Food and Finance
Free Online Workshop

Food & Finance Video Transcript

0:08
Hi everyone, welcome to Food and Finance. My name is Catherine Lopez and I am a financial education specialist with the Credit Counselling Society.

0:17
Before we jump in, let’s take a moment to get comfortable. You can go ahead and grab a glass of water, settle in, and we’re going to chat about something we all deal with, the rising cost of food, the challenge of eating well, and how to stretch your grocery budget without feeling stressed or deprived.

0:35
At the Credit Counselling Society, our mission is simple. We help, we educate, and we give hope. And I think the topic we’re diving into today is perfect example of where a little education and a little hope can go a long way. Grocery prices can feel out of control sometimes, and many people feel discouraged or overwhelmed. But with the right tools, you can take back a sense of control.

1:01
Today we’re going to explore how to understand and track your food spending, how to meal plan in a realistic way, and how to shop smarter and reduce food waste, and how to use tools, strategies, and simple habits to save money.

1:18
By the end of the session, you’re going to walk away with practical things you can start using right away.

1:26
Now, before we begin, let me ask you something. Have you ever gone to the store for just one thing and walked out with a full basket and an unexpected total?

1:40
Well, if you have, we’ve all been there. Or most of us have.

1:45
Let’s get started with that thought in mind.

1:48
What influences your food budget? When it comes to food, everyone’s situation looks different, and that’s completely normal. Your grocery bill can be influenced by things like how many people are in your home where you shop,

2:03
dietary needs, cooking habits,

2:07
and different lifestyle habits. Do you meal prep? Do you eat out often?

2:13
If you have access at discounts or sales, that can help you reduce your food budget.

2:18
And of course influences that are happening globally, things like transportation costs, climate change, production costs, all of these can influence your food budget.

2:31
Even if you look at things like families living side by side, they can have totally different food budgets and both can be completely reasonable depending on the circumstances.

2:43
So a good thought to start this conversation is to not compare yourself to a national average.

2:49
The key is knowing your own numbers. And that brings us to an important question. Do you know what you spent on groceries last month?

3:02
Most people, they don’t, at least not clearly. That’s where expense tracking comes in.

3:09
Expense tracking is tracking your spending, and that’s like shining a flashlight into a dim room. Suddenly you can see exactly what’s happening. And once you have that awareness, it becomes much easier to make changes.

3:25
The good thing is expense tracking doesn’t need to be complicated. You can use a pen and notebook,

3:32
art, credit, counselling, society tracking booklet

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at spreadsheet,

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an envelope method,

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a budgeting app,

3:41
or even if your bank has a built in spending tracker, you can activate those features as well.

3:48
It’s about choosing a method that’s simple enough that you’ll actually use it.

3:54
Now, if you’re just getting started, you don’t have to feel the pressure to track everything all at once. That’s a fast path to burn out.

4:04
You can try tracking only groceries from one store, maybe just your eating out budget or your snacks and your coffee. Start off with just a couple of weeks. Most people have at least one surprising category, something that costs more than they thought.

4:21
This is something that can give you some awareness into how your money is being spent. Once again, you have that awareness then allows you to make positive changes in life.

4:32
And speaking of surprises, let’s talk about some small expenses that sneak up overtime.

4:39
Convenience costs, convenience foods like coffee, muffins, quick drive through meals. These are some of the fastest ways for food budgets to balloon.

4:50
Let’s take coffee as an example.

4:53
If someone buys 3 coffees a week at $6 each, that’s $18 a week

5:00
monthly. That’s about $72 a month,

5:04
and that adds up to over $860 a year.

5:09
Now, I’m not here to tell you to give up coffee. Some of us need to live off of that and is part of our regular routine. However, if you don’t have room for it in your budget, that’s where things will start to get a bit shaky. Spending $72 a month on coffee isn’t a bad thing as long as you’re choosing it intentionally and balancing it in other areas. If you don’t have room for coffee, you’ll have to make room in other parts of your budget and vice versa. You can also think of it

5:40
as if you don’t want to spend $72 a month on coffee, where else could that money be better spent? Where else in your budget could it be applied more in a meaningful manner? It’s about clarity and not restriction.

5:54
Now that we’ve talked about clarity, let’s talk about one of the best clarity tools out there, meal planning. Meal planning doesn’t have to be fancy, rigid or colour coded. It doesn’t need to involve 21 matching containers or the same lids and buying things off of Amazon just to make it work. And it definitely doesn’t need to look like a Pinterest board. Meal planning is simply deciding ahead of time what you want to eat and buying only what you need. And that’s it.

