Not everyone is interested in performing side jobs, and comparing weekly ads and sales prices can be a 'fun' optimization problem. It's a more productive use of time than whatever the alternative would've been (social media, watching television, etc). Moderately large grocery stores have real web apps these days so you can get pricing data and track it over time. Combine that with the personalized deals / digital coupons and you can create your analysis for what's the best to purchase.

The elephant in the room for any analysis like "It's a more productive use of time than whatever the alternative would've been (social media, watching television, etc)." is that, y'know, maybe people need to find good uses of their time other than working.

But that sounds elitist so nobody says it. Doesn't make it any bit less true.

That is fair. I don't enjoy being inside stores all that much so I didnt consider an enjoyment factor.

There's a lot of friction to finding and landing side jobs.

Ones that let you hop in just whenever you feel like it and do one hour of work, with no commitment to minimum hours per week? And that you can put in a single productive hour every so often, without ramp-up time eating that entire hour with nothing to show for it? And that pays enough to make it worth it (i.e. not Mechanical Turk or whatever)?

I don't even know what such an ultra-flexible, low-context (= near-zero ramp-up time even if you only do it an hour or two a week, and some weeks not at all) but still high-paid gig would look like, or how to go about finding it.

Meanwhile, you can value-shop if you feel like it, or not if you don't. Entirely optional and no commitment or outside expectations. You can do it very seriously one week, then not do it at all the next.

>I don't even know what such an ultra-flexible, low-context (= near-zero ramp-up time even if you only do it an hour or two a week, and some weeks not at all) but still high-paid gig would look like, or how to go about finding it.

There isn't a lot of daylight between low-paid, mostly uninteresting gig work and a real side job that takes some marketing, sales, avoiding time-wasting people who want to low-ball you, chasing payment, and some expectation of ongoing commitment.

I do have something drop in my lap now and then from someone I know, e.g. ghostwriting something. And that's fine. It's good money for maybe a day's work overall. But you can have tight deadlines and if you just wait for the phone to ring, you're probably not going to get a lot of that sort of thing.

It does make sense depending on your situation. In a typical US car-dependent cities, yeah, maybe commute is a big productivity killer. Having said that, pushing work all the time also lead to burn out so at some point the mundane tasks become decompressing time (only if you can appreciate sitting idle in traffic; everyone is different).

I live in a city where multiple grocery stores exist within 5 minutes of each other and I do enjoy doing mundane tasks outside my professional life. Those tasks made me pause, clear my mind, and escape the bubble that we called "work" (yes, work itself is a bubble).

I've gone shopping at Grocery Outlet (discount West Coast chain) since I was in grad school and couldn't afford anything else. I could use higher quality stores now, but it's kind of fun to work recipes around their ever-changing (and incomplete) stock, so I tend to make one stop there and then drop by another store on the way home to fill in the gaps (usually just grapefruit juice and fresh bread). It only adds ~15 min. to the trip if I know what I'm missing before I walk in.

I haven't fully priced it out yet, but Wegmans is middle of the road in terms of pricing for my area, depending on the item. Depends on what I'm buying week to week.

We have discount grocers nearby that sell a crap-shoot of stuff the bigger stores are trying to get rid of. If going there before heading to Wegmans can save me $50-100/month after gas, for maybe an extra 30 minutes - 1 hour of time, would be worth it these days.

I think there's a difference in psychology - for lack of a better word - that makes some people have a much easier time managing the outflows than the inflows. For example, I know I have marketable skills - I'm a decent masseur for example - but I struggle mightily bringing in extra money with these kind of side gigs, despite finding them a lot of fun and not exhausting the way work is. I'm not sure if it's a matter of practicality or what, but whenever people explain how they up their income when needed, I don't get it. None of the steps explained seem difficult, but it's a difficult process to get through for me. Maybe the kind of cost-cutting I can do would be similarly difficult for others, I'm not sure.

Would you mind sharing some side hussle ideas?

C++ programmer by trade.

Sure. https://www.outco.io/careers | Outco is hiring for part time tech coaches. You help people prepare for interview. Set your own schedule. Decent hourly rate.