Episode 18: Saving Money on Groceries

Episode 18: Saving Money on Groceries

On this week's Easy Feed Podcast, I had the pleasure of chatting with Rachel Coons, a mum of four from sunny California. Rachel shared her top tips for saving hundreds every month on your grocery bills.

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Links
https://nourishwithkarina.com/feedingbabies
https://nourishwithkarina.com/3-week-feeding-kids-reset

Highlights:

Introduction (00:00.078)
The Shop Method: A Guide to Efficient Grocery Saving (02:14.062)
Parenting and Meal Planning Discussion (04:32.526)
Mother's Role in Changing Women's Behaviors (06:55.534)
Saving Money through Grocery Shopping (09:15.95)
Utilizing Your Freezer and Avoiding Produce Goes Bad11:22.606)
Meal Planning and Shopping (13:46.414)
Meal Planning and Overcoming Leftovers (16:05.358)
Family Budgeting and Overbuying (18:29.678)
Kids' Snack Preparation and Consumption (20:45.134)
Essentials List and Shopping Tips (23:01.806)
Online Grocery Shopping and Budgeting (25:20.814)
Budgeting and Grocery Shopping (27:43.246)
Managing Grocery Spending and Purchasing Routine (30:06.382)
Master Classes and Meal Planning Services (32:31.406)
Parenting Tips and Challenges (34:20.366)
Parenting Experiences: A Parental Perspective (36:20.846)
Interview Summary (38:39.534)

Show notes

READ TRANSCRIPT

Show Notes

In this episode, you'll learn:

How meal planning and only grocery shopping every 2 weeks can save you time and money. Rachel explains why this strategy works so well for reducing impulse purchases. Clever ways to "shop the shelf", repurpose leftovers and ingredients so food doesn't go to waste. Rachel's trick for freezing fresh spinach was awesome! Why ordering groceries online helps you stick to your budget. Saving money on food is all about being intentional with your buying. How to involve the kids in meal planning and grocery shopping. Why you don't need to sacrifice nutrition to save money on groceries. It's about priorities and planning. Rachel also shared her amazing membership community The SHOP Society which has helped families save an average of $600 per month on groceries!

For more info head here https://www.heyrachelcoons.com/shopsociety

If you want to save money on your weekly food shop, listen to this value-packed episode today. I know you'll come away with practical tips to make dinner stress-free and keep more cash in your bank account each month!

Learn more about my membership program, head over to: https://nourishwithkarina.com/membership

Intruduction (00:00.43)
You're listening to the Easy Feed Podcast, episode number 18, Saving Money on Groceries. Hi there, I'm Karina Savage and with over 20 years experience feeding children, including my own, I've learnt all the secrets that busy mums need to get their children eating better and actually enjoying healthy foods. So a huge welcome to the Easy Feed Podcast. Welcome back everybody.

Great to have you and I am super excited to announce a fantastic guest that I have today. She is a seasoned expert in saving money on groceries and she's going Karinato share some valuable insights and tips with us today so that we all have a few extra dollars up our sleeve. I met this lovely lady at a recent conference in Orange County and we hit it off. We realized that we both had a lot in common helping fellow mums feed their families. So.

Please welcome all the way from sunny California, Mrs. Rachel Coons, a huge welcome to you. How are you, Rachel? Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited to be here. It's so good to have you on. So we met in Orange County, California in December last year, and it was at a conference and a growing out online business conference. And what a conference it was. So we were not only learning about, you know, growing out.

businesses, but we were meditating and we were bending spoons and we were doing all sorts of phenomenal things. So yeah, it was, it was a perfect opportunity to meet new awesome people and yeah, what an experience, hey? Yeah, it was, man, life changing. I would say. Yep. Yep. So it would be great to let our listeners know a little bit about you. So to kick things off, are you a mum of four?

I am. I've got four kids. My oldest is nine and my little baby is three. So not much of a little baby anymore. Wow. Wow. So you've got your hands full. Very full. Yes. And let us know a bit about your background. So what inspired you to become an expert in this area? So I actually have an

The Shop Method: A Guide to Efficient Grocery Saving (02:14.062)
ex or a background in health and wellness. That was what I studied at university and have been in that world for a long time. I started my Instagram in 2020 sharing about how to like feed your family easy, delicious, kid -friendly recipes. So that's kind of where it started. And then inflation hit and things started becoming really expensive.

