If it makes anyone feel better, I just went to Aldi and spent two weeks worth of grocery money in one fell swoop. There's always next week 😂 🌻 Hannah

For leftovers, I also say reduce the amount of storage containers you have too. You’ll find you have to eat the older food so you can free up the containers for more food. If you have endless containers, the fridge fills up with rotting food.

Love the color coordination with your shirt and the mug 😂

Can't believe I never thought to divide my budget into 4 separate weeks for groceries. That's so much more intuitive (for me). Thanks Hannah!

Thanks so much for this video. Even the survey at the beginning of all your coworkers’ grocery budget was helpful. I recently became totally debt free and am learning how to readjust my budget to a non-rice-and-beans diet. So many options now 😅

Couldn't agree more on generic/store brand food! Someone told me once that because name brands make way more product than they actually sell to consumers, they started selling to stores too and letting the store slap their name on it and sell in turn at a huge discount. I have no idea if that was true, but it inspired me to buy my first store brand item. It tasted EXACTLY the same, so I started buying more and more store brands. Eventually I found a few that I didn't care for, but I just didn't buy them and saved a ton of money on everything else. Even now that I can afford to buy name brand stuff, I still buy the store brand because THAT's what I know now :)

One thing I love to do is go on Pinterest and print out recipes I like and buying my grocery based on that recipe list. Over time of doing this I have a huge folder of recipes I love and have a stocked pantry because I use the same ingredient for multiple meals. I’m a weekly shopper which makes it easier. I also bought a vegetable chopper on Amazon that makes prepping onions, peppers, carrots soooooo Much easier!

The once a week route means at least 4 grocery trips a month and typically excludes bulk shopping. We do 2 trips for the month and it works great for us.

FYI - very often store brands are made by name brand companies. Del Monte cans the Great Value (Wal-Mart) fruit. Sometimes it's just the company quality requirements aren't met that are superficial - like too many broken cherries in the fruit cocktail so it gets rejected for Del Monte, but is fine for Wal-Mart. Or it's a slightly different recipe. I worked for a bacon company that made over 100 brands of bacon. Same recipe. Different label.

If you’re on the fence about buying generic, start with things that get cooked or mixed into other things, where you won’t easily notice subtle flavor changes of one item. Think canned tomato sauce that’s going in a pot of chili, salsa going into taco meat, broth going into soup. As you learn to like those items just as well, you can expand into things you eat by themselves, like pre-made soup or cookies.

I have been thinking for a while now that I need to break my grocery budget up into food and household cleaning supplies and pet supplies. I used to buy them all in the same place in the same trip, but now I order them online from different suppliers and I feel like I don't have a handle on it anymore. Definitely time to upgrade that budget category. Thanks for the inspiration!

I live in rural area and honestly between price increases and scarcity of item; I was getting frustrated. I saw my food budget jump from 500 for family of 4 to double that. I make meal plans and eat leftovers. Then one day scrolling though facebook I saw a friend got southern foods. I got to select all the food my family eats. They deliver to my home and even they stack the food in the freezer. The cost was $403 a month for six months. That is well within my budget. Now I have chest freezer filled with steak, pork, chicken, and veggies. Now I just put $50 a week for milk and what not. I am trying my best not to go out to eat.

So amazingly helpful! Thank you Hannah!!

Many moons ago my little brother worked in a store. An item had been 26cents a can for a long time. The price raised to 32 cents a can and the shoppers were complaining about the increase, saying they just wasn’t going to pay that much for it. His boss told him to move the items up next to the register and make a sign saying, “Special!!! 3cans for $1.00”. He came home laughing and said the same people who were complaining were grabbing 3, 6 or 9 cans talking about what a great deal that was and wish they had seen it when they first came in the store. Need to be leery of specials and sales.

These are so practical, thank you! ❤️❤️

Emergency meals FTW! One of our favorites - buy either chicken or pork roast, add some marinade, then freeze. When we need it, just toss in the instapot. I love the pantry list idea; hopefully the app you mentioned will be available on android at some point. In the meantime, got my trusty pen and paper when doing the grocery shopping online. 💜

My "one-adult $375" grocery budget seems ridiculous now. On the contrary, I do have a roommate and people think it's odd we don't split groceries. Some stuff we buy for the both of us like breads, paper towels, soaps, etc, but we have vastly different schedules so we don't combine dinner ideas I do love making dishes that can be frozen for later: chili, soups, stews, tomato sauces; etc.

Always a pleasure to watch your videos Hannah ^^

Thank you Hannah. I’m going to Aldi this month, making a meal plan and also splitting my monthly budget into weeks. I have £15 left to spend for the week so looks like it’s working so far 😊.

