In this episode we dive deep into the world of grocery shopping, budgeting, and making sustainable financial habits with Rachel Coons. As many of you know, managing grocery costs has been a persistent challenge for me, and it’s been a journey I’ve readily shared with all of you. Rachel not only shares eye-opening insights into why grocery prices have been soaring but also offers practical, real-world advice on how we can adapt and thrive despite these changes.
From her innovative SHOP method to her game-changing tips on meal planning and reducing food waste, Rachel has once again proven why she’s the go-to expert in grocery savings. I’m confident that her strategies and methodical approach will empower you to take control of your grocery spending, leading to more intentional and mindful shopping habits.
Sign up for the Go Getter Newsletter to get Progress Pointers in your inbox every Tuesday.
This episode is brought to you by Fearless Finance, get $50 off your first planning meeting when you use the code PROGRESS.
You can listen the episode below, or on Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify, Youtube, Overcast, Stitcher, Pocketcasts, or search for “About Progress” wherever you get your podcasts. If you like the show please share it, subscribe, and leave a review!!
SHOW NOTES
Rachel’s Instagram, Website
Access exclusive supporter benefits
Sign up for the next Sticky Habit Intensive
Leave a rating and review for the podcast!
Lend your voice and experience + be featured on the show HERE
Join Monica on Facebook and Instagram
Songs Credit: Pleasant Pictures Music Club
TRANSCRIPT
Monica Packer: Rachel Coons. Welcome to About Progress.
Rachel Coons: Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here.
Monica Packer: I have to tell you, I have been very eager to have this conversation because my Instagram community knows that I have been sharing my honest receipts of how much groceries are costing us. And part of it is because I just want to commiserate with people and relate with people. But the other part is because I am desperate to figure out How to manage my grocery costs, so let’s just start with where everyone is at with this. Like, is it just us or have grocery prices skyrocketed, especially the last year?
Rachel Coons: Oh, you’re a hundred percent correct. I mean, I would say that we’ve seen an upward trend. It’s 2020 for the past four years and it’s, and it’s just continually going up and up and it hasn’t felt like it’s stabilized. Like most things have kind of stabilized, but groceries continue to grow. And it’s like 40 to 50 percent we’re paying more in groceries than we were on specific items than we were in 2019.
Monica Packer: And that adds up so quickly. And I think it also adds up for us because our kids are getting older and eating more. So we already need to buy more food. So I’m thinking a lot of people are in that same position. Do you have any idea why that’s happening? I think there’s a lot of economics behind it.
I don’t expect you to give us a full PhD thesis on it, but because this is your world, what do you know about why this is happening?
Rachel Coons: I, I honestly think, first off, I think inflation just as an economy, right? We’re everything is more expensive than it was. I also think that if people will buy it, if the demand is there, then they can continue to. Increase prices. And, and we have to buy groceries for our family. We have to feed our families.
So until they see a drop off in spending until the grocery stores see that we’re going to be spending less because prices are more expensive, they’re going to continue to raise prices because they can,
Monica Packer: well, I think that’s supported by, you know, the legit macro microeconomics out there that I will not even try to pretend that I remember from college. So this is when I wanna ask you if this has always been something you’ve been into. Like, have you been always passionate about saving money on your groceries?
Or is this more of a 2020 to 2024 thing?
Rachel Coons: No, I, I always say that like this world chose me. I did not choose this world. And I don’t know if I would even have. I’d like to stand on in 2019, right? It was, it was really because this has become such a problem. And I’ve always been a frugal person. I’ve always been just naturally. I don’t want to spend a bunch of money, but it wasn’t until this became something that I really wanted to focus on.
And I saw the benefit. Of focusing specifically on groceries when it came to our financial stability and what it could do for our family. And I started sharing it with my Instagram following and it just like lit fire, right? It was something that people are now stressed about and they’re overwhelmed with how much they’re spending on groceries.
And so it was kind of the time that this happened that I was able to help so many people. And so it just kind of has continued to evolve from there. And I kind of just was like, I think this is the way to go. What I need to do. I think I need to sneak like lean into this and help as many people as possible.
