. So it isn’t the stores gouging you. Somewhere in the chain. Someone is though
somehow these poor struggling grocers can still buy one another for twenty five billion dollars.
That’s all debt. That isn’t from profits.
Their margins are low and declining.
The point being is the cash grab is further up the line. If it was the grocery stores, we’d see margins increasing. Food has doubled to tripled in many cases and their margins went down.
overall sales are up, prices are waaay tf up.
gross margins are down slightly, but they're taking that 27.7% (vs 28.1%) from a larger pie.
profits are up.
Grocery has some of the lowest margins of any industry. It’s not your local store milking you and I doubt it’s the local farmer.
The point being is the cash grab is further up the line
It's certainly not the farmers getting paid more.
If anything, the agrifood business that they sell to are pushing the farm gate price down, while at the same time input costs continue to rise.
I buy beef from my local farmer. His cost of went up and his prices have adjusted. He’s 3x more expensive but about about to quit because he can’t turn a profit.
I also buy local and they're thinking about calling it quits. You work all day and margins are so low, they can't keep fixing / replacing what breaks without increasing debt.
That is the issue he is running into. He has tripled the prices but his margin is lower than before.
I get many people want to blame the stores but this problem is further up the chain and someone is miking the system. I have two customers who are grocery store chains and they have said, the only reason they are profitable is they can't hire people and they have to use corporate staff to help in their stores. I know the director of security has to stock shelves two days a week.
I am not one for the government getting in the middle of everything but they need to audit the supply chain and figure out what is really going.
Tell that to the billionaires who's net value doubled in 12 months.
What grocery billionaire are you referencing?
Wife has been canning for a few years now and we have a pantry of fruits, veggies, and dehydrated food. She goes to the farmers markets during harvest time and goes to town on entire cases of tomatoes, corn, beans, etc. That will last all year for our family of 5. We also pay a friend to raise a pig on her ranch and butcher that once a year. Just got ours (over 400 lbs!). Pork is A LOT cheaper that way. Haven’t found anyone to go half or a quarter in on a cow. We also would need another deep freezer and don’t really have room for it.
We also meal plan weekly so we only buy groceries for what we need to make meals. That saves a ton of money as you aren’t wasteful as much. Oh and we either do pick up or delivery as you spend more when you’re in the store and see things you want but don’t need.
We make almost everything we can from scratch. Wife recently found a recipe for baked oyster crackers with butter and seasoning on them that make dirt cheap snacks and they’re fantastic. The store brand oyster crackers are $1 for 16oz. That’s almost cheap enough to not make those from scratch too. We haven’t bothered yet.
I've always been interested in the idea of canning, but it's not really a thing in the UK. I know that veg is cheaper and gas is more expensive here than in America but still, surely it costs so much money to can things that you can't be saving much? Is it only worth it if the produce was in season and therefore really cheap?
Definitely not about cost on the veggies. At best it’s break even compared to the store. It’s more about knowing it’s the veggie and water only. Or seasoning too if you like them a certain way. We’ve found corn to be higher quality too. Plus, where we live peaches are fabulous and better than anywhere else in the country so we get to can the best and control the amount of syrup used so they’re healthier. Sorry Georgia, you don’t actually have the best peaches.
Totally get that. Much nicer to know you're not eating too much processed crap.
I've always been interested in the idea of canning, but it's not really a thing in the UK
I suspect it's more common in the more rural areas.
Or with the city people who manage to have an allotment.
I'm in a rural area, it's really not a thing! Especially not pressure canning with ball jars. People do make pickles and chutneys etc but those are preserved with vinegar and we use kilner jars with a rubber seal to store them. I've never once met anyone who has pressure canned vegetables.
When I was a kid (20 years ago) my parents would make pickles, and some assorted pickled veggies. Usually the veggies would come from a farm around us or an auction where you could buy trays of veggies about the size of a flat of canned drinks. They would also do some fruits in syrup, mainly ones that my uncle would bring us from another part of the country where him and his neighbours had fruit tree.
When I think of canning vegetables, cucumber pickles are the first thing that comes to mind.
Yeah and we obviously have those here although you could just make them in any old jar and keep them in the fridge. The thing that seems to be quite different in America to the UK is the whole pressure canning scene. We do have similar food but it's all in tins, nobody really makes it themselves and I'm not even sure where you'd get hold of a pressure canner, you'd probably have to import it.
Yeah, I'm making a lot myself too, but I sadly don't have the storage space for large amounts of food. And the homemade goods are often more expensive, unless you can get veggies on the cheap from a farmer
We probably aren’t saving much on the veggies overall for sure. Some are cheaper than canned but others aren’t. However, we know exactly what’s in it and we buy it once a year so we’ve budgeted for it.
That's the way to do it. Raising pigs or cows, if you have the space or know someone who does, is way cheaper than store bought pork/beef.
Pork is the cheapest meat on the shelf right now
Depends on your location. Where I live, chicken is cheaper.
It is, and it’s even cheaper if you raise your own. Plus it’s better quality meat.
Do not buy processed shit
Do buy real food (legumes, vegetables)
I mean it
buy in season vegetables (cheaper)
know the regular prizes, so you can detect real discounts from fake ones
buy in bulk (cheaper)
prepare several days food at once with that bulk and freeze it for later use.
skip expensive food (usually meat) on a regular base when on a budget and bij it only as a treat/for weekends
When you buy in season, there is usually a lower prize as it's in abundance as it's grown in the fields instead of greenhouses.
I've seen discounts that were the regular prize but the 'original' prize has been increases to make it seem a discount.
When you buy in bulk (say in a 2 person household for 4-8 servings) and prepare in bulk you can freeze in 2 serving potions. (saves preparation time and it saves on groceries runs ;) )
Defrost food in the cooler, which takes about a day to defrost and save a tad on energy for the cooler, Also you save on the preparing side as preparing a 4 serving meal doesn't requires a lot less energy then 2x a 2 serving meal. (including the re-heating of the 2nd meal)
Save leftovers. Even half portions can be combined with others to make a fuul (and maybe even interesting) meal.
Also, when you eat meat less often you save a tad (when you eat meat, when you don't the biggest saving is already achieved).
I don't think it matters. An onion costs me $2. A McDouble costs me $2. I can get a whole processed burger for the price of a condiment on a sandwich I'd make at home.
You're not using that onion correctly. Chop it up and stick it in something with other ingredients that you can eat for 8 meals, that costs $12 to make.
That's a basic cooking and money-saving concept
I'm certainly not eating the onion like an apple lol. But, to your point, a sandwich is exactly what you just said. Pick up an onion, some bread, some lettuce, some tomato, some mayo, some mustard, salt and pepper, deli ham (or roast chicken), some cheese. Buying those ingredients would be.... What $40? And you'd be able to make 8 sandwiches. Maybe have some leftover cheese and mayo. Perhaps a chicken carcass for stock.They'd be pretty good sandwiches too, but without bacon because we wanna keep it budget. Or you could get 20 McDoubles. By caloric value, 20 McDoubles will give you more food. You'll die from malnutrition over a period of time, but not from lack of calories.
You can get waaaaaay more than 8 sandwiches worth of ingredients for 40$.
Sure, a lettuce sandwich costs $0.79.
I was curious and just priced everything out and you can get 20% more Mcdoubles/$ than sandwiches. 16 sandwiches with ham, lettuce, cheese, tomato, onion, mustard, mayo, salt, and pepper to 20 Mcdoubles. Calorie wise they are roughly even, I did not break it down by nutritional value but I would guess the sandwich would win on that. So you're right that you can get more Mcdoubles for your money but I'm right that you can get almost 16 sandwiches out of 40$ (and you will have leftover mustard, lettuce, salt, and pepper). If you get your condiments from stolen packets or catch sales on meat you can probably even out the cost of the two.
I appreciate that you did some earnest calculations. Normalizing for McDouble calorie counts is a decent way to do lateral comparisons. I did think about it, rather than napkin math, but then the CRM exploded at work, so I got distracted.
For 2 USD you should get 500g of onions
If it helps your calculation, CAD is the appropriate currency, and food prices are not pulled from logical sources. Best of luck.
This is what has been aggravating me lately. It USED to be very solid advice to try to cut out processed food and buy produce instead. Now, though, even produce has freaking skyrocketed in price. Shopping the same way that used to be very thrifty has become way less so, to the extent that I don't know how people are surviving like this either. And we make decent money! But spending a guaranteed $200 every time I go to the store just for basic things we need for the week is killing me.
