Butchering Your Grocery Bill (Bestie Ep) #1003

Do you know something that we’re all currently doing? Breathing. It’s something we rarely actively think about, but it turns out that there are ways to improve our technique- by breathing through our nose instead of our mouths, or by taking deeper slower breaths. Well we’re talking about another basic subject today: buying groceries. This elementary practice seems simple on the surface, but just like breathing there are tactics that you can implement in order to save more money at the supermarket. The cost of food has always been a big deal as it’s typically our third largest expense. But it’s a bigger deal than ever with grocery prices up nearly 12% in December compared to a year ago. Inflation is making it more expensive to eat! Listen for how much you should be spending every month, our take on meal delivery services, and many other money saving tips that you can implement in order to butcher your grocery bill today!

 

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During this episode we enjoyed a Darken by Upland Brewing! And please help us to spread the word by letting friends and family know about How to Money! Hit the share button, subscribe if you’re not already a regular listener, and give us a quick review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Help us to change the conversation around personal finance and get more people doing smart things with their money!

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Out of Money. I'm Joel, I'm Matt, and
today we're talking how you can butcher your grocery bill.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
And this episode is brought to you by butcher Box.
Just kidding, that would be way too on the nose.
I don't even know what butcher box. Butcher box is.
I want to say butcher blocks. For some reason, I
don't know.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
I think it's an expensive way to get meat delivered you. Yeah,
it's like a meat delivery service.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Right.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
That would actually probably be the opposite thing you want
to do, if you want to say money on dish fix, where.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
They just automatically send you clothes and you're tempted into
keeping it.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
And for some people it's it's a work while 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 there a monthly grocery your budget and especially now,
people just feel the pain of groceries more so we're
gonna talk about give a bunch of suggestions about how
to relieve that pain today, which.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Cleavers, like Chinese cleavers, are totally in by the way.
Have you seen Kate's over at our house? Oh yeah,
it looks nancy. I wouldn't know how to use it though,
I mean, you 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

(01:29):
to everyone out there. There are certain things that we
discussed that aren't applicable to everybody. That is not the
case today.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
We sometimes to 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's 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.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
There for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
All Right, something else, it's applicable to a lot of
people that a site that I've heard about that, 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 follow. They
sell mid century furniture and did you buy a fancy
piece of furniture?

Speaker 2 (02:16):
No?

Speaker 1 (02:16):
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
you know, I'm not going to go pick this thing up.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
But it's just like a barkart.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Basically, we have a space that has been sitting empty
since we moved in in July, and I've been backly
where you're talking about, been looking for some sort of
bark heart essentially to fill that space, or or like
a display cabinet. But and I'm looking for something that
fits in with the rest of our our furniture. And
I did this, you know, seller on Instagram that I've
been following for years posted one and I was like,

(02:46):
that's really reasonably priced and it looks good. But I
was like, how can I get someone to bring it
to me.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
I'm not going to drive up there wait for that too.
Much money. Were in North Carolina, maybe we can it's
in Nashville, Oh, which we should. Dude, Okay, that'd be
a good Why would you not want to take it
to Ashville? I guess it's actually getting it. Could you
fit it in your vein? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Yeah, I can totally fit it in too, So maybe
I should do that. Maybe that's maybe we'll take a
road trip the best way. I ran 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 was
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

(03:26):
basically putting it out for bids to all the people
who are interested in moving that 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 bit, because everyone's competing
against each other, the bids were in the low twos
low two hundred dollars to move this thing, and so
I'm like, okay, cool, I still haven't pounds. I haven't

(03:47):
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.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
Dude. How do you spell it? Ship l y shipley?

