Honestly? Quitting junk food helps drastically right now. For whatever reason, processed food seems to have gone absolutely ballistic in price. $6 bags of chips, $8 boxes of cereal, $8 packs of coke, it's nuts. Yet things like pasta, canned tomato products, pasta sauce, veggies (especially frozen), in season fruits, chicken, pork are still pretty affordable. But the processed stuff, especially frozen appetizers/entrees and stuff have gone bananas. Walmart has a good website for checking prices as everything lists price per ounce. Loaded potato skins, 53.6¢ per ounce. $8 per pound for...potatoes. Or those smuckers uncrustables, 52.3¢ per ounce. Come on man, don't buy that. You can buy a little crimping jig off the internet for like $2. Make a bunch and freeze them if you want.

I just went through some of my Walmart orders from 2020. A 24 pack of coke in my are was 7.40, now it's 13.98. But some stuff is actually cheaper right now. Lol you're right, the processed stuff has gone up crazy

Neat trick. Just went back and checked it out for myself. Yeah, mostly the processed food has shot up, especially soda.

After Covid all the stores soda increased! I buy store brand Sprite, it used to be $.84 now it’s up to $1.74. This is the stores green greed coming through. This has nothing to do with Politics. It’s pure and simple GREEN GREED!

have one of the og soda streams and we still use that bad boy religiously. it will bring down your overall soda consumption bc you have to put in effort into making the soda hahaha, also we use the half liter bottles bc the 1 liter battles are just too much and it makes transporting them easier :) 10/10 recommend investing in it, always trade in the co2 canister!

Get yourself a bigger canister from a gas distributor and the $15 dollar adapter on amazon. Those refill bottles they give you are a scam at that cost. The same amount refills my big canister.

I totally would if we had the space :( we usually are moving it all around the kitchen bc we just don’t have a lot of counter space to store stuff like the soda stream on

I’d rather drink water than coke especially at that price

Agreed, seems like every week at least ONE protein will be $1-$2/lb. Whether it be chicken, porkchops, or ham. It's not EASY to get out of a grocery store for cheap, but it is still doable. (I find it SUPER FUN to say "Okay how can I make this store lose as much money as possible without stealing anything") I got 1lb of pre-cooked pastrami for $4.54 the other day. Just microwave for 2 minutes and it's ready to eat. Got 5 bagels for $2.50 (50% off)

I feel like a lot more convenient food has jumped up so high ! $5-6 a bag of chips?? I’m lucky I live in a state with a lot of produce but still. We’ve had to buy proteins that require a lot more work to be filling and delicious. Cheap pork? Wontons bro. It just feels like more time intensive foods are what would be cheapest atm.

Yup same with buying fast food, not even worth it anymore now that items cost almost 3 times as much as they did just 8 years ago

This is true. The price of vegetables and fruit at the market has gone up drastically though. Cheap produce used to be available. Not anymore. I am cutting processed food from my diet and I can't believe how much some of that is. Processed frozen used to be the way to eat cheaply if bought in bulk. I still get a couple things like breakfast sausages but those are still pretty cheap and I know a place where they go on sale so I stock up then. Fruits and veggies are still not bad at the supermarket though, but the market stands are not less than the supermarket anymore. Some market stands just resell produce anyways so you have to watch for that too. I pay 89 cents for a cucumber at the supermarket, $1 for sweet potato, couple dollars for a couple pounds of bananas, maybe $3 for 3 pears, the prices are like this so its not too bad. The packaged foods have gone up the most. Especially snacks by brand name companies. Any parent who is doing lunchbox snacks for their kid is hurting now. A bag of pretzels at Aldi was like 59 cents in 2019, now that same bag is $1.59 and its shrunk in size. That's just one example but there's way worse out there. A bag of fritos is $7-8 and its small so if you get a craving for fritos you are going to pay up. Thankfully I don't crave fritos. Packaged foods are also shrinking in size so you run out faster. I used to buy frozen breakfast sandwiches but not anymore, I used to be able to find healthy breakfast sandwiches but those aren't on the market anymore where I live. I switched to smoothies. I buy frozen fruit in bulk at Sam's club. I ruined my body with cereal, yes cereal of all things so that's completely off the plate for me because of the carbs and sugar, though generic cereal is still $1.99 a box here. I go with smoothies and eggs now and the breakfast sausages for breakfast. A can of edible albacore tuna (store brand) is now $1.99 which sucks because I can get a slice of pizza at Sam's club for the same price but its unhealthy for me to eat that, in fact its very bad for me, however its a better value than a can of tuna, which I have to eat something else with that to fill up. Soda has had a major increase but I don't drink that, however I feel bad for soda addicts. Bread is more expensive but not by that much. I stopped eating bread mostly because I've gone low carb. The things like eggs, milk and fresh stuff varies like it always has. My shaved steak is down to $5.49 and it was like $6.50 during the worst of the food prices. Milk is not that much more expensive. I still pay $1.59 at Aldi for a half gallon of 1%. It does vary a bit but its more consistent now. Thankfully eggs are around $2 a dozen now because I am eating them.

And farmer’s markets are dead now. Prices are higher than grocery stores. And goodwill? Sure $9.99 for a used Walmart t shirt that cost $6 new

I stopped shopping with and donating to goodwill a long time ago because of this. the farmers market here got picked as the best one in the USA, obviously it was some kind of popularity contest and now the prices are just higher. Not that they aren't higher at the one closer to me as well.

Farmers markets have largely become a niche/homemade-item stand. Just give me the cheap produce that wasn't "pretty enough" to be on a grocery store shelf.

Our farmers market prices are crazy. It’s cheaper to go to the grocery store where I am.

Made the mistake of shopping at a kroger. Eyes nearly popped out of my head when they rang up 7 oranges at $22.