Your onions are as expensive as McDouble? That's really hard to believe
i'm gonna assume this post refers to the US' prices.
it's definetely noticeable in germany, but i'll manage. my worker's union is currently negotiating prices with my employer, and so far it's looking pretty good.
but i pray for you guys, they really don't seem to make life worth living over there.
with a fair amount of help. food pantry, when i can get there--once or twice a month, for a bag of close or past-date produce and other perishables, and a few other things; and 'leftovers' brought to me by others a 2-3 times a week.
my 'grocery bill' hasn't gone up--because it can't. i spend the same, but get a lot less for it.
Left it all behind and moved to a cheaper country
Where did you move to?
South Korea. As long as you speak English you can become a teacher. Took me about 3 years to become comfortable with the language, at which point you can move on to other careers.
Salary is less but cost of living is way less. Also very fun. Other countries are good too, so take your pick. China is cheaper, Japan is a little more expensive. South Korea is a little grindy, so one of those two might be better. You can also go Europe or Africa if that's your taste.
Were vegetarians and don’t buy any prepared foods or much processed food. Inflation hasn’t been uniform. Rice, beans, tofu, and a lot of vegetables are at or near the same price as pre pandemic.
My partner and I are mostly-vegetarian and it's insane how much stuff still costs. Soy milk is constantly $2-3 a half gallon more than cow milk, veggies are expensive unless you're only getting rice and beans, and don't even get me started on meat substitutes
Rice and beans aren't vegetables
Yes they are.
Nah. Rice is a grain. Beans are legumes. You are perhaps using the word to mean "edible plant", which is not quite accurate.
There are such things as 'culinary vegetables and fruits'. If people used scientific labeling on everything in casual language, we'd be here all day.
Meat = almost eliminated from my diet except for frozen ground chicken that's 10 dollars.
Potato chips = replaced by crackers, much cheaper.
Vegetables = all frozen now
Have you looked into the one time expense of buying an air fryer? You can make your own chips/fries/etc which are both cheaper and healthier. Obviously you have to buy the appliance but it pays off in terms of health and groceries eventually. Like, crackers are usually loaded with crap ingredients. You could air fry some potatoes in a little spray of healthy oil for a dollar or two and do your wallet and your heart a solid AND you're still getting your daily allotment of potatoes lol
Would love one but the place I live has a 1000 watt limit before I blow a fuse.
You don't need the gadget. You can make these things with a normal stove and oven. As someone who cooks a lot someone gave me one of these for xmas. It's a damn convection oven. A tiny one worth way too much money. Learn to use the appliances you have and stop with the useless gadgets.
It is a convection oven but most people don't have a fancy oven with a convection oven. Yeah you can make it in the oven but it comes out better in the air fryer and mine heats in literally one minute, I can use it in summer because it doesn't add nearly as much heat to my house, etc. It's way more convenient than using the massive oven for a plate of fries or something and I can even cook an entire pizza in the air fryer I got using the bake setting, which again is just much easier and more convenient for me.
Not sure if it's just me but my grocery spending hasn't changed in the last year. It's definitely more expensive then say 2 years ago but seems like prices have stabilized.
I cook often so most of what I buy are produce and it's generally cheaper than other stuff.
I agree. On one hand I look at prices of stuff and think "damn is it really this much now? Was half this price last year". But on the other hand, my shopping receipts really haven't doubled since a year ago, I don't feel like they increased at all... But I also buy produce and cook for myself most of the time.
Same. Junk food is higher it seems but that stuff is garbage anyway. My grocery bills have been leveled off for a long time buying staples.
I haven't changed my shopping habits, but I definitely notice the ripoffs of significantly higher prices on some of the same food items I've been buying for years. Overall it's still much cheaper to buy groceries and make your own food than the vast majority of restaurants and such.
Fast food prices have gotten more noticeably higher than groceries have in my area. So I assume that most of the people I hear complaining the loudest about "Inflation" are the ones who eat fast food as a staple of their diet.
Nah, I remember when I could fill an entire cart with food and it'd be about $75 way back in the ancient days of 2019. Now I'd have to pay double to do that and even then I might end up with less food.
Yeah if you actually cook food it's not that bad. It's frozen food and junk food which has exploded in price
We are in Canada. I scratch cook everything and we grow the vast majority of our own food. Most grocery shopping is staple stuff like flour and sugar. Our grocery bill has trippled in the past 2 years and it's still rising. Our gardens have gotten considerably bigger to make up for it.
If you have one near you, get your staples from there. It's so much cheaper than Kroger, Costco, Publix, and Target.
Shout out to WinCo also. As a heads up they only take cash/debit though, not credit.
Lidl is even better. Aldi is more for snack by me.
I still goto Stop and Shop for niche things.
I'm lucky enough to live near both and they're the only things keeping me eating relatively healthily while I lack access to a full kitchen...
Aldi is a great option when you don't need something specific, like a cut of meat. Or a single lemon instead of 50 of them. I do Aldi first then Wegmans or Price Rite for whatever is not there.
No Aldi in WA State.
Super Hans is the man
I haven't reached the point yet where I'm personally dumpster diving, but I have a friend who has an inside connection at a major grocery store. They call when it's time to take out the garbage, set it outside the compactor, and my friend swings by to snag it. It's incredible how much gets thrown out. He preserves what can't be used immediately and gives it away to those who don't have a problem with the source. I've benefited from a 5 lb bag of jerky and a box full of dried fruits, veggies, and other items.
Otherwise, I'm always on the lookout for sales and deals. When I find one I stock up, like the one going on now at Amazon for Sweet Sue canned chicken that worked out to 78 cents for a 5oz can.
I'm fortunate enough to have a few acres and access to water at agricultural rates, so I grow enough produce to supply myself and a few other families that subscribe to my farm-to-home service. It's enough to pay the costs and buy the grandkids some nice presents, but I ain't getting rich off it.
Fortunately for us we make a lot of money so we don't look at prices.
Same here as well. I'll still try to find cheaper options but I won't remove an ingredient from the cart because the total is too much.
Stay away from prepared foods and buy more cheap staples like rice, beans, and potatoes. Shop the meats that are the best price per pound and know the highs and lows of fresh fruits and veggies to get better deals. Beef and fish have been basically unaffordable lately while pork and chicken have been more reasonable.
The prepared foods and snacks are getting ridiculous. A half gallon of cold brew coffee is up to $7. I can make it myself for a fraction of that, but it's more labor for me. A bag of cool ranch doritos was going for $7 a bag... I chose some cheaper chips I don't like as much, but got 2 bags for $4.50. A can of pad-Thai sauce is $12 at my grocery...
Yeah, chips are outrageous. I simply stopped buying them.
A half gallon of cold brew coffee is up to $7. I can make it myself for a fraction of that, but it's more labor for me.
I mean, only a little bit of labor. Even with premium grounds, I can't imagine it costing more than 50 cents to make a half gallon. As for labor, just throw it all in a pitcher, give it a quick shake or stir, then leave it in the fridge for a couple of days. Pour it through a standard filter. I use the basket from my regular coffee maker.
Making your own cold brew is one of the most cost-efficient DIY foods out there.
I've been making cold brew with an in-jar filter that is more complicated than it should be but still not hard except for the pre planning for a few days in advance when I'm traveling for work. I'm definitely going to try it the way you describe though.
Is it cheaper to make your own?
Much
Almost always cheaper to make your own anything.
I buy staples as cheaply as I can, and most other things I only buy on sale. Plan my cooking for the week around that.
I continue to be spoiled by Costco's low prices. Seriously, check them out if you can.
I also imagine that similar wholesale clubs also have lower prices, but I cannot say from 1st hand experience.
It’s low per unit, but high up front. And you gotta hope you don’t get tired of whatever you bought
Aldi is also great if you've got one near you and are not able (or don't need) to buy in bulk.
If you haven't shopped there before, they're a German based chain that's spread across the rest of Europe and a lot of North America and almost-only sells their own store-brand products. Their prices are similar to Walmart and Kroger store brand but, IMO, they're of much better quality. As a person with ADHD, I find shopping there to be much less anxiety inducing... it's a grocery store the size of a Walgreens. If I need pickles, there's one brand with five different cuts in three flavors; there's only two kinds of ketchup, six kinds of fruit juice, four different laundry detergents... one kind of paper plates. Also, the cashiers are scary fast.
I can complete my weekly shop in like twenty minutes without a headache or back pain. It's genuinely like someone designed a grocery store just for me and it's cheap AF... just remember to bring your own reusable bags and a quarter. You'll need a quarter to unlock the shopping cart from the rack. You get your coin back when you return your cart like a civilized human being. They have paper bags for sale at the register for like 28¢ if you forget to bring your own.
I agree, Aldi is great. Especially for 1-2 person households.