Yeah,
Monica Packer: you did. Your ability to figure out how to save money. How did you do that? Because I feel like my, my current method of just trying a different store every week, uh, isn’t working. So how did you go about figuring it out?
Rachel Coons: was, it was a refining process, right? So it was in 2020, my family, we were spending 1, 200 a month for my family of six, which isn’t, that’s not crazy. Most people see that and like, Oh, that’s normal. But when I looked at our grocery spending, that was one of the highest Amounts we were spending every month was in our grocery budget.
And there wasn’t a lot of budgets that I could significantly decrease. It was like, you know, rent and kids activities and gas and car payments and whatever, all of those things. But groceries was an area that I thought that 1, 200 is a lot of money. And I think I can do something about that. And so I just started trying different things.
And like you said earlier, like I tried the couponing thing It felt like it was too much time and energy. And I’m kind of one of those people that’s like, I just want to be as efficient as possible.
And so keep wanting, didn’t feel efficient to me and cooking everything from scratch, didn’t feel efficient.
So I just slowly started trying new things. And then it was awesome because I was able to share what I was trying with my audience. And. And then I got feedback, like tangible feedback from people were like, Oh, I just started two week grocery shopping too. And I cut my spending by 500 or whatever it was.
So I was able to take all of these things that I was trying and sharing and create a condensed. Method that then could help as many people as possible. Cause I realized that as I was saving all this money, I was able to cut our grocery spending by 500 a month, which is insane, right? That’s 6, 000 a year.
And. If I wanted to help people do this too, I realized I, I couldn’t just teach people tips. Tips aren’t how people actually make change. I was like, I need to, I need to like start to finish a to Z method that I could package up and say, this is, if you do this, you can save money. And so that’s, that’s where I created the shop method.
And that wasn’t born until late 2022, early 2023, where that was created. And it was like, here’s your plug and play system.
Monica Packer: Okay. So we’re going to get to more of the differences between tips and the plug and play, um, kind of method. I’m glad to hear you’re not making your own mozzarella cheese, uh, because that’s,
Rachel Coons: Yes. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.
I’ve never done that before in my life. Actually.
Monica Packer: yeah. Okay. Nice. Nice to hear. Although I’m curious about trying it, but, but let’s give them, um, Some tangible ways that they can save big, and I almost said tips, but then I hesitated. I’m sure you saw that because I was like,
wait, not tips, but maybe yes, tips. I think what we’re going to say here is we’re, we’re going to do more of a high level. Like, things you can implement now, but for deeper. And even bigger, perhaps long standing, more sustainable change. That’s where your method comes into play.
Would you say that’s accurate? What’s
Rachel Coons: Yes. Yes. Totally. Totally. I would say like a tip is like, you know, freeze your bread or, you know, those kinds of things. This is like an overarching, what can I do differently when it comes to groceries? How can I change the way I approach this that can then save me money? So
Monica Packer: So that means we can do that right
here, right now.
Rachel Coons: Yes.
Monica Packer: Let’s do it. I’m so excited. Please tell me, what are some real and practical ways people can save big on their groceries?
Rachel Coons: Okay. So there’s a lot of different levers that we can pull. And what I like to do is focus on the biggest ones first, right? Where can we make the biggest impact? So the first one is shopping less. So not shopping too often.
The second one would be to decrease your food waste. And then the third one would be. Everyone’s going to hate me for this, but it would be meal planning, but we’ll talk about it. I’m going to make meal planning not seem quite as terrible. So first one, shopping less now this in and of itself, people are like, why does shopping less mean I spend less?
Like how is that interconnected? Well, the truth is if you’re going to the grocery store every couple days, maybe you’re only going for one or two items. How many times do you walk into the store? For butter or eggs or whatever it is. And you walk out and you just spent 50 you come home, you unload your groceries, two days later, your kids have eaten everything that you bought.