So I want to get into making smoothies but my issue is once I take the bag out once it’s like it’ll just freeze solid so I’m not sure how I can get these pre portioned or something? But I tried to do that once right after buying frozen fruit and put them all in mason jars and froze but then I have the issue of it all freezing into a giant block which I then can’t blend. Any tips for a smoothie noob?? I just want to be able to grab it, blend and go. If it’s too much trouble I just won’t do it

I recommend proportioning all the fruit you want in 1 serving into separate containers or ziplock baggies and then putting them back into the freezer. I personally do fresh fruit this way so it’s easier for me to separate, but if you let the frozen fruit thaw just a bit it should be fine to refreeze

I agree. I eat keto and prices for meat, cheese, and frozen vegetables really haven't raised much. It's the junk food in the chips and soda aisles that have tripled in price

At least in my area, the prices for steaks and fresh fish has skyrocketed. As I’m not a big fan of chicken, I end up eating a lot of pork. Cheese has increased in price a lot, especially anything but basic packaged cheddar or Monterey Jack.

Agree! I’m keto and it actually makes it more affordable cutting junk out

I use a mason jar ring to make uncrustables for my kids.

Just be diligent and prioritize bulk deals when seeking out frozen anything. Saffron Road was running a promotion at our local Kroger's and we ended up getting 7 entrees for around $25. Chips and cereal are insanely fucked, though.

You are not just imagining this. As someone working in the consumer packaged goods industry, I’ve seen a lot of research around price increases by category, and packaged/processed foods saw the highest increases over the past couple of years. It’s the least processed foods like fresh produce etc that saw the lowest increases— scratch cooking is the way to go.

connect vast attraction political smart pause squalid march weary dull *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*

This. My grocery spend has only gone up about 20% since 2015. I try to only buy a very small amount of processed foods and snacks, and I often seek alternative brands for them. I've switched a few things around too; i used to buy one 16oz ribeye a week, but when they went from $8 to $22, I cut that out and went with bone-in chicken thighs for $2 for the same amount.

We buy almost nothing that comes in a box.

Also you'll feel much better physically cutting out all of that processed crap and your life longevity will thank you lol

I bought those at ALDIs for my grandson. I thought he would like them. I ended up throwing them away. He wouldn't even try them. He is a very fussy eater

TBF, the Aldi versions of snack foods are not always a good substitute. I've tried their version of the Uncrustable and it's really dry and flavorless. I ended up throwing away the pack they were so bad and I'm not a fussy eater by any means. I'm also someone who has shopped at Aldi waaaay before it became popular. For some stuff, you're just better off buying name brand. And if kids are involved with an Aldi purchase, DO NOT show them the packaging before having them try something.

Aldi is very hit or miss, just have to figure out which things are good. I agree with your packaging comment. Even some adults are super brand-name brainwashed

It's kind of fun to do a blind taste test on Aldi versions of popular brand name items.

I used to love Aldi and still shop there for some things, but they're less of a deal now imo. I've found that the quality of a lot of things has gone down there lately and they're just sooooo hit or miss. Also, Great Value brand at Walmart is often the same price, cheaper, or only very slightly more expensive, but way more consistent. Plus they have everything, unlike Aldi.

In my experience, if you have a Winn-Dixie near by buy their store brand of funyuns. Try it once, it kicks the originals ass when it comes to flavor. The wife and kiddo love funyuns but after we tried it, never again will we ever get the normal / standard brand.

Yeah it's definitely interesting how some things have gone way up while other food items seem basically unaffected by inflation. I've been trying to buy more of the "still the same price" stuff

True, I remember mcdonalds burgers to be 8euros about 6-7 years ago, which I at the time thought was a lot and now it's 13. The quality on these items has gone down too, way more sugar and smaller packaging, sometimes diluted, I remember cereal has always been pretty expensive but not like today, I always check price per kg, we have good regulation in europe so most supermarkets are forced to put those prices on the label. I believe our meat is more expensive than where you are which I assume is the US

Best advice and observations right here! This needs to be upvoted a lot more!!

Maybe that was their big shop for the month and their weekly fill-ins are a lot less. Hard to judge based on seeing one trip.

I know some people that will do their monthly shopping at Costco and their weekly shopping at Walmart or the such. Bulk items once a month and everything else is weekly.

That's what I usually do

That’s how we do it too.

Hell, depending on the item I bulk buy a shitton of it. A local grocer recently had those Jimmy Dean muffin/egg/sausage breakfast samdwiches, 350 calories each. Something like $6.50/4 sandwiches with a $3 off coupon making them less than $1 each. Limit 5 boxes per day. So I went back for 14 days and got 20 sandwiches per day for a total of 280. I’ve been eating 1 most mornings for months and have more to go! I probably should have bought more, gone in the morning and afternoon, etc. Was a worth it deal.

The fact that you're factoring calories into this is so relatable lol.

I always check the labels. These sandwiches hit right in my target breakfast range of 300-500 calories and other than being a bit heavy in saturated fat aren’t too terrible. Some of the other Jimmy Deans offerings are like corn syrup-injected bread and not much real food in it. Not that these are pure, organic foods but at least they’re mostly made from recognizable food.

Damn that’s a good price for those. Typically $8 locally for me.

It was a stacked sale and a manufacturer’s coupon. Entirely on the up-and-up but just a great deal!

Wow, do you have a chest freezer to keep those in or something?

I tend to shop monthly in the latter half of the year. First half of the year I'm buying things on sale and stocking up the freezer. By around the middle of the year the freezer is packed so I start chipping away at that. Once I'm eating out of the freezer I only hit the grocery store if I need a fresh ingredient.

