A San Diego mom has found a cheat code for her family to survive rising inflation in the expensive Southern California city.

Alli Powell, who has two kids aged nine and seven, buys the groceries at Food4Less, which appears to be the cheapest place to buy stuff in the expensive neighborhood she lives in.

She spends a total of $116 for a week’s groceries to feed her family of four. Powell tested the theory that early morning is the best time to find marked-down items.

Despite arriving at the store at 8:20 am, she found limited deals, particularly in the meat section. However, she noted that her store usually has good markdowns at various times.

Shopping early had the added benefit of an uncrowded store, allowing her to complete her shopping in 25 minutes without waiting in lines.

It’s not that the family eats the same boring food everyday. Powell’s expansive weekly menu includes chicken cutlets, salad, rib eye, scalloped potatoes, copycat Chicken-Fil-A grilled chicken sandwiches, fries, orange chicken, veggies, bang bang chicken, steamed rice and BBQ chicken chopped salad. 

Allie grew up in a house where cooking was not part of the routine and she taught herself to cook at the age of 23, according to her website.

She said her budgeting journey was inspired by Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps that she and her husband stumped upon a few years ago. 

She started sharing her money-saving recipes and grocery runs on Instagram in October 2019 when she worked a corporate job but hated it and was looking for a creative outlet.

A few weeks late, she was laid off and started pursuing her hobby, which has now turned into a community of more than 77,000 followers on Instagram.