well newsworthiness : There ’s a much better fashion to shop for grocery …
If you overspend on groceries (or if youthinkyou’re overspending on your groceries), I’ve got some good-ish news for you: You’re not alone. According to a recent Census Bureausurvey, the average American family spends about $270 on groceries per week, which climbs to $331 for families with children.
Of course, we now commonly see higher grocery budgets chalked up to factors like inflation and supply chain issues, but I’d like to bring a third potential reason to the table: grocery shopping is, in general, hard as hell. Overbuying for yourself or your family is ridiculously easy these days, and there’s no manual on how to do it the “right” way.
To be clear , rising food market be arenotOK . When the increment in grocery pricesoutpacesthe last four years of inflation by 19 % , we ’ve get a problem that ca n’t be fixed by single consumers " shopping smarter . “But until we see that much - needed progress , it can never anguish to sharpen our own shopping acquirement .
As a potential solution to our collective grocery cost malaise, chef and TikTok creatorWill Colemanwent viral when he pitched the internet the “6-to-1” grocery method, which claims to make grocery shopping easier, more intuitive, and more affordable. And as someone who’s trying hard to spend less on food in 2024, it immediately piqued my interest.
“Whenever you go grocery shopping — Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, I don’t care if you go to Erewhon — use the 6-to-1 method,” Will said in hisviral video, which has now been viewed over a million times. “You buy six veggies, five fruits, four proteins, three starches, two sauces or spreads, and one fun thing for yourself.” From there, you combine the ingredients (along with pantry staples and seasonings) as you see fit to create as many meals as possible.
According to Will, the 6-to-1 grocery method offers several key benefits compared to however you’re currently shopping for groceries. “The 6-to-1 method was born out of the need to streamline my grocery shopping experience,” he told BuzzFeed. “Frustrated with spending excessive time in stores, wasting groceries, and exceeding my budget, I designed this method to simplify the process and address these challenges.”
But after going viral, it didn’t take long for other commenters to air their qualms and questions, which included everything from the quantities within each category to how the method translates to households larger than two. Willaddressedthese in a follow-up video, with his main takeaway being that the 6-to-1 method can and should be customized.
Since his initial viral hit, Will has continued to share videos depicting numerous applications of the 6-to-1 method acrossdifferentstoresand circumstances. He’s even created one-off videos highlighting hisfavorite go-to ingredientsacross each category.
So, with a wealth of resources at my disposal and a personal goal to seriously minimize my grocery spending this year, I decided to try the 6-to-1 method for myself to find out if it’s the cost-saving grocery method thateveryoneneeds these days or just a passing TikTok trend that won’t stand the test of time.
Here ’s what my experience was like , includinghow much money I spent , how many meals I made , andwhether or not I ’d recommend this methodto all my fellow budget - conscious home cooks out there .
Before we get into all the juicy stuff, allow me to start by offering some key details about myowncooking situation, in case it helps to give some more color to my decisions:
• Most of the sentence , I ’m only cooking for two adults — In my star sign , it ’s just my husband and me . I guess our wienerwurst technically gets bites of People Food every now and then , but as a non - rent - pay member of the household , he does n’t get a say on the grocery tilt . ( Sorry , Homer . )
• We do n’t tend to eat " design " breakfasts — If I ’m hungry in the break of the day , I ’ll have some yoghourt and granola with my coffee or an ballock and toast , but making a full - out " recipe " for breakfast is pretty uncommon for us .
• Leftovers basically make our humans go round — Since most recipes out there are portioned for four the great unwashed , we run to cookdinner recipesas - is and eat the stay two portions the next day for dejeuner . Even though I in the main work from home these Day , the thought ofmakinglunch every day makes my head whirl , so I seek to trust on remnant - well-disposed dinners as much as potential .
Good news: There’s a much better way to shop for groceries…
• I often order groceries online to save money and time — The market shop two blocks from our NYC apartment is reprehensively expensive , so we usually reserve it for one - off odds and ends . For cheaper food market , we ’re left with online shopping or a 30 - minute tube journey to Trader Joe ’s . With round - trip-up subway fare at nearly $ 6 these days , pay a small delivery charge and tip almost always feels deserving it ; I end up deliver hours of time , debar lug food market onto the train , and even find that I make cheaper grocery purchase since I can edit my handcart in real - time .
