Butchering Your Grocery Bill #635

That would actually probably the opposite thing you want to do if you want to save money on stitch fix, where they just automatically send you clothes and you're tempted into keeping it. And again for some people it's it's a wild splurge, but for most folks, that's not how you're going to save the most money doing it right.

That's right, And by the way, but we want people to take a cleaver to their monthly gross your budget, especially now people just feel the pain and groceries more so, we're gonna talk about give a bunch of suggestions about how to like relieve that pain today, which cleavers, like Chinese cleavers, are totally in. By the way, have you seen kates over at our house. Oh yeah, it looks fancy. I wouldn't know how to use it though. Let me

just use it like a regular chef's knife. But it's just another tool to add to the toolkit, right, It's another tool in the arsenal when it comes to cooking. But this is going to be a great topic because I'll readily admit there are some topics that I know we talk about that we discuss that may not appeal to everyone out there. There are certain things that we discussed that aren't applicable to everybody. That is not the case today. We sometimes talk about real estate investing and

some people be like, dude, snooze fest. I don't care, I'm not going to do that, but everybody not going to be well. And we want to encourage folks to listen to those episodes because I still think that there are some little nuggets of information that you are going to be able to glean from those episodes. But this one is going to be a topic that is most definitely applicable to everyone out there for sure. All Right,

something else, it's applicable to a lot of people. That a site that I've heard about Matt but I just gave it a test this week because I wanted to know, Okay, is this actually a good way to go about saving money on getting something shipped across the country. So there's an Instagram account I followed. They sell mid century furniture and did you buy a fancy piece of furniture? No, I didn't yet, I'm thinking about it. But I was like, they're in North Carolina, and I was like, I don't know.

I'm not gonna go pick this thing up. What's It's just like a barcart. Basically, we have a space that has been sitting empty since we moved in in July, and I've beenactly where you're talking about and looking for some sort of barkart essentially to fill that space, or like a display cabinet. But and I'm looking for something that fits in with the rest of our furniture. And I this, you know, seller on Instagram that I've been following for years posted one and I was like, that's

really reasonably priced and it looks good. But I was like, how can I get someone to bring it to me. I'm not going to drive up there wait for too much money. Where in North Carolina? Maybe we can it's a Nashville, which we should. Dude, Okay, I'd be a good Why would you not want to take it? Give up that to Ashville? I guess it's actually getting it. Could you fit it in your vein? Yeah? Yeah, I can totally fit it into So maybe I should do that. Maybe that's maybe we'll take a road trip the best

way around it. But I was like, okay, what would it cost to have someone bring it here? And they mentioned, hey, we've got this white Glove service reach out to them. The cost is pretty expensive. It was more than the cost of the item I was looking to buy. I was like, ouch, no way, not interested. Not a deal now. But I looked up there's a website called Shipley, and Shipley is basically putting it out for bids to all the people who are are interested in moving the piece

of furniture. First couple of bids were like seven hundred, six hundred, five hundred, and I was like, that's still really really, really really expensive. And by the end of the bid, because everyone's competing against each other, the bids were in the low two's low two hundred dollars to move this thing. And so I'm like, okay, cool. I still haven't pounced. I haven't decided to buy this thing or to have it to you hire someone to ship

it to bring it to me. But I was like, now it's reasonable, So that's kind of cool, and they have like reviews and stuff and I love it. Dude. How do you spell it? Shi Ply Shipley? Yeah. So it's again, not something I've actually used yet except for

an attempt to get these bids. But if you're looking to get something moved across country or at least just even just a couple states Ober, because yeah, you're off the time to go to Ashville or whatever, even though you want to desperately because the beer scene is so good. I think Shipley's kind of a cool site work checking out very cool. Yeah, anytime there is a platform, a website that facilitates a free and open, competitive marketplace like that.

All for that, but let's introduce the beer you and I are going to enjoy during this episode. This is a barrel age sour brown ale. That is I believe it's called Darken. That's you know, it's written in the biggest letters I guess on the label. But this is by upland sour Ales. I assume they only make sour beers, but I'm looking forward to enjoying. I don't think we've ever had a beer by these guys for so definitely

looking forward to this one. And stick around to the end of the episode because that's when we will share our thoughts on it, for sure. But for now, let's get onto the topic of hand. We're talking abo out how to butcher your grocery Bill and Matt, everybody eats food. That is what you need to sustain life. You gotta have water, gotta have food, gotta have air, and so air makes me think of the fact that we all

have to breathe, right. Well, I didn't really realize this until just I don't know, six months ago, until I read a new book. But I didn't realize that we could all breathe better. It had just not really crossed my mind. And then I read this book called Breath, which is aptly titled to Makes Sense by James Nestor,

who's a journalist. He like looked into the science of breathing, and he gave a bunch of tips, and it was just this thoroughly fascinating excursion of something that I thought was basically mundy and boring that there just wasn't much to discuss. But a couple of his main tips from that book were to breathe through your nose, not your mouth. I've heard of that one, apparently, like the conditions of

your nose just make it so much better. Like you get twenty percent more oxygen because of the conditioning that your nose is doing versus just breathing and straight in through your mouth. Right, I'm breathing through my nose, right, I see you look healthier already. The color of my cheeks they're rosie. Yes, it's it's just kind of makes sense, right, Yeah, I guess he goes through this your sinuses and I'm assuming it adds moisture to the air, that's right, warms

it up a little bit. Yeah. So there's a bunch there's like a bunch of different like sciency reasons that breathing through your nose is better than breathing through your mouth. And just like one other quick tip from the book, if you're if you're like I'm not gonna read it, give me the cliff notes. Well, fewer deeper breaths is another way to breathe effectively. It's just because like that it regulates your body because like you just try just

breathing short breath like you're having a panic. Yeah, you're gonna feel bad really quickly. But if you take those I think he said five and a half second in, five and a half second out is kind of the ideal duration of a breath. I love it. Yeah, So all sorts of interesting things to something that you're like, I didn't know there was much to learn on that front, dude. This is like the Huberman lap, kind of stuffed into Like you tell me all these things and I will

