Ep 253: How to save money on groceries when everything is expensive

Groceries are expensive, eating out is expensive, and somehow the advice for spending less on food is still “make a list.”

Meanwhile, feeding yourself has gotten weirdly strategic these days. Between higher prices, smaller packages, busy schedules, food waste, and recalls, the smartest grocery strategy is simply getting better at buying for the life you actually live.

So in this episode, we’re sharing 5 questions to ask before you even head to the grocery store so you can spend less, waste less, and make eating at home feel a whole lot easier.

We get into:

• Why shopping hungry changes what “enough” looks like
• The pantry food you already paid for and why whatever keeps getting left behind is useful feedback
• How your freezer quietly becomes a graveyard for food waste
• Why a $20 frozen lasagna can be a better financial decision than buying all the ingredients from scratch
• What actually deserves “staple” status in your house
• How to build different levels of cooking into your routine so the only choices aren’t “make a whole meal” or “order $100 worth of takeout”
• And the bonus question we probably all need to start asking before we toss something in the cart: is this currently recalled?

Links: 

• 3 reasons your food doesn’t turn out the way you want
• Catch up on our Eat Better cooking series, then leave a comment with what you want Julien to tackle next. He’s open to anything from a technique or ingredient, to a meal, shortcut, or cooking problem you want help with 
• For the bigger picture behind what we eat and why, watch Taste the Impact, our mini doc on the food system itself

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