Aldi >>>> Costco
A lot of shit at Costco isn't even a good deal these days. People just assume it must be because they are bad at basic arithmetic. Like, there are some good deals still, but not like how it was ten years ago. These days most stuff is legitimately cheaper at Aldi.
Costco is great, but I have to force myself to shop without a cart to prevent me from buying stuff I don't need (so I only get the essentials that I can carry).
Getting 1.5kg of cereal lasts me way longer which is amazing, when the normal grocery stores have "family size" boxes that have just been shrinking and shrinking.
We are almost exclusively Costco and WinCo for groceries. They are consistently the best places to go, price-wise.
That said, I'm getting really fucking tired of corporate greed making hard to live.
Eating fingernails with a side of depression
Ever pick your nose?
Yeah, extra protein
that hit a bit too close to home
Buy in bulk.
Buy lots of dried beans, rice, etc. (living in earthquake land, I like to keep our canned goods fairly stocked and just rotate out old ones only).
Buy from farmers markets when available, frozen veg when not.
Buy whatever the supermarket is trying to get rid of. In Japan, I end up with mystery seafood a fair amount, but just about anything is fine fried or in a stew.
Stay away from things out-of-season and pre-prepared foods.
Use any space you have to grow something. Even in my Tokyo apartment, I was growing herbs and chilis.
The above helps. I think everyone has some thing they don't want to give up and that's fine. When I first got out on my own in the US, I ended up surviving off of whatever I could get at the restaurants I worked at and boxed, instant mashed potatoes from the dollar store.
On a similar note to what @lagomorphlecture@lemm.ee I have an instant pot and that's made cooking stuff that's cheap but usually takes time to make really easy, brown rice or a potato based soup are a click away. At of course the cost of an upfront investment.
Also, some recipes can be really cheap if you have the time. Rossotto, homemade bread (with yeast or baking soda), baked beans (from dry bulk pinto beans), pasta (homemade & store bought) naan bread & homemade wheat tortillas, and baked oatmeal are all things I enjoy that come to mind and might be worth trying. They taste good and can be made for super cheap.
Wishing you luck internet stranger
I'm a vegetarian and my instant pot is great for beans. I didn't bring that up since canned beans are cheap but they're high sodium and are probably more contaminated with plastic than dried beans. I would never bother with dried beans without the instant pot but they're super easy with it. So I guess depending on your diet either an instant pot, slow cooker or air fryer can really have a huge impact on your grocery bill.
how do you prepare them? Whenever I tried using a pressure cooked for dried beans they turned out mush.
Part of it probably depends on what beans. I eat a lot of chickpeas and I think they're a harder bean and less likely to get mushy. The other one is black beans and definitely they would be easier to overcook. Did you do the quick release? If not, next time quick release then immediately drain them and give them a quick rinse in cold water. I'm just using the bean setting on my instant pot so if that's what you're doing and it's still mushy with the quick release, figure out how long that cooks for and drop it by a minute or two.
Hmm yes, I tried both, quick release and letting it cool down, also with chickpeas. Always ended up in mush...
I have a stovetop one, so there's no program for me, I just tried what some recipies on the internet recommend.
Oh ok. I have to guess they're cooking too long then but I've never used a stovetop one so IDK how much you should adjust it.
Starting with as raw an ingredient as I can. Processed foods adds a lot to the price per calorie. So I start with raw ingredients which is a ton cheaper, and then cook it from there.
Plus my stuff tastes like I want so that’s great.
Rice, brother. Lots of rice.
I shop at Aldi, buy only basic ingredients (as little prepared foods as possible), and eat less. Snacks are basically out, though I may get peanuts from time to time.
Decent cost of living wage increase, then switched jobs to higher pay on top of that. But I was never struggling to pay for food. Housing is the big one in my budget. But I have a fixed rate mortgage so inflation has not affected that.
Seems like prices have stopped increasing much lately too so I haven’t given it as much thought as a year ago.
Hallowed is the Aldi.
My local grocery chain has decent coupons, and a debit card with cash back on their brand of products, so I've been making a lot of use out of those.
Been buying a lot of large orders of cheap dry goods that can last a while like rice and beans. Some rice, some beans, throw some cheese and some sauces in there, get creative with some seasonings, and you can make some pretty bomb-ass burritos at home for super cheap. I'm not vegan/vegetarian, but I often make them without any meat (but use some "meaty" seasonings), and you can easily just skip the cheese if you wanna make it vegan, I suppose.
I eat a lot of beans and rice because it’s healthy. In bulk it’s cheap as well since I cook both.
I've just stopped eating, I'm hoping it will make the survival aspect a moot point after awhile.
I am lucky that my income to expenses is a good ratio so I can buy what I want without undue hardship but I cringe because I used to feed myself for about half the money.
I do buy items in bulk when the bulk unit price is significantly lower if it will keep and I will use it eventually. I will also try to get these items while they are on sale. This is a one time high expenditure that pays off in the long run and unfortunately the people who need to do this most are the ones who can't afford the extra expense at one time of buying bulk. I do this with things like rice, beans (I'm vegetarian so I'm not eating beans because I can't afford anything else, it's a big part of my diet). Also things like flour, salt, pepper, anything that doesn't easily spoil and will get used eventually.
I also allow the store to track the fuck out of me on their app by clipping store coupons. Unfortunately this is a necessary evil because it usually saves me $10 to $15 per week.
With fruits and vegetables, buying what's in season during the growing months saves a lot and buying frozen vegetables instead of fresh has the same or better nutritional profile but can be much cheaper.
I've been searching for lentil recipes.
I found this one on an old man's Instagram account. It was really nice! I subbed some of the stock for a can of IPA.
Lentil Soup Recipe
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 chopped onion
4 cloves of chopped garlic
3 medium carrots, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
1 can of diced tomatoes
1/8 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes, or more to taste
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, or more to taste
1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
1 teaspoon of cumin
1 teaspoon of chili powder
1 teaspoon of salt
6 cups of chicken stock
1 cup of red lentils, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup of yellow lentils, rinsed and drained
Instructions:
Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.
Add onions and garlic and cook until the onion is translucent, about five minutes.
Stir in the carrots and celery and cook until the vegetables are tender, about eight more minutes.
Stir in your tomato paste, crushed red pepper, cayenne pepper (if you decide to use), salt, black pepper, smoked paprika, cumin, and chili powder.
Mix in your lentils and chicken stock.
Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low and simmer until the lentils are soft, about 40 minutes.
This recipe is so good. I'm a vegetarian, not vegan, but I'm always looking for really good no meat options and this is just delicious, basically it's beef stew flavored.
Also you can replace the meat in tacos and gyros with lentils using the same seasoning, also delicious. Just use whatever recipe you normally like for those.
You should look into chickpeas. Personally I find that lentils work great where you might use red meat and chickpeas work great where you might use white meat/chicken so you don't even need specific recipes because you can just omit the meat and add the legumes instead.
Thanks, that recipe looks delicious. I want to give lentils in pasta sauce but I'm afraid I won't like it. I've tried chickpeas and I just can't seem to like them.
I put lentils in my vegetarian chili. Do chilli however you like - I prefer a bean blend over straight kidney beans- and just boil a pot of lentils and use them in place of the ground beef if your doing a quick chili. I would think you wouldn't want them pre cooked if you're doing a slow cook chili.
Thanks. I have a recipe for chili I really like, I will give it a try.
A great addition to the already awesome tips here is having room mates. You're never too old to shack up with friends or family and save. It's only logical, it cuts down on waste, and makes you grow to be a better person and communicator in adulthood, something the world could always use more of.
it's become very normal for people to live with their parents well into their 20s until they've completed their apprenticeship around hamburg, can't speak for any other places though.
I’ve had some roommates who are amazing friends
Never again
It’s just my partner and myself forever.
No way
Spending a few hundred a week for the two of us to eat a basic equivalent diet to that available in Europe. I brought back all my shampoo, body wash, moisturizers, etc in a 50 lb suitcase which I loaded up at carrefour on my last trip to France.
I haven’t starved yet. I know from experience that if I get calorically restricted for too long, I will do anything to fill my stomach. So fortunately, it hasn’t got to the point where my morality starts to degrade yet.
I still have 50 lb of COVID rice in my pantry.
I've been slipping over to Aldi or Costco for produce. Sure I have to buy more at Costco, but the price is there are still lower per pound than they were at my grocery store before inflation.
I make a lot of stuff from scratch I don't rely on a lot of mixes. The price of bulk flour and the price of bulk rice hasn't gone up nearly as much as Purdue chicken breast.
Step 1) plant potatoes
Step 2) cry
Some things can be grown at home with relative ease and not much space. A lot depends on where you are, how much space you have, your soil, if you can invest money, what spare time you can give. So either research or experimentation is key.