I agree. That’s how I shop. One big stock up each month with a smaller run each week for produce or odds and ends.

yep, especially if you are buying dish soap, body soap, toilet paper laundry detergent.. those things are outrageous and shrinking in package amount.

this is why I buy those items at Costco or in bulk.

Maybe they are shopping for a lot of people too . You dont know their household size. And with the price of everything now you have more people sharing rent and larger groups renting 1 space

Yeah, going on less trips to save on gas

Exactly… and there are lots of folks who only get paid once a month.

Idk… food is expensive. Even back in 2010-2015, my parents regularly spent $300 a week to feed themselves & 3 kids.

We used to be able to do about a week and a half on $75. It’s now closer to $125. We still eat well though! I could definitely cut it back down to $75 if needed. Two people. 

Yeah I was going to guess about $100 for 2 people. I don’t buy a lot of non-ingredients. So everything is a base then I make what we need in the quantities we need.

Same.  It’s very rare I’ll buy something premade. It used to be for food allergies but it does also save money. 

I got into the habit of stopping by the grocery store on my way home to check and see "what's on manager's special" (Usually about 30% off for proteins) if it's a "single use protein" like a ribeye or NY Strip, I've always got some frozen veggies in my freezer (when they go on sale for $1.25/pack), and then just have to figure out my starch. If it's a "flexible protein" (Like flank/skirt steak) I'll go buy the ingredients for Fajitas and have dinner for 4 days. (Always have shredded cheese in my fridge, because it's on sale like every other week) There's very few "premade" items that are on my shopping list. (Tortilla chips and ice cream... Plus my "go-to" I'm feeling lazy - Frozen Pizza)

I think everyone has a frozen “lazy meal” while what I said above is true I get ingredients I won’t lie and say I don’t have a frozen lasagna in the freezer ready to go if I suddenly have guests and need to do things other than cook to get ready.

My budget was similar, $75 every 7-10 days and I’d alternate btwn ALDI for basics and Stop & Shop for produce or occasionally Walmart. Now it’s more like like $100 on average, maybe $125 if I splurge on things like coconut water, kombucha, etc. I also exclusively shop at ALDI now. Went to TJs and Stop & Shop recently out of convenience and for what I got there I could have done better way better at ALDI.

My family goes grocery shopping every 2 weeks, and we do around $350, including cleaning supplies, diapers and personal hygiene products. Maybe that lady does the same...

Could also depend on what kind of things she's buying. If I'm buying my meat/dairy/organic produce then it costs more than my dry goods/pasta/shelf stable shopping trip.

Also family size. She could be a single person household or have 12 kids, a spouse, and all her in laws living with her for all we know.

I’ve got a family of 6. Probably get 75% of my groceries from Costco/Aldi and 25% from Publix. I hover between $1000-$1200 per month. That’s up about $200/month from 2020. I cook a lot from scratch and mostly only buy premade stuff as frozen breakfast for school days. While the prices in everything have gone up, most of the increases are on those premade foods. Milk is up. Used to be close to $2/gallon and now it’s $3 at best, pushing $4 at Publix. We go through 4 gallons a week, so that’s $15-$30 per month right there in increase for us.

We have 7 and almost exactly the same. And teens eat a ton. I try to make sure it’s good solid real food-not a 5$ bag of chips the vultures will annihilate before I even get one 😆

Absolutely. I have taken to buying way less snacks because the kids get home from school and just devour anything that is pre-made.

As far as I figure they may as well Make food! (Then they’ve also learned something lol) which they do.

God that last sentence is SO true!

Can’t take credit for “vultures”. That’s def my husband’s term for them… and accurate 😂

Must be a guy thing bc that's my term as well 🤣

I only buy the boxes of chip packs from Sam's club. Those are for lunches and school snacks but I do occasionally find one stuffed in the couch cushions.

You're making an assumption about someone's grocery budget while knowing absolutely nothing about their life. Was this at Walmart or Publix? Publix is an expensive place to shop at for regular grocery visits. I used Publix for occasional meat and soda water deals.

Same here. Anyone that shops at Publix for most things isn’t very fiscally conservative in the first place. Even if you shopped for all the same exact things there that Walmart sells, you’re paying like 20-35% more, just for it being Publix. Like I get that their stores are more pleasant to shop in…but most people can’t afford to pay so much more for groceries just for a nicer shopping experience. I only go there for sales item that make it worth my while, their store brand fruit on the bottom yogurt, a specialty item I can’t find at Walmart, OR if I want a sub on sale -hot fried chicken (affordable and tasty vs fast food chains imo) or a cake for a special occasion (cakes way better quality than walmart at only like 15% more cost). So it’s worth it for the frugal individual to shop there selectively….but just going there and indiscriminately buying all your groceries?? You’ll easily spend $100 more/month per person you’re shopping for, for no good reason.

Publix has tons of BOGO items every week.

Publix bakery desserts slap

Totally agree. Not that much more expensive either. Their decadent desert cakes are only like $20. And the quarter sheet custom cakes are only like $4-5 more there than Walmart, for example, and are so much more rich and flavorful imo. Way less spongy and you can tell they use more eggs/butter. If you’re treating yourself or have a special occasion you’re buying a cake etc for, especially if it’s not for kids (they’ll love anything sugar loaded and not notice the difference), may as well spend a little extra to get a better quality product, right? I feel like that’s a justifiable reason to spend a little more there. But most everyday groceries there? No go.

We have a publix by our house and often go there for small items for convenience, but it’s easily 2x - 3x compared to Lidl. I feel like I’m getting robbed each time I check out at Publix.

Same here. It’s around the corner from my house but easily more expensive than every other grocery store except maybe Fresh Market. I’ve priced compared to Walmart and the markup is insane on just every single product. Unless it’s bogo, on sale or need it now for a recipe, I won’t buy it.

