[0:00] Grocery shopping can be one of the most
[0:01] frustrating parts of day-to-day life.
[0:04] Obviously, we've all seen the price
[0:06] increases in the past several years, but
[0:08] even if those drop tomorrow, there are
[0:10] still a lot of other issues that most
[0:12] people don't talk about. There's the
[0:14] information overload it takes to figure
[0:16] out what you want and plan a list.
[0:17] There's the stress of being in a packed
[0:19] grocery store, especially if you go on a
[0:21] Sunday when everyone else is there. And
[0:23] then even when you get home and start
[0:25] filling up the fridge, typically the
[0:27] first day or two goes pretty well, but
[0:29] then things naturally start to fall
[0:31] apart. Maybe the recipe you planned on
[0:33] Sunday doesn't sound too appealing on
[0:35] Wednesday. You also realize you're now
[0:37] missing an ingredient. The greens you
[0:39] bought for the salad are starting to go
[0:40] bad. Or maybe you're just tired from
[0:42] work, kids, or life in general. So you
[0:45] say, "Screw it. Let's just pay for some
[0:47] delivery." And by the end of the week,
[0:49] you didn't really save time. You didn't
[0:50] really save money. probably wasted food
[0:52] in the process. And the worst part of
[0:54] all, you have this realization on a
[0:56] Sunday and need to do this all over
[1:00] again.
[1:02] And that's why in this video, I want to
[1:03] share five ideas that have helped me
[1:05] grocery shop without wasting my time and
[1:08] money. So, I'm going to show you how I
[1:10] actually use these ideas together over
[1:12] the course of a real week by showing
[1:14] what I shop for, how much money I spend,
[1:17] what I make with the ingredients, and
[1:19] how I set myself up for success for not
[1:21] just a single week, but week over week,
[1:24] month over month, and year over year.
[1:27] And by the end of this video, I promise
[1:29] you will have a better understanding of
[1:31] how to get more value out of your
[1:33] grocery shopping. So to start, let's
[1:35] talk about idea number one, and that is
[1:39] there is no perfect grocery system.
[1:44] If we were in a grocery shopping therapy
[1:46] session and you said to me, I hate
[1:48] grocery shopping, I would immediately
[1:51] ask you, well, what part specifically?
[1:54] Because I think a lot of the frustration
[1:55] around grocery shopping can come from
[1:57] the idea that we should be able to
[1:59] optimize for everything at the same
[2:01] time. And I'm just here to tell you, you
[2:03] can't you can't simultaneously have the
[2:06] lowest cost, the best tasting or most
[2:08] seasonal ingredients, the healthiest
[2:10] diet, while also having tons of variety,
[2:12] zero food waste, and spending very
[2:14] little time planning, shopping, and
[2:16] cooking in the kitchen. All of these
[2:18] goals tend to pull against each other in
[2:21] some way. And the real work when it
[2:23] comes to grocery shopping as a system
[2:26] isn't trying to find some perfect one.
[2:28] It's more about identifying which
[2:30] trade-offs you're willing to make and
[2:32] which ones you're not. Now, as you'll
[2:35] see throughout the rest of this video,
[2:37] I'm going to be making a lot of
[2:38] trade-offs, such as which grocery stores
[2:40] I shop at, how many times I go per week,
[2:42] how much money I spend, what types of
[2:44] meals I cook, what I prioritize, and
[2:46] what I don't. But the key here isn't for
[2:48] you to copy exactly what I'm doing. The
[2:51] goal is for you to use me as a reference
[2:54] point. I want you to notice the
[2:55] trade-offs that I'm making and ask
[2:57] yourself whether those are the same
[3:00] trade-offs that you would choose. And
[3:02] this means you'll need to ask yourself
[3:04] questions about your own life, such as
[3:07] who and how many people are you shopping
[3:08] for? What is your preferred diet? What's
[3:11] your budget you like to spend? When and
[3:13] where do you actually have time to
[3:14] grocery shop? When do you have time to
[3:16] cook and when do you not? How important
[3:17] is variety to you from week to week? How
[3:19] sensitive are you to food waste? or how
[3:22] much mental energy do you want to spend
[3:24] thinking about food? Now, if a few
[3:27] hundred thousand people watch this
[3:29] video, everyone's going to have slightly
[3:31] different answers to those questions.
