When Jennifer Andersen became a new mom in 2019, her family’s budget was really tight, so she started looking for ways to save on grocery costs.
“When I started doing that, all of my friends and family were really interested in what I was doing,” Andersen, who hails from Kawartha Lakes, Ontario, told Daily Hive last November.
“So, I had started sharing deals with them, and then I thought, I can show so many other people how they can make groceries more affordable.”
That’s when the mom of two twin boys started her popular Instagram account Grocery Deals Canada. It has racked up over 23,000 followers since.
Andersen posts coupons, grocery deals, cash-back, and budgeting tips, but what has caught the eye of many of her followers are her weekly grocery flyer family meal plans.
She says her motivation to start the meal plans was, at first, “purely selfish.”
“I make meal plans for my family, and they are really helpful,” she said.
“I look for ways to stay on track with my weekly grocery budget without overspending and without buying items in bulk that I don’t need.”
Andersen says that, in this sense, she doesn’t consider herself a couponer but more of a grocery saver.
The meal plans help her save money and reduce food waste by ensuring she doesn’t buy unnecessary items. So, she decided to share her method on social media.
“I thought it would be really useful for my followers to see that you don’t just have to rely on coupons to save money,” she explained. “If you can plan out your meals and make a list, that’s the biggest way to save money, is to stay on track and focus.”
All in all, Andersen says she saves an average of $50 a week on groceries by following these meal plans — that’s about $200 in savings a month.
How do the grocery flyer meal plans work?
The weekly family meal plans range in price from as low as $10 to $20.
Andersen says she originally began crafting them based on her go-to recipes her family loves.
She starts by seeing what she needs to use up in her pantry and fridge. Then she picks a variety of meat and vegetables that are on sale in flyers that week.
An example of a recent meal plan feeding a family of four that Andersen says costs $15 or less is one pot sausage, pepper and tomato gnocchi. All of the groceries were on sale at Sobeys.
It includes one pack of sausages for $4.50, one pound of peppers for $1.99, 283 grams of grape tomatoes for $3, and one pack of gnocchi for $4.99. All in all, the meal cost $14.48.
She also makes sure to share vegetarian options, like this paneer makhani over basmati rice with a side salad family meal plan.
As you can see, the groceries are from a variety of different supermarkets, which Andersen says she’s received criticisms about. She stresses that she’s not suggesting people go to five different stores.
“It’s just to show you that it’s possible to create meals that are affordable,” she explained. “So, even if you just plan a meal based on sale ingredients at No Frills, you would help yourself save some money.”
It may surprise you how Andersen curates these meal plans.
She used to manually leaf through a bunch of flyers and write out the recipes herself, but now she uses ChatGPT as a time-saving hack.
“I pick a variety of meats and vegetables that are on sale for a really good price, and I put them into ChatGPT, and I say, ‘Come up with five affordable meal plans for a family of four under $15 using this combination of ingredients at these prices,’ and it spits out meals,” said Andersen.
“Some of them I don’t like, so I’ll refine it.”
Saving time and money
The Ontario resident says the reception to these meal plans has been overwhelmingly positive.
“They love to see visually what they can make each week,” she said. “When I miss a week, I hear about it.”
Andersen says her demographic is mostly parents like her who are not only looking to save money, but also time.
“It’s really hard when you get home to figure out what to make,” she said.
“When you do this, you’re not running to McDonald’s or you’re not getting fast food, spending unnecessary amounts.”
And with the soaring cost of living in Canada, Andersen knows that every hack to save on groceries counts.
“Families are really struggling,” she said. “Looking for sales is just one way to help people save a little bit of money.”
If you find Andersen’s grocery flyer meal plans helpful, she also has a website, savin.app, where she posts weekly deals and price-matches coupons based on your postal code.
And if you’re looking for more ways to save big on groceries, this Canadian coupon queen shares how she saves thousands of dollars on food, and this software engineer shares how much she saves on food a month by dumpster-diving.
This article was originally published on November 24, 2023. It has since been updated.