This is $87 worth of shopping. Please feel free to use the space below to critique my purchases

_number8_@lemmy.world to Mildly Infuriating@lemmy.world – 327 points –

how is the value proposition here? was this an adequate use of money?

(keeping in mind as well fwiw i don't eat meat)

184

Presliced cheese is typically more expensive than block. Alfredo is cheap to make from scratch. The instant Mac that comes in the microwavable bowls are like 2.5x the price per ounce of the ones that are just packets.

I've always held that belief about block vs shredded/sliced cheese, but in my receny grocery trips, I've noticed that all the stores in my area charge the same by weight for block, shredded, and sliced. Obviously YMMV

Same for me. It used to be the case that a block of cheese was cheaper than sliced or grated, but at some point in the last 10 years it's evened out. That's the case for every store I shop at.

I realized that too ages ago. But I still find blocks better for 2 reasons. 1) you can cut cheese mold off and the rest is perfectly fine so blocks can last longer. 2) shredded does have anti caking agents to keep it loose. Nothing bad IMO, but unnecessary for my cooking.

I feel like the anti faking agent dulls the flavor. sometimes it's worth it though cause grating can be a hassle and maybe your gonna melt it.

The instant Mac that comes in the microwavable bowls are like 2.5x the price per ounce of the ones that are just packets.

They also use some sort of thickener that turns into mucusy slime when water is poured on it so you don't have to use milk or butter. We're at the point now where there are better ways to eat your processed foods, LOL.

It’s a lot of processed bread / carb products and very little protein.

Lots of cheese. Op is probably vegetarian

They said this in the post

Doh. I completely missed that.

Still they need beans or something. Protein is important

You can get plenty of protein from cheese if you're alright with having a dysfunctional digestive tract.

I agree the cat looks mostly fat with very little quality protein content. 😸

That was my first thought too. I know those muffins ain't cheap either and are PACKED with calories. That'd be the first thing I'd drop

So, some points for consideration….

Canned vegetables will have around half their product weight in Canning Liquid. So keep that in mind when comparing prices on frozen ($0.082/ozverse canned ($.044/oz).

Frozen is also usually better in quality (texture, nutrient value) and lower in salt and other preservatives. Modern freezing centers are frequently able to get nearly as good as fresh; and might come out on top if you’re not buying from the farmers market.

Lentils and rice represent a whole protein, and are easily adapted to a variety of flavors; (For example); takes about 10 minutes of prep, 25-30 of reasonably hands off time and can be easily made in advance and augmented with fruits and vegetables. (For example, sautéed squash/zucchini plopped on top.) or basically any kind of stir fry mix.

Block cheeses are going to save you money, compared to sliced or shredded.

On that note, Alfredo (or rather pasta al burro) is super simple to make; albeit requiring some technique and experience : reserve some (hot) pasta water, in a large bowl, soft butter and the drained pasta. Stir until coated toss in the parmigano regianno; use the pasta water to help emulsify and melt the cheese. (Alfredo melts 3x butter with heavy cream, reduces that then adds the pasta and cheese, a bit more work, imo.)

You’re probably thinking I’m a snob for using the Italian name for Parmesan. Fun fact: in the US Parmesan is not in fact Parmigiano reggiano as it is in the EU- but if you stick to block cheese and away from that Kraft shaker Parmesan, you’ll be fine. (It’s cheese, mostly, but there’s stuff added to it that makes it… not good… for sauces.)

Also, in a similar vien, a mornay sauce can replace Mac and cheese tubs, and generally don’t require extra time compared to just cooking the pasta. (Equal parts melted butter and flour, whisk together until smooth, medium-low heat. Whisk in milk slowly until the consistency of heavy cream, then whisk in shredded or cubed cheese a bit at a time, letting it melt. When the pasta is mostly cooked, reserve some of the water and drain the rest, finish the pasta in the sauce, using the pasta water to control consistency and as an emulsifier.)(if you want to get fancy, before making the roux, sauté a minced clove of garlic and maybe some minced onion in the butter, then proceed. Black pepper to taste.)

