Have you ever done something that you thought was totally normal, only to be met with shock when you shared it with the rest of the world?
The first time this happened to me was when I went to college, and realized everyone thought I was nuts for safety pinning my socks together in the wash. ROLLING THEM UP JUST ISN’T THE SAME.
And the most recent time this happened to me was when I shared my monthly grocery bill on this site. I quickly realized my grocery spending must not be all that normal, especially after getting comment after comment from MyMoneyWizard.com Email Subscribers like this:
I wanna know how you only spend $100 something on groceries a month. That absolutely blows my mind. Haha. Please share your secrets.”
How the hell do you spend so little on groceries every month? What are you buying? Top Ramen? Obviously I kid, but seriously. What are you buying?”
Also, how do you keep your grocery bill so low? Have you ever posted something like a weekly/monthly menu of what you make to keep it so frugal?”
Ask and you shall receive!
A Look Inside a Week of The Money Wizard’s Grocery Shopping
I’m writing this a few minutes after getting back from the usual once-a-week grocery store trip, and I snapped a pic of this week’s haul before I put everything up. Here’s what a typical week’s worth of groceries looks like for Lady Money Wizard and I:
That cost is for two people. So, we’re looking at an overall cost of less than $35 per person, or less than $150 a month.
Considering the USDA’s most recent cost of food report pegs even the cheapest grocery budget around $190 per person a month (and goes all the way up to $370 a month!) apparently my shopping habits are a big outlier after all.
Let’s run through the process start to finish, and see if we can uncover any secrets.
Step 1. The Meal Plan
I’ve found if I don’t get a head start on meal planning over the weekend, all the wheels tend to come off during the week. And before I know it, I’ll have defaulted to ordering takeout for the third night in a row.
To avoid this costly fate, my typical routine now involves throwing together a weekly meal plan Sunday morning, and then going grocery shopping sometime during the day.
To be fair, “Meal Planning” makes it sound pretty fancy. The reality is, I’ll just turn to Lady Money Wizard and say, “Hey, what do you feel like eating this week?”
To help jog the memory, I keep a running note of all my favorite meals on my phone. Any time we try a new recipe that’s a keeper, I’ll add it to the ever-growing list.
If I’m feeling really adventurous, I’ll spend a few minutes browsing my go-to food blogs for new meals to try. Some of my favorites include:
- AllRecipes.com – no surprise here, this is probably the biggest recipe website on the internet.
- Foodwishes Youtube Channel – Chef John has an insanely popular youtube channel, and his recipes are pretty easy and always delicious.
- BudgetBytes.com – Beth has tons of simple and tasty recipes with an emphasis on saving cash. I especially like that she breaks down the exact cost of each recipe.
- SeriousEats.com – Their “Food Lab” section is legendary for their super in-depth recipes. If I’m looking to do some serious cheffing to make the best of the best, no corners cut, I’ll go here.
Typically, we try to plan for 5 full dinners at home. For us, this is a nice balance, and it usually leaves Friday and Saturday to treat ourselves to dinner out as a reward for staying on track all week.
Dinner Plan
This week, we settled on these 5 meals:
- Crock Pot Pulled Pork – a classic. Slow cookers are great, because you can set them early in the morning and come home from work to a nice warm meal, ready to go.
- Slow Cooker Beef and Broccoli – we’ve made this one several times, and it’s always a hit.
- Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Lemon Tahini Dressing – I need to up my salad game, but this recipe is a great start. It’s one of the few salads I’ve enjoyed enough to make a full meal out of.
- Apple Cider Dijon Pork Chops, with a side of sweet potatoes and apples – another one that makes a regular appearance in the Money Wizard kitchen. We always like to include at least one simple “meat with a side of veggies” type of meal per week.
- Chicken Pot Pies – never made this one before, but Lady Money Wizard felt like doing some baking. Excited to see how it turns out!
Lunch Plan
My usual go-to lunch is some cooked chicken with hot sauce, and a side of yogurt, fruits, and maybe some cheese sticks. Usually I cheat and just pick up a rotisserie chicken, which I can turn into about 4 portions for $5-7 total. Simple and healthy, and comes out to about $3 a meal.
