The Short (And Sweet) Guide To Buying Groceries… And Other Stuff

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Personal Finance Series by Richard Reis

7 min readMay 9, 2017

Hello dear,

I know what you’re thinking (and you’re right), my high-school English teacher would be appalled at me using the word “stuff”. But I couldn’t come up with a better word.

In fact, what word would you use?

Exactly! Not as easy as it seems, huh? Being a semi-professional wordsmith, I was obligated to make a decision. And decide I did.

So, without any objections, let’s move on to today’s letter (sorry high-school English teacher).

A Few Tips On Buying Groceries

If you have a fridge that looks like it’s screaming “stop it! I’m full! No more! Noooooo!” and yet, you don’t pay attention, this letter is for you.

Why? Because that’s when people usually commit a cardinal sin. They throw away food! *gasp*

If you have ever partaken in such atrocity, let me help you.

1. Plan Ahead

I’ll write more about meal-prepping two weeks from today. Until then, it doesn’t hurt to know what you’re going to eat every week.

Sounds logical, right? However, you’d be surprised at the number of times I walked into a store and see people scanning the aisles wondering “what should I buy?What should I buyyyy? Hmmm”.

So, before stepping in a grocery store, always have a list in hand.

2. Learn to Buy

Ok, you have your list. Now you go to the grocery store right?

Not so fast! Before stepping in ask yourself this, are you hungry? If so, eat a snack, then ask yourself the question again. Repeat until the answer is no.

Never, ever, ever buy groceries when you’re hungry.

Once satiated, you may finally go to the grocery store! Yay!

Luckily, I live right next to Trader Joe’s. So my grocery bill is less than $50 a week (it could be much less if I wasn’t a 6'4" carnivore). If you have a Trader Joe’s nearby, I highly suggest you familiarize yourself with it. They’ve perfected the combination of cheap prices with good quality.
Another option is Costco. This is a great place to buy in bulk. I don’t feel the need to since I live alone, but if I lived with more people I’d make sure we buy most produce (especially things like olive oil and coffee) in bulk.
Apparently, pricing mistakes are very common when you buy organic produce (MMM says 1 in 4). Watch out for that.
Don’t buy at eye level (those are the most expensive/ highest paying companies). Buy products that are at the bottom. Same thing, but cheaper.
A small bonus: get some foldable reusable grocery bags. Not only do you save money, but more importantly, you don’t add hundreds of bags as trash to the environment every year.

3. Cook at Home, and Freeze!

Something I see often is the high number of people who have high “eating at restaurants” expenses (even when they have debt).

Now, I’ve seen enough Gordon Ramsay videos on YouTube to make me never want to step in a restaurant again, ever. If I don’t see what goes on in the background, I worry (which is why In-N-Out can do no wrong).

But, the savings alone should make anyone think not just once, but twice, and even thrice before stepping inside a restaurant.

Learn to cook your 1o favorite meals, and make them over and over again. Healthier AND cheaper.

“But then I’ll get tired of eating the same things,” you say? Once you learn the magic of spices, your life (and meals) will never be the same.

The best part is you can buy everything once a week, cook it all in a day, put it into separate containers, and freeze it all.

This way, all you need to do when you’re hungry is have a handy microwave nearby, and voila!

Sidenote: While writing this letter, I researched “cheap recipes” on YouTube and found a true internet gem. The channel is called “Great Depression Cooking” and shows a wonderful elder lady teaching us the recipes her family and her cooked during the Great Depression (unfortunately she passed away a few years ago, RIP Clara). If this video doesn’t warm your heart, I don’t know what will.

Bonus. Cleaning Products

“Every single grocery store has an entire aisle devoted to the collection of brightly-colored hazardous wastes that people use in the interest of maintaining cleanliness. Many of the purported functions are completely alien to me, like ‘Rinsing Agent’, ‘Sanitizing Wipes’, and ‘Febreeze’. Worldwide, this is millions of square feet and billions of dollars per month being spent on these bizarre cocktails that did not even exist for well over 99% of our species’ time on this planet. What gives?” — Mr. Money Mustache

You heard the man. And I must agree here. More and more I’ve discovered the negative impact of these products.