Oh, and pro tip, heads of garlic cost less than the jars of minced grossness. Similarly, saving scraps like onions, carrots, celery, ginger, mushrooms, and stuff, can then be simmered in a lot of water to make stock, and can add flavor and nutrients to things like rice or stews (potatoes, mushrooms?)

Authentic Parmigiano Reggiano is technically not vegetarian, it contains rennet (though usually people don't care)

Rennet is one of those things that are going to depend on which vegetarian you're talking to. It's certainly not vegan. There's also vegan alternatives to it that can be used. A lot of cheeses are made with rennet since it's one of the most effective enzymes for curdling.

FWIW, I bought cheese made with vegan rennet the other day. I had to look it up, and apparently it's made from mushrooms. It blew my mind.

Also if note keep an eye on value when selecting sizes. Rice and grains go down in price per weight drastically when you buy larger quantities. I buy extreme bulk for flour and rice. The flower lasts me months the rice lasts me years and I'm paying less than half as much for my rice and flour

if it's brown rice, it doesn't last years- 3-6 months is good, you can vacbag and freeze, though. But while white rice might last years at room temperature, you're still paying for storage, and running the risk of vermin or it getting wet or otherwise ruined while it is being stored. This is one of those "you do you" things, but, I know my pantry doesn't have space for 2 years worth of rice...

yeah, I want to buy a costco bag of rice because its stupid cheap but I don't want to have that much grain storage. but you could get like at least a 1/4 of all your caloric needs for a year for 40 bucks.

Someone that has an $87 food budget probably isn't going to buy imported Italian cheese.

There's some US-made "parmesan" that's somewhat decent and quite a bit cheaper than the legit Italian stuff, just make sure you buy a block of it and not anything pre-grated, and that it doesn't have any filler ingredients.

Some US-made parmesan is produced using similar techniques to Parmigiano Reggiano, they just can't legally call it that since it's not made in a specific area in Italy.

Block cheese in general will be okay, but some of it isn’t even made eith the same process and is instead just flavored with crap to make it taste the same.

Which in general, buy the best you can afford. Doesn’t have to be amazing, most people won’t even really know the difference anyhow.

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

For example

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

On the garlic front taste a spoonful of minced garlic and then a clove of fresh garlic and you will then know how little garlic flavour is in that minced garlic. It'll be night and day. spit the clove of garlic out once you do that cus it will be overpowering.

I would suggest not putting a full clove of raw garlic in your mouth, lol.

(the only time I do that is when people try to tell me garlic isn't spicy and insist peppers are the only 'spicy' food. capsaicin isn't spicy- it's not even a flavonoid. It triggers the heat/temperature receptors rather than taste receptors; which is why it feels like burning. chewing a whole clove of garlic is a great way to cause an afternoon of indigestion, though.)

Take it from someone who knows vegetarian eating, this is a dangerously low amount of protein, and no those cheese slices do not cover it. I'd wager your daily protein macro is a single digit percentage (most sources suggest around 15-35% depending on exercise and lifestyle and all that). If this haul is your entire diet for the week and you're not leaving out stuff you already have at home or something, I would strongly advise looking for more protein dense foods before protein deficiency starts to affect your well being. I've been there and it's really not good.

Am currently there. Have started drinking Pea Protein shakes (to stay plant-based) quite often. But that would have bumped this shopping trip to $100

Best of luck! It really sucks, and the worst part is it's hard to notice at first, and easily written off as working too much or something until you realize you're doing it to yourself. I've heard good things about pea protein but sadly it's not really a thing in my country yet so I haven't had a chance to try it.

Anyway, whey powder can be pretty cheap these days (they have cheese so dairy isn't a restriction), and there are enough duplicates in this picture that they could cut a couple things and keep the same price point if the budget is tight.

Yeah, the crazy thing is reflecting back, now that I have recent bloodwork showing just how low my protein levels are. I was totally attributing the lethargy to stress from work. I mean, I was stressed (have since changed jobs), and started having panic attacks, but who’s to say that wasn’t exacerbated by an unbalanced diet. I feel soooo much better, and more energized, now that I’m getting the right amount of protein.

Pea protein is great, and the same price here as whey. I actually like the unflavored taste, too. I just mix it with water.

It is kinda an extra expense tho, since it’s not necessarily replacing meals. Still eating lunch & dinner, just adding shakes in between. But absolutely worth it!