This week I didn’t grab any rotisserie chicken, so I’ll probably just bring in leftovers from dinner. Most times, dinner leftovers make for a full lunch on their own, but if I’m looking for sides I’ll just grab whatever fruits and veggies are on sale.
Breakfast Plan
I stopped eating breakfast a while ago. It turns out, all that B.S. about it being the most important meal of the day is based on research funded by… Kellog’s Cereal.
On the other hand, there’s tons of legitimate, unbiased research showing the fat loss and lean body mass benefits of intermittent fasting, which is another fancy term to explain going 12-16 hours per day without eating. Which sounds really brutal, until you realize that if you just skip breakfast, you’re already at 12+ hours.
I’ve found my body adjusts to this quickly, and after 2-3 days I’m no longer hungry in the mornings.
This is a pretty awesome hack, because:
- I can now eat pretty much whatever I want during the rest of the day and stay at a healthy weight, because I’m not going over my daily calorie limit.
- I only have to fund two meals per day, instead of three.
The second point might be overblown, because breakfast food is crazy cheap, but I’ll count it anyway.
(For the record, Lady Money Wizard thinks I’m nuts for skipping breakfast, and she typically makes a quick morning smoothie with a banana, frozen fruit, and a little bit of milk + yogurt.)
Step 2. Grocery Shopping
Meal plan in hand, the shopping excursion started at Aldi and finished at Cub Foods, where I picked up the last few straggler ingredients. Start to finish, the whole process took me about an hour.
Earlier in the article, I already spoiled the total cost ($69.37) but what does $69 of well-planned groceries buy you?
(Full confession: The reason this article is getting published this week is because I finally remembered to save my receipt…)
| Money Wizard’s Grocery Receipt | |
| Milk (half gallon) | $1.29 |
| Greek Yogurt (5 packages @ $0.69 ea) | $3.45 |
| Butter package (4 sticks) | $2.49 |
| Bananas (1.8 lbs) | $0.83 |
| Chickpeas (One 15 oz can) | $0.79 |
| Sweet Potatoes (2 lbs) | $1.72 |
| Shredded Carrots | $1.69 |
| Cilantro | $0.69 |
| Green Onions | $0.69 |
| Red Onions | $1.69 |
| Organic Spring Mix | $3.99 |
| Apples (Fuji) | $3.39 |
| Raspberries | $2.29 |
| Cauliflower (1 large head) | $1.89 |
| Broccoli (1 large head) | $1.89 |
| Beef Stock | $1.49 |
| Chicken Stock | $1.29 |
| BBQ Sauce | $1.99 |
| Basmati Rice (2 lbs) | $2.99 |
| Wheat Hamburger Buns (8 pack) | $2.50 |
| Pie Crust Mix | $2.49 |
| Soy Sauce | $1.89 |
| Porkchops (2.01 lbs @ $2.89) | $5.81 |
| Pork Loin (3.12 lbs @ 1.89) | $5.90 |
| Angus Sirloin Tip Steak (1.79 lbs @ $4.79) | $8.57 |
| Chicken Breast (3 lbs @ 1.89) | $5.67 |
| Total Cost | $69.37 |
Overall, this is a pretty standard trip, if not a little on the high end. I’d say $50-60 is more typical, which makes sense since this receipt was a little meat heavy.
And by a little, I mean there’s absolutely no way the two of us will eat 12 and a half pounds of meat in one week. I’m guessing we’ll stash quite a bit of frozen leftovers, which should push the monthly price down even further.
Step 3. Cheffin’ It Up
To the kitchen we go!
With a little bit of creativity (read: blind following of online recipes) we transformed our raw ingredients to these gems.
Apple Cider Dijon Pork Chops, with a failed attempt at that cool sauce swirl the chefs always do:
Chickpea salad with lemon tahini dressing:
DELICIOUS homemade chicken pot pie:
Slow cooker pulled pork, getting reheated in the saute pan for BBQ sandwiches:
I never did grab a pic of the beef and broccoli, but I promise that it looked (and tasted!) really, really good.
