I Cut My Grocery Bill From $500 to $400: Here’s How I Did It

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As many entrepreneurs know, starting a business not only requires financial discipline within your company, but also in your personal life. That’s because you might not earn much from the business initially, so you need to keep your living costs down to make it through this period.

For Cameron Allen — founder of Grapplers Graveyard, a combat sports media brand — lowering his personal expenses has been a top priority while starting his business. Not only has that included cutting back on subscriptions related to streaming services, but he’s also focusing on trimming his grocery bills.

Previously, he was spending around $125 per week (or $500 per month) on groceries, if not more. Now, he’s down to around $100 per week, or $400 per month, all while introducing more variety and creativity into his meals.

Despite grocery prices rising by 5% in 2023 due to inflation, according to the Department of Agriculture, Allen has been able to cut his grocery budget by around 20% without switching grocery stores. Living in Scottsdale, Arizona, he finds that shopping at Trader Joe’s and Costco works for him in terms of keeping costs down while focusing on his health. 

“I value health very much and think the quality of what I eat matters a lot,” he said.

Buying Groceries in Bulk and Meal Prepping Key

So to cut his costs, he’s taken a more proactive approach.

“The big money saver for me was buying things in bulk each week and meal prepping simple — but effective — meals,” he explained.

Finding Inspiration on Social Media

To make this switch to meal prepping, Allen has turned to social media for help.

“I am not someone who can eat the same things every day, so I find tasty but simple recipes on Instagram and TikTok and spend most of my Sundays just prepping my food,” he said.

Some of his favorite accounts on Instagram for recipes include:

• @justinanderson_fit: This account from fitness trainer Justin Anderson features lots of high-protein meals, such as smoothie bowls, tacos and burritos. 
• @hunt4shredz: This account from chef Hunter Micheletto shares lots of culinary delights while being mindful of health and financial concerns, such as with budget-friendly meal prep recipes. For example, he recently shared a recipe for a turkey, rice and veggies batch that provides seven servings for just under $25.
• @bzhvng: Fitness influencer Billy Zhang shares a lot of fitness content, but also some easy high-protein recipes, like Hainan chicken and beef bulgogi.
• @proteinrecipesdaily: As the name suggests, this account shares all sorts of high-protein recipes, ranging from pastas to chicken sandwiches to rice bowls. 

Adding Variety

In addition to getting inspiration from these types of social media accounts, Allen has also found a local meal prep company that he buys from to switch up the food he eats a couple times a week, he explained. Doing so still keeps him within his $100-per-week budget.

In other words, you don’t have to cut out every convenience in order to lower your costs. Sometimes these types of purchases can even make it easier to stay on track when it comes to making bigger changes — like Allen’s commitment to mainly doing his own meal prepping.

For now, this works for him, though he knows that if he needs to lower his costs even further, he could do more price comparisons at local stores in his area. For example, he finds that Trader Joe’s tends to have lower prices for meat compared to Sprouts, but Sprouts has better-tasting and lower-cost produce.

For the most part, though, he’s been able to focus on the big-picture wins that come from planning ahead, rather than trying to get every purchase down to the lowest possible price point.

“Buying in bulk to cook throughout the week has been a game changer for me personally, both in my physical appearance and my wallet,” he said.

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