With these realities in mind, I set out to buy my groceries — or, in my case, open up my phone to “browse the aisles” online.
Since one of the main reported advantages of the 6 - to-1 method is make grocery shopping quicker , I did my best tochoose whatever looked ( or sound ) good to me while browse each section or else of pre - plan the recipes that I ’d make .
I screw nothing more thantrying novel recipes , but sometimes the reality of choosing a smattering I ’ve had my eyes on and turning them into a longsighted grocery list is enough to make me say , " Yep , takeout it is . " So , I loved how fast and easy the 6 - to-1 method acting made my process for actually choosing what I wanted to grease one’s palms .
First, my six veggies. Will told BuzzFeed that onions, garlic, and greens (I chose baby arugula) are his go-to veggies when shopping the 6-to-1 way, so I started there and rounded things out with broccoli, cabbage, and green beans.
I chose chicken thighs, eggs, extra-firm tofu, and a bag of red lentils for my four proteins.
For my three starches, I went with items I always keep at the ready in my pantry: tortillas, pasta, and rice. The logic? You can pretty much pasta-ify, rice bowl-ify, or taco-ify any ingredient in a pinch. And that’s me speaking from experience, of course.
In the “sauce and spread” category, I opted for a Calabrian chile stir-in sauce and a jar ofMomofuku’s chili crunch, which can basically make anything taste delicious.
And last but not least, I chose a box of frozen veggie potstickers as my “one fun thing.”
With all the items added up and tallied, my grocery haul set me back $79.65, though I paid a bit more in the end after the delivery fee and tip were factored in.
On a regular shopping run, I’ll normally purchase ingredients for five dinners (that usually become five leftover lunches), which accounts for one takeout dinner and a restaurant night each week. I’ll be honest: My 6-to-1 haul felt like it wouldn’t even come close to producing five recipes — but lo and behold, I wound up witheight different dinners(!!!) for a whopping 28 total servings of food. Here’s what I was able to create.
Also , FWIW , know that there will be a few cameo from odds and ends that I already had in my pantry and electric refrigerator . This is n’t cheating , I avow ! Actually , Will told BuzzFeed that a well - stock buttery of essentials complements the 6 - to-1 method acting .
1. Coconut Curry Potsticker Soup with Cabbage
2. Any-Ingredient Egg Tacos
3. Spicy Calabrian Chile & Chicken One-Pot Pasta
4. Roasted Soy Tofu & Veggie Rice Bowls
5. Crispy Leftover Fried Rice
6. Chicken Burrito Bowls with Citrusy Slaw
7. Soy-Seared Tofu with Air-Fried Green Beans & Tomatoes
8. Dal-Inspired Spiced Red Lentils
Ultimately, my 6-to-1 haul lasted me a little over one week since we also enjoyed a dinner out and had a few takeout meals here and there. TBH, I was wildly surprised at just how easily I was able to stretch a single sub-$100 grocery haul into eight separate dishes that produced a whopping 28 servings of food.
This feat feels even more impressive when you compare my 6-to-1 grocery run to the “normal” budget-minded haul I’m used to doing. When I finally ran out of groceries, I shopped according to my usual strategy where I buy ingredients for around five meals at a time. Even at a “cheap” grocery store like Trader Joe’s, my total came in nearly $40 higher than my 6-to-1 run.
I’m a cook, not a mathemetician, but according to my calculations, this actually means that I saved a ton of money using the 6-to-1 method. On average, each serving of food I made from my pricier TJ’s haul clocked in at about $5.85 per serving, while 6-to-1 servings were abouthalfthe cost at $2.85 per serving.
So, yes, it’s very evident that Will’s viral shopping method has the potential to save you a decent chunk of change on your next grocery run — but actually, I found some of my biggest takeaways to have very little to do with money itself.
✅ I LIKED: How streamlined, easy, and approachable the 6-to-1 method made my grocery shopping process.