6:25
It can cover a just dinners, just lunches, just breakfast. It’s an idea of what you’re going to make for those meals. It doesn’t even need to include all of those meals in any given day. If you can manage it, you can try to plan the whole day or plan a few weeks in advance, a few days in advance. You can plan just one week a month, maybe 2 weeks a month. The more that you practice this habit, the easier it will get.

6:53
But if you’re new to it, start small.

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Even planning 3 to 4 dinners can completely change your grocery spending.

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Meal planning helps you to reduce impulse buying, it can waste less food, and it helps you avoid duplicate purchases.

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It can also allow you to make meals faster, reduce takeout, and make healthier choices so that ultimately you feel more organized with the food you have at home and your grocery budget.

7:23
If you feel stuck on what to make, AI tools are surprisingly helpful. You can tell AI to create a meal plan for you for the next 4 days. Maybe in the fridge you have chicken, rice, broccoli, and pasta. You can input these features into AI and ask it to create recipes that will incorporate chicken, rice, broccoli, and pasta and will provide for you recipes instantly. And it can even help you create a shopping list.

7:52
Use whatever tools will help make your meal planning easier,

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but planning is only the first step. Now let’s talk about putting that plan into action.

8:03
So now that you’ve decided what you’re going to eat and the meal plan you’ve now brought the groceries, you’re ready to do the next step. Here are some habits that will make meal planning actually work. You can crap your food right away, wash your fruit, chop your vegetables, cook a batch of grains, or portion out snacks. This makes weekday cooking much easier and reduces the temptation to order takeout when you’re tired.

8:30
Another tip is to cook components, not fool meals. You don’t have to meal prep like a fitness influencer. Just prepare shared ingredients, a pot of rice, a large tomato sauce, precooked chicken, or chop your veggies in advance. Then you can use them across different meals.

8:48
Use your freezer intentionally. Your freezer is a secret budget saver. You can freeze leftovers for meal planning in the next several weeks. You can freeze extra portions of food. You can freeze soup, veggies for stir fry bread, fruit for smoothies. But just remember, don’t let your freezer become the Bermuda Triangle of forgotten food. You want to make sure you build into your meal plan a freezer night each week so that you can clean out your freezer

9:19
whenever necessary and you can cook something frozen instead of cooking something from scratch.

9:25
You also want to avoid overstepping your fridge. When your fridge is too full, food gets lost, lost food becomes wasted food, and wasted food is basically wasted money. You want to make sure it’s organized and keep your food visible. If you have something that’s about to go bad, make sure that’s put at the front of your fridge. You want to do this assessment on a weekly basis to make sure you’re rotating through the food in your fridge.

9:52
Keep your pantry stocked and organized. Pantry staples can rescue you when energy is low. Things like rice, beans, spices, pasta, canned tomatoes. These can be put together and save you so much on various meals.

10:07
And finally, dinner doesn’t always have to be dinner. You can try incorporating breakfast for dinner as fast as cheap. It’s fun. Pancakes or eggs cost very little and they can feel like a treat.

10:20
Now that we’ve meal planned and prepped, let’s talk about how to shop smarter because this is where the biggest savings often happen.

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Smart shopping starts long before you even reach the store.

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Make sure when you’re at home, take an inventory. Look at your fridge, your freezer, your pantry. You’ll be shocked how often you already have duplicates hiding somewhere. This can be incorporated as part of that rotation every week to make sure you’re using food before it goes bad.

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Create a detailed shopping list. Not vegetables, but one bag of spinach. Be very specific about what you need to buy at the store. two tomatoes, one cucumber, one onion specific means that you can control your spending.

11:09
Try grocery pickups or online shopping. This is amazing if you tend to impulse buy. It avoids you being physically inside the store. You see your total online before checking out, and you can easily remove things if your total gets too high.

11:27
You always want to shop on a full stomach. It sounds silly, but it absolutely works. Shopping hungry makes everything look delicious and everything look urgent. You want to avoid those two urges. When you go to the store, keep a running total. Use your phone as a calculator. This keeps the final bill from catching you off guard when you end up at the checkout counter.

11:51
Use cash or debit. Cash stops you from overspending, and debit without overdraft can help with that, too. One the money is gone and you’ve used your limit, it’s gone. There’s no opportunity or chances to even go over that $1 or $5 extra.

12:08
Who you shop with matters. Kids, partners and friends can often encourage impulse spending. Sometimes shopping alone is the cheapest option.

