Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to How Today. For that the podcast that peaks
into the financial lives of everyday Australians. I'm Michael Thompson.
I'm an author and the co host of the podcast
Fear and Greed Business news as always, I'm with Canna Campbell,
financial planner and founder of Sugar Mumber TV, which is
the financial literacy platform that covers YouTube, podcast books, Instagram threads,
TikTok and more. Hello Canna, Hello, how are we a
(00:25):
little apprehensive? If I'm honest, I'm wearing I.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Think we're gonna have a lot of fun in this episode.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
We are going to have some fun, but it could
be absolute chaos because we have a noble goal for
today's episode, which is to save money. That's pretty much good.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
To start saving money on food.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Come on saving money on food specifically, because if you
ask any household, any household I reckon in the country
right now, the grocery bill is still up there as
one of the top stresses on the family budget. Do
you agree?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Oh? Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Hey, look at that, We're already agreeing minute Only a
minute into the show today though, and this is where
it gets a little bit chaotic. We are looking at
a very modern way to save money on groceries. Can
chat GPT rescue your household shopping bill. I'm going to
go out on a limb and say, yes.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I'm blown away. I've had a little bit of experiment
and I'm excited to share.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
So let's go through a whole bunch of different ways
that you can use AI essentially to It's not just
about coming up with ideas. It is about, like you
can even use it to help budget for it all.
But really it is about a whole plan.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Oh absolutely. And also it's about saving time as well.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Oh yeah, and of.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Course waste, which is very important. Love our planet. But
for me, my biggest danger when it comes to spending
on you on food is I can't just walk into
supermarket and buy a leader of milk. I walk out
with seven, eight, nine different things. And this I think
is instrumental in stopping you thinking I've got the supermarket
because we don't have this, don't have that, we don't
(02:12):
have thining for dinner.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
So it is that it's the ultimate meal plan, and
it's the ultimate shopping list. Then that goes to that
meal plan and that's all we need to buy.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Then, And it is very much about zero waste.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Okay, let's do this. So we have the top ten
ways to use chat GPT to help out with the
family groceries. Number one the budget meal Plan Challenge. What's this?
Speaker 2 (02:36):
So this is where you explain to chap hi chat GPT.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Are you polite when you talk to chat GPT? Are
you courteous?
Speaker 2 (02:44):
I'm having an emotional affair with chat GPT. I even
said to chat GPT, I love you. You are so clever,
and it broke back to me and said, have an
amazing day.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
You are so kind, you got friends.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
I'm here for you. If you need me, just reach
out again.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
But I didn't say that it loves you back.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
It said I was very sweet, which I would say
that's equivalent.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
It doesn't love you like you are. Oh, I'm sorry
to say that you have been friend zoned by AI. Goodness,
that's a.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Very long gave me a love heart. Gave me a
love heart though emoji?
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Does that really count?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yes? It doesn't.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Yes, it's the Budget Meal Plan Challenge.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
So I tested this out and I was really impressed
with the results. So it gave me stir fries, soups
like pasta bakes, fried rice, and I actually put in
a budget, so I gave it one hundred dollar budget
and stead, I've got a family of five, three young children,
and we need a meal for five of us for
(03:48):
five nights in a row. I even had twenty dollars
change by the end of it.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Okay, so you actually set the butt. So you go,
I have a budget of one hundred dollars to spend
on food this week for dinners. I've got two adult,
three children, gamily five. Can you put in kind of
dietary issues?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Absolutely so. Obviously, as we all know with AI and
CHATCHI t the more information you can put in the better.
And also if you can refer to other examples that
you like, that all obviously helps. So yes, absolutely put
as much information as possible. You can say, like we gluten,
I've got one family member's gluten intolerant, another one doesn't
like dairy. It will work around that and give you
(04:26):
a range of options as well, not just the answers.
It g gives you alternatives for those people so that
you are not having to cook five different meals for
five different people, or three different meals for four different people.
It was absolutely brilliant, I will admit though, when I
looked at the rest, because it gives you back the
obviously the meals, but also gave me the ingredients and
(04:47):
the instructions potentially a little bit bland, like there were
a lot of sort of five key ingredients, but hey,
twenty dollars, Like fitting a family of five for one
hundred dollars for five days.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
That's it actually seems unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
And change twenty dollars change?
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Okay? That, and I suppose you can always kind of
add some spices.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
And things, sneaking some chili flanks.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Yeah, exactly if you want to kind of dress it
up a little bit. What we might do a little
bit later on is I have my computer here and
I'm ready to let's test it out a little bit later.