And so I really started focusing on our grocery budget and trying to save money on groceries. And I started sharing that on my Instagram as well, not knowing that it would just kind of catch fire. And so many women were trying to find help for that. They were trying to reduce their grocery bill as well. And so I kind of, you know, tried different things and kind of figured out a method that worked for me and it worked for everybody that I worked with on Instagram.

And so I kind of just then leaned into this and started helping more and more families. And I created the shop method, which is what I teach from. That's how I teach people to save money. And here we are a couple of years later and it's so fun. I love helping people and I love making a mom's life easier because they're not stressed about dinner time. They're not stressed about feeding their family and they're not stressed about their grocery bill. So it's awesome what I get to do.

So wonderful. I love it. And I love it how it stems from, you know, you finding the need for it yourself and finding that it worked. And now you're able to spread the word and the love and help fellow mums. And I totally get it. Helping other mums and reducing that stress and craziness, especially when, you know, five o 'clock comes around and you're like, my God, what am I going to cook for dinner? I have not prepared a thing. I'm in that really bad trap at the moment of actually getting to the point of like 5 .30 and I'm like, my gosh.

I haven't got anything planned. What have I got in the fridge? What am I going to throw together?" And then, you pulled from one part of the room or one thing to the next and you just haven't actually got anything sorted. And then you're late at 7 .30 because by the time you actually put something together, it's late and then that's not good for anyone.

Parenting and Meal Planning Discussion (04:32.526)
Yes, I think maybe it's because we've just come out of school holidays and so maybe I'm in that mode. I'll give myself that excuse. Yeah, that's great. You can, you can give yourself that. Yeah, that certainly is something that I need to get better at too. So yeah, I think it's wonderful that you've got this method that can help mums get their act together so that they don't find themselves in that situation because it's a punish when, and sometimes you don't get home from school or sport activities until...

you know, 6 .30 at night and if you haven't been organized and actually come up with a plan, it's yeah, it's a punish. Yeah, we called the chaos time. Because I was having a think about our chat today and actually remind me, I do have one of my members in my membership have a question for you, but I was thinking about our conversation, you know, upcoming conversation. And I was thinking about the way that my mom shops and her pantry and her fridge.

And then I was thinking about the way I shop and my pantry and my fridge. And, and look, my mom is a wonderful cook from an Italian background and her pantry, I swear it's even when I go over there now, it's the most amazing pantry and I could just stand there and look at it for 10 minutes. Always chock a block full. And the fridge is one of those fridges that, you know, you open the fridge door and

You're lucky if nothing falls out. Because it's like just so stacked up with everything at any. And I find myself, I'm a little of the same way, not to that extent. Mine's probably just a bit more chaotic. Hers is like ordered chaos, whereas mine's just messy chaos. But do you think that our upbringing influences the way that we shop, spend, you know, sort ourselves out with, you know, in terms of our pantry and our fridge and just the way we, we work? Yeah.

Totally, I think that the way that you saw your mom do things is gonna be similar and it's kind of what your reality is, right? And so that's kind of how you plan around meals. I think meal planning is the same way, how often you grocery shop, how you cook dinner, what foods you cook for dinner. I think that all comes from how we are raised, but I also think it can change, right? You can do intentional things to change that if you want to.

Mother's Role in Changing Women's Behaviors (06:55.534)
And so I kind of feel like I'm a little bit of a disruptor in what I do. Cause a lot of times women are coming to me feeling frustrated, feeling like they don't like the way things are going. And I have to change actions, right? I have to get them to recognize what they're doing and then change the way that they're doing things. And one of the coolest things is that I see, and in fact, in this last week in our membership, we had a woman post in our Facebook group saying,

Like our kids are watching us and she had her son price checking the coffee that he was buying. Like what brand of coffee he was going to buy because she had kind of led by example and showed him how to price check and how to, you know, find a good deal. And she was so proud of that because she was like, this, this does, this affects the way that our children do this as well. And so, yeah, I totally think, I totally think it changes what we grew up with and how our children watch us.