start doing them. Well, you're gonna like this book then the rest of my life. If you have you read it, ID be into it. I think we've talked about it before, which is why I think I know some of these things, or maybe I read a summary on it, but I don't think i've actually picked up the actual book. Okay, all right, well, maybe get the audiobook. It's it's not too bad, but after like just a few tweaks, yea, you might be breathing better, living better. But the same

thing is true with groceries. So we've got kind of a basic subject today. But something that I think seems simple on the surface, maybe, but there are a lot of ways to improve your grocery store habits to save more money. Yeah, just like everyone out there that they've got to breathe air, we all have to eat food. And literally, like I was saying earlier, like everyone out there has to buy groceries. This isn't one of those expenses where you're thinking, oh, you know, this isn't an

expense that applies to me. No way, We've all got to eat and we've all probably seen from personal experience, like groceries are the third largest line item in the average person's budget, which means this is a smart place to start working on being more efficient with your dollars. And also inflation. Inflation has also taken a toll on food prices now the Labor Department, so that grocery prices went up by almost twelve percent back in December air

to a year prior. And obviously, you know inflation, it is starting starting to come down. We've seen some encouraging headlines, some encouraging news from the Fed. That being said, it's not happening overnight, and groceries seem to be one of the stickiest sectors where inflation is hanging out, hanging around even longer. So that's just another reason for us to discuss savings techniques on the show today when it comes to food and how you can save money. Yeah, I

saw an article about Whole Foods. They're asking their suppliers to trim costs in order to drive their cost down so they can kind of pass some of those onto the consumer. And it makes sense, especially for one of the more expensive grocery stores like Whole Foods. They're feeling the pinch in a bigger way as people are trying to trim their grocery bill. Go figure, why isn't everybody doing them right well? And Whole Foods is skin for

that nice guy discount. That's one of the things that people kind of instinctively do is they trade down in an environment where costs are rising rapidly, and so Whole Foods, I'm sure of seeing people walk out the door, go down the street to another less expensive grocery store, and so they're saying, hey, guys, can you loader these prices for us, because we got to make sure our customers stick around, right, keep coming, keep going in the store. Yeah,

their customers are going to Trader Joe's trader. Joe's customers are going to Walmart. Smart customers are I don't know where going all the yeah, or at playing a garden in their backyard. But enough about the negative. I think that you know, the truth is that there's there's a joy that we often associate with food. Right. I can still vividly remember Matt meals that I've had on a trip, or even just like cooking something together with my kids at home, like the communal aspect of food that we

can enjoy together. There's there's a clear reason that we're all not just drinking soilent three times a day, like our three square meals are just you know, in some sort of prepackaged through a straw, Right, I mean, because what we eat it goes beyond just nutrition and an attempt to stay alive. Like three soilents a day might get me by, but I'm gonna hate my life by

the end by the end of a week. And making strides with your grocery shopping and your cooking, I think it could lead to two years, even a lifetime of happiness you're able to experience where your meals are enjoyable and what you're paying for groceries is leading to like delicious things? Did you get to enjoy with people that you love? So much of life revolves around the table, right, and like when you think about how how often it is that we do eat, this is something to pay

attention to. And also this makes me think of a recent movie that was out the Menu, which I would not recommend. I don't know. It wasn't that great. I didn't like it either, yea all that much. I thought I would, but I didn't. It was it was weird, I mean, and obviously like not the whole premise of the show, but just the way that they did it. I don't know. I don't want to sitting here in Bash.

My one line review was that the social commentary felt just super basic and if it had been more interesting fell flat. I could have been down with the whole premise didn't. Yeah, there wasn't enough depth. Ye anyway, So one maybe shining point within the movie maybe my favorite part. One of the main characters. He's like a foodie and

he's just talking. He's kind of like waxing poetic about food or specifically too about chefs, and he's talking about how so many people were up or pay a lot attention to athletes, and he's like, well, and they're just down there playing with a rubber ball. It's it's really dumb. Whereas chefs, they're working with the actual elements of life and he's just talking about why he's so into food and that part of that. Actually it kind of resonated with me, not to the extent that it does with him.

Like where you are looking to, you know, drop like a you know, twelve thousand dollars on a single meal, that kind of thing. But when you recognize truly how central food is to our lives, there are some steps I think that we can take in order to make it more pleasurable in order, like you said, to garner some more joy from it. And one of the ways that hopefully you can begin to see meals that's something you know that brings you joy as opposed to just seeing it as a chore is by learning how to

cook better. Nobody likes doing something that they're not good at. But you're also going to be able to save money by increasing your kitchen skills. And so if we're talking about your holistic food budget, you're less likely to go out to eat and you're more likely going to opt for eating in, which is going to be far less expensive, and so we would recommend for folks to find ways to increase some of those different skills that they might have.

Early on, Kate and I we took some cooking classes actually here in Atlanta, some affordable cooking classes, which was a It was a ton of fun. We actually did it for like a couple of dates. But also we were able to formally learn some of the techniques that you would regularly put to use in a kitchen. But even before that, so that was after maybe we've been

married for like a few years or something like that. Well, right after we got married, we hadn't launched our business yet, and she didn't have a job, so she was just hanging out at home. And this is when she watched a lot of the Food Network. And no joke, she literally credits watching folks cook on TV with her ability to just sort of where she is now. I mean, she's over the years, she's about her day guy Fiet.

