96. How to Save on Groceries with Hannah Stewart

In this episode, host Laura Sexton welcomes Hannah Stewart, founder of MyFamilyDinner.com, to discuss effective grocery budgeting and meal planning. They delve into practical tips on saving money on groceries, the importance of meal prepping, and strategies for maintaining a healthy budget without sacrificing quality. Hannah shares her personal journey of paying off significant debt and how she helps other moms manage their finances and meal planning efficiently. The episode also covers pantry management, reducing food waste, and balancing nutritious meals with busy schedules.

Meet Hannah Stewart:

• https://www.youtube.com/@myfamilydinner
• https://www.instagram.com/myfamilydinnercom/
• https://myfamilydinner.com/
• https://www.myfamilydinnerresources.com/free-5-day-meal-plan-atm

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Transcript

Laura: 0:46

Hello and welcome to the Accelerate Your Legacy podcast. I'm Laura Sexton, your trusted financial coach and money mindset specialist. Join me as we explore the world of money and money mindset while also paving the way for a lasting legacy that extends far beyond money. Together we'll eliminate stress, amplify freedom, and ensure you stop paying for your past so you can start saving for your future. If you're seeking peace in your finances, more margin in your budget, and a legacy that inspires generations to come, you're in the right place.

Audio Only - All Participants-2: 1:31

All right, welcome back, Accelerators. This week I have a special treat for you. So many of you have been asking me about budgeting for groceries. I know prices have skyrocketed and we don't always think through, you know, going past our normal every day. This is what we've always done, so it's what we're always going to do. And so I brought on somebody that I think can really help All of us look at our groceries a little bit differently. We'll talk about how to save money on groceries and things like that. Today I have with us, Hannah Stewart, the founder of my family dinner. com. Hannah, I have so many wonderful things that I can say about you that I have discovered in the past, but if you would like to, would you like to introduce yourself to the accelerators? Let them know about you. Sure. My name is Hannah. I have been doing my family dinner for the last four years. I am a working mom of four kids and their ages range from three to 13. I have the teenager now in the house. So busy, busy, busy over here. That's so fun. I wanted to reach out to you specifically because I found you on Instagram and it was at a time where I was looking not only for budget, food saving advice but I really clicked into your story because you guys paid off a significant amount of debt while doing this grocery planning. So can you inspire my accelerators and tell them a little bit about that part of your story? Yeah. So we actually 000 worth of debt. And the food part I attribute to you. A large portion of it because it like set us up to sacrifice it and actually like make the changes that we needed to make it was at a point where we were crazy overwhelmed. I have all these kids I am like feeling like i'm underwater. There's no job. I can get that was going to offset Like child care essentially because of how expensive that is And so when I looked at our budget, I realized that Food was our largest expense and that's where I wanted to try to make the biggest difference in our debt first. And oh my gosh, it worked. It worked better than I ever could have imagined. And at what point did you go, Other people need to know this and I have to share it with the world. The biggest reason I wanted to share it with people is because of the stress it takes off my shoulders. So I recognize there's a million different ways to pay off debt and people can, you know, get three jobs and there's all sorts of ways to do that. But the fact that this is helping us to save money, pay off debt and removing weight and like mother's guilt to me, that was the most life changing part of it. And I'm like, like us moms, we got to help each other out when there's actually something that works. I had to share it with people and like, I could not have jumped faster to like, I started telling everyone people probably started getting annoyed with me and I'm like, no, this works. I think the very first month I did it without really strategizing, I saved like 500 just because I was actually taking food and like using it with purpose. And then it got better and better and better from there. So we saved almost 10, 000 the first year that we did this. And, the more we committed to the process, the more money we saved, the more confident I felt. And, like, just the fact that I felt like I could breathe easier every day is the reason I wanted to share it with other moms. Because, like, there's a million things in our brains. You know, it's overwhelming. And you're not just eating beans and rice. You're eating good food. Yes, steaks and beef and chicken and tacos. I have so many different taco recipes. It's like my favorite thing in the world. So, no, we eat all kinds of stuff. How, with the world being what it is like today, how can we save money on our groceries? So the first thing that I tell everyone is you have to have a grocery list. And that feels like, okay, yeah, duh, we know that, right? But I go to the grocery store all the time without having