My neighbor laughed at my $50 weekly grocery bill until she showed me her system

I used to think I was doing great keeping my grocery budget under $50 a week. Then my neighbor Mary saw me checking out at the store and chuckled a little. She pulled out her receipt and showed me she feeds her family of four on $80 a week using a local discount grocery store I had never heard of. It's called Grocery Outlet and honestly I always thought it was just a weird junk food place. She walked me through her meal plan for the week and showed me how she buys meat in bulk there and freezes it. After that conversation I started going there and now my weekly meals cost about $30 less than before. Has anyone else found a hidden cheap grocery spot that totally changed their food budget?

2 comments

2 Comments

james_martin936d ago

Grocery Outlet is a total hidden gem. I read somewhere that their whole business model is buying overstock and closeout deals from name brand suppliers, which is why stuff is so cheap but still good. I started going to the one near me and my biggest discovery was their dairy section, blocks of cheese for like half the price of the regular store and it freezes perfectly. The trick is to go with a flexible meal plan since you never know what they'll have in stock that week.

bell.taylor6d ago

Nah, I gotta disagree. I gave Grocery Outlet a few tries and honestly wasn't impressed. Most of the stuff I found was close to expiration or had damaged packaging. The produce was pretty hit or miss too, a lot of it was already turning bad. I get that you can save money on dairy and pantry stuff if you're flexible, but for me it wasn't worth the hassle of driving across town and hoping they had something good. I'd rather just hit the regular store and know what I'm getting.