Assuming this is representative of everything OP has to eat in the time frame these were purchased for. They might have meats in the freezer, dried/canned beans, etc. that these items will be paired with.

OP states in the OP that OP does not eat meat.

Edit: a word

Yeah, missed that, however my point still stands. This could be more just component items for longer term shelf life stuff, and snacks. They still could have beans, lentils, rice, etc at home and these things are just to make specific meals through the week or whatever.

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Idk I feel like buying a cat with your groceries was a bit too much. Should have just skipped the groceries and only bought the cat

This whole picture can be summed up in two words:

Can't cook

Exactly. So much of it is like refined and premade/finished shit. Presliced cheese? 😂 Buy a cheese plane/slicer and a block of cheese ffs. Much cheaper.

Although depending on the country, the actual price on the low end is comparable or even pricier for the blocks.

However, you get access to tons more really good cheese if you buy in blocks.

Love me some block of cheddar. That can go on spaghetti Bolognese, crackers, sandwiches, beans or just over some chips for some cheesy goodness.

Also pre-grated cheese has anti-caking agents, so it does things like not melt as well. A rotary grater and block of cheese can get you a better experience for a bit less money, and just a bit of work.

In addition to cheddar, a block of whole milk low moisture mozzarella for making pizza is excellent

honestly you don't even need to learn to cook, just buy an assload of vegetables and some protein and toss that in a big pot, fry it up for a bit, then add water and let simmer for as long as you can.

soup/stew is, in practical terms, the best food.

also depending on what exact ingredients you get you can do what we in sweden call "mess in a pan" where you just dice up some root vegetable, onions, some protein (e.g. sausage), fry that up with some salt and pepper, and maybe serve with an egg. Trivial and hilariously cheap.
For 80 bucks you get AT LEAST 8 kg of that dish, and if you just add a bunch of different root veggies and peas and whatever fits, that's basically pet food but for humans. You shouldn't be missing any particular nutrient and it's so good that i barely mind eating nothing but that day in and day out.

Lotsa carbs. At least you’ve got some veg in there.

Try adding beans or other veg with protein, more filling and less likely to snack. Nuts, quinoa, asparagus or avocado will help, too.

Agreed. Almonds and walnuts aren't too expensive. Peanuts are still mostly just peanuts. And I heard my neighbor sold her mercedes for 5 cashews. Lots of options in the nut department.

If you eat a lot of pasta I would recommend learning some simple sauce recipes. Tomato sauce is probably the cheapest, and it's basically a can of whole tomatoes, half an onion, some garlic, and some herbs. Cream sauces might be cheaper to buy canned, but you can make those with some cream, onions, garlic, and Parmesan cheese.

Other than that it looks like you're making good choices. The system just sucks ass. I hope your next trip is more fruitful.

Bechamel costs pennies per serving to make and is the base for a million other sauces. Also far far better for you than that prego garbage.

Just wanted to second this. Learning to use a roux as a base saves me so much money and effort. A bit of butter(or any oil) and flour makes any creamy sauce/soup/stew you'd like. Add milk, broth, spices, garlic, cheese... The skies the limit and it's a lot cheaper than cream or cream cheese, and I always have it in the house.

I don't keep milk or heavy cream in the house and I don't think it would work as well with soy, so I don't think this will work for everyone.

It will absolutely work fine with fake milk. The mechanism you're using is boiling the fried flour. Any (edible) liquid will work.

I hope your next trip is more fruitful.

Hey now, OP bought tomatoes, those are technically a fruit!

Also, you don't have to make fresh sauce everytime. You can make a large batch, then freeze it in ice cube trays, then move the cubes into ziplock.

Processed food is usually more expensive per portion than the ingredients alone. The farther you get from the raw ingredients the more expensive it gets. Plus, you're eating all sorts of junk ingredients.

I had about ten years of experience with a very tight food budget to learn what was good value for effort/ingredients.