[3:33] But those responses are really important
[3:36] because these are what will dictate the
[3:38] practical grocery shopping choices that
[3:40] make sense for you. And this is what
[3:42] we're going to explore in the remaining
[3:44] ideas. And this brings us to idea number
[3:47] two. lowcost groceries still taste good.
[3:51] And to start this section off, I want to
[3:52] run a little grocery shopping
[3:54] experiment. There are three different
[3:56] grocery stores that I will tend to shop
[3:58] at in any given week. The first one is
[4:00] the closest to me and the lowest cost,
[4:02] but it also has the least variety and
[4:04] quality. The second one is the middle
[4:06] ground, a few more minutes away,
[4:07] slightly higher cost, but more variety
[4:09] and quality. And then the third one is
[4:11] the furthest away, but by far the best
[4:13] variety and quality. However, it's also
[4:16] the most expensive. And what I did is
[4:18] put together a grocery list. And I'm
[4:20] going to buy the exact same 10 items
[4:22] from the lowest cost and the highest
[4:24] cost grocery store. And I want you to
[4:26] take a guess on what you think the price
[4:28] difference is going to be. Now, before I
[4:31] show you the receipts, I want to explain
[4:33] the bigger picture behind this idea.
[4:35] Because one of the easiest traps to fall
[4:37] into at the grocery store is just buying
[4:40] the more expensive version of an
[4:42] ingredient without even knowing what the
[4:44] differences are. And this idea sits at
[4:46] the core of a lot of the ingredient deep
[4:48] dives where I've tested a lot of grocery
[4:50] products such as canned tomatoes,
[4:52] parmesan reo, chicken, eggs, steak,
[4:55] canned tuna, butter, and milk. And in
[4:58] every one of those tests that I've done,
[5:00] there are real differences between the
[5:02] products. But in every case of those
[5:05] videos, the lowest cost options can
[5:07] still be used to make genuinely good
[5:10] tasting food. And a few months ago, I
[5:12] did a video where I pushed this to the
[5:14] extreme. I bought the lowest cost
[5:16] version of everything for a meal and
[5:18] then compared them to the higherend
[5:20] versions, and the cost came out to about
[5:22] $2.87 per serving versus $646
[5:27] per serving. And yes, if price didn't
[5:30] matter, I did prefer the higherend
[5:32] ingredients, but the budget version was
[5:34] still good. Like, it was still
[5:36] completely edible and enjoyable
[5:38] spaghetti and meatballs. And as we're
[5:40] about to see, if you can learn to make
[5:42] good tasting meals with lowcost
[5:44] groceries, you can save quite a bit of
[5:46] money on a single trip. And when you
[5:48] multiply it week over week and month
[5:50] over month, you could be saving a couple
[5:52] thousand a year. Okay, so if you got
[5:56] those guesses in, here is the final
[5:58] answers. So, the same 10 item grocery
[6:00] list, just shoed for at two different
[6:02] stores. And here on my right, the lowerc
[6:04] cost groceries were $3744
[6:07] and then the higher cost groceries were
[6:09] $6984.
[6:12] And this one definitely surprised me. I
[6:15] mean, we're essentially talking about
[6:17] double the price between these two. And
[6:19] we even got a little bit more food with
[6:21] the lowerc cost groceries. I got.17 lb
[6:24] more of the ground beef and then about.3
[6:26] lb more of the chicken thighs. And
[6:29] again, I'm not arguing that these are
[6:31] going to taste exactly the same. There
[6:33] are going to be flavor differences
[6:35] between them. But again, if you go back
[6:37] to concept one, you need to ask
[6:39] yourself, is that tradeoff actually
[6:42] worth it to you? However, now that I
[6:44] have the groceries, we are ready for the
[6:46] fun and creative part of the process.
