I consider myself an extremely budget conscious person. Just like some people spend a lot of time creating a lifestyle around eating healthy and going to the gym, I like to create and think about a healthy financial lifestyle. Just when you think there is no more room for creating extra realistic improvements, something always pops up.
Since beginning on my journey to starting a business, it became necessary to re-establish my budget and come up with more creative ways to spend less money, but not feel deprived. When you start a company it's a) expensive, and b) a huge risk. All of a sudden, you constantly have to make decisions that seem to be based on the potential survival of your new baby (your business) or that item or experience you want. This creates real motivation to reshape your thinking.
Then it hit me and everything changed. The number one thing I could really change was my diet.... and that I could literally eat my way to savings. This change is the simplest one, yet the most spiritually rewarding and the BIGGEST savings I've literally ever been able to maintain with such ease. Reverting back to the health nut metaphor; it's like discovering that great workout style that you know is just for you and makes you eager to keep it up.
I want to start off by giving you exact numbers before anything else so you can see the difference in spending and how much this "eating my way to savings" looks precisely. 2015 vs. 2014. At first you'll think it's unrealistic as I would have thought last year when I was really proud of how savvy I thought my "groceries/eating out budget" was. Yeah, not so much anymore. I've waited 6 months to talk about it because I wanted to make sure it was actually sustainable and an idea I believed in. Then I want to explain EXACTLY what I've been doing.
* Please note that I prefer to create a weekly budget rather than a monthly budget as it tends to provide for greater accuracy.
2014 Weekly Budget:
Groceries: $150 every two weeks ($75 per week)
Eating Out: $100 per week (Includes any meal outside of my home - lunch at work, dinner with friends, happy hour, brunch on weekends, blue apron, delivery, coffee, snacks)
Total Weekly Budget: $175 per week
Total Spent 2014: $9,100 (Groceries: $3,900 + Eating Out: $5,200)
2015 Weekly Budget:
Groceries: $ 75 every three weeks ($25 per week)
Eating Out: $50 per week (I limit myself to one happy hour a week ($10), 2 meals out a week ($15-25), 1 brunch every 2 weeks ($30-$40)
Total Weekly Budget: $75 per week
Total Spent 2015: $3,900 (Groceries: $1,300 + Eating Out: $2,600)
TOTAL SAVINGS: $5,200
The biggest saving factors with regards to grocery shopping changes is to focus my efforts on learning 4 specific things. All which have completely changed the dynamics of how and how much I spend in the grocery store.
1) Learn how to use flour (wheat, corn, barley, spelt etc)
2) Learn how to use oil, vinegar, butter, yogurt, spices, sugar
3) Learn how to use all parts of meat/vegetables/fruits (fat, juices, seeds,
4) Learn how to make basic sauces/dressings
I know it may seem time consuming to "learn how to cook," the way we imagine our grandparents and great grandparents did (maybe even still our own parents for some of us), but the benefits to making the time to both learn and prepare are exponentional; you eat healthier (far fewer processed foods), you reduce food-waste, you learn so much about the nature of produce and its chemistry, you support farmers, you improve your taste palette and creativity, it provides for a wonderful activity with partners/friends/children, and the savings are seriously outstanding.
And there you have it, the introduction. My next posts will focus specifically on each of the 4 items listed above with what I've learned, what you can make, how to make it, how much it costs etc.
Happy shopping and even happier eating everyone!!