the time to plan and didn't have a grocery list and I would overspend. I feel like the biggest things you can do is to always have a grocery list. One thing that's really accessible now because of COVID and a good thing, I think, is the accessibility to curbside pickup and ordering things online. There's usually a way to do that without getting any extra charge. I think a lot of places, if you spend 30, 35 bucks, there's no fee for curbside pickup. So that prevents you from going after all those, like, extra things. Indulgent items or like things you deserve, you know, stuff like that. So ordering online with a grocery list and having a plan for your food is really the way to start saving. And I sometimes hesitate to say this, but committing to eating at home, you know, We spend a lot of extra money when we get takeout or even like stopping at McDonald's. Even McDonald's is expensive these days. Like everything costs a lot of money. Eating at home is huge too. So if you're willing to do that, you can like, you can cut. up to 50 percent of your current grocery spend. But the people that come to you and they're like, but Hannah, I just don't have time to cook on a regular Tuesday night. You have an excellent idea of things to tell them. So what, what would you say to them if they came to you and said that? So I would say I'm in the same boat. I don't have time to cook either, and actually I never cook dinner, but we eat home cooked meals every single night. I prep for anywhere from 60 to 90 minutes once every two weeks, and it gives us two weeks worth of dinners that range from vegetarian to steak, and they cook themselves so dinner is ready when I need it. And that is the best feeling in the world. Now you say it takes. 60 to 90 minutes and I'm sitting here going I'm the slowest chopper in the world. Is it probably going to take me twice that long? When you get started it might take a little bit longer but as you get the feel for it, it's going to go faster and faster. This actually brings me to a really good point is if you are just starting out, I always recommend not doing everything in one day because two or three hours in the kitchen Plus meal planning plus grocery shopping does turn into a whole day event and that's stressful. So I tell everyone to use a three day method for meal prep. So day one is planning. Spend, you know, 30 minutes, 60 minutes planning or grab a done for you meal plan. I am going to share one with everyone today. The second day is grocery shopping or picking up your groceries from curbside pickup. Do not meal prep that same day. Give yourself day three to then go ahead and just do all your prep together. And it really does make the process feel easier. So for example, if it does take you double the time, the first time you do it, that's three hours spent in the kitchen for two weeks worth of dinners. And you didn't have to do all the backend work. It's just, let me focus on prepping and then let me get out of the kitchen and I'm done. I think that's my favorite thing. Just right now. I'm literally sitting here. I wrote that down. Because I'm that person I will get so overwhelmed I'm like I want a meal plan and then I have to I have to do everything and I feel like I have to do It all at once. So thank you for breaking that down for me I Have been helped tremendously already It's so funny because this has been on my heart for so long and especially with a fifth child coming along I'm gonna have to start making a plan At some point and, and probably not letting my husband just have free for all like, yeah, sure. You go to the grocery store because the stuff that comes home is questionable. Sometimes I don't send my either because it's never the right thing. What did you buy? They try, they mean well, and I appreciate it. We live on the second floor. My husband carries all the groceries up the stairs. So you know what? I really appreciate that. I do. One of the other things that you said when I asked what some topics were that we could discuss today, it would be really, really helpful is that. It's not about where you shop, but how. Can you break that down for me a little bit? Absolutely. So if you think the only way you're going to save money on groceries is by going to Walmart or shopping at Aldi, like the specific cheap stores, you're likely not changing any other part of the process for yourself. So you may not have a grocery list. You still may go and overspend. You still may go and shop hungry. You still may not have a plan. I find that you don't actually save money by just shopping at cheaper stores. You save money by developing a process and sticking to it. And it doesn't have to be the freezer meal planning, but if you're willing to plan and stick to, let's say, your favorite Store and follow this process. Time and time again, you're going to save money. I usually shop at Kroger. That's like my main store. And a lot of people say, oh, Kroger's so expensive. There's no way you're saving money shopping there. Like, I shop at Aldi, it's cheap. I'm like, no. I literally spend about$700 a month for our family of six people at Kroger. And not everything I buy is off brand, it's a variety of different things. So it's not about where you shop, it's about how you shop. Are you shopping with intentionality? Are you planning? Are you using the food when you do plan? That's why I like freezer meal planning. Because you're not letting that meat go to