Everybody says that back then, I think it was it was Rachel Ray and her hair looks just like his. Oh my god, if she's got the shades as well. I love it, but no joke. I mean it's one thing to like look up a recipe online, but like,

how is it that you actually execute that recipe? And that's when I think, whether it be affordable cooking classes or but just literally watching something on TV and seeing how they cut, seeing how they blanch vegetables, just all all the different techniques that you might be able to read about, but when you can see somebody doing it, I think that can oftentimes help. And now she just honestly she follows a lot of folks on social media

as well. I mean, just like anything in life, just learning a couple of techniques can help you enjoy the thing more. Like I played disc golf, not as much as i'd like to, probably three or four times a year. I wish I went once a month, But it's one of those things where you just learn a couple of basic mechanics of throwing the disc and if you try to throw it like a frisbee and you're just annoyed, you're just angry because like I have to it takes

me twenty throws to get it to the pin. But if you do, it's just certain way that he had to do it. Learn a couple of specific techniques. You're like, okay, cool, it took me four or five throws and to get to the pin instead of instead of twenty, and that just makes it way more enjoyable exactly. But then regarding what to actually make, of course, you're going to want to make some inexpensive meals, and so we suggest following some of the folks that we've had on the show.

I'm specifically thinking of Beth Mansell from Budget Bites as well as Leanne Brown, she wrote the Good and Cheap Cookbook. They both prioritize cooking healthy, tasty food without breaking the bank. And we'll make sure to link to those interviews where we have those ladies on for sure. Yeah, and Matt, I'll readily admit I'm no kitchen expert, like there's room for growth for me, right, but I've grown, i would say, in my ability to cook for our family, and it's

like learning those disc golf techniques. It's rewarding to kind of make progress in that area. But I think one thing that might help if you feel like a complete kitchen novice is to check out meal delivery kits. And they're not the best option for saving money on groceries, and whether or not you should try one of these services really depends on how much you're currently spending on when it comes to food and how good in the

kitchen you actually are. But services like Blue Apron, they might be a smart decision, particularly for the novice home chef, and it could be like a happy medium for a lot of people. It has been for us at different seasons in our life, depending on how busy we are, and Emily really likes using these services. We don't use them regularly, but when we get a discount or something, we'll go back to them and test them out again.

And I think largely a good reason to test these outis because it could be kind of like a gateway drug, leading you back towards home cooking and eating out less. Signing up for these kits in perpetuity is probably going to be a budgetbuster at getting three or four of these every single week, but using them to get you back in the kitchen at least totally and then weaning yourself back to meal planning and grocery store shopping in a smart way that could be a good plan for

a lot of people. I think, yeah, absolutely so. This reminds me of a listener who wrote in and he was talking about how him I think him and his wife, I think they're empty nesters. But he was pointing out how this was something that they did that was fun and it allowed them to do something together, but it also introduced them to just some different foods, like different meals that they otherwise would never have thought to pursue. Look up how to make this thing, and it's not

just delivered directly to them and tells them. You know, they've got all the pre measured ingredients, they've got all the instructions, and all of a sudden they're eating something that they would never have otherwise eaten. It's not just a friend passing on a recipe. It's literally all the pre measured stuff that goes with it. And so it makes it kind of like, yeah, fun thing to attempt. But again, it can be expensive if that's your go

to every single week. But I think it can be kind of like a paint by numbers for a lot of people who are like I kinda want to get into painting, that's a good place maybe to start. Well, And I love again what you said about it being fun, because we do things that are fun to us. If something is fun, it doesn't matter if it necessarily is going to save you money, you will continue to do

that thing. And so by tricking yourself back into the kitchen where you're cooking more, you're intentionally cultivating the joy of cooking. Yeah, right, Julia Child. And not to mention, like you said, over time you win yourself off of that and all of a sudden you have built up this joy for cooking food. Yeah, And all the while you're likely going to be able to save money. Now

you just like being in the kitchen. Yes, that matters a lot if it's something that you're going to continue to do right, it's the it's the psychology of cooking right and trigging yourself into some of the different ways, which how many personal finance nerds to talk about the

psychology if the kitchen. You and I we are doing it more and more because I think we've realized how important it is not to just know the steps to take, but how important it is to approach something with a certain mental state and based on how it is that we actually live our lives. Yes, yeah, exactly. You could talk about theoretically the best things to do, but if that's not what people want to do. We need to

give practice. Practical advice is necessary. And I think this is one of those things where it's like a lot of personal finance X works would be like those medal kids are way more expensive than shove to the grocery store. And and it's true, like that is true. But what's going to get you back in the kitchen over the long term, just like what's going to get you working out over the long term is it is it the

most efficient, best three hour workout now? And so you got to find the thing that's gonna let you show up and continue to do the thing day after day. Exactly. It's it's not just about winning this one battle. We're here to like win the overall war. And so like we're not just focused on what it is that you're going to spend on groceries the last week in February. We're talking about how much you're gonna spend groceries over

the course of the year. Yes, and I guess so far we've essentially made a case for why it is that you should be paying more attention to your groceries. But we're gonna get to some practical tips on how it is that you can butcher your grocery bill. And we'll get to some of those right after this. All right, Matt, let's keep going. Let's talk about butchering your grocery bill. It makes me think of Sam the butcher from The Brady Bunch. I thought you're gonna say butcher Bill from Oh,

that'd be a good one too, gangs in New York. Yeah, yes, that was a good one. Some good butchers in classic American film and TV history. But you know, we were just talking about recipes before the break and how it might make sense to order a meal kit to help you out. But one of the advantages of going with a recipe is that you can plan and buy your

groceries in a very precise way. You're also not following a recipe for every single meal that you're making at home today, right there's something that you're just going from memory. A lot of things I cook or the same seven or eight things I cook every time. I don't have this wide arrange, and I'm not always testing out new things, although you know that's something I hope to do more

over time. But there's a lot of things that you're doing on the fly and The same thing is true when it comes to setting up a realistic budget, which is an important part of butchering that grocery bill and lowering your grocery costs. There's a learning curve and you're likely to get better over time. And so when it comes to budgeting, we don't necessarily once you just spend what you spent last month. Depends on how thoughtful you

are about grocery purchases last month, I guess. But it's crucial to know how much money you spent on groceries in February so that it can at least inform your March budget and you can take a realistic approach. Right, you can put a line item in your budget for groceries that is absurd that you'll never hit. You can say, I'm a family is six, We're going to spend two hundred and twenty dollars on groceries, and that is just