Yeah, we are their teachers, aren't we? And I agree with you. You have to, you're almost like a behavioral change expert in terms of change our habits. And they're not easy to necessarily change. No, especially one that, especially this is the kind of a thing that like nobody teaches you. Nobody teaches you how to meal plan. Nobody teaches you how to get dinner on the table. It's not something, and it's not even something that people really talk about on social media that much. You know, it's not.

It's not as big area, but it is an area of massive stress when it comes to a mom's life, right? There's a lot of stress and overwhelm in this area. And so I feel like, I love that I get to do so much good in this area. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's awesome. I love it. I love it. And that's where we almost perfectly overlap because you teach them, you know, part A and then, and then I'm like, right. So now when we get to the table and they're refusing, how do we talk about food? Yes.

I know we are kind of like Tweedledee and Tweedledum with this. Tell me, what are your top tips for reducing grocery spend? So how can we reduce this money that we're spending every week or fortnight or however often we should be going to the supermarket? Right. Okay. So there's so many different things, right? We could talk about there's

Saving Money through Grocery Shopping (09:15.95)
a ton of different levers that we can pull when we're trying to save money and figuring out what those the biggest lovers are for you or what is what I really focus on with my students. And the number there's a couple things that I would start with but first off coming down to how often are you grocery shopping and having you grocery shop less. Now this is like always like people like well I'm going to buy the same amount of food.

But a lot of the times we are going to the grocery store for one or two items. We're putting food in the cart and we end up spending, you know, 50 to a hundred dollars every time you go to the grocery store. And then you're doing that every couple of days and those start to add up and we're not bulk buying. We're not being intentional with what we buy. And so every time you go to the grocery store, you're spending more money than had you not gone to the grocery store. So I actually teach two week grocery shopping. That's part of the shop.

the pillars of the shop method. And that is basically every two weeks you're meal planning, you're buying your food in bulk, you're purchasing produce that lasts two weeks, at least two weeks, so you can have that fresh food and decreasing your trips to the grocery store. So that would be number one. Number two is food waste.

And the, I don't know what it's like in Australia. I would assume it's very similar, but the average American family is wasting 30 % of the food that they buy. Like that's so much. And think about food waste equals money waste, right? So if you go to the store and you buy a hundred dollars worth of food, you could just take one of the bags and throw it in the trash on the way out because that's basically what we're doing with food waste. it's crazy.

So if a family comes to me and they're spending $1 ,000 a month and they're wasting a ton of food, if I can decrease their food waste, if I can help them decrease the amount of food they throw out, they could get their spending down to $700 just by doing that. So we decrease food waste a lot of different ways, but it comes from having a meal plan, not purchasing, not overbuying.

Utilizing Your Freezer and Avoiding Produce Goes Bad11:22.606)
utilizing your freezer and not letting produce go bad. I mean, obviously it's the perishable items that are going bad in the fridge. It's always the, you know, the big bag of spinach or the cilantro or whatever that ends up going bad. So when you really focus on rewriting that and changing those actions to make sure you're utilizing that food, you're going to decrease your spending. So that's another thing I would say. I know. And you know what? Did you know, Karina, did you know that you can freeze spinach?

Yeah, I have actually in the freezer, one of the things in my freezer are those little cubes of spinach, but they're like pre -bought spinach little cubes that I bought probably a year ago thinking, that'd be good to throw in to get on holidays or whatever. But I haven't actually frozen my own spinach. Okay, so this is all you have to do. It's actually like when I learned this trick, it changed my life. The bag, so I just bought a big tub of spinach from the store yesterday.

And if I, I know I'm not going to go through it all. So all you do is just take the fresh leaves of spinach and you put it in a Ziploc bag or freezer safe bag and throw it in the freezer and the spinach, you don't have to process it. You don't have to cook it. You just throw it in the freezer and it's actually like, they become like kind of hardened, crispy spinach leaves in the freezer. And I, I throw them in everything. Anytime I'm making like a sauce or you know, like some type of soup or whatever, I'll pull out.

those spinach and I'll crunch them up because they're hard and crackly and I'll just then drizzle them in whatever I want. So I never have spinach go bad in the fridge. I love that. That's brilliant. And you could do the same with herbs too, right? Yes, absolutely. Yep. Same with basil, cilantro, dill, all of that. So that's a number. Those are two things. A third thing, we could go all day about how to save money.