And then you have to go back to the grocery store and you have to do it again. So we need to take out those one or two grocery trips that you’re taking just for, you know, The simple items and plan better. And that means that when you go to the grocery store, before you ever even think about going to the grocery store, you’re creating a list, you’re figuring out what you need, you know what your family needs to have on hand and you’re spacing out those grocery trips.
So that way, and you’ll hear me say this a lot, but that makes those grocery trips more intentional. And I really focus on intentionality when it comes to saving money on groceries, the more intentional we can be with our budget, with our spending, with our trips, the better off we’re going to be. So spacing out your trips.
I, at the time when I was spending 1, 200 a month, I was shopping once a week and I thought that was really awesome. Then I realized I could shop twice a month. So I shop every two weeks and my students who shop twice a month can easily Drop, they’re spending hundreds of dollars a month just by doing that.
Monica Packer: Okay. So we start there. We just start by Shopping less, but in order to do that, I almost feel like that’s going to skip to number 3, right? Like, in order to actually make those intentional shopping trips that work for you. So you aren’t completely out of food in 3 days. You’ve got to plan ahead. So can you tell us more about meal planning?
Is it okay if we hop to that and then we’ll come back to
decreasing food waste?
Rachel Coons: Yes. Okay. So I would say before you even have to meal plan before we even need to go there, it’s something called an essentials list. So you may not even know this is might just be in your head and you haven’t even realized it’s there, but an essentials list is everything that you need to have in your house.
To stay out of the grocery store, the essential items. And my essentials list is going to be different than yours, Monica. And it’s going to be different than your listeners. You have to figure out what that is for your family. But you know, some of the basics would be like bread, butter, eggs, milk, cheese, those kinds of things, those essential items that are forcing you, what is forcing you to go to the grocery store when you end up going and, and making sure that whatever’s on that essentials list, when you go to the grocery store, you’re.
Making sure that you stock up on those items and you have those in your fridge at all times. You don’t want to run out of those essential items. Flour, sugar, brown sugar, those kinds of things are also on your essentials list. I also like to keep my breakfast and lunch ingredients on that list. And then two or three dinners planned on that list.
So that way, if all else fails, I don’t have to go to the grocery store for a week because I have everything in that essentials list.
So that essentials list is going to be what I would focus on first before meal planning, and working from that essentials. This is going to help you stay out of the store. And then when we talk about meal planning, instantly people’s eyes glaze over, right?
Nobody likes meal planning. Meal planning is, is not fun. And if you ask me, I actually hate meal planning. I don’t enjoy it. So that’s why I only do it twice a month. And I’ve really tried Simplify that process. So making it really, really simple. We eat very similar breakfasts and lunch every day. So I never have to meal plan breakfast and lunch dinner is.
Four meals a week. That’s all, that’s all I meal plan for. And, um, obviously we have resources inside my membership that helps you meal plan, but basically all you need is 10 meals that, you know, your family likes to eat. Right? 10 meals that are easy for you. You know, your kids are going to eat it when you make it.
You have that list of 10 meals and you just shuffle through. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to creating dinners. It can be really basic and really simple. And um, that’s one of the things that I really focus on with meal planning because We all have so much on our plates as moms, right?
We have to do the laundry. We have to clean. We have to get our kids to their activities. We got, you know, there’s so many things. And if there’s something that’s hard, takes a lot of energy, makes our brains work. And it’s not, it’s optional. It’s not necessary. It falls to the bottom of the list. And that’s usually what happens with meal planning.
So what I like to do is let’s, Figure out why meal planning is so important. Saving money, also saving time, lowering your stress, and hopefully that meal planning will just get higher up on your list of priorities just by seeing how easy it can be and how helpful it can be.
So when you say you do four meals, when you plan four meals, like a week, are you eating leftovers those other nights or do you reserve a night to eat out? What does that look like?
Rachel Coons: Question. So the reason we do four meals a week, and this is kind of our sweet spot. Again, everybody has to find their sweet spot. But I find that if families are meal planning seven meals a week, they’re probably overbuying. You’re probably buying too much food. So this is what it looks like. Four meals I plan for and buy for.
