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The #1 Thing I Do To Save Time & Money

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I think there are two types of people in the world—those who have a more entrepreneurial mentality, and those who have a more traditional mindset.

If you’re like most people, you’re in the more traditional mindset, and you have a really strong affinity for saving money — any time there’s a sale, or you can see a way to get more value for less money, you tend to gravitate towards it.

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On the other hand, if you’re more like me, you fall in the entrepreneurial category. And people like us are typically less concerned with saving money.

For me, and people like me, I tend to be a lot more concerned with time, than money. That’s not to say I spend needlessly or I’m not thrifty when I can be; I just mean that money is not the primary currency I think about. Time, after all, is the only truly non-renewable resource.

The way I think of it is this: traditionalists are willing to spend time to save money; people like me are willing to spend money to save time.

Whichever category you fall into, though, sometimes you get really, really, REALLY lucky…

…and you figure out a way to save BOTH.

And that’s what I want to talk to you about today.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a business owner or a stay at home dad, whether you’re a kid fresh out of college or you’ve been a homeowner for years — ALL of us are pretty much saddled with a few universal responsibilities:

—Paying bills
—Staying in touch with relatives
—Keeping up with the news in the world
—Shopping for groceries

Those things just have to get done. And they can take up a lot of time.

Which is why I do ALL of them online. And I assume you do, too.

I mean, when was the last time you paid a bill by mailing in a check? Probably years ago. It just makes sense.

You stay in touch with people on Facebook and through texting. Getting on the PHONE to catch up? No thanks.

News? Listen, I subscribe to the New York Times, but I read it on my iPad, like a normal person. Goodness.

I think most people are the same…

…EXCEPT when it comes to shopping for groceries.

Whenever I talk to my clients, I am ENDLESSLY amazed at how many of them DO NOT buy groceries online. It’s insane.

I mean, seriously — WHY are you still going to the grocery store? What possible reason can you have for doing that? It’s eating up your time, and it’s costing you a lot more money.

It’s crazy. And so surprising. What’s even more surprising is that when I suggest that they switch to online grocery shopping, there’s some resistance.

Which is just weird.

I mean, these people buy supplements online. They buy clothes online. They’re even working with me as a trainer online. But when it comes to buying food online, they’re hesitant.

This mentality, as the kids say, is cray- cray.

So, I decided to make my life easier and write this article for them, and for you.

My goal here is to show how shopping for my groceries online is the NUMBER ONE way I save both time and mine.

(My secondary goal is to have this written, so the next time someone asks I can just refer them here and not have to have the conversation again. Win-win.)

Anyway.

So, I mean that when I say it: online grocery shopping is the single BIGGEST thing I do to save money.

How is that?

Well, if you’re anything like most human beings, FOOD is the thing you buy most consistently. And, if you’re like me, that means you’re spending more money on food than just about ANYTHING ELSE.

Seriously. Most people spend almost as much money on food as they do on rent. Think about that!

If you could save 20-30% on your RENT just by paying it online, wouldn’t you do that? Of course, you would because you have a functioning brain.

All of this is part of my primary point: buying your groceries online saves you a crap ton of moolah.

When you buy online, you save money in two very important ways.

Firstly, if you’re shopping in the right places, the prices are MUCH cheaper. Obviously, this varies a bit depending on where you shop, so I can’t give you exact figures.

But what I CAN tell you is this: for about 2 months, I ran an experiment. Anytime I went to Whole Foods, I would save my receipts. I would then log onto my account at Thrive Market, my preferred online supermarket.

I would then fill my online shopping cart with the SAME products I’d just purchased at Whole Foods, or a nearly identical alternative.

Without fail, my total was 30-50% cheaper than what was printed on my Whole Foods receipt. FIFTY percent.

That means by shopping at Whole Foods, I was spending DOUBLE. Thrive carries everything that Whole Foods does for 25-50% less. Over the course of a year, that equates to literally thousands of dollars.

Now, admittedly, WF is a more expensive chain. But even if you’re shopping one of the less expensive “healthy” supermarkets, you’re out-spending Thrive by a LOT.

(How do they keep the prices low online? Simple: they don’t have to pay rent for a massive retail space, or an insane number of employees, so their costs are exponentially lower; that gets passed on to you.)

But, lower prices aren’t the only way you save money by shopping online. Online shopping prevents you from overspending and buying shit you neither want nor need.

Let’s be honest for a second — unless you have epic levels of discipline, you’re your own worst enemy at the supermarket. You’ve probably lost count of the number of times you put something in your cart because it just seemed interesting.

Supermarkets are designed to make you do this, by the way. It’s only natural.

My point is, you are infinitely less likely to impulse buy when you’re shopping online. How often are you in the supermarket and you see something that you think looks interesting? You stop, turn it around in your hands, examine it, contemplate why it’s so expensive, and then you buy it because, really now, why would this jar of peanut butter be $20?  

And HOW MANY TIMES have you stopped into the store to get like ONE thing, and then spent 70 bucks on a full of crap.

Scratch that. How many times has that happened THIS MONTH?

Online, you tend to only get what you need because you can stop strategically and intelligently. You can see the subtotals adding up. You’re less likely to put that $20 jar of peanut butter in your cart if you see how it immediately affects your wallet. This gives you full control and keeps you from overspending.

On top of all this, shopping online saves you TIME. God, SO. MUCH. TIME.

Anytime you go grocery shopping, you can kiss two hours goodbye. You have to go to the store, do the actual shopping, load the car, drive home…the whole bit.

Why does it take so damn long in there? Why is it that even when you just need to “run in” to get “one thing” you feel compelled to go up and down every single aisle? Why do you have to drag yourself through the entire store, despite having a clearly written list of what you need?

(If you’re interested, it’s because supermarkets are designed by the same people who design casinos, and they’re designed to pull you in and not encourage you to leave. For example, all of the “staples” and “essential” items like eggs, milk, meat, etc are placed furthest from the entrance, so you have to walk past all the snacks and nonsense…making you infinitely more likely to buy.)

Whatever the case, the fact of the matter is the average shopper spends between 90 and 120 minutes at the supermarket PER WEEK. Even without travel time, that’s insane

Imagine getting 8 more hours per month to take care of stuff from home? Yeah. You can do that.

And the amount of time saved really can’t be overstated. How many times have you needed to run out to get just one item? You go, waste half your evening driving there, wandering down the aisles, getting lost in the rabbit hole.

Because of all this, we partnered with Thrive Market to give you a FREE one-month trial. Thrive is an online market that sells natural and organic products at wholesale prices. All of the products have already been vetted for you.

Think of it like a Costco for Whole Foods. Not only are they offering a free one-month trial, but they’ll give you 15% off your first order and a free bottle of Nutiva’s Organic Coconut Oil. There are a thousand uses for coconut oil; I used it this morning instead of regular oil so nothing stuck to the pan while I was cooking.

So check it out and click around to see how much money you’re going to be saving on your favorite foods. Registration is free, you get 15% off your first order, AND for every new membership, they give back by sponsoring and giving a free membership to a low-income family.

It’s a great company and I know you’ll love them as much as I do. 

—> Click here to get your free Coconut Oil Gift Box and 1-month trial membership. 

About the Author

John Romaniello is a level 70 orc wizard who spends his days lifting heavy shit and his nights fighting crime. When not doing that, he serves as the Chief Bro King of the Roman Empire and Executive Editor here on RFS. You can read his articles here, and rants on Facebook.

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