Another thing that you can focus on is meal planning, right? And meal planning, not over meal planning, not under meal planning, figuring out what works for your family. And then not just meal planning, but we're meal planning food that we know our family likes, right? Especially if we have picky eaters or if we have problems or dietary restrictions. And then also we are meal planning with intention based off of our budget. So we're not just meal planning whatever foods we want. We're meal planning recipes.

Meal Planning and Shopping (13:46.414)
that use up what you have on hand. I call it shop the shelf, but you're shopping the shelf. You're utilizing the perishables that are already in your fridge. So many times people sit down to meal plan and they just think about whatever the heck they want instead of opening up their fridge and saying, I already have chicken breasts that I need to use. Let's find a recipe that uses up that chicken or that uses up that spinach. So meal planning with the things that are in your house first and then meal planning and

and shopping from the store. So those are three big things. Yeah, I love that. Absolutely. And do you involve your children at all in meal planning? Yeah. So my kids are still pretty young, right? But my two older ones absolutely have meals that they want to eat. And so I always ask them like, hey, when I'm meal planning, I only meal plan twice a month. I do it every two weeks. But I will ask them,

what foods do you guys want to eat? What meals do you want to eat? And it's always an easier dinner time experience when they've picked out the meal or they're involved in that process. Yeah, right. And so say for a 14 day menu plan, do you plan out 14 dinners? No, no. So I find that the families that are meal planning seven meals a week are most of the time they're over buying and they do have a lot of food waste.

So I actually recommend only meal planning four to five meals a week. And that allows space for if you have leftover food that you need to use, if you have leftover meals that you need to eat, or it allows for, I try not to cook every single night of the week. One night is date night where we go out and the kids have whatever they want, noodles, pasta at home. And then it also allows like,

for schedule changes or we just have to cook up eggs and toast really fast. So I think meal planning's 14 meals for two weeks, you're gonna over purchase. So meal planning a little bit less is how I'd go. And meal planning can be really overwhelming for people, right? To have to sit down and think of 14 different dinners and then have to buy those 14 different dinners. So instead of going all in,

Meal Planning and Overcoming Leftovers (16:05.358)
Why not just go half in and try meal planning three meals a week? If you're not meal planning at all right now, just do three meals a week to simplify it and help you kind of dip your toes in the water and get used to it. Yeah. And then you don't have too much food in the fridge like me, and then you don't have to throw it out. It acts absolutely exactly. I love that.

And what about leftovers? Cause I just find that my kids, I mean, when I grew up, we had leftovers all the time, but I feel like in this day and age leftovers aren't a meal. Like I realize maybe I just feel guilty giving them leftovers. I don't know. I just feel like our kids are different. I hate, actually I am one of those people. I am like your kids. I actually hate leftovers. I hate them. So I can empathize with your children.

So here's a couple things that I would say. First off, if you have a ton of leftovers, like if you're making a meal and you have a whole nother meal to you're probably over purchasing again and you're probably overcooking. So, so really find the right ratios for your family. Like I know that when I'm making tacos, I have to cook about a pound and a half of ground beef. And if I cooked more than that, I would have too many leftovers and I cooked under that we wouldn't have enough food. So figuring out how much your family eats.

And then also one of the things that I like to do is to break apart my meals. So instead of serving the pasta mixed up with the meat, I'm serving the noodles separate from the meat. So that way, if I do have leftover rice or leftover pasta or leftover beans or whatever, I can repurpose that and we don't have to eat the same meal again. I'm using those ingredients to build another meal. Yeah, you could make like fried rice or something like that with that. Exactly.