The one meal, one night a week, we do a leftover night. Just to make sure we’re using up what we have on hand one night a week, we do a shop the shelf night. So this is a night that I am not planning for. I don’t buy any ingredients for, and we’re just, I mean, how much food do we have on hand? We have so much food always.
So that just makes me get creative and use up what’s in the freezer, what’s in the fridge, those perishable items. Let’s shop the shelf night. And then one night a week. One night a week is a, a date night. So I’m off Brad and I go out to dinner. There’s a babysitter that comes, they eat Mac and cheese or chicken nuggets or whatever it is.
And if you don’t want to do a date night, just have a night off, right? Give yourself a break. You don’t, this is, this is something that can really tire us. And so I look forward to that night off. Every week, it’s the night I look forward to, I
Monica Packer: much. I think two things that really helps with that, that you just pointed out is doing it twice a month
feels more doable. And the other part that feels more doable is not looking through all the recipe books and recipe apps. Although you can do that if that’s your thing and that’s where you get a lot of joy or it’s just, you know, something you do occasionally to add to your recipe stock. But having those go to meals that you can just say, I know how to make these things. I don’t even need a recipe or I already know where the recipe is and I can just pull from there. I actually would love some specifics if that’s okay. Like I want to know what your usual breakfast and lunches are. And I would love to know, you talked about having on your essentials list items that can help you make three meals, you know, no matter what, like we always have frozen chicken.
So we can always bake some chicken or we always have rice in the pantry, like those kinds of things. So can you give us some specifics there? I think they’d love to
Rachel Coons: Absolutely. Okay. So for breakfast, it’s like four meals. We do waffles. We do eggs and toast. We probably do eggs and toast 50 percent of the mornings cause it’s protein. It’s healthy. My kids love it. Uh, we’ll do Greek yogurt parfaits with like fresh fruit and granola and then we’ll do smoothies and toast like a protein smoothie and toast.
Like that’s it. That’s it. Those are the four options. Sometimes we’ll throw in some fun different things on the weekends, on a school day. Those are the options. Super simple. I always have ingredients for all of those meals on hand all the time.
Monica Packer: And that’s cheaper than cereal? I,
I’m saying that for, okay.
Rachel Coons: Yes. Yes. Well, and okay. Not only, so this is a lot, this is like side tangent.
A lot of the pushback that I’ll get from people is I can’t eat healthy on a budget. I can’t save money if I want to eat healthy. And, um, first off, I just don’t think that’s true. And second, how sustainable is cereal for breakfast, right? It’s high in carbs. It’s high in sugar most of the time. But if we’re feeding our children high protein, It’s a well rounded meal with fats, with carbs, with protein.
They’re going to be fuller for longer. And so it ends up, you ends up spending less money in the long run when you eat those healthy whole foods. So yes,
Monica Packer: And I can vouch for that. I just have to say, yeah, vouch for that. Because that’s, that’s, that’s why we make breakfast. And it’s because they actually get fuller and it saves money. But it’s nice to hear that you can confirm it is cheaper than cereal.
Rachel Coons: I think so. I mean, I think like 7 a box for cereal. That’s crazy.
Monica Packer: Yeah, it’s a lot
Rachel Coons: Yeah, no, I think eggs are eggs are really affordable source of protein. So I really love feeding my kids eggs and it has, you know, the good fats from the yolk and it’s a very well rounded meal. And then for lunch, lunch is a little bit trickier because my kids are at school for that and, um, we live in California, so they do get.
Lunch from school. My daughter likes to pack a lunch. She usually just does like some fruit, some crackers and a sandwich. That’s what she packs for lunch. Most days for me, I’ll make like an egg white sandwich or a salad with whatever I have in hand or, leftovers. Like that’s a, that’s a perfect time for me to eat leftovers.
I’m kind of more flexible with lunch cause I’m just home with my three year old. But I do like to eat leftovers. I tend to eat a lot of eggs. So I’ll do eggs cause it’s an easy, quick protein. If I have rotisserie chicken on hand, I’ll make like grilled cheese, whatever. So that’s, that’s for lunch. And then for dinner, some of the ingredients that I always have on hand.
