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Found a weird trick for keeping my grocery budget under control
I was blowing through $600 a month on food for just me and my wife, and it was killing me. Tried meal planning, cash envelopes, all the usual stuff, but nothing stuck for more than a couple weeks. Then about 3 months ago I started doing a reverse inventory thing where I write down everything in the pantry and fridge before I even look at a store ad. Turns out I had like 8 cans of beans and 4 boxes of pasta I forgot about, so I built meals around that stuff first. Now I'm down to around $400 a month and we're actually eating through what we have instead of letting it rot. Anyone else got a weird system that works better than the obvious advice?
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jordan_young1mo agoMost Upvoted
Heard some guy call it "shopping your own pantry." Made sense to me.
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phoenix3311mo ago
My cousin told me about a similar system where she takes a photo of her fridge and pantry with her phone before she goes shopping, that way she can check it at the store instead of guessing. @tarar27 you're right about those surprise onions, I had the same thing happen with a bag of potatoes that grew eyes before I noticed them. The big change for me was realizing how much money I was wasting on duplicates of stuff I already had, like buying another bottle of hot sauce because I forgot about the one hiding behind the mustard. Now I do the photo thing every Sunday and it honestly cut my grocery bill by about a third without changing what we actually eat. It sounds too simple to work but the visual reminder really stops you from buying stuff you don't need.
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tarar271mo ago
@jordan_young nailed it. My friend did this and found a whole bag of onions she forgot.
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