Your content is some of the best out there! Keep up the great work! Thanks for sharing all your experiences!

I like your tips. They are not the typical ways to save. 🌻

Loved the options you gave in this one. Thank you!

THANK YOU!!!

This is a truly unique video on the subject. Thank you for another great video Hannah and YNAB.

Really appreciate YNAB. And big fan of Hannah! Both are more amazing each year! Thank you and keep up the Great work!

I loved your videos and you before this, but all your mentions of Aldi made me love you even more!! Thanks for all your videos. They are always so fun!

Thanks boo. I need these.

Thank you for the Pantry Check app suggestion. I downloaded it and am easily adding all my barcoded ingredients. I may be able to keep track of food as well as my money now!

Okay I swear Hannah is just literally speaking straight to me. Just found these videos and loving them!!

Amazing!

We always used to throw out lettuce/greens until we made sure there was a specific meal that required it. "I should eat more salad" is less effective than, "I'm eating this type of salad on this night."

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Yes, money and planning for meal for the week is the way to go for me. I recently got into a program called Anywhere Nutrition where the Nutritionist creates meal plans for the week but , you do batches of food that last like 3 days at a time and they are healthy. This is not an ad, it is what has helped me. I am working on eating at home more, I am pretty much a eating out kind of person but as I get older I want to know what is in the food I eat more.

Our emergency meals are leftovers. I love to make double batches of freezer friendly foods like lasagne, chicken pot pie, chili, broth based soups, etc whenever we have them. That way, the next time I'm too exhausted to cook, there is something easy to have and I know exactly what's in it.

Had to make a fresh start with my YNAB budget after neglecting it for a month. Already made grocery categories for each week for the remainder of July. I may only do Walmart curbside pickup since it is so easy to see how much I am spending.

We do something similar except we (two parents, two kids) do $400 the first week of the month (for Costco, bulk, etc.) and $200 for each of the subsequent weeks. The other thing we do is use Costco same-day delivery via Instacart (which I know doesn't exactly save us money optimally as the same-day delivery prices are a little higher, plus we have to tip--but worth it to not waste 2 hours at Costco), and we almost always go the the "buy again" tab and re-buy our usual staples, which naturally discouraged impulse buying.

Definitely doing the $/week method in my head, but that's inexact. When times were *really* tight, I'd only buy with cash, and I'd only get the budgeted amount of cash out of the ATM right before heading to the grocery store. That really concentrates the mind wonderfully: if I go over budget, I can't pay at the cash register. That's embarrassing and something's got to go back. Times are not so tight anymore (more income, better budgeting), but that's still how I set my monthly goals - how many Saturdays will I buying groceries on? YNAB sets that up for me with my weekly target, which determines my monthly budget, and then I can see my progress bar and assess if I'm ahead or behind.

I love meal planning but I work in a grocery store. My plan ends up going out the window and everything I planned rots until I throw it away. The fuzzy stuff I call “Frank” 🤣😂🤣

For meal prepping: I often used canned vegetables for recipes when they require vegetables. I have a back stock of canned goods to easily whip up a simple meal. For example: I ran out of my favorite fancy spaghetti sauce so I use canned tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes and add dried basil, canned garlic, and Italian seasonings. I usually have canned pesto on hand to whip up a delicious pesto pasta dish with the canned garlic and frozen pre-cooked shrimp. This method works very well for me and I have a lot less fresh produce waste but one thing to note is that canned goods often have a high amount of sodium so this method would be risky for someone sensitive to sodium.

I keep my inventory and shopping list in Trello. When I run out of something, I can just drag the card from one column to another, and the same when I’m shopping.

We do freezer meals once a month. We make 18 meals for our family of 5. We add small things through the month. This has helped us get our groceries category under control !

We have rotation system. We created four lists for meals, each list has two types of breakfasts, 5 types of dinners and 4 types of sandwiches. All meals in each list have interchangeable ingredients, so for example if we make vegan ramen for Monday dinner and need peppers and tofu for it among other things, we will be making three bean chilli that week too, as it uses beans AND peppers in our house and because we are making chilli, we would be having beans on toast for breakfast at least three times that week... you get the gist. It helps us buy in bulk without throwing food away and we love that. Plus, we were able to bring our food shopping down to 65 euro a week for two and that is just wonderful :) When we get fed up of one list, say after two weeks, we switch it for another and rinse and repeat the process. And we highly recommend AnyList because we plan meals, shopping and it updates for both of us. Loving it!