Exactly. Yeah. The leftover rice. Yeah. I think that's a great idea. Yeah. Yep. Cause I find that and it just the meat too, like if it's a chicken schnitzel or sometimes the meat is dry. Yeah. It doesn't last well. And so it is hard to you. So yeah, I think you're right. I have to like do the for our Australian listeners, the pound kilo trench. I know. I'm sorry. Totally fine. I think it's, I think for a family of four, it might be 500 grams, which

Family Budgeting and Overbuying (18:29.678)
Do you say one and a half pounds? Is what we eat for our tacos. Yeah. You've got a family of six, right? Yes. Yes. So yours is going to be less. Yeah. It should be less. Who knows? You might have big eaters. Maybe. It's probably the overbuying that's the issue here. And I've fallen into such a bad habit of literally

I have to confess, I would go to the shop every day. Like it's so bad. You talk, I'm like, my gosh, I have a long way to go. Remember we're, we're recognizing, we're changing the actions. You don't even know, but this is the thing is again, like I'm, I'm bringing consciousness, right? A lot of the times we just don't even know that the reason we're spending so much is because we're doing this, this and this. And I'm saying,

Yeah, just take a step back. Those are mistakes and we need to rewrite those or change up those habits. And I'm really a big proponent of intentional -ness. So if you are someone who is happy with your spending and you don't care that you're spending what you are, or you want to go to the store every day and it doesn't matter what you spend, then that's great. I'm not...

here to help those people. I'm here to help the people that want to be spending less and are willing to change actions in order to make that a priority. Yeah, absolutely. And I think I just, I think I went into the shop for strawberries and broccoli and those, that fresh produce. So I think I probably need to just be think differently about perhaps we don't have strawberries all the time. Maybe we mix it up with say apples and other things that, I mean, my son eats apples anyway. It's my daughter that likes the strawberries, but

You know, if you run out of strawberries, you run out of strawberries, right? They're not necessarily always going to be around in that second week. Yep, exactly. And the kids get used to it. Sometimes it's a little bit of like growing pains. But I do feel like my kids know their strawberries the first week and then the second week they're eating oranges and apples and pineapple and those longer lasting produce items. Yes, for sure. And then it makes those strawberries even more special. They're more excited to have those strawberries.

Kids' Snack Preparation and Consumption (20:45.134)
Yeah. Exactly. And how do you make kids snacks last two weeks? You know, like, do you just buy bulk in terms of mizli bars and those kids snacks that we do rely on that are in the pantry, those sort of grab and go's? So I'm actually not a huge proponent of snacking or those like...

quick convenience snacks. We build a lot of our my snacks. Like if you open my pantry, we would have like, you know, crackers and maybe some applesauce pouches. But for the most part, snacks are built from ingredients versus already pre -made things. I mean, I think it, it does fuel like better nutrition when they're eating ingredient snacks. And it's so much more expensive to buy, you know, the muesli bars or whatever. So we do like, we do a lot of toast.

We do a lot of like string cheese and yogurt and some crackers and fruit or whatever. So we're not, I try when we do have snacks, it's not something like quick and easy out of the pantry. It's like, no, you got to sit down and we got to like prepare this and eat it. But I do, I do. The school lunch boxes and things like that. sure, sure. So yeah, for that, like, you know, obviously having those on hand is really nice and convenient.

And I, again, I believe in like intentionalness. So if this is something that you're going to use, it's not going to go bad. You're finding a good price on it and you're not buying, like I would for sure buy them in bulk if you can, cause you're going to spend less when you buy in bulk. So yeah, we, that's what we do. Yeah. I'm just thinking of those parents that, you know, you've got both parents are working full time. They don't, I mean, I am always encouraging people if you can carve out an hour on the weekend to bake, you know,

couple of my healthy recipes to pop in the lunch box. So you've got some black bean brownie, you've got some healthy cookies to pop in for snacks. But I find that if they've run out or if you haven't had a chance to bake them, then you are going to the pantry for things to put in the lunch box. And it's, I guess, making sure that those types of things are going to be lasting for two weeks, unless you've been able to make them. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Well, and that's why I would buy them in bulk.

Essentials List and Shopping Tips (23:01.806)
You should always have the staples. And this is another thing that we work from is an essentials list. So what are your essentials and things that you need to have on hand? And so those snack items that you know your kids want to have in their lunchbox or like your quick grab and go, those would be on your essentials list. And because they're non -perishable, you should buy them in bulk. Don't ever buy a non -perishable item not in bulk. Single pack. Yes. You just have to have a store room.

