Lindsey Updyke
- My weekly food budget is $200, but most of that is spent eating at restaurants, ordering takeout, and buying coffee — I typically spend just $32 a week on groceries.
- I decided to cook all my meals for an entire week to see how much money I would save.
- I managed to save $106 in one week alone by cooking every meal.
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I love going out to eat. Ordering takeout and eating it on my couch is one of my favorite things to do. And whenever a friend is coming to town, I’m usually suggesting we go out to fun restaurant.
Unfortunately for me, I eat out too much. Even when trying to budget restaurant spending, I almost always overspend. Living in Manhattan certainly has its perks, but not when it comes to my wallet.
At the same time, although I love cooking, I know I don’t cook at home as much as I should. Instead of spending my time and energy making a meal, I tend to spend money instead.
As a consequence, my weekly food budget has risen to about $200 a week. And just $32 of that is spent on groceries.
Between the Starbucks coffee runs, takeout lunch deals, and dinners with friends, I end up spending way more than I bargained for on restaurants, and way less on groceries and home-cooked meals. I’ve been trying to make an honest change for a while, but it’s never actually happened.
That’s why I recently challenged myself to cook all of my meals for an entire week.
And by the end of the week, I had managed to save more than $100 on food.
Here’s what my spending and saving looked like.
In a typical week right now, I buy about $32 worth of groceries. My grocery list consists of a few go-to meals I tend to revisit.
Shutterstock / Robyn Mackenzie
Here’s a typical week’s grocery list for me. It adds up to about $32 of groceries a week:
- Chicken breast: $5.99
- Pasta: $2.29
- Pasta sauce: $3.19
- Bananas: $1.89
- Broccoli bunch: $4.99
- Eggs: $3.59
- Salmon: $7.14
- Couscous mix: $2.79
I know what you’re probably thinking: How does she live off of this? The simple and honest answer is that I don’t. More often than not, I use the excuse of not having a lot of food in my pantry to eat out more.
For instance, you’ll probably notice there aren’t many breakfast options that can be made with my grocery list. Sure, I make myself eggs some mornings. But truthfully, I usually end up walking to Starbucks and getting a breakfast wrap with my morning coffee.
This means after grocery shopping, I usually have about $168 to spare in my weekly food "budget," if you can call it that. I like to make myself pasta for lunch sometimes, but I also like to sit on my couch and order Uber Eats soups and sandwiches. I routinely make dinner plans with friends or my boyfriend a few times a week, too. Add appetizers or a glass of wine and my bills can really climb.
After taking a hard look at my food spending habits, I knew I was ready to save some money and go grocery shopping. I scoured the internet for new recipe ideas and made an effort to roughly plan out my meals for the upcoming week.
On Day 1, I paid a visit to my local grocery store, City Acres Market in Lower Manhattan, and bought groceries to last me the week. I ended up spending $94.
City Acres Market
Here’s what I bought from my local supermarket, for a grand total of $94:
- Unsalted butter: $3.99
- Instant oatmeal package: $5.79
- Bananas: $1.89
- Salmon fillet: $7.14
- Couscous mix: $2.79
- Broccoli bunch: $4.99
- Spaghetti: $2.29
- 1 lb. boneless chicken breast: $5.99
- Bread crumbs: $3.29
- Iceberg lettuce: $2.29
- Onions: $1.99
- Tomatoes: $2.49
- Minced garlic: $4.49
- Eggs: $3.59
- Shredded mozzarella cheese (2): $6.48
- Ground turkey meat: $5.99
- Coffee K-Cups: $10.99
- Taco shells: $2.39
- Diced tomatoes: $2.19
- Loaf of whole wheat bread: $3.29
- Pizza crust: $4.49
- Tomato sauce: $2.29
- Corn: $2.49
When I finished shopping, I had a much fuller shopping cart than usual. Even the grocery prices in New York City annoy me, but I had a good feeling I was about to save some money. I also had an idea I was going to have some leftover food, which excited me even more, knowing I could potentially save more and more if I make this a habit of mine.
There were times during checkout where I definitely got a bit nervous. Coffee K-Cups are not cheap, although they’re clearly kinder on my wallet than a Starbucks coffee.
The final tally came to about $94 overall. I was honestly so happy that I called and bragged about how much money I saved to my best friend and fellow big food spender on the walk home.
I generally spend about $200 a week on food. But when I decided to cook all of my meals for a week, I only spent $94. That’s $106 in savings.
Lindsey Updyke
Here’s a recap of my experiment: I generally spend about $200 a week on food. But when I decided to cook all of my meals for a week, I only spent $94. That’s $106 in savings. I spent half as much money than I usually do during the week I decided to make my meals.
Throughout the week, I definitely had a couple of moments where I needed to motivate myself to cook. With as much that I stress about money nowadays, however, it was a lot easier than I anticipated.
Ultimately, it came down to how much money I actually saved. Because I saved a lot, I think it was easier to motivate myself to continue cooking as the week went on. Finding some delicious new recipes also helped!
Although I expected to save some money while completing this experiment, I didn’t expect to save this much. I’ve learned a lot about myself and my spending habits throughout this process. It’s forced me to evaluate how I spend my money, especially when it comes to eating out.
Knowing now how much money I could have been saving all this time definitely hurts, but it also inspires me to actually make a change now. Ultimately this experience has been positive, and I have confidence it will help make a more permanent change in how I choose to spend my money in the future.
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Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Lindsey Updyke)