I realized I was throwing away a ridiculo. So a few months ago I told myself I would try something extremely simple. Before buying anything new, I have to physically put every item I already own in front of me on the counter. All of it. Cans, veggies, random leftovers, that single onion hiding in the back, everything. It takes like three minutes but it forces me to actually see what I have and plan around it. Since doing this my grocery bill dropped way more than I expected . I stopped buying duplicates of things I forgot I owned. I started using up produce before it turned sad and mushy. And weirdly, the act of laying everything out made me calmer because it felt like I was finally in control of my kitchen instead of reacting to chaos. The funniest part is that this became a strangely satisfying ritual. Now I even do it with cleaning supplies and toiletries so I don’t impulse buy stuff “just in case”. I swear this one small habit saved me more than any coupon app or sale ever has. If anyone else has a tiny routine that accidentally became a big frugal win I would love to steal it.
I used to think that being frugal was all about cutting out obvious expenses like eating out less or watching for sales, but the thing that has saved me the most money this year was fixing a stupid tiny habit that I didn’t even notice was draining my wallet
byu/oblivion_tea inFrugal
Posted by oblivion_tea
3 Comments
I live alone so once I learned that the laziest way I could make sure I don’t buy dups is to take a quick pic of my fridge and pantry before I head out to the grocery store, that helped me way more than the digital lists that sometimes I had felt too braindead to update. If I lived with family this would be a much harder tip to try since the fridge/pantry would be much more full so harder to see stuff that’s in the way of other stuff, but I’m glad it’s a tip that works for me at this stage in my life.
I do this before I grocery shop and agree it is a game changer. Don’t you feel like it also grows your creativity?! Like to find a way to use the ingredients you have..
Another thing that helped me save money is that I don’t put an item on my list until I’ve used the last of it and put it in the trash. With the exception of toilet paper, toothpaste and the cats’ food – don’t want to run out of those haha
What a smart and simple idea! I’m definitely going to try this.