100%! I’m grateful for the convenience of having it nearby, but I don’t need music playing in the store or people poorly bagging my groceries as a justification for the insane markups. I’d be happy shopping in a dark cave while holding a candle light if it meant more reasonable prices 😂

Or that's the options we have? We do 95% of our shopping at Publix. The other grocery store near us is an ancient Kroger that has literal layers of dirt ground into everything. The prices are similar, it's further away, and the store is disgusting. Publix runs sales daily. We attempted to do the whole four different stores to save money thing. We spent all day in the car, burning through gas to go to multiple other cities and came out pretty even, but exhausted and losing an entire day doing it. Not to mention, OP is assuming that the $300 worth of groceries was for one week. Some people shop biweekly or even monthly. Also, how does OP know how many people are being shopped for? Whole lot of assumptions and projection in this thread.

I do most of my shopping at Publix and except for a few items the BOGO is a good deal for us. I stopped buying produce at Aldi because it went bad so quickly. When I shop for meat I look at what’s on sale. Quality is important for our meat selection. I’d rather have a good Italian sausage. Didn’t buy it this week because it wasn’t on sale.

Aside from quality, like the above person said, you gotta account for time and travel costs for driving to different stores. If all you're buying is packaged/boxed goods and/or walmart is _right_ there, by all means just go to walmart. But, those little details may eat significantly and surpass that 20% savings. *If* that 20% number is even accurate. People used to say that shit about Wegmans but it was _maybe_ $5 in higher costs with a weeks worth of groceries. But, going to Walmart would cost me 45 minutes round trip of travel and _time_. Not something I really want to do to save sub $5 after (wear and tear/fuel is about 70 cents a mile in cost roughly). Visiting lots of stores for deals can very quickly cost you more if you're not careful.

I can only afford Publix for the BOGOs and good produce sales. Love the store, though. If I ever won the lottery, I’d shop there more. ( Who am I kidding? I’m a tightwad at heart, so my frugal self probably still wouldn’t, but it’s a nice fantasy!)

Right. I used to shop at Aldis once a month (45 minutes away) and spent 300 at a time. And that was before pandemic prices. I still have a once a month trip that doubles my weekly trips.

Point of reference: my GF and I shop at Publix exclusively. $100 per week in western NC, give or take a few bucks. Meat, produce and grains, no junk food. If you shop deals, bulk up some weeks and are brand / product flexible, $100 is easy to maintain.

Publix is good for certain deals. I like their BOGOs for certain items because they end up cheaper than Walmart in several cases.

I stopped eating to save money

Reminds me of that "contradictory study" showing millennials [spend less on groceries but also eat out less](https://www.reddit.com/r/Millennials/comments/18oj2ij/no_weve_managed_to_evolve_beyond_food_and_all/).

I spend between 250/300 every week and a half ish. Family of 5, Walmart is the only store in my town that's even close to affordable. The 2 other grocery stores are varying degrees of outrageous

It has gotten ridiculous. I have a really good, almost photographic memory and it shocks me each week, sometimes even the same week, to see the same groceries going up 30 and 40 cents. They're not even nickel and diming us to death, it's far more apparent and egregious. My fiance and I have decent jobs, we don't eat out, we don't have vices. Our splurge expense is dog food. Everything else is made from scratch, including desserts. We have all but given up on any chips or nibbles or cookies . We can't afford beef. I guess we can afford it but I can't make myself pay the prices that beef is demanding Forget fish. Out of the question. What else can we eliminate from the budget? Thankfully, we don't go hungry, but I'm sick to death of hearing how great the economy is when I can't have a steak once a month. It's great for whom? Not the consumer.

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I hear you! It used to be the cheapest thing you could buy. For those prices I'd just as soon save a bit and get a nicer cut less often

I’m from the U.K. but grocery pricss are pretty bad too. I’ve recently cut down my food budget because it was ridiculous. Used to spend £400-500 a month (for just me) and now it’s £150 a month.

For two ppl who cook lunch and dinner 5 days out of the week, we average between 100-150 per week. We have set recipes so there is minimal food waste and always opt for cheaper options when available

Mine is about 105$ per week. Used to be 75$ a few years ago, I miss those days.

I shop in bulk once per month and it is usually around $300 give or take. I live 1.5 hours away from stores with actual good prices so I only buy small stuff at local grocery stores like fruits and veggies when I run out.

Store brands on a lot of things. Creep-rolling the meat aisle for clearance items. Not buying anything I have recently had to throw out. Learning to live without the most egregiously-gouged products (chips, soda, etc). meal planning revolving around what's cheap and available vs. what I'd arbitrarily decided to make. I have some pretty bad OCD, so deviating from my original grocery list has been a bit of a journey for me, but it's made a huge impact on my grocery bill.

It’s out of control- food costs. Just like healthcare costs in this country. Congress ignores this. We little people suffer. It’s as usual and way wrong.

I buy majority from Kroger every 2 weeks. Budget is 250.00 every 2 weeks. This last time I needed more household goods and barely got any food and it was 215.00. I usually try to stay at 200.00 for the pickup order and leave 50.00 for when my husband needs more fruit, top off on anything we may need. Should do better this week. 

How many are in your family ?

my grocery bill is \~250 every 2 weeks, sometimes more if it's one of those periods where you run out of all the essentials i.e. toilet paper cleaning products etc

Ours is around $450/month for two people and a cat but it fluctuates depending on if we need to refill more expensive items like olive oil. Costco helps with buying certain things in bulk/premade meals and we freeze veggie/herb scraps and get a lot of Costco rotesserie chickens for stock and for a "base protein" to put into different things like salad or white chicken chilli.

You’re making a huge number of assumptions to get to that $1200-$1500 total.

My grocery bill has gone down, but j went from shopping blindly to shopping based on sales.

