93% of People Grocery Shop The Wrong Way (Here's How To Fix It!)

All right. So, there's this woman. Her

name is Julie, and she spends X amount of dollars per year on groceries. It's

only two people in the household. And

I'll give you 3 seconds to guess how much. Nope. Nope. A little lower. A lot

much. Nope. Nope. A little lower. A lot

lower. $800 a year on groceries. I'm

talking $80, which is absolutely crazy.

This woman, Julie, actually started the most popular frugal living group on Facebook called Everything Frugal. and

she was recently interviewed by homegrown Hillary, who I'll link the original video up to that interview here. But if you don't really see how

here. But if you don't really see how crazy this actually is, the average American household spends $1,000 a month on groceries. Julie's spending $800 a

on groceries. Julie's spending $800 a year. In fact, because of this lifestyle

year. In fact, because of this lifestyle that includes their grocery spending, they've been able to pay off over $120,000 of debt off in less than 5 years. This

includes her car being paid off, her house being paid off, and having the freedom to work a part-time job so that she can have a lot of time to spend with her kids and grandkids. So, how in

tarnation is she able to do this?

Because 93% of Americans actually aren't grocery shopping in this way. So, I want to walk you through the strategies that Julie uses to shop for her food and give you my honest thoughts on if I think

it's actually realistic for most people to spend $800 a year on groceries.

Either way, we're going to learn a lot from Hillary's interview with Julie, and you'll probably never look at grocery shopping the same way again. The first

strategy Julie uses is by mastering the markdown game. I know a lot of you

markdown game. I know a lot of you watching already have great behaviors when it comes to your grocery shopping, like not going when you're hungry or by sticking to a grocery list so that you don't deviate. But Julie, she's been

don't deviate. But Julie, she's been able to take it a step further by finding the best sales and discounts on your grocery foods. She calls these her super duper sales. And there are two

types of these super duper sales that you need to know about. Loss leaders and markdown sales. As evident by the name,

markdown sales. As evident by the name, a loss leader is an item in a grocery store that's priced at a loss. Aka, the

grocery store is not making much money off of this. But this is made to lead you into the store so that you can purchase other products. What Julie has managed to do was hone in on solely the

lost leaders and only buying those items in the store without getting distracted.

One of the most popular examples of a loss leader is the Costco rotisserie chicken. The way they're priced, it

chicken. The way they're priced, it doesn't make sense, but it is a great justification for people to enter Costco, walk through the entire store, seeing their other products in order to get the loss leader in the back. One of

the best ways to lock in on the lost leader of your local grocery store is by looking at the front page of the weekly ad. If you see something crazy like

ad. If you see something crazy like chicken breast for $2 a pound or milk for 250, then that's a good sign that it might be a loss leader. Or if you look at different grocery store websites and compare a staple food item on all of

them and find that one particular grocery store has that item placed at a much lower price, then that's probably their loss leader. The most important thing once you find those loss leaders is to not get sucked in by the other

impulse purchases that you can make along the way to it. Now, let's talk about markdown sales and what those are and how we can find them. These items

are typically close to their sell by dates or maybe there's damage to their packaging and that can result in them being marked down by at least 30, 50, or even 70% of their original price. But

here's what over 90% of people don't know. There is an actual schedule for

know. There is an actual schedule for when these markdown sales are put out for us to see. It's not just a random thing. The meat department will actually

thing. The meat department will actually mark down their items at a certain time of day. The produce department has their

of day. The produce department has their own schedule and the bakery probably has their own as well. And someone like Julie took the time to figure this out.

Heck, in the interview, we know that she's befriended the meat person, knows the bakery woman, and they have already given her the tea on when these markdown sales are first put out. And then she adjusts her shopping schedule to meet

those times. I know this might not be

those times. I know this might not be possible for a lot of people. That's why

later in the video, I do want to give my realistic takes on some of these strategies. All right, but the next

strategies. All right, but the next strategy that this queen of frugality follows in order to only spend $800 a month on groceries is by reverse meal planning. Before I go on, leave a

planning. Before I go on, leave a comment real quick on how you decide on what groceries to buy. Most people

decide on a certain recipe or a meal they want to make and then they'll go out to decide on which ingredients they need for that meal. In the case of Julie, she does that completely backwards. She looks at what ingredients

backwards. She looks at what ingredients she has in her pantry and she decides what meals she can make out of those ingredients. If she's missing one or two

ingredients. If she's missing one or two things, that's what she bases her entire grocery list on. And obviously, one of the best reasons for doing that is to cut down on food waste. I myself have

been guilty of too many rotten zucchinis and spinach bags that I've had to toss out because I wasn't intentional about what I wanted to make with those ingredients. But I'll be honest, I've

ingredients. But I'll be honest, I've been getting better at that. Just

yesterday, there was a chicken breast that had defrosting, and I noticed a crown of broccoli sitting in a fridge drawer, and I knew it was going to go bad soon. So, guess what I made? Chicken

bad soon. So, guess what I made? Chicken

and broccoli with rice.