waste after three days in the fridge, and you're like, dang it, I didn't cook it! Like, now it smells! Yes. Oh my goodness. I, it's the worst feeling in the world. Because it's a holiday, we shifted a little bit, but today is our clean the fridge day, where, and it's, You know, it's one of those things where, yes, we're eating leftovers, but it's also, we pull everything out, we take inventory of what we have, and we wipe the fridge down, and it's an exercise in teaching my children, one, it's good to use your resources wisely, it's a Girl Scout thing, use your resources wisely, but two, it's also really good to make sure that your space is clean, and organized so that you know what you have. So you're not going to the store and being like, oh, I just bought a whole nother thing of blueberries when there was one in the back. I just didn't realize that I had it and now we're wasting food because there's no way I'm going to eat 900 pounds of blueberries this week. Yeah. So many people miss that step. They don't shop their pantry. They don't shop their fridge. They don't look at their spices and they way overspend. You sent an email just a couple of weeks ago about the secret to saving big on groceries. I kept this. I was like, this is some good tips in here. And one of the things you say is to shopper pantry first, but one of the other things you talk about is storing food properly and learning to love your freezer. Would you talk a little bit more about that? Thank you. Yeah, there's so many items that freeze so well or even can be bought frozen and are more nutritious and at the peak of freshness. So if we're talking like a health perspective, they actually freeze fruit and vegetables when it is in season and the most nutritious. And the flash freezing process that they do preserves the nutrition in those veggies. So I always recommend like for sides, an easy side, learn to love your freezer, get some frozen veggies in there, different kinds of, breads, garlic breads, things like that can all be stored in there really easily where you don't have to worry about it at all. But then for fresh items in your fridge, like there's so many ways that you can, you can just throw carrots. Or you can wash them off and put them inside of a jar with water and they'll stay fresh for like a week or two. Learning how like those staple items that you have that you love, storing them in the fridge or in the freezer properly just makes your food last longer. And like cut up food tends to be easier to eat. So like my kids will eat cucumbers and carrots if it's cut up and in my fridge. Now, if it's just sitting in there in the back and I'm like kind of avoiding eye contact with it every time I open my fridge, I guarantee you I'm eventually going to find mold and throw it away because no one's going to eat it. So it's just a, it's a nice way to invite everyone to like go in and grab stuff. I think that's wonderful, because as you were saying that, if the carrot sticks are cut up in my fridge, then my kids are gonna go eat them, and that's probably a good thing. If it's anything they can get their hands on, they're like, oh, this is for me, but if it has to be, reheated, or taken out of the package, or washed, it takes longer. for them to actually pay attention and go get the food or even think that's an option for them. So I love that. Do you have other tips and tricks for healthy snacks that I can give my children? Because that would just be fabulous. Yeah, I do a lot of fruits and vegetables, if I'm being totally honest, because There's so many ingredients in this store bought stuff, so not only is it all more expensive, but it's just not as good for them. I do love to make, like, mini muffins or different, like, protein balls and things like that, because that stuff stores really well in the freezer, and I can just take it out and give it to my kids. But we just do less snacks than the average person, and if my kids want a snack, I tell them to eat a banana. Or get an apple. I'll do apple with peanut butter. You know, the little mini muffins are really great because I can pull out like a bag and I'll have four muffins in there and stuff like that. I would tell a lot of people like it's okay for your kids to not have snacks all day long. And I know that my kids will eat them 24 7. Yes, my kids just broke the lock on her pantry and it's like the 15th lock I put on there. I'm like, how do you do this? Because I try to keep them out of it. I know it's not good for them to be snacking all day. It's very similar to us when it comes to our money. Like, if it's just, oh, I'm bored, so I'm going to go swipe my credit card it's the same with our kids. I'm bored, so I want to eat. You're just filling a void that doesn't necessarily need to be filled with food. Specifically my children. They don't need a snack all day. They just don't. They're monsters. I wonder if it's going to get worse when they're teenagers. I don't know. It may, but they're monsters right now. I made banana muffins the other day. I had four bananas. They were going bad and I was like, all right, I'll just make a double batch of my banana muffin recipe. Got really excited about it. Use some protein pancake mix instead of just all flour. So I felt like I was doing something productive for my family. And my son ate 12 of them in one sitting and he's three. And I was like, this is, are you kidding? I was like, how did you, how did you