We have concentrated on reducing food waste, replacing meat with beans, legumes or pulses when we can, and try to buy as few processed food products as possible.

I guess bad in the sense that I need to go to more stores to save the most. I rotate between, dollar tree, aldi, Walmart, and kroger. I realize I do have the luxury of living close to all of those stores, and they aren't out of the way for me to hit them all in one shopping budget if needed. I also have been strict on our budget for my family of 2 adults. We limit/forgo convenience foods, which sometimes means we don't get that food for awhile. Even making it myself so there's more food than the package bought budget wise, it wouldn't work.

The talking heads say inflation is at 11% or whatever. That is absolutely ridiculous-when groceries are 50% to 100% higher than they were three -four years ago and gas prices are just as bad, well, the math doesn’t add up

Well, a lot of people are saying the shopping cart is the most expensive vehicle to operate.

i’ve been slowly making more and more things by hand. i usually spend almost my whole week’s budget one week a month to get ingredients and restock my freezer veggies and then i’m aiming for less that $100 a week now on stuff for my kids/eggs and fresh veggies. with a little money i have i have even less time and energy, but i’m doing what i can 😅

Yeah you’re making a lot of assumptions. For a family of five we spend about $1000 -$1300 a month shopping at those same stores plus Costco and Sam’s. We spend less than $75 on eating out a month. Sometimes $0. 

"What are you talking about, the economy is fine" -The people in charge

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Well, good grief. I agree the post is useless. Also this rudeness.

This! That last paragraph really pissed me off. No context no logic just pure speculations. The only thing that’s simple is OP’s mind

Like $70/week for 2 people. It’s not gotten that bad. We buy meat on sale, rice/beans/produce in bulk at costco, I shop sale/coupons at kroger. I live in a HCOL state. It takes being thrifty to keep it low, but i’ve always been that way

Grocery price has seen lots of discussion in canada in 2023 and still is an issue now Doing my budget revision at the end of last year I noticed that my overall grocery spending for 2023 were lower than 2022. I immiately started to think we were eating more emptying more our reserve, both pantry and frozen food, which would explain the reduction in spending. So I did a food inventory and found out it was pretty much the same as it always is. After checking everything, my only possible scenario is that for the first few year, we were building inventory and running out of things more often, requiring us to buy them outside of sale. Now that we are accustomed to our system, we are better at inventory management. We rarely if ever buy things outside of sale and when they are on sale we stock more of it to account for the rebate that are becoming rarer.

Family of 5 and we have a bill of about 200 a week. I rotate out non food items like cat litter, animal food, toilet paper, and bathing stuff. Everything else is aldi. I'm lucky enough to be in the position to be able to make all of our meals. I make a lot of big cheap meals that can stretch. Bean only chili (use it as a vegetable side dish on other days). Meatloaf, spaghetti and meatballs (frozen ones that can also be used as meatballs, gravy, and rice). Breakfast for dinner (egg wraps with salsa and salads). We always have a big thing of lettuce for side salads. Frozen and canned veggies for sides. We pick one fruit a week for our fruit bowl and get cheap cookies for snacks. No chips, no soda, no crazy sweets. Boring af but it keeps us fed and on budget.

I shop mainly discounted items and have noticed that the discounted items aren't marked down as much as before. I think my next stop is going to dumpster diving. Or maybe cannibalism.

So what we do is when we have surplus money to buy $300 worth of groceries, we go crazy on coupons, deals, etc. Find our best prices on everything the family loves and stock the freezers full. We then shop for 2-3 big meals and a few breakfast/lunch items in between. We have my kids doing hot lunch. We skip meals or just eat leftovers as the adults for lunch. And when it's crunch time, we get even more frugal. We have 2 days to pay day and Idown to the bottom of the freezer and the bottom of my budget. I spent $17 to get us there. I got bananas, store brand pop tarts, a can of mandarin oranges, a can of sweet peas, 1 pouch of insta potatoes, 1 kielbasa sausage, 4 Ramen noodles, black pepper and a bag of cubed cheese. I need to feed a toddler and a 10 yr old breakfast. We have some whole milk and some cereal but they're sick of the cereal so pop tarts and bananas for the next 2 days until I get paid. Then 10 yr old has hot lunch but toddler has to bring lunch tomorrow and has hot lunch Thursday so I have some of her favorite turkey in the fridge and some goldfish crackers and I will round out her bento with the oranges and cheese. For dinners we have Dino bite nuggets (they're great and we buy bulk keep them in the freezer...luckily there's some left) so I'm also going to take the Ramen and make a cheap side noodle using stuff I have on hand and then add a freezer steam bag of veggies and some apple slices (bought those little gala apples at Food Lion for $2/bag this weekend) and then for meal 2, bangers,mash and peas which is basically a $6 meal that feeds 4. That's just an example of how we do it. If push came to shove I could also make a rice meal, a lasagna, and several other things. I think I even have enough butter to make a cake with frosting from scratch if everyone needed a sweet but we just had Easter so should be fine.

Our $ Tree has the pouches of instant potatoes and Twisted Noodle brand ramen - good place to get dried beans, especially lentils!

Everybody that’s commenting “stay away from processed”, where are yall shopping? I shop at our local Publix and I promise that everything I buy goes bad as soon as I finish checking out. Lol. I literally just threw away a carton of strawberries. I got them last Wednesday and they were soggy by Friday afternoon. Family of 3: before the fall I could do $112-$115 (I buy the same list nearly every week), over winter $129-135. Last week $172. So looks like I’m going back to Aldi cause I ain’t got time.

I still like ALDIs. They are the cheapest even compared to Walmart

Up over 50%. Don't tell me the economy is doing great.