Right. That’s what you were asking,
I think. So first off, um, I always make sure that I have vegetables. We always have vegetables on hand, but I always have the basic vegetables like broccoli, onions, carrots, so I can make a stir fry. That’s like one of my favorite go tos.
Monica Packer: And are
Rachel Coons: kids like it. Fresh. Yeah. I mean, I have frozen too, but most of the time it’s fresh.
So I love stir fry cause I just do chicken with teriyaki sauce and rice and my kids love it and they’ll eat the broccolis and carrots, whatever. So stir fry is one of our favorites. We also love spaghetti and meatballs in the instant pot. It’s the easiest meal ever. Like you literally dump four ingredients into an instant pot.
You’ve set it on for eight minutes and it’s done. made. I love it. My kids love it too. Um, and then we also love chicken fried rice. So again, just a basic rice, whatever veggies I have on hand, chicken, very simple. And then another one we love is tacos. We, we have tacos probably once every two weeks. Cause it’s just so easy and my family loves it.
Monica Packer: Thank you so much for sharing those specifics. I’m like still drumming with all these questions. I feel like the two that are top of mind are what about snacks? Because I think that can, that can be a big source of consumption and also money.
Rachel Coons: Yeah. So snacks tend to be a huge budget buster, uh, because It’s really easy to focus on the convenience of snacks. So we’re purchasing like the prepackaged snacks or whatever it is. So this goes back to like my health and wellness. Experience with food and trying to eat as healthy as possible.
And also raising children actually hate snacks. I find that if my kids are eating snacks, they’re not eating their meals. And so we absolutely, they need to eat a snack in between meals. I’m not like starving my children, but we are, I’m very organized when it comes to the snack process. So when they get home from school, they get to have a snack, but the kitchen closes at four o’clock because I want them hungry, they’re going to eat healthier.
Right. Cause they’re going to eat a more well balanced meal at dinnertime. And it’s going to be way more cost effective meals are cheaper than snacks. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have snack foods on hand. I just focus our snacks heavily around whole foods and we don’t do a lot of process.
So like string cheese and fruit or a smoothie or toast. Greek yogurt, you know, those kinds of things, which are super quick, easy and convenient, but they just require a little bit more forethought than just grabbing a bag of goldfish at the pantry. Those snacks are great for grab and goes if you’re eating it out of the house, but in the house, I do require a little bit more and I’m happy to do that for my kids.
I don’t make my kids do that, but I will cook up something really fast for them.
Monica Packer: Okay. And the other big question I think is just produce. Uh, we have some kids that are big produce lovers and, uh, and two of them happen to be very picky eaters otherwise. So like it’s actually a good source of food for them to eat, but it would go bad except apples. Apples are great, but they stay fresher, longer, you know, carrots, stuff like that.
But What would you say for the people who are a bit concerned about having enough of the fresh foods to last for two weeks, or if you have another thing that they can think of instead that will still help with that?
Rachel Coons: Yeah. So, the two week grocery shopping, that’s the number one thing people say is I’m not going to be able to have my fresh produce that I need on hand. And the truth is there’s a lot of produce that won’t last two weeks. And I’m, I have to acknowledge that, you know, berries. They won’t even last a
stinking week in the fridge,
um, but there is a lot of produce items that will last two weeks.
And so what I focus on is making sure that I have a lot of those produce items that will last. So like oranges, apples, we also use our freezer a lot for fruit. Uh, so we always have like frozen raspberries, frozen blueberries. frozen bananas in the freezer. Um, and then if, if you’re one of those people and maybe, you know, everyone’s different, right?
Everyone has different needs, different things that they’re dealing with in their family. And if you have a child who only wants to eat fresh blueberries, then go ahead and meal plan for two weeks at a time, do your bulk grocery order. And then on that second week, just do a produce run. Just get the produce while either if you’re shopping in store, you’re only heading to like the produce aisles or if you’re shopping online, just get the produce.
