Review: Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half with America's Cheapest Family
is the follow-up to , a very solid book on frugality by Steve and Annette Economides from 2007 that I .
seems to be a detailed expansion of the second chapter of their first book. The focus here is on groceries 鈥� mostly food shopping, but a little bit of overlap on buying other household products.
Is there really enough juice in that topic to fill up an entire book?
1. Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half (or More)
The book opens by making clear the fact that changing your grocery shopping habits isn鈥檛 a magic wand that will instantly reduce the costs. Instead, it鈥檚 a combination of techniques, most of which become both easier and more effective with practice and repeated use. In other words, saving money on groceries will seem like a ton of work for less savings than you expect at first, but as the tactics become more familiar and natural, they鈥檒l take less time and effort and earn more savings. I鈥檝e certainly found this to be true in my own life.
2. The Power of the Plan
A . A . A pantry inventory. These are all tools that make it a lot easier to maximize your grocery dollar, but they all required advance work and planning before you go anywhere near a grocery store. Successful grocery shopping 鈥� at least in terms of bang for the buck 鈥� relies a lot on doing advance work. Of course, this advance work also saves you a lot of time when you鈥檙e actually in the store.
3. Shopping to Win
Here, the authors list a big collection of specific grocery saving strategies, devoting a page or two of text to each one. They鈥檙e quite varied, which means that some will be useless to you and some will be home runs but the two groups will be different for each person. The one I like is the one about aged beef 鈥� beef is often better with some aging, provided that you prepare it well when it鈥檚 actually ready in your kitchen.
4. Couponing 鈥� One of Many Ways to Save
Some people swear by it. Others find it useless. My take? Couponing works to a small extent as a component of a lot of other strategies. My opinion is that people often refer to couponing when they鈥檙e referring to a big pile of interacting strategies, of which actual coupon use is just one part. The authors address the big complaint that many people use against coupons, which is that they encourage unhealthy eating habits. They make a very good point countering that 鈥� coupons don鈥檛 cause bad eating habits, people do. Just because a coupon exists for an unhealthy food doesn鈥檛 mean you have to use it.
5. Cooking That Will Save You Time, Mone, and Sanity
This chapter is another big list of specific saving ideas (devoting about a page to each one), this time focused on cooking. Buy in bulk. Cook once a month and freeze. Spice, spice, spice. Cook with your spouse. Start a 鈥渕eal swap鈥� club (something we鈥檙e trying to get started鈥� and something I鈥檒l discuss in a future post).
6. Stocking Up and Organizing 鈥� Store It, Find It, Use It
If you buy lots of stuff in bulk, how do you find it when you need it? A big key to all of this is keeping the stuff you have on hand organized so you know what you have and can find it when you need it. The best way to do this is to simply keep an ongoing pantry list, where you list all of the food items you have stored along with notes on where to find them. You can also use this list when making a meal plan or a grocery list so you know what you have on hand without digging in the cupboard. Microsoft Excel is a great tool for this.
7. Economizing Equipment 鈥� Powerful Money-Saving Tools
It鈥檚 good to have some basic tools on hand to make cooking easier. The Economides list a lot of different items here, most of which I agree with. Surprisingly, one of the best things we鈥檝e ever purchased is our KitchenAid stand mixer, which we use for all kinds of things from making homemade bread to preparing mashed potatoes and cookie batter. I鈥檓 also a big believer in eventually getting very good, very durable kitchen equipment. A Teflon-coated pan hits the trash in a few years, but a cast iron pot is forever.
8. Family Dinnertime 鈥� Building a Stronger Family at the Dinner Table
It鈥檚 statistically proven: families that eat dinner together have lower incidence rates of teenage pregancy and juvenile delinquency. If you have children 鈥� or even if you鈥檙e married without children 鈥� strive to eat dinner together and, ideally, prepare it together. Meals can be a very social event that goes far beyond the direct nutrition you put into your body.
9. Feeding Your Kids for Less
What do you do when you have a family full of mouths to feed? Have lots of low-cost snacks (what fruits are on sale this week?) and involve your children in the whole process of meals, from planning to shopping to preparation to setting the table, so they gain an appreciation for the whole process. Our oldest kids are four and three and we鈥檙e already integrating them into this process.
10. Where and How to Eat Out for Less
The easiest solution for saving while eating out is to not eat out. However, that鈥檚 not the ultimate answer for many, so how do you do it? This chapter offers a lot of advice 鈥� don鈥檛 be afraid to use coupons, take home a doggy bag, go simple with the beverages (I recommend water), don鈥檛 get 鈥渦psold鈥� to more expensive versions of what you ordered, and so on. The best solution really is to just not eat out, even at a very 鈥渃heap鈥� place (where you鈥檙e getting really dodgy food quality).
11. Gardening 鈥� Grow It Yourself and Be Healthy
Gardening can also save a lot of money, not just in the produced vegetables, but in the extremely low cost entertainment it can provide for many hours during the summer. The trick is to grow a variety of vegetables and, when you have excess, to store them properly by freezing them and/or canning them. There鈥檚 nothing better in January than having many pounds of garden-fresh tomatoes canned or frozen, just ready for use.
Is Worth Reading?
If you鈥檝e never even thought about your grocery bill and your dining out bill as ways to really save money, this book will be a home run for you. Many of the techniques you can use to trim your grocery bill are quite easy and this is a spectacular collection of such tips.
On the other hand, if you鈥檙e an experienced frugal grocery shopper and food preparer, you鈥檒l find a lot of tips that make you say 鈥淣o kidding?!鈥� with a few tips here or there that will be of use to you mixed throughout the book. If you鈥檙e willing to search for some treasure, this one will still be a worthwile read.
I found several interesting ideas in the book that we鈥檙e going to try, even if many of the tips felt like repetition of the things we already do. Does that make for a good book? I say yes, because it has ideas for beginners and old hands alike.
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