We'll toss in a few ingredients or a few kind
of a little bit of a budget requirement and see
what it comes up with. But let's go to number
two on the list. So that was the budget meal
plan challenge, where you're setting the budget and seeing what
(05:33):
it can come up with and whether it comes in
under the budget. Price comparison number two, the price comparison test.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
So this was fascinating because I put in that I
was looking to get a good, accurate price comparison, and
not only did it give me a great price comparison,
it gave me a price comparison across a range of
different products and explained the answers to me. So, for example,
supermarket private label brands like the home brands, obviously they
are the most cost effect of national brands. And then
(06:02):
it went into detail, so it gave me three different
examples of milk, so budget one step up and then
best value for money, same with eggs, same with bread.
And then it also gave me further ideas. So for example,
when the chat GBT came back to me about the cereal,
it actually ended with another alternative to cereal is oats,
which are also cheaper and even healthier. And it gave
(06:26):
me examples little prompts, for example, buying a dozen eggs
instead buy two dozen eggs in a bigger corton. That's
much better value for money.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
So an example with this, I suppose, would be if
you are trying to get comparisons on kind of commonly
bought items and alternatives that you might be able to
use instead. You might use this for the items in
your shopping trolley that are really expensive. I'm thinking of
dish washing tablets or something like that, which can be.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Let's not argue about the dish washing tablets again.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Yeah, I know, my god. This old thing. Backstory is
that I am a massive fan of the aurly Logics
dish washing tablets. You get the platinum ones and they
are cheap and they are absolutely certified brilliant, right, and
you are a massive, massive skeptic and you refuse to
(07:20):
do it because I honestly don't know why.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Okay, this is an important money saving hack. It's the
amount of consumption. Because you cannot cut a dish washing
tablet in half. We are being told to fill up
our washing machines, our dish washers with all this product.
Of course, then we need to go back to the
supermarket and bittle over again. I guarantee, if you got
the powder, the loose powder, put a tea spoon in,
(07:44):
which would probably be maybe one third of those expensive
tablets where you have no control, your plates and your
sheets and clothes will come out just as clean.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
I don't often wash my sheets in my dish washer, but.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
When you use your washing machine, obviously it's the same concept.
The tablets do not give you any control and reducing
the amount that you're using. So therefore, how can you
stretch out the savings?
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Hmm. Look, but if we take dishwashing tablet, it's just
as a general kind of idea, you could put that
in here and do a price comparison test using tat.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
GPT, and chat GPT will give you three different brands
and even link those brands for you so you can
see which one is best value for money, which one's
the cheapest, which one is mid range?
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Right, number three on our list of the top ten
ways that chat GPT can save you money on groceries.
The waste reduction strategy. Now, I like this in principle, right,
because you are just kind of going into your fridge
and you are finding kind of what's left over in
your fridge, and it might be kind of some lemons.
(08:51):
Do you keep lemons in the fridge? Yeah, sometimes if
it's a half limit, you might have some chicken in there.
You might have kind of I don't know, a couple
of other ingredients. Put them into chat GPT and you say,
this is what I've got, What can I make? You've
tested it?
Speaker 2 (09:05):
I tested it, and I was blown away, So I
had some leftover chicken. I have some I had some cream,
I had half a can of tomatoes, and I had
an onion. And it suggested a creamy chicken pasta for dinner,
which actually sounded delicious. And it again gave me some
extra tips. If I had any spare garlic, if I
(09:27):
had any chili flakes, I could add those to give
extra flavor.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
And it gives you the full recipe.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Right, Yes, he's everything, And this is what I'm saying.
It stops that, oh, we've got nothing to eat, I'm
gonna have to go to the supermarket, which is I'm
sure I'm not alone in walking through popping into the shops.
You never woke out with just one thing.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
You remember the TV show Surprise Chef. Yes, and this
is exactly like that, right, Aristos the Surprise Chef, and
he used to kind of ambush people in the supermarket,
come up, and he would come up to them and go,
what have you got in shopping? Troiller. It's all on camera.
And he would come home and he would take the
ingredients that they had made and turn it into a
gourmet meal. And this feels like the twenty first century
(10:12):
version of that it is okay, all right, So that's
the waste reduction strategy. So that gets a big tick
from you. So far have you even three ticks?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Tick tick tick okay. Moving on to number four then
the discount hunt simulation. So this is basically where you
ask chat GPT how to find discounts, and it can
be for a specific shop or it can be for
a particular grocery item. So using the one that we
agree on dish washing tablets, you could say, where can
(10:47):
I find kind of the best price on dish washing tablets?
That kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yes, And the cool thing about this is you can
use it for like on an ongoing basis, like for
your weekly grocery budget, or if you are, for example,
to their kid's birthday party and you're on a type
budget and you think, okay, where is the best place
to buy cupcakes? Best value for money? Where should I
be buying lollies for a lollybag? Where should I be
buying a birthday cake? You can put this information into
(11:14):
chat GPT and it will give you that sort of
exact instructions as to where you should be going to
find the best value for money.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
And it works. Yes, Okay, because I always I kind
of had it in my head that chat GPT wouldn't
give you the most up to date information because the
specials are changing every every week, that it might not
be able to tell you the kind of the most
up to date place and things. But so far in
your experimentation, it seems pretty good.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
It even gave me a link to a YouTube recipe
to help me with my creamy chicken masta dish. So okay,
all right, maybe maybe I mean I do have something
very special going on between myself and chat chapt even
though you like to deny it.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
I'm just pointing out maybe.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Doing an extra few extra favors because we have a thing.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
It's a very one side the thing as we established before,
a quick one before we go to the break, bulk
buying advice, and this is I mean, you could just
you could listen to this podcast for that, Like you
don't need chat JBT for this. It is basically just
asking AI whether it's worthwhile buying something in bulk.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
The ESA is yes, I totally disagree.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Oh okay, right, good good chat.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
That is why I really like chat giddy because it
has that element of common sense, like how many times.
And you know tom My partner, he buys in bulk
and then we can't store it anywhere.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
A smart man.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Yeah, do you know how many navy blue and white
hats I have floating in boxes around our house, hundreds
and hundreds of them? Buys some in bulk, thinks it's
great saving money, and then obviously you need to think about,
well is it perishable? Can you maybe distribute it and
share this savings? So there's there is a lot of
sort of planning and logistics that goes along with bolk buying,
and particularly if you are someone who loves, for example, Costco,
(12:57):
which I had previously been a member, I'm not a
member of at the moment, I should review that. I'll
ast chat GPT. But you need to sort of think about, okay,
is it all about the cost of transport? Do I
need to drive somewhere to get it order to have
to pay for delivery? How can I actually I don't
need all of this product, and I need to say
a third of it. This is where chat with ChiPT
can help give you the right prompt or idea or
(13:19):
connection to then help maximize your savings and see if
they really are worth it.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Or not. Okay, I stand corrected. That is wow.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Oh my right down the date.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
I don't even know where that came from. Just that
wasn't what I was going to say. I was gonna ask.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
You didn't even mean it.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Thanks, It's kind of like your chat GPT relationship meaningless.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
I'm sorry, that was something really beautiful going on. Okay,
that was unnecessarily harsh, and I do apologize. Let's take
a quick break and when we come back we will
continue our list of the ways that chat GPT can
help you save on your grocery bill. All right, can
we are talking about grocery bills and the grocery budget
(14:03):
and how CHATJPT can help you save money buying groceries.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Every week, We've covered five methods so far. Let's go
for number six. These seasonal produce finders. So this is
where you're basically asking chat GPT which fruit and vegetables
are currently in season and cheaper to buy. Oh, that
feels like kind of chat JPT is phoning that one in.
You've got Google for that, right.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
I This is probably one of my favorite chat GPT.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
I'm on fire today because it gave.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Me so many great ideas. So I asked chat GPT,
you know what's fruit and vegetables or in season right now?
Explain to chat GPT. I'm want a budget, I want
to save some money, and I really want to make
sure I stretch out this food so at lasts all
year round. So not only did it give me the
list of fruits and vegetbles that were in season, and
then gave me a whole list of ideas to help
(14:56):
preserve my fruits, like canning and fermenting and all these
wonderful exotic things that I am sure are totally out
of my skill set in the kitchen, to help ensure
get the most value out of money. I do not laugh.
I was just a matter of time, so I actually
(15:19):
ignore it out freezing dehydration. Have you ever thought about
saving money through dehydration?
Speaker 1 (15:23):
But it's one of those things, right, Is it actually
going to save you money if you take up canny
or you take up dehydration of things? Because you end
up spending a fortune on the packaging for it, the
equipment you need for it, it feels as though it's
not actually worth it in the long run. You better
just to buy fresh, buy quality so you're not wasting anything.
