Grocery Shopping the Lenny Letter Way: Yes, the Entire Haul Cost Less Than $75

Earlier this week, I read the Lenny Letter’s “Shop Like Your Mom” shopping and meal plan, and decided to test it out to see if it was a realistic option for a person who liked cooking but didn’t want to spend too much time or money on food.

I was a little dubious that “Shop Like Your Mom” author Sally Sampson’s 28-item grocery list would come in at the estimated price of “between $50 and $75,” but you know what? I bought everything on the list and it only cost me $72.33.

I’m starting to get very excited about this plan.

So you know—I already had a lot of these items in my kitchen (cans of black beans, cloves of garlic, frozen peas) but I still bought one of everything on the list because I wanted to make sure that the estimated costs came out correct. Plus, it’s always good to have another can of black beans in the cupboard.

Here are the other rules I am setting for myself:

1. I will follow every recipe as closely as I can. No cheating by doing the chicken curry in the slow cooker.
2. Sampson writes “I am going to assume that you have a reasonably stocked pantry,” which means that some of her recipes include ingredients that aren’t on the 28-item shopping list. If I don’t have one of those extra ingredients already in my kitchen, I’ll have to make do without—or make a substitution.

I should also note that a tiny thing of sesame seeds costs $5.69, which is ridiculous, and those steel-cut oats cost $8.99, which is super ridiculous. Those two items took up 20 percent of my grocery bill.

(Unless I am somehow converted to the life-changing magic of steel-cut oats during the course of next week, I am switching back to rolled oats as soon as this experiment is over.)

More updates next week, when I start the actual cooking. Was anyone else surprised that I was able to buy all of these groceries for $72.33?

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