Walking into a grocery store store with a predetermined list can sense like a intimidating project , but Will ’s method acting ( whether you ’re in a grocery store IRL or shopping online ) take the process a lot more realizable . If you ’re in a physical store , the categories also travel along the layout of most grocery store fund , so you wo n’t have to turn back when you realize you forgot that sprig of rosemary as you stroll down the freezer aisle .
IMO , starting with ingredients or else of " recipes " alsoallows you to experiment with new point that you might not have otherwise reached for , which will organically shake up your meal rotation . It ’s a fun path to learn and implement what ’s in time of year , too .
🤔 KEEP IN MIND: If you’re a beginner cook or have less experience “creating” dishes out of whatever you have in your kitchen, you might find yourself struggling to turn a bunch of assorted items into a cohesive meal — but you have plenty of resources at your disposal.
Though I ’d never consider myself a unfeigned chef , I do think I ’m a pretty good cook — but evenI find out myself struggling once or doubly to come up with interesting meal ideas out of the ingredients I had on hand . Frankly , I do n’t think that ’s an altogether bad thing ; I tend to overcomplicate everything I do , admit cookery , so I quite enjoy the impel replication to " protein , veggie , carb " for dinner party . Still , I ’d belittle your expectations for wrench around consistent A+ meals using this method .
If you do run into roadblock , do n’t forget that you have the internet at your disposal . A quick Google search for " What can I make with X , Y , and Z ? " can work wonders , and it ’s well-off to recover simplified instruction for falsify just about any constituent you have across a variety of methods . Will also recently published ane - book(which you may purchase for $ 10 ) that offers plenty of suggestions for both your market listandmeal plan if you find yourself stuck . Heck , you’re able to even use anAI recipe generatorto derive up withsomesort of idea for how you should make your dinner party . AI might not be the surefire answer to all of your cookery problems and question , but I have found that it ’s a great place to source baseline inspiration for using up lots of assorted ingredients .
✅ I LIKED: How produce-heavy my meals were compared to the dishes I normally opt for.
With 11 separate fruits and veggies , I constantly found myself think , " How can I add one to this meal ? " as I ready through my haul , and as a outcome , I find that the produce elements of each repast were often my deary . As someone who ’s endeavor to cook fewer recipes with meat this twelvemonth , I make love that it force me to stretch my proteins across multiple meals . That stretch , in turn , very much lessened my trust on essence for the week I used Will ’s 6 - to-1 method acting .
To illustrate my stage : commonly , I ’d rick a five - plurality of chicken thigh into four servings of food , but here , I actually wrench that same amount of chicken intoeightservingsby focusing on other food groups first , like the succulent peppers and onions and crunchy cabbage slaw in my chicken burrito arena .
🤔 KEEP IN MIND: It’s not all or nothing. Frankly, you could incorporate elements of the 6-to-1 method into your existing grocery shopping practices to make sure you always have ingredients on hand for last-minute meals, which is likely how I’ll be approaching my grocery runs in the future.
I ca n’t lie down , y' all : I loved cutting my grocery budget in one-half , and I have a go at it that this simplified approach to cooking helped to make dinner feel like less of a yield every nighttime … but I missed recipe !
Moving forward , I really think I ’ll equilibrise the 6 - to-1 method acting with a much more abbreviated version of my process of picking a handful of recipe to cook every workweek . For me , I really call up something like " 5 - to-2 " — five veggies , four yield , three protein , and two starch — could make a lot of sense , especially if I ’m choosing ingredients that have a foresighted ledge ( or freezer ) life . Coupled with shopping for no more thantwodinner formula a week , I think I ’ll save some money and simplify my meals , all while continuing to cook through all the raw and exciting recipe that I reckon frontwards to on a regular basis .
Overall, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Will’s 6-to-1 grocery method to anyone out there who’s trying to spend less at the grocery store. Actually, I think pretty much anyone could learn something from doing the 6-to-1 method at least once; in my case, I realized that I couldreallyafford to simplify my weekly meal plans, so there’s no telling what you could learn, too.
For more recipe inspiration and grocery shopping tips, you can follow Chef Will Coleman onTikTokandInstagram.