setting yourself up for failure. Right, Well, what use is that really of coming up with a number that you're you're never going to be able to actually meet, or less, you just really like the feeling of defeat, right, Yes, so we would suggest using previous numbers to help you come up with an attainable dollar amount to shoot for, But at the same time, you'll probably want to use that number and then challenge yourself to improve upon previous spending levels two in order to free up more cash

for other goals that shop got. That's the whole point of saving money at the grocery store. So you can take extra dollars that you were putting towards feeding your family and funnel them towards more exciting, more fun areas. Yeah, even feeding your family in the future by investing those dollars. Yeah. But so maybe you're thinking, well, I have no clue how much I should be spending on groceries. I can

see what I have spent. But if that is you, a decent rule of thumb is to not spend more than ten percent of your take home pay on groceries. So let's say you make a round one hundred thousand dollars a year, So after taxes and withholding you you're taking home a little less than seventy five thousand dollars depending on your eight but meaning your monthly take home pay is around six thousand dollars. So that means it's a good goal to try and spend no more than

six hundred dollars a month on groceries. If you are spending more than that, or you know, maybe you are spending a little more than you want to, then we would recommend to work on reducing that amount. Don't do it all at once, but look at doing that over like two or three months, instead of just doing it instantaneously like you're flipping a light switch now, Because again we're trying to be realistic here and we want you

to implement changes that are going to actually stick. We don't want you to feel the sting of defeat yet again. So another way to help keep you on track then is to split up that monthly budget amount just into those equal installments for each trip. So again, if you have a six hundred grocery budget per month, so let's say you hit up the store once a week, well we're talking about one hundred and fifty bucks. One hundred and fifty dollars like that is roughly what you should

be spending each time. And so we're taking that large, larger amount six hundred dollars, and we're breaking it down it's a smaller, more manageable amounts of money. In particular, that are anchored to time, that are anchored to each week, because I think for a lot of people, they might say six hundred bucks, that's my grocery budget for the month.

They go at the very beginning of March, they drop three fifty because they buy some stuff they wouldn't normally otherwise have gotten, and then they find themselves towards the end of the month like, holy crap, how am I going to keep this under wraps? Because but if you think about it as one hundred and fifty dollars per trip that you make, you're more likely to actually hit

the goal that you set. You're more you're more likely to keep your spending in check because you've brought it down to an even more bite size, more manageable spend amount, right right, Yeah, you're pacing yourself. Yeah, okay, And so I think meal planning is something else that needs to be mentioned, but not I think budgeting is massively helpful, and I think that rule of thumb is going to help a lot of folks make more sense of their grocery budget and at least kind of see cool, what

are we spending of our take on pay? Oh? Fifteen percent? Okay, well we can get it down into ten percent through some of the tips and tricks that Matt and Joel talked about. But while we're discussing like a weekly strategy, it's a good idea to plan your meals in advance too. You know, pick a time each week where you're gonna spend I don't know, like thirty minutes or so thinking about the meals for the week, for the family or for you as an individual, and what they're going to be.

You know, knowing what you're going to be eating helps you make a grocery list, and sticking to the list is one of the best ways to make sure you don't overdo it and spend too much at the store. So yeah, consider making extra two, I'd say, but only if you're actually going to eat it. Matt is the leftover king. I don't know anyone who left love leftovers

more than Matt. I don't know if I love them because I know they saved me money and so I you know, like when you have something that's associated with something else that you like, you like that thing, Yeah, you like it even more of that one exactly. It's sort of like we're talking about cooking earlier, Like if you can trick yourself into doing something that will ultimately

save you money. Well, it's like win win. Yeah. I don't know if I like actually like leftovers because I've convinced myself that they taste better because I know that I'm saving myself money, or if actually the flavors melt together and better. Yeah, after being in the fridge for an as things that you know where that's the case. Obviously not some things like French fries, but other things like a lasagna. I left over French fries is just

the worst, the worst. Yeah, But I think like meal plans and planning for leftovers and then planning how to use and eat those leftovers is smart. And a lot of people will like make everything on a Sunday and then they'll put it in the freezer. They'll freeze breakfast literally at like breakfast burritos or something like that, pull them out every single morning, heat them up, and then it's like boom. I don't even have to think about it,

already made it. And I also know that I'm not going to be stopping to get fast food on the way to work because I planned my meals and I had it ready in advance, so I think meal planning makes a lot of sense, but you just also have to like have a plan to eat the stuff that you're making too, if you're making extra that's right man. Yeah, So that's enough about planning, right, Let's get more tactical with it. Listen, envision that you're there in the grocery store.

What about sales? I'd like you're about to say. So, I was just thinking. You said, envision you're in the grocery store, and I was like, what if there was like a metaverse app where you could put yourself in an aldi. I mean, that's ideal. I'd consider going of the metaverse for that. I've not been interested in the metaverse until I just thought of that pot. So let's but for real, though, if if you are at the grocery story, do you see a sale, do you take

advantage of that sale or not? Well, I like the idea of making a little bit of wiggle room for some incredibly discounted food within your budget. So, for instance, getting that pork shoulder when it's been marked down to a dollar per pound that is when you pounce sounds like a recent example out of You're like that something I did recently bought two of those jokers, smoked them both. Even though it wasn't necessarily planning on buying one that day,

the price necessitated it. But just make sure that you aren't using a big time sale like a manager special to justify a purchase that you shouldn't make. Well, in this case, it sounds like the parkness it forced your hand on this, right, I had no choice? Yeah, No, Like you definitely don't want to make a purchase that fits that that doesn't fit within how it is that you approach your groceries, right, Like it needs to fit

