Live Test and Results for Grocery Shopping List Price Optimizer

Quite a pause since the last entry. Had a ton of tasks at work (working overtime too), summer vacation and more, so there was little time to deal with the app. But I still managed to make many changes and updates to it, and most importantly, I've put it to the test.

The result is very promising. Without the app I was spending about 400€ per month on groceries (diapers for the baby, cleaning stuff, trash bags, etc. included). With the app, I've brought down the monthly costs to about 320€, so that's about 20% in savings.

Not only that, but I'm now also spending considerably less time thinking about what to buy and when, and figuring out if something is really "the best deal" — now I see that in the app immediately, thanks to the categorized catalogue. Then, on the shopping list page, I also spend considerably less time in the store when doing a bigger shop. So I'd say that's a huge success.

Here's how I tested it.

Based on the location where I live, the targets are both Slovenian and Austrian shops (Spar, Hofer, Billa, Tedi, etc.). In our cellar I've made more space to hold items bought at the best deals that also last almost indefinitely (such as toilet paper, cleaning products, some beverages, etc.).

First I had to set up the catalogue of items I was regularly buying. A bit of a downside to this app, but some effort is needed, since this is not just another regular shopping list app. During the first shop visits using this app, it did take a bit to add entries for those items (my wife was a bit surprised a few times why it took me 1 hour to get a few items from the store — well, somebody was putting entries into his app :) ). Next, I was checking the commercial flyers we got in our mailbox a bit more than usual, going from store to store, buying stuff, tracking discounts, learning how to use occasional limited 25% per-selected-item discounts etc. The goal was also to buy items of the same quality or better quality than what I usually buy.

In the end, the app catalogue got filled very nicely. Below is a picture from the app with some of my entries (in Slovenian language).

All of that was happening between April 15th and June 6th (approx 2 months), and after every shopping trip I saved the invoice and noted down each time how much extra I'd saved (had to be honest with myself while doing that).

Then I've compared the costs against Revolut entries (I use Revolut for all my grocery shopping exactly to better track such things) between February 15th and April 15th (2 months).

To sum up, the benefits of using the app have proven to be:

• 💶 ~20% lower monthly grocery spend — down (in my case) from about 400€ to 320€ per month
• ⏱️ Less time deciding — the app gives the idea what is, based on existing catalogue entries, the best deal quickly, no more mental math between stores
• 🛒 Faster in-store shopping — the categorized catalogue and shopping list cut down time spent in the store on bigger shops
• 📦 Smarter stockpiling — best deals on long-lasting items (toilet paper, cleaning products, etc.) get bought in bulk instead of missed

I will definitely continue using this app, and it has definitely improved my quality of life. I'll add some more updates, like syncing with a Google account, and maybe I'll even publish it on the Google Play Store. We'll see.