eat that? Like, where did it all go? When he becomes a teenager, I'm going to need to be using all of your techniques to be able to keep food in my house. I'm gonna have to create new techniques, I'm sure, when I have teenage boys in the house, because my kids are little, but they devour food like crazy. I guess that's one reason that I like storing snacks in the freezer. It's harder for them to even know it's there. It's more likely that I'm going to give it to them or not. When I have to discipline myself with self control for different things, I just don't have things in the house. So maybe try to have less in the house. And that's where it's kind of irritating. Cause you're like, can't we just have this magic solution for all the things? Well, to a certain extent, but. No, that's so good. Do you have lunch ideas that you do for like packing a lunch for kids to take to school that's not just peanut butter and jelly with some goldfish and some carrot sticks? Because my kids would really appreciate something other than that in their lunchbox, I'm sure. Yeah, I love doing lunches for my kids. We actually on Sundays will prep 16 lunches all together. And so I get the kids involved and they're these little like It's like these little bento boxes, but they have their own, you know, individual little like sections. So things aren't going to cross over with each other and we all do it together so that it encourages them. So I always have fruit in. I try to always have some form of protein, whether it's a meat, a cheese yogurt, something like that in there. I'll always give them some sort of a starch item. So like they love pretzels. So I'll usually add in some pretzels in there or bread, something like that. And then I take a lot of inspiration from Lunchables, but I do a healthy version of it. So I assume like when I go to the grocery store, if it stores well, I can just create my own version of that for my kids. So I'll do like pizza sauce with shredded mozzarella and then little like nom dippers like that, and they can make their own little. Things like that. So we used to only do like turkey and cheese. And then I've heard that like, there's a lot of controversy around lunch meat and things like that. So we've tried to like get more towards like, let's just do chicken and turkey and beef. And how can we make that fun and interesting? I love that. On Fridays, my kids will get the little naan and the pizza sauce and they get to build their own pizzas and they think it's the coolest thing in the world that they're bring their own Lunchable. And it's funny to me because I'm looking at the ingredients on the back of the line and no shade to Lunchables because I've eaten my fair share of them. But when I look at all of the ingredients, I'm like, I can make one with less ingredients. So I'm going to make my own. It's one of those things where I'm trying to move in that direction of a more holistic, whole food type cooking for my family situation, because I want them to be, you know, the, this podcast is called Accelerate Your Legacy. It's all about the legacy we leave. And if I leave them a legacy of junk food. That's what they're going to have moving forward. Like I grew up having to cook for myself. And as an eight year old that was cooking for myself, I couldn't make hamburger helper. I was really good at that, but that was all I could do. So when I grew up, guess what's the only thing I know how to cook for myself, right? It's hamburger helper. And so I want to learn and I'm still in the process. I'm learning, I'm growing. One of my kids, she's five and she wants to be a chef. And I'm like, Well, if you want to be a chef, I'm going to have to learn how to cut stuff up so that you can learn too, but we'll learn together. It'll be great. Well, and it's cheaper. That's the thing is like it's cheaper to make your own Lunchables that come from a healthier place. And that doesn't mean you have to make everything from scratch. It's just like, you know, grabbing pizza sauce instead of buying the Lunchable. It's literally going to save you money and it's healthier. You know what I just realized, Hannah, is that I never asked you my initial question because I got so excited about this conversation and the things that I got to learn. So I'm going to ask you my first question here towards the end. Hannah, who is somebody whose legacy you would like to emulate? So, okay, I do have an answer to this, and I feel like it's so left wing, but I will share it with you anyway. I love C. S. Lewis, he's an author, he's written a lot of books but one of my favorite things about him is, He has this really logical, analytical side of him with books, but he also has this really fun, silly, prankster side of him. And I think that, I used to believe that I was this mathematician, and all I could do was, like, stats and analytics and things like that. But I actually love books. being a creative as well. And so I want to be able to show people that like, as much as you may bend towards the creative or the like analytical side, you do have a blessing of both of those within you. And I want to share that with people. So I do feel like my food is my canvas. How can I take cheaper. Ingredients and turn them into easy whole food meals that we can throw in the slow cooker and create something delicious without having to be an official chef. Anybody can do it. Really? I love that answer. So anybody that doesn't