Quite recently, J. Money, of Budgets are Sexy fame, featured an absolutely hysterical email/guest post entitled How in GOD’s NAME do you spend so little on food?? written by a fellow named Braden. I need you to go read it, immediately.
Don’t worry, I’ll wait for you to come back. I have already re-read it at least twice, because it is so funny.
Oh, you invented a new garlic, cajun, spicy sauce……… AND put it on a White Castle slider, move over son, let daddy have a taste.
While his email is highly entertaining, Braden is asking a very legitimate question, “How DO you not spend an obscene amount on groceries?”
Rice, Beans, Oatmeal, Cardboard
The comments on the post are a gold mine. Rice, beans and oatmeal are frequently recurring themes. Braden chimes in on that front, too:
I also eat beans and rice. I’m thinking the distinctions end in the preferred nomenclature, because my beans and rice is canned black beans, uncle ben’s aromatic basmati rice garnished with cilantro and lime juice, a slice or two of avocado (who am I kidding, I love that devilish fruit; I throw half of it on there), a light sprinkle of the always irresistible cheese and some finely chopped bell peppers. We haven’t eaten steak or chicken tacos in three years……..at home, at least. Definitely not a $1 meal.
Beans and rice, without some flair, seems, well, if I were in captivity in Singapore for gum chewing, I’d assume that would be the meal provided on a daily basis.
I currently have a giant resource post in the works on how to live on rice and beans, which, I’ll be honest, is a far cry from how I eat myself. My spouse’s stomach does not do well with beans. It does very badly, in fact, so they are generally off the table for us. For folks like the Frugalwoods, though, rice and beans are the ticket to financial independence and they’re sharing their golden ticket with you.
Maybe beans are for you, but they are certainly not for us.
Food = $$$$
Well, my friends, as it turns out, I am an expert on how to spend an obscene amount on groceries. Yes. I really ought to list it on my resume.
I would like to share my tips on the matter, as a bit of a tongue in cheek exercise, but I assure you that they are all very real habits that add up to a four digit grocery bill.
My comfort level with our spending aside, cost of living is a VERY real aspect of how much a household has to spend on feeding itself. The Grocery Prices Across North America infographic makes that extremely clear. If you want to get someone riled up, ask Jessica from Budget for Health about the cost of eggs in Calgary versus Michigan. She spent six months living in Calgary and couldn’t believe how expensive the food was there, even after they received a cost of living allowance for their time spent in Calgary.
Me? I stock up on groceries when I go to Calgary, because they are much cheaper than where I live!
While we do have a rather high grocery spend, we still buy things on sale, stockpile things when they have a good price (ie rice pasta, canned tomatoes, chia), buy whole animals from butchers and purchase most of our proteins on sale to put in the freezer (or eat hunted meat).
We also make virtually all of our meals from scratch due to allergies. Pasta sauce and some salad dressings are basically all of the pre-made foods that we consume. Oh, and I make a simple/rough meal plan for every week, so the food we buy lines up to actual meals.
How to Spend an Obscene Amount on Groceries – Tips from an Expert
Things we do that aren’t exactly frugal:
- Have allergies and buy our way out
- Eat canned artichokes
- Eat delicious, delicious cheese
- Eat a bunch of nuts, but not the cheap ones like peanuts
- Eat wild rice
- Use maple syrup and agave
- Buy name-brand instead of store-brand for some products
- Eat scallops
- Eat shrimp
- Eat canned crab in dips
- Buy specialty products like rice pasta
- Put Classico sauce on our pasta
- Buy organic vegetables and fruit
- Buy quinoa and chia
- Buy cashew butter, pumpkin butter and sunflower butter
- Buy rotisserie chickens
- Eat things we want to eat that are out of season
- Drink goat milk
- Are allergic to cheap frozen veggies like broccoli and cauliflower
- Are allergic to eggs
- Spouse can only stand one, maybe two, vegetarian meals per week or it leads to crazy over eating
- Stuff goes bad in the fridge with an awful frequency
- We don’t eat very much soup
- Live in a small town with limited grocery store options
- One of us is allergic to the cheapest fruit, bananas
- Eat avocados and mangos year-round
- Snack on goat cheese when we get home from work
- Live somewhere with a high cost of living
- Avoid beans due to stomach issues
- Eat a bunch of lamb, which is still moderately expensive even though we bought an entire lamb from a butcher
- Have a black thumb and live in a condo, so we can’t grow much food for ourselves
- Cook with fresh herbs
- One of us is allergic to tuna
- Participate in a lot of meal trains where I feed a lot of other families. My spouse loves this. (Sarcasm.)