It all started when one of my favorite products, antibacterial soap, got banned by the FDA. As a good germaphobe, I was sad. However, I was shocked I used such a toxic product!

Now, I look at all these other products and wonder what are the side-effects of having them around?

One answer, superbacteria. Yikes.

So, when it comes to helping your health and your pocket, stick to the classics; good ol’ Bleach and Ammonia.

Sidenote: Thanks to Eric Lai for pointing out that mixing bleach and ammonia produces toxic gases called chloramines. So DON’T DO IT!

A Few Tips On Buying Other Stuff

For any purchase outside of groceries, follow these tips.

1. Make Sure You Really, Really Want It

Before buying anything new, make sure it won’t just end up stored away.

It’s very easy to give into the impulse of buying something on the spot (marketers are really good at making you do that).

However, I suggest a new strategy so you can fight back and not end up with an apartment full of stuff you don’t need:

Have a “want to buy” list (I use my notes app).
When you see something you want, don’t buy it! Just add it to the list next to the current date (e.g.: “SpiritHood; 05/09/2017”).
Forget about it.
Someday, you’ll see the item on your list again. If it’s been more than 30 days and you still want it, you can buy it.

It doesn’t sound like much, but trust me, it will make a difference. Most of the time, you buy something because you’ve let yourself be seduced by a colorful video full of happy people. Remove the joyful music and happy people and you won’t feel so compelled to buy the item anymore.

Sidenote: Another good use of this is seeing if you can find the product for cheaper 30 days later. If so you still saved money! Hooray!

2. Buy Used

I briefly mentioned this in my last letter.

If you must absolutely own a depreciating asset, you should buy it used to minimize depreciating costs.

Don’t forget, you live in the 21st Century. Here, people get rid of $600 iPhones after only using them for one year.

“Used” in America is equivalent to “like brand new”. This is a very wasteful society, but you can use that to your advantage!

3. Check Craigslist first

Since you’re going to buy used, what’s the best place to go? Well, Craigslist of course!

In fact, you should never buy something unless you’ve looked for it on Craigslist first.

Bonus. Tips for “Must Have” Items

“Things used to be built to last. It was expected that a piece of furniture or even a good jacket could be handed down to the next generation. With growing product quality, there was a limit to the size of the market. As soon as everybody had everything they needed, there was no one left to sell to and businesses would have begun to shut down, leaving people with less work (gasp!). This happened around the 1920s. […]However, a more nefarious strategy has been to build products of an increasingly inferior quality and, in doing so, make them cheaper. This creates a continuous and dependable demand as things break and are thrown out and replaced. […] As someone informed me, the good stuff is whatever costs more than $100 in a pawn shop or an antique store.”— Jacob Lund Fisker

Always go for high-quality items that you’ll never replace (like my trusty $11 knife ❤️).

Pots and Pans: The no stick treatment only lasts a couple of years. Your grandma’s pots and pans last several generations. Be like grandma. Go for stainless steel, iron, or copper.
Furniture: If you must buy new, buy it at Ikea. You’ll find the same really nice furniture but for much cheaper prices (since you have to assemble it all yourself, which obviously you can).
Books: I mentioned using the library in a previous post. However, I didn’t give other options. You can try this link, or this link for much cheaper books (what I do is look for a book on Amazon and click on the “used” category. You can buy books for $1 this way, free delivery!)

And that’s it for today!

Today, we learned a few tips for the grocery store and for buying other “stuff”.

I hope this helps.

See you next week (follow the series here to be notified).

Be well.

Thanks for reading! 😊If you enjoyed it, test how many times can you hit 👏 in 5 seconds. It’s great cardio for your fingers AND will help other people see the story.You can follow me on Twitter at @richardreeze to find out whenever others just like it come out.📚 Do you like books? If so you might enjoy my latest obsession: 
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