the
Speaker 1: budget and do the shopping with Kate as well, she
Speaker 1: does virtually the cooking in her house, and so much
Speaker 1: of it kind of comes down to that, like she
Speaker 1: you know, she kind of runs the ship when it
Speaker 1: comes to our food, uh, and definitely our grocery budget.
Speaker 1: So we recorded your dining room table and we were
Speaker 1: in your kitchen for a minute before the show began,
Speaker 1: and there's this kind of interesting looking loaf of bread.
Speaker 1: Just smell it, like right when you walked in the house.
Speaker 1: Is that the first thing that I didn't even smell
Speaker 1: really smell the bread. No, it didn't hit me. Sorry,
Speaker 1: maybe you got signus issues maybe maybe so. But so
Speaker 1: she had just made this, um we're talking about how
Speaker 1: you know, she had just made this loaf of bread,
Speaker 1: this whole wheat loafer bread with all this like you know,
Speaker 1: fancy flax seed and stuff like that in it. And
Speaker 1: she said that that loafer bread costs roughly a dollar.
Speaker 1: And my wife had just gone to the farmer's market
Speaker 1: and bought a loaf of bread that was, you know,
Speaker 1: similar in fashion, but was saw the seeds and stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but was a little bit smaller even, and cost five dollars.
Speaker 1: So I mean, you, you know, the rubber really does
Speaker 1: meet the road when it comes to saving money on
Speaker 1: groceries for your family. So yeah, let's get into it
Speaker 1: and start talking about how you guys actually do it. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: that's right. So the whole reason this discussion came up
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago is because I was just
Speaker 1: updating our budget. And if you don't keep up with
Speaker 1: your spending, and if you don't know what you're actually
Speaker 1: spending on your groceries, like you, you don't know how
Speaker 1: much you spend per day, right, And so so much
Speaker 1: of this comes down to tracking what you're actually spending,
Speaker 1: to be aware, to have your eyes opened in a
Speaker 1: in a sense, to to see what you are spending,
Speaker 1: whether it be weekly or monthly, however it is that
Speaker 1: you want to budget for groceries. First step first s
Speaker 1: up right there, And it's interesting is actually, in preparation
Speaker 1: for this episode, I looked up what we were spending
Speaker 1: when we first got married, which was over ten years ago,
Speaker 1: which is insane. We were still spending one dollar a
Speaker 1: person a day, Isn't that crazy? Like it hasn't changed
Speaker 1: because we just kept doing what we did back then,
Speaker 1: Like we've always sort of been in the mindset of,
Speaker 1: you know, living frugally. You used to add more mouth
Speaker 1: to feed. Yeah, right now, our monthly budget is for
Speaker 1: fifty and that's for five of us, and you divide
Speaker 1: it out and that's one dollar per meal per person. Yeah,
Speaker 1: our grocery budget back in two thousand seven, two eight,
Speaker 1: so ten years ago, one eight, Like on the nose man,
Speaker 1: I was shocked to see that it accurately reflected the
Speaker 1: same dollar per meal. And so this is something that
Speaker 1: we've kind of always done, and for us, it's it's
Speaker 1: not a stretch. I think for a lot of people
Speaker 1: it might be a challenge. But don't be discouraged. You know,
Speaker 1: this is something that at least for us, that we've
Speaker 1: been doing for ten years now, and so honestly it's
Speaker 1: a lot of what we do just kind of comes naturally.
Speaker 1: But yeah, this might come as a shock for a
Speaker 1: lot of people, and but it's definitely something worth considering doing, Uh,
Speaker 1: especially considering how much money you can save. Yes, so
Speaker 1: it may seem unattainable, right, but we're going to kind
Speaker 1: of go through some of the strategies that Matt and
Speaker 1: his family like go through in order to get those
Speaker 1: grocery bills down to a dollar day and that budget. Right,
Speaker 1: that's that is a key aspect, and we talked about
Speaker 1: that back in our Budgets episode. But knowing what you're
Speaker 1: actually spending is kind of the first key, right, looking
Speaker 1: at dead in the eye and seeing what you're actually
Speaker 1: spending gives you that ability then to attack that bill.
Speaker 1: And so that is, you know, the first rule here
Speaker 1: of saving money under grocery bill is to actually know
Speaker 1: what you're spending every month. And so once you start
Speaker 1: tracking that, then you have the ability to work and
Speaker 1: go about actually slashing that bill and cutting your grocery
Speaker 1: bill by by a large margin. That's right. It's it's
Speaker 1: that wake up call, you know. All right. So first,
Speaker 1: we buy very few processed foods, and so what we're
Speaker 1: talking about are like snack foods, fancy juices, dessert. That
Speaker 1: being said, we've we've got pine in the fridge and
Speaker 1: I got that for free. Um. But like we don't
Speaker 1: buy those things. That's just not something at all that
Speaker 1: registers in our mind when we when we go to
Speaker 1: the store. Um. And so the more machines and labor
Speaker 1: that are involved and making a food before we buy
Speaker 1: it at the store, the more expensive it's going to be. Um.
Speaker 1: And honestly those things are going to be less nutritious
Speaker 1: as well. There's more preservatives than just more sodium to
Speaker 1: just to help it to last longer on the shelf.
Speaker 1: And not to mention that that they're they're just way
Speaker 1: more expensive. Yeah, I mean, I think that's definitely true
Speaker 1: anything that's like prepackaged, and especially you know a lot
Speaker 1: of the health snacks even that are out there now,
Speaker 1: and there's kind of this crazy about those health snacks.
Speaker 1: They're really really expensive, um, and they're really good you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're tasty and they and they've got nutrition that like
Speaker 1: you that you're talking about the health snacks specifically, they've
Speaker 1: got like protein and special seeds and stuff in them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but even that they've got a lot of often negative
Speaker 1: Well they're they're tasty because there's sugar in there and yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're all yeah exactly. And so even like there are
Speaker 1: some sports drinks that I kind of like from time
Speaker 1: to time or whatever, but even those are filled with
Speaker 1: crazy amounts of sugar, and so yeah, maybe they've got
Speaker 1: you know, they tout themselves to be healthy, but ultimately
Speaker 1: in the end they're they're they're not because they're filled
Speaker 1: with so much sugar. Yeah. Man, So essentially, anything that
Speaker 1: saves you time, just know that you're paying for it.
Speaker 1: You know, if it's something that you can make, I
Speaker 1: consider not buying it. That's honestly, that's kind of Kate's
Speaker 1: sort of rule of thumb. And granted she's a homemaker.
Speaker 1: You know, she's at home. She isn't employed outside of
Speaker 1: the home. She takes care of the girls, she takes
Speaker 1: care of the house, she takes care of all of
Speaker 1: the food, and so she has that flexibility and that's
Speaker 1: something that we just are able to do. It's it's
Speaker 1: sort of like one of the advantages of having a stay,
Speaker 1: stay at home parent. But she's willing to put in
Speaker 1: that time and she enjoys it. Right, It's not like
Speaker 1: something that she doesn't look forward to or something that
Speaker 1: she's just like, I've got to make bread, dude. She's
Speaker 1: making bread like crazy right now. She's kind of going
Speaker 1: through a phase where she's trying to make like the
Speaker 1: most healthy, affordable bread and kind of like cone it
Speaker 1: down to it not just an art but like a science.