- Host dinner parties on the regular
- Eat smoked salmon and goat cheese on (homemade) biscuits for breakfast when friends are visiting from out of town (I will feed you this if you come visit me!)
- My spouse dislikes peas and corn fresh, but even more so frozen
- Buy granola bars for biking and playing squash after work, but we’re allergic to most so we have to buy Glutino or Clif brand bars. We basically never make any at home.
- Eat organic brown rice, not white.
- Eschew carb-dense foods as often as possible and opt for veggies instead.
- Prefer wild salmon to farmed salmon (for many reasons. If only more farmed fish was inland!)
- Use coconut oil
- Like saffron
- Use real vanilla. No fake stuff. Sometimes, real vanilla beans.
- Coconut whipped cream is delicious.
- Cook fun things on occasion, like making our own gravlox (yum!)
- Eat hot salsa, which only comes in small jars, not big jugs
- Eat protein-filled breakfasts (this is a very good thing)
- Buy absolutely amazing locally roasted, fair trade coffee
- Eat homemade pesto
- Only make half of our sausages, the other half are store bought and GF
- When splurging on bacon, hot dogs, or lunch meat, buy the preservative-free versions (we rarely eat these things)
Things other people do to drop mad coin on food:
- Drink a bunch of beverages that aren’t water
- Eat pre-packaged foods, everything from salad kits to store bought cookies to lean cuisine to frozen lasagna
- Eat deli-prepared foods
- Buy food without a plan
- Buy candy and snack foods like chips and pop (soda, in American)
- Buy coconut water, kombucha and the like
Your Turn
While this may seem tongue in cheek, it is truly a list of things that cause our grocery spending to be higher than it could be. Read between the lines and don’t do these things, if you want to save.
Writing all of this down was actually a fantastic exercise in highlighting where we spend a lot of money. I would highly recommend that you do the same, if you have a goal to cut your grocery spending. Grab a piece of paper, or open a new excel sheet (that’s what the cool kids do) and start brainstorming. I came up with this list in less than 24 hours.
I make an awesome artichoke and asparagus side dish. It costs $15 or so every time.
Also, I miss being able to eat store bought perogies. So delicious and so cheap!
If you want to avoid this fate, maybe try some of these cheap crock pot recipes?
Please, dear readers, what are YOUR tips on how to spend an obscene amount on groceries? I am confident that you have some, even if you can’t match my own level of expertise 😉
We recently subscribed to get a biweekly delivery of fresh produce from a local farm. They send over whatever is fresh and in season, and we get it all at a fixed price! I felt like I needed to do this because I get carried away at Wegman’s and Trader Joe’s!
We try to keep our grocery costs down but it’s hard when you buy organic foods. It helps when you make your own foods at home rather than eating out all the time as restaurants are almost always more expensive than eating at home
Dan @ Our Big Fat Wallet recently posted…Saving Money in NYC: Transportation and Hotels
Read food blogs and plan your menu around those instead of the cheap family staples that you know your family will love.
Also three cheers for coconut whipped cream!
Hey Anne! We used to spend a ton on spoiled food. I was particularly bad. We started to make a meal plan and that helped significantly. Much less food being thrown out each week.
Thomas @ i need cash ASAP! recently posted…How Do Pawn Shop Loans Work?
I think you are justified in your spending because 1. All the food allergies you accommodate and 2. Because you view food as an investment in your health! I would maybe raise an eyebrow if you were spending that amount on cheap, pre-made food and snacks or if you were going through the hot food bar at Sunterra for lunch everyday but you are making wise choices for your health and it will save you money on health problems you won’t have in the long run. You’re right about food cost in Calgary… Crazy expensive! Our grocery bill doubled from our normal spending the first few months we were there and we didn’t buy anything out of the ordinary from what we were used to buying in Michigan.
Be a vegan. In the north. Without access to local fresh fruits and vegetables. And then raise a family like that. And have the kids drink hemp milk at $4.60 A QUART, for which they will go through 2 in a day. And make sure to overstock on your produce, never knowing what the kiddos will enjoy that week, and be sure to throw out half of it at the end of the week.
Kirsten recently posted…How to Handle Bad Feedback (And Get Ahead In Your Career)
I’m with Braden. We’ve tried over and over again to get the grocery bill down, but we freakin’ love to eat, and we don’t want to eat the same thing everyday, and we love to eat (oh, did I already say that?)!
All I can say is, the best way to save money is to go on a diet. Then, when you get down to your target weight, you want to eat all of the things you denied yourself of. Then you get sick because you ate too much crap all at once. But THEN your tummy is all shrunk and doesn’t want to eat as much as it did before. The problem is getting other people in the house to go on a diet too (especially if they aren’t overweight, what gall, huh?).