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
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 of states over, 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 sight.
We're checking out, very cool.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, anytime there is a platform a website that facilitates
a free and open, competitive marketplace like that, Yeah, all
for that. Yeah, but uh, let's introduce the beer you
and I are going to enjoy during this episode. This
is a barrel age shower 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

(04:42):
is my 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 before,
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.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
But for now, let's get onto the topic at hand.
We're talking about out how to butcher your grocery bill
and Matt, everybody eats food. That is what you need
to sustain life. You gotta have water, you gotta have food,
gotta have air, and so air makes me think of
the fact that we all have.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
To breathe, right.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
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 makes
Sense by James Nestor, who's a journalist. He looked into
the science of breathing and he gave a bunch of

(05:35):
tips and it was just this thoroughly fascinating excursion of
something that I thought was basically mundane 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.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, I've heard of that one.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
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 straighten through your mouth.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
Right, I'm breathing through my nose, right.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
See you look healthier already. The color of my cheeks,
they're rosy. Yes, it's just kind of.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
It makes sense, right, Yeah, I guess he goes through
this your sinuses and I'm assuming it adds moisture to
the air, warms it up a little bit. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
So there's a bunch, there's like a bunch of different
like science of 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 if you're
like I'm not going to read it, give me the
cliff notes. Well, fewer deeper breaths is another way to
breathe effectively. It's just because like that's it regulates your
body because like you just try just breathing short, like.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
You're having a panic, you're going to feel bad really quickly.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
But if you take those I think you said, five
and a half second in, five and a half second
out is kind of the ideal duration of a breath.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
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.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
This is like the Huberman lap kind of stuff. But
I'm into, like you telling me all these things, and
I will start doing them. Well, you're gonna like this
book then for the rest of my life. Have you
read it, you'd 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.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
Okay, all right, well maybe get the audiobook. It's not
too bad. But after like just a few tweaks, Yeah,
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.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
Yeah, just like everyone out there, they've got to breathe
the 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 that groceries
are the third largest line item in the average person's budget,

(07:44):
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 said that grocery prices went up by
almost twelve percent back in December. They're two a year prior,
and obviously, you know inflation, it is starting to come down.

(08:04):
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.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
Yeah, I saw an article about Whole Foods. They're asking
their suppliers to trim costs in order to drive their
cost down so that 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 turn their grocery billt go. Figure, why
isn't everybody doing that right? Well, and Whole Foods is

(08:45):
asking for that nice guy Disco. That's one of the
things that people kind of instinctively do, is they trade
down in an environment where costs or 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
lower these prices for us, because we got to make
sure our customers stick around, right, keep coming, keep going
in the store.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah, their customers are going to Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's
customers are going to Walmart.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
Smart customers are going yeah, or at planning 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.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
Right.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
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 through a straw, Right,

(09:42):
I mean, because what we eat it goes beyond just
nutrition and an attempt to stay alive. Like three soylents
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

(10:04):
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?

Speaker 2 (10:10):
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 wasn't that great. I didn't like it either
all that much. I thought I would, but I didn't.
It was weird, I mean, and obviously like not the

(10:31):
whole premise of the show, but just the way that
they did it. I don't know. I don't want to
sit here in Bash.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
My one line review was that the social commentary felt
just super basic and if it had been more interesting,
felt flat. I could have been down with.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
The whole premise, it 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 or
pay a lout attention to athletes, and he's like, well,

(11:03):
and they're just down there playing with a rubber ball.
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

(11:23):
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 as 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

(11:45):
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,

(12:07):
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 she would regularly put
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

(12:29):
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 bought her day guy Fieri. Everybody says that back then,
I think it was it was Rachel Ray and her

(12:51):
hair looks just like his. Oh my god, if only
she's got the shades as well. I love it. But
no joke, I mean It's one thing to like 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

(13:11):
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. Yeah as well.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
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 basic mechanics
of throwing the disc and if you try to throw
it like a frisbee, you're just annoyed, right, You're just
angry because, like I have to it takes me twenty
throws to get it to the pin.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
But if you do just.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
A certain way that you had to do it, learn
a couple of specific techniques, you're like Okay, cool. It
took me four or five throws to get to the
pin instead of instead of twenty, and that just makes
it way more enjoyable exactly.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
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 Montsell from
Budget Byites, as well as LeeAnne 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

(14:18):
link to those interviews where we had those ladies on
for sure.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
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

(14:44):
on groceries, and whether or not you should try one
of these services really depends on how much you're currently
spending on you 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. 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