You mean, it’s not, this is not an all or none type of thinking, right? We can kind of find the gray area in this. And so it’s not, it’s not going to ruin you if you have to go. Go get produce in between grocery runs.
Monica Packer: I so appreciate that flexibility because as someone who typically loves prescriptions, but they don’t actually pan out. in real life a lot, uh, that’s really helpful to say like, okay, take, what’s going to work for you and your family from what you hear today. And if it doesn’t, that doesn’t mean you just throw it all away.
It’s it’s find another way to help in ways that are still manageable, but intentional, like we’ve talked about. These have been such great
tips. I want to go back to your food waste, lever, like you talked about. So tell us more about that. Food waste.
Rachel Coons: So just to start that off. And I think this is a really startling statistic that average American family wastes 30 percent of the food that they buy.
That means that if you go to the grocery store, you spend a hundred dollars on your way out, you literally could just waste it. Throw a bag away in the trash, because that’s what we’re doing.
And beyond the like sustainability and, you know, eco problems with that, when you throw food, when you throw food away, that’s food waste, that’s perishables that have gone bad or leftovers or whatever is that’s, that’s, that’s. Exactly money waste. Wait, we’re throwing away food and so that is a little bit daunting, but also on the other hand of that, when we can decrease or eliminate food waste altogether, we can decrease spending by 30 percent because that’s what that’s what we’re doing with the food waste.
The food waste is perishable items. It’s not our shelf stable canned goods. It’s mainly the things like the produce, the dairy, the carbs, or what the breads or whatever that we have. So in order to decrease food waste, there’s a lot of things that we can do. But first off, just by listening to this podcast and being conscious to this issue, you’re now going to kick yourself when that bag of spinach goes bad in the fridge.
Cause you’re going to hear my voice and you’re Dang, you know, I, I shouldn’t be throwing away this bag of spinach, but, um, again, going back to shopping less and meal planning, it is making sure that you are using up what you have on hand before you think about going to the grocery store. Is it so great that the grocery store is so convenient and we can literally just go buy whatever we need at any point, but it’s also our biggest downfall when it comes to overspending, because we don’t think about using up what The produce items that are about to go bad.
We want to go buy more. And this is my term. I call it shop the shelf, but you need to focus on shopping the shelf before you shop the grocery store. And that’s going to help you decrease food waste because you’re using up those items. Another thing that is really, really helpful when it comes to trying to decrease food waste is having a second freezer.
If you have the space for it, um, because the second a produce item is about to go bad. Don’t let it go bad, throw it in a Ziploc bag and put it in the freezer. There are so many things that you can freeze, um, that really help you stay out of the grocery store for longer and help you have those fresh produce items.
And frozen produce is the exact same nutritional content. If not, sometimes better because you can freeze it at peak ripeness, than just normal produce as well.
Monica Packer: Okay. I’m thinking, oh, I, I can do this. And, and as I
Rachel Coons: Mm hmm. Yeah.
Monica Packer: I’m going to go back to the initial kind of confession. I had to you that my method was to just keep trying different stores to see if that saves me money. And, um, I do think, though, there’s got to be some stories that are better than others in terms of,
you know, doing your. Twice monthly, grocery run. So what in your experience have been the go to stores that most people will likely have access to?
Rachel Coons: Okay. So we have students globally and every, you know, every area of the world has different students. Grocery stores, but this is what I will say, whatever grocery store near you offers online ordering with a pickup option or delivery option. That is the store I would head to first. That’s going to be your best option.
And every store is differently different. Every area is different. In my hometown, we have a lot of different options, but I enjoy Sam’s club because they let me order online and pick up outside. And then I also do a Walmart delivery order twice a month because I can do it online. So any store that’s going to offer that is, is going to be the best option that
Monica Packer: Are there any stores that you would advise avoiding? I mean, that might still depend on people’s budgets, but that the ones that you tend, you know, I’m just thinking about my Costco trip this week. So that’s why I’m like, Oh,
Rachel Coons: you, I know I’m gonna, I’m going to get some hate for this, but Costco is a really dangerous place. People think that they’re saving money when they shop at Costco. And then they come into my world and I say, okay, I want you to price match what you’re purchasing at Costco versus what you would purchase at like a local grocery store or Walmart or whatever.
