Making a grocery shopping budget can be daunting.
Luckily, one TikTok influencer has shared how she cut her grocery bill by $800 a month by food prepping.
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Meal prep to save money
Budgeting experts consistently say that meal prepping is a great tool for saving. Preparing your meals in advance makes sure everything gets eaten, and that there is less waste. This will save you money in the long run.
Gina Zakaria is a self-proclaimed money expert. She shares her savings tips and tricks on TikTok under the the handle SavingWhizGina. She started on her money-saving journey over 10 years ago. Since then, she’s been able to cut her grocery bill for a family of four in Los Angeles from $1,200 to $400 a month. Even now with inflation high, she has still been able to stick to her budget.
She recently shared how she has been able to save money on one of her daughters favorite snacks. Now that school has started back up, Gina has started doing what she calls “batch meal prepping.”
Her daughter loves the poopy seed muffins from school– but they are $1.75 each. She found that the muffins are from Costco and bought two boxes of six muffins for $8.99. Meanwhile, two dozen muffins from the school would have cost $21.
Gina noticed that because the muffins are pretty big, her family usually only eats half at a time. Now, she cuts them in half and puts them in individual bags. This way they don’t get stale and end up getting tossed. At first it may not seem worth it just to save a few extra dollars. However, Gina reminds her viewers that these few dollars add up to make a big difference in her grocery budget.
Other savings tips
When Gina first started shopping with the intention of saving, she made a big mistake. She thought that simply by shopping at a savings store like Costco, that everything was a good deal. While there are plenty of great deals at large wholesalers, you must know how to price match to save.
It is important to keep track of your unit prices. Keep track of your products by unit – either ounce or pound so that you can compare items to calculate the best deal.
Keeping food at home or the ingredients to make it will help reduce how often you eat out and will save you money. She also suggests that when you see something you like and will use, to buy it in bulk when it goes on sale.
The Inflation Reduction Act and current inflation rates