Speaker 1: Like she wants to know that she can make measure
Speaker 1: it to the tea and make like a perfect loaf
Speaker 1: of bread and it's something that the girls will like
Speaker 1: and something that is affordable and at the same time
Speaker 1: is super healthy. Having that time, it's a luxury. But
Speaker 1: just like all things where we have to make decisions
Speaker 1: and there's trade offs, right, Like she doesn't work outside
Speaker 1: of the home. You know, we maybe make a little
Speaker 1: bit less than were she employed, but because of that,
Speaker 1: she has a little more time and is able to
Speaker 1: do something she enjoys but also saves us some money.
Speaker 1: So what would you say where to a couple, let's
Speaker 1: say where they both work and maybe you know, there's
Speaker 1: not enough time to uh hone in that bread recipe
Speaker 1: right over over over a few days or weeks even. Um,
Speaker 1: so people that don't have for a lifetime or lifetime, yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe it doesn't happen that quickly. I'm sorry, um, but
Speaker 1: so yeah, what would you say to people if they
Speaker 1: don't quite have as much time to play with when
Speaker 1: it comes to, you know, making their own foods from scratch. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well that to that, I would say, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of things that you can do um specifically, and this
Speaker 1: is something that we do is we don't eat a
Speaker 1: lot of meat. Um. Most of our protein comes from
Speaker 1: like eggs and like nuts and beans and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: We only buy meat when it's on sale, and then
Speaker 1: Kate takes it and she kind of chops it up
Speaker 1: and portions it because she knows how much she'll use
Speaker 1: for a specific meal that she's gotten mine like later
Speaker 1: that month, and then she freezes it so there's no
Speaker 1: chance of it going bad. And we're also using it
Speaker 1: just very sparingly, you know, like she uses almost more
Speaker 1: like a garnish instead of it sort of being like
Speaker 1: the centerpiece of a meal. It's sort of like this
Speaker 1: sort of added bonus. Obviously, meat as flavor. You know,
Speaker 1: there's there's flavor there, there's fat. That's a good thing
Speaker 1: when it comes to flavor here. But yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: that's that's something that I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: can consider, is just toning down how much meat they're
Speaker 1: eating on a day to day basis. There's weeks that
Speaker 1: will go where we don't even have meat all week,
Speaker 1: which I know you might have, you might have a
Speaker 1: beef with sounds like a frightening week in my book
Speaker 1: right there, because I'm, yeah, we do eat a lot
Speaker 1: more meat. And for me, I grew up kind of
Speaker 1: eating meat around as kind of the centerpiece of every meal.
Speaker 1: And and so I'm taking taters, right, So I'm just
Speaker 1: kind of used to it. Uh, And and so yeah,
Speaker 1: that is something though that for breakfast and lunch, you know,
Speaker 1: I pretty much try to avoid meat, but for dinner
Speaker 1: it is still kind of the centerpiece of what we
Speaker 1: have for dinner most evenings. But I like what you're doing,
Speaker 1: and I think it makes sense for us to probably
Speaker 1: try to, you know, to cut back. And then there's
Speaker 1: also to write eat cheaper cuts of meat that are
Speaker 1: less used. So, for instance, if you're eating chicken, boneless,
Speaker 1: skinless chicken breasts are kind of the thing that people
Speaker 1: gravitate towards, right, So you essentially get the most expensive
Speaker 1: cut of chicken you can. You pay steak prices for
Speaker 1: freaking chicken, and it doesn't have any flavor, yeah, exactly, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the bones are out of it. And so uh instead
Speaker 1: of getting opting for that cut of chicken. Yeah, maybe
Speaker 1: go for a boat bone in dark meat, bone in
Speaker 1: fine leg combo. Oh my gosh. And you eat that
Speaker 1: stuff for like sixty nine cents a pound, so much cheaper,
Speaker 1: and it's so much tastier. I think buying those cheaper
Speaker 1: cuts of meat if you're into meat, is like a
Speaker 1: really worthwhile way to go. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: don't be afraid to consider alternate sources of protein. Like, certainly,
Speaker 1: pro you need protein in your life, but in just
Speaker 1: the omega threes and just the different fatty acids that
Speaker 1: you need for nutrition for brain development and things like
Speaker 1: that to keep you sharp. But consider other things, you know,
Speaker 1: walnuts tofu joel, have you ever had tofu in that? Like?
Speaker 1: Soy right? I like, mmy, does that count? Yeah? Okay,
Speaker 1: I love ed ammy. I think I think the reason
Speaker 1: I love it amy because the texture. Well I like
Speaker 1: the texture. I think I put a lot of salt
Speaker 1: and pepper on it. So get my salt and pepper
Speaker 1: and take Yeah. So I mean that's the source of
Speaker 1: of protein that you can get outside of expensive meat. Yes,
Speaker 1: So Matt on that note, the other great thing about
Speaker 1: eating nuts, And I've gone to eating nuts for pretty
Speaker 1: much every lunch because they're fairly inexpensive. Right, Even though
Speaker 1: a bag of almonds or pistachios can seem expensive, it
Speaker 1: takes so few of them to kind of make me
Speaker 1: feel full and lunch time that I feel like it
Speaker 1: actually ends up costing me almost nothing for lunch to
Speaker 1: to eat some mommons or pistachio. So that's usually what
Speaker 1: I gravitate towards for lunch, some moments, and pistachios and
Speaker 1: some carrots or maybe an apple that makes sense, some
Speaker 1: veggies and make it kind of feel better about yourself.
Speaker 1: You're not just only eating peanuts, right right, right. I
Speaker 1: love the taste of peanuts, but they're not nearly as
Speaker 1: good for you, right, and not as filling either, So yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like almonds and pistachios where I go. But
Speaker 1: that's the great thing about those about nuts is that
Speaker 1: they're really cheap, really in expensive. They're great like snack
Speaker 1: or lunch, and they're providing some of that protein that you,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe or are giving up if you eat
Speaker 1: if you decide to eat less meat, But they're really
Speaker 1: making you that that lunch at work or wherever you are,
Speaker 1: like grabbing a quick snack. It's really feeling for very
Speaker 1: little money. Yeah, man, I'm with you. I I do
Speaker 1: the exact same thing. I'm either eating leftovers or just
Speaker 1: grabbing a handful of walnuts or almonds or peanuts or
Speaker 1: something like that, and yeah, tossing in an apple or
Speaker 1: an orange. And for me, it comes kind of comes
Speaker 1: down to how much time it takes, because for us,
Speaker 1: we sit down, like we sit down every morning and
Speaker 1: have breakfast together, and then we always, for the most part,
Speaker 1: we we always have dinner together. But lunch it's kind
Speaker 1: of like whatever you want to do on your own,
Speaker 1: which means that as a little time as possible that
Speaker 1: I can spend on lunch means I can work. And yeah,
Speaker 1: you grab that handful of nuts and it doesn't really
Speaker 1: slow you down. Uh, pop an apple in your mouth
Speaker 1: as fast as humanly possible. Oh, and I drink I always.
