Game changers and “getting life in order” are two of my favorite topics. I also greatly enjoy when software works rather than, like most apps, are barely adequate to replace pen and paper. I want to take a moment to tell you about an app that I am emphatic about. The app is called Food on the Table, and I use the the iOS version.
How Food on the Table Works
Setup
Enter and save every grocery store you frequent. Ready.
Items on Sale
Food on the Table maintains a list of all of your grocery stores and the groceries that are on sale at each location. If you see any item on sale within the app, you can tap to add each item to a grocery list within the app. I believe that produce on sale is more likely to be in season because abundance lowers the price. In this way, a simple grocery app may unintentionally be a seasonal produce guide.
Smart Grocery List
When you view the grocery list you’ve built from the sales within the app, each item has a comparison underneath that shows you the price at each of your stores.
Workflow
In everyday usage, you can ignore the app completely until you receive a notification that new items are on sale at your preferred grocery store. Tap to open the app and see the items on sale. Tap to add them to your grocery list. Go to the store and challenge yourself to buy only items on sale to maximize your savings. In everyday life it is incredibly easy to fall into a trap of cooking the same things over and over. When you suddenly receive notice that new items are on sale, it is game on. Sticking to this list forces you to try new recipes, and adds some variety to your grocery purchases. This is one of my favorite things about buying things on sale: Playing the “variety game.”
An invaluable quality of friends and family is that they introduce things into your life that you otherwise may have never tried or appreciated. Playing the “variety game” adds this quality to ordinary grocery shopping.
Example Sales
I’ll wrap up by showing you just the last two sales I was able to snag. For example, at Sprouts Market, between only two separate occasions I was able to stock up on the following:
$1 per can of tuna; I bought 10.
$1 per carton of eggs; I bought 5.
$1.99/lb. ground beef; I bought 5 and put some in the freezer.
$1.99/lb. cherries
$1 for 3 avocados
$1 for 3 lb. of russet potatoes