Yes, yes, which is harder for some people, but you usually can find space somewhere. Yeah, yeah, no, you just have to be intentional as you say. It's about looking at it from a different perspective and going, you know what, if I'm a little more organized here, I'm actually going to save a lot of money. And it's having those simple tips that are so practical and useful and

and they work, but it's putting them in place and maintaining them. Totally. Totally. So what are your thoughts on online shopping versus in -store shopping? Okay, so I always tell people to stay out of the grocery store if you can. Again, one of the pillars of the shop method is ordering online.

you are going to save so much money and be way more intentional with your buying when you shop online because you're adding everything to the cart. You're not walking down the grocery aisles and seeing random things that you can throw in the cart. And then exactly. And you're also watching your total. So if my goal, if I have a budget for the month, I know exactly what I should be spending every two weeks and I'm going to watch that total as I'm adding things to the cart.

So that way, if I'm getting close to my budget, then I'm more careful or I'm pulling things out of my cart. Or if I have a lot of space, then I'll add more stuff to bulk buy and store up on things. But it just, it makes it so much easier to stick to a budget when we order online. So I would say, don't go to the store as often as possible. I mean, honestly, and the other great thing about it is that you're also gonna save a ton of time.

Online Grocery Shopping and Budgeting (25:20.814)
I feel like online ordering changed my life. I don't spend, so the average American family spends 52 hours in the grocery store every single year. It's about an hour a week that they're spending. And think about the time it takes for you to drive to the grocery store and order the groceries, then load them in the car, then drive home. I mean, we're wasting so much time doing that. Online ordering, a lot of the times it doesn't cost anymore. And you're taking out like a whole process that is, that is waste time.

Yeah. And I mean, from my perspective, if you wanted to look at products for the nutrition label or whatever, you can still do that online, right? It's still there. Absolutely. Do you find that trying to save money on groceries can impact on the nutrition or the quality of the product? And I'm thinking things like wraps or different products. I'm not talking about fruit and vegetables, but do you think that the nutrition can be impacted on or negatively?

Well, it depends on what you like. Nutrition is such like a broad topic. Even like healthy eating is such a broad topic. Like what does that mean for you versus for me versus for somebody else? So when it comes to like if you're trying to eat organic only or you're trying to eat gluten free and dairy free or even like a high protein diet, like yeah, those some of those restrictions or some of those change ups in in diet will force you to spend a little bit more.

But again, it goes back to that, like, what are your priorities? And if you are, if buying the, like, high protein wrap or whatever that is, is a priority to you, then it's okay. Then it doesn't matter. That's where we're putting our money towards things that matter. It's when we're just willy -nilly purchasing without an intention that that's where I think our spending needs to be reevaluated.

I personally do not think, I think you can absolutely eat a full healthy variety of foods in your diet while still budgeting. But when we sit people, it's funny, because when you say budgeting, people immediately think it means you're taking away. Like I'm trying to lower. Yeah, I'm trying to spend as little as possible.

Budgeting and Grocery Shopping (27:43.246)
And what reality is budgeting is just being like, what do I want to spend on this? And then setting yourself that target. It's not like if you could budget $2 ,000 worth of groceries every month and as you could still call it budgeting, right? It doesn't mean we're like withdrawing the money. So anyways, that's my rant on that topic. Yeah, no, I love that. I love that. Because I think about it, I'm thinking, you know, are the additive free wraps going to be twice the price of the ones that are full of rubbish?

Not necessarily. It's, I think sometimes they can be comparable price. It's just about picking the one that doesn't have all the artificial colours and flavours. So I think sometimes it's just taking the time to decipher which one's healthier. The price may not vary significantly, but yeah, I see what you mean in terms of organic and whatnot. And gluten free, those definitely do come with a higher price tag, but yes, that's when it does come back to priorities, doesn't it? So, sure. Yeah, sure. That's a good point. Okay. I have a question for you from...

Susan, one of my members, her comment was, I can't wait for this podcast to drop. So she's already pretty excited to hear it. Yay. I feel like my grocery bill and frequency of visiting the supermarket has doubled since my son started school, just to keep the variety and freshness all week. I generally do a weekly click and collect Woolworths, which is one of our local main. Yeah.

