Unlocking Financial Freedom through Smart Shopping with Rachel Coons

Dr. Christine Li [00:00:00]:
Welcome back to the Make Time For Success podcast. This is episode number 177. Today's episode is all about empowerment and my special guest, Rachel Coons, is here to share with us her personal journey from facing substantial debt to finding innovative ways to dramatically reduce her family's grocery expenses by an average of $600 a month without compromising health, nutrition, or convenience. You're going to hear how Rachel built her signature method for taking control of grocery spending and about the tremendous ripple effect her work has had on thousands of families. Her story is about motivation, taking action, being intentional, and having an impact. Stay tuned for all of Rachel's insights and for her links to her free resources to get you started on your own journey to finding grocery savings gold. Let's go listen to this fun episode together now. Hi.

Dr. Christine Li [00:01:08]:
I'm doctor Christine Li and I'm a psychologist and a procrastination coach. I've helped thousands of people move past procrastination and overwhelm so they could begin working to their potential. In this podcast, you're going to learn powerful strategies for getting your mind, body, and energy to work together so that you can focus on what's really important and accomplish the goals you want to achieve. When you start living within your full power, you're going to see how being productive can be easy and how you can create success on demand. Welcome to the Make Time For Success podcast. Hello, my friends. It's been a little bit since I've had a guest on my show, but I am really excited that I've broken this solo episode habit to invite my new friend, Rachel Coons, to the show. I am excited to learn from her, to get to know her better during this interview, and to have her share with us everything that she knows about saving money on groceries.

Dr. Christine Li [00:02:18]:
Rachel, welcome to the show.

Rachel Coons [00:02:20]:
Thank you so much, Christine, for having me. I'm really excited to be here.

Dr. Christine Li [00:02:24]:
I'm really excited to have you here and to learn from you and to hear how you've been doing lately. Let me know and let my audience know what we need to know about you before we get really into the nitty gritty.

Rachel Coons [00:02:37]:
Sure. So I am a model 4. I live up in Northern California with my husband and our 4 children, and I am an expert at helping families save money on groceries. That's what I do. I've helped thousands of families save an average about $600 a month on their groceries without sacrificing health, convenience, time, nutrition, all those things.

Dr. Christine Li [00:03:04]:
That's beautiful. And I'm so happy there's a person like you in the world to help women and the families everywhere. And let's get, if you don't mind, a little more into kind of the backstory of how this focus for you came about. Was there a defining moment? Was there an issue with money or with how things were going around food in your home? What was the story?

Rachel Coons [00:03:31]:
Yeah. So back in 2019, 2020, my husband and I were in 100 of 1,000 of dollars of debt from school, and we really wanted to stay in California. But the problem with that is that the cost of living is really expensive. So we wanted to be able to afford to buy a house. We wanted to be able to go on family vacations and invest in retirement and all of those things, but it just felt like we were never going to be able to do that. And I had chosen to be a stay at home mom. I didn't wanna work out at home. I want to raise my children at home.

Rachel Coons [00:04:06]:
So my husband was the one that made money, and I was the one that stayed home. And I realized at that time that maybe I didn't have the ability to make money, but I had the ability to do the most with the money that was coming in. And so an empowering thing for me was to look at our finances and realize where could I cut spending and where could I be really intentional with our spending. And when we looked at our budgets, there wasn't a lot of things. We're pretty frugal people. There wasn't a lot of things that we could drastically change. Like, we couldn't lower our health insurance or our rent or our car insurance or anything like that. But when I saw that groceries were one of our highest expenses every month, we were spending $1200 a month for our family of 6, which just felt like $1200 a month was literally leaving our bank account, and I wasn't doing anything super crazy.

Rachel Coons [00:05:00]:
Right? I wasn't shopping all the time. I wasn't buying crazy ingredients. And I just thought, I think I can do something to lower that. And so I kinda went on this journey of, like, what can I do? How can I make this fun? How can I lower my grocery spending? And with a lot of trial and error, I tried some things that worked, some things didn't. I was able to cut my spending by $500 every single month. And that whole process, I was sharing that online as I was doing it, and it kinda just, like, caught fire. Well, at the same time, you know what happened to 2020. We had inflation started going crazy.