Speaker 1: I feel like I drink a glass of milk too
Speaker 1: when I with an app because normally it leads to
Speaker 1: an apple and then I'm then I think, you know,
Speaker 1: I just need a little bit of peanut butter, And
Speaker 1: then I think, you know what I need a little
Speaker 1: bit of milk to kind of wash this all down,
Speaker 1: and then by then I'm stuffed. So there we go.
Speaker 1: That's how Manto's lunch. Let's go ahead and take a
Speaker 1: quick break. So let's talk about where you should shop. Right,
Speaker 1: So we talked about kind of a few little strategies
Speaker 1: and we'll go into more strategies in a little bit,
Speaker 1: but where you shop is really really important to your
Speaker 1: saving strategy for slashing that grocery bill, like crazy too, right,
Speaker 1: And so for me, I know, all the has been
Speaker 1: really important in our family ever since we got one
Speaker 1: in our part of town. And I know you guys
Speaker 1: utilize all We love all the Yeah, like Gangbusters so close, uh,
Speaker 1: and it's so cheap. I'm gonna say around of our
Speaker 1: groceries come from Aldi. It's incredibly affordable. They've got great
Speaker 1: organic options. And for us, it's crazy close and I
Speaker 1: can bike there or drive there either way, I'm there
Speaker 1: with him about five or ten minutes. And that is
Speaker 1: definitely a way that we're able to keep our grocery
Speaker 1: budget down. Yes, you know what's interesting mat when it
Speaker 1: already comes into a neighborhood, all the other grocery stores
Speaker 1: around it their prices start to sink too, because Aldi
Speaker 1: just has this price effect that even if you don't
Speaker 1: shop at Aldi, but Aldi comes into your neighborhood, you
Speaker 1: are de facto going to save money just because that
Speaker 1: Aldi is. They're putting price pressure on the other grocery stores. Yes, competition, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: But I love all the two. I think the one
Speaker 1: complaint I I have about all the I think they're
Speaker 1: really good for a lot of reasons. Sometimes the produce
Speaker 1: doesn't seem to last very long. Oh yeah, yeah, So
Speaker 1: we've had that issue occasionally at Aldi, and that can
Speaker 1: be kind of annoying. But but other than that, we
Speaker 1: love Aldi and that's one of our primary places to shop.
Speaker 1: We're pretty much like an Aldi, Costco and Kroger on occasion. Family,
Speaker 1: that's kind of how we right hear you? Well, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, all The's got this cash back double guaranteed
Speaker 1: deal and so if something goes bad, take it back.
Speaker 1: They will give your money back and replace it. That's true.
Speaker 1: That is one of them that is like the best
Speaker 1: warrantee in the grocery store industry too. Yeah. I mean,
Speaker 1: and we haven't taken an advantage of that often, but
Speaker 1: sometimes when we feel that, oh wow, this definitely shouldn't
Speaker 1: have gone bad that fast. I mean, they honor it,
Speaker 1: and we're we're totally set. I mean said, I thought
Speaker 1: you were going to complain about the variety at ALDI,
Speaker 1: because anytime we talk to somebody about Aldi, they tend
Speaker 1: to say, oh, they don't carry the brands that we like,
Speaker 1: or they don't they just don't have a lot of
Speaker 1: the things that we like. And to that, I say,
Speaker 1: check out your local farmers market, and for us, that
Speaker 1: is our international farmers market. It's not local at all,
Speaker 1: it's like the opposite. But we go there a good
Speaker 1: bit to get grains and different things that are you know,
Speaker 1: would be considered more exotic, and to get those in bulk,
Speaker 1: and so things like keenwa are in certain kinds of
Speaker 1: brown rice and things like that that we eat a
Speaker 1: good amount of are pretty expensive at ALDI, in fact,
Speaker 1: more expensive there than at our international farmers market. And
Speaker 1: Kate can walk out of there with huge sacks of
Speaker 1: you know, exotic rice and different things like that for
Speaker 1: crazy cheap when you break it down to how much
Speaker 1: she's paying per cup. You guys ever hit up the
Speaker 1: International farmers Market, Yeah, we do sometimes and there's also
Speaker 1: a State farmers market just south of us at sometimes
Speaker 1: you can snag produce for for a heck of a
Speaker 1: lot less than you can get at your local grocery store.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think thinking outside the box sometimes farmers
Speaker 1: markets can be one of two things in my book.
Speaker 1: Sometimes are these super small, hyperlocal, really expensive things where
Speaker 1: you were hipster like soaps exactly, yeah, hips are soaps
Speaker 1: and three dollars for a tomato, uh or exactly? I know,
Speaker 1: yeah and uh and I think it's cute, but I'm
Speaker 1: also cheap, and so I'm not going to do that.
Speaker 1: But so the State farmers market, in our international farmers
Speaker 1: market that we have access to here and hopefully you
Speaker 1: know you have access to a farmer's market where you
Speaker 1: live that isn't one of the super hip store or
Speaker 1: you know, eight dollar organic soap farmers markets. They are
Speaker 1: really cool and you have access to items that you
Speaker 1: that you couldn't purchase at a grocery store and some
Speaker 1: fresh products that you definitely don't have access to anywhere
Speaker 1: except for a farmer's market. So yeah, but for me,
Speaker 1: like I'm not doing as much of the grocery shopping,
Speaker 1: especially at that farmer's market because it is kind of,
Speaker 1: you know, a decent drive away from where we live. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the only downside. It's it's kind of more of
Speaker 1: like a once a month thing, and we're not getting
Speaker 1: much fresh stuff there because it's it's more about sort
Speaker 1: of the bulk exotic grains, which just sounds weird to say,
Speaker 1: but I don't think I've ever said those three words together.
Speaker 1: So to a note to everyone, where you shop actually
Speaker 1: really matters when you're trying to cut your grocery bill.
Speaker 1: And if you can shop at one of the lower
Speaker 1: cost grocery stores like an Aldi or a Legal which
Speaker 1: is coming into the United States, now, yeah, they're pretty great.
Speaker 1: Those guys are actually undercutting Walmart by a huge amount.
Speaker 1: And so if you're used to shopping at Walmart, you know,
Speaker 1: look at one of these other options, and those low
Speaker 1: cost grocery stores are going to immediately save you money
Speaker 1: without having to spend you know, three hours on a
Speaker 1: Saturday clip clipping coupons. So kind of on the transplant
Speaker 1: for discount grocery store. Have you ever been to a
Speaker 1: discount grocery store. They've got like the dented cans or
Speaker 1: like the slightly past expired, uh stuff. Oh heck, yeah,
Speaker 1: I used to go to one in college all the time. Really, yeah,
Speaker 1: like up in up in Greenville and yep, yep, I
Speaker 1: don't remember what it's called, but yeah, we used to
Speaker 1: go there in college just to a fifty two cent
Speaker 1: boxes cerreal or actually dented dented cans that were, you know,
Speaker 1: twenty cents a piece, stuff like that. Yeah, the dented
Speaker 1: cans always kind of weirded me out because I remember
Speaker 1: like reading even as a kid, where it's just like
Speaker 1: if you see a dented can, I get like, it's
Speaker 1: just like guaranteed. And so I just grew up thinking
Speaker 1: you see a dented can, You're gonna die. When I
Speaker 1: was living in North Carolina, there is a discount grocery store.