So, to sum it all up, I really love stuffed pasta.
kay ~ lifestylevoices.com recently posted…One Dollar and Fifty Cents
I love stuffed pasta too! With seafood. Food of the gods, I say!
I hear ya on the “everyone else in the house has to play too”.
I’ll decide that I’m cutting something out, only to find that Spouse has started to make something crazy-luxurious. Oops.
Minus the allergies and you have me pegged. Not only do we love to cook with high quality ingredients at home, we also love eating out.
Eating out can really blow some dough if your looking for other ways to not be extremely frugal. In 2014 we spent $1,200/month dining out alone and then another $500/month on groceries for just two people.
Cheers!
Gen Y Finance Guy recently posted…Anatomy of a Side Hustle: How I made $18,000 at an effective rate of $100/hour
WHOO. You’ve got me beat down and spit on, on the restaurants front. Can you recommend good restaurants to me??
If you ever come to Southern California you need to eat at Broadway By Amar Santana. Make reservations ahead of time to sit at the chef’s counter and partake in the 5-course pre-fix meal. It changes monthly and is always amazing. Also, if you love wine get the wine flight to pair with each of your 5-courses. You won’t be disappointed.
Oh and you mentioned that you love cheese. Before you go to dinner at Broadway you can stop by The Montage and visit the cheese room (The Loft Cheese Gallery). They have over 150 different cheese with a full time fromagier, you will be in cheese heaven.
These are both in Laguna Beach.
Cheers!
Gen Y Finance Guy recently posted…March 2015 – Content Curation
I just had an extremely satisfying dinner at home… and yet I still want ALL THE THINGS you just mentioned. Thank you for the tips!
Anne recently posted…How to Spend an Obscene Amount on Groceries – Tips from an Expert
This is hilarious! I struggle so much with grocery shopping, especially when it comes to purchasing organic food. And now I’m obsessed with where my meat comes from and it’s quality of life prior to me eating it, so that cost has just shot through the roof. The struggle is real!
Kristin recently posted…How to Pay Unexpected Medical Bills
Oh yes, the struggle is very real!!!
Quality of life + drugged up animals + confinement + etc + etc = tradeoffs that make all the difference in pricing!
Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Anne recently posted…How to Spend an Obscene Amount on Groceries – Tips from an Expert
My tip: Do regular grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s. I’ve heard it’s supposed to be cheaper than Safeway, but I haven’t found that. After buying staples at Trader Joe’s, I then make too many impulse buys on chocolate products, nuts and beer.
It’s a great place to go for fun treats to eat, but they’re so expensive and add up so fast that I’m better off buying bulk junk at Costco.
Aaron recently posted…3 Ways to Start Saving Money Now
Trader Joe’s is a mythical American-land… one day I am going to have to cross the threshold of one!
I thoroughly enjoy chocolate, nuts and beer. We can share sometime.
Anne recently posted…How to Spend an Obscene Amount on Groceries – Tips from an Expert
I like your list way more than the ones over on Budgets Are Sexy… It astounds me (and I guess it’s the difference between people being foodies and those just seeing it as fuel) but that so many very well-to-do people (aka 150k+ incomes) will scrimp so to increase their savings rate by maybe 1-2%. It boggles my mind…
As an aside, I’m holding you to the goat cheese smoked salmon breakfast 🙂
Alicia recently posted…Financial Update: March 2015
Oh it’s on offer any time, unless I find out I’m allergic to that too, which will probably cause tears!
There’s also a difference between minimum caloric intake and nutrients, which is the biggest thing that I notice in a lot of posts on food.
Anne – Money Propeller recently posted…How to Spend an Obscene Amount on Groceries – Tips from an Expert
Use Goat Cheese in everything like Grilled Cheese, Mashed Potatoes, and Mac n’ Cheese!
Leslie Beslie recently posted…When to Use Aluminum Foil or Plastic Wrap for Wrapping Food
Mmmm goat cheese… I just added some to my Instacart order (Instacart is incredibly helpful if you want to spend tons of $ on food! They deliver food on demand like Uber delivers you a car!)…
Bad habit? Sure. Great idea? Yes!
Jay @ ThinkingWealthy.com recently posted…Death Puts: Increase Your Retirement Income
That sounds like an amazing, awful, fantastic service. I’ve seen you mention it on twitter a lot!
Anne recently posted…How to Spend an Obscene Amount on Groceries – Tips from an Expert
Ahem. I may actually do this. Stupid allergies resulting in even more delicious food!