Rachel Coons [00:05:37]:
Grocery prices have now increased, like, 40 to 50%, and people are feeling financially strapped because of how much they're spending on groceries. And so what I realized quickly is that saving money on groceries is the fastest and easiest way to have extra money every month so that you can put it towards things that matter, things that you want to put your money towards. So that's what I do, and I created a method that helps people do it. And the best part about this whole experience with saving money on groceries is that I created a routine that not only saves me and my students 100 of dollars every month, but it's also easier, less time consuming. And just overall, the stress of feeding your family is significantly reduced. And so I think that is why people come into my world because they wanna save money on groceries. But the coolest thing about it is that they come to me afterwards and like, woah. This is so much easier than it ever has been before.

Dr. Christine Li [00:06:36]:
This is a beautiful story. What did you have to find inside yourself to kind of do all of this, to do the experimentation, to say, you know what? I can actually take charge of this part that I have a connection with in terms of learning how to save money, figuring out what's the best place. How did you dig deeper into yourself and and what helped you to do that?

Rachel Coons [00:07:01]:
Yeah. I had to have motivation. I had to have a reason to do it. And I tell this to my students all the time is, like, if you're gonna save money on groceries, what is that gonna do for you? Right? So having $500 extra a month isn't great unless it has a purpose. And so when I was starting this out, my first reason that I started was, like, I can't make money, but I can help us financially through this budgeting experience. So that was the first thing. And then I started to see the money savings, and I started to see the the ease and the time savings and all of that. And so it continued to propel me.

Rachel Coons [00:07:36]:
And now it's now it's just second nature. Now I don't have to think about it, but that was the motivation. And finding that and and working towards that was huge. And we can take that extra money that we're making every month, and we were able to invest it and, you know, purchase a home and do all of those things that we might not have been able to do because we didn't, you know, really become intentional with our spending.

Dr. Christine Li [00:07:59]:
This is beautiful. I just wanted to capture that point because there are people who are listening to our conversation who might have an instinct. You know what? I could build this. You know what? I can change this for me and my family or my family, and I can maybe create a ripple effect that goes beyond my home, which you have so beautifully done. What has the impact of being able to make this system and teach it to other people? What has the ripple effect been that you've been able to see and enjoy?

Rachel Coons [00:08:35]:
Oh, man. I think I'm I think I'm still experiencing and trying to, like, sort through what the whole ripple effect is. But first off, I, like, I've I built a business on what I'm doing, and I've been able to change thousands of families' lives. And those two things in and of itself are huge motivators for me. I want to help as many people as I can because what's the number one thing that people talk about? Like, when they're sitting at a barbecue and there's hanging out, it's always about how much are you spending on groceries? How much are you spending on groceries? But I am here to change that narrative and say you don't have to spend the amount you're spending. You can still eat all the food that you wanna eat, and you can spend way less doing it. And, also, it's just, like, fueling my fire to to get into the ears and of more listeners and help more people do that.

Dr. Christine Li [00:09:26]:
You know, I'm gonna share with you that before getting on this recording, I was thinking, you know, what is my own relationship with spending and groceries? And I very clearly and very quickly came to the idea that I'm frugal in most every area except groceries. So what would you say to someone like me?

Rachel Coons [00:09:49]:
Well and I would say I was you too. I was once you too, and I think most people are you you because we have to buy food for our family. Right? So we don't even think twice about swiping our credit card at the grocery store. You would think twice about going to Target every other day and spending a $100. But for some reason, there's this disconnect because we think we're eating the food that we have to buy, and we have priorities. We have priorities when it comes to our food. We think that we just have to be spending that amount. And, again, here to say, you just you just don't have to.

Rachel Coons [00:10:24]:
There's a lot. You don't have to give up anything to save money. I never once tell people what to buy. That's not what I'm here to do because everyone has different dietary restrictions and and different needs. I'm just here to help you have a system that will help you save money while doing it.

Dr. Christine Li [00:10:41]:
Okay. I love that. And then I'm thinking about questions like you have a family with 4 kids, larger size family. What do you tell those parents in terms of the ability to feed a large number of people and feed them well? How does your system enable people to satisfy the appetites and the and, the volume of food that you have to create while being on a budget?

Rachel Coons [00:11:08]:
Yeah. And it's almost like you need this more than ever when you have a bigger family. Right? You need you need to run on systems. You need to have routine, or else you're not gonna be able to have dinner every night or feed your kids what they want. And so it is about having that, you know, that structure to your day knowing, you know, with a meal plan, knowing what you're gonna eat that night so that way you can prepare for it and take those time pockets out of the day to get dinner ready and on the table. I mean, everybody's busy. Everybody has things that they have to accomplish. So how do we make this easier and more convenient so that it actually gets done?