[6:48] And I've got another question for you.
[6:50] How many different meals do you think
[6:52] I'll be able to make with this pile of
[6:54] groceries, as well as a few other pantry
[6:56] staples I already have? Because that's
[6:58] exactly what we're going to talk about
[7:00] in concept three. So, over the next few
[7:03] days, I was able to make a wide variety
[7:05] of meals, which we'll go through
[7:06] shortly. But the cookware I used to make
[7:08] those all came from today's sponsor,
[7:11] Maiden. And I think I used the entire
[7:13] lineup of cookwware that Maiden has to
[7:14] offer, outside of maybe a non-stick.
[7:17] That's the one I think I just happened
[7:18] not to use this week. However, instead
[7:20] of trying to tell you about all of them,
[7:22] I do want to call out two of my favorite
[7:24] stainless steel pans, which are the
[7:26] 10-in frying pan and the 3ourt sauier.
[7:30] Maiden's premium five ply stainless
[7:32] steel is what sets it apart from other
[7:34] pans out there. The five layers allow
[7:36] for superior heat retention, even
[7:38] heating, and ease of heat control. So,
[7:41] I'll use the 10-in frying pan if I just
[7:42] need to like quickly brown up some
[7:44] ground beef or maybe sauté some
[7:46] vegetables. And then the sauier itself
[7:48] is very flexible. I probably use it the
[7:51] most for quick pastas like I did this
[7:53] week, but it can be used for frying,
[7:55] cooking sauces, or even brazing. And
[7:57] these are just great workhouse pans that
[7:59] you'll have in your kitchen for years to
[8:01] come. So, you can check out the full
[8:03] stainless clad collection and my other
[8:05] favorite cookware from Made In by using
[8:07] the link in the description. and thank
[8:08] you again for sponsoring this video. But
[8:12] now, let's talk about that third idea.
[8:14] And I want to explain why I believe that
[8:16] in order to save time, money, and mental
[8:19] effort when you're grocery shopping,
[8:20] that 80% of the cooking you do should be
[8:23] low activation energy and flexible. Over
[8:26] the course of a week, I have about 14
[8:28] meals, lunch and dinner, that I'm
[8:29] primarily cooking for since I don't eat
[8:31] breakfast. And on average, I also
[8:33] probably eat out about once per week.
[8:36] So, for roughly 80% or 10 of those
[8:38] meals, the goal should be low activation
[8:39] energy and flexibility. And by low
[8:42] activation energy, I mean meals that are
[8:44] easy to start. There's no big mental
[8:46] hurdle, no long prep list, no elaborate
[8:49] plan. And by flexible, I mean meals that
[8:51] can adapt to your mood, your energy
[8:54] level, and whatever happens to be in
[8:56] your fridge that day. So, how do you
[8:58] actually do this with real food in real
[9:00] life? Well, there are a lot of options.
[9:03] You could meal prep. You could use food
[9:04] delivery services. You could make a new
[9:06] recipe for dinner and eat the leftovers
[9:08] for lunch the next day. And all of these
[9:10] work, but they come with trade-offs.
[9:11] Meal prep can be boring. Food delivery
[9:13] can be outrageously expensive. And
[9:15] making a new recipe every night can lead
[9:17] to food waste. And this is why my
[9:20] preferred method is what I call the PCSV
[9:23] framework. And this stands for protein,
[9:26] carbohydrate, sauce, and vegetable. I'm
[9:29] not scrolling Instagram for ideas. I'm
[9:31] not chasing recipes. I'm just asking
[9:33] myself a few basic questions. What
[9:36] protein do I have? How do I want to
[9:38] season it? What's my carbohydrate? What
[9:40] sauce am I making? And what vegetable am
[9:42] I using? Fresh, pickled, roasted, or
[9:45] sauteed. And when you start shopping and
[9:47] cooking this way, the whole process gets
[9:50] dramatically simpler. For example, from
[9:52] my lowcost groceries, I know I have two
[9:54] different proteins, ground beef and
[9:55] chicken thighs, two different
[9:57] carbohydrate sources, two different
[9:58] sauces, and a few different vegetables.