within your your general grocery buying. Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of people might walk through the grocery shore and then they walk through the chip bio and they're like, thirty cents off to ritos. Okay, I guess I'll sale, I'll toss it in. And there's a lot of like fake sales that go on in a lot of retailers, right, and so it's just as if they're cool range or not. It repeat. His joke is like, oh yeah, that electric the electric tingle, It's like sticking

your tongue to a nine volt battery. It's so good, which is true. How do you resist? Cool range to ritos are delightful, but they're also really expensive, and they're and they're terrible, and they're terrible for you, and they're the kind of thing that's gonna, you know, bust your

grocery budget. And it's not it's you know, if you like the nine bolt battery tingle of a cool range torito from time to time, but put it on your list once a month or something like that, that's fine, Like you deserve you treat yourself every now and again. But I think a lot of people are prone to do it in the moment just because there's a minor discount or minor sale. But when you're talking like a

dollar pound for part shoulder, that's that's different. Now, that's like that's a lot of meals from you know, one one one by right there. Totally. Yeah, even if it wasn't on the list, I think it makes sense to hop on it. Well, sure, And that's a basic proach that you can then incorporate into other meals. And again, some folks don't cook this way, but if you know that you've got a couple containers of pulled pork in your fridge, the ability to then use that. Oh all right,

let's make some barbecue sandwiches. Oh okay, let's let's make some fried rice O Tuesday. Let's take that meat and incorporate it into a pazzole. That's literally something. These are all meals that I've our family made last week. And so when something like that comes along and it's got legs right that you can then apply to other meals.

That's something you want to pounce off. Yeah, okay. So one other thing I think they can help when you are buying something like a pork shoulder, which just because it's on discount, is if you have a deep freezer, and that's yeah. Like, one of the biggest problems when you're when you're stocking up or something like that because of a sale is when groceries are are perishable. That can make it more difficult to do that, right. So, non perishable is buying extra cans of something that you

know you're going to use because it's on sale. Oh hey, soup is half price, boom, let me get a couple of extra those. That's fine. But when you're talking about things that are parish, it's harder to justify that. But I think a deep freezer can make that more justifiable because you then you haven't wasted money. I completely wasted money. I'm buying the thing and not using which would be the absolute worst. There's nothing that gets get under my skin.

Is like an ingredient that we haven't used, in particular live vegetables, right Like, you got that produce and sometimes it starts getting slimy and you have to freak and toss it. I hate that. There's nothing that strikes out my heart more than taking food that we've purchased with our own money and we just didn't have a chance, or we chose not to use that vegetable and something

and I got to toss in the trash. Well, eating and not wasting what you buy is one of the biggest biggest ways to save money too, because such a huge percentage of our grocery bill goes to stuff that we throw in the trash, which is a crying shame. So we do have to get better at at that. But I think the like the freezer. A lot of us think that's where we just put the ice cream or something like that. But depending on the size of your family, how you shop, what you eat, and the

amount of space in your house. You know, getting a deep freezer might pay off in the long run. For example, Matt, my my father in law, he buys like half a cow at a time. Yeah, and so it's chopped up into all these different ways. But the price per pound is I want to say, he said, like three dollars a pound, which is insane because that's what you pay just for ground beef. And he's getting steaks and roasts and stuff like that out of it. The yeah, but

he had to buy the whole rack of ribis sure. Well, sure, but he had to buy a deep freeze in order to make that makes sense. And so for some folks, spending money on a deep freeze can actually pay off in the long runs. Or you're making a case for me wanting a deep freeze right now. But let's talk about coupons, and generally speaking, Joel, you and I were

both in agreement that coupons are overrated. The typical family, they save somewhere between five to nine dollars a week using coupons, and depending on how much you're spending on groceries every week, this could be chump change or it could actually be a meaningful amount of money. But just make sure that you're thinking about the overall ROI before

you go coupon crazy. Right, Like, it's possible to be penny wise and pound foolish here just by hunting and clipping actual physical coupons when the savings that they'll net you they may not necessarily be worth the time Kuponi. It might make sense for some folks out there, but others should probably spend that time focused on more important aspects of their money. Some stores out there that you know,

they've got apps that make it easy. Certainly make sure that you're a part of their loyalty program, give them that phone number if they've got that program, if they've got that as an option. And also check out the site flip dot com. That's flipp dot com, but they it's a it's a site, man. I love aggregate sites that bring together all bits of information that you would

normally have to kind of go scouring for. But they combine all the different circulars that the different grocery stores have, so you can see what is going to be marked down, what's going to be on clearance, what's going to be on sale. It's easy to kind of plot your plan of attack for where you're going to go shopping that week based on sale flyers by looking at Flip as opposed to waiting for this Sunday actual print section to come out. Flips really cool to makes it easy. Well,

and Matt, I don't really I'm with you. I'm against cuponing as well. I use coupons when they're easy, and Kroger. When I go to Kroger for some of the things that I can't get it all to your costco, I use Kroger cupons because the digital coupons are pretty simple and they send actual cuponds and stuff that I typically

buy directly to my house. It's literally based on things that I bought in the past, and they say, here's sixty percent off a thing of spinach because you buy spinach here sometimes, so that kind of stuff is I'll use those coupons when it's low hanging fruit. But I'm not like searching the internet for cupons because I think for most people that's a waste of time. Kroger's They've actually got a pretty decent app as well that you

can keep on your phone. Yeah, so I think it's helpful to ye have that app for the stores that you're most loyal to. I have the Legal app on my phone as well because sometimes I get discounts there. And speaking of Leetle, I think where you shop, it's probably one of the biggest difference makers when it comes to butchering your grocery budget. And Leedle and Aldi we talked about them all time because they're two of the best nationwide discount grocery chains that you can shop at.

