Like most personal finance bloggers, I love connecting with a great deal. For the past 6 years I’ve worked hard to pay off my debts and one of the most important budget areas that I looked at has been my food budget. During my debt-repayment journey I never ate ramen…unless it was posh ramen, and I didn’t scrimp on my food expenses. In fact, I still shopped at Whole Foods, ate organic, and ate avocado toast. The reality was that I was already cutting my expenses to the bone. But, eating bad food was not going to happen. I truly feel that food is part of managing my health and wellness. Eating crappy food was likely to get me sick, and if that happened I would end up paying more in health related costs.
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$100 Grocery Month (Give or Take)
This month was an ridiculously cheap grocery month. There were a couple of reasons why I spent around $100 give or take on groceries this month.
Savings Apps ROCK!
- Ibotta-If you haven’t downloaded this savings app (or something similar) you should! I’ve earned almost $450 from referrals and savings since I began using this app. It’s pretty straightforward.
- Download the app
- Look at the grocery store/retailer/Amazon to see what you can save on
- Unlock your savings. This is pretty easy to do and usually involves you watching a video or answering easy questions.
- Share your referral link. For each person who signs up with your affiliate link and redeems their first savings-you earn 5 dollars. The new user will earn 1o dollars towards their first payout (you need to reach $20 dollars in order to withdraw your savings)
- I earned $26 this month in Ibotta credits. Love this app so much and it’s a Colorado-based app. For those of you who know me, you know that I love Colorado!
Shopping Frequency
It’s very easy to find yourself popping into your favorite grocery store every time you’re running errands. And, if I’m being honest, I love buying food LOL! In fact, I love watching cooking shows, buying groceries, looking at food, and cooking for myself and others.
As a result, I found myself popping into grocery stores every time recipe inspiration and Pinterest got me excited about a new ingredient, recipe, or food concept.
Going to the grocery store several times a week becomes really expensive (and fattening). I work really hard now to only go once (maybe twice) a week to pick up groceries.
Now that I’m in my last $5,000 of debt-repayment, I’m doubling-down and cutting any unnecessary shopping out of my life. By breaking up with frequent grocery shopping, I’ve cut my grocery bills substantially.
Hello Fresh Affiliate Income
As a rule, I do not order meal kits that often because I think that they can be expensive and I’m a good cook. Typically, I choose to order boxes when I’m returning home from a trip and my fridge is empty. Or, I like to order a grocery box when I’ve accumulated some affiliate credits. This month I had $60 in Hello Fresh credit and so I ordered a box for free! The meals were absolutely fantastic (I chose the vegetarian options) and it was great not having to go to the grocery store that week.
If you’re curious about what it’s like to order a meal kit I would say that I prefer Hello Fresh to Blue Apron because Hello Fresh has less packaging overall. Both companies have fabulous recipes and both are very user friendly for those of you who are cooking novices.
For a limited time new users can sign up with my affiliate link and get $40 off your first order. It’s a great way to see how it works. Also, you can skip delivery weeks up to 4 weeks ahead. I like the ability to schedule my deliveries because that option makes it easy for me to manage my food expenses.
Champagne Life
Currently I work a fun side-hustle with a friend of mine who manages a brand ambassador team. A couple of weeks ago we were working at a 5k/10k race that ended up having a random blizzard blow through.
Yep, a blizzard.
And, because Colorado people are hardcore-a ton of people still showed up! But, the race’s no show numbers doubled (as you would expect). As a result there was a ton of goodies left over and all of the people working the race got epic swag.
I left with bottles of champagne, high-end yogurt, and the list goes on. I now make a point of bringing Tupperware so that I can bring home other goodies from a fun event.
Free Product
Whenever I encounter a brand ambassador working a demo at an event or around town, I always ask if they have a coupon. Often they have coupons for FREE PRODUCT. I received a number of free product coupons that I redeemed in October. Here are some examples of products that I got for free.
- CharCutNuvo–Elk and Pork Bratwurst (Colorado Company-freaking delicious)
- Rebel Drinks
- Kevita kombucha
And a few other yummy items! My whole point of sharing this post is to show how you can change habit, strategize, and make some small changes to create a significant savings in your grocery budget. According to the USDA a single, thrifty woman spends on average $162.50 a month on groceries. I was well below that.
Some things to note:
- I’ve begun stocking up my pantry for the winter and I’m able to create meals from what I have stocked.
- The majority of my meals are eaten at home (with the occasional happy hour thrown in).
- Food as entertainment is a very low part of my budget with the exception of going out for coffee. I do plan on cutting my coffee budget substantially starting in November.
- Food quality is NEVER skimped on. In fact, I don’t eat fast food ever and very rarely eat fast casual (unless I have a coupon).
My 100 Grocery Month
You can eat well on a budget but it’s a process of creating mindful decisions. The more you work the process the easier it becomes. It’s very easy for me to eat well on a low-budget. Use Pinterest, cooking shows, and recipe sites to figure out the best meals for you.
Also, always know what’s in your pantry. Let me know how much you save next month on groceries!
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Wow, that race goody bag thing was quite a stroke of luck, eh? Sounds like quite the confluence of events to bring your grocery bill so low. Hope you enjoyed your Hello Fresh meals!
I don’t cook, but I try to eat at least nominally healthily (nom-nominally healthily?) with protein bars, peanut butter and some relatively low-fat, low-sodium frozen meals. It means I’ll never have a $100 month, but I still only average about $5/day in food costs, which isn’t bad. Of course, that doesn’t include meals out, but that’s a work in progress.
That race was insane because most of the runners STILL ran it during a Blizzard. I’m thinking about cracking open the second bottle once I get the rest of the unsecured debt paid off which looks like will happen in May. I think that $155 a month is fantastic. I cook a lot and right now I’m happy that we’re moving into Spring/Summer because I eat a ton of veggies and fruit.