Stop Overpaying for Groceries: My Favorite Budget-Friendly Swaps

When it came to grocery shopping, I used to have this terrible mindset of “I have to buy it anyways, it doesn’t matter how much it costs”. Thankfully, I have developed a brain and realized that actually is not the truth - it DOES matter how much it costs. To make it worse, it wasn’t even “I have to buy milk so the price is irrelevant” it was moreso “I like this one very specific brand of milk which is conveniently the most expensive so I’m not even going to look at the price or even consider any other brands of milk because I like this one and that’s all that matters”.

RIDICULOUS

Again, I have since grown a brain and developed my frontal lobe (a bit) - so I have begun to be more financially conscious. With that, I’ve started to make some simple swaps when grocery shopping. Needless to say, my wallet is thanking me big time.

I realized one of my biggest issues was how brand loyal I was. I think it was likely a mixture of the following: being in the habit of buying this certain brand, knowing i really love said certain brand and being too stubborn to try another brand.

There is noooo point in being this brand loyal, because those brands do not give a sh!t about you. So I decided to stop being so darn stubborn and try out some new things.

1: Switching up your grocery store.

I beg you, please stop doing all of your grocery shopping at Target or Whole Foods. Yes, it’s fun. Yes, they have good options. No, it’s not good for your bank account. There’s nothing wrong with doing some shopping at these egregiously over-priced stores, but doing your weekly grocery shops there is doing big time damage to your bank.

I’ve been shopping at Aldi for about two years now and WOOF does it make a big difference. What would normally be a $150 grocery haul from Wegmans, Publix, Market Basket, Giant, Etc… now costs me about $60 at Aldi. You may not always find everything that you need there and you often won’t find specific brands that you want. BUT you can do your primary shopping there and go to a different store after to purchase what Aldi didn’t have.

When I first started shopping at Aldi I was still incredibly brand loyal with certain products (milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, coffee, etc). I would buy everything I could from Aldi and then go to a Wegmans afterwards to purchase what I needed. The crazy thing? My store bills ended up being nearly identical at both stores. The difference was that I bought an entire weeks worth of groceries from Aldi and about 4 misc. things at Wegmans.

Over the last several months I decided to stop being so darn stubborn with brands and I now do my grocery shopping entirely at Aldi. Happy to announce my weekly grocery bill (for 2 people) is usually around $100! INSANE.

If you aren’t a huge Aldi fan, I get it. Trader Joes is a great affordable option as well as Lidl!

Now let’s chat about the individual brand swaps I’ve made.

2: Individual Brand Swaps

Coffee/Cold Brew Brands

I used to be a Ride. Or. Die for Stok coffee. Don’t get me wrong it is DELICIOUS, but not $7 per bottle delicious. I know what you might be thinking, $7 per bottle isn’t thatttt bad considering most cafes will charge you $7 for a single latte. True. However, I reallyyyy like my coffees so that $7 doesn’t last me all that long. Also? Why spend $7 when I could spend $4 or $5? It doesn’t seem like it, but those few dollars add up when you’re spending/saving $2-$5 on every product.

Some brands I now buy:

My all time favorite option here is good and gather’s cold brew. It sounds hipocrytical, but yes I buy this at target. Hear me out though!! It’s only $3.99 per and it is YUM-MY!

Calafia farms is another great and ever so slightly cheaper option.

Barissimo cold brew from Aldi. I will say, I used to swear by this. For some reason the past few times I’ve purchased this I wasn’t a big fan. Maybe the recipe changed or maybe I got a bad batch.

Cottage cheese

I was good cultures #1 supporter. This was the brand that got me into cottage cheese and for the longest time I swore it was the only brand I liked. Turns out? I simply never tried another brand.

#1 choice: friendly farms cottage cheese from Aldi

#1 choice: Hood cottage cheese

Milk

I lovedddd me some fairlife milk, and still do don’t get me wrong. BUT WHO HAS $6 for MILK!! and not even a whole gallon at that.

I now exclusively get the friendly farms fat free milk from Aldi. Truly cannot be $1.75 for a half gal!

Yogurt

Danon light and fit was my girl. Still love her, always will. But you know what else I love? saving $3 on yogurt.

You guessed it, friendly farms yogurt from Aldi.

Protein bars

As a gym gal, this one could make me cry. I ADORE Barebell protein bars. For the love of god though, why is it $10-$12 for a box of 4. I could gag.

I have since switched to either A: making my own protein bars or B: buying IQ bars.

IQ bars are soooo yummy and also really clean ingredients!! Also? Only $5.99 for a box of 4!

I have really started to love making my own protein bars/balls. It’s so easy, so yummy, and so cost effective. It takes as little as 4 ingredients and these ingredients last FOREVER. If you’re interested, I can make a blog post on some of my favorite recipes!

While on the topic of protein and coffee - I have also been LOVING protein coffee. This can either look like adding a protein shake to your cold brew, or using a protein coffee powder and adding it to milk/water! It's not the most affordable option, but it can make sense if you tend to spend a lot of money on protein powder, protein bars, and coffee individully.

I personally love Javvy coffee for this. I love it so much that I got a discount code for it! If you're interested, use code ALYSON53478 or purchase at this link  20% off of your first order! How fun!

These changes may not seem revolutionary, but it is. It’s the simple small swaps that add up over time. Trust me. Becoming more wallet friendly isn’t some revolutionary massive life change. It’s in the minuscule day to day things. Slow and steady wins the race, especially in this economy!