(15:05):
busy we are. And my Emily really likes using these services.
We don't use them regularly, but when we get a
discount or something, and we'll go back to them and
test them out again. And I think largely a good
reason to test these out is because it could be
kind of like a gateway drug, leading you back towards
home cooking and eating out less. Signing up for these
kids in perpetuity is probably gonna be a budgetbuster getting

(15:26):
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.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
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
were empty nesters, but he was pointing out how this
was something that they did that was fun. Yeah, 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

(15:58):
up how to make this thing. And it's not just
what I mean, delivered directly to them. It tells them,
you know, they've got all the pre measured ingredients, they've
got all the instructions. All of a sudden they're eating
something that they would never have otherwise eaten.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
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 sure 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
gotta want to get into painting, that's a good place
maybe to start.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
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 right. And not to mention, like you said,

(16:49):
over time you and yourself off of that, and all
of a sudden you have built up this joy for
cooking food and all the while you're likely going to
be able to save money.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
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.

Speaker 2 (17:03):
It's the psychology of cooking right and trigging yourself into
some of the different.

Speaker 1 (17:08):
Ways, which how many personal finance nerds talk about the psychology.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
Of the kitchen. You and 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 de lilive our lives. Yes, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
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 exports will be like those
new kids are way more expensive the shopping to the
grocery store, 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

(17:47):
the most efficient, best three hour workout now? And so
you got to find the thing that's going to let
you show up and continue to do the thing day
after day exactly.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
But it's not just about winning this one battle. We're
here to win the overall war. And so like we're
not just focused on what it is that you're gonna
spend on groceries the last week in February, we're talking
about how much you're gonna spend on 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

(18:15):
is that you can butcher your grocery bill, and we'll
get to some of those right after this.

Speaker 1 (18:29):
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 U Oh, that'd be a good one too,
gangs in New York.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
Yeah, that's yes, that was a good one.

Speaker 1 (18:40):
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

(19:03):
that you're making it home to really, right, there's some
that you're just going for memory. A lot of things
I cook are 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

(19:23):
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 want you to spent 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

(19:45):
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 of six,
We're going to send 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'll you're never going to be able to
actually meet.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
Well, 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.

Speaker 1 (20:15):
But at the same time, you'll probably want to use
that number and then challenge yourself to improve upon previous
spending levels too, in order to free up more cash
for other goals.

Speaker 2 (20:23):
Chip gout.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
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.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
Yeah, even feeding your family in the future by investing
those dollars. Yeah. But so maybe you are 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 around

(20:53):
one hundred thousand dollars a year, so after taxes and withholding,
you're you're taking home a little less than seventy five
thousand dollars depending on your state, 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

(21:15):
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 lice switch. 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.

(21:39):
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 dollars 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,

(22:00):
larger amount of six hundred dollars and we're breaking it
down into 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 thirty because they buy some stuff they wouldn't normally
otherwise have gotten, and then they find themselves towards the

(22:21):
end of the month like, holy crap, how am I
going to keep this under wraps? 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 likely to keep your
spending in check because you've brought it down to an
even more bite size, more manageable.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
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. 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?

Speaker 2 (22:53):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (22:53):
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

(23:15):
gonna 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, I love
the love anyone who love leftovers more than Matt.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
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 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. So I don't know if
I like actually like leftovers because I've convinced myself that

(23:52):
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 refrigerator. So things that you know
where that's the case obviously not some things like French fries,
but other things like a asagna left over French fries
is just the worst, the worst. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:09):
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 like breakfast burritos or
something like that, pull them out every single morning, he
eat them up and then it's like boom. I don't
even have to think about it. I already made it.
And I also know that I'm not going to be

(24:30):
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.

Speaker 2 (24:43):
That's right man. Yeah, So that's enough about planning, right,
let's get more tactical with it. Lessen envision that you're
there in the grocery store. What about sales?

Speaker 1 (24:52):
I was 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
metabverse app where you could put yourself in and al me,
I mean, that's ideal. I'd consider great of the metaverse
for that. I've not been interested in the metaverse and
till I just thought of that thought.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
So let's but but for real, though, if you are
at the grocery store and 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.