Anne – Money Propeller recently posted…How to Spend an Obscene Amount on Groceries – Tips from an Expert
While I love to coupon and obsess over every penny, I love to eat even more. And eat well!
We went “clean” last year so our grocery dropped quite a bit as we traded frozen, prepared meals for fresh fruits/veggies to make things ourselves. We buy a half beef from the locker and shop the sales/what’s in season. (And have scouted out small local grocers that have the occasional mean sale on fresh produce.)
I totally splurge on maple syrup and canned artichokes though. But, I buy them at Sam’s when they are on sale. 😉
Angie Nelson recently posted…5 Smart Ways to Spend Your Tax Refund
That’s fantastic that you made the switch and were able to drop your grocery bills at the same time! Ours go up as we move further away from simple carbs. I think we both lived off of pasta and sauce in university!
Anne – Money Propeller recently posted…How to Spend an Obscene Amount on Groceries – Tips from an Expert
Love this! I love making delicious courses for a meal that include expensive ingredients, because they taste so good! I get so bored of food so I’m constantly changing what I eat… there is no way I could eat on a $1 per meal… I would go insane! My favorite way to spend a lot of money on what I eat is to head to s a specialty cheese store and pick up a bottle of wine that will pair nicely haha!
Janine recently posted…Comment on We are practicing living off one income by Kristilee parish
So when the cheese shop first opened in town I was “not allowed to go in there unsupervised” according to my spouse!
I used to go in on Friday afternoons and ask the owner to give me “$10 worth of happiness.” Hahaha. (I am not kidding!)
Anne – Money Propeller recently posted…How to Spend an Obscene Amount on Groceries – Tips from an Expert
I’ve slowly moved towards more organic, natural foods and it comes at a price. I also have moved towards the vegetarian diet which brings it’s own challenges. Long-term I see myself spending more on food, not less.
DC @ Young Adult Money recently posted…How to Spend Your Tax Refund Responsibly
I am looking for a balance. I think we’re in a good spot in terms of quality and can do more to time our spending to better pricing. That said, our food bills have grown a ton in the last few years.
Veggie diets are good on some fronts, because many proteins have a lot longer shelf lives than animal proteins.
🙂
Anne – Money Propeller recently posted…How to Spend an Obscene Amount on Groceries – Tips from an Expert
Good point about the veggie proteins. I’m freaked out by soy though…I read an article about a guy who drank a ton of soy milk every day and it had a huge impact on him. I like whey protein shakes but the less processed your protein is the better imo.
DC @ Young Adult Money recently posted…The Best Tablets for Young Professionals
Ah, yes soy. There are a lot of opinions on that substance. Lentils, beans, spirulina, nutritional yeast, and stuff like that doesn’t have soy in it. I totally agree with the “less processed the better” idea.
Mrs Moneyprop, (I feel like 007 addressing the perils of his next conquest, with a slightly horrendous British accent, of course)
I’m glad to have read this post. My intrigue into this subject is obviously justified. The most egregious mistake that I make…………..overindulging. I overindulge on a regular basis. Is there anyone out there who honestly and accurately pours a recommended serving of say, cereal? milk? slab of beef???
I think not Mrs Moneyprop!!
Thanks for enjoying me!!
If only I had Moneypenny’s bag of toys!!
Overindulging is indeed a thing. That goat cheese after-work snack I mentioned? Ya. We finished a $9 thing of cheese one night. Boom. Money. Poof. Gone.
Haha, love it. This is hilarious, Anne! Thanks for sharing my rice-and-beans recipe :). Funny enough, I’m actually eating it for lunch as I type this… !
Mrs. Frugalwoods recently posted…Frugal Homestead Series Part 5: Well, Well, Well
Anytime!
I’ll have to try it out sometime (when Spouse is away.) It sounds like I wouldn’t mind it… but I do hate onions, so maybe the shallots are strong for me?
Anne – Money Propeller recently posted…How to Spend an Obscene Amount on Groceries – Tips from an Expert
Haha… Braden’s words live on! Love it! 🙂
J. Money recently posted…4 Memories That Impacted My Finances the Most
Oh indeed, they are immortalized!
Anne – Money Propeller recently posted…How to Spend an Obscene Amount on Groceries – Tips from an Expert
Anne,
I absolutely loved this post. And Braden’s email as well.
I spend way too much on groceries. I shop at many different stores. When I need something for a recipe i end up buying several things. I buy things for certain recipes and then completely forget what recipe it was for and don’t end up making it.
I’ve tried to be better lately and make do with what i haveon hand.. but I totally relate to avocados, mangoes, delicious cheese.. saffron.. haha.. we are lucky!!
