How Do I Save Money at the Grocery Store?

You're at the grocery store and that total pops up and your stomach just drops. You're trying to feed your family and stay within your budget, but groceries keep blowing it up, don't they?On today's show, I want to talk about what you can do next without shame and without starving your peace. Hey, friend. Ralph Estep Jr. I want to thank you so much for joining me on today's show.This is financially Confident Christian, where every day my goal is to help you break that cycle of financial shame and truly live in confidence. And today's topic is a topic that I think we all can profit from, and it's how to lower grocery spending without feeling guilty about it.This is one of the big things that affects so many of our budgets. So let's get right into today's listener question. Ralph, grocery costs are crushing me right now.I'm trying to feed my family and still stay within a budget, and it feels impossible. What are some practical ways to lower spending on food without shame? What a great question, great way to. To talk about things today.And I mentioned this the other day. We talked about budgets and we were talking about living on that tight budget. So here's the big thing I want to mention right now.You don't need a perfect budget. Maybe for you, you just need a simpler grocery system that you can repeat. So let's get right into that today.My big number one thing that I recommend that you do. And it's funny, my wife and I were talking about this yesterday.We were in the grocery store and I said, I'm going to do a show this week about groceries. And she goes, yeah. She says, ralph, everything is so expensive. I said, you're right. I said, but here's the first thing I want everybody to do.Name your number before you enter the store. Here's exactly where I'm going with this. Pick a weekly grocery cap. Just pick one clear number. This is what I am going to spend on groceries.And know that number before you go in the store. Once you know that, then you're like, okay, here's my plan. If something isn't planned, guess what? You don't buy it.One of the ways that if things are feeling really tight, one things you can do, and we'll talk about this in a second, but you can subtract those things that aren't planned, those things that you just can't afford to get this week. And if you're living right now, you're like, ralph, grocery costs are getting higher and higher. I get it. Trust Me, I understand that inflation.I don't know where you live. I'm gonna tell you right now, in the United States, it's a struggle. Groceries are a struggle. So maybe right now we got to lower that pressure some.Just the short term plan. We're not going to blame ourselves. We're going to say, here's the number we can spend. Here's the second thing I'm going to recommend.And my wife and I talked about this yesterday. Build what I call the same 10 list. These are 10 repeatable staples that your family actually eats.These are the things that we know we're going to eat. I don't know what you eat in your culture or where you eat in your family. What are those staples are if you build a grocery list.And again, I'm going to say this, building a grocery list is a great idea. Before you go to this store, put it on the list. Because here's the thing, and I'm not picking on the grocery stores.Their goal is for you to spend on the way out the door. That's why they have those aisles with all the fun stuff as you're checking out, because they want you to spend more.But build that same 10 list and shop those things first. When you first enter the store, go get those absolute 10 things you need to get.And then once you see where you're at, then you can add some what I'll call fun items. But maybe you say, look, I'm only going to add three items into the fun list. Maybe I have a budget, I'm going to spend an extra $10 on fun items.But no, you're going to get to those 10 things because it's so easy for this stuff to get out of hand. It's funny, we were checking out the grocery store the other night and the lady asked me, she said, did you find everything you were looking for?I said, yep. And I found stuff I wasn't looking for also. But that's just the truth, right? We go into the store. Now don't go in there hungry.Have a list, have a number, have a plan. Here's another thing, practical advice. Cook once and stretch twice.So for everything you cook, plan two base meals that turn into two follow up meals. Here's a great idea. Let's say you like rotisserie chicken. My wife does some beautiful things at Rotisserie Chicken. You can do other things with that.You can make some chicken salad. You can have a for tacos or soup and rice bowls, whatever that looks like for you. There's Ways to stretch these things.You can take ground meat and beans and make chili and baked potatoes and nachos. And here's the thing. A lot of people don't realize this. Leftovers aren't failure. They're your future provisions. Leftovers.To be honest with you, I think the leftovers are better than the first course. But build that into your plan. Here's another thing I recommend you do. Use what I call the swap ladder.When prices spike, when you notice that things are going up in price, have a spike ladder. For example, let's say that you buy vegetables. Well, fresh vegetables are your. That's what you'd rather have.I think all of us would rather have fresh vegetables. Well, guess what? My wife picked on me the other day. I love to eat strawberries. I eat strawberries for breakfast every day.And she says, ralph, it's winter in the United States. Strawberries are not in season. Guess where the strawberries are coming from. A different culture, A different place. Far away.Well, if they're coming from somewhere else, guess what that means? They're more expensive. So on the latter, we say, okay, well, right now we're going to do frozen strawberries. They're so much more affordable.I think we got a four pound bag of frozen strawberries for 20% of what it would have cost for fresh. And here's the best part of that. They were already cut up. I didn't have to deal with cutting them up.But maybe for canned vegetables you can do the same thing. Sure, you want the fresh. Maybe the frozen is still expensive. Go with the canned. Here's another great idea.Maybe you're one of those people, I got to have brand name. But you don't always have to have brand name. Shop the store brand. Now, here's a big takeaway. Don't just go all into the store brands.Experiment a little bit. Maybe you'd like. I got a friend of mine, he likes to eat chili, and he likes a particular brand of chili that he gets from a can that's a name brand.And I said to him, I said, dude, why don't you disturb it? And he goes, oh, I've always had this one. I said, do me a favor. You want to save a few bucks, try the store brand. Just buy one can.He comes back to me a week later. He says, ralph, the store brand's better than the name brand. I said, flip the can over. Here's a little secret. It's made by the same company.It's just the store has their label on it. Now that doesn't mean it's always the same, but that's an idea. You can do that.Move from the name brand to the store brand again, try out different stores. Different grocery stores have different