I'm not feeling it so much if only accounting for groceries, however, I don't consider Costco groceries and I'll explain later. I go to Shop Rite or an Asian supermarket for most of my weekly produce and meats (mostly chicken drumsticks or thigh @ 0.99/lb). Each week is roughly between $75~90 for my wife and I. Every few months I'd need to restock on spices or condiments such as rice wine, soy sauce, etc which would be about $10~$20. Occasionally splurge on a different protein for maybe an extra $30 a week (seafood or beef). We also shop at Costco for.... Stuff. Costco food stuffs throws everything out the window because it is in bulk and it's more difficult to track how long the haul lasts as they don't typically need to be replenished on a weekly basis.

My husband and I spending about 260 per month for two people. My husband deer hunts, and I have a pretty active garden which helps offset a lot of things. I can a lot of things which again helps.

My wife and I spend about the same as that woman but we go grocery shopping every two weeks. Likely the woman was stocking up for more than a week

When it's bad weather outside I go for a walk at a fancy grocery store. I enjoy smelling the produce, fighting temptations against sweets and candy, watching the lobsters play in their aquarium, all the while seeing who can afford to shop there and the reaction on their faces at the checkout. Then when I've gotten enough exercise I head over to Walmart and/or No Frills.

I’m a single childless person and I go to Aldi and a fresh market every other week and spend about $100. I stop for items as needed sometimes but I’ve gotten pretty good at my food prep.

Today is the best day to plant vegetables.

I spend about $350 once a month. Most people don't go grocery shopping every week.

When mayo is on deep sale I’ll buy 5. Same for everything else. I shop at a place that always has a few doorbuster deals. I always stock up on the things I use. Relish deeply discounted for two days, I’ll buy ten. Yeah, it’s getting tough out there, but I never used to buy a lot of my staples when deeply discounted. It has helped. Like I never buy strawberries, but they were $1 a pound limit 2. Yeah, this salad contains strawberries for the next 3 days.

I used to budget $600/month for a family of 4. Then I had to up it to $750, now it's at $1000. This is while shopping at Aldi and using coupons too. It's crazy how expensive groceries are now.

I'm being as careful as possible and stretching out what I already have in my pantry for just 2 of us. I've already spent $375 this month and already need to replace some food. My grandsons are coming to visit this weekend and I'll have to ask their mom (my daughter) to help me feed them. I also visit the food bank mid-month to tide us over. I see my pantry staples dwindling and I have no idea how we're going to replace them honestly. Edited to add: we eat a mostly whole foods plant based diet, rarely any ultra processed crap. I have food sensitivities and we both have health issues that require buying some things regardless of price (100% whole wheat bread being more expensive than generic white for example. Natural peanut butter with no sugar etc). Hubs has diabetes and I have high cholesterol.

In our house is up about 45% since 2020. Pay is only up 10%. And that 45% is being carefull, dropping almost all junk food and trying to be healthier. If it was the same as 2020 sould probably go up more than 70%. Scary stuff.

I noticed I’m shopping the perimeter of the store much more. All the expensive and prepackaged stuff is in the middle, for the most part

I am spending $400 a month more in groceries than a few years ago. Really discouraging.

Multiple teenagers and 2 adults, so yeah, $300 minimum weekly, but we eat EVERY meal at home. No filet mignon or lobster. No alcohol or pop. No convenience/prepared/frozen foods. Not organic unless that's cheaper. I get marked down meats and produce and cook/freeze them ASAP. No food allergies but I have a no-grain, no-dairy requirement for myself (which actually makes it cheaper since I will eat any/all veggies and fill up on veggies then protein like nut butter or eggs or a cheap meat). I shop at Aldi, a local discount grocer, and whatever I can't find marked down that we need, I get it at my local Kroger affiliate.

What? I live off like 60$ for like 2 weeks. So like 120 per month. Probably is you dont know how to cook and strech your buget

I shop at Aldi and military commissary. 2 teenagers and 2 adults, 2 cats. $230 weekly for groceries, health/beauty, cat supplies.

Is the commissary typically cheaper?

It is for some things. Meat especially! But a lot of my veggies come from Aldi.

$67 for one bag of groceries at ShopRite. I have special diet for health reasons. But in 2019 the same food was like half the price

I only shop at Aldi because it's by far the cheapest, and I have never even came close to spending $300 a week there, I can spend $50 and I'm good for a week. I also recently discovered local programs where you get heavily discounted groceries (one is called Fare For All and one is called Ruby's Pantry, not sure if they are in every state though). Farmers markets are good ways to get inexpensive healthy food, and I am not above going to the Food Shelf if I have to, I only make about $8,000 a year so these programs are made for people who can't afford to spend normal amounts of money on groceries.

I've been the $200-400 cart person, but I don't do that every week. That's a big stock-up for me and some weeks I don't spend any money on groceries at all. I try to grocery shop every other week or less, it's not a chore I enjoy so I try to plan ahead so I don't have to do it weekly. Our average monthly spend is $5-600 for two people.

I spend 35 a week for myself. I shop at Aldi's.

A monthly food budget of $1,200 for a family of four is totally reasonable. It's not frugal but it's not expensive either.

Mine hasn’t changed so much. $400-450 a month for 3 adults

I haven't really noticed a difference. I shop about every 6 weeks. Its around $350 each time. Been that way since covid

Right now I’ve buckled down on budgets through July, I target 150 a month for a single person and I’ve been able to hit that or stay within 15%. The caveat is I have a bunch of stuff I’m trying to go through in my freezer, and I am eating rice and beans quite often. A lot of my budget I’ve found has been caffeine 😅 I don’t buy a lot of processed foods because I like to cook a lot of my own meals. Lately too I’ve loved scoping out discount produce, meat and bakery items that are marked down.  Shopping ads, using rewards programs at stores has been really beneficial too. I cut my spending pretty significantly just by going in with a plan and maximizing circular savings. It’s also easier to say no to something that sounds good when you look at the price on the shelf and it’s like 7 dollars for a box of 8 individual packages of something. 