Good:

Flour, sugar, canned tomatoes, spices, frozen veggies, fresh produce

Bad:

Presliced or pre-grated cheeses, at least in my experience, are marked up 1.5x to 2x the cost per pound of a block. Another commenter said that wasn't the case in their store, but check and see if that is true for you and if the cheeses you got are available in blocks. You can even go to a place with a deli counter and they will slice cheese for you for free, and you will get exactly how much you want with less waste (yes it's an interaction with another human, it'll be alright).

Uncrustables/swiss rolls/mac and cheese... it's not for me to judge what someone chooses for an indulgence, maybe those things are what get you through your day, but you can definitely do better value wise. Mac and cheese from a box is cheaper than those individual cups, and homemade mac and cheese from scratch is even better and extremely easy if you have any kitchen experience. Uncrustables will always be more expensive than just making the sandwich yourself. The swiss rolls... well you know they're a treat. In my opinion if you're going to treat yourself to something unhealthy spend the extra dollar and get something luxurious.

Breads and muffins, again if you could learn how to make them yourself you might be impressed with the results. Bread can be a tricky balance of time, effort and cost of ingredients, and homemade fresh baked bread is incredible, but if you're short on time there's nothing wrong with buying it. Muffins are a quick bread though that you could make at home in under an hour with a mixing bowl and a cupcake pan, and then you could control exactly how much sugar went into them and have hot, fresh muffins. It's worth making them yourself at least once to see if it's something you can add to your routine, you can get a cupcake pan for cheap from a thrift store if you don't have one.

Sauces and dips, as other people have said, they are a lot simpler than you might think to make yourself. In my experience they are one of those things you should challenge yourself to make at least once or twice and see how much effort and time it takes you, and then re-evaluate the jarred/canned stuff. Maybe after making it you realize it is worth the extra dollar or so to save yourself the effort, but maybe you realize it's not that hard and you're able to save money in the long run and have more control over the quality and ingredients.

All this stuff is incremental, and any one thing isn't going to magically fix food costs. Plus as the amount of time in your life to spend on meal prep fluctuates you might find it's worth it to spend the extra money on convenience. However it's important to at least get some experience with the alternatives so you understand what amount of time and effort you are buying by getting those processed foods. Good luck :)

$87 for grocery used to get you gourmet organic foods. In 2024 you get uncrustables. I hate this timeline.

Uncrustables have always been expensive, relatively speaking. That box represents 10-20 depending on where they are. Going with 10, that could have been a jar of pb and jam, and a loaf of whole grain….and the jar of jams and pb will last more than a single loaf will.

Even less if you buy the same crappy bread they use.

It's fine that you don't eat meat, but where's the protein in your diet? Beans, tofu, peas?

Not a bad haul, I might be biased as an Australian, but that looks like good value for money for food that's balanced and easy to cook.

As a fellow non-meat eater, I am deeply disturbed by the lack of legumes in this photo, but if you're not a fan of cooking from dried, then I get it, canned can get expensive for what you get out of it.

Some charred chickpeas with olive oil lightly smashed on that rosemary bread would end up being my breakfast for a week straight if this was my house.

What do you mean no meat? The cat is right there!

(Kidding, I love my cat.)

Oh I assumed that was a cat for farming fur balls, not meat.

Don't know how expensive is in Australia, but in Europe most of the time you can find the supermarket brands of legumes at about a euro for a can (medium sized). So it's not that bad, and more practical unless you are cooking for several people.

Not too far off, $1AUD (0.60 euros) would be a cheap can of beans (which is often mostly water, even if it's a 400g can, once you drain the beans, your millage varies by brand) $3 a can is average for name brands that fill the can to the brim.

But when you can buy 500g of dried beans for $3.99, and that will make the equivalent of 8-10 cans of beans, as someone who doesn't eat meat (and has allergies so can't eat commercial "mock meats"), I eat at least 2 serves of legumes every single day. Buying cans adds up at that scale even though I'm just one person. So I always buy dry legumes when I can.

I definitely have some cans in the pantry for emergencies though, because they are very convenient.

But I also have some pre-cooked, unseasoned beans and chick peas in the freezer, when I cook up a big pot I always throw a few portions in the freezer. They defrost in less than a minute in the microwave, so I'll use them before I crack open a can of beans.

People are out here choosing to eat canned green beans? When you could just as easily eat NOTHING and have roughly the same nutritional value and none of the slimy, masochistic horror show that is canned green beans. (I don't care for canned green beans).

