This Hack Can Help You Find Hundreds Of Dollars Each Month

Kelley C. Long
Published in
2 min readMay 8, 2020

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If you’ve ever taken the time to categorize your monthly spending, chances are you had a similar reaction that I did when I realized how much we spend on food each month — disbelief with a side of regret, anyone? It’s just the hubs and I for now, and we are pretty good about eating in, at least compared to a lot of our DINK (dual income, no kids) friends, so I’m always shocked when our grocery spending sometimes tops what I’d expect a family of four to spend.

The fact is, food is expensive and who wants to walk around the grocery store with a calculator? There are ways to counteract that by planning your menu around the grocery store sales, buying in bulk, etc., but sometimes life is just too busy or you have to go with what’s available during a pandemic.

Whether you’re cooking more at home due to shelter-in-place orders or just trying to find some ways to free up some extra cash, try this:

One week per month, skip the grocery store and instead eat what’s already on hand. Then take the money you don’t spend on groceries and transfer it to your savings account. The only number you need to know is what you spend each week, on average.

Pro tip: this is where most people go wrong when they try to save money — they do well on the cutting back, but they neglect to go the

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Kelley C. Long
The Startup

CFP & CPA writing about money & how it fits into life based on my work with everyday people as a financial coach. www.financialblisscoach.com