I live in Florida (I'm sorry I'm voting as hard as I can) and have had success with these from seeds or cut-offs from store bought items:
Kiwis, passion fruit, pineapple, tomatoes, garlic, turmeric, onion, ginger.
These I have bought the plant or seeds from nurseries (or Korean supermarket):
Brocoli, any peppers, any dark leafy greens.
There is so much information on youtube.
I found the initial time to set up a small garden is about 10- 20 hours in the first 2 weeks, then about 10-20 mins every 2 to 3 days.
"real food" is the most affordable. I stick to that. The outside of the store. Not the middle
My spreadsheet shows my grocery costs are about 12% higher than last year. A difference of around $10/wk.
I mostly buy ingredients and cook bulk batches of food. Before, we were splurging on instacart, but they got crazy expensive with their upcharges (MINIMUM 15% increase in item cost, + service charge, +delivery fee (or the annual delivery fee), +tip (it started to feel like 15% was too low, on top of the 15% grocery upcharge).
We stopped that and we actually spend less now even after this inflation.
Haven't noticed any difference. I buy non-processed foods only (meat, vegetables, grains, spices) and everything has been pretty stable for decades.
In the Midwest onions and red bell pepper are $1.20-1.50 a lb. That is way different than even a few years ago
Buying cheaper stuff. Doing fine I guess
Ramen keeping me alive.
Ramon is a good guy. Glad you got ‘em in your life to help keep ya goin.
Is it partly budget-time or budget only? You need nutrition.
I'm doing a lot more cooking that's for sure
Pancakes can really go with anything, they're basically a large flat biscuit. Not to mention they keep quite nicely if frozen or simply put in the fridge
Carefully.
I shop at grocery outlet and ultimately eat very little.
I was actually contributing a fair bit to savings with the last job I did, but for anybody making 14 or less I can imagine it's a real struggle.
Bulk buys
The fact that the battle against spending lots of money on groceries is to spend even more money in groceries.
I hate that you're right and we're doomed.
Right, this is the worst part. The people who most desperately need to get cheaper groceries can't afford to save money on groceries by buying in bulk. It's shitty and sad.
i shop bulk as much as i can, eat oatmeal for breakfast daily, and after i had my gall bladder removed i got in the habit of eating 2-3oz portions of animal protein no more than 5 times a week. i spend a bunch of time in the kitchen every week but it definitely softens the blow. it also helps that i have a couple of cheap staple meals i can make for less than $5 per serving.
i also shop around for value. i live near 4 different grocery stores so i dont spend a lot of time doing it, but i do make a run to grocery outlet every month in order to get discounts on bigger items but it can be hit or miss.
Bought instant noodles in bulk. I could have gotten the cheap, tasteless kind, but I prefer the more expensive Asian ones. Still ends up being much less expensive than groceries anyways. I have a good portion of the pantry filled with just different types of instant noodles, all of which were bought in bulk. I do buy groceries, but I avoid the more expensive foods as much as possible. Just stuff like milk, eggs, spinach, fruits, etc.
I don't eat instant noodles every day, but if I don't feel like cooking or if I'm running low on food, I can "supplement" the meal with instant noodles. Having instant noodles as "backup" helps takes a bit of the edge off with regards to grocery spending, although I do admit that I could take more drastic measures to save. Despite living in an area where the cost of living is absurd (one of the highest in the country), I feel somewhat well off in that I can get by with just supplementing my meals with instant noodles every now and then.
Woodman’s
It ain't fun, not even close.
My prices have come down quite a bit over the past few months. It was a stretch to feed myself on $250 but now I’m ending the month with a few dollars left over
I've been shopping at WinCo, it's a further bike ride than Fred Meyer or Trader Joes but the prices are hard to beat. This year I'm looking at buying into a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). The one I'm looking at is $400 for 12 boxes of food spread across 24 weeks. We'll see if it's a good deal. I'll be planting a garden soon too. Hoping to get a 3 sisters plot or two as well as some potatoes in containers
I am lucky enough to have a yard, so grow leafy greens in most seasons and some other veg.
Other than that, what I noticed about the food inflation is that prices converged, whole foods were already expensive but their prices came down a little while our regular grocery and the cheaper place increased theirs a lot, regular grocery prices worse than whole foods in quite a lot of the things I actually buy so I just buy stuff at whole foods and local ethnic groceries now, not much from the chain grocery.
Dried beans and canned beans we use for near every meal but have always done, that's not a change.
Housing here has increased way more than food. Rent and purchase prices went crazy and are now dropping so slowly.
I started harvesting stinging nettle to replace spinach
Grow my own raspberries and strawberries. Blackberries grow on the property as do salmon berries, huckleberries, and elderberries.
I have a cherry tree but the squirrels and the jays get to those before I do lol
In the garden I can grow a handful of veggies that'll last the year.
For meat I hunt or buy directly from the rancher/butcher when I can. I can get crayfish out of the creek every now and then as well.
Grocery Outlet and Trader Joe’s. For GrocOut just go and see what’s cheap, don’t shop off a list. Make sure the prices of the stuff you’re buying is about 50% off or more. At TJ’s everything is priced pretty fairly, just buy what you want to eat.
Don’t drink alcohol or soda, or anything canned really.
I spend between 250-300 a week. Before the pandemic it was about 80-100 a week.
Just curious, how many are you shopping for? I'm spending about $100-150 a week just for myself.
Three.
Thanks! I'm considering a move to Oregon in the next few years, so that's at least good to know that it's not drastically different from what I'm paying right now.
I split my time in three locations due to work. Prices are similar in all three places.
I will say the beef I get in Oregon is a lot better than the beef in the Midwest. It’s odd.
The hardest thing to adjust to is no sales tax. So some prices are higher but no tax in the end.
Dining is more expensive in Oregon than in Chicago. Though you know the staff is paid better. So I’d rather pay more.
Not having to pump your gas is nice.
Prices haven't gone up that much where I live, and some of the things that have risen in price have actually started going back down recently. But I guess it all varies from one place to another.
But in general, I shop the sales flyers, I get things that are discounted such as meat that will expire soon, and I get the cheap staples like rice and beans. I stopped buying name brand items and unnecessary snack foods. I also use the Ibotta app which gives me some cash back. Usually not a lot, but over the course of a year it's meaningful.
For the past month I'm paying around 30% more than I was in July 2022, and 10% more than I was in April 2022. (I just picked two random months from where I wasn't yet either too lazy or busy to track everything I bought on the computer. Really need to catch up on that tbh because I haven't updated the file for more than a year.)
The amount of stupid bullshit such as energy drinks I buy varies so to get any actually usable stats I'd have to average it over a longer time frame but it seems fine to me.
Why, how bad is it elsewhere?
Where I live, the grocery prices aren't up anywhere near the double or triple that other people have mentioned. The basics / necessities have generally seen more modest price increases over the past few years. There have been obvious exceptions like when there's been shortages of specific things or like if I were to compare out of season produce prices to the prices of stuff when its in season, but in those cases I just go without (which also kind of proves they weren't necessities to begin with).
For the most part, any luxury items or luxury brands that have dramatically increased their prices and engaged in shrinkflation, I stop buying that stuff or cut way back. Even if I can afford that stuff, I'm not going to pay the prices. And if I weren't really able to afford to feed myself, I would definitely not be buying anything like that. No organic apples for me. No potato chips. No microwave meals. No soda.
In my adult life, I've twice experienced food insecurity. I can't speak to anybody's situation in specific, but for me what worked was willingness to be flexible and getting creative. I would grow as much of my own food as I could, even in a small shared living space I could grow some lettuce or spring onions in a window. I was also pretty knowledgeable about edible plants, including local/wild stuff, so that helped to supplement my diet as well.
I taught myself how to cook and it's been life-changing.
Any advice or tips on how you did it?
I literally just looked up instructions online and in cookbooks and followed them. Learned common patterns in cooking by using a bunch of recipes.
It's actually pretty easy. You just have to put in the effort and be willing to try, follow instructions, and fail sometimes.
i'm homeless personally. where once i could survive on $5 a day, i'm always coming up short on the $20 needed nowadays just to eat. so i fast lots, my skating suffers.
Look for little food cabinets outside churches and libraries. Sometimes people put in tuna-cracker kits, a fresh fruit, bottled water, hot cocoa or instant coffee packets. The kits are nice because no can opener, heat, utensil needed. It’s not ideal but not least ideal, either.
those are amazing little places indeed. Sikh temples and Methodist churches are helpful too
Sikhs and Methodists are really nice. Catholic Churches often give out grocery cards and/or have food pantries.
Groceries will blame inflation and whatnot, yet they're printing record profits.
