We’re all feeling it at the checkout line. Eggs, berries, coffee, onions, things we used to throw in the cart without a second thought, are now making us stop and do the math. This week on the Hermoney Podcast, we teamed up with Consumer Reports to track a real woman’s grocery spending for one full week and show you how to save more money on groceries.
Lori is a mom of two boys living outside Boston, Massachusetts. She rotates between Trader Joe’s, Costco, and Stop & Shop, hunts yellow sale signs like a competitive sport, and has very strong feelings about onion prices. Jean Chatzky sat down with Lori and Consumer Reports’ Yasmeen Khan — writer of CR’s Bread and Butter newsletter — to go through her week and pull out the lessons.
Here’s what we found.
Lesson 1: Your Anchor Store + Fill-In Strategy Is Probably Already Working
Costco is Lori’s anchor for the things where bulk buying makes obvious sense: coffee, eggs, berries, and vanilla extract. “At Costco, you can get 24 eggs for less than what two dozen eggs would cost at a grocery store by a huge margin,” she said.
Trader Joe’s fills in for specialty items and snacks, where she’s found prices to be consistently lower than standard grocery stores. She swings by her local Stop & Shop for weekly staples, sale items, and whatever the kids can talk her into.
Most Americans already shop at two or more stores per week, and according to Yasmeen, it’s worth it, with one important caveat: “It may not make financial sense to drive completely out of your way. There’s always a calculation that’s not just about numbers. Is shopping around worth my time? Is it worth the mental energy?”
The takeaway: If you’re already rotating stores, you’re probably saving real money. The key is fitting it into your existing routine rather than making special trips.
Lesson 2: Store Brands Are Worth a Serious Second Look
One of the most actionable tips to come out of our conversation with Yasmeen: stop sleeping on store brands.
Consumer Reports taste-tested name brands against store brands across a range of grocery staples and found that private label products are generally priced 25 to 30% lower than name brands, and in many cases, they’re just as good or better.
Lori had already figured this out with coffee; she knew that the Kirkland brand at Costco is made by Starbucks. As Yasmeen pointed out, it’s more common than people realize that beloved name-brand manufacturers are behind store-label products.
“Just try different private label products and see what you like,” Yasmeen said. “Not everything may be a win, but you might realize you actually prefer some of them.”
The takeaway: Swap in store brand versions of staples you buy regularly — yogurt, pasta sauce, cereal, olive oil — and do your own blind taste test at home. The savings add up fast.
Lesson 3: Meal Planning Is the Foundation of Everything
When Jean asked Lori what her number one tip was for saving money at the grocery store, her answer was immediate: plan your meals and make a list.
“When I have a list, and the list supports a menu, I always have an agenda,” she said. “Otherwise things go haywire, and you end up with food that rots in your fridge, or you’re scrambling to reverse-engineer your meal plan.”
She doesn’t follow a rigid Monday-is-this, Tuesday-is-that schedule. But she always goes into the week with a loose plan. What haven’t we had in a while? What’s a good sale item to build a meal around this week? What do I already have in the fridge that needs to be used?
That last question is more important than most people realize. The EPA estimates that a family of four loses about $3,000 a year to food waste. Yasmeen shared her own system for fighting it: wash and dry produce the day you bring it home, store it with a paper towel in the bag, and regularly move things around in the fridge so nothing disappears in the back corner.
“I don’t know if the produce actually lasts longer or if it’s just that we’re eating it faster because it’s ready,” she said. “But either way, it works.”
The takeaway: Spend 10 minutes on Sunday looking at what you have and sketching a loose meal plan for the week. It’s the single highest-return investment you can make in your grocery budget.
How to Save Money on Groceries: The Bottom Line
Lori ended her week at almost exactly $200, right at her budget, even though the week was unusually snack-heavy with both boys home on spring break and a few dinners out mixed in. For context, the USDA estimates that a family of four spends anywhere from $1,000 to $1,600 a month on groceries, meaning Lori was spending on the modest end.
The bigger challenge, Yasmeen said, is that “the cost of food has increased almost at the same rate as inflation for the last year. And if you drill down specifically, the cost of things like fruits and vegetables has gone up at a much higher rate.”
But as Lori’s week showed, a little intention goes a long way. A loose meal plan, a loyalty card, a willingness to shop around, and a commitment to actually using what’s already in your fridge can add up to real savings, potentially hundreds of dollars over the course of a month.
