$400. That was the sobering high cost of my grocery bill staring back at me after last month’s run to the supermarket for a large haul.
I can remember the good ol’ days when I went shopping with my parents, and they only had to spend $100 and some change to get everything we needed. Nowadays, just picking up a carton of eggs, some frozen vegetables, a couple of snacks, and some drinks could reach near or into the hundreds without your basket even reaching full capacity.
After staring at that $400 grocery bill for an uncomfortably long time, I got the urge to see if AI could really find the best methods toward lessening the cost of my future supermarket visits. I desperately needed the assistance of chatbots to help me confront my newest foe: inflation and “shrinkflation” (my fellow potato chip eaters know what I’m talking about).
Lo and behold, the combined efforts of ChatGPT and Gemini put a bunch of helpful tips on display that helped me decrease my latest grocery bill and made me shop a whole lot smarter.
ChatGPT’s standout tips
In my desperate attempt to lower the price of my next grocery bill, I prompted ChatGPT with this question: “I usually spend $400 a month on groceries. What are the 7 best tips you can give me on how to spend less on groceries without eating less?”
Out of the seven pieces of advice the chatbot sent my way, there were three of them that I ended up adding to my list of practical grocery shopping advice:
- Switch to store brands for everyday staples: This is one of the easiest ways to save without changing how much you eat. Compare the prices of store-brand versions of products you buy regularly, such as oats, rice, pasta, canned tomatoes, beans, frozen vegetables and dairy. Pick 10 products you buy every month and compare their unit prices with the leading brands. Keep buying the name brands where you genuinely prefer the taste.
- Compare unit prices instead of package prices: A bigger package isn't automatically a better deal. Compare the cost per ounce, pound or serving to find out which option actually saves money. When comparing two similar products, divide the price by the quantity. A $4 package containing 32 ounces costs $0.125 per ounce; a $3 package containing 20 ounces costs $0.15 per ounce. The larger package is cheaper per ounce, provided you'll use it all.
- Replace some expensive proteins, not your portions: You don't need to eat less protein. You can simply vary where it comes from. Eggs, beans, lentils, canned fish and tofu can cost less per serving than some cuts of meat. Swap two or three meat-based meals a week for filling alternatives such as bean chili, lentil curry, egg fried rice or chickpea pasta. Keep the portions satisfying.
Along with those suggestions, ChatGPT also listed the potential monthly savings target for its three listed tips.
Switching to store brands could save me $15, purchasing cheaper protein alternatives could also save me $15 and taking note of unit-price comparisons could save me $5. With all that in mind, I made sure to pick up store-brand canned vegetables during my latest grocery haul.
And I also made a bigger deal of reading the unit prices of the larger shelf-stable items, such as bags of rice and dry beans. And finally, I picked up some store-brand lentils to embark on my new journey of making lentil curry with white rice as a weekly hearty meal.
Gemini’s noteworthy suggestions
After bringing the same inquiry to Gemini, it also came back to me with a bunch of helpful tips. Two of them ended up getting thrown into my memory bubble for my latest visit to the supermarket:
- Switch Fresh Produce to Frozen Outside of Peak Season: Out-of-season fresh produce goes through long transit times, spoils quickly in your fridge, and commands premium pricing. Frozen fruits and vegetables are flash-frozen at peak harvest, maintaining equivalent nutritional value. Use frozen berries for oatmeal or smoothies and frozen broccoli, peas, or spinach for cooked dishes and stir-fries. You get the exact same volume of food with zero rot waste.
- Ditch Convenience Markups (Do the Prep Yourself): Pre-cut fruit, pre-shredded cheese, bagged salads, and boneless/skinless meats carry a 30% to 100%+ premium for labor. Buy block cheese and shred it yourself (it melts better without anti-caking agents anyway). Buy whole carrots, cabbage, or whole bone-in chicken thighs, which cost significantly less per pound.
Gemini also noted that the frozen fruit buying method could potentially save me an extra $15 to $30, while its tip focused on ditching convenience markups pointed out how I could save an extra $25 – $40.
With Gemini’s first tip in mind, I began picking up Great Value-branded frozen strawberries, blueberries and mango chunks for my monthly forays into making smoothies.
Great Value’s products also became a bigger staple in my freezer once I started picking up more of their frozen broccoli florets, super sweet corn and sweet potatoes. It took a lot for me to break my habit of buying pre-cut and pre-shredded food (I’m incredibly lazy most of the time, to be fair), but I began making a more concerted effort to buy blocks of parmesan cheese, carrots and romaine lettuce & shredding/cutting them down myself.
The takeaway
$300.56. That was my latest grocery bill cost. And while it’s still up there, I can deal with paying a hundred dollars less than I usually do when I head to the supermarket. ChatGPT and Gemini’s counsel pushed me to make some major changes to my shopping habits.
And while I still get a few brand-name goods here and there (family-size bags of Utz potato chips and Dr. Pepper will never leave my food & drink rotation!), purchasing store-branded goods (as well as sticking close to both chatbots’ cheaper grocery shopping tips) helped me save several more bucks on my latest shopping excursion.