That's because the truth is the other way around. It's the hoarding of record profits by the corporate class what drives the inflation
That’s their point.
Margins are down.
https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/albertsons-beats-profit-revenue-expectations-strong-demand-groceries-2023-07-25/
. So it isn’t the stores gouging you. Somewhere in the chain. Someone is though
somehow these poor struggling grocers can still buy one another for twenty five billion dollars.
That’s all debt. That isn’t from profits.
Their margins are low and declining.
The point being is the cash grab is further up the line. If it was the grocery stores, we’d see margins increasing. Food has doubled to tripled in many cases and their margins went down.
overall sales are up, prices are waaay tf up.
gross margins are down slightly, but they're taking that 27.7% (vs 28.1%) from a larger pie.
profits are up.
Grocery has some of the lowest margins of any industry. It’s not your local store milking you and I doubt it’s the local farmer.
It's certainly not the farmers getting paid more.
If anything, the agrifood business that they sell to are pushing the farm gate price down, while at the same time input costs continue to rise.
I buy beef from my local farmer. His cost of went up and his prices have adjusted. He’s 3x more expensive but about about to quit because he can’t turn a profit.
I also buy local and they're thinking about calling it quits. You work all day and margins are so low, they can't keep fixing / replacing what breaks without increasing debt.
That is the issue he is running into. He has tripled the prices but his margin is lower than before.
I get many people want to blame the stores but this problem is further up the chain and someone is miking the system. I have two customers who are grocery store chains and they have said, the only reason they are profitable is they can't hire people and they have to use corporate staff to help in their stores. I know the director of security has to stock shelves two days a week.
I am not one for the government getting in the middle of everything but they need to audit the supply chain and figure out what is really going.
Tell that to the billionaires who's net value doubled in 12 months.
What grocery billionaire are you referencing?
Wife has been canning for a few years now and we have a pantry of fruits, veggies, and dehydrated food. She goes to the farmers markets during harvest time and goes to town on entire cases of tomatoes, corn, beans, etc. That will last all year for our family of 5. We also pay a friend to raise a pig on her ranch and butcher that once a year. Just got ours (over 400 lbs!). Pork is A LOT cheaper that way. Haven’t found anyone to go half or a quarter in on a cow. We also would need another deep freezer and don’t really have room for it.
We also meal plan weekly so we only buy groceries for what we need to make meals. That saves a ton of money as you aren’t wasteful as much. Oh and we either do pick up or delivery as you spend more when you’re in the store and see things you want but don’t need.
We make almost everything we can from scratch. Wife recently found a recipe for baked oyster crackers with butter and seasoning on them that make dirt cheap snacks and they’re fantastic. The store brand oyster crackers are $1 for 16oz. That’s almost cheap enough to not make those from scratch too. We haven’t bothered yet.
I've always been interested in the idea of canning, but it's not really a thing in the UK. I know that veg is cheaper and gas is more expensive here than in America but still, surely it costs so much money to can things that you can't be saving much? Is it only worth it if the produce was in season and therefore really cheap?
Definitely not about cost on the veggies. At best it’s break even compared to the store. It’s more about knowing it’s the veggie and water only. Or seasoning too if you like them a certain way. We’ve found corn to be higher quality too. Plus, where we live peaches are fabulous and better than anywhere else in the country so we get to can the best and control the amount of syrup used so they’re healthier. Sorry Georgia, you don’t actually have the best peaches.
Totally get that. Much nicer to know you're not eating too much processed crap.
Jealous of the peaches!
moving to the country, I'm gonna eat a lot of peaches
I suspect it's more common in the more rural areas.
Or with the city people who manage to have an allotment.
I'm in a rural area, it's really not a thing! Especially not pressure canning with ball jars. People do make pickles and chutneys etc but those are preserved with vinegar and we use kilner jars with a rubber seal to store them. I've never once met anyone who has pressure canned vegetables.
When I was a kid (20 years ago) my parents would make pickles, and some assorted pickled veggies. Usually the veggies would come from a farm around us or an auction where you could buy trays of veggies about the size of a flat of canned drinks. They would also do some fruits in syrup, mainly ones that my uncle would bring us from another part of the country where him and his neighbours had fruit tree.
When I think of canning vegetables, cucumber pickles are the first thing that comes to mind.
Yeah and we obviously have those here although you could just make them in any old jar and keep them in the fridge. The thing that seems to be quite different in America to the UK is the whole pressure canning scene. We do have similar food but it's all in tins, nobody really makes it themselves and I'm not even sure where you'd get hold of a pressure canner, you'd probably have to import it.
Yeah, I'm making a lot myself too, but I sadly don't have the storage space for large amounts of food. And the homemade goods are often more expensive, unless you can get veggies on the cheap from a farmer
We probably aren’t saving much on the veggies overall for sure. Some are cheaper than canned but others aren’t. However, we know exactly what’s in it and we buy it once a year so we’ve budgeted for it.
That's the way to do it. Raising pigs or cows, if you have the space or know someone who does, is way cheaper than store bought pork/beef.
Pork is the cheapest meat on the shelf right now
Depends on your location. Where I live, chicken is cheaper.
It is, and it’s even cheaper if you raise your own. Plus it’s better quality meat.
Do not buy processed shit
Do buy real food (legumes, vegetables)
I mean it
When you buy in season, there is usually a lower prize as it's in abundance as it's grown in the fields instead of greenhouses. I've seen discounts that were the regular prize but the 'original' prize has been increases to make it seem a discount. When you buy in bulk (say in a 2 person household for 4-8 servings) and prepare in bulk you can freeze in 2 serving potions. (saves preparation time and it saves on groceries runs ;) ) Defrost food in the cooler, which takes about a day to defrost and save a tad on energy for the cooler, Also you save on the preparing side as preparing a 4 serving meal doesn't requires a lot less energy then 2x a 2 serving meal. (including the re-heating of the 2nd meal) Save leftovers. Even half portions can be combined with others to make a fuul (and maybe even interesting) meal.
Also, when you eat meat less often you save a tad (when you eat meat, when you don't the biggest saving is already achieved).
I don't think it matters. An onion costs me $2. A McDouble costs me $2. I can get a whole processed burger for the price of a condiment on a sandwich I'd make at home.
You're not using that onion correctly. Chop it up and stick it in something with other ingredients that you can eat for 8 meals, that costs $12 to make.
That's a basic cooking and money-saving concept
I'm certainly not eating the onion like an apple lol. But, to your point, a sandwich is exactly what you just said. Pick up an onion, some bread, some lettuce, some tomato, some mayo, some mustard, salt and pepper, deli ham (or roast chicken), some cheese. Buying those ingredients would be.... What $40? And you'd be able to make 8 sandwiches. Maybe have some leftover cheese and mayo. Perhaps a chicken carcass for stock.They'd be pretty good sandwiches too, but without bacon because we wanna keep it budget. Or you could get 20 McDoubles. By caloric value, 20 McDoubles will give you more food. You'll die from malnutrition over a period of time, but not from lack of calories.
You can get waaaaaay more than 8 sandwiches worth of ingredients for 40$.
Sure, a lettuce sandwich costs $0.79.
I was curious and just priced everything out and you can get 20% more Mcdoubles/$ than sandwiches. 16 sandwiches with ham, lettuce, cheese, tomato, onion, mustard, mayo, salt, and pepper to 20 Mcdoubles. Calorie wise they are roughly even, I did not break it down by nutritional value but I would guess the sandwich would win on that. So you're right that you can get more Mcdoubles for your money but I'm right that you can get almost 16 sandwiches out of 40$ (and you will have leftover mustard, lettuce, salt, and pepper). If you get your condiments from stolen packets or catch sales on meat you can probably even out the cost of the two.
I appreciate that you did some earnest calculations. Normalizing for McDouble calorie counts is a decent way to do lateral comparisons. I did think about it, rather than napkin math, but then the CRM exploded at work, so I got distracted.
For 2 USD you should get 500g of onions
If it helps your calculation, CAD is the appropriate currency, and food prices are not pulled from logical sources. Best of luck.
This is what has been aggravating me lately. It USED to be very solid advice to try to cut out processed food and buy produce instead. Now, though, even produce has freaking skyrocketed in price. Shopping the same way that used to be very thrifty has become way less so, to the extent that I don't know how people are surviving like this either. And we make decent money! But spending a guaranteed $200 every time I go to the store just for basic things we need for the week is killing me.
Your onions are as expensive as McDouble? That's really hard to believe
i'm gonna assume this post refers to the US' prices.
it's definetely noticeable in germany, but i'll manage. my worker's union is currently negotiating prices with my employer, and so far it's looking pretty good.
but i pray for you guys, they really don't seem to make life worth living over there.