(25:26):
Sounds like a recent example out of your life. That's
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.

Speaker 1 (25:44):
Well, in this case, it sounds like the porkness. It
forced your hand on this, right.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
I had no choice? Yeah, No, 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.

Speaker 1 (26:00):
Those Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of people
might walk through the grocery store and then they walk
through the chip is on 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.

Speaker 2 (26:13):
They're cool ranch or not. Repeets like oh yeah, that
electric the electric tingle, it's like taking your tongue to
a nine bolt battery. It's so good, which is true.
How do you resist cool.

Speaker 1 (26:23):
Range Toritos 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 volt battery tingle of a cool
range to rito 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

(26:44):
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 a pound for pork shoulder, that's that's different.
And that's like, that's a lot of meals from yeah,
you know one one one buy right there, totally. Yeah,
even if it wasn't on the list, I think it
makes sense to hop on it.

Speaker 2 (26:58):
Well, sure, and that's a basic protein 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 barbacue sandwiches. Oh okay, let's let's make some fried rice.
Oh okay, let's take that meat and incorporate it into
a pazzole. That's literally something. These are all meals that

(27:18):
I've our family made last week, okay. 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.

Speaker 1 (27:29):
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 oh yeah. One of the biggest problems 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 perishables,
buying extra cans of something that you know you're going

(27:50):
to use because it's on sale. Oh hey, soup is
half price, boom, let me get a couple of extra those.

Speaker 2 (27:55):
That's fine.

Speaker 1 (27:56):
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 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 under gets under my skin. Is like an ingredient
that we haven't used, in particular vegetables, right, Like, you

(28:18):
got that produce and sometimes it starts getting slimy and
you have to freaking toss it.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
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 in something and I
got a toss in the trash.

Speaker 1 (28:33):
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 well 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 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,

(28:54):
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

(29:15):
steaks and roasts and stuff like that out of it.
The Yeah, but he had to buy a whole rack
of rabbis. Sure well, sure, but he had to buy
a deep freeze in order to make that make sense.
And so for some folks, spending money on a deep
freeze can actually pay off in the long run.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
Joe, you're making a case for me winning 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

(29:50):
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

(30:10):
time coupony. 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,

(30:34):
but they it's a site. Man. I love aggregate sites
that bring together all like 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.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
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 actual print section to come out. Flip's
really cool to makes it easy. Well, and Matt, I
don't really I'm with you. I'm against couponing as well.
I use coupons when they're easy and Kroger.

Speaker 2 (31:11):
When I go to.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
Kroger for some of the things that I can't get
it all to your costco, I use Kroger coupons because
the digital coupons are pretty simple and they send actual
coupons and stuff that I typically buy directly to my house.
It's literally based on things that I've 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

(31:33):
hanging fruit. But I'm not like searching the internet for
coupons because I think for most people that's a waste
of time.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
And Kroger's they've actually got a pretty decent app as
well that you can keep on your phone.

Speaker 1 (31:42):
Yeah, so I think it's helpful to 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 lethal, I think
where you shop is probably one of the biggest difference
makers when it comes to butchering your grocery budget and
legal and all the We talked about them all the
time time because they're two of the best nationwide discount

(32:02):
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 gonna
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

(32:23):
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,
wins by a landslides. Even still, yeah, even still, even
though Walmart is cheaper than a lot of the alternatives,

(32:44):
all these cheaper than them, and it wouldn't be outrageous
to see something like a twenty percent reduction in 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 move to.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
Aldi, that's 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

(33:17):
a thirty percent reduction in our grocery budget. That's insane,
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.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
That's like, it really is like the easiest thing to do.
There's all these little ways really eat around the edges.
It's the easy button, but that's the easy button to
save the biggest it is, But we were kind of
talking about Walmart and how they certainly have more options
than Aldy. The trade offs of stores like letal like
Aldi are that you're going to have fewer options, and
so instead of there being like eighty two ketchup bottles

(33:50):
that you can you can pick from, you're gonna 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 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

(34:12):
you haven't tried some of the discount grocery stores like Aldi,
like Legal, 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 those discount groceries, but also you're gonna spend less time,
which sounds nice too and plays out in reality. Man,
my trips to letle are quicker. Although in all these

(34:33):
the little carts for the kids, and so I did
take take a little longer. Legles are bigger, dude, like
leadles are twice as I bet on average. If there's
any sort of research out there, the size of the
Kroger still much smaller than Kroger, way smaller than Costco.
But I mean, I used to pride myself in being
able to literally get in and out of an Ald
with a thing of milk and eggs in like ninety

(34:53):
six 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
the people that work here incredible.

