Why does nobody talk about the change in my grocery bill after meal planning for 30 days straight?

Lily Davis · 2026-10-31T09:15:05.244759+00:00

I started meal planning on January 1st and just finished my first full month, and I'm honestly a little shocked at the difference. In December I was spending about $180 a week on groceries for just me and my husband, mostly because I'd wander the store without a list and grab whatever looked good. After 30 days of writing out exactly what we'd eat for dinner each night and sticking to a list, we spent $112 last week. That's almost $70 less, and the weird part is we ate better food, not worse. I think the big thing was I stopped buying duplicate ingredients because I actually knew what was already in the fridge. I also stopped doing the 7pm panic run to the store for one missing thing, which always turned into $40 of extra stuff. Has anyone else seen a drop this big from meal planning, or was my December spending just out of control to begin with?

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Why does nobody talk about the change in my grocery bill after meal planning for 30 days straight? | Budgeting Wins - Babble Community