Could easily be Canada too
ETA: Here's a good video on Canada's and the states' inflation problems from an outside perspective.
Yes, sorry. I'm in the US.
with a fair amount of help. food pantry, when i can get there--once or twice a month, for a bag of close or past-date produce and other perishables, and a few other things; and 'leftovers' brought to me by others a 2-3 times a week.
my 'grocery bill' hasn't gone up--because it can't. i spend the same, but get a lot less for it.
Left it all behind and moved to a cheaper country
Where did you move to?
South Korea. As long as you speak English you can become a teacher. Took me about 3 years to become comfortable with the language, at which point you can move on to other careers.
Salary is less but cost of living is way less. Also very fun. Other countries are good too, so take your pick. China is cheaper, Japan is a little more expensive. South Korea is a little grindy, so one of those two might be better. You can also go Europe or Africa if that's your taste.
Were vegetarians and don’t buy any prepared foods or much processed food. Inflation hasn’t been uniform. Rice, beans, tofu, and a lot of vegetables are at or near the same price as pre pandemic.
My partner and I are mostly-vegetarian and it's insane how much stuff still costs. Soy milk is constantly $2-3 a half gallon more than cow milk, veggies are expensive unless you're only getting rice and beans, and don't even get me started on meat substitutes
Rice and beans aren't vegetables
Yes they are.
Nah. Rice is a grain. Beans are legumes. You are perhaps using the word to mean "edible plant", which is not quite accurate.
There are such things as 'culinary vegetables and fruits'. If people used scientific labeling on everything in casual language, we'd be here all day.
Meat = almost eliminated from my diet except for frozen ground chicken that's 10 dollars.
Potato chips = replaced by crackers, much cheaper.
Vegetables = all frozen now
Have you looked into the one time expense of buying an air fryer? You can make your own chips/fries/etc which are both cheaper and healthier. Obviously you have to buy the appliance but it pays off in terms of health and groceries eventually. Like, crackers are usually loaded with crap ingredients. You could air fry some potatoes in a little spray of healthy oil for a dollar or two and do your wallet and your heart a solid AND you're still getting your daily allotment of potatoes lol
Would love one but the place I live has a 1000 watt limit before I blow a fuse.
You don't need the gadget. You can make these things with a normal stove and oven. As someone who cooks a lot someone gave me one of these for xmas. It's a damn convection oven. A tiny one worth way too much money. Learn to use the appliances you have and stop with the useless gadgets.
It is a convection oven but most people don't have a fancy oven with a convection oven. Yeah you can make it in the oven but it comes out better in the air fryer and mine heats in literally one minute, I can use it in summer because it doesn't add nearly as much heat to my house, etc. It's way more convenient than using the massive oven for a plate of fries or something and I can even cook an entire pizza in the air fryer I got using the bake setting, which again is just much easier and more convenient for me.
Not sure if it's just me but my grocery spending hasn't changed in the last year. It's definitely more expensive then say 2 years ago but seems like prices have stabilized.
I cook often so most of what I buy are produce and it's generally cheaper than other stuff.
I agree. On one hand I look at prices of stuff and think "damn is it really this much now? Was half this price last year". But on the other hand, my shopping receipts really haven't doubled since a year ago, I don't feel like they increased at all... But I also buy produce and cook for myself most of the time.
Same. Junk food is higher it seems but that stuff is garbage anyway. My grocery bills have been leveled off for a long time buying staples.
I haven't changed my shopping habits, but I definitely notice the ripoffs of significantly higher prices on some of the same food items I've been buying for years. Overall it's still much cheaper to buy groceries and make your own food than the vast majority of restaurants and such.
Fast food prices have gotten more noticeably higher than groceries have in my area. So I assume that most of the people I hear complaining the loudest about "Inflation" are the ones who eat fast food as a staple of their diet.
Nah, I remember when I could fill an entire cart with food and it'd be about $75 way back in the ancient days of 2019. Now I'd have to pay double to do that and even then I might end up with less food.
Yeah if you actually cook food it's not that bad. It's frozen food and junk food which has exploded in price
We are in Canada. I scratch cook everything and we grow the vast majority of our own food. Most grocery shopping is staple stuff like flour and sugar. Our grocery bill has trippled in the past 2 years and it's still rising. Our gardens have gotten considerably bigger to make up for it.
Aldi.
If you have one near you, get your staples from there. It's so much cheaper than Kroger, Costco, Publix, and Target.
Shout out to WinCo also. As a heads up they only take cash/debit though, not credit.
Lidl is even better. Aldi is more for snack by me. I still goto Stop and Shop for niche things.
I'm lucky enough to live near both and they're the only things keeping me eating relatively healthily while I lack access to a full kitchen...
Aldi is a great option when you don't need something specific, like a cut of meat. Or a single lemon instead of 50 of them. I do Aldi first then Wegmans or Price Rite for whatever is not there.
No Aldi in WA State.
Super Hans is the man
I haven't reached the point yet where I'm personally dumpster diving, but I have a friend who has an inside connection at a major grocery store. They call when it's time to take out the garbage, set it outside the compactor, and my friend swings by to snag it. It's incredible how much gets thrown out. He preserves what can't be used immediately and gives it away to those who don't have a problem with the source. I've benefited from a 5 lb bag of jerky and a box full of dried fruits, veggies, and other items.
Otherwise, I'm always on the lookout for sales and deals. When I find one I stock up, like the one going on now at Amazon for Sweet Sue canned chicken that worked out to 78 cents for a 5oz can.
I'm fortunate enough to have a few acres and access to water at agricultural rates, so I grow enough produce to supply myself and a few other families that subscribe to my farm-to-home service. It's enough to pay the costs and buy the grandkids some nice presents, but I ain't getting rich off it.
Fortunately for us we make a lot of money so we don't look at prices.
Same here as well. I'll still try to find cheaper options but I won't remove an ingredient from the cart because the total is too much.
Stay away from prepared foods and buy more cheap staples like rice, beans, and potatoes. Shop the meats that are the best price per pound and know the highs and lows of fresh fruits and veggies to get better deals. Beef and fish have been basically unaffordable lately while pork and chicken have been more reasonable.
The prepared foods and snacks are getting ridiculous. A half gallon of cold brew coffee is up to $7. I can make it myself for a fraction of that, but it's more labor for me. A bag of cool ranch doritos was going for $7 a bag... I chose some cheaper chips I don't like as much, but got 2 bags for $4.50. A can of pad-Thai sauce is $12 at my grocery...
Yeah, chips are outrageous. I simply stopped buying them.
I mean, only a little bit of labor. Even with premium grounds, I can't imagine it costing more than 50 cents to make a half gallon. As for labor, just throw it all in a pitcher, give it a quick shake or stir, then leave it in the fridge for a couple of days. Pour it through a standard filter. I use the basket from my regular coffee maker.
Making your own cold brew is one of the most cost-efficient DIY foods out there.
I've been making cold brew with an in-jar filter that is more complicated than it should be but still not hard except for the pre planning for a few days in advance when I'm traveling for work. I'm definitely going to try it the way you describe though.
Is it cheaper to make your own?
Much
Almost always cheaper to make your own anything.
I buy staples as cheaply as I can, and most other things I only buy on sale. Plan my cooking for the week around that.
I continue to be spoiled by Costco's low prices. Seriously, check them out if you can.
I also imagine that similar wholesale clubs also have lower prices, but I cannot say from 1st hand experience.
It’s low per unit, but high up front. And you gotta hope you don’t get tired of whatever you bought
Aldi is also great if you've got one near you and are not able (or don't need) to buy in bulk.
If you haven't shopped there before, they're a German based chain that's spread across the rest of Europe and a lot of North America and almost-only sells their own store-brand products. Their prices are similar to Walmart and Kroger store brand but, IMO, they're of much better quality. As a person with ADHD, I find shopping there to be much less anxiety inducing... it's a grocery store the size of a Walgreens. If I need pickles, there's one brand with five different cuts in three flavors; there's only two kinds of ketchup, six kinds of fruit juice, four different laundry detergents... one kind of paper plates. Also, the cashiers are scary fast.
I can complete my weekly shop in like twenty minutes without a headache or back pain. It's genuinely like someone designed a grocery store just for me and it's cheap AF... just remember to bring your own reusable bags and a quarter. You'll need a quarter to unlock the shopping cart from the rack. You get your coin back when you return your cart like a civilized human being. They have paper bags for sale at the register for like 28¢ if you forget to bring your own.
I agree, Aldi is great. Especially for 1-2 person households.
Aldi >>>> Costco
A lot of shit at Costco isn't even a good deal these days. People just assume it must be because they are bad at basic arithmetic. Like, there are some good deals still, but not like how it was ten years ago. These days most stuff is legitimately cheaper at Aldi.