[10:00] And then obviously I have spices and
[10:02] other sauces already in my fridge or
[10:04] pantry that I can use as well. So let me
[10:07] show you what I made with this
[10:10] framework. So for Tuesday's dinner, my
[10:12] protein was the ground beef and I
[10:14] seasoned it with salt, garlic, and
[10:15] oregano. Then for my carbohydrate, I
[10:17] used the pita bread. For my sauces, I
[10:20] put hummus on the bottom and then
[10:21] drizzled a dill sauce that I made with
[10:23] some ingredients from the fridge over
[10:24] the top. And my vegetables were lettuce,
[10:26] tomato, and some red onion with sumach.
[10:28] Very simple. took about 10 minutes to
[10:30] make and very satisfying. For
[10:32] Wednesday's lunch, I mixed it up. For my
[10:34] protein, I again used the ground beef,
[10:36] but just seasoned it with a bunch of
[10:37] black pepper and some salt. For my
[10:39] carbohydrate, I used rice. And then I
[10:41] also had some thyme roasted sweet
[10:43] potatoes as my vegetables. And then I
[10:45] also added some pickled beets that I'd
[10:47] had in the fridge for about 3 weeks that
[10:49] I've been meaning to use up. And lastly,
[10:51] my sauce was just some of that leftover
[10:53] dill sauce from the night before. And
[10:55] this one was really good. I didn't know
[10:57] what to expect, but I really, really
[10:59] enjoyed it. For Wednesday's dinner, this
[11:01] might have been my favorite so far. The
[11:03] protein was some simple seared chicken
[11:05] thighs that I tossed in that teriyak
[11:06] sauce. The carbs were jasmine rice and
[11:09] once again, some roasted sweet potatoes.
[11:11] I love that combo. Then my sauce was QP
[11:13] mayo over the top before finishing it
[11:15] with some pickled onions and the mix of
[11:16] sweet, sour, salty, and umami. So good.
[11:19] Here for Thursday's lunch, I actually
[11:20] ate out with a co-orker, so I didn't
[11:22] need to cook. And if we zoom out and
[11:24] start looking at the whole week, you can
[11:26] see it starting to take shape. And as I
[11:28] get into these last few days, the meals
[11:30] are naturally going to need to become
[11:32] simpler as I run out of ingredients. But
[11:35] that's okay. Not every meal needs to be
[11:36] an event. Thursday night was the tar
[11:39] chicken thighs and a salad with toasted
[11:40] pita hummus salad vinegrett pickles
[11:42] and cherry tomatoes. For Friday's lunch,
[11:44] I finished the rest of that ground beef
[11:46] and mixed it with a little barbecue
[11:47] sauce. then served it over rice with
[11:49] beans and just added some chopped up
[11:51] pickles and white onions. Definitely
[11:53] more of a struggle meal, but still hit
[11:54] the spot. Then for Friday dinner, I
[11:56] found some noki in the freezer that I
[11:58] mixed with some chicken thighs, roasted
[11:59] cherry tomatoes, and parmesan reo for a
[12:01] quick late night pasta.
[12:04] So hopefully you can see how this method
[12:06] starts to play out over a few days. None
[12:09] of these meals are elaborate or
[12:11] restaurant quality. They all take 20
[12:13] minutes or less. I'm just changing the
[12:14] spices I grab from the drawer, swapping
[12:16] sauces and pickles in the fridge, and
[12:18] rotating my carb sources. And even
[12:20] though it's simple, I find these dishes
[12:22] to be pretty fun to cook. It's a way to
[12:24] be creative without being overwhelming.