Dr. Christine Li [00:11:45]:
Okay. Terrific. Now you remind me of another topic that we discussed when I was on your podcast, which was the resistance to meal planning. How do you get someone to get on board with something that they feel is not their skill set. They don't have time for it. It's just making them crazy. What do you do to coach people and support them? Right.

Rachel Coons [00:12:07]:
Yeah. So the first thing that I do is let's just make this easier. You're probably the best one at explaining this, but our brains as humans want to make things complicated. Right? If things are complicated, we get to stay in our comfort zone. We don't have to take action. We don't have to move into action. So what I like to do is make that barrier into action easier. So if you're not meal planning or if you haven't found success with meal planning, don't just go crazy and think you have to meal plan, you know, 7 meals a week.

Rachel Coons [00:12:40]:
Why not just start with 1 or 2 meals? That seems really tangible, easy. You can bite that off and chew it, and you just plan one meal for next week that you're gonna shop for, get the ingredients for, and then cook it. And you start there, and you find out that that actually wasn't that hard. And maybe you could do 2 meals, maybe you could do 3. I actually I don't like meal planning. I am here with everybody else who doesn't like meal planning. That's not what I want to be doing with my time, but I actually only do it twice a month. So I take every 2 weeks is when I meal plan.

Rachel Coons [00:13:13]:
It takes me about 20 minutes. I get it done. I get it out of the way because I know it's like that investment of time, that 20 minutes of time is going to make the rest of my week so much easier. It's gonna make me feel less stressed around dinner time. And the big cherry on top is that it's gonna save you a ton of money doing it.

Dr. Christine Li [00:13:33]:
I love it. So there's reward upon reward upon reward in your system.

Rachel Coons [00:13:37]:
Yeah. Yes. Exactly.

Dr. Christine Li [00:13:39]:
Great. Now your business has really taken off. I know that because we we share a business coach and we're in the same community. Has it surprised you how much of an impact you've been able to make and what have your reflections been about the growth of your business and the impact?

Rachel Coons [00:13:56]:
You know, this whole time before I ever invested in a business coach and before I even really opened doors to a business. Right? I've been doing this for a while. I didn't officially open doors until the beginning of 2023 where I was like, I am sitting on gold. Like, I am sitting on something that so many people need, and I need to tap into that. And, like, I always knew that this was unlike anything people have ever heard. And I knew that it was going to revolutionize the way that people shop, plan, and cook for their families. And it wasn't until I invested in the business program and and finally, like, put my energy towards this. And and the whole time, I kept saying, I don't know what I don't know.

Rachel Coons [00:14:40]:
I don't know how, like, how do I take this this thing that is crazy, sees crazy results, and how do I make it into something that is actually a profitable business? But once I was able once I invested, once I, you know, got in the room with other people like you who are just business geniuses, it was like that was when it just kinda took off. And I was finally able to know what I didn't know, and I knew how to make it something.

Dr. Christine Li [00:15:06]:
Beautiful. And I think because you knew it was gold for information and the transformation you are offering, it probably was no surprise that so many people were drawn to what you were doing, or did it just amaze you how how many or or both?

Rachel Coons [00:15:22]:
Well, it's yeah. It's a lid sometimes actually, the first time I launched my first program, it was a course. It was grocery budget boot camp. And I actually was really upset with how well it didn't it didn't do well. My first couple times that I launched, This was before I invested in a business program and all that. And I was really bad because I was like, what the heck? Like, why isn't people drawing to this? And so I kinda had to figure out my own way to do this and how to help people. And so, I mean, the sky's the limit with something like this. And, you know, we're we're growing like crazy, and I'm like, yeah, but we're not anywhere close to where we are going to be.

Rachel Coons [00:16:03]:
You know? It's just all progress, and it's all, you know, it's all, like, super exciting. And that having having the feedback and the the the engagement that I do and all of the people that have come into my world just fuels the fire again. It just makes it seem like, okay. There's more and more people that need this.

Dr. Christine Li [00:16:22]:
So proud of you. So grateful for you. Your discipline, your motivation, your love for your fellow homemaker and woman and men out there and families. Your impact has been huge. Thank you for sharing your time with me and for letting us know about your passion and your mission and your work. This is amazing.