Costco is great, but I have to force myself to shop without a cart to prevent me from buying stuff I don't need (so I only get the essentials that I can carry).
Getting 1.5kg of cereal lasts me way longer which is amazing, when the normal grocery stores have "family size" boxes that have just been shrinking and shrinking.
We are almost exclusively Costco and WinCo for groceries. They are consistently the best places to go, price-wise.
That said, I'm getting really fucking tired of corporate greed making hard to live.
Eating fingernails with a side of depression
Ever pick your nose?
Yeah, extra protein
that hit a bit too close to home
Buy in bulk.
Buy lots of dried beans, rice, etc. (living in earthquake land, I like to keep our canned goods fairly stocked and just rotate out old ones only).
Buy from farmers markets when available, frozen veg when not.
Buy whatever the supermarket is trying to get rid of. In Japan, I end up with mystery seafood a fair amount, but just about anything is fine fried or in a stew.
Stay away from things out-of-season and pre-prepared foods.
Use any space you have to grow something. Even in my Tokyo apartment, I was growing herbs and chilis.
The above helps. I think everyone has some thing they don't want to give up and that's fine. When I first got out on my own in the US, I ended up surviving off of whatever I could get at the restaurants I worked at and boxed, instant mashed potatoes from the dollar store.
On a similar note to what @lagomorphlecture@lemm.ee I have an instant pot and that's made cooking stuff that's cheap but usually takes time to make really easy, brown rice or a potato based soup are a click away. At of course the cost of an upfront investment.
Also, some recipes can be really cheap if you have the time. Rossotto, homemade bread (with yeast or baking soda), baked beans (from dry bulk pinto beans), pasta (homemade & store bought) naan bread & homemade wheat tortillas, and baked oatmeal are all things I enjoy that come to mind and might be worth trying. They taste good and can be made for super cheap.
Wishing you luck internet stranger
I'm a vegetarian and my instant pot is great for beans. I didn't bring that up since canned beans are cheap but they're high sodium and are probably more contaminated with plastic than dried beans. I would never bother with dried beans without the instant pot but they're super easy with it. So I guess depending on your diet either an instant pot, slow cooker or air fryer can really have a huge impact on your grocery bill.
how do you prepare them? Whenever I tried using a pressure cooked for dried beans they turned out mush.
Part of it probably depends on what beans. I eat a lot of chickpeas and I think they're a harder bean and less likely to get mushy. The other one is black beans and definitely they would be easier to overcook. Did you do the quick release? If not, next time quick release then immediately drain them and give them a quick rinse in cold water. I'm just using the bean setting on my instant pot so if that's what you're doing and it's still mushy with the quick release, figure out how long that cooks for and drop it by a minute or two.
Hmm yes, I tried both, quick release and letting it cool down, also with chickpeas. Always ended up in mush...
I have a stovetop one, so there's no program for me, I just tried what some recipies on the internet recommend.
Oh ok. I have to guess they're cooking too long then but I've never used a stovetop one so IDK how much you should adjust it.
Starting with as raw an ingredient as I can. Processed foods adds a lot to the price per calorie. So I start with raw ingredients which is a ton cheaper, and then cook it from there.
Plus my stuff tastes like I want so that’s great.
Rice, brother. Lots of rice.
I shop at Aldi, buy only basic ingredients (as little prepared foods as possible), and eat less. Snacks are basically out, though I may get peanuts from time to time.
Decent cost of living wage increase, then switched jobs to higher pay on top of that. But I was never struggling to pay for food. Housing is the big one in my budget. But I have a fixed rate mortgage so inflation has not affected that.
Seems like prices have stopped increasing much lately too so I haven’t given it as much thought as a year ago.
Hallowed is the Aldi.
My local grocery chain has decent coupons, and a debit card with cash back on their brand of products, so I've been making a lot of use out of those.
Been buying a lot of large orders of cheap dry goods that can last a while like rice and beans. Some rice, some beans, throw some cheese and some sauces in there, get creative with some seasonings, and you can make some pretty bomb-ass burritos at home for super cheap. I'm not vegan/vegetarian, but I often make them without any meat (but use some "meaty" seasonings), and you can easily just skip the cheese if you wanna make it vegan, I suppose.
I eat a lot of beans and rice because it’s healthy. In bulk it’s cheap as well since I cook both.
I've just stopped eating, I'm hoping it will make the survival aspect a moot point after awhile.
I am lucky that my income to expenses is a good ratio so I can buy what I want without undue hardship but I cringe because I used to feed myself for about half the money.
I do buy items in bulk when the bulk unit price is significantly lower if it will keep and I will use it eventually. I will also try to get these items while they are on sale. This is a one time high expenditure that pays off in the long run and unfortunately the people who need to do this most are the ones who can't afford the extra expense at one time of buying bulk. I do this with things like rice, beans (I'm vegetarian so I'm not eating beans because I can't afford anything else, it's a big part of my diet). Also things like flour, salt, pepper, anything that doesn't easily spoil and will get used eventually.
I also allow the store to track the fuck out of me on their app by clipping store coupons. Unfortunately this is a necessary evil because it usually saves me $10 to $15 per week.
With fruits and vegetables, buying what's in season during the growing months saves a lot and buying frozen vegetables instead of fresh has the same or better nutritional profile but can be much cheaper.
I've been searching for lentil recipes.
I found this one on an old man's Instagram account. It was really nice! I subbed some of the stock for a can of IPA.
Lentil Soup Recipe
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 chopped onion
4 cloves of chopped garlic
3 medium carrots, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
1 can of diced tomatoes
1/8 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes, or more to taste
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, or more to taste
1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
1 teaspoon of cumin
1 teaspoon of chili powder
1 teaspoon of salt
6 cups of chicken stock
1 cup of red lentils, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup of yellow lentils, rinsed and drained
Instructions:
Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.
Add onions and garlic and cook until the onion is translucent, about five minutes.
Stir in the carrots and celery and cook until the vegetables are tender, about eight more minutes.
Stir in your tomato paste, crushed red pepper, cayenne pepper (if you decide to use), salt, black pepper, smoked paprika, cumin, and chili powder.
Mix in your lentils and chicken stock.
Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low and simmer until the lentils are soft, about 40 minutes.
Thanks, I will definitely give it a try.
This Slowcooker Lentil Soup tastes great and freezes well.
Mmm, that looks great.
This recipe is so good. I'm a vegetarian, not vegan, but I'm always looking for really good no meat options and this is just delicious, basically it's beef stew flavored.
Also you can replace the meat in tacos and gyros with lentils using the same seasoning, also delicious. Just use whatever recipe you normally like for those.
You should look into chickpeas. Personally I find that lentils work great where you might use red meat and chickpeas work great where you might use white meat/chicken so you don't even need specific recipes because you can just omit the meat and add the legumes instead.
Thanks, that recipe looks delicious. I want to give lentils in pasta sauce but I'm afraid I won't like it. I've tried chickpeas and I just can't seem to like them.
I put lentils in my vegetarian chili. Do chilli however you like - I prefer a bean blend over straight kidney beans- and just boil a pot of lentils and use them in place of the ground beef if your doing a quick chili. I would think you wouldn't want them pre cooked if you're doing a slow cook chili.
Thanks. I have a recipe for chili I really like, I will give it a try.
A great addition to the already awesome tips here is having room mates. You're never too old to shack up with friends or family and save. It's only logical, it cuts down on waste, and makes you grow to be a better person and communicator in adulthood, something the world could always use more of.
it's become very normal for people to live with their parents well into their 20s until they've completed their apprenticeship around hamburg, can't speak for any other places though.
I’ve had some roommates who are amazing friends
Never again
It’s just my partner and myself forever.
No way
Spending a few hundred a week for the two of us to eat a basic equivalent diet to that available in Europe. I brought back all my shampoo, body wash, moisturizers, etc in a 50 lb suitcase which I loaded up at carrefour on my last trip to France.
I haven’t starved yet. I know from experience that if I get calorically restricted for too long, I will do anything to fill my stomach. So fortunately, it hasn’t got to the point where my morality starts to degrade yet.
I still have 50 lb of COVID rice in my pantry.
I've been slipping over to Aldi or Costco for produce. Sure I have to buy more at Costco, but the price is there are still lower per pound than they were at my grocery store before inflation.
I make a lot of stuff from scratch I don't rely on a lot of mixes. The price of bulk flour and the price of bulk rice hasn't gone up nearly as much as Purdue chicken breast.
Step 1) plant potatoes Step 2) cry
Some things can be grown at home with relative ease and not much space. A lot depends on where you are, how much space you have, your soil, if you can invest money, what spare time you can give. So either research or experimentation is key.