When you could just as easily eat NOTHING and have roughly the same nutritional value

I'm no nutritionist, but that seems incorrect based on my cursory Google search. lol

I actually like canned green beans slightly more than fresh or frozen. It has something to do with the texture, but idk what exactly. Though imo most veggies are definitely better fresh, for some reason I really enjoy canned peas too (I know I'm a weirdo).

In my opinion, the only acceptable way to eat most vegetables is roasted and seasoned. Frozen vegetables are easier to roast as they are part cooked before frozen.

If I go to a restaurant and I receive boiled vegetables I won't go there again. Sick freaks.

On Thanksgiving, my aunt boils broccoli and potatoes and serves them totally unseasoned. Not even salt. 😢

It's one of many reasons why I haven't gone in years.

In one half cup serving you get:

Calories: 15

Fat: 0

Sodium: 15mg, 1%

Total Carbohydrate: 3g, 1%

Fiber: 1g, 4%

Protein, 1g

Calcium, 25mg, 1%

Iron, 1mg, 6%

Potassium, 60mg, 2%

Nutritionally, I don't think your body will notice if you don't eat the green beans. But if you like them, by all means (beans)!

How much did you pay for the cat and how would you cook it?

You’re eating far too much healthy food. Try mixing in some junk to balance things out.

Not bad, not great. I buy my veggies from a grocery that specializes in that, it's much cheaper and less plastic. No yogurt? No solid/brick cheese? No nuts and dried fruit? No canned beans or dried beans? Peanut butter?

What you really need is a $/portion table to see what's actually expensive here.

I think the muffins tip you over the edge into junk food land. They are very empty and basically the same as the rolls, the kraft dinner, and whatever is in the red box. A fair bit of this stuff is basically sugar and bread.

My SO and I recently found out that Walmart (I see the Great Value brand) has actually become one of the more expensive places to buy goods from. We've done comparisons from Trader Joe's, Fry's, and Safeway. We've found that Walmart is the least value. Take what you will.

I get 3x as many groceries at Costco for the same price as at Walmart.

I can shop at Costco for my family of two. There are a lot of bulk items that don't make sense for me to buy, but non-perishables and especially any electronics or big (for me) money items I try to buy from them

I just say that because I hear a lot of people hesitant to shop there with the reason they won't be able to finish everything before it goes bad. But they sell a lot of household items and the lifetime guarantee is worth the membership cost by itself

Also if you're an executive member you can add someone else for free! They don't even have to be in your household. I added a friend in need so they could get some necessities

You're doing a great job for a 5 year old (based on the Uncrustables)

Is the cat included? If yes, it's worth the price

Needs butter, eggs, beans, garlic (i assume you already have salt & pepper), rice (get a bigger bag, it's cheap! Learn different rice recipes) and noodles...lose the uncrustables, the muffins, and the Swiss rolls. Get a big bag of cereal instead (good for snacking + breakfast) and a box of muffin mix (you get more for cheaper). Room for improvement, but good instincts with the veggies, just get some fruit too 🤙🤙

Edit- canned diced tomatoes and chicken broth really go a long way when making rice- I love using knorrs tomato/chicken bullion when making Mexican rice

I assume you are making the cat into tacos and for that you made some good choices

For the price of one 10 pack of uncrustables you can get 2 loaves of bread and a jar each of PB and J, and have sandwiches for 2 weeks!

More veggies, less Smuckers

I have cravings for Uncrustables. I know that you can just like... make a pbj for way cheaper, but they just hit different.

Probably all the added sugar, lmao.

Needs more legumes, nuts and or seeds, maybe some starches and fruit.

Do people really fuck with uncrustables? I almost picked some up tonight

Hell yeah, straight out the freezer into my fat face

Suggestion: Get some canned refried beans. With the tortillas and cheese, you can make burritos.

Better suggestion: Get a bag of dried pinto beans and learn how to make your own beans. It's really simple, just needs to be aimmered a long time.

Beans would be a good source of protein. Rice and beans and spice!

You can use a pressure cooker to trim down the time it takes to cook beans to 10-15m. Just remember to soak them at least 8h beforehand (which you should be doing anyway) except for blackeye beans which don't need that.

