A “How To” Guide

So you’re probably thinking … “this sounds super complicated and time consuming.” I get … it was… and you’re welcome. We did the hard work. 😉

Fortunately you can use our process / tools, it won’t be that bad I promise. BUT you do have to do some work. Expect to spend at least 10 hours between writing down your list (1 hr), comp shopping (3 hrs), setting up your monitoring process (1 hr), and then monitoring/tweaking it as you go along (5 hrs). But if you can save $1,000 / mo like we did, or even $200, that’s anywhere from $2,400 to $12,000 back in your pocket every year. And if you use Dana’s recipes, you’ll probably be eating / living way healthier too. So it’s worth the time.

The Solution:

1. Build a meal plan that everyone buys into… WRITE IT DOWN
2. Price it out … comp shop the items — find the cheapest place to buy it. Agree on a reasonable budget
3. Stick to it … stop buying items not on the grocery list
4. Monitor it … we use mint.com to monitor our spend (real-time)
5. Review/Adjust … weekly meetings (we take 5 min. as part of our date night)

1: How to build a meal plan

Start with a day…

Write down 1 day (Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner / Snacks) — you can use our Template Here

Step 1: Don’t even worry about cost or calories yet. Just write down what you like to eat and what qty. *TIP* it’s way easier if they are “whole foods” — i.e. 3 eggs, 2 apples, etc. Recipes or Mixes require looking up the caloric values / cost of EACH ingredient. So keep it simple if you can.

Step 2: Add each of the items to your Grocery List. You can use our Grocery List Template Here

Step 3: Do another day … then another … then another until you have 1 wk

Step 4: Update Your Grocery List with the total quantities from Day 1 – Day 7

2: How to Price Out your Grocery List

Step 1: Complete the previous step, write down at least 1 Day / Week of Meals, and transfer those items to the Grocery List

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Step 2: You’re going to have to lookup the price and caloric value of each item. Don’t worry, it’s not that bad. And most of the time you can do 95% of the list from your computer without ever going to the store.

*Tip* If you currently buy using InstaCart or an OnlineDelivery Service, this should be super simple.* Otherwise, you’ll likely have to go to the website of the grocery store that you use the most. While some don’t publish prices and nutrition labels, and so you may need to wait until your next trip there, we find that most grocery stores now publish the information online.

Step 3: If you’ve never read a nutrition label before, don’t worry, it’s pretty simple. You want to look at the A) # of Servings Per Container and B) the Calories per serving. Then Multiply. 😉 Now the macronutrients and vitamins, as well as phytonutrients (not even on the label) are a whole other post, and even more important in the context of healthy eating, we won’t go into that here. This is the basics, solely focused on helping you identify the true cost of your grocery list, so you know where to focus.

Step 4: Enter the quantities you intend to purchase

*Additional Tips*

Here’s an example: Eggs

1. We eat cage free eggs, so I searched HEB.Com for the product, found the page. And the cost is $2.38 … So now I have my cost, but I don’t have my calories. A lot of perishable groceries don’t have nutrition labels on HEB.com
2. Then I google the exact item name, including the store, and I find that Nutritionix has a copy of the label. 80 calories per egg, X 12 eggs = 960 calories. Now for standard produce / diary / fruit, like banana’s, eggs, milk, strawberries, you can just google the nutrition info on that food group, and you’ll get sufficient information from Google to estimate the calories. But sometimes grocery stores vary the size or put additives that change it slightly (cheese is a good example). So while it’s preferable to get the exact information from the food label, it’s not the end of the world if you estimate it using the rules of thumbs that exist for whole foods or similarly sized items from other stores.
3. Finally, we enter $2.38 and 960 calories into our grocery list
4. Now just add up the total cost of your grocery list, and this is what you can expect to spend on groceries.
   • Maybe you built a grocery list for the week, so multiply the totals by 4.333 to estimate your spend for the month
   • Maybe you put enough in there to last for the whole month; if so, you’re done. Your numbers are monthly.
   • But regardless of whether your grocery list will get you through 2-3 days, or 2-3 weeks, you can use the average cost/calorie to predict your cost for the month. Feel Free to Use our Handy Calculator (just enter the calories, set serving size to 1, and enter the total cost).

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3: Stick to it

This is the #1 reason we failed to hit our goals initially.

It should be easy, but trust us … it’s harder than it sounds. Everytime we go to the store, we find things that are “on-sale” or “look tasty” … but if it’s not on your grocery list, STOP!!! You have to be vigilant.

It never failed, whenever we ran the math on these “impulse purchases”, they were F or C items. It only takes 1-2 of these each trip to suddenly add an extra $100+ to your monthly costs.

Now when you can consistently stay on budget and really get your arms around it, a few splurge items are no big deal, infact I usually just run that math right there in my head. Total Cost / Total Calories … better be less than 1/2 a cent per calorie = $.005. If those numbers sound too small, then think of it this way “For every $5 spent, I want to get at least 1,000 calories.”

4: Monitor It

We use Mint.com — it takes less than 5 minutes to setup. Here is a great guide on setting up your account. It automatically tracks your spending on your credit cards and debit cards (make sure you link all of them).

We use the “Budget” section of the app to track it. We generally just categorize between Groceries and Dining Out. Mint is NOT PERFECT, but it’s better (and free) compared to the alternatives. You’ll likely need to re-categorize transactions to “Groceries or Dining Out” or move other expenditures such as household cleaning goods, etc. out of the Groceries / Dining Out categories. In my experience I generally have to move a handful of transactions each month, but Mint generally learns where things should go and places them in the right place next time. Once it’s setup and you go through 1 month, it’s super easy, I promise.

5: Review / Adjust

Be patient, you didn’t get here overnight, and so it’s going to take some time and adjustments to get where you want to go.

But you have to look at it. Weekly! And for some of you … daily. After the month has passed is too late. Look for trends, i.e. are you buying more of the expensive items, or consuming them faster (these often taste the best and we therefore consume the most). Are you eating out more than you planned? Are certain restaurants or stores getting more of your food budget than planned? Mix-things up. Maybe drop a high cost meal for a lower cost staple. Experiment until you achieve your goal.

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OR … JUST COPY US

If you want a plan that is guaranteed to work, you are more than welcome to just literally copy our weekly meal plan. You can also copy our pantry / grocery list, and combine the ingredients however you wish. Or just stick to the A and B meals listed on our site.

Over the next year or two, we’ll be creating meal plans for various diets, from gluten free to paleo, lectin, vegan, keto, etc. And of course, if anyone wants a customized meal plan, Dana is a Registered Dietitian and creates plans for clients as time allows.

*Disclosure* We recognize that food prices can be 5-30% higher or lower depending on what city you live in. Don’t be dismayed, just adjust your goals accordingly. Or trade certain items out. We’ve found some foods are almost double the price from once city to the next, others can be significantly cheaper. You have to find the grocery list that works for your wallet and body, within the context of the region you live.