I live in Florida (I'm sorry I'm voting as hard as I can) and have had success with these from seeds or cut-offs from store bought items: Kiwis, passion fruit, pineapple, tomatoes, garlic, turmeric, onion, ginger. These I have bought the plant or seeds from nurseries (or Korean supermarket): Brocoli, any peppers, any dark leafy greens.
There is so much information on youtube. I found the initial time to set up a small garden is about 10- 20 hours in the first 2 weeks, then about 10-20 mins every 2 to 3 days.
"real food" is the most affordable. I stick to that. The outside of the store. Not the middle
My spreadsheet shows my grocery costs are about 12% higher than last year. A difference of around $10/wk.
I mostly buy ingredients and cook bulk batches of food. Before, we were splurging on instacart, but they got crazy expensive with their upcharges (MINIMUM 15% increase in item cost, + service charge, +delivery fee (or the annual delivery fee), +tip (it started to feel like 15% was too low, on top of the 15% grocery upcharge).
We stopped that and we actually spend less now even after this inflation.
Haven't noticed any difference. I buy non-processed foods only (meat, vegetables, grains, spices) and everything has been pretty stable for decades.
In the Midwest onions and red bell pepper are $1.20-1.50 a lb. That is way different than even a few years ago
Buying cheaper stuff. Doing fine I guess
Ramen keeping me alive.
Ramon is a good guy. Glad you got ‘em in your life to help keep ya goin.
Is it partly budget-time or budget only? You need nutrition.
I'm doing a lot more cooking that's for sure
Pancakes can really go with anything, they're basically a large flat biscuit. Not to mention they keep quite nicely if frozen or simply put in the fridge
Carefully.
I shop at grocery outlet and ultimately eat very little.
I was actually contributing a fair bit to savings with the last job I did, but for anybody making 14 or less I can imagine it's a real struggle.
Bulk buys
The fact that the battle against spending lots of money on groceries is to spend even more money in groceries. I hate that you're right and we're doomed.
Right, this is the worst part. The people who most desperately need to get cheaper groceries can't afford to save money on groceries by buying in bulk. It's shitty and sad.
i shop bulk as much as i can, eat oatmeal for breakfast daily, and after i had my gall bladder removed i got in the habit of eating 2-3oz portions of animal protein no more than 5 times a week. i spend a bunch of time in the kitchen every week but it definitely softens the blow. it also helps that i have a couple of cheap staple meals i can make for less than $5 per serving.
i also shop around for value. i live near 4 different grocery stores so i dont spend a lot of time doing it, but i do make a run to grocery outlet every month in order to get discounts on bigger items but it can be hit or miss.
Bought instant noodles in bulk. I could have gotten the cheap, tasteless kind, but I prefer the more expensive Asian ones. Still ends up being much less expensive than groceries anyways. I have a good portion of the pantry filled with just different types of instant noodles, all of which were bought in bulk. I do buy groceries, but I avoid the more expensive foods as much as possible. Just stuff like milk, eggs, spinach, fruits, etc.
I don't eat instant noodles every day, but if I don't feel like cooking or if I'm running low on food, I can "supplement" the meal with instant noodles. Having instant noodles as "backup" helps takes a bit of the edge off with regards to grocery spending, although I do admit that I could take more drastic measures to save. Despite living in an area where the cost of living is absurd (one of the highest in the country), I feel somewhat well off in that I can get by with just supplementing my meals with instant noodles every now and then.
Woodman’s
It ain't fun, not even close.
My prices have come down quite a bit over the past few months. It was a stretch to feed myself on $250 but now I’m ending the month with a few dollars left over
I've been shopping at WinCo, it's a further bike ride than Fred Meyer or Trader Joes but the prices are hard to beat. This year I'm looking at buying into a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). The one I'm looking at is $400 for 12 boxes of food spread across 24 weeks. We'll see if it's a good deal. I'll be planting a garden soon too. Hoping to get a 3 sisters plot or two as well as some potatoes in containers
I am lucky enough to have a yard, so grow leafy greens in most seasons and some other veg.
Other than that, what I noticed about the food inflation is that prices converged, whole foods were already expensive but their prices came down a little while our regular grocery and the cheaper place increased theirs a lot, regular grocery prices worse than whole foods in quite a lot of the things I actually buy so I just buy stuff at whole foods and local ethnic groceries now, not much from the chain grocery.
Dried beans and canned beans we use for near every meal but have always done, that's not a change.
Housing here has increased way more than food. Rent and purchase prices went crazy and are now dropping so slowly.
I started harvesting stinging nettle to replace spinach
Grow my own raspberries and strawberries. Blackberries grow on the property as do salmon berries, huckleberries, and elderberries.
I have a cherry tree but the squirrels and the jays get to those before I do lol
In the garden I can grow a handful of veggies that'll last the year.
For meat I hunt or buy directly from the rancher/butcher when I can. I can get crayfish out of the creek every now and then as well.
Grocery Outlet and Trader Joe’s. For GrocOut just go and see what’s cheap, don’t shop off a list. Make sure the prices of the stuff you’re buying is about 50% off or more. At TJ’s everything is priced pretty fairly, just buy what you want to eat.
Don’t drink alcohol or soda, or anything canned really.
I spend between 250-300 a week. Before the pandemic it was about 80-100 a week.
Just curious, how many are you shopping for? I'm spending about $100-150 a week just for myself.
Three.
Thanks! I'm considering a move to Oregon in the next few years, so that's at least good to know that it's not drastically different from what I'm paying right now.
I split my time in three locations due to work. Prices are similar in all three places. I will say the beef I get in Oregon is a lot better than the beef in the Midwest. It’s odd.
The hardest thing to adjust to is no sales tax. So some prices are higher but no tax in the end.
Dining is more expensive in Oregon than in Chicago. Though you know the staff is paid better. So I’d rather pay more.
Not having to pump your gas is nice.
Prices haven't gone up that much where I live, and some of the things that have risen in price have actually started going back down recently. But I guess it all varies from one place to another.
But in general, I shop the sales flyers, I get things that are discounted such as meat that will expire soon, and I get the cheap staples like rice and beans. I stopped buying name brand items and unnecessary snack foods. I also use the Ibotta app which gives me some cash back. Usually not a lot, but over the course of a year it's meaningful.
For the past month I'm paying around 30% more than I was in July 2022, and 10% more than I was in April 2022. (I just picked two random months from where I wasn't yet either too lazy or busy to track everything I bought on the computer. Really need to catch up on that tbh because I haven't updated the file for more than a year.)
The amount of stupid bullshit such as energy drinks I buy varies so to get any actually usable stats I'd have to average it over a longer time frame but it seems fine to me.
Why, how bad is it elsewhere?
Where I live, the grocery prices aren't up anywhere near the double or triple that other people have mentioned. The basics / necessities have generally seen more modest price increases over the past few years. There have been obvious exceptions like when there's been shortages of specific things or like if I were to compare out of season produce prices to the prices of stuff when its in season, but in those cases I just go without (which also kind of proves they weren't necessities to begin with).
For the most part, any luxury items or luxury brands that have dramatically increased their prices and engaged in shrinkflation, I stop buying that stuff or cut way back. Even if I can afford that stuff, I'm not going to pay the prices. And if I weren't really able to afford to feed myself, I would definitely not be buying anything like that. No organic apples for me. No potato chips. No microwave meals. No soda.
In my adult life, I've twice experienced food insecurity. I can't speak to anybody's situation in specific, but for me what worked was willingness to be flexible and getting creative. I would grow as much of my own food as I could, even in a small shared living space I could grow some lettuce or spring onions in a window. I was also pretty knowledgeable about edible plants, including local/wild stuff, so that helped to supplement my diet as well.
I taught myself how to cook and it's been life-changing.
Any advice or tips on how you did it?
I literally just looked up instructions online and in cookbooks and followed them. Learned common patterns in cooking by using a bunch of recipes.
It's actually pretty easy. You just have to put in the effort and be willing to try, follow instructions, and fail sometimes.
i'm homeless personally. where once i could survive on $5 a day, i'm always coming up short on the $20 needed nowadays just to eat. so i fast lots, my skating suffers.
Look for little food cabinets outside churches and libraries. Sometimes people put in tuna-cracker kits, a fresh fruit, bottled water, hot cocoa or instant coffee packets. The kits are nice because no can opener, heat, utensil needed. It’s not ideal but not least ideal, either.
those are amazing little places indeed. Sikh temples and Methodist churches are helpful too
Sikhs and Methodists are really nice. Catholic Churches often give out grocery cards and/or have food pantries.
No issues. Seems fine.