Also works on pretty much anything that you boil and would take a long time to cook (mainly stews).

You're basically trading the extra investment of buying a pressure cooker (which also works fine as a normal pan) for the savings in gas an electricity from cooking such things about 3x faster.

I've always just checked for rocks, wash them, then put them into a pot of water on low heat for a few hours on the stove. Just add salt midway through and check periodically.

Side note, if you prep em this way wait a bit for the water to get to a soupy consistency. A really easy and cheap recipe my mom always made when I was a kid:

Ingredients-your beans you just cooked, tortillas, and Chihuahua cheese

Pour some of the beans with the soupy water into a bowl. Heat up some corn tortillas and then tear them into small squares and mix them with the soup. Top with your preferred amount of cheese, preferably grated or torn to small pieces so it melts faster. Can also add salt, pepper, or any seasoning you like but it usually tastes good as is.

If you got time and wanna be fancy you can dice up tomatoes, onions, avocados and/or jalapenos and chuck em straight into the soup.

Value wise it's not very good: you could have made the sauces yourself, slice your own cheese, cut your own broccoli, make your own muffins if you really want to save, make your own mac and cheese, etc. Would save you probably 50%.

I don't want to cook after I get home from work. From scratch, doubly so.

Well, i get that.

And too, many "sauces" you could cook for your pasta are easy, cheaper and wont cost you a second more time thn the pasta needs to cook.

I wish I could get this much food, I keep ending up buying candles instead

I'm so hungry

Am I missing the beans here? Or is this insane to have all these fixens and no beans?

This is an extremely binary haul. Items are either very healthy or very unhealthy with nothing in between. It's kind of impressive.

Tips: Make your own Mac & Cheese and tortillas. Both are cheap, easy to make, and taste way better than premade stuff.

Time is also a factor

Yepp.

And making a simple cheese sauce takes you the time that the pasta cooks.

Heat broth or milk or both slowly in a pot. Shredd cheese (i like a mix of bluecheese and swiss) and add. Stirr until solved. Add salt, pepper, nutmeg, a dash of white wine. Either use potatoe-starch to thicken or use enough cheese to have it be thick by itself.

Takes you 10 mins tops.

Now try making tortillas in ten minutes.

"NoW tRy DoInG a TuRkEy In 10 MiNuTeS!"

Lots of stuff can be cooked in short times and the mere existence of food that is more complicated is no argument against this. Try again. :p

  • Muffins/Swiss rolls - depends on how much it is but I get it being a quick comfort food. However, check if there's a bakery of some kind (including
    Chinese / Latino bakeries) near you. It's nearly as cheap or cheaper and much fresher. Good bread there too.
  • Pasta sauce: my wife actually just makes a Alfredo sauce from scratch and it seems to be just a bit more complicated than Mac and cheese sauce. Flour, milk, and cheese. Probably a lot more cost effective.
  • Instead of a red tomato sauce I would buy diced tomatoes ( or those fire riasted ones) and dump them over noodles. It tastes better than the bottled red sauce.
  • Mac and cheese: see above - but also, if you're going to get it, get the box. The single serve things are worse than the generic box Mac.
    -froze spinach is great. Try throwing that in whatever you're cooking. Never goes bad. Already bite sized.
    -Also, you gotta report that grocery store. Cats are friends not food.

Only 20% is natural ingredients. 80% is processed foods. Typical futile attempt to eat healthy. Terrible diet.

There are better ways to say that

I expect English is their second language, based on the surreal absurdity of the binary state of "healthy" and "futility". It's all a futile attempt, we all die. The comment reads like a Salvador Dali or René Magritte. C'est ne pas une pipe.

Which isn't me ripping on someone for learning a new language, it's just an emergent property of people unconstrained by convention.

Maybe learning a new language, but their post history appears to be all in English. Then again, they're also posting on 5+ month old threads about the war in Ukraine, so Russian troll maybe?

I'm now rereading the original comment in my head with a Russian accent. It totally takes the edge off, actually makes it comical.

Try the app for your grocery. Chances are there are coupons for sone of this stuff on the app. Try fresh or frozen green beans next time. Canned green beans are awful.

