Vent: I switched from a weekly grocery run to a monthly one and it cut my food bill by $200.

I used to go to the store every Friday and spend about $150, but it always felt like I was just grabbing things and the total added up fast. Last month, I planned a single big trip to the Safeway in Chandler, spent $400, and forced myself to make it work. The difference was having to actually use what I bought instead of constantly adding new stuff, which stopped all those small impulse buys. Has anyone else made a big change to their shopping routine that actually stuck?

3 comments

3 Comments

tarashah1mo ago

My friend in Tempe tried the monthly shop thing and saved like a hundred bucks. She just bought a ton of rice, beans, and frozen chicken first, then built meals around that. It forced her to get creative and she stopped buying random snacks every week.

thomas.cameron1mo ago

How much did she spend on that first big shop?

victor_clark601mo ago

That's a huge drop. I'm stuck on the planning part. How did you figure out what to buy for a whole month? Did you just make one giant list of meals, or did you focus on stocking up on pantry stuff and frozen things first?