Trader Joe's are a lovely, slightly more expensive alternative, but like if you have one of those three close to you, you're going to save money by going there. And these stores they don't even have to play the coupon game. They don't really get into it at all, largely because their prices are so incredibly low already. But just changing this one part of the grocery equation in your life, you could claw back a huge percentage of your grocery

budget seemingly overnight. And even when you compare a list of basic items between Aldi and Walmart, Walmart, which prides themselves on low prices, they're known for low prices. If you compare Walmart to Aldi, Aldi wins by a landslide. Even still, yeah, even still, even though Walmart is cheaper than a lot of the alternatives. All they's cheaper than them, And it wouldn't be outrageous to see something like a twenty percent reduction and what you're spending each month just

by doing this one thing. And if you're shopping at Whole Foods, you're going to see an even bigger discount in what you're spending if you moved to Aldi, Yes, right, but simultaneously there might be some items that you can't get at Aldi that you would you know that you might have to go to Walmart. Four But you mentioned twenty percent, dude. Back when we before the Aldi near us had opened up, we were doing like the majority

of our grocery shopping at Kroger. And once we started shopping at Aldi, literally overnight, we saw a thirty percent reduction in our grocery budgets. Like it literally felt like magic because we weren't even necessarily trying to reduce how much we were spending. We just switched where it was that we were shopping. We saw a massive decline. That's like it really is like the easiest thing to do. There's all these little ways. It really eat around the edges.

It's the easy button. But that's the easy button to save the because it is. But we were kind of talking about Walmart and how they certainly have more options than Aldi. The trade offs of stores like letal like Aldi are that you're going to have fewer options and so ins. Instead of their being like eighty two ketchup bottles that you can you can pick from, you're going to only have like one, maybe two if you're lucky, And we actually kind of see this as a plus.

But also, your grocery trips are going to be shorter just because of the food print of these stores are going to be smaller, and you're not gonna have to spend as much time comparing the unit prices between all those different varieties of this you know, exact same thing. And you know, we get that this is not for everyone out there, but if you haven't tried some of the discount grocery stores like Aldi, like Leedle, and you are looking to trim your grocery budget, then you have

got to at least give us one a shot. Yeah, So not only are you gonna save money at those discount grocers, but also you're gonna spend less time, which sounds nice too. And plagues out In reality, man, my trips to Leedle are quicker, although in all these the little parts for the kids and so I did take a little longer. Letals are bigger, dude, like leaders are twice as I bet on average. If there's any sort of research out there, the size of still much smaller

than Kroger, way smaller than Costco. But I mean I used to pride myself and being able to literally get in and out of an Aldi with a thing of milk and eggs in like ninety secs because they're just they're so quick at the register and it's so easy to get back there to the cool they really are. I will say that all the people are working, all are incredible. They know what I want. They have fewer people, they get out of there as fast as possible, but they pay them more and they like they crush it

so well. Okay, something else though on that front, like it's not just a major discount, so you can check out there are also like smaller independent discount stores and you can find one near you at a site like buy Salvage food dot com and Matt there's one thirty minutes from us. I haven't been there yet because it's

thirty minutes from us. It's not four minutes away like the grocery store I typically go to, but it's it's one that I want to go to because they're they're selling kind of salvage dented, secondhand food items, but it's still good food and they're selling it for a whole lot less. And yeah, so we'll put a link to that one in the show notes. But it's one that you can totally check, like check out find if there's

one within five or ten minutes of you. It might save you a ton of money by going to one of these stores that's not doesn't have a nationally recognized name, but you can you know they've got great prices that are gonna save you money. Misfit Market is kind of the modern version of these independent discount stores as well. You know that you would find on that by Salvage website. They've got lots of organic items as well. I just

signed up. I'm gonna give this one a chance. I've I've never given it ago yet, but like it's basically giving you access to nice foods and a discount that they will shift directly to your door. Very cool, and if you are not interested in the mega discounters or in trying a new service like that. Don't forget about one of the easiest ways to save at the grocery store, which is buying store brands. Name brand items are going

to crush your grocery bild most of the time. Trader Joe's and Costco they have some of the best store brands in my opinion. I feel like Trader Joe's in particularly, they've got they've got certain items that have a cult light follow. Yeah, although did you do we talk about the lead and cadmium and Dart chocolate, we haven't some of the Trader Joe's dark chocolates are on the list of like high Well, it's a lot of the dark chocolates, right, it is, But maybe we'll link to that story as well.

But there are some certainly some ones out there that are a little bit safer if you like to eat a little bit of Dart chocolate every day. It's funny because you talk about how like there's certain things like dark chocolate that are good for your health. They got those flavonoids and all that kind of action going on, But you can't. You never want to overdo it in any one area before it like turns around and like bites. You know, by the way, flavonoids totally sounds like a

word you just made up. Maybe I did. I'm pretty sure that's a real word. But we're talking about name brands and data from Consumer Reports they say that store brands cost between five and seventy two percent less than their name brand counterparts. And actually when Consumer Reports, when they ran a taste test, they found that seventy six percent of store brand products tasted just as good as

the name brand. So we wanted to mention that because maybe you're you're being name brand loyal for no reason. And while we're talking about some of these different stores as well, I want to give Costco a little more love since, in particular for our family, there are latest store that is certainly getting more of our dollars. But

the ability to buy bulk is huge. And when you're used to buying small packs of stuff at some stores, but then you can go to a store like Costco and buy a massive, double or triple pack of something, there is serious savings involved there, whether it's chicken thighs or whether it's like a giant thing of rice, or giant thing of oil. But what's key, and this kind of speaks to like the waist side of things. What's key is to when you get home to break those

things down. And so if we're talking like we're talking about chicken thighs, like literally take them out of the packaging and just go ahead and package of those into like ziplock bags of portion sizes that you know that you will typically cook with same thing with like oil, because like at Costco they got like that, I don't know, it's like a gallon and a half container thing of olive oil. And you think, how the heck am I

supposed to cook with that? Well, you don't. You take that home and fill up your little small oil bottle that you keep next to your stove, and you're gonna fry up some eggs. There are things like you buy a bulk in order to save, but then you break it down in order to actually use those things and not let them go to waste. Ye no, I like that, all right, Matt. We've got more grocery store saving tips that we want to get to, including like apps they

can help be saved. We'll talk about that. And there are a couple others will get to as well. We'll get to those right for this all right, we are still talking about some of the different ways that you can butcher your grocery bill. Joel, do you do you think that folks are getting hungry as we're sitting here talking about all the different kind of money. They probably want to taste your like pork and panatas or whatever it was that you were making fizzole. It's like Mexican soup.