It looks like a reasonable buy for what you're probably used to in terms of cooking, convenience and diet. As long as you get at least one cooked meal in you each day, you're doing good. Don't sweat it if you don't want to, there's plenty of other things to worry about.

If you are looking for some input, I would probably add more varied sources of protein (lentils, nuts, eggs, beans) and fiber (carrots, cabbage, kale, wholegrain), but I also live on another continent and have both other availability and tradition than you might.

If you're worried that your food is too expensive, there's plenty of suggestions in the other replies better geared toward US markets, but I'll also add that you could make groceries last much longer by learning a bit more about cooking. A lot can be gained by using/substituting with local or seasonal ingredients, as well as re-using leftovers and scraps in creative ways.

If learning cooking is a steep lifestyle change, you could also find a group to share the burden with. Do weekly meal preps together, or for each other, or do batch cooking of condiments/pickles/sauces and swap with each other. It's a fun way to learn from each other, keep to the habit, and might even be a nice way to get to know someone.

Cooking 3 dishes (to get enough variety) for the week's meal prep is a big ask, but you could do one batch each and swap with a couple of friends.

Doing batch cooking and canning of sauces is also an excellent way to use up ingredients that are on their way out. Found cheap second assortment tomatoes on a farmer's market? Pasta sauce for a week! Got too much milk? Make some cheese! Someone's apple tree yielding too much fruit? Apple sauce, dried apple crisp/cubes/snacks, base for indian/far east curries/stews, in salads, drinks, snacks as fresh whole apples or wedges, made into jam/marmelade, used as substitute for potatoes or tomatoes, and/or as part of delicious pie or other dessert.

Also: leftovers can almost always be put into a pie crust (water, flour, butter/oil), covered with shredded cheese, and become a Quiche du semaine/pie of the week. With practice you'll find how much of carbs, protein, fibers and flavouring you prefer in it, and you'll make an actual great dish you look forward to.

On the topic of pie of the week.

You can make dishes with similarly upcycled leftovers in burritos, stir frys, pizza, pasty/pirog, and often in a pasta and/or au gratin (with melted cheese on top). Although I find none of them are quite as versatile as the quiche, they are excellent for variety.

I think buying a cat with your groceries was a great idea, what aisle was it in?

You can make fresh spinach last longer if you layer in some napkins/paper towels (something something moisture, I don’t really know the science).

You can buy a cutter from Amazon to make your own uncrustables. Cheaper and you have more control on flavors.

Just eat the crust

I do, but it makes my kids lunch a lot easier.

You can get jelly that's a lot less sugar than the cheap stuff. As for kids - I'm a firm believer in letting kids butch and moan for a few days and after that they get used to it and eat it. Just take the time investment to save yourself some hassle later on. Or tell them to make their own.

Learn to cook/bake, you’ll save even more by not buying processed foods. You’ll get more micronutrients too. Less jars, more fresh produce. Look for protein rich vegetables to make up for the lack of meat, or toss in a few eggs into your diet.

Not a critique, I first wanted to encourage you to try making your own tortillas, but kinda backtracked since it has a big downside which is that they are so much better that going back to store-bought is kinda a dilemma: they taste much worse, but you don't have to spend hours kneading and rolling and cooking. On the other hand home-made can be frozen, so there is that... If you still might like to give it a go, I use a video from Jack Ovens in YT, which I recommend. Now I want to make tortillas...

Had to get to the very end to see you were talking about tortillas

My bad, I now edited it. I rewrote it multiple times and missed it.

Same, but we knew it was going to be about tortillas didn't we.

It was the "hours kneading and rolling and cooking" that gave it away for me, then the end confirmed it.

You could have bought 16 packs of Oreos for that price!

For fun, I tried to find similar or same items for a local grocery store to me to see the price difference… it’s roughly $160CAD. That’s a crazy difference.

Minus a few things on the left, cause it’s hard to tell what they are.

Oh god. Are we gonna do this? Is this gonna spawn a month of "This is how much I got for X in X" posts?

I love that cats universally smell and rub their cheeks on groceries.