You're not getting any dodgy blueberries in your punnet. You're
(15:43):
just getting good quality ones. You eat them all and
then you move on.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Do you not know the power of probiotics from a
fermented soutcraft.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
I could honestly say I do not.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Well, there are a lot of health benefits that come
from preserving and pickling food. Might I add it you
need to go get some some time on chat ChiPT
and maybe look at investing in your own relationship with
chat ChiPT.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
All right, probiotics from fermented.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Sourkrawd And I might add what if you learn how
to do jamming, you could make some beautiful raspberry strawberry jam,
maybe marmalade. Then you can use those gifts. You can
save money at Christmas time and birthdays. It's a very special,
intimate present. Intimate actually, it's a very personal present.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
I think I'm going to leave that one alone. I
don't want to know what to use jam for in
an intimate way.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
I appreciate it least, Oh God, Okay.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Number seven the leftover pantry test. Now, this is very
very similar to what was a number three, The one
way of saved stuff out of the fridge. The waste
reduction strategy. This is basically where you are providing a
random mix of staples that you have in your pantry
and putting together a budget friendly dinner idea.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Yes, so the anything that you know, those random things
that's how leftover from a meal that you made and
didn't use that ingredient, like you know, the cannellini beans
that you didn't use in that salad.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Capers, yeah, the capers caps.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Funny you said that I have capers in my Fridge's
probably never going to see the live of day. But
this is where you can put those ingredients in and
let it give you some ideas, and you can say, look,
I love salads, I love pasta dishes, I love risotto's,
So that there is not just of giving you some
you know, a generic list of meals. You actually can say,
these are the key ingredients and flavors that I love,
(17:31):
like I love Asian infusion or you know, I love
a great curry. So the more information you put in,
the better results.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Again and again, you can still apply all of what
we talked about in the very first one about kind
of how many people it's to serve. The budget has
got to come in under the dietary requirements, all of
these things, and you can apply this to any of
these ones that you're doing and really kind of test
out chat GPT and see how well it can go.
Number eight these store specific savings plan this one. If
(17:59):
this this one actually works, I reckon that's this is
pretty amazing. You can give a list of shops that
you say it's it's kind of the main soupermarkets, say
you're putting in woolies and colds and Aldi, maybe tossing
IgA and maybe Costco as well into this and asking
for strategies to save money at each one.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
So this was interesting. What I was slightly disappointed. Don't judge.
I said that it's listening, but you know, I got
a lot of generic advice, like you know, shopping at
particular times and you know, looking for the yellow sticker.
But it also reminded me of things that we often
do forget, like flybys, everyday rewards. And it did have
(18:43):
a couple of extra tips. From one which I really
liked is mentioned Harris Farm and it said make sure
you're following Harris Farm's Instagram page because it's a brilliant
source of what is obviously on special this week, but
also what is in season and what particular or vegetables
they have that are from the imperfect or bunch that
(19:03):
is heavily discounted, as well as a whole list of
meal ideas. So I thought that was I thought it
was interesting. There's a lot of Yes, I already knew that,
but there sometimes you need to be reminded of these
things as well, which is also very helpful and handy
because we can you know, forget to tap our card
with everyday rewards or you know, you know you love
your fly bys as well. So it definitely was helpful
(19:28):
and perhaps again you know, maybe I didn't put enough
information to chat GPT about this particular challenge, but it
was most definitely of value.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Okay, Number nine when we're running out of time here,
the family size customization, So you are providing chat APT
with the details of your family so and being quite
specific about ages and requirements kind of how much they
would eat, all that kind of thing, and trying to
(19:56):
get it to plan not just the meals but the
full clear grocery list and really kind of putting it
under some pressure to try and get kind of good
nutrition in there and to get enough food that's actually
going to fill kids up, for instance.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
So I had a bit of fun with this. I
put my three labradors in Oh wow. So I have
three labradors. They're big labradors. Giuseppi is twelve, so he's
an older dog. He needs food that's you know, has
some sort of arthritis supplement in there. Then I have
Peppy who's three, who's overweight permanently on a diet, so
(20:30):
she needs something that's you know, calorie restrictive. And then
I have Tulip who's two and she's still kind of
a puppy. She's quite lean and trying to sort of
fatten her up a bit. She's got lots of energy
to burn. So I put all of this into chat
GPT and chat GPT. Oh feeding three labradors, three large
laborators requires a substantial amount of quality dry food. Here
(20:52):
are some options in Sydney where you can find five
great deals for this week. And it went through five
different deals for each of the dogs and linked them,
but also gave me and landed on this brand. I've
never heard of it before. They said this week, Farm
and Yard are offering fifty percent off dog food for
(21:14):
twenty twenty five, and they said they provide a variety
of dry dog food options including chicken, lamb, salmon at
half priced throughout the year, and then of course provided
the link. So it actually addressed each of the concerns
for the three dogs and gave me best value for money,
and it gave me three options as well within each
of those five.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
So that's another big tick.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Oh, I was, well, I'm off to farm and yard.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
That's amazing, all right. Well, that's a really good use
for it. Final one number ten substituting expensive items. So
it is kind of naming some expensive and look, it
does feel like there's a little bit of overlap here
on this On this list, it is naming some expensive
things like say salmon, for instance, and asking it to
(22:03):
suggest cheaper alternatives but that are still going to be
good for you still meet a certain kind of nutritional requirement.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
So again I tested this out. I spend a lot
of time you did one on one with chat gpit.