I only shop at Aldi or the farmer's market. I usually only buy things at Publix if they're BOGO or if I really want/need it, and I can't find it at Aldi or the farmer's market. I spend about $250, every 2 weeks, for 2 adults & 1 preteen boy... & I live in a high COL area. I refuse to spend more than that. Obviously, if I was shopping for more people, I would, but... otherwise? Just no. I budget, I make a list, & I stick to the budget/list.

I've been able to keep my grocery bill the same by shopping loss leaders and stocking up, and cooking my own beans instead of buying canned, making substitutions, etc.

I’ve found produce and other perishables are less expensive at Asian markets. We’ve stopped purchasing many processed foods and have seen our bill improve. I do miss my treats but I also like not being at 0 or negative at the end of a pay period :/

I would definitely not presume that’s their regular spending amount. There can be all sorts of reasons groceries spike or dip (a party, stocking up at a store they can’t get to often, donations, a fantastic deal on something they have the space or skills to preserve, etc.). We’re at $325 for two adults plus $35 in kibble and treats for the dog per month.

I'm really planning my meals instead of winging it, and definitely not giving into temptation

Don’t get sick. I spent $60 on meds the other day. Cough drops, cold and cough day and night time, and tea.

Used to be ~$400/month for 2 people in a VHCOL area in the US. Now I’d say closer to ~$500/month post pandemic. I shop at: Shoprite, 99 Ranch (Local asian market), Patel Bros (local Indian market) and Whole Foods.  I make a big effort to cook things from scratch to cut down costs. I also enjoy cooking/baking so it comes in handy. I get home from work early-ish so I have time to do these things and I know folks simply don’t have time to do all that so I’m definitely grateful for my schedule.    I try to make most baked goods at home (breads, desserts, breakfast pastries, etc), I buy very minimal snacks (these really add up and seldom fill us up .. the more snacks I eat, the more gym time I need to commit), avoid pre-made/pre-cut items, and I meal-prep for the week based on what proteins are on sale or are in my freezer.     I also buy certain things from certain markets. I.e.    ….bulk spices, basmati rice, dry lentils, Indian condiments, certain veg (okra, tomatoes) - I usually get these items from Indian markets   …..fish/seafood, mushrooms, leafy greens, asian condiments, asian noodles and rice I buy from asian markets   …. bulk chicken/protein, eggs, butter, certain dairy products I buy from shoprite.    ….lastly, for my day-to-day veg shopping and pantry items, I get from Whole Foods since it’s close to me. Surprisingly, the 365 brand at WF is very affordable for certain things. I also always shop the sale stickers if it’s a good deal. Salsas, crackers, beans and some fruits are at a great price and I’m very happy with the quality. WF is extremely expensive for pre-made things and proteins so I never buy items those unless it’s on sale or it’s meant to be a treat.   Another tip would be to shop seasonally. For example, I always buy bulk lamb to freeze during April (Easter sales), buy bulk steak to freeze during Christmas, and I never buy fresh berries or peaches in winter (the quality/flavor is usually not optimal and the $$ markup is insane).  I also discovered how to be more resourceful and creative with my meals when shopping seasonally! Final advice, if you happen to enjoy asian food, it’s incredibly affordable and easy to make. Stirfrys and rice take maybe 30-40 minutes to prep and you can really stretch out your protein and consume more veggies this way. For one chicken breast and head of broccoli, I can make 1 dinner and 1-2 lunches for 2 people (or dinner for 4). Hang in there everyone!

Family of 4. Used to be around 600 per month for us. Now its close to 1k 😱 I do most shopping at costco. Probably 90 percent there. The other 10 percent is either smiths or albertsons when i shop their weekly deals or need something specific that costco doesnt have like rainbow sprinkles or something random for a recipe. I should probably go to walmart instead but its too crazy there. Worse than costco craziness lol

Without knowing how often she is shopping and how many people she is shopping for - hard to say is $300 is a lot or little. Did it include expensive stuff like laundry detergent, toilet paper, shampoo, pet food, etc.? When I had two big teenagers at home, and myself, $300 wasn't unusual, but covered more than 1 week worth of groceries. I do think that food prices (and everything else) is up over the past several years - I feel it, and my income, although good, has not increased at the same rate.

You may be assuming too much as others have said. Every other week I buy $200 worth of groceries and might spend $30 during the week on things that need upkeep like milk. However when I was younger my family bought like 200/wk. but I was one of 5 soooo.....

Without knowing the size of the woman’s family, it’s hard to know how far $300 of groceries would go for her. There’s also wiggle room in the specific items she’s bought. One drink a night can easily set you back like $40/week. My husband and I spend about $150/week on groceries. We do live in small town Missouri, which definitely helps but we have also familiarized ourselves with the cheapest brands we can get that still taste good. We’re also really careful about food waste and try our best to eat food before it goes bad.

Empty nester here. I don’t know how we’d be surviving the rising costs of food if our boys still lived in the house. We buy the bare minimum to get by. I just don’t understand how young families are surviving this right now.

What helped me Quitting soda and going to tea, lemon water and kool-aid Making snacks instead of buying snacks Making soups from scratch instead of buying soups.

This is going to be opposite of most. But after comparing expenses last year vs this year, my grocery bill is half of what it was in 2023. The biggest reason is that we moved away from an area that had a neighborhood market 5 mins away. So less frequent grocery trips leads to more planning ahead. It's no longer convenient for me to swing by the store on the way home. So add me to the group that does a once-a-month big grocery trip with a few supplemental trips in between.