This was A TON of food. So much so, that I spent the whole workweek eating leftovers for lunch. Which reminds me…
Don’t forget about the leftovers!
If I’m trying to show exactly what “one week’s worth of groceries” cost, this has to be the worst example of that. (I know, great planning, Money Wiz…)
Because even after all was said and done, we had enough leftovers to freeze two full servings of pulled pork and 2 pounds of unused chicken breasts. We also had 2 leftover onions, at least 1 pound of unused rice, a few yogurts, a whole bunch of barbeque sauce, and even a couple of hamburger buns.
Realistically, that equals nearly another week of meals for one person. Which is enough to bring down the true grocery cost per person to about $25 per week.
Conclusion – Shop cheap, live healthy, and save cash.
So there you have it. An affordable way to pack your pantry with real, nutritious food that’s healthy AND cheap.
Obviously, this is just one week, picked randomly based on my availability to type out a whole post, and more importantly, finally remembering to save a receipt for once in my life.
But I think it’s a pretty solid glimpse into my typical routine. And hopefully it gives you some tips for saving money and cutting the waste (ie… snacks and pre-made meals) from your grocery cart.
At the same time, we’re not exactly going rice-and-beans for every meal either.
Instead, this sort of approach is relaxed enough that if you want to go even cheaper, there’s definite wiggle room to do that. And if someone tells you how expensive it is to eat healthy, you can laugh them right out of the kitchen as you chomp down your fifth delicious meal of the week.
PS – If you’re interested in easily tracking your grocery spending, I highly recommend Personal Capital. It automatically monitors your spending, helps you avoid getting overcharged on fees, and is the app I personally use to track my net worth every month.
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Hey I personally spend $100 fortnightly on groceries for single person but I do include some junk food. Loved the idea of slow cooker, have to go and buy one now would be handy. Personally I do like my breakfast of porridge with fruit or toast n eggs keeps me going until lunch. I usually cook enough for two days and freeze and reheat or stirfry with fresh veges n rice with different sauces to keep it interesting. Still Great post and would love to hear more in future.
Slow cookers really are amazing. So are their cousins, the Pressure Cooker, as I’m just now learning.
At some point I want to expand this post, or even make a follow up, with even more tips.
That would be great anything to making home cooking easier.
Can we see an updated, Fall 2022 week of grocery expenses? Just out of pure curiosity.
That’s a great idea! I’ll add it to the list.
Well done! You beat me to the punch (or post I should say 🙂 ) I’m currently tracking all my grocery purchases through the month of February to show how I averaged just over $30/week in groceries last year as I’ve been asked this question several times too haha.
I’ve also done Intermittent fasting over the last few years, and while it certainly helps on the grocery bill, I’ve also noticed it’s done wonders for my health and waistline!
Very cool. I’m looking forward to seeing your post! Feel free to drop it in these comments when you publish.
Where do you live that groceries are so cheap? I’m on the Maine coast where most everything on your list is close to double the price.
I’m in Minnesota. Where are you shopping though? My prices could easily be double or triple if I went to some of the fancy grocery stores around here.
Do you keep flour around? You can make pie crust with flour, butter, water, and salt (I use butter AND Crisco because I’m fancy like that but Crisco is cheap and lasts forever).
I say this because I saw the “pie crust mix” on your grocery list and my inner frugal circled it in red as a savings opportunity.
The inner frugal! A blessing and a curse sometimes, but that’s a great tip.
I had the se thought. I buy meat from my neighbor and always get bags of pig fat to render into lard. So no crisco here. I always make my own pie crusts. It tastes way better and its cheaper too. I probably have 5 years worth of lard right now though since i just taught a few friends to do it. Also, you could make chickpeas in your crockpot instead of buying cans. You can get a bag of chickpeas for the same price as 1 can and make at least 8 cans worth from a bag. You do have to plan ahead but you are already using your crockpot for that. Thanks for posting this, Id love to see how much it would coat to “start” a kitchen. When you have nothing? Because your list assumes you already have certain things at home.
This is awesome! Sadly grocery prices are insanely more expensive up here in Canada, looking at some of your prices has me laughing.
