Overcome Your Financial Blindspot

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I am going to let you in on a little financial blindspot everyone misses: the grocery store.

Yes, it is so easy to overspend unnecessarily at the grocery store.

I cannot pass Go and collect my 200 dollars (yes, that is a Monopoly reference) without flagging two things for you:

1) Budgeting on groceries is probably a game-changer for you if you’re at a point in your life where you’re making money consistently enough to be able to treat yourself every now and then without breaking into hives.

However, that’s not everyone’s situation. I know there will be readers out there who know exactly how much they can spend on groceries because money is tight. I’ve been there. And there will also be readers out there who have struggled with food insecurity. I’ve been there too. So, if grocery store budgeting feels beyond your reach right now, know that we will get you there; and when we do, you’ll be ready with the framework to knock your budget out of the park.

2) I want to make myself extremely clear here: in sticking with my Monopoly reference, I will be squatting in Park Place until the following message sinks in: I am not saying that you should buy less food than you need. That is not how to budget. In fact, if you’re budgeting correctly at the grocery store, you should be able to buy exactly as much food as you need.

Groceries should comprise about 5-10% of your spending plan (if this terminology is new to you, check out my article on how to put a spending plan together here). Sure, it depends on how many people you are feeding, but it’s a bit of an oversimplification to think that single people spend less money on food automatically. For starters, if it’s just you, it’s easier to say, “Oh, I don’t want to cook a whole big thing for just myself… I’ll just order in.” And, because you’re flying solo, you don’t have that accountability buddy with you to say, “Hey, this delivery fee is kind of whack… let’s cook instead.” Also, most grocery stores don’t sell single servings of stuff like tomatoes or pasta. If you buy a pound of meat and eat only one portion, that’s not saving money or feed—it’s just an all-around waste.

Here’s where I want you to start.

This week, keep close track of how much money you spend on food— and I mean everything: groceries, dinners out, the snack you bought at the bodega, everything— and see if what you’re spending is within that 5-10% range of your spending plan. Then, ask yourself: are you actually using what you buy? If not, quit buying it.

Did you know that Americans throw away around $165 billion worth of perfectly good food every year? In fact, 40% of all the food in the United States today goes uneaten. Are you guilty of this? I mean, it’s not that hard to do, right? You go grocery shopping without a list and you buy random ingredients that don’t actually work with anything you have at home. Or, you find a new recipe that you just have to try. So then all the food you got on your last trip gets pushed to the No-Man’s-Land section of your fridge.

You gotta cut that out. Instead of scrolling through TikTok for new recipes, look at what you already have and put those ingredients into Google! Say on your last grocery trip, you got leeks and strawberries. Google “recipe with leeks and strawberries.” It’s that simple. And along the way you’ll learn about new recipes that may become your next favorite meal!

If you’re reeling from that stat I gave you about food waste, I have a solution for you: there’s this app that I love called Too Good To Go which tells you the spots in your neighborhood that are putting food on-sale that they would have to throw out at the end of the day. And this isn’t like milk that’s two days expired. This is like two dozen perfectly good same-day baked bagels— and you’re getting them for pennies on the dollar. So you save money, and combat food waste. That’s a textbook win-win, right?

For now, our Money Minute is up! On Wednesday, I'll be sharing more tips to help you illuminate your grocery store blindspot. Until then, don't do anything with your money that I wouldn't do!

xo,

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