My grocery budget finally broke after 4 years of steady wins

Last Wednesday I walked out of Aldi with a full cart for $47 and realized I've been pricing out every item by the unit for so long it's just automatic now, but then I got home and found out my roommate accidentally threw away my meal prep containers and I had to start the week over.

3 comments

3 Comments

terry_barnes1mo ago

Why does everyone act like this is some big revelation though? Tracking what you spend is literally just basic adulting. My grandma did this her whole life without making it some weird flex. The real secret is stop buying stuff you know you're gonna throw away. If you can't eat a whole bag of spinach before it goes bad, don't buy it. Simple as that. This whole self-congratulatory thing about "breaking your grocery budget" just feels like overcomplicating what should be common sense.

willow_garcia1mo ago

Used to think people who tracked every penny were being too extra, but last month I helped my sister move and saw her fridge packed with prepped meals she calculated down to the ounce. Started doing it myself and I'm saving like $30 a week now. It really does become automatic after a while, doesn't it?

charles9191mo ago

Oh man, same here lol. I started doing it with just my coffee habit - was spending like $5 a day at the shop and didn't even realize it added up to over $100 a month. Once I started tracking that one thing, I went down the rabbit hole. Now I meal prep every Sunday and I swear I spend maybe $40 a week on groceries total instead of like $80. The biggest thing for me was writing down what I actually waste. Like I used to buy bags of spinach and half would rot. Now I plan my meals around what I already have first. It's kinda fun once you get the hang of it, like a little puzzle.