Felt the same way while reading the prices!
Learning to fabricate your own proteins can help slim down your bill even more! Just look at the two pork products you listed above: Chops: $2.89 Whole Loin: $1.89. The only difference is a single knife stroke… Next round try picking up two loins (or better yet a full loin) and process the sub-primal cut into a couple roasts and numerous chops. Freeze what you cannot eat that same week. Same applies to a whole chicken; two people can get 4 meals out of the average chicken including the stock.
Great tips!
We do our grocery shopping on Sunday too. I’ve made a good shopping list that has all the items we tend to buy, and because we only circle what we need, it’s greatly reduced our costs.
I didn’t see any mention of iBotta, Checkout 51, or any of the other “cashback” shopping apps. Do you use any of those as well and factor that in? Those can be traps themselves though if you’re not disciplined enough to only buy what you need though haha.
We also do the same thing about finding recipes online, and we’ve added https://foodimentary.com to our go-to sites as well. It shares all of the National and International “Food Holidays”…National Margarita Day and Chili Day are right around the corner 😉 it makes planning a menu pretty fun, and comes back around to trying new recipes.
I love ibotta, but it doesn’t work at Aldi here, unfortunately. I use it for Target, Walmart, etc. though if I happen to find myself there.
I’ll definitely check out foodimentary. Thanks!
Awesome tips! We like to batch cook on the weekend to save time during the weekdays, plus we can guarantee that we always have fresh, healthy food prepared to eat so we don’t have an excuse to go-out-to-eat…as long as you cook most of your meals at home you can eat really well for pretty cheap. However, I think you missed out on highlighting a really important part, that shopping at places like Aldi can save you a ton of money! Especially if you shop based on the produce that is on “sale” which is typically the produce that is in season. Plus, Aldi has many organic items at great prices compared to other stores!
Great tips Lara! Discount grocery stores and shopping the sales are huge.
Love the batch cooking idea, too.
Great article, thank you for posting.
Do you have any beverages with dinner (alcohol/ tap water/ sparkling cider, etc.)? I just noticed milk (ingredient for the smoothie).
I pretty much only drink water at home. Tastes better IMO and doesn’t carry the slippery slope of soda or alcohol.
Thank you for breaking this down. Sadly, the prices for everything you listed are much higher in California. But I agree that you’ll save money making food at home!
By the way, your meals look delicious!
Thanks!
Pretty similar for us — $500 a month for a family of 4. Works out to be $31.25 per individual per week.
Not that we track what we spend it on, we just buy good healthy food that we want to eat and it ends up being pretty affordable.
Interesting post and not something that gets enough attention considering food typically falls into the ‘big 3’ bucket in terms of most peoples living expenses but I couldn’t help but take note of your closing conclusion ‘Shop cheap, live healthy, and save cash’. Curious what your take is on balancing living a healthy lifestyle vs spending more on groceries ie buying cage free eggs, organic veggies/fruits, grass fed beef, antibiotic/hormone free chicken, etc?
It’s a personal choice, but for me, and having known many farmers, most of the organic/cage free/antibiotic free is marketing nonsense with minimal health benefits.
I’ll probably look more closely when I’m a millionaire. Until then it’s a luxury that I don’t see as worth the cost right now.
Would love to see a post on whether you and lady money wizard will ever blend finances and how you think about net worth goals at that point. My husband and I are steam rolling ahead to $1M but we have blended finances so the goal is really 2M for full fledged FU financial independence.
Yeah, no. You’re not going to get food prices like that here in CA. A half gallon of milk hasn’t been $1.29 probably since the 90’s.
https://mymoneywizard.com/high-cost-of-living-dumb-retirement-excuse/
Also, Aldi/Costco/Discount Grocers.
Thanks for sharing this! My husband and I are inspired by your weekly meal planning. We know exactly what you mean about things going off the rails regarding dining out if we don’t have a plan of attack for the week.
My question is: what about other items to live that aren’t food? You didnt include toilet paper, soap, razors, laundry detergent, vitamins, or so many other things my family puts on our grocery list. Those are the true culprits of our grocery bill.