To account for having family over, holidays, Superbowl, birthday dinners, I have a category called Family Celebrations. (Gifts are a separate category). This keeps my monthly grocery intake at a "reality" level as it won't include the special foods.

LOVE the idea of an Eat-me-first bin! I might have to do that in my crisper as well, because produce seems to often be forgotten, especially when I just need a half bunch of cilantro then forget about the other half.

I like choosing my own produce so I don’t order groceries online often, but I’ve found that using my store’s app to build my list gives me a running total so I can stick to my budget… then I just have to go and only buy what’s on the list. I give myself room for swaps for things that are out of stock, and 1-2 “bonus” items, but so far it’s working great (and I was baaaad for impulse grocery purchases before YNAB).

That ending had me chuckling 😂

When I make a meal, I plan on us eating the leftovers the next night. After night #2, everyone is pretty much done with that meal and there probably isn't enough left for all of us, anyway. So, I put the leftovers into single-serving sized freezer containers, label them, and use them for emergency meals. On nights when I don't have time to cook, I announce that it is "freezer surprise" night and everyone goes into the freezer and finds a single-serving sized container of leftovers that looks good to them, they pop it in the microwave and . . . . presto . . . dinner is complete and leftovers aren't wasted.

You are hilarious I love your sense of humor

I’d like to suggest The Lazy Genius with Kendra Adachi as a great resource for meal planning. She can definitely take someone through the baby steps from winging it to planned-but-flexible. She has a podcast and two books.

I actually paused the video on the screen with the food budgets for your coworkers. We have two adult parents, one 12 year old, and 4 adult sized children ages 14 to 21. We have been spending $2,200 a month for all food including eating out. I totally thought it was excessive, but the family with two adults and 7 kids actually spend close to what we do. So I am not crazy, but I would like to shave it back a bit! Thanks so much for posting this video!

Whoa, I am fascinated to know more about the two adults who strictly eat out and have no food in the house! 😲

For everyday meals if some part of it that is non perishable goes on sale I buy more so when the perishable goes on sale and it becomes a weekly meal I can make more of it and freeze them. Chili, marinaded chicken and vegetables and stews all live in the freezer for quick meals. It saves my husband when I am incapacitated from some injury or illness

Surprised it wasn't mentioned, but to cut down on the cost of meat look for the manager specials. The store wants to sell it quick because it is close to the expiration date, but that is fine just buy a bunch and freeze it. Thaw as needed.

As an Aldi fan my whole life is store brands. There used to be a few name brands I wouldn’t budge on (Campbell’s tomato soup, JIF peanut butter, Cheez-It’s, and Takis) - but I’ve even come to like the Aldi versions of those over time.

Confession time... We are spending $1200/month on three people. I switched us to a primarily rice and beans diet, and I meal plan and stick to the list religiously, but inflation just keeps getting higher and higher and I haven't seen a dent. My husband has multiple allergies and my kid has feeding issues so we are buying a lot of specialty foods. This video actually gave me some hope that we can get this spending under control. I liked the advice to take it one step at a time. I think I am going to try breaking down the categories from monthly to weekly and using an inventory list. We prefer to buy fresh produce, but a lot of it goes to waste. It would be better if I could meal plan based on what we still have left over. I will just start generously and slowly pare down the amount of budgeted money over time. Great tips, thank you!

Yeah I gotta do the weekly budget helps my money last longer for food

Could the guy who spends $0/mo and strictly eats out do a video like this too? 😂

I am a dedicated Aldi shopper, but I've had to increase my grocery budget by about 40% over the last six months and we are not buying anything out of the ordinary or more of anything.

Just remembered I’ve been counting supplies as groceries and should probably go back to my old way of having more categories

$200/month (*1.3 for the currency conversion = 260 a month)... makes me cry. Good luck with that here in Canada 😢

Don't just assume Aldi is cheaper than Wegmans anymore! Greek yogurt in family packs, as well as pasta, sauce and some meats are some things actually cheaper at Wegmans right now in my area.

Aldi's prices may be going up too, but best all hands down.

True story-- my family used to have a contract to produce and pack cage free organic eggs for the largest retailer in the US. We produced and packed the exact same eggs into their branded carton (shiny & expensive) and private label carton (cheaper alternative brand). Like.. the eggs came from the same flock of chickens. It's just a numbers game with retailers-- they know a certain amount of people will pay premium for a flashy brand, and others will always buy the private label. So you might as well save some money!

After looking at the “Two adults, Celiac friendly $650/ mo” I feel like I’m in the right ballpark. I spend more money than other people I know, but I’m gluten-free, dairy- free. Even with not buying GF/DF snacks, junk foods, and bread, it’s still expensive. I try to limit meat and poultry, but have you seen the cost of eggs and fish??