Big brain move right there. All jokes

aside, this process of creating your grocery list in this way through this reverse meal planning paired with you getting ingredients based off the markdown prices or the loss leaders,

that will save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year. So

hopefully we can get a lot more savvy with our grocery shopping by changing the question we have in our head before we get groceries. Julie doesn't think about the question of what do I want to eat. She thinks what can I make with

eat. She thinks what can I make with what I already have. And thank goodness it's 2025 so we have a lot of great tools like chat GPT and even Tik Tok where we can find different ideas on what recipes we can create with what we

already have. Like there's been times

already have. Like there's been times where I've asked what can I make with leftover onions, some black beans, some ground beef, and maybe some tortillas.

And yes, I know a lot of this is easier said than done because I know a lot of us, we find a lot of joy in good food, great meals, creating new recipes with our spouses or our families. And this

might not be the most realistic approach for most of us. But before I give you my honest true thoughts on Julie's behavior around grocery shopping, I do want to point out some of the things that we do get wrong with our current habits. A lot

of us, if we live on the east coast and maybe have a Publix or Albertson's if you're West Coast, there is a lot of BOGO or buy one get one free deals that people will base their grocery shopping

around. Or if you're the type of person

around. Or if you're the type of person that shops at Target, you could base a lot of your shopping habits around the Target Circle deals that are available that month. The issue with this way of

that month. The issue with this way of shopping, whether for groceries or retail items, is that you're not going based off your own plan. you're going

based off what the company's telling you is a sale. But here's the thing, right?

If you follow that process, it's a little backwards. The grocery store is

little backwards. The grocery store is now the factor that is controlling your budget instead of you controlling your budget. And the issue is that grocery

budget. And the issue is that grocery stores have these huge marketing budgets and they pay people tons of money to study human behavior and human psychology. And the reason they're

psychology. And the reason they're giving out these bo isn't for you to save money. It's a strategy and a tactic

save money. It's a strategy and a tactic in order to get you to spend more money on other things within their store as well. So, even if you do feel like a

well. So, even if you do feel like a winner, you're still going based off of someone else's plan and not your own plan. And now, let's get real here real

plan. And now, let's get real here real quick. Um, I don't think everyone can

quick. Um, I don't think everyone can follow Julie's plan of spending $800 a year on buying groceries. If you think about it, she lives in a rural area. She

also is only in a household between her and her husband. She doesn't have kids, so she doesn't have the hassle of bringing kids to the grocery store. And

if you listen to Homegrown Hillary's interview with Julie, Julie literally goes to the grocery store almost every day. The grocery store is on her commute

day. The grocery store is on her commute to work, so she'll pop in, check the prices, see if something's on sale, and learn the patterns of the store and then go about her day. Better like, do we

have the time to be checking grocery store prices that frequently? Even me, I don't have kids, but I don't want to spend a lot of my days driving around grocery stores comparing prices. And if

you want to get real real with this whole situation, I live close to a Walmart and I don't think a Walmart is putting out the same kind of deals as like a local grocery store. I'm sure

their markdowns are okay and maybe they have some loss leaders, but it's not really as drastic as other areas where they might have grocery stores that have bigger sales. So, I don't think this is

bigger sales. So, I don't think this is realistic for every single person. But I

do believe out of her whole strategy, we can take some bits and pieces that we can apply to our own life. For example,

the reverse meal planning thing. I think

most of us are able to do that. And I

think we can still make an effort to get to know the meat guy, the produce gal, the bakery dude, and that just might be your secret hack to getting the best deals of your grocery store. Anyways,

because the frugal rich is a whole community, I want to hear from you. Let

me know in the comments what are some of the strategies you use to save on groceries every single month and every single year. And if you haven't joined

single year. And if you haven't joined the free Facebook group already, the Frugal Rich community, the link is in the description. And with that, here's a

the description. And with that, here's a video where I share the 22 groceries that I buy all the time that pretty much does it all for me. Give it a click and I'll see you guys over there. Peace.