Budget Helper: How the 6-to-1 Grocery Method can save you time and money
Here’s a great hack we came across recently. Not only can it save you money, but it’s also a great way to make sure you’ve nailed your grocery shopping without going to the effort of making a shopping list or undertaking an extensive meal planning exercise.
Meet the 6-to-1 Grocery Method
What is it?
The 6-to-1 Grocery Method was created by well-known US TV chef Will Coleman and popularised on social media. Spin-off variants include the ‘3-3-2-2-1' and the ‘5-4-3-2-1’ methods, but essentially, they all focus on buying a certain number of fresh fruit and vegetables, protein and grain sources, and other staples, to ensure that your trolley is filled with healthy choices in the right ratios.
The theory is that, with some basic cooking ability, you can pretty much cover your grocery needs and save money and decision fatigue by keeping to the formula. You won’t end up with unneeded things or items that will end up being wasted.
The formula
Coleman’s formula is as follows:
6 vegetables – choose any that you like and are versatile for a range of dishes.
5 fruits – choose fruit which can be eaten as a snack and also incorporated into a meal, such as berries on your breakfast oats.
4 proteins – depending on your preferences or dietary sensitives, this can include your choice of meats, tofu, Greek yoghurt, other dairy, pulses, nuts and eggs.
3 grains – again, depending on your preferences or dietary sensitives this might include gluten free or wheat bread, rice, farro, breakfast cereal, oats or quinoa.
2 sauces or spreads – such as a pre-made pasta sauce, butter or salad dressing, or a dip like hummus or tzatziki.
1 fun item – just to keep things from feeling too restrictive.
Tips
- Always check what you still have in the pantry or fridge at home, to prevent double ups and to make sure you don’t run out of essentials like milk, butter or bread.
- If you have a favourite style of cooking such as Italian or Indian, try to buy within that ‘family’ of foods so that all the ingredients go together to create meals. For example if you plan to have an Italian emphasis in your meals that week, you might want to make sure you buy tomatoes and basil amongst your veggies, pasta amongst your grains, parmesan cheese under the protein category and maybe a premade pasta sauce as one of your sauce/spread items.
- Be adventurous and don’t limit yourself to your usual shopping list. You’ll be surprised what you can come up with when you’re focussing on using up what you have bought, instead of wasting it.