Like the Teff flour I own? And the maple flakes? Heh. I do that too.
I would get so bored with food if we didn’t have access to all of the completely out of season food that we do!
Glad you liked the post!
Anne – Money Propeller recently posted…How to Spend an Obscene Amount on Groceries – Tips from an Expert
Glad to know there are other frugal people who spend more on groceries do to health restrictions. Sometimes feel guilty but I get sick so much less that it is worth the food cost. Plus love the taste of cheese,mangos,and grass fed beef, wild caught fish.
Oh, you are far from alone!
Grass fed beef rocks. So does grass fed pork, if you ever get a chance. It has to be finished with corn still, but wow, so good.
Anne – Money Propeller recently posted…How to Spend an Obscene Amount on Groceries – Tips from an Expert
This list is hysterical. I am with you on the nut and cheese expenses, it’s crazy how much you can spend on it without even getting that much. We have a tough time staying vegan but when we buy meats, we typically only buy them if they are on sale or in bulk where we know it’s a good deal. We have made conscious efforts to curb food spending the last few years and we have made significant changes, but could probably stand to eat more rice, beans, oatmeal and cardboard. 🙂
Shannon @ Financially Blonde recently posted…Music Mondays – Leaving on a Jet Plane
Happy to entertain!!
Nuts can be absolutely ridiculous.
Let me know how you do with the cardboard 😉 We are consciously trying to not spend any more than we currently are, but we’re not willing to compromise on a bunch of these things. We eat a lot of vegan stuff, too, because it often doesn’t include some of our major allergens.
Anne recently posted…How to Spend an Obscene Amount on Groceries – Tips from an Expert
When I was living alone, my grocery spending was pretty low – but my “fast food” budget was HIGH.
That’s changed a lot since I met and moved in with my fiance who’s a cook. We are good at buying stuff on sale and hitting up the clearance bins, but we still eat a lot of “rich” foods. Better cuts of meat, properly balanced side-dishes, and decedent desserts (although, this has slowed down a lot from when we first started dating – I guess he was trying to win me over with sweets!). We’re also not the best at eating our left-overs…
Amanda @ My Life, I Guess recently posted…Is This Job Worth It?
The number of times I eat cheese, crackers and baby carrots for dinner when Spouse is away…!
Mmm, decadent desserts! I am willing to taste test some of those, if it’s ever needed.
Anne recently posted…How to Spend an Obscene Amount on Groceries – Tips from an Expert
Er… live in a food city and eat out a lot? That’s what happens at our house, especially when friends come to visit. I know if we lived just about anywhere else, we’d cook so much more.
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I can come visit you, so that you can go out for food more.
That’s one of the reasons we don’t go out very often… most of the restaurants have the same menus as when we moved here 6 years ago, and there’s only about a dozen places to go!
Anne recently posted…How to Spend an Obscene Amount on Groceries – Tips from an Expert
done and done. you know this. COME VISIT.
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Anne, I think we shop a lot a like! And, I’m inviting myself over for dinner. I have been working on a post about what I eat that’s going live next Monday. I was also inspired by that post, and after I left a comment that basically could have been a post-I knew I had to write one! I love proscuitto!!
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You are 110% welcome to come visit any time! When you and I meet (it will happen one day!), we will TOTALLY foodie it up!
I admit that I buy goat milk, expensive cheese, and eat mangoes all year round. I really have to drop these or buy these when it’s seasonal. Right Anne?
Jayson @ Monster Piggy Bank recently posted…The Cost Of Protecting Your Privacy Online
If you want to cut your grocery spending, you would need to cut the expensive things, yes.
Anne recently posted…How to Spend an Obscene Amount on Groceries – Tips from an Expert
Discount grocery stores are the ticket to eating like kings without spending so much on food. We eat like kings–meat, cheese, lots of fresh produce, chocolate, etc. on about $75/week for our family of four (the kids are still young). I realize not everyone has access to a store like ALDI but if you do, you have to shop there so you can keep up your “gourmet” habits without spending an obscene amount.
Kalie recently posted…The Treasure Measure
I love Aldi!! Wish we had one here.
I hear great, great things about this mythical grocery store!
Anne recently posted…How to Spend an Obscene Amount on Groceries – Tips from an Expert
My tips are to buy groceries from Whole Foods by default and to have a slight addiction to prosciutto.
Taylor Lee @ Engineer Cents recently posted…How Much I Spent For A Weekend in NYC
Excellent tips. You’re speaking my language!
Anne recently posted…How to Spend an Obscene Amount on Groceries – Tips from an Expert