What Was Your Proudest Frugal Moment?

I randomly stumbled upon a forum thread where this question was asked. I immediately knew my answer, which I’ll share below.

I’ll preface by giving some context. Though living in a small condo, we still practiced emergency preparedness. If something happens to the Salt River, millions will be without water. If I lose my job, our household will have no income. We’ve tried to consider and address any possible issues.

Thus, we had strategically placed fire extinguishers, door jams, firearms, and solar lamps. We kept the cash equivalent of three months of expenses in a safe, mostly small bills. Our second bathtub was stacked high with water storage containers. Behind the sliding den closet was a metal shelving unit, loaded up with a six- to twelve-month supply of all our staples, including food, supplements, and toiletries.

So, here’s the story…

In 2019, I learned that a nearby Whole Foods was closing. Everything in the store would be 50% off. If an item was already on sale, the 50% was taken off the sale price. If you were an Amazon Prime member, the extra 10% off also stacked.

At that time, we were on an extremely tight budget and kept a meticulous log of food price-per-unit. Post-Amazon buyout, Whole Foods was, and still is, consistently the cheapest grocery store in our city, at least for the products that we regularly purchase. Remember when everyone called the grocery store “whole paycheck”? Well, that’s no longer true, at least in our area.

As mentioned earlier, we kept a city-dweller’s larder, a stockpile of emergency cash, and a log of best price-per-unit. You may be able to guess where this is going.

We lined up outside the store two hours before opening on the first day of the closing sale, and rushed the store when it opened, starting with the pricier items like meat and fish and then going down our list. The store was packed to brim but, hilariously, everyone was extremely polite. No pushing and shoving. No fighting over the last carton of eggs. Instead, the air echoed with the soft hums of “please,” “thank you,” and “excuse me.” It felt like Black Friday for nice people.

We spent $2,100 in one grocery trip. We bought a month’s worth of eggs, sale priced pasture-raised meats and wild-caught fish for the chest freezer, ghee and lard for cooking, gluten-free flours, cod liver oil, deodorant, and more. We cross-compared our price log against the shelves and everything was a steal! We estimated that we purchased $4,700 worth of groceries and toiletries that we use regularly for about 55% off retail, which beats out any normal sale.

I still get giddy thinking about that haul. We were set for many, many months. I don’t think it can be beat.

The runner up? We paid $6 for a travel-sized Omron wrist cuff blood pressure monitor that retailed for $128 at the time from our local thift store. I was having wild, unexplained tachycardia, arrhythmia, and syncope episodes so it was helpful to carry the device with me and be able to track my blood pressure, heart rate, and skipped beats anywhere.

For those of you who practice frugality–whether out of necessity, habit, or to achieve a larger goal–what is your proudest frugal moment?