Speaker 2 (35:00):
They know what I want.

Speaker 1 (35:01):
They have fewer just to 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 the major discounts,
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

(35:21):
there yet because it's thirty minutes from us. It's not
four minutes away, like the groceries s are 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

(35:42):
out 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 going to 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 buy Salvage website they've got lots of organic

(36:03):
items as well.

Speaker 2 (36:04):
I just signed up.

Speaker 1 (36:05):
I'm gonna give this one a chance. I've I've never
given it a go yet, but like it's basically giving
you access to nice foods at a discount that they
will ship directly to your door.

Speaker 2 (36:15):
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 build 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 particular, they've got they've got certain
items that have a cult light filew Yeah, although did

(36:38):
you do we talk about the lead and cadmium and
dark chocolate, we haven't some of the Trader Joe's dark
chocolates are on that list of Hi, well, it's a
lot of the dark chocolates, right, it is. But maybe
welling 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
dark chocolate every day. It's funny because you talk about

(36:58):
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 anyone area before it
like turns around and like bites you By.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
The way, flavonoids totally sounds like a word you just
made up.

Speaker 2 (37:13):
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

(37:33):
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 our 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

(37:56):
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 a giant thing of oil.
But what's key and this kind of speaks to like
the waste side of things. What's key is to when
you get home to break those things down. And so

(38:18):
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 those into like ziploc bags of portion
sizes that you know that you will typically cook with. Yeah,
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

(38:40):
stove and you're gonna fry up some eggs. There are
things like you buy 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.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
Yep, 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 we'll get
to as well. We'll get to those, right for this.

Speaker 2 (39:09):
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.

Speaker 1 (39:18):
All the different kind of they probably want to taste here,
like pork and bananas or whatever it was that you
were making fizzole.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
The uh, it's like a 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 bill. 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 going to find fruits and veggies. That's
where you're gonna find the meat and the eggs, the milk. Right, Like,

(39:46):
what we're talking about here is real foods as opposed
to potato chips, the cookies, candy, pre prepared foods and
saying those Totino's 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

(40:07):
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 going to 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

(40:28):
money on coke, Sonny 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,
You're an adulting. 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,

(40:49):
I get it, like I like things to be a
little bit sweet, but I'm owning it, you know, Like
craft beer is my craft beer equivalent, right, I'm willing
to spend money that isn't necessarily helping my health because
I really enjoy If you really love sunny D, Joel,
you buy that sunny D, but don't think you're necessarily
buying groceries with it. I'm sure.

Speaker 1 (41:07):
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.

Speaker 2 (41:13):
Filling stuff exactly.

Speaker 1 (41:14):
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,

(41:35):
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 cool, I'm like me,
I don't mind spending a dollar more for the organic eggs,
but I'm not gonna 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

(41:56):
retailer in existence, and their prices are going to be
much more afford than it whole Foods, for example. But
you know we can all make different trade offs at
different stages of our lives. Is 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

(42:17):
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 organic so I want to
bring into my life. But I think it's possible to
do the organic thing without completely breaking your budget.

Speaker 2 (42:30):
That's right, Yeah, Costco that's where you buy your organic
toilet paper, only the finest 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 Aldi again,

(42:51):
when they started taking credit cards a few years back,
the choir of angels we're singing in mist I still
remember that day. It was such a big stinking deal because, like, that's.

Speaker 1 (43:00):
An extra six percent I'm saving on all groceries from
here on.