[12:26] Now, a lot of people might think that in
[12:28] order to cook this way, you need to go
[12:30] spend a bunch of money and like stock
[12:32] your pantry and your spice drawer and
[12:34] your fridge all at once. However, that's
[12:36] not what I would suggest doing at all.
[12:38] There is a much easier way and it's what
[12:40] I think of as a grocery loop where
[12:43] essentially that the leftovers that I
[12:45] have now are going to inform what I buy
[12:46] at the grocery store next time and what
[12:48] I buy informs what I cook. What I cook
[12:51] creates new leftovers and then it loops
[12:54] back around. Now, the challenge about
[12:56] executing the grocery loop is that it
[12:58] can be hard to do if you're only doing
[13:00] one big grocery trip per week. And this
[13:02] is going to bring me to idea number
[13:04] four. And I believe that for most
[13:06] people, doing two medium-sized grocery
[13:08] trips are probably better than doing one
[13:11] big one. And the reason why is because
[13:13] you're essentially shortening your
[13:15] feedback loop. Let's break it down. A
[13:18] feedback loop is just the time between
[13:19] making a decision and seeing the result.
[13:22] And if you do one big grocery trip for
[13:24] the entire week, you're making a week's
[13:26] worth of decisions trying to predict how
[13:28] much money you'll need to spend, what
[13:30] your schedule looked like, what you'll
[13:31] be in the mood for, or the expiration
[13:33] date of all these products. And the
[13:35] further out that you try to predict the
[13:37] future, the more likely you are to be
[13:39] wrong. And this is why so many of us who
[13:41] have done that big grocery trip hate
[13:43] when we ultimately end up at the store
[13:45] again anyway. Maybe you forgot an
[13:48] ingredient or something went bad. you're
[13:50] not in the mood for what you planned or
[13:51] your schedule changes in some way. But
[13:54] if you split that bigger trip into two
[13:56] smaller sized ones, you're going to
[13:58] create a shorter feedback loop, which
[14:00] often is going to create a better
[14:01] system. And here is my theory that I
[14:03] would love to test. If you gave two
[14:06] groups of people $100 for groceries and
[14:08] one group had to spend all of it in a
[14:10] single trip while the other split it
[14:11] into two equal $50 trips, I think this
[14:14] second group would have way more
[14:16] success. They'd waste less food because
[14:18] it's easier to notice what you didn't
[14:20] use. They'd spend more efficiently
[14:22] because you can correct midweek. And
[14:23] they'd have less stress because you're
[14:25] not trying to predict a full week all at
[14:27] once. And this leads to a little bit
[14:29] more enjoyment as well. Now, there are
[14:31] plenty of ways that you could structure
[14:32] doing two grocery trips, but that's more
[14:34] of the theory. I want to show you how I
[14:36] actually do this in practice. And my two
[14:39] grocery trips that I typically take each
[14:41] week solve different problems. My first
[14:43] trip this week was on Tuesday, and that
[14:45] is my PCSB trip. Proteins, carbs,
[14:48] vegetables, and seasonings. I do zero
[14:50] planning. I can be in and out of the
[14:52] store in 10 minutes. I can take
[14:53] advantage of sales because I'm not tied
[14:55] to specific recipes. And as you saw, I
[14:57] turn that first trip into multiple meals
[14:59] while spending only $36.
[15:02] Now, the second trip that I'm going to
[15:04] take this week is on Saturday, and this
[15:06] one serves a different purpose. I'm
[15:08] going to ask myself, what do I have
[15:10] going on this weekend? What do I still
[15:12] need to use up? and is there something
[15:14] I'm genuinely excited to make? So, I
[15:16] knew I was golfing on Saturday and then
[15:18] playing ultimate frisbee on Sunday. So,
[15:20] I had these big blocks to work around.