But let's kind of tackle some I guess some of these more actionable practical tips that we've got for folks in order to reduce the grocery bild, and one of those is to avoid processed foods. The old maximum of shopping around the periphery of the grocery store is pretty accurate because that is where you're gonna find fruits and veggies. That's what we're gonna find the meat and the eggs,

the milk. Right, Like, what we're talking about here is real foods as opposed to potato chips, the cookies, candy, pre prepared foods. And I'm saying those totinos pizzas aren't good for me, Matt. They don't count, man, And those often aren't going to be as good for you right or as feeling, and so we want to encourage folks to eat real foods whenever you can. You are your own person, so you can eat whatever you want. We're not your mom. But by eating eating these whole real foods,

it's going to be better for you. It's gonna help your waistline, it'll help your like what you're spending on groceries as well, not just processed foods, but the ability to avoid processed drinks as well. I think that's an area where a lot of folks can say of like juices and spending money on coke sunny d These are I mean, for one, they're empty calories, but too like man, those things, these things are loaded with sugar, and you don't necessarily need to be spending your money on that. Again,

you are you're You're an adult. You do what you want to do. And I know this is coming from the dude who likes They always hear me talking about how my beer, Oh I should have had a little more sugar. Yeah, I get it, like I like things to be a little bit sweet, but I'm owning it, you know, Like craft beer, it's my craft beer equivalent. Right, I'm willing to spend money that isn't necessarily helping my

health because I really enjoy ways. If you really love sunny dijol, you buy that sunny d but don't think you're necessarily buying groceries with it. I'm sure. Yeah, yeah, those are the kind of expenditures you're right, that are. It's you're getting calories, but you're not necessarily getting the

good kind, getting the feeling stuff exactly. Well. On that note, like should people buy organics, I think that's another question that people have because organics are certainly more expensive, and different folks have different priorities on this front too, So we're not trying to be uber prescriptive here, but the price gap between organics and non it often depends on this specific item, right, Because organic eggs, they're not much more than regular ones at costco organic milk, it feels

like it's like twice as expensive, if not more, it's

a bit more. So, Yeah, it depends on what your priorities are, and you might say, yeah, cool, I'm like me, I don't mind spending a dollar more for the organic eggs, but I'm not going to spend six dollars more for the organic milk, and so yeah, this is another example of how where you shop play such a massive role in how much you spend because Walmart is the largest organic retailer in existence, and their prices are going to be much more afford then a whole Foods, for example.

But you know, we can all make different trade offs at different stages of our lives as we have different amounts of disposable income specifically to spend on food. And for some you might prioritize cost over everything else, so you might say no to organic at every turn. But there are ways to buy affordable organic products too. I think that deserves to be mentioned. And there are a lot of people who just prioritize that strongly for like

everything they buy. And there are other people who say, I'm gonna pick and choose the organics I want to bring into my life. But I think it's possible to do the organic thing without completely breaking your budget. That's right, Yeah, Costco that's where you buy your organic toilet paper, only the finale for your tush. Another tip is we would

recommend for folks to use the right credit card. We've recently talked about this, but the American Express Blue Cash Preferred will snag you six percent cash back at the grocery store on up to six thousand dollars of expenses a year. And man, speaking of all d again, when they started taking credit cards a few years back, the choir of angels we're singing it might still remember that day.

It was such a big stinking deal because, like, that's an extra six percent I'm saving on all groceries from here on out. It was the only place I was using my stupid debit card. Yes, every single it was like literally the only place I used a debit card too. I don't think I've pulled that thing out ever since. But being able to shop with this card is going to mean that they're already low prices. If you use that card, they're going to get six percent better overnight,

like instantly. But of course, only use this card or any credit card, like we discussed last week, if you can pay that bill off on time and in full every month. But if we're talking about easy ways to save more money on groceries, this is certainly one of them. And you can get the annual fee wave for the first year right now. In addition to that, two hundred and fifty dollars sign up Bonus will make sure to link to that card in the show notes for this episode,

for sure. That's the one that both of us use weekly, for sure. Yeah, and okay, so what about apps that help you save two And we've talked about the actual proprietary apps that the grocery stores have themselves. Almost every grocery store has their own app, and you can download that and find ways to save there, which I think is good. When you buy into their ecosystem, they offer you extra perks, and that's great. You should totally do that. But there are other third party apps that are worth

considering too. Flash Food is a new one, at least one that I hadn't heard of until recently, that offers significant discounts, at least in some parts of the country for buying items from grocery stores that are just about to expire. So that's kind of cool. You're kind of preventing something from going into the landfill, and you're getting a sweet discount at the same time. I like that one. I look to see if it was available here near where we live. Matt sadly no, but maybe soon, maybe soon.

But Ibota is probably one of the best known apps that will earn you cash back for taking a picture of your receipt after you check out. You gotta jump through a couple of hoops. But these can be kind of like, you know, the coupons we talked about earlier. They might be easier than going out there and pecking and hunting for coupons to use at the grocery store, but they also might not be worth the hassle. But

it's at least worth looking into. You know, some people swear by apps like I boughta and they say they save they get tough to cash back just by kind of doing the shopping they normally do. But so much really comes down to you, how you shop and how annoyed you get by these apps trying to like having to constantly interact with them. That's true. All right. Let's get to the most dadlike advice that we can offer when it comes to saving more on groceries, and this

advice is to eat what you've got. And yes, again, I want a clean plate out there, folks, Happy plate Club. Did y'all ever do that? I know a lot of folks do the Happy Place sometimes, but you know, definitely each your leftovers, of course, but this also means that you should be cleaning out your pantry or your fridge or your freezer. Super cook this is a cool site that can help you to create a recipe based on

the items that you have on hand. Of course, if it's just cookies, right, like if you just got oreos and some burritos and like a random chicken thigh, you're gonna have a tough time. Would be really interesting meal, though most likely hopefully you make a crumble and bake it.

