Money Mom Podcast

83: How to Save Enough on Groceries to Pay for Christmas Starting NOW

• Episode 83

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🎄 The holidays are coming fast... and if you’re already stressing about how to pay for all the gifts, gatherings, and extra expenses without adding to your credit card balance, this episode is for you.

Inside, Rachel breaks down real, actionable steps you can take starting today to free up cash for Christmas, simply by adjusting how you shop for groceries. You’ll learn how to:
✅ Cut your grocery bill by 30–50% without sacrificing quality
✅ Meal plan using what’s already in your pantry and freezer
✅ Avoid food waste and impulse buys
✅ Create a grocery strategy that funds your holiday spending

By the end, you’ll see how your grocery budget can actually pay for Christmas... no extra income required.

Tune in for practical, mom-friendly tips that can help you head into the holidays with peace, confidence, and money left in the bank.

🎧 Listen now and start saving for a stress-free Christmas!

xoxo,
Rachel

Where to find me:
Instagram: @heyrachelcoons

Join me for my next LIVE training 'Save $600 On Groceries'!: REGISTER HERE

SPEAKER_01:

The holidays are quickly approaching. And if you're someone who is worried about how you're going to pay for all of the extra expenses without going into more debt, then this episode is for you. I'm going to give you real actionable things that you can do starting today by simply focusing on your grocery budget that will help you fund some, or if not all, of Christmas. So stay tuned.