So not only did chat GPT give me alternatives, but
also gave me ways of still being able to have
that particular ingredient, but in a more financially friendly way.
So I like salmon, love salmon, and so it listed,
you know, obviously have tuna instead of salmon, but then
(22:31):
it said obviously have canned tuna, canned salmon. Then it said,
you know, not having a larger quantity. So for example,
making a salmon salad and then stretching that portional filet
of salmon, I think it is across you know, three dishes,
instead of having one piece of salmon on one plate,
fattening it up with rice, with potatoes, with pasta, using
(22:55):
buying salmon where it's not necessarily fresh, it's been frozen
in the back. So it gave me lots of ways
to actually still be able to afford to buy salmon,
but in a more financially friendly manner. And the same
with I'd put in organic berries. I will admit I
do not buy organic berries, but it actually gave me
some really great ways to be able to afford organic
berries if I wanted to.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
We're going to test it just quickly, because we've only
got like thirty seconds.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Should we be using my chat GBT?
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Is it no? Yours has the weird stuff on it?
Yours has got weird stuff. We're not going anywhere near yours.
So what I'm doing right now, is I am asking
chat GBT. I'm assuming that the two of us are
going for a post podcast meal that we're going to
make ourselves. Okay, all right, and I have said, design
a budget meal under twenty dollars for two. I have apples, steak,
(23:51):
a little bit of leftover steak, some bread, a celery stick,
and some chocolate. And ACTUALLYBT, you said, here's a simple
satisfying meal plan using what you have with less than
twenty dollars, will buy a few extras to complete the
meal and create a three course dinner for two. This
is lucks. We are having for our starter celery and
(24:14):
cream cheese sticks. Yuh oh okay, I was being sarcastic.
For our main, we are having grilled rump steak sandwich.
That's combining the steak and the bread clever with garlic,
butter and apple. Slow. Oh fancy, that's a bit fancier
than you would normally expect. I would have just thought
it would just say, put the steak on the bread
(24:36):
and be done with it. And finally dessert chocolate dipped apples.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Yeah, and the whole thing. And it has the ingredients
to buy the things that we didn't have the cabbage
for the slaw, the cream, cheese, and a few other
bits and pieces, one bulb of garlic, and that all
comes in under twenty dollars. In fact, it's substantially less.
It's about kind of ten to eleven dollars. It's got
the cooking instructions, it has got everything that you need
(25:10):
to put this meal together. I reckon that's a pass
Would you say pass mark for that?
Speaker 2 (25:15):
You are tough.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
I mean, oh, I see the past fail Like I'm
not doing kind of high distinction, distinction credit all that
kind of thing. What would you give it?
Speaker 2 (25:25):
High distinction?
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Yes, it's the slaw that got you across the line,
doesn't it. You're a slaw theme all right? Well, look,
it's worth having a play around with CHATJPT. It certainly
can help save some money at the very least. It
gives you new ideas, right.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Absolutely, and it makes you realize you do not need
to head out to the supermarket all the time. We
actually have We do have a lot of things that
we can use up. And it's like our grandparents, they
wouldn't leave waste. We do.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Yeah, I love it. Look, if anybody wants more information
from you, where do they find you best.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Basically, in contact with me is Canna Campbell Official.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
On Instagram on Instagram Perfect and you can hear me
every day with Sean Aylmer on Fear and Greet daily
business news for people who make their own decisions. Thank
you very much for listening to How Today. Afford that
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