Rachel Coons [00:16:42]:
Thank you, Christine.

Dr. Christine Li [00:16:44]:
Could you share with us about your program and how our listeners can get attached and into your program or or connect with your system and method of saving money on groceries every month?

Rachel Coons [00:16:56]:
Absolutely. So, yeah, you can start. I mean, simple, easy. Just follow on social media. I'm on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, and we have a lot of resources linked on those pages as well. And I do have a monthly membership that people can join. It's called the shop society. And that's where I teach the SHOP method, but also we have a bunch of resources.

Rachel Coons [00:17:16]:
We have those meal planning resources. We have the community. We have a recipe vault that helps you meal plan, easy, frugal, you know, delicious recipes. So we kind of just take everything that I've really found that helps people save money on groceries and put it in one place. So it's easy, digestible, and that is as as well available to anybody that is looking to get some further digestible things to do.

Dr. Christine Li [00:17:42]:
I know I'm gonna look at that myself because I realized from preparing for our conversation today that this is an area I have not really considered. Like, I could actually save a bunch of money by being more intentional in this area. So thank you for that. Could you share the link for the membership or how to

Rachel Coons [00:18:00]:
get started? The best place to get started, I do offer a free class. And that kinda gives you, like, an overview if this is the right fit for you. It kinda gives you, like, a little bit into my teaching style and what I do. And that class is ww.heyrachelcoons, which is my handle, dot com forward slash HRC, like, hey, Rachel Koons, HRC training. And we can link that in the show notes. And then I also I do have a free, it's like a 15 page guide, a free grocery savings guide that we can link up as well, to give you getting get you started. It has a meal plan in there and some tips and tricks to to save money on groceries so we can link that up as well. And that's hey rachelkoons.comforward/savingsguide.

Dr. Christine Li [00:18:45]:
Terrific. And I will absolutely prepare those in the show notes. Thank you so much. This is very generous of you. I'm so proud of the growth that you've been able to nurture while being a mother of 4 and really doing it with such great energy and great commitment. So thank you. Do you have any final words for members of our audience who are thinking about an idea for themselves? Thinking about some sort of self improvement, family improvement, home improvement, something like that, but they're feeling, well, I don't know if this is possible. What would you say?

Rachel Coons [00:19:21]:
Woah. Yes. I I do. I have some things to say about that. I am one of those people that held myself back for so many years because I was afraid and because I didn't feel adequate enough. I didn't feel like I knew enough, and I didn't feel like I had something amazing to offer to the world. And the only thing that stood me between me and where I am today is action. And had I just sat with those feelings and not taken action, and I've failed a lot.

Rachel Coons [00:19:51]:
I've made a lot of mistakes, and I've done a lot of things wrong. But I continued to take action every single day, that consistent action. And that is the difference between someone who reaches their dreams and their goals and someone who doesn't. And it's just taught me, like, I can't be the one that hold myself back. Other things can hold me back, but me, my mind, my actions, they're not gonna hold me back any longer. And so if someone is struggling with that, just take action. You don't know what the future holds for you unless you move forward into the future.

Dr. Christine Li [00:20:26]:
I love it. And my listeners know that I totally subscribe to this kind of thinking. Action matters, Your desires matter, and you matter. And when you put all that together, it's a very unstoppable kind of force. So, Rachel, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Everyone follow follow Hey Rachel Koons.

Dr. Christine Li [00:20:43]:
She's got

Rachel Coons [00:20:43]:
a brand spanking new podcast that you can

Dr. Christine Li [00:20:43]:
listen to her her work, her development, and her thoughts about how to stay motivated, how to keep taking action, and listen to our show together on that podcast as well. And everyone, enjoy. Thank you so much again, Rachel. I'll see you soon.

Rachel Coons [00:21:04]:
Thank you. Thanks for having me. Bye, everyone.

Dr. Christine Li [00:21:08]:
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Make Time For Success podcast. If you enjoyed what you've heard, you can subscribe to make sure you get notified of upcoming episodes. You can also visit our website, maketimeforsuccesspodcast.com, for past episodes, show notes, and all the resources we mentioned on the show. Feel free to connect with me over on Instagram too. You can find me there under the name procrastination coach. Send me a DM and let me know what your thoughts are about the episodes you've been listening to, and let me know any topics you might like me to talk about on the show. I'd love to hear all about how you're making time for success. Talk to you soon.