And they’re astonished at how much more they could save just by switching where they’re shopping. The dangerous thing about Costco is Well, there’s a lot of things that I bought of beef that I have with Costco. They’re not going to sponsor me anytime soon, but, but, um, they don’t offer the generic option in a lot of items, right?
You’re having to purchase the name brand and there’s no hate for name brand. It just ends up being more expensive. And then the other big thing is. You have no idea how much you’re spending until you get to the checkout. And how many times do we just go to Costco? And it’s so fun. we get to do taste testers and there’s new items we want to try.
And then we get up to the front and you check out and you’re spending 500. And, you know, for some people that might not be a burden, but for most, that is a huge budget buster. So it, it, again, it takes out the intentionality. They want you to spend as much possible in their store and you have no way of tracking how much you’re spending.
But if you did it online, if they offered like an online ordering, I don’t think I would have as much of a beef with Costco, but because of that, I think you will just do better if you shopped where you could shop online.
Monica Packer: Well, I know you can do it through Instacart, but in my experience, like most items are priced a dollar more
Rachel Coons: Yes, Instacart is really expensive. Yeah,
Monica Packer: Really expensive. So I didn’t even know Sam’s club. See, I just thought they were comparable Sam’s club and Costco that they were like the same, but they’re not. Okay. So I should check out a Sam’s club.
Rachel Coons: yeah. Sam’s Club each item tends to be a little bit cheaper, so like a dollar, $2 cheaper, which isn’t a big deal if you’re going to get one item, but if you’re getting 50 items, that’s a big chunk. And then Sam’s Club does offer online ordering, or if you shop in store, they offer, scan and go.
So on your, on your phone, you scan the item and it’ll pull up your subtotal, like you can see how much you’re spending. So that, I love that tool. I know, I know. It’s great. Yeah.
Monica Packer: Okay. And so just on a typical month for you, do you just alternate those two stores for you? And in one store, you know, you might be getting more like canned kind of goods or, you know, things like that, like at the bulk store and otherwise, just more of a normal kind of grocery run that people might think about, or is that just all intuitive based on need and all that?
Rachel Coons: Yeah. So the way that I do it is every two weeks I meal plan, I order my groceries. I do both a Walmart and a Sam’s club Walmart. I get delivered Sam’s club. I go pick up, but then as I’m ordering, I can price match between the two stores. So, you know, sometimes there’s quite a bit cheaper item at Walmart and I’ll make sure that I’m getting the best deal.
Then I, Order online, I get my groceries delivered or pick it up and then I’m set for two weeks, but I do that every two weeks from both stores. And I don’t think shopping at five different grocery stores is the answer to saving money, but I do think it is great to shop from two different stores, because.
You know, stores offer deals on certain items like Costco and Sam’s club. You can get your meat a lot cheaper. So I really like to purchase my meat, my dairy, my produce, those kinds of things from Sam’s club
Monica Packer: Okay. I’m going to be checking out Sam’s club after this. Um, you know, and, and price matching, I think can be confusing for us. Do you find like, it’s just To do it more on the cent per ounce or pound or however they do it.
Rachel Coons: grounds. Yeah.
Yeah. And that’s, so that’s another thing about. Costco that can be tricky is you think you’re saving money by purchasing in bulk, but then when you price it out, the price per ounce, sometimes it’s not cheaper that way. And if, you know, not everybody has massive families, sometimes you don’t even need the eight avocados that Costco gives you when you purchase produce.
So again, Costco tends to have a lot of food waste if you’re not using up those perishable items. So then that’s when I would shop at that local grocery store and get your produce items from there.