Speaker 2 (43:03):
Housital 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. Two. I
don't think I've pulled that thing out ever since then.
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

(43:25):
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 Wade 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.

(43:45):
For sure.

Speaker 1 (43:45):
That's 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

(44:05):
that's great. You should totally do that. But there are
other third party apps that are worth considering. Two 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.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
So that's kind of cool.

Speaker 1 (44:22):
You're kind of preventing something from going into the landfill
and you're getting a sweet discount at the same time.

Speaker 2 (44:27):
I like that one.

Speaker 1 (44:28):
I look to see if it was available here near
where we live at Sadly no, but maybe soon, maybe soon.
But Ibata 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 got to
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

(44:49):
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 Ibota, 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

(45:11):
constantly interact with them.

Speaker 2 (45:12):
That's true. All right, Let's get to the most dad
like 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, what a clean plate
out there, folks, Happy Plate club? Did y'all ever do that?
I know a lot of folks do the Happy Plate sometimes,
but you know, definitely eat your leftovers, of course, But

(45:33):
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.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
That would be a really interesting meal. Though most likely
hopefully could you make a crumble and bake it? Bake
that chicken thigh in it? Hopfef you're not down to
the like the dregs to that 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.

Speaker 2 (46:12):
There's a lot of Oftentimes you'll see different folks taking
on the challenge of like just only eating out of
your paintry or your copverared 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

(46:33):
already lining the shelves of our paintry.

Speaker 1 (46:35):
All right, So another last suggestion would be just to
eat less in general. And I think we get especially
when we got 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

(46:56):
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 is something like two percent of US adults
are considered to be medically obese.

Speaker 2 (47:08):
Yeah, nearly half of it.

Speaker 1 (47:09):
Just 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 care OBC
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 foods

(47:31):
kind of like you talked about earlier, Matt, instead of
eating a lot of the processed 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 in money on food.

Speaker 2 (47:41):
Totally. Yeah, And unfortunately, I think 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

(48:02):
is our whole angle. It also saves you money, and.

Speaker 1 (48:05):
So for some reason it's become off limits, which I
don't like because it's kind of something we've been able
to talk about openly for decades and decades and decades
and hundreds.

Speaker 2 (48:14):
And thousands of years.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
Yeah, but if you make it off limits to talk about,
then people can't receive the help they need.

Speaker 2 (48:19):
I think. Yeah, so, bottom line groceries are a big
line item in all of our lives, and 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

(48:41):
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 were 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 it more, there might
be some folks who don't enjoy it as much, or

(49:02):
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 throwing the towel and say I'm just not good
at driving. No, like you take tekend ubers everywhere, you
take steps to make sure that 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

(49:25):
of the day to get to where you need to go,
there are steps that you're doing a coach but in
the 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 gonna find ways to
make it more affordable, saving you money that you'll then
be able to funnel into other areas of your life.

Speaker 1 (49:48):
For sure, all right, I agree, And so hopefully all
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 it. You
can always reach out to us where it how to
money pot at email dot Matt. Let's get back to
the beer that we had on this episode. This one
was called Darken to barrel Age Sour Brown Ale from
upland Sour Ales in Bloomington, Indiana. What were your thoughts

(50:08):
on this one?

Speaker 2 (50:09):
Man? Yeah, I see on the back of a battle
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

(50:30):
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 Belgian spices. Yes.

Speaker 1 (50:52):
Well, on the back it says that it was kind
of trying to imitate the ood Bruin style, which is
like sour brown, right, which is a traditionally Belgian style
sour and which I love in that style beer so.

Speaker 2 (51:02):
Much sense, but said this had this is incredibly unique. Yeah,
it's like the alternate take on that, very differently than
a nude brune. Well, of course.

Speaker 1 (51:08):
Americans, you know, don't like to shake it up, do
things differently. So this is 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 ood bruin, like give it to me,
I'm gonna take it.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
Anytime that there's somebody making a barrel aged yes, anything.

Speaker 1 (51:29):
Yeah, the oak. The oak came through in a big
way on this one too, for sure. So all right,
that's going to 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 those up on our site at
howtomoney dot com.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
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, 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,