Do you know the 6-1 method to reduce your grocery bill?

Despite slowing inflation, food is a major cost to a family’s budget. There are techniques to reduce the bill, including the 6-1 technique.

We are talking about it more and more, in France, the 6-1 technique to better manage your food budget has been popularized by an American chef and influencer: Will Coleman. The latter promises to divide the bill by 2 by rationalizing your purchases and imposing a discipline on yourself.

The idea is to anticipate meals as much as possible, by preparing menus in advance. This means making a shopping list well in advance, and sticking to only the purchases you need. Thus, you should avoid giving in to compulsive purchases, which are often more expensive, in the supermarket aisles.

The method is based on a simple observation: with a certain number of products in your refrigerator and cupboards, it is possible to cook, provided that all the food groups are represented. Chef Coleman therefore recommends limiting your shopping list.

Concretely, it involves buying each week: 6 vegetables, 5 fruits, 4 sources of protein (meat, fish or eggs), 3 starches, 2 sauces or condiments, and allowing yourself 1 product to treat yourself. The quantities (here established for one person) must obviously be adapted according to the habits of the family and its size, but the idea is that this rigor encourages limiting ultra-processed products. The American chef encourages cooking leftovers and using frozen or canned fruits and vegetables, which are less expensive.

Of course, it all depends on the time each person can dedicate to cooking, but such a process, in addition to reducing the food bill, is encouraged by nutritionists. It is a common sense method, applied by our grandmothers: we do not buy too much, we cook, we use leftovers, we freeze if we have too much and we avoid waste!