[15:22] And then what I was in the mood for was
[15:23] a big fat Chipotle style burrito to look
[15:26] forward to on Sunday. So, that is what I
[15:29] built my second trip around. So, on this
[15:32] second trip, I spent $48, but I'm not
[15:35] shopping for just this meal. I'm making
[15:38] sure there was enough overlap
[15:40] ingredients to carry me through to
[15:41] Tuesday again. And here is how the rest
[15:43] of my week played out. For Saturday's
[15:45] dinner, I made a chopped cheese with
[15:46] frozen French fries that I had just
[15:48] bought. Then on Sunday morning, I
[15:50] started my Sunday braze for the burrito.
[15:52] But for lunch, I just had a quick smash
[15:54] burger. And then Sunday night, I made
[15:55] that big Chipotle style burrito with the
[15:58] corn, sour cream, and all the fixings.
[16:01] Then I had a bunch left over for Monday
[16:03] and Tuesday. On Monday, I had a leftover
[16:05] burrito bowl and then also made another
[16:06] chopped cheese, but this time with some
[16:08] frozen pablanos I had in the freezer.
[16:10] And then on Tuesday, I use the last of
[16:12] that braze beef with some Mediterranean
[16:14] beef and rice bowl. And now you should
[16:16] really be able to start to see the power
[16:18] of all these ideas together. I have the
[16:20] built-in flexibility while cooking with
[16:22] lowcost ingredients and can do these
[16:24] smaller trips to keep the system going.
[16:26] And this brings me to the final idea
[16:28] that I have for you when it comes to
[16:29] grocery shopping. And that is make it
[16:32] meaningful. For this last part, I want
[16:35] you to forget about everything we just
[16:37] talked about for just a second and let's
[16:39] zoom all the way out. At its most basic
[16:42] level, feeding yourself is something
[16:44] every human has to do every single day.
[16:47] And because of that, grocery shopping
[16:49] doesn't have to be seen as some annoying
[16:51] chore to get through. It is a core life
[16:53] skill that can have a lot of meaning.
[16:56] Now, that meaning can look different for
[16:58] different people. For example, it can be
[17:01] how you take care of yourself and the
[17:03] people you love. It can be a way to take
[17:05] control of your health, your budget, and
[17:07] your time. It can be a source of
[17:08] creativity. It can be fun or a place to
[17:11] experiment and try new things. And for
[17:14] me, I think it's a little bit of all of
[17:16] those. And when you really think about
[17:17] how many times you'll grocery shop and
[17:20] cook over the course of your life, it's
[17:22] worth trying to figure out what's going
[17:24] to work best for you. And hopefully
[17:27] these comparisons I've shown you
[17:28] throughout this week have given you a
[17:30] clear picture of what trade-offs may
[17:32] matter to you. And if I was talking to
[17:34] my kind of collegeage self, for example,
[17:36] I would keep my advice very simple.
[17:39] First, I'd do my shopping at a lowcost
[17:41] grocery store. I'd put a short list
[17:42] together with a couple of protein
[17:43] sources carbohydrates different
[17:46] vegetables, and then a few sauces or
[17:48] spices, and then just cook that way for
[17:50] a few days. sprinkle in a recipe that I
[17:52] really want to make on the weekend and
[17:54] then just do it again. And if you want
[17:57] some more help on the cooking side of
[17:59] this equation, I do have the Cookwell
[18:01] YouTube channel where there's a big
[18:02] backlog of videos where I cook kind of
[18:04] in this exact way, thinking in
[18:06] categories and frameworks instead of
[18:08] very strict recipes. But as always, the
[18:11] most important part isn't just watching
[18:13] the videos. It's actually trying those
[18:15] things out for yourself. I can't tell
[18:18] you exactly what's going to work best
[18:19] for your situation, but I can put you on
[18:22] a pathway to help you find out for
[18:25] yourself. So anyway, that is going to
[18:27] wrap it up for me in this one. Hopefully
[18:29] you all have enjoyed. Hopefully have
[18:31] some more fun and excitement when you're
[18:33] grocery shopping next time. That is
[18:34] going to wrap it up for me in this one.
[18:35] I will catch you all in the next one.
[18:37] Peace y'all.