know CS Lewis wrote the Chronicles of Narnia, which My kids are the perfect age to finally start. But he also has some absolutely fabulous books. My favorite by him is probably surprised by joy. I don't know if you've read it. It is both about joy and how to find it, but also it's a love letter to his wife whose name was joy. Okay. So Hannah. Before we wrap up, I did have one final question. Can you think of one thing? that people may miss or not consider when it comes to grocery shopping that is costing them money that we can maybe put a stop to to help them save a little bit more moving forward. So honestly, I tell people the one thing that People don't do and they take for granted is not shopping your pantry. It feels silly. It's literally so easy to be in a rush and to run out the door and just like not worry about checking, but shopping your pantry will actually make the biggest difference and is most likely costing you the most money. No matter what meal prep style you embrace, take the time to look in your freezer, your fridge. Your pantry, specifically your spices, because spices can cost a lot of money. And I think that people just kind of miss over those things. So making sure you look in those three areas before you go to the store, it's huge. That's interesting. I have two bottles of liquid smoke in my pantry right now because people didn't look for it and there's one recipe I have that I make once a year. That needs it. So I'm going to have liquid smoke in my pantry for the next day. If it lasts that long Hannah, people are listening to this they can scroll down in the show notes and click onto a lot of your links so they can find you, but where would you send them to? What do you think is going to be something that they really want to grab hold of and get ahold of you? I would say come hang out on Instagram with me. And then if you like what you see, I always welcome people to join our email list because you get all kinds of extra tips and tricks and things there. So hey, let's hang out on Instagram, join my list if you like what you see, and I am literally here to help. So if you send me an email, I'm the one who's responding. You can email me with questions at hannahatmyfamilydinner. com. And yeah, I genuinely started this just cause I want to help moms. I feel like we all have our thing and we can serve each other and help make life a little bit easier for each other. If we just share what our thing is, and this is mine is helping people save time and money on food. Now you are giving the accelerators here a free five meal plan, which again they can scroll down in the show notes and click on it. But I'm just going to go ahead and give you a big plug because you have not only this five day meal plan that you are giving away for free, but your meal plans that you have for purchase that people can use have not only An ingredients list, you have an ingredients list already written out for them, but you also have lists that are already shopped that people can, click and they just go directly into your shopping cart of whatever online shopping experience you want to have. And that's, Amazing. There's a lot of thought and time that you have put into this for people. And I myself, I'm just like, mind blown that you have done this for people. I think it's amazing, Hannah. Thank you. It is. It's a lot of work. Yes. And so I want to encourage people. Yes. Use this five day meal plan. Find out what you like. I happen to have some insider knowledge that there will be some bigger things coming for Hannah and the people that are around her. So I want to make sure that you guys are. All plugging in to my family dinner because this is going to be so helpful, not only for your meal planning, not only for your budget, but also for the food that you're feeding yourself, your children. There's so many legacy pieces to this. So Hannah, thank you so much for joining us, for sharing your wisdom today. I've gotten a lot out of this and I hope the Accelerators have too. Is there, Anything else that you would like to share with us before we wrap up today? Yeah, I think just be okay with things taking time. We are moms. Everything is a process and none of us are gonna get stuff perfect the first time. So if you're gonna test out a new meal planning method, don't be scared. It's okay if it doesn't go perfect the first time. Give it a few more tries because I do promise that this works. It will take some weight off your shoulders and save you money in the process. Well, I love it. Thank you so much for being with us today. And I really hope that everybody goes dives in my family dinner. com Instagram at my family dinner. com. Not right. Okay. So hopefully they will pop over there. But again, Hannah, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you. So fun.

Laura: 26:55

Thank you for investing your time with us today on the Accelerate Your Legacy podcast. Remember, your legacy isn't just measured in dollars and cents, but in the tools, habits, mindset, and reputation you leave behind. Don't just listen to the show, but take action on what you've learned. Share this wisdom with a friend who can benefit and help us spread the word by rating and reviewing the podcast. For questions or encouragement, reach out to me on Instagram at Accelerate Your Legacy or explore the resources listed in the show notes. I will be back with you next week. Until then, build your legacy with intention.