There's probably two big supermarket chains in Australia and Woolworths is one of those. There are some other large ones, but I'd say that's probably one of the biggest. So I generally do a weekly click and collect Woolworths order to fit with my busy work, home life schedule. And once a month I tackle a bigger, more costly order in store to take advantage of my 10 % off once a month offer with Woolworths everyday insurance.

I worked to a shopping list and I dread having to enter the supermarket out of this cycle with child in tow. I boost my points, check the price per kilo, et cetera, but can I be doing things smarter, better? Shopping at multiple supermarkets like Audi, Woolworths and whatnot to get the best deals won't work for me. So it needs to be a one -stop shop. And her comment was the other supermarket just wasn't fair. Didn't have everything that she wanted. So she kind of just sticks with this one supermarket.

Managing Grocery Spending and Purchasing Routine (30:06.382)
but she's just wondering whether there's any more she could do. I mean, yes, I'm sure there are. It's hard. It's hard to know like what her whole buying routine is. I think what for her would probably be working from her shelf first. So a lot of the times people are purchasing a lot of food that they're not utilizing what they already have on hand first. So for Susan, I would say, what are you buying? And

Is it working in with the food that you already have at your house? Or you just continue buying more? And then when it comes to what you're buying, are you purchasing? I mean, it sounds like she's a working mom, so she's very busy. But purchasing, you know, a lot of times we think that we're happy to pay an extra price for convenience, but in reality, you could just do a little bit of meal planning, a little bit of planning before you go in, or a little bit of meal prep at the beginning of the week.

to significantly decrease your spending when we're purchasing a lot of convenience foods. So she can always message me on Instagram. I'd love to chat with her, but that would be where I would start. And again, it's hard. It's hard when it's like somebody I don't know their situation. But yes, that's what I do. It sounds like, and I mean, even maybe for her spacing out her grocery trips even more, she could try that too. Yeah, wonderful. Thank you for that.

Yeah, of course. I know that you do have this program called Shop Society that does help families tremendously and moms tremendously to save a lot of money on their grocery bills and maintain a healthy intake. So just tell me a little bit more about how it helps moms and how much money they could expect to save if they did join Shop Society. Sure. We actually have a couple of our members from Australia. So this is really fun because I love.

I love that we're going global, which is awesome. So the shop society is my membership that basically like we help you tackle this problem with every lever that you could absolutely pull. So I do teach the shop method inside the shop society and that has modules and worksheets and PDFs and all of that. That's going to help you figure this out. But we also have a community that we do stuff together when every month we do challenges, we do different

Master Classes and Meal Planning Services (32:31.406)
master classes where we bring in experts. In fact, Karina is going to come in and be an expert for me next month. And then we also have meal planning taken care of. So we do your meal plans for you. And every two weeks we come out with a meal plan that's budget friendly, kid friendly. We have gluten and dairy free meal plans. And then we also have a recipe vault to help you if you want to meal plan on your own. Anyways, it's just like all inclusive.

This is what you're going to get. And our average member saves about $600 a month from when they join to once they've implemented the shop method. So, so fun to watch this transformation that happens. Yes. Yes. So fun.

Okay, so if you, we can drop in the show notes. We could probably drop some resources. We'll definitely put a link in the show notes. Yep. So I have, I mean, if you want to get started, I do have a grocery savings guide that's absolutely free that can kind of give you an idea of what, how to start, get started on saving money right now.

And then we can drop the shop society wait list. So we don't open door, we only open doors every couple months. So if someone is interested, we can, they can join the wait list and get on the list for that. Thank you so much. So on a personal note, what's the biggest thing that you do for your family? What have you found has worked the best perhaps behavioural change for you in terms of, you know, over this last, over your journey, what's been the biggest thing for you that's

helped you save the most money.

Parenting Tips and Challenges (34:20.366)
Yeah. Okay. It would definitely be the two week grocery shopping, the spacing out my grocery trips. It's, it is, and, and, and with that, it's also changing the mentality of like, when you open the fridge and there's not a ton of food there, instead of freaking out thinking, I have a lot of food that I can use and, and being really creative with that. So that's probably been my biggest thing. Two days ago. And I can't remember how it was prompted or how we got onto it, but he said,

I think I actually think it was because he opened the fridge and it's just so full. And he goes, mom, wow, we're eating a lot of food in here. And the fact that my nine year old is now identifying me with this issue, he said to me, Pummy, for the next few months, we should just try and eat all the food we have. He actually said that to me. Adam's laughing back at the ghost.