12:19
Timing matters. Shopping later in the day can mean discounts on meat, discounts on bread, discounts on produce and stores. Want to clear inventory and you can benefit?

12:31
Now let’s go even deeper into advance shopping strategies. Price matching. Do the storage you shop at price match? Some may and some may not, but it’s always worth checking.

12:44
Be careful in dollar stores. They’re great for some items, but not all. For example, pastas may be cheaper at a grocery store. When you compare unit prices,

12:54
generic brands are your friend. No name or store brands can save you an upwards of 15% to 30% on the same product, often with almost identical quality.

13:05
Use customer appreciation days or seniors days. These little bonuses and discounts can add up overtime.

13:13
Use discount produce areas. If you’re cooking something tonight or tomorrow that’s slightly bruised, pepper is perfect. Or you can freeze different meats to make sure you can use them at a later date.

13:26
If you have a chance to grow a little vegetable garden, grow what you can. Green onions regrow easily, even in water. Herbs are simple to grow and a tiny bit of homegrown produce can cut costs and reduced waste.

13:41
Now let’s expand the four big sections you asked for price matching, smartphone apps or boards, programs, and avoiding food waste. Let’s start with price matching and unit pricing.

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Price matching is one of the most underrated savings tools out there. Once you learn how to do it though, you can save money without driving all over the city.

14:02
Price matching means a store agrees to match the price being offered at a competing store. The key rule? The item has to be identical. I mean same size, same brand, same model. It cannot be different. Before heading to the checkout, group your price match items together so everything is easy to scan. Then give the cashier a friendly heads up. Let them know that you’re going to price match a few items that you’re purchasing today. When they scan those items, they’re going to ask for proof

14:32
of the price match. This is where you’re going to want to show, either through a physical flyer or through an online app, the competing stores price. From there, they’ll take the discount automatically off at the till. That’s how price matching works.

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Now let’s talk about unit pricing, the hidden gem of smart shopping. Unit pricing is when you’re able to compare products and break them down per either weight or volume. So you’re going to know the cost per 100 grams per kilogram per item, or even per milliliter. Now, this matters because packaging can be sneaky. A cheap item might actually cost more per unit than a slightly more expensive one. And the only way you’re going to see that is if you break things down per unit.

15:20
Once you start checking unit prices, you’ll never look at grocery shopping the same way again because you won’t be fooled by packaging and instead, you’ll be a smart shopper and know how to calculate things per unit.

15:33
Smartphone apps. We live in a world where your phone can help you save a lot of money. Let’s take advantage of that. Apps like flipandsave.ca can let you browse every flyer in your area quickly.

15:46
Apps like FlashFood gives you access to heavenly discounted foods close to its best before date. FlashFood partners were certain grocery stores and not all. So you’ll want to check the app before you head to your grocery store and see if they’re partnered with an app like FlashFood.

16:03
Then there are rebate apps like Checkout51, Caddle, and Rakuten.

16:08
These apps literally give you cash back for purchases. You can buy an item, take a picture of your receipt, upload it, and money comes straight back to you.

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Use one or two apps consistently. That’s all you need to create meaningful savings.

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And don’t forget about rewards programs that are offered through the store.

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Rewards programs can stretch your grocery budget significantly if you use them intentionally. The key is not to buy things just to earn points. Use your points on big sales, stack points with rebates, and use points on essentials.

16:45
Some people strategically wait for the 20 times the points days to maximize their savings. Make sure that the store you shop at will offer these discounts and you can take advantage of them when they occur.

16:58
Avoiding food waste. Food waste is one of the biggest budget killers, and most of us don’t even realize how much food we throw away.

17:06
Freezing leftover ingredients is one of the easiest solutions to combating food waste.

17:12
Storing your food properly keep ethylene producing fruits away from sensitive produce. This means there are certain fruits and vegetables that give off ethylene gas and other fruits and vegetables that are sensitive to ethylene gas. You want to make sure that you keep these two foods away from each other so you don’t cause different fruits and vegetables to spoil faster. Little storage tweaks can make food last longer. Avoiding food waste again isn’t about perfection. It’s about being mindful and intentional.

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As we wrap up today, let me leave you with a few key reminders. Don’t let convenience cost quietly drain your budget. Make a realistic shopping list and stick to it. Never shop while hungry and use the tools available to you like your apps, points and your freezer.

18:02
My hope is that you feel encouraged and empowered to take control of your food budget in small, meaningful ways. Every little choice and every little change in habit counts. Thank you so much for joining me today. Take care and happy smart shopping.