How Tahnee saved $891 in a month by tweaking her food budget - ABC Everyday (2024)

It's been at least a year since I properly looked over my budget.

But, with rising grocery costs, petrol prices, and energy bills, I thought now would be a good time to sit down and reconsider my spending.

I decided to try a money experiment to see if I could save on two of my biggest expenses: my weekly grocery bill and dining out.

Here's how it went.

Assessing my monthly spending

After going through my bank statements and calculating my expenses over a month, I discovered I was spending $188 per week (on average) on groceries.

That was a bit of a shock, especially whenit's more than the average Australian household.

The amount I was spending on eating outwas almost the same ($151) —which explains why I ended up with a lot of waste or leftover food in my cupboard and fridge.

While I didn't spend that amount all the time (sometimes more, sometimes less), going out for breakfast or dinner and drinks was really starting to add up.

Tip one: The 'round-up' method

Across a month, I tried four tips — plus an extra one I discovered along the way — to see how much money I could save.

Which one gave me the biggest savings withloweffort? The 'round-up' strategy.

It's where you round up each transaction to the nearest $10 (or $5 depending on what you can afford) and transfer the difference back into your savings account.

By doing a quick search, you can find apps to automatically do this for you, but they usually charge a fee, so Idecided to do mine over breakfast each week.

After I wrote my shopping list, I would go through my bank statements and 'round up' each expense (not including direct debits — only groceries, eating out and personal purchases like clothes) and transferred the total amount into my savings account.

The only catch was time: it took me an hour or so to write up my grocery list plus calculate my 'round up' for the week. But it paid off.

Across the month I saved a total of $319 by doing the round-up strategy alone —and since doing this experiment, I discovered my bank offers this service for free!

So, now I've turned this 'hack' into a habit.

Tip two: Prepare your shopping list at home

Each week, I scoured my pantry and fridge for leftover items to make the following week's mealsand kept an eye on products close to their expiry date.

This was another big highlight for me, not only because I could re-create meals without buying 10 new ingredients, but because it made a huge difference in reducing my waste.

As part of my shopping list prep, I would compare different supermarket catalogues onlineto see what was on special.

Using items already in my cupboard,along with the products on special, I came up with my meal plan and snacks for the week ahead (more on that later).

I also started swapping more expensive brands for home-branditems which were sometimes half the price (and still comparable in quality).

By doing those three things, I cutmy grocery bill in half during thefirst week of the experiment —going from $188 per week (on average) down to $90.21.

I then used $90 asmy budget for grocery shopping overthe next three weeks.

Tip three: Use staple ingredients to make multiple meals

I also tried to cook with a lot of staple ingredients like pasta, bread, and rice — and while I don't eat a lot of meat, the meat I did buy was either on special or staples like canned tuna.

A recent study by Deakin Universityshowseating less meat could save the average household up to $1,800 every year.While some fresh produce can be expensive, I opted for seasonal produce or frozen or tinned vegetables instead.

The benefit of buying staple ingredients is you can make multiple meals with just one ingredient —or as Emma Edwards puts it, "spider-webbing your ingredients". By doing this, I only had to buy two or three extra items to create another tasty meal.

I also stretched the items in my pantry even further by using ingredients like bi-carb soda orvinegar to create some DIY cleaning products which saved me anywhere between $5 to $10 —and they work just as good commercial products if you're doing light cleaning.

Talk about getting the most bang for your buck! This helped my grocery budget stay on track, except for week two, where I spent $108 because I ate all my staple ingredients and needed to top up.

Tip four: Meal planning can minimise costs ofeating out

Meal prepping isn't for everyone,and while I started off strongin the first week, myambition wore out by week two as Ibecamebored of eating the same meals —and that's when the temptation to buy takeaway kicked in.

My budget for eating out was $80 a week (based on week one's baseline).

I figured if I atehome-cooked meals during the week, that would help me stick to mybudget and I could spend a little more 'freely' over the weekend.

Instead of batch cooking, I decided to cook every couple of days or make mealslike salad or stir-friesfresh, because soggy beans and cabbage aren't as tasty after being stored in the fridge.

One of the biggest things I learned was this: I could prepareas much as possible, but sometimesthings don't always pan out.

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Like the time I had to make my shopping list up on the spot because there was hardly anyfresh produce available due to the floods.

Or the birthdayI went to on the last week of the experiment where Icompletely blew out my budget.I still wanted to enjoy myself without worrying about every dollar and while I tried to stay on track, it was a challenge.

After that splurge, I cracked down on my groceries for the week and managed to stay within my budget ($90.09).

Meal planning doesn't have to be a boring line-up of containers with just meat and veggies in it either.

Having variety and making food I enjoy eating out —like pasta, pizza or burgers—helped curb some of that temptation during the week and even helped me save over the weekend.

Tip five: Check different stores for better prices

I didn't realisesupermarket chains (of the same brand) were charging different prices for the exact same product—until this experiment.

I started shopping at different stores to see if I could get a better offer, andfor some products like coconut milk, I did.

My usual supermarket was selling the one I typically buy for $2.35 but when I tried another store (still within 5km from my house) I found the same product —that wasn't close to its expiry date or damaged packaging —with a price tag of $2.10.

It doesn't seem like a lot, but if you're paying a little more for multiple products each week, it starts to add up.

Depending on your local store, the time of day you shop can make a difference, too.

During the experiment, I tested shopping later in the evening or early in the morning and scored some discounts on fresh meat (around 50 per cent off) which I stored in the freezer for future meals.

Are these savings tips realistic in the long term?

By the end of the month, I'd spent $373 on groceries(around $93 per week, down from$188per week) and $428 on dining out (around $107 per week, down from $155.25 per week, or$621 total).

If we look at those figures on average, I saved $379on groceries and $193on dining out (a total of $572). When you add in the 'round-up' savings, that's $891—over a year, that's more than $10,000.

But the real question is: Is this kind of budgeting sustainable in the long-term?

Every week it took between two tothree hours to put together my shopping list, calculate my round-up, plus visit different stores. If you add time to meal prep afterwards, that's nearly a whole day.

These tips made a big difference to my bank account but realistically, they might be challenging to stick to.

There are some things I will continue to do.

Aside from keepingthe round-upmethod,using leftover items to re-create new meals has been another tipthat's stuck — reducing waste has been one of the biggest highlights for me.

Also, the idea of having a weekly budget for groceries and dining out continues to help me from splurging unnecessarily.

And while food prices have gone up, I can happily say I haven't returned to spending the same amount I was on groceries.

This information is general in nature. If you need personalised financial advice, please see a professional.