Necesito esta taza urgentemente para España!!!!!!!

Alternatively, instead of an inventory list, just "go shopping" at your pantry/fridge first, checking off your shopping list items; THEN go to the store!

The "caveat" guy at the end sounds just like GreatScott the youtuber :D

I would love a list of YNABs sister apps

I love this. Is this list written down somewhere?

Digging the longer hair

ALDI rules!

Heard that shoutout to StL's Schnucks

You left out the big one. Bulk cooking is so important to a food budget. On the weekend, I like to do one big cooking for all of my work meals. There's almost always enough to have it for dinner once or twice too. On a good week, I can have all of my work meals made for anywhere between $12 and $20. These aren't cheap garbage meals either. Chicken and rice, chili, soups and stews, meatloaf and many other really tasty options that fill me up. I'm a big man, closer to 300lbs than I'd like to admit, and I work in a factory. I know what it takes to feed an active worker. Still, it's not nearly as hard as it seems, and making cheap, nutritious food in bulk is a time saver as well as a money saver. I also make a point to buy my spices in bulk. I buy a lot of them by the pound. For example, I can buy 3oz of turmeric for $5, but I can buy a pound for as little as $7. Somebody is trying to jerk us around. We use a lot of garlic powder. I got almost a pound and a half for less than $10. Even the dollar stores cost more than smart bulk shopping. Even if you're not that confident in your cooking, you came on KZfaq for your budget. Surprise surprise, dear sweet KZfaq will teach you how to cook cheap food too. We are fortunate to have so much info at our fingertips in this day and age. If you really want to change your day to day, the tools are there. You can eat even better than you are now for less. You just have to look up how.

Yeah Hanna, thanks. Nice to know I am not the only one whose struggles with words like Cave-E-OT, should be Cave-E-NOT!

brussels avocado and broccoli are mine. I never quite realized what they all had in common until you spelled it out. 🤦‍♂️

Leftovers are lunches the next day. Who throws them away?

Seeing these budgets from people makes me laugh in Canadian, the grocery prices here hurt.

Don't need groceries if you don't eat! Idk about you guys, but groceries prices have gone up in Canada

Is there an app for price books???

Checking what was that groceries stock keeping app?

What’s the monthly budget for the two adults that only eat out? I’m so tired of cooking😅

Hi. Why is everyone (including Hannah!!) treating 4 weeks as being a month?? If you want to convert a weekly cap into the monthly total, you need to multiply by 4.33. Works slightly in your favour for February and the 30-day months but is the best “constant” to use. Likewise, divide your monthly target by 4.33 to reach your “true” weekly figure. This error might be part of the problem for some people who are wondering why they are off kilter for their final “week” of the month. It’s because it’s not a week…

I wish we had Aldi's I'm WA State. 😪

Anyone know of an app like Pantry Check but for Android? 🥺

I feeeze leftovers to eat for work lunch or any other time. Okus, there are apps and websites that will help you create a menu with ingredients you already have. I buy more frozen veggies and fruits there are frozen bananas and avocados.

It’s interesting to see the wide range of grocery budgets. And what’s with the people that only eat out?!

I need to budget for only three days, even week is too long

There is a weekly email from ‘mashupMom’ who puts together a menu based on Aldi’s weekly ad. The aim is to feed four for $70/week. It is diet style agnostic so may not work for all.

You know where I do spend a lot of money in my groceries? Liquor an wine

How does one survive on $400/month for grocery? Don’t know how they do it. I just can’t.

"Zero Dollars a month." That's not at thing. That's just them coping because they're adult children that are incapable of grocery shopping, so they have to spend an exorbitant amount of money on eating out.

how do i be like you?

Do not buy generic smores poptarts. They DO NOT taste the same. 😂

Avocado = guacamole. Asparagus = salmon side. Both things you should be eating every week. You could just learn how to cook.

Two adults and three teens = $200???!! What are they eating?

Add more fruits, veggies, legumes (beans & lentils), whole grains and less meat, dairy, eggs, and oil. This should result in significant savings for most people.

She’s eating both an apple and a banana in the thumbnail. I can see why her grocery bill might be high. *joke

PRO TIP: shop at the dollar store for canned items.

Hey, with the caveat pronunciations it's probably just different accents.

We just add any items we run out of by using Google Home hub, "hey Google add milk to the shopping list" this serves as the reverse of an inventory list. That way, after we meal plan we create our shopping list for the meal plan and then check the Google shopping list for the 'regulars' that we need.