Speaker 1: And this is post undergrad, pre real job, and those
Speaker 1: are those times where you don't have any money. This
Speaker 1: is back when I was living in that in that
Speaker 1: cabin basically with no central heat, and we chopped around
Speaker 1: wood to burn in our woodburning stove. So you better
Speaker 1: believe that we're going to the discount grocery store man
Speaker 1: to survive. Donating plasma on the side. Never got that far,
Speaker 1: but I did it did you really will do an
Speaker 1: episode on that one. Oh my gosh, that's like both
Speaker 1: arms you hooked up right one arm, just one arm?
Speaker 1: Really yeah. Ill thought they injected or they drew it
Speaker 1: on one side and then they put it back in
Speaker 1: you on the other day. They put it right back
Speaker 1: like they circulated out and take the plasma out and
Speaker 1: then put your blood back in the same arm. It's amazing.
Speaker 1: It's been a while. It sounds like there's a period
Speaker 1: where you don't have any of your blood, does it not? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you die for a minute, but all right, um, yeah,
Speaker 1: this kind of but you really don't make that much money,
Speaker 1: so I wouldn't recommend it to people. I think I
Speaker 1: made like forty bucks a week maybe doing that, so uh,
Speaker 1: probably not worth the health risks. Uh yeah. Back to
Speaker 1: the diskind of grocery stores, that's something worth considering, you know,
Speaker 1: if you've got one of those near you, and it's
Speaker 1: worth swinging in every now and then check it out.
Speaker 1: There might be something in there that you're already purchasing
Speaker 1: that you can get for a lot cheaper. What you
Speaker 1: want to avoid is going in there though, and feeling like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is such a great deal. Ended up buying a
Speaker 1: bunch of processed food or a bunch of things that
Speaker 1: either don't provide much nutrition or aren't things you would
Speaker 1: normally buy, they're just kind of snack foods. And then
Speaker 1: what's gonna end up happening is you're just gonna end
Speaker 1: up with way more food than you actually need at home,
Speaker 1: just because you kind of got sucked into the it's
Speaker 1: on sale mentality. Yeah. Completely, I was gonna say, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, the first thing you talked about, matt uh
Speaker 1: was that you guys do very few processed foods. And
Speaker 1: I think for let's say, you know, cereal in the morning,
Speaker 1: it seems like it's cheap, right, but it's also not
Speaker 1: very filling, And so you have the milk in the
Speaker 1: cereal and a cup of coffee, and it seems like
Speaker 1: that's a pretty inexpensive breakfast, and like one hour later
Speaker 1: you're starving exactly. Yeah, And so it's not like very filling.
Speaker 1: And if you can do a couple of eggs, you're
Speaker 1: probably doing it even cheaper, but you're also actually filling
Speaker 1: yourself up more for the day, so you're you're eating
Speaker 1: more nutritious food that's actually gonna leave you with that
Speaker 1: feeling that you actually ate breakfast as opposed to the
Speaker 1: cereal which will dissipate in a matter of a Now,
Speaker 1: sugar puffs, dude, we can We can hardly even do
Speaker 1: granola anymore, like like real nice hearty granola with like
Speaker 1: the all the good flax seeds and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: with oates plus like some Greek yogurt even that. For us,
Speaker 1: Kit and I both look at each other like around
Speaker 1: to thirty and we're just like, I'm hungry. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: like if we if we go into a breakfast like that,
Speaker 1: we know that we have to have some nuts or
Speaker 1: something mid morning to kind of fill us up because
Speaker 1: I don't know why it is, but eggs, you know,
Speaker 1: Like for us, it's eggs in the morning. It just
Speaker 1: kind of sticks to the bones and gets us to lunch.
Speaker 1: Yeah to me too, they're they're the best. They taste
Speaker 1: the best. Uh So Okay. Another way to save money
Speaker 1: on your grocery bill, to cut that grocery bill like crazy,
Speaker 1: is to stay organized. You have to stick to your list, right,
Speaker 1: and I think it's really important. That's where people get
Speaker 1: let a stray oftentimes in the grocery storemat is that
Speaker 1: maybe they have a list, but you know, they don't
Speaker 1: stick to it very well, or they don't have a list,
Speaker 1: and that's even worse, and they kind of walk in
Speaker 1: a little bit aimlessly, end up stalking a bunch of
Speaker 1: stuff in their cart. And the worst thing to do,
Speaker 1: right is to shop while you're hungry, even if you're
Speaker 1: not starving, right when you go to the grocery store,
Speaker 1: there's something about not having a list or not sticking
Speaker 1: to the list that you're gonna put probably you know,
Speaker 1: some some really expensive or things that will bust your
Speaker 1: grocery bills, some items that will bust that grocery bill
Speaker 1: in your cart, and it's it's gonna sink you come
Speaker 1: budget time. Yeah, that's me. Like if Kate doesn't give
Speaker 1: me explicit directions on exactly what to get and what
Speaker 1: not to get, if she's just like, yeah, go to
Speaker 1: the grocery store and grab a few things and you know,
Speaker 1: look for something like this or something to kind of
Speaker 1: fill this category. I am a huge budget buster because
Speaker 1: I'll see something and I think, oom, candy ginger at
Speaker 1: the farmer's market. That sounds delicious. I love that stuff,
Speaker 1: and then I'd buy it and then Kate's mad at me. Um.
Speaker 1: But for me, because it's less of a discipline that
Speaker 1: I've refined and honed, I'm not as good at doing
Speaker 1: that as Kate. Kate, on the other hand, specifically, what
Speaker 1: she does is she keeps the kitchen inventory list on
Speaker 1: the front of the refrigerator. And I've seen this, right
Speaker 1: this you actually write in marker on your actual refrigerator,
Speaker 1: not on paper. Now, well, that's actually a recent thing.
Speaker 1: She used to keep it on a dryer race board.
Speaker 1: But then she's like, wait a minute, why am I
Speaker 1: not writing directly on my stainless steel refrigerator? And she
Speaker 1: googled it and people are like, yeah, you can write
Speaker 1: with a dryer race marker on the fridge. Now she
Speaker 1: does that, Yeah, I've noticed that recently. Cool. Yeah, this
Speaker 1: is super cool. But she kind of keeps what we
Speaker 1: have in our house, like in her pantry divided up
Speaker 1: into four different categories, so like meats, veged bowls, grain slash, beans, um,
Speaker 1: and then miscellaneous stuff like nuts, are pestoh salso things
Speaker 1: like that. And then when it's time to figure out
Speaker 1: what she wants to make for dinner, she can easily
Speaker 1: scan those lists and then pull together a quick meal
Speaker 1: with what's on hand, you know, and so she doesn't
Speaker 1: feel like that she has much in the house. But
Speaker 1: then she looks at that and realizes, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: I've got tons of food in the house. You know,
Speaker 1: like that feeling where you're just like there's just nothing
Speaker 1: to there's nothing to eat completely, but there are a
Speaker 1: hundred things exactly, and so but she's able to do that,
Speaker 1: and they kind of mash them up and then put
Speaker 1: together pretty damn good meal. If you do that a
Speaker 1: few times and you realize maybe you don't have a
Speaker 1: full meal left, she can look at that and realize, cool,
Speaker 1: if I just go to the store and buy these
Speaker 1: three things, all of a sudden, I've got three more full,
Speaker 1: complete meals. And you're not going back into the store completely,
Speaker 1: just restocking your your pantry or restocking your fridge, which
Speaker 1: keep those three items to create three more meals in
Speaker 1: order to use the rest of the stuff that you
Speaker 1: have already on hand. Exactly, Yeah, exactly, Well that gets
Speaker 1: to another tip to right, So yeah, stay organized, stick
Speaker 1: to your list, but also clean out your pantry regularly.