Monica Packer: And cost per ounce. That’s what
we’re going to be paying attention to. I feel like reading between the lines. I can see why this matters. And I think it’s hard to talk about grocery shopping without getting really into this kind of fear and scarcity mindset almost about things. And so maybe you can, you know, And with a high note for us and tell us more about the benefits of this and how it can lead to more abundance in many areas of your lives.
Like, what, why should they be considering this at least and trying to move the needle a bit more?
Rachel Coons: Sure, it’s actually really funny that you say that because I am in the budgeting space, and I recognize that, but sometimes I hate being here because of the scarcity mindset that comes from it. And I am. I really want people to just, again, going back to that intentionality. It’s not about scarcity.
It’s just about being intentional and you get to decide where you want to spend your money. And I am never going to tell you what your priorities should be. I’m not going to tell you what store you should shop at, what items you should purchase. That’s not. On me, that’s on you. And so beyond that, once we get to, you know, that mindset, the money savings that can be had with this are mind blowing, right?
I have students. I had a student who messaged me a couple of weeks ago. She’s been in, The shop society for five months and she saved 5, 000 in five months. So huge money savings and that can unlock so much financially. I mean, if you invested a thousand dollars every single month, you know, for the next 10 years, imagine where that would put you, but beyond the money savings.
And that’s the really kind of sexy part of what I do is the money savings. But beyond that, I want to help moms. feel like meal planning is easier. Dinner time is easier. It’s a part of mom life that people hate. Nobody, nobody wants to cook dinner every night. It’s just a drag, you know?
So I really believe that when we implement the shop method and use the things that I do, it makes your life. So much easier. You’re saving so much time and this is no longer something that’s a burden anymore. So you’re saving all this money, but you also get all these other benefits as well. And, and that’s what I love.
When moms come to me and say, I finally am not dreading 5 p. m. every night because I have a dinner plan. I know what I’m doing and I feel my kids are going to eat the meals that I cook. And it’s just this all around, just a better experience.
Monica Packer: I love hearing that. Rachel, you have been so abundant about what you have given us today and all this information. It’s just so generous of you. So thank you for over delivering on all these practical tips. I would love to direct people to your membership, the shop society, where you teach the shop method. Is there anything you want them to know about your membership?
Rachel Coons: mean, there’s, there’s so much that we offer in the shop study beyond the shop method. There’s a ton of resources. It’s an awesome community. And it’s really, really affordable. I really want it to be tangible for all families. So that is available, but if you’re like a little bit hesitant about that, I do offer a lot of other free guides and things that you can get started with as well.
And we can link those in the show notes for your listeners as well. Again, following me on Instagram will probably help as well. So you can always come find me on my social media channels, reach out, let me know if you have any questions. I I’m here to help. Anyone and everyone who wants it. Oh,
okay. So by the time this podcast release, hopefully my podcast will be released. Uh, and it’ll just be called the Hey Rachel Koons podcast. I’m so excited. It’s something that I’ve been looking forward to for a long time and we’re finally making it happen.
Monica Packer: And what can they expect in this new podcast?
Rachel Coons: So Yeah. So the podcast is going to be obviously, you know, I’m all about saving money on groceries, but it’s going to be all things when it comes to motherhood and abundance and, and those kinds of things. So yeah, we’re definitely going to have some tangible episodes that can help you save money on groceries, but we’re going to do.
The whole gamut when it comes to motherhood and what I’ve experienced and how, how I can bring other people in, other experts in as well, we’ll do solo episodes and guest episodes and Monica, we’re going to do an episode together too, which I’m really excited about.
Monica Packer: Oh, I can’t wait. It’s going to be so great. Well, I’m looking forward to that launch. I’ll be one of your first subscribers, , to your new show. And I am so grateful again for all the time that you took today. We will link to everything in the show notes for them. Thank you so much, Rachel. I appreciate your time.
Rachel Coons: Thanks, Monica.
Monica Packer: All right. I feel like I’d never know how to end this.
So that essentials list is going,
Monica Packer: Oh, sorry. I’ll cut out my interruption there. How about you finish your thought?