This looks like you did ok, I would check the prices on dried beans, those are usually cheap and a nutritional powerhouse. I strongly dislike the junk food you bought (personally) but don't think it's blowing up your budget. I make bread instead of buying it but that's because I like fancy bread.

Overall - if you are vegetarian not vegan, I think eggs, dry beans, brown rice, tomato paste would be good additions and I will add my voice to the chorus expressing dismay at your choice of canned green beans. If you are underweight, nuts too - expensive but so good and so many calories, healthy fat and protein.

If you are up north, it's a good time to start some seeds indoors, grow something you like to eat, if you are like me in a warm place, can start them outdoors now.

And I do think you did OK.

i know the enchilada sauce is one of the cheapest items in this picture but i recently made some from scratch and can confirm that canned enchilada sauce is absolutely flavorless. alternatively, it is super simple, quick and inexpensive to make from scratch. broth, tomato paste and toasted spices (chili p., ground cumin, garlic p., onion p., pinch of oregano/cayanne/salt/pepper and optional dash of apple cider vinegar) made in a roux and simmered for 10m. that’s it! the difference is night and day. go forth in flavor.

I just use the can to get it started and throw all that in anyways.

Did you really need to splurg on the Thomas bagel thins vs great value?!

/s

I'm joking that's mental

kudos to those who can afford being vegan. I know that with this spreads nutritional ratio I would either gain weight rapidly (and thus have to sub in more expensive proteins) or have to work out all the time. I

They aren't vegan judging by the crazy amount of cheese. Also you can eat an entirely plant based diet that is both high in protein and very cheap.

My mistake, though I am curious how do you accomplish a high protein plant based diet that offers complete proteins?

Pretty much every whole food contains every essential amino acid, you just have to be careful with overeating certain grains like wheat and rice which are low in one or two specific aminos and overeating fruit which is low in protein in general. If you specifically want high protein you eat lots of legumes, nuts, and non starchy vegetables (especially dark leafy greens like spinach and kale). If you want really crazy protein go for stuff like tofu and other refined products.

See now that sounds expensive again to me… my wife is a fake vegan of sorts, aka no meat, no dairy except lactose free cheese, but WILL eat eggs, and when I try shopping for her I struggle to find food that would allow her to consistently eat 78-80 grams of protein a day without paying quite a lot for gluten based protein products or tofu. Nuts can only be bought in smaller quantities as well, due to how expensive they end up being. It also seems that all those other complete amino acid foods have high levels of carbs, how do you offset that without simply being overly active every day? I keep reading more about it and cant find anything helpful online that incorporates a steady diet that will supplement a physical gym routine including a lot of lifting with the desire for muscle growth. Maybe im just a weird minority here, IDK :(

Tofu should be cheaper than meat (like $2-3/lb, and maybe cheaper at Asian grocers), dehydrated soy products like TVP are even cheaper.

Beans and lentils are some of the cheapest foods available both by calorie and by gram of protein, this is doubly true if you get them dry.

Nuts can be expensive by weight, though they are very calorie dense. Peanuts and peanut butter are usually quite cheap, some stores might have cheap mixed nuts as well.

Leafy greens don't pack many calories but are fairly close to being just protein and fiber and also very nutritionally complete. They also aren't expensive, I regularly get bunches of kale for under $2 for example.

I love store brand little Debbie treats

Those uncrustables,though delicious, cost way more than they're worth. You would spend as much, maybe even less, on peanut butter and jelly in jars, which would obviously last much longer.

Get better tortillas.

Stores should stock some from local mexican markets.

Vegetarians can use chick peas to make a vegan chicken salad.... Same texture and close to the taste, just no actual chicken.

A bag of dried beans would Introduce more protein too.

Lastly, where are the apples and bananas? No fruit?

Why did you buy so much plastic and can packaging?

In the US, those are pretty much the only option unless you know a local farmer or producer willing to sell in bulk directly to you

PURGE the muffins and Swiss rolls unless you're bodybuilding

You can't afford uncrustables or the Mac n cheese. No need for any of the 3 jars. $5 muffins??? Wtf.

Learn to fucking cook.

What does Mexico taste like?

I don't see any beans, masa, or Gansitos. I'm guessing it's more northern Mexican food in the picture though.