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of people, yeah, they don't
Speaker 1: do that. Right, so they don't use up what they have,
Speaker 1: and then they kind of add to it and things
Speaker 1: get stuck in the back of the freezer or the
Speaker 1: back of the fridge and then you find it later
Speaker 1: and you're like, it's freezer burnt or man, it's gone bad.
Speaker 1: It's gone bad, and so you you end up wasting
Speaker 1: more food because of that. So cleaning out your pantry
Speaker 1: and finding ways creative ways to kind of make meals
Speaker 1: with what you have on hand before you go back
Speaker 1: to the grocery store, or like what Kate does, right,
Speaker 1: that's a good way of doing it too, where you
Speaker 1: see what you have left and you say, okay, if
Speaker 1: I buy these two or three things, I can end
Speaker 1: up making you know, a few more meals for my
Speaker 1: family without making a full grocery run. And I think
Speaker 1: that's like a really good option that we often in,
Speaker 1: you know, a wealthy country that's used to kind of
Speaker 1: easy access to food. Um, we kind of skip that
Speaker 1: and we go for the let's just go for a
Speaker 1: full grocery run, and then we end up, you know,
Speaker 1: usually wasting a lot of more food and not using
Speaker 1: what we have and busting our grocery bill in the process. Yeah,
Speaker 1: typically in America, that also means just jumping in your
Speaker 1: are and like driving to the store and like waiting
Speaker 1: in traffic, and while you're out, you're also doing these
Speaker 1: other things. I mean, there's something about that. I don't
Speaker 1: even know what to call it, but it kind of
Speaker 1: feels like the equivalent of the rat race, where you
Speaker 1: feel like you need something and so you just jump
Speaker 1: in the car and drive to the store for one thing,
Speaker 1: and then the next day you do the same thing. Dude,
Speaker 1: I hate that sort of approach and that mentality of like, oh,
Speaker 1: let's just run to the store, because not only are
Speaker 1: you screwing up your budget, but you're screwing like your time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: why not just take inventory of what you have, state
Speaker 1: organized know what you have. I mean, the bottom line
Speaker 1: of it is that it keeps you from wasting food
Speaker 1: and you're just more efficient with with everything. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: so if you have a stainless steel fridge like Matt,
Speaker 1: you guys feel free to take out a dry race
Speaker 1: marker and draw all over your fridge. Give it a shot, maybe,
Speaker 1: just like a little mark first, and just to make
Speaker 1: sure that your fridge is cool. Matt's not gonna pay
Speaker 1: for your new fridge if it ruins it, but Joel
Speaker 1: will yeah. So on that note of wasting food, that's
Speaker 1: just another way that you can keep from blowing through
Speaker 1: your your grocery budget and to keep your expenses low.
Speaker 1: We are not strict recipe followers. You can burn through
Speaker 1: a lot of money buying a specific or special cut
Speaker 1: of meat that a recipe calls for. So if you're following,
Speaker 1: you know something that you're like, Okay, I saw this
Speaker 1: in a magazine or I saw this on Instagram, let's
Speaker 1: try it out. I need exactly four boneless, skin less
Speaker 1: chicken breast in order to make yeah, exactly yeah, or
Speaker 1: even something crazier like, oh, I've never purchased skirt steak
Speaker 1: before this calls or skirt steak gotta go to the
Speaker 1: store and buy that one ingredient. And oh, by the way,
Speaker 1: well maybe skirts takes a bad example because it's normally
Speaker 1: pretty cheap, but still it's meat, and something like that
Speaker 1: can completely blow your budget and you're just not allocating
Speaker 1: your grocery budget well. And so for something like that,
Speaker 1: Kate will generally double like the amount of veggies and
Speaker 1: a recipe if she is, you know, following a recipe
Speaker 1: or see something that she's sort of inspired by and
Speaker 1: will either have the amount of meat in it or
Speaker 1: even cut it completely and instead we'll just kind of
Speaker 1: add some beans to to beef it up. And so,
Speaker 1: you know, the extra veggies and the beans are way
Speaker 1: more affordable and also filling as well, and not to
Speaker 1: mention like healthy are and especially if you're comparing it
Speaker 1: to the red meat. Yeah, another way to get better
Speaker 1: at not wasting food, which you know does crush your
Speaker 1: grocery budget, is to eat your leftovers. And eating leftovers
Speaker 1: is great for lunch the next day. Like I love leftovers.
Speaker 1: See I usually like leftovers, but it kind of depends
Speaker 1: on the meal too. I feel like some things are
Speaker 1: better as leftovers others, right, And so we Emily and
Speaker 1: I kind of had to decide, Okay, well, hey, if
Speaker 1: we make this one meal, neither of us really eat
Speaker 1: the leftovers on that, and so it just kind of
Speaker 1: goes to waste. Let's stop making that meal we have
Speaker 1: enough leftovers, or let's make less of it. And so
Speaker 1: there are certain things that we know will gobble up
Speaker 1: when it comes to the leftovers, um, and then there's
Speaker 1: other things we know, you know, we're just probably not
Speaker 1: gonna eat it, and so we've either you know, made
Speaker 1: less for dinner or just stopped eating it all together,
Speaker 1: or just send it my way to because I will
Speaker 1: dispose of that food in my mouth. Done. Buddy will
Speaker 1: start making that happen seriously, Like we joke about it,
Speaker 1: but we call it Daddy Garbage Disposal Service or something
Speaker 1: like that, like like whatever the girls aren't gonna eat,
Speaker 1: it's like, I'm not gonna I take pride in not
Speaker 1: like allowing food to go to waste because I'm like,
Speaker 1: that's calories like that, Yeah, that's energy. Like when you
Speaker 1: think about it from like an energy scientific standpoint, if
Speaker 1: I put that in the trash, I'm throwing away energy.
Speaker 1: I'm literally wasting money and energy, potential energy. And then
Speaker 1: instead I put in my mouth and show it up.
Speaker 1: So I bet you have like kind of like some
Speaker 1: weird food combos on Saturdays when you're eating like leftover
Speaker 1: lunch or something like. Well, no, I'm specifically talking about
Speaker 1: like at the end of the meal, like instead of
Speaker 1: scraping it because if there's just a little bit, you know,
Speaker 1: you don't want to put it in like a tupperware.
Speaker 1: You just most of time people scrape into the trash. Can, well,
Speaker 1: I just eat it. I disticularly remember my dad seriously
Speaker 1: growing up the same thing. He would do something similar. So,
Speaker 1: like every Saturday it was kind of leftovers for lunch,
Speaker 1: right it was leftovers or make a sandwich, and so
Speaker 1: usually you know I wanted something hot for lunch, it's leftovers.