Bake that chicken thigh in it over. You're not down to like the drugs to the point, but it's smart I think to make this a game like that, right because if you're aiming high and an attempt to keep your grocery budget low, we'll trying to make meals out of what you've got on hand. Is a way to

gamify things in order to stretch your budget. There's a lot of Oftentimes you'll see different folks taking on the challenge of like just only eating out of your pantry or you're cupboard where you're only allowed to go to the grocery store for like for fresh veggies or milk and eggs, right, but a, of course, we do want you to eat healthy, balanced meals. But I think there's a way that we could also challenge ourselves to not buy more of the non perishables that are already lining

the shelves of our pintry. All right, So another last suggestion would be just to eat less in general. And I think we get especially when we want to eat. Think about the portion sizes. When you go out to eat in a foreign country, you don't get portions that big. But for some reason here in the States, we just have just something in ore, and if it's on our plate, we just assume that's what we're supposed to eat, and

so we do. And so a lot of us are just eating more than we actually should, and it's led to us becoming a pretty fat and overweight nation. In reality, the latest data reports to something like forty two percent of US adults are considered to be medically obese. Yeah, nearly half of which tragic, all adults tragic, because not only is that expanding your food budget, it's just massively

harmful to your health. And now we're like prescribing drugs to help kuro Obesi instead of making a national push towards changing habits which would lead to healthier outcomes. I think so, yeah, it's just eating less in general and eating healthier whole food's kind of like you talked about earlier, man, instead of eating a lot of the process craft that we normally get in the center of the grocery store. That's going to make a big difference in how we

feel and how much we spend on money on food. Totally. Yeah, And unfortunately I think it's it's sort of become taboo to say that, and we will acknowledge that, like genetics play role, right, Like not everybody can work out multiple times a week if they're looking to lose weight, but the ability to reduce how much we're consuming like that is something that is available to everybody, And it's just it's kind of crazy that that is not something that is talked about more not to mention and this is

our whole angle. It also saves you money, and so for some reason it's become off limits, which I don't like, because, yeah, it's kind of something we've been able to talk about openly for decades and decades and decades and hundreds and thousands of years. Yeah, and if you but if you if you make it off limits to talk about, then people can't receive the help they need. I think. Yeah, so bottom line groceries are a big line item in

all of our lives. In the past year has certainly made shopping for food feel even worse because inflation, it's been a massive pain for everyone. Egg prices are actually coming down now, but they're still expensive. But the tactics that we mentioned today, if they're not going to stop the macroeconomic environment, but it can help you to take some more control over the expenses in your own life.

And you know, when this is with food and cooking, when that's something that you do multiple times a day, you may as well get good at it. Yeah, you know you're talking about breathing earlier. It kind of makes me think about driving, like that's something that most people do and there might be some folks who are better at it, who enjoy more, there might be some folks who don't enjoy it as much, or there might be

some folks who are terrible at it. But just because if you were to say, though, well I'm just not good at it and you get in like a fender bender every single week, you don't just like throw in the towel and say I'm just not good at driving. No, like you take stetakeing ubers everywhere, you take steps to make sure that you turn into a better driver, right like, whether that's paying closer attention to the road, or driving slower, or finding different times of the day to get to

where you need to go. There are steps at doing a coach but in a similar way. I feel similarly about food, you may as well learn how to do it well, you may as well enjoy it. And obviously along the way, by doing those things, you're going to find ways to make it more affordable, saving you money that you'll then be able to funnel into other areas of your life. For sure, all right, I agree, And so hopefully all of our listeners are able to cut

back in big ways at the grocery store. And you know, if you've got other grocery shopping tips we'd love to hear, you can always reach out to us where it had a money pott email dot Matt. Let's get back to the beer that we had on this episode. This one was called Darkened. It's a barrel age sour brown ale from upland Sour Ales in Bloomington, Indiana. What were your thoughts on this one, man? Yeah, I see on the back of a bottle here it says a blended work

of art. This was a really really interesting beer. So it's a brown ale, but it was a sour brown. What tasted like was then married with the spices from a Belgian quad, not the yeasts, right, So it doesn't have like that the sweetness that you get with Belgian beers that you get from the yeast, but it totally had the like the Belgian spices going on, and so it had the darker sour funk, but then it had

these notes of like Christmas. It's almost like when you get a song stuck in your head and you're like, wait, why can't I get this? Like what is it about this? I feel like that's what this sort of had going on with those Baltian spices. Yes. On the back it says that it was kind of trying to imitate the ud Bruin style, which is like sour brown, right, which is a traditionally Belgian style sour and which I love in the style beer so much sense. But that being said,

this had this is incredibly unique. Yeah, that very differently than a nude bruin. Well, of course, Americans, you don't like to shake it up, do things differently. So there's an American take on a Belgian style beer. And I really like, I really liked it. But you're right, it definitely had some different vibes and different spice action going on. But I mean, anytime someone says they're making an ude bruin, like, give it to me, I'm gonna take it. Anytime that

there's somebody making a barrel aged yeah, anything. Yeah, the oak. The oak came through in a big way on this one too, for sure. So all right, that's gonna do it for this episode, though, Matt. For for folks who want links to some of the resources we mentioned, we mentioned a lot today specific apps and sites where you can go to save money on groceries, well we'll list all of those up on our site at howtmoney dot com.

And not only are the resources up there from this specific episode, but we've got a lot of new content up there on the site. We've got obviously the show notes, but just other articles other helpful content to the credit card tool. There are a ton of fantastic resources up there for you. So we wanted to mention those as well, but Joel, that's going to be it for this episode until next time. Best Friends Out, Best Friends Out,