Normally I try not to care what other people think of me. Sometimes this is easier than other times, but it’s always best to do what you need/want to do, rather than what other people want you to do (or worse what you think other people want you to do).
But this year I’m trying to eat a little healthier. And the other day in the grocery store I started looking at my cart like someone else would. Since veggies and fruit are at the beginning of the store, my cart started out looking healthy. Then as I went through the store I evaluated items (like a giant bag of candy) by how they would look in the cart next to all those vegetables. I think I stopped a few impulse purchases of junk food that way.
On the other hand, I bought falafel mix for the first time, so I probably spent more than usual. But baked falafels are good and I haven’t had them in a while. Cheaper than meat anyway. I’ll have to try this method of shopping for a month and see how the grocery spending changes.
So maybe it’s not frugal, but it is healthy. There’s probably not much difference in cost-per-serving in buying sugary margarita mix and tequila vs. red wine, but I can at least pretend the glass of wine with dinner is healthy.