We eat breakfast, most lunches, and most dinners at home, shop at Winco (cheaper grocery store), and still somehow spend $800 a month for TWO people just on groceries (not including the 7ish times a month we eat out). What are we doing wrong?!
This is a repost blog.
Original posts by u/rcw16 on r/EatCheapAndHealthy on Reddit
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14 July 2019: Update: You guys have saved us so much money!
I posted 6ish weeks ago here about how my husband and I were somehow spending $800 a month on groceries between the two of us and also going out to eat 7ish times a month. I’m not sure if I mentioned it there, but my husband was also eating out for lunch everyday and I was eating out 2-3x a week for lunch. I was blown away with the feedback I got (actually it was a little overwhelming—I was on vacation at the time and the notifications just wouldn’t stop. TBH I didn’t read all of them, but read most of them).
As soon as we got back from vacation I implemented some changes. I knew it wasn’t realistic to go full top ramen every meal every day; I wanted some balance. Here’s what I did:
-We started eating vegetarian meals 2-3 times per week. My husband and I both grew up eating meat at every meal and were surprised how full we could be without meat. We both love black bean burrito bowls, chickpea “gyro” pitas, and spaghetti with sauce from scratch (note: this is a tad bit more expensive than canned sauce or even basing it around canned tomatoes, but it works for us and the whole batch of spaghetti costs $5ish. I’m good with that.)
-When we do buy meat, I now always split the package up and freeze. Even the smallest pack of meat is more than enough for two of us, so we stretch our money a bit by getting two dishes out of it.
-I make enough for leftovers for lunch. I now structure meals around what my husband can easily take to work and heat up the next day. If it doesn’t make leftovers, we eat it on Friday or Saturday. Unfortunately, the way my job works, leftovers isn’t doable for me, but I’ve started bringing lunches that don’t need to be refrigerated and I can graze when I get a chance. This is still much cheaper than going out to lunch each day.
-We don’t go out to eat as much. I’m making an effort to use food before it expires (we had a lot of waste before) and now if we go out to eat, that usually means something is going to waste. That’s not to say we haven’t gone out at all, but it’s saved for times when I’ve had a shit day at work and just can’t make myself cook. We also have frozen homemade lasagnas in case that happens, but we’re learning balance here too.
-I started intermittent fasting. This wasn’t a “save money” move, but who knew that skipping breakfast and late night snacking would also save money? 🤷🏻♀️
These were all minor tweaks, in my opinion. Our grocery bill has gone down (from $200 a week to around $100-120 a week) and we’re saving by not eating out as much. I figured these small changes would save us maybe $100-200 a month. You guys. We’re saving $400-500 a month doing this!
Thank you so much for your help! We’ve been saving every spare penny we have to buy a house this year, and an extra $400-500 a month is HUGE in meeting our goal!
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