Speaker 1: But my dad would essentially come behind all the rest
Speaker 1: of us who got leftovers, good man, and it was
Speaker 1: like the bottom of all the leftovers. And so he
Speaker 1: would have the smorge board of a play toss it
Speaker 1: in the micro and need to have like eight different
Speaker 1: things for lunch. Yeah, I don't know if I actually
Speaker 1: love it, because I like the flavors, which certainly can't
Speaker 1: be true if you've had a week worth of leftovers.
Speaker 1: But I just love the like the philosophy behind that
Speaker 1: and just not allowing it to go to waste and
Speaker 1: taking pride in the fact that you're just being efficient.
Speaker 1: I've talked about this before. I'm half Asian and half Germans,
Speaker 1: so I think I really prize efficiency, um, and to
Speaker 1: know that like not a crumb from our table is
Speaker 1: going to waste. Yeah, I think you can do it
Speaker 1: too out there listener, like you can you also can
Speaker 1: have you know, one dollar a meal per person grocery budget. Obviously,
Speaker 1: as you're hearing from Matt, it takes a lot of efficiency,
Speaker 1: a lot of dedication, a lot of planning, but you
Speaker 1: two can get there, and that's really cool. So to know, maybe,
Speaker 1: you know what, maybe at this point you're at three
Speaker 1: dollars a person per meal, uh, and to know that
Speaker 1: you can aim for two at least, right, get halfway
Speaker 1: there and then kind of see where you can cut
Speaker 1: from there. Maybe you're not gonna make the leap all
Speaker 1: in one fell swoop and some of these things. Right,
Speaker 1: I'm not as good as as Matt is, of course,
Speaker 1: like I not quite as good at eating leftovers as
Speaker 1: mad is. I'm not quite as good at staying organized
Speaker 1: and sticking to the list. But but we're we're doing better,
Speaker 1: and we you know, Emily and I have made a
Speaker 1: lot of these improvements. But I think for a family four,
Speaker 1: we're still at about six a month, and where you're
Speaker 1: a family of five and you're a four eighty. So
Speaker 1: you know, we're we're trying to do better. And and
Speaker 1: you know what, doing this show with you kind of
Speaker 1: makes me want to redouble our efforts and and see
Speaker 1: if we can slash even a little bit more nice man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I hope that's the case, you know, Like
Speaker 1: I hope it's encouraging and not like oh I could
Speaker 1: never do that or to where it's just sort of discouraging,
Speaker 1: you know. Um, like hopefully it comes across to something
Speaker 1: that's inspiring. And that's the other thing too, is that
Speaker 1: like Kate makes amazing food, Like she makes really delicious food,
Speaker 1: but she and she enjoys it. For her, it's not
Speaker 1: something that she kind of has to do. It's something
Speaker 1: that she is able to look forward to. Uh, it's
Speaker 1: something that she finds creativity and you know, like putting
Speaker 1: together those meals like you've got the four categories on
Speaker 1: the fridge, Like that's that takes creativity and for her,
Speaker 1: she finds a lot of enjoyment in that. And in
Speaker 1: the same way, like when she goes into a grocery store,
Speaker 1: she doesn't have the list because she's been doing this
Speaker 1: long enough. She's kind of you know, she's at like
Speaker 1: the four thousand level class, like she's not doing the
Speaker 1: one on one stuff anymore. But for her, she doesn't
Speaker 1: need a list when she goes in the grocery store.
Speaker 1: She knows like what we eat as a family, the
Speaker 1: things that work, the different items that she knows can
Speaker 1: be used for multiple meals, so that if there is
Speaker 1: some say leftover pasta or something like that, after it
Speaker 1: gets gets them boiling, she can pop that in a
Speaker 1: tupperware and can put that towards another meal that she's
Speaker 1: planning to make later on in the week. Kate is
Speaker 1: geared towards UH slashing the grocery budget, you know, like
Speaker 1: it's it's sort of a natural disposition that she has
Speaker 1: and and for others that may not come as naturally, um,
Speaker 1: but hopefully Yeah, like you said that folks are encouraged
Speaker 1: by this and it's not something that is UH is
Speaker 1: a daunting, huge task. Yeah, I think for people that
Speaker 1: aren't naturally attuned to it, right, And so like Emily
Speaker 1: and I, I will readily admit we're not natural. We
Speaker 1: don't naturally gravitate towards crushing a grocery bill. Um. We've
Speaker 1: gotten better at it through the years as we work
Speaker 1: and we see kind of how our family functions, and
Speaker 1: we've trimmed our grocery bill also, but we're not naturally
Speaker 1: attuned to it, like like Kate is, and and like
Speaker 1: you said, Kate makes some really really amazing food. So
Speaker 1: you're eating a dollar a meal per person, but the
Speaker 1: food is almost gourmet. Really, oh, it's totally gourmet cooking.
Speaker 1: And Joel has a few more tips to share with
Speaker 1: you all right after this break, All right, Matt, And
Speaker 1: there are a couple of tips that I wanted to
Speaker 1: mention that that I've always been able to stick to.
Speaker 1: So I haven't been quite as good though, you know,
Speaker 1: I kind of just lambasted at Emily and I not
Speaker 1: being nearly as good as you and Kate. But there
Speaker 1: are a couple of things that I've found that we're
Speaker 1: kind of the easy button for us in order to
Speaker 1: have kind of instant savings when it came to um
Speaker 1: our grocery budget. One was when they're deeply discounted items,
Speaker 1: we would stock up on those things. Yeah. Uh. And
Speaker 1: also store brands, right, always always store brands. Yeah. Never
Speaker 1: buying name brands that costs, you know, twice as much
Speaker 1: for no reason. So anytime you can, you can go
Speaker 1: for the generic or store brand. I think you should. Also,
Speaker 1: I think another really good uh think to enter into
Speaker 1: the ecosystem for grocery shopping is some of the stuff
Speaker 1: like Kroger's clicklist. I think for people that have a
Speaker 1: terrible time sticking to their sticking to their list, it's
Speaker 1: actually probably worth the five bucks to sign up for
Speaker 1: Kroger clicklist and have someone bring the groceries out to
Speaker 1: your car, because you're gonna save way more than that
Speaker 1: in the impulse items that you left on the shelf
Speaker 1: and you didn't put into your basket. Yeah. And since
Speaker 1: clicklist kind of puts like the blinders on you, and
Speaker 1: like you don't even present yourself with a temptation to
Speaker 1: buy the snicker Bars ice cream, right, which is what
Speaker 1: I do when I go to the grocery. Can let's
Speaker 1: see that? And I think, how does that caramel never freeze?
Speaker 1: I don't know, I want. Yeah, so you just take
Speaker 1: the temptation away altogether and consider something like the Kroger
Speaker 1: click list. And and there's just things like that are
Speaker 1: being invented all day, every day by these major grocery
Speaker 1: store chains. One thing I would caution people against is
Speaker 1: sites like instat cart. I mean, I think they're really cool,
Speaker 1: they're really neat and sometimes you know, the sign up
Speaker 1: bonuses are great, but then they try to get you hooked.
Speaker 1: And those grocery delivery services can cost you on two fronts.