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Money Mom Podcast, the show where we empower moms to take control of their finances, break free from money stress, and build a life of freedom, confidence, and abundance for their families. I'm your host, Rachel Koons, mom, money mentor, and your personal cheerleader on this journey. Whether you're here to save money, pay off debt, or dream bigger for your family's future, you're in the right place. Here, we believe that being a mom is already a full-time job. But your role in shaping your family's financial success is just as important. And the best part, you don't need to sacrifice everything to start winning with money. Let's get started. This is the Money Mom Podcast. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode. Today we're going to talk about something that is a little bit timely for this time of the year and something that might be on your mind as you're starting to think about the next couple months. And that is how to make Christmas affordable and feeling like you can afford all of the gifts and experiences, the parties, the family dinners, everything that you need to do without having it put a stress on your credit card debt and your bank account, or just stress about money in general. And the reason why I wanted to record this podcast now is because we can start to make small changes right now, specifically when it comes to your grocery spending, that will give you enough wiggle room so that you can save enough money between now and Christmas to cover most, if not all, of your holiday expenses. And that may seem like really crazy and really out of this world, but I'm going to show you in today's episode about how, like simply tweaking certain things about how you shop for your groceries, you could really end up with a huge chunk of cash in your bank account by Christmas without having to go into debt, without having to feel that strain. So if you're ready to save money on groceries and give yourself the gift of a financial stress-free Christmas this year, stick with me through this episode because I'm going to break it all down for you step by step. So before we get into that though, let's talk numbers for a minute. The average American family spends way more on groceries than they probably need to. According to the USDA, a family of four on this would be considered a moderate grocery budget. Obviously, there's like light and heavier grocery budget, but just like an average family of four is spending about$1,200 a month on food. And that doesn't include eating out. So that is purely what you're spending at the grocery store. And here's the thing: here's the reality that I am, you know, bringing to the world and trying to share as loud as I possibly can is that most families can easily trim that number down by 30 to 50% just by implementing a few strategic changes in how you plan, shop, and cook for your family. So imagine maybe you're spending close to that number,$1,200 a month, and you could literally cut that number in half. So a family of four could be spending$600 a month, which would free up$600 more a month. We multiply that by two or three months. And by Christmas, boom, you've got$1,200 to$1,800 in your pocket just by adjusting your grocery habits. So that is why when I say focusing on your grocery spending is one of the fastest and easiest ways to put money back in your bank account every month. That is what I mean by that. We had a member post in our Facebook group in September. She said, this is from Cassie. She said, I signed up a week into September and I just looked at my budget for the month. And I went from spending$2,000 to$900. I'm so excited. She literally cut off$1,100 in one month. Another member of our shop study, her name's Tiffany. She said, I'm on track to have saved$1,000 Canadian dollars this month. And I feel so incredibly proud of myself and relieved. I've been trying to figure this out for a long time and spending way too much money on groceries. Now I can save and have more wiggle room for this fun stuff each month. And that fun stuff I am considering to be Christmas. That is something that is really fun and obviously a huge priority for most families. So today I'm going to show you how to make those changes and start putting that cash aside for Christmas. So let's dive in. First things first, you've got to know what you're working with. Most people don't even have a grocery budget, which means that they have no idea what they're actually spending until they see the bank statement or until they see the credit card bill. And that can be a really stressful moment. So the first step to really focusing on your grocery spending is to set a realistic number that you are going to try and hit. Now I recommend starting with about$150 to$200 per person each month. So if you take the number of people in your family and you multiply it by$150 or$200, family of four times$150 is$600 per month. So I know that that might sound a little bit tight, but stick with me here. It is absolutely doable. And I'm going to show you how. By setting a number, just by doing that simple act, you're giving yourself a trajectory. You're giving yourself a target, which means you're going to be much more intentional about what you buy. And remember, anything you save from the current spending right now, if you're spending overspending by, you know, 40%, even if we can cut 20% of that away, that's the money that you could put towards Christmas. Another thing that you can do is learn to love meal planning. Meal planning is going to be one of the biggest money savers that you can do. And it's really can be simple, but so many people overcomplicate it and tend to skip over it because they feel overwhelmed or they feel like it's going to create more of an energy and time suck. And so it goes to the bottom of their priority list. But the key is to plan around meals that you already have in your pantry, in your freezer, and let your kitchen, whatever food is in your house, let that help you plan your meals. We call that shopping the shelf in the shop method. So if you could just put aside 15 to 20 minutes, that's all it takes to plan out your dinners for the week. Look at what's in season, look at what maybe be on sale at your local grocery stores, see what protein, like your chicken, your turkey, see what is available and on sale that week, and then plan two to three meals around those items. That way you're not going to be overbuying on expensive ingredients and you are shopping really smart. Another tip that I always like to implement as well is to plan for leftovers. So if you are planning to make a big batch of chili one night, double it and either freeze that second portion or put it in the fridge for another dinner, another lunch, that's going to help you cut down on food waste and it's going to limit the number of ingredients that you need to buy. And you can buy in bulk for that meat and those other ingredients. And if you're really trying to cut your grocery spending when it comes to meal planning, really focusing on sticking to simple, budget-friendly meals like spaghetti, tacos, stir fries, even casseroles can be made really inexpensively. They are tend to be very easily shop-the-shelf meals. And the big win is that your kids will probably love them and they'll actually eat them. So they'll make really good leftover options as well. One of the ways that we can really decrease spending is by shopping with intention. So we are decreasing impulse buys and we're focusing either if you are shopping in the store or you're deciding to shop online, making sure that you make a plan before you even go into the grocery store. You have a list and you don't put those random items into your grocery cart. I know we're all guilty of this, where we go to the grocery store for one item, we end up throwing, you know, maybe something was on sale, or we wanted to buy snacks for the upcoming soccer game, or just random stuff that we didn't plan on buying. You know what I'm talking about. Those items that just get thrown in your cart add up. And a lot of the times they add up to be$50,$100,$150. So if we can drastically decrease the times that we are impulse buying, we can decrease the amount we spend. So when you're making your shopping list based on your meal plan, stick to it. And remember that you're looking towards the future. So you have bigger goals right now, hopefully, if you have a big goal of saving money for Christmas, you can look towards that when you need to feel motivation to stick with it. So if it's not on a list, if it's not something you need, it doesn't go in the cart. This alone could save you hundreds of dollars within the next couple months. The real harsh reality about families that are spending more than they need to at the grocery store is that chances are they're also throwing out a ton of food. So the average American family wastes or throws away 30% of the food that they buy. And that, you know, has its own issues when it comes to being good stewards over the food that we buy and our planet and using our resources correctly. But also it's having a big impact on our budget. And I'm not looking to make anybody feel guilty or shame about food waste, but I do think it's one of those things that when we can decrease or eliminate the amount of food that goes bad inside of our fridge, and mostly it tends to be perishables that rot or go sour in the fridge. If we can eliminate that, then we can also decrease our spending on the front end. Because if you're wasting 30% of the food that you buy, that means every time you go to the grocery store, you spend$100 at the store. You could literally be throwing out a bag of food, like literally taking a bag of groceries on the way out and throwing that in the trash. Because that's basically what you're doing once you get home and put your the food in your fridge. And a way to counteract that is by using your freezer. And obviously on the front end, we cannot buy food that we don't need. But if you do buy food that you have, don't let that food go bad. So that means that we're not, we're really focused on the perishables that are in your fridge. So if you see something about to go off, like dairy products or produce items, then you are either adding it to a meal, making sure that you're using up that ingredient for the dinner or the lunch or whatever you need it for, but also putting it in a bag and throwing it in the freezer. Most of the time, you can freeze almost any produce item. And obviously, there's like some ways to do it correctly and ways to not do it correctly. But for the most part, you have a produce item that's about to go bad and you're like SOS, I don't want to throw this away. Google, how do I freeze blank, whatever it is? And then you have that food for later on. You don't have to buy it again, and you're also not throwing it away. So freezing is your best friend. It'll be your best friend when it comes to saving money on groceries. Another thing that I love to do with freezing is when you make food, double it and freeze the other half of it for later in the month. You've now put in the work, the same amount of work that you would put in if you just made one meal, but you've doubled it. And so your future self will thank you because then they don't, then you don't have to cook another night. All right. So we've talked about meal planning, we've talked about setting an intention, we've talked about decreasing food waste. But let's talk about how these changes can really add up by the time Christmas rolls around. So let's say you're currently spending$1,000 a month on groceries, but you implement these changes and get that down to$600 a month. So that's a total of$400 in savings each month. You multiply that by the two months leading up to Christmas, and you've got$800 of savings in just groceries alone. So even if you're just saving$200 a month, that's still$400 by Christmas, which hopefully will take the edge off and you'll feel less stress about holiday expenses or feeling financially insecure around the holidays. So there you have it. By taking control of your grocery spending now, you could potentially be saving hundreds or even thousands of dollars leading up to Christmas. And wouldn't it feel amazing to know that you're heading into the holiday without worry or financial stress? So to recap, one, set a realistic budget, set an intention for the next month. Number two, meal plan around what's in your pantry, what's in your fridge, and around what's on sale and in season. Number three, you're gonna be really intentional about what you purchase. So you're decreasing food waste and avoiding impulse buys, and you're gonna freeze any perishable items that you need to and leftovers. If you start making these changes today, Christmas can literally pay for itself through the money that you save on groceries alone. And who doesn't want that? If you want more of what we offered in today's episode, you can go ahead and click the link in the footnotes. I've got a free 45-minute training that is gonna go a little bit deeper into what method I have used to save myself thousands of dollars on groceries as well as thousands of our members. I do hope today's that today's episode gave you some inspiration and some actionable steps to start saving. So if you enjoyed this, make sure you share it with a friend. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and help share this grocery budgeting magic that we provide here at Hey Rachel Coons. Thanks for tuning in to today. I'll see you next week.

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Rachel Coons

Host