We should try to eat all of the food that you have in the fridge. my god. It's like he's my prodigy child. That's amazing. I love it. That is really funny. That's really funny. You're a little bit more than I am, mate. So I think actually he's gonna be alright. He doesn't need to learn from me. In fact, he probably shouldn't be learning from me.

Yeah. I certainly need to change my habit. That's awesome. I have, I have a lot of work to do myself and absolutely. I think, you know, my listeners, our listeners have gained a lot of amazing tips from what you've said today. So thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Now I wanted to just end with a few fun little questions. Thank you. What's your top three?

Most things about being a mom.

Parenting Experiences: A Parental Perspective (36:20.846)
I love this question. I think number one is like watching your kids turn into people and have personalities and seeing them blossom and grow into humans. I think also how much they've taught me. Obviously as a mom, we're trying to teach our children, but they have taught me so much about myself and patience and becoming the best person I can be to be there for them.

So that's two. And then the number three is how much fun it is. Like, I just feel like our kids are so, they're funny. They do crazy, silly things. And it just brings like so much joy and happiness watching them be fun. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. I think sometimes we can get so caught up in our busy lives and just trying to, you know, be the glue that sticks everything together and, you know, get breakfast, get lunch, get dinner, work.

play, throw the ball to them on the trampoline, walk the dog, feed the deer. And we sometimes stop to kind of slow down and go, hang on a minute. What am I grateful for today? Try and actually listen to what they're saying to us because they are our greatest teachers. I think we can learn so much from them and they shine a mirror up to our faces, don't they? And we can learn so much from them, I think, if we take the time to stop and pause and listen.

and have a bit more fun as well. I think that goes a long way as well. And you don't get that time back, do you? I love that. While your kids are this age, you got to make the most of it. So that's awesome. Sounds like you really have a great balance and a great appreciation for taking the time to actually be with your kids and be grateful for the time you get. So go you. I try. I try.

I try. I appreciate you asking that question. That is a very good question. my pleasure. Thank you for answering it. It just, I think it sounds awesome. That was beautiful. So the next question, if you could switch lives with someone for a day, who would it be and why?

Interview Summary (38:39.534)
Huh.

That is a hard question.

Is it really bad that I don't want to switch lives with somebody? Tell me your kids that answer. That's awesome. I don't, maybe because I don't think I like my mindset is not to think about what other people have and I lack, right? Like I just try to live my life to the fullest. I mean, if my first thought was like, I would love to switch lives with somebody who lives in like Europe.

or Australia and just go live there for a little bit, obviously, because I love to travel. But I can't think of somebody specifically that I would be like, I just want to be that person or live their life. No, that's amazing. I love it. So if you had any superpower, what would it be and why?

that would definitely be to be able to like switch places where I could go. Like just pop into an area of the world and go learn and be in that culture. That would be pleasure. Be in multiple places. Yeah, that's what it is. Teleportation. That's what it is. Yes. Yes. That's what I want to do.

Yes, yes. I mean, there's probably a lot of other good superpowers. One of them, I wish I didn't have to sleep. I wish I could just like, I mean, obviously sleep is so good and I love sleep, but I wish I didn't ever feel tired. I know, actually this morning my husband comes out with, but how are you going? And I was like, I'm so gonna stick with teleportation. And I was like, I just shouldn't have said that. Cause it's always given, isn't it right? Yeah, right. We're always tired. my goodness.

Well, yes, yes, exactly. Joy and pleasure for me to have you on the Easy Feed. I'm so grateful for you coming on today, Rachel. Thank you so much. It's been a blessing to meet you late last year and it's wonderful to have you on the show and I can't wait to, yes, continue this journey with me coming into door masterclass next month with your beautiful membership, the Shop Society and we'll pop all your links in the show notes.

And yes, once again, a huge thank you so much for coming on today. I hope it's been super helpful for you. And I hope these tips will help cut down your grocery bills and make your family budget go further. Don't forget to leave me a review, send me a message on Instagram, and I can't wait to chat more next time. Bye for now.