Speaker 1: The delivery of the groceries costs you a fee, but
Speaker 1: then on top of that, for many of the retailers,
Speaker 1: that companies like instat cart are associated with, the price
Speaker 1: that you see on the site when you're buying the
Speaker 1: item is more expensive than the price of the item
Speaker 1: in the store. And so you know, those moonless skinless
Speaker 1: chicken breast you probably shouldn't be buying anyway, right there
Speaker 1: are three seventy nine a pound versus to seventy nine
Speaker 1: pound in store. You kind of get used to seeing
Speaker 1: that price online and you pay it um. Whereas if
Speaker 1: you're actually going into the store and your price checking
Speaker 1: and you're comparing, you're gonna realize, man, that's really really
Speaker 1: expensive if I'm buying it online and giving it delivered. Um.
Speaker 1: So yeah, those sorts of fees that you're gonna pay
Speaker 1: when you're buying online and having it delivered your home.
Speaker 1: You know, while it might be really really convenient, ultimately
Speaker 1: it's really gonna hurt you when it comes to your
Speaker 1: grocery budget. That's a quick question, to do you guys
Speaker 1: meal plan because I know for a lot of families
Speaker 1: that those are steps that they take to be organized
Speaker 1: about what they're eating for the rest of the week
Speaker 1: so that as not stressful, but also to to be
Speaker 1: you know, to be smart, to be more efficient, and
Speaker 1: to make best use of their time, whether it means
Speaker 1: sort of batch cooking a bunch of stuff on Sundays
Speaker 1: and kind of freezing it or sticking it in the fridge,
Speaker 1: or at least just sort of planning out that what
Speaker 1: the meals are going to be and making sure you
Speaker 1: have the groceries on hand you get you guys do that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we do. Yeah, we don't do the batch cooking necessarily.
Speaker 1: And I think I've seen people do that, and I
Speaker 1: think it's a brilliant strategy, especially if you're okay eating
Speaker 1: the same thing more often, which honestly, for me personally,
Speaker 1: I am. I could eat the same thing every week,
Speaker 1: like the same six things Monday through Saturday and then
Speaker 1: left over Sunday and then go on about the same
Speaker 1: schedule the week the following week. Yeah you're a robot, Yeah,
Speaker 1: pretty much. Uh, But so Emily does a great job
Speaker 1: of planning our meals so we don't have to do
Speaker 1: that and we get a little more more variety culinary
Speaker 1: diversity in our lives. But yeah, so she does a
Speaker 1: great job kind of planning things out, which helps save
Speaker 1: money and helps us, you know, kind of plan what
Speaker 1: we need when it comes to grocery shopping time, and
Speaker 1: then kind of also just make sure that, yeah, we're
Speaker 1: not eating the same thing every week like I would do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean on the same way. I think if if
Speaker 1: the groceries were kind of left up to me, I
Speaker 1: would have a very rigid meal schedule. We can get
Speaker 1: this down to thirty cents a meal. I know it,
Speaker 1: all right, Matt. Back to the beer, Mike from Minnesota
Speaker 1: generously provided Surly Darkness, a Russian Imperial stout that is beastly.
Speaker 1: What's your take? Yeah, man, this is a delicious beer.
Speaker 1: Is just as good as I remember it. Sometimes, when
Speaker 1: it's been a few years since you've had a beer,
Speaker 1: you kind of wonder how it's gonna hold up. There's
Speaker 1: so many new craft beers entering the scene, and it's
Speaker 1: kind of awesome to go back to a solid beer
Speaker 1: like this that you remember being great and you have
Speaker 1: it again several years later and it's still fantastic. So
Speaker 1: I am superstoked that we got to have this again,
Speaker 1: especially since surly isn't something that we can just go
Speaker 1: to the store and buy from our local package store.
Speaker 1: So Mike from Minnesota, thank you so much. We really
Speaker 1: appreciate it. And no joke, next time you're in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: man drinks around us, no doubt. Yeah, it's really interesting.
Speaker 1: I feel like, Uh, I say this about a lot
Speaker 1: of beers. It's also the case for this beer. I
Speaker 1: don't think I've ever had another beer that tasted like this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: little with that kind of hot finish and some of
Speaker 1: those other notes going on inside of the beer. I've
Speaker 1: had Russian Imperial stouts, but they taste completely different from
Speaker 1: this one. And I really enjoy this. I think totally
Speaker 1: put together something that Yeah, it hits a lot of
Speaker 1: kind of flavor notes on your tongue, and I enjoyed
Speaker 1: it. It It was really good. You know, man, something else
Speaker 1: We didn't talk about this earlier too, but we haven't
Speaker 1: talked about going out to eat, and for us, it's
Speaker 1: worth noting that our grocery budget does not include going
Speaker 1: out to eat, uh, does it? For you guys. Know, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we keep that separate as well. So some people lump
Speaker 1: those together and they say this our food budget. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because it's eating at home or it's eating while we're out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that makes sense to a certain degree. But yeah, we're
Speaker 1: the same way. Man. We don't do it because, I mean,
Speaker 1: the way we look at it is that going out
Speaker 1: to eat is fun, it's entertainment, and so we kind
Speaker 1: of we own it at that and so are going
Speaker 1: out to eat money doesn't affect our grocery budget. And
Speaker 1: I think that's the reason that's important, is because you
Speaker 1: can go out to eat for one meal and that
Speaker 1: can completely blow your budget when it comes to groceries end.
Speaker 1: Before you know it, you're just kind of tossing your
Speaker 1: hands up saying we'll forget it, Like, what's it matter
Speaker 1: because I've already blown through a week's worth of food
Speaker 1: going out to this nice dinner. That's a huge reason
Speaker 1: why we keep it separate, and we call it entertainment,
Speaker 1: we call it what it is. Yeah, that's a good thought,
Speaker 1: and uh yeah, people are gonna structure their budgets differently,
Speaker 1: but it's good to know that that's how we structure
Speaker 1: are so that saying how do they do that with
Speaker 1: eating out of the hand, how do they go out
Speaker 1: to eat and how do they afford their beers? Yes,
Speaker 1: that's just good for people to know that we're not
Speaker 1: including going out to eat in this these kind of
Speaker 1: budget parameters for you and I and so you know,
Speaker 1: maybe some people combine those things and they're like, how
Speaker 1: do they get it down to a dollar meal and
Speaker 1: still afford to, you know, go go out to eat,
Speaker 1: even going to Chick fil a, Like that's gonna blow
Speaker 1: your budget, right, But so, yeah, that's something that's separate. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we both have an entertainment budget for our own families
Speaker 1: that that encompasses eating out. But Matt, so, what would
Speaker 1: you say to someone who does enjoy eating out and
Speaker 1: they don't enjoy cooking, right, they don't enjoy you know,
Speaker 1: making meals at home. How in the world can they
Speaker 1: decrease that entertainment budget right and go out to eat
Speaker 1: less and actually start to enjoy maybe or or at
Speaker 1: least get better at sticking to a grocery budget and
Speaker 1: cooking more meals at home it, dude. So what I
Speaker 1: would say then is to focus on this sort of
Speaker 1: easier things to to reduce and cut your your grocery budget.
Speaker 1: The first thing being by very few processed foods, if
Speaker 1: at all possible. This is basically any chips, any crackers,
Speaker 1: any snacks, anything like in the middle of the grocery
Speaker 1: store that's in a cardboard box or a plastic bag.
Speaker 1: You know that's prepackaged and it has a pretty label.