options. Here's a big one. I was picking on my younger son the other day about this.He loves to buy those easy to grab the bag and go snacks. Here's the problem. Those individual snacks cost more. Why? Because of the packaging. They got to seal up every little bag, like Doritos.My son loves Doritos. He buys this little bags of Doritos. What's easy as I'm going out the store to work, I said, dude, buy a big bag and then portion them out.He goes, what am I going to portion in? I said, buy some containers. It says it's going to cost you a lot of money. Buy seven containers and every day pack a container. Then wash them out.At the end of the day, don't go buy extra Ziploc bags. I'm throwing a name brand out there. But don't buy bags, because then you're just throwing those away. Buy something reusable.And maybe you love beef, but you're like, well, you know what? We're in the red zone. We talked about red zone yesterday and budgeting. Maybe right now, beef isn't affordable.So maybe eat some chicken thighs or maybe eat some eggs and beans. Think about the things you can swap out. Here's another thing I'm going to encourage you to do. Protect your cart from those silent extras.And there's a guilty as charged. We were checking out the other day, and I said, oh, look at this. Now, I'm not one to eat a lot of candy bars. I'm trying to really watch my sugar.But I saw this Snickers bar as we were leaving the store, and it was right there in front of us. And I said, hmm, I get this. Now. Look at the price. It's three bucks.Of course, the grocery, and I'm not saying they're nefarious in doing this, but they're putting those things in front of you. Like, grocery stores have no impulse lines. If you're an impulse buyer, go to the no impulse. Another great idea.And my wife does this for most of the time. We get groceries, she does an online order, and then we go to the store, back the car up, and they load it in. Guess what? No impulse buying then.Because it's whatever on your list. So that can be a great way to do it. But keep those things out of your cart.The drinks and the snacks and the desserts, those are the high ticket items where you're going to blow your budget. Another thing, I talked about this earlier, eat before you shop and shop a list that fits your cap.So know what that cap is, know what you're willing to spend.And like I said today, focus on those 10 things and really be, look at ways to just trim that down a little bit because in the end you're not failing. Prices are loud, prices are expensive right now. So you got to lead your money gently. Which leads me to today's big win.Whatever you do, if you've got a notes app or whatever you write down on, pick that grocery cap today. Pick that number and write it down. Here's what we're going to spend and here's the other thing. Encourage. I talked about this the other day.The, the reality and the joy. Put a couple of joy items on there. A couple of things that you're like, hey, Ralph, we can do this. I'll give you a great example.When we were kids, my mom raised us as a single mom. She struggled when we would go to the grocery store, she would make sure when she put this stuff on.So pictures, we're, we're going through the aisles and my sister and I, we're like little demons in the court. We're grabbing this and we're grabbing that. And my mom says, okay, kids, well, here's a deal.When we go to check out, we've got to pay for the stuff we've got to have. If there's money for extras, we'll do that. So here's what my mom would do.And I never realized it for a while until she told me she would always put the stuff we had to get on the conveyor belt first. The stuff that we had to have for the meals. And I never realized this until when I got a little bit older.And then what she would do is she would look at the total. She would say to the lady, hey, what's the total? And she would see the total, okay, I can afford a little bit.And she's, okay, well, let me pick one from, from him, one from her, my sister and I. And she'd pick a couple things and then sometimes it'd be like, listen kids, we can't afford it this week. And that's okay. It's okay to say no.It's okay to treat yourself and it's okay to say no. But know what that is? Hey, another great idea. There are some great apps where you can keep track of what you're putting in your card as you go.Sort of a little bonus app here. As we go. Well, let's get to scripture today. You know, I always want to ground us in scripture.And you're thinking, ralph, how do you ground groceries in scripture? Here we go. Isaiah, chapter 41, verse 10. So do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you.I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. And now you're thinking, Ralph, how does this fit? Here's how it fits.This pressure that you're feeling for groceries, it's real, it's true, it's absolutely accurate. But you're not facing that alone. And that's the beauty of why we do faith and finance together. God is with you.God is steady while you take that next practical step. In short, maybe you've got a plan better. You got to put that cap. You've got to build those 10 staples.You've got to look for ways to stretch those things. But no, you're not doing this alone. God is with you during this whole process. And if God is with you, who can possibly be against you?Let's pray together.Lord, you see the weight we feel right now every time we look at prices and this feeling of fear that we need to feed our families, Lord, and we just ask that you would give us wisdom right now and peace for this moment.Help us to choose a simple plan and release that shame and release that fear and attention that we feel, Lord, and strengthen us when we feel stretched. And help us to be our guide, to make us calm, Lord, and make clear decisions with what you've provided for us already, what we really have.Teach us to trust you, Lord, with everything you've given in our home and even on our table. Something simple like that. And our choices, Lord, and just give us that grace and that mercy one grocery trip at a time.And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Well, let me encourage you, friend. Right now you can care for your family and protect your peace at the same time. Yes, you can do both things.And if you've got a question for the show, I would love to hear from you. That's what really drives me on the show. If you've got a question, it's really simple. Go to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/questioni'll put that in the show notes, but it's financiallyconfidentChristian.com/question because that's what feeds me. That's what gets me up in the morning. That's why I do this show.And if you're getting value from the show, do me a favor. Go out and put a review on our website. You can go right to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/question there's a button out there that says review.I would love to hear from you. Tell me about how the show is impacting you, how it's making you stronger.If there's something you want me to talk about on this show, put it right there, because I love your feedback. So as I always close the show, stay financially savvy. Hey, especially with the grocery budget this week. God bless you. And you have a great day today.