What I Spend on Food
So I’m cleaning out my archive and found some unpublished content. While the numbers are a bit dated, I thought the story they told was still interesting, Here is the post.
I’ll start this post with a few charts. For 2022 through September I spend $1,874 on groceries, and $247 on dining out. This is an average of $208 on groceries and $27 on eating of a month for 2 people.
You might think this sounds great, but in 2021, my total was $1,960 for groceries for the whole year. But I did spend $451 on eating out. Most of it was in December, when I went on vacation.
My averages per month last year were $168 a month for groceries and $35 for eating out.
How do I make my bill so low?
Well, I think the first is obvious: I don’t eat out much. That's probably the first trick to lowering your food bills. The second is I do a good amount of cooking and food prep myself. I find the more raw ingredients you use, the cheaper and the healthier. You can buy prepared food, like freezer meals, but they can add up. Instead, potatoes, pasta, rice, and vegetables can be cheap. I use lots of onions, carrots, and whatever other produce I can find at the 99 cent only store (RIP). It actually can be pretty fun at times, they have all sorts of crazy stuff. I often buy shallots and other ingredients you might think should be more expensive.
The biggest trick to saving money while cooking is to just cook what you have. Whatever is in your fridge right now, make a meal based on that! Other than that, just look for events with free food. Or best combine all these. Right now, I’m eating a crazy toast I have ever thought of it is jalapeno sourdough (from the 99 cent only store), butter, raspberry preserves (also from the 99 cent only store), jalapenos on top with feta cheese (left over from a work event). It is a crazy combination, one I would never think to make except for the fact all the ingredients were in my fridge and needed to be used. A great way to spark creativity is constraint! With too many options it can be impossible to choose, to pick a direction. So eliminate some directions with a constraint.
I suppose the last thing I will mention is, at my job (and every other professional role I have had), if you work late, work pays for dinner. Now working all the time for just free dinner may or may not be worth it to you, I’m not sure I entirely had a choice in the matter, but it is a way to save money on food, have work pay for it. I certainly did this at EY as well, and even talk about it on the show, there were some months where I spent less than $20 on food!
I think all of this isn’t to say you should never eat out, I know I do. But also, actually, after eating so much doordash at work, often all I want is a nice home cooked meal. If you do eat out though, be conscious, be intentional, don’t just do it because it is easy. Sometimes challenges are good for us, rise to occasion and cook something!
Some related episodes:
Reducing Food Waste
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0wR48DT5PP5q39zsDsehu1?si=N9e8RYFxSzCMKjjBaShP9A
Coronas, stocks, and Vons
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5GjXMDvnvrnA9vB9abCEvY?si=qVl99IGhRC-XhXANr7SGvw
More Food Tips
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2ospomS8Ikmiq4MFZMSCyI?si=zF40yRIgQrC86uiP7gUKXw
Cleaning and Dollar Tree
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0BIQTvvAX5WI8Ld9j5p8NH?si=L9mJo5l9TfawgxkKcZNvIg
Apps to get Free Food
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3DhaqP4De6GjZm1WHICzdq?si=l8Ch-OdaT8CAUoq-Iw--1A
Comments
Post a Comment