Speaker 1: Does that mean I gotta stop buying cheese it? Yes,
Speaker 1: Jesus are dude. Cheeses are of snack food that provide
Speaker 1: almost no nutritional value that just make you feel like crap.
Speaker 1: I agree to disagree? Yeah, please, you know that you
Speaker 1: know the truth. But yeah, focus on whole foods, like
Speaker 1: real foods like fruits and vegetables and nuts, things that
Speaker 1: actually provide your body with nutrition that will fill you
Speaker 1: up and keep you healthy at the same time. And
Speaker 1: you know the next tip I'm going to mention too,
Speaker 1: which is something I know you have a tough time with.
Speaker 1: But you know that you can save money by not
Speaker 1: eating much meat. Yeah, it's true and you know it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Joel's the cornravore type of guy that wants to I mean,
Speaker 1: if money was not an option and your health was
Speaker 1: not an option, which would you really eat like grill
Speaker 1: meat every single night. Probably Joel is sort of like
Speaker 1: the nick Offerman type when it comes to turf and
Speaker 1: turf baby it comes to his diet. Um, I'm not
Speaker 1: saying that you're nearly as steadily as nick Offerman. Well yeah, no,
Speaker 1: no one, no one could be. But uh, I could
Speaker 1: see you in a nice hearty beard though you want
Speaker 1: to grow a beard out in this winter if my
Speaker 1: genetics would allow it. But yeah, no, for real, eat
Speaker 1: less meat. There's there's lots of other ways that you
Speaker 1: can get protein, whether it be through eggs or nuts
Speaker 1: or or beans, just lots of other things that are
Speaker 1: more affordable, better for the environment, better for your own health,
Speaker 1: look to other sources of protein. And then the next
Speaker 1: thing I would mention too is something that I know
Speaker 1: that you and Emily do. And by the way, you
Speaker 1: guys do an awesome job too. Mentioned y'all's grocery budget,
Speaker 1: which is still well below the national average. So I
Speaker 1: know you're kind of beating up on on you guys,
Speaker 1: but you guys do an awesome job. Yeah, shopping at
Speaker 1: Aldi has helped a bunch, right, So when all the
Speaker 1: kind of came into our neighborhood. It did lower the
Speaker 1: prices I noticed distinctly at other grocery stores, but shopping
Speaker 1: at ALDI still saved us money over shopping at Kroger
Speaker 1: or Public or some of the other you know, traditional
Speaker 1: bigger grocery stores we had around. And I gotta tell you,
Speaker 1: the biggest thing I love about shopping at Aldi two
Speaker 1: is how small it is and that the choices are fewer.
Speaker 1: I'm in and out of all the in less than
Speaker 1: half the time, I swear. Every time in Mt. Kroger,
Speaker 1: I have to ask someone where an item is, and
Speaker 1: and at all the I know where everything is, and
Speaker 1: that's beautiful. But yeah, so shopping at Aldi and UH
Speaker 1: inexpensive farmers markets in your area, just shopping those low
Speaker 1: cost options as opposed to the higher cost grocery stores
Speaker 1: like Whole Foods, Fresh Market, Sprout stuff like that, that's
Speaker 1: just instantly gonna cut your you know, grocery bill by
Speaker 1: a lot without you having the clip coupons or even
Speaker 1: kind of start implementing some of these more advanced tactics
Speaker 1: that MAT's been talking about. That's true, man. But then finally,
Speaker 1: don't waste food, UH specifically eat leftovers. There's nothing wrong
Speaker 1: with leftovers. Yeah, have a day of the week, you know,
Speaker 1: a Saturday or Sunday, where you clean out your fridge
Speaker 1: right so that that stuff doesn't go to waste, and say,
Speaker 1: you know what, we're not going out to eat Saturday night, like,
Speaker 1: this is what we do. We clean out the fridge
Speaker 1: and clean out your pantry from time to time too,
Speaker 1: because you'll find things back in there that can help
Speaker 1: you finish or start a meal that you forgot you
Speaker 1: even had. And so yeah, making sure that you have
Speaker 1: those times that you are specifically dedicating to cleaning out
Speaker 1: your fridge or your pantry. Man, those are really good
Speaker 1: for you know, keeping your grocery costs low and helping
Speaker 1: make sure you actually use the things that you bought. Hey, man,
Speaker 1: I love that left overnight. Doesn't have to be this
Speaker 1: left overnight. There could be pride, like, man, we're gonna
Speaker 1: freaking to eat everything in this cabinet and it's gonna
Speaker 1: be awesome. I will say for us, man, it felt
Speaker 1: so good right that we said, you know what, we
Speaker 1: know that we don't do well with those leftovers. So
Speaker 1: we're either going to make just enough, you know, for
Speaker 1: us to cover dinner or we're gonna not make that
Speaker 1: mean at all. And uh, then we actually started eat
Speaker 1: all of our leftovers and it just it feels really
Speaker 1: good because you're scraping a whole lot less in the trash,
Speaker 1: and you know that that's a crappy feeling, right, you know,
Speaker 1: you feel terrible when you're doing that just as a
Speaker 1: human being, you know, wasting food, knowing kind of the
Speaker 1: plight of so many people around around the world that
Speaker 1: don't have enough food to eat. Um. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: it's good for that reason. And it's good for actually
Speaker 1: making sure that you cut your grocery bill like crazy
Speaker 1: so that you're able to spend your money on things
Speaker 1: that actually matter, dude. And I'll leave us with this
Speaker 1: final statue in the New York Times that was talking
Speaker 1: about how much money that we waste in food, like
Speaker 1: food that goes to waste. Do you even want to
Speaker 1: guess as to how much it is? It's got to
Speaker 1: be depressing. Yeah, it's insane. It's one hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: billion dollars in wasted food a year. Is that not
Speaker 1: the craziest thing ever? Talking about like inefficiencies and just waste.
Speaker 1: And they were talking about how about nine billion of
Speaker 1: that is in dairy products alone, So like, yeah, just milk,
Speaker 1: I'm sure, what's the vast bulk of that. And that
Speaker 1: just makes me sad to think that there's just that
Speaker 1: much food that's getting wasted and just that much energy. Uh.
Speaker 1: And like you said, to know that there's countries around
Speaker 1: the world that just don't have you know, that don't
Speaker 1: have enough food for that reason alone, challenge yourself to
Speaker 1: to not waste food, to find ways to reduce the
Speaker 1: amount that you're spending and ultimately throwing in the trash. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's another good reason to consider as you're
Speaker 1: looking at cutting your grocery bills, because not only is
Speaker 1: it good for your bottom line as a family man,
Speaker 1: it's good for our bottom line as humans, you know, right,
Speaker 1: a continue the cycle of life and make sure that
Speaker 1: we're not wasting better for the whole planet, dude, Yeah,
Speaker 1: no doubt. So thanks for listening everyone. Our home on
Speaker 1: the web is how to money dot com, where we'll
Speaker 1: have show notes up for this episode. And if you
Speaker 1: like what you hear and have found this podcast helpful,
Speaker 1: please let us know. You can give us a review
Speaker 1: on Apple podcast. It helps people out there that are
Speaker 1: interested in personal finance, find this podcast and we really
Speaker 1: appreciate that. So until next week, Best Friends Out, Best
Speaker 1: Friends Out, Man m.