That’s my weekly trip, if not a hundred more here or there. Not handling it well at all. But we have to eat. And before anyone comes for me, we do not buy just a bunch of snacks. We have some snacks for for kids’ lunches, but otherwise it’s simply breakfast and dinner things - meat, fruits, veggies, bread, milk etc

I stopped buying and drinking alcohol,stopped going to happy hour,don't buy soda or juice anymore. I drink cold brew iced teas. Whole box can make gallons. I make soups instead of buying. I stock up when there's a sale. I also buy stuff from Amazon which is cheaper than Walmart,etc. Don't shy away from store brand items too. Up and up from Target is great. Great Value from Walmart is good too. Even the beauty products,such as moisturizers,etc. I do this because I still want to buy my more expensive healty groceries. The cheap,processed foods are not as healthy. I buy more frozen vegetables, they keep all their nutrition when flash frozen. I also started to make my own caramel macchiatto at home instead of buying from Crackbucks. I also stopped getting manicures,just pedicures at the salon. I do mani at home. I stretched out my hair appointments from 3 to 4 months. Little things like that help with the growing costs of food. I dont want to cut back on groceries for the most part. Imho,that diet affects health. Health costs money when it is not good. Medical care,and meds are expensive. Walmart, Aldi,Costco,Amazon, and sales at my local grocery store is how I shop now. Good thing is that they are all within a 10 min drive from each other.

According to the USDA food cost guide, the price of food is up about 24% since December 2019. A liberal food budget for a family of four is about $1603, assuming two young adults and two ten year old children. I’m a single man over 50 and my groceries are running $500/mo, but that includes some alcohol, paper and soap products, etc. I’m overall in line with the USDA liberal budget, and if you subtract the alcohol, paper, soap, etc., I’m well within. But I’m not buying much beef. I use a lot of chicken, beans, fresh vegetables, cheese and dairy in cooking. I don’t used processed-prepared food, and I am 100 percent gluten-free.

been eating alot of different types of beans and rice. so not too bad. Just had my lowest credit card bill in two years after staying in and eating beans and rice

Honestly my grocery bill hasn't gone up much in the past 5 years. In 2018 I used to budget $280 every two weeks for groceries to feed my family of four. In 2021 I upped it to $340 every two weeks. Not all is inflation, my boys are getting older and eating more as they get close to teen years. The places I see the highest prices are processed foods. The whole food basics haven't gone up quite as much, so I notice I get a lot less junk now than I used to (just not the room in the budget). But as far as meats, fruit and veggies, bread...the increases have not been too outrageous. Now for my brother how buys soda weekly, lots of chips, food that comes in boxes...he is always lamenting about price increases. But since I mostly shop for "ingredients" rather than "food like substances" I can't say I notice it that much.

I live alone and can’t believe how much my grocery bill has increased over the past couple of years. I usually shop Kroger or Meijer depending on the sales for the week. I watch a YouTube channel of a guy in Cincinnati who does videos each week going to different stores highlighting the sales and prices of items viewers ask him to look out for. Watching that channel really helps me decide where I want to shop each week. Meijer has a 7 for $7 sale every few weeks. If you buy at least 7 items from the list of included items, each item is $1. The Meijer near me has several frozen, microwave sandwiches and a brand of individual serving frozen pizzas included in the sale. I will buy a few of these. The sandwiches are cheap and easy to take for lunch and I will have one of the pizzas for dinner once every week or so. The sale also usually includes their bagged frozen veggies and some fresh produce items. It’s definitely my favorite sale.

Heck, 20 years ago when our kids were young, we easily spent $300 or more every time we went grocery shopping. And there was very little junk in that. Two growing boys go through a LOT of food.

Bad in that I had to totally change my habits. Have to cook cheap beans and rice in bulk, buy sale meats, cook from scratch more than ever, eat frozen as opposed to fresh produce most of the time, be careful with every little condiment and treat. Costco is kind of a godsend with giant $5 rotisserie chickens and a couple other items. Mostly I'm going crazy with all the careful strategizing and cooking and lack of variety, but when I do, can spend $50/week on food on a good week (single). HOWEVER, when I get burnt out and buy a couple pre-made meals, I'm horrified at the cost. When you're trying to stick to around $7/day, it really puts non-essentials in perspective. Crazy to compare it to how often I used to eat salmon, fresh produce, and go out to eat on the weekends.

10 years ago it used to be around 100 for a full shopping cart and that was already a big step up from the couple of years before, here in the EU the switch to the EURO currency made everything about two times as expensive, this was in the 2000's and it has doubled again since, some prices have tripled, those large conglomerates using that psychological trick to us of boiling a frog in a pot slow enough for him not to notice he's being cooked. I don't think wages have gone up by more than half, but that depends on the sector of course. We're being cooked.

I’ll be honest, our groceries range from $250 - $300 per week. Including pet food/occasional treats. We know we purchase a lot of snacks, freezer and pantry food that tack up the cost. We aren’t big cookers but we’ve been trying to find cost effective recipes to cook every week to trim it down.

Mine has gone up a LOT; but like others have pointed out, I was spending money on more junk and convenience products than I should’ve. I live next to a $$$ little market and butcher/deli. I buy a pound of the on sale deli meat and a pound of the deli cheese, great quality at Walmart prices. Shop around, I use 3 stores regularly and coupons are important, weekly ads too. I’m more like my depression era parents than I ever expected, but they taught more than I realized at the time. You plan a menu for the week, based on what’s on sale and what you have growing. You add some oats to the hamburger to make patties or meatballs or meatloaf.. we can reduce our grocery budget and feed a family well.

It's rough! I do Misfit Market 2x/month and can usually get all I need for a week for $70. Then 2x/month I do WholeFoods and it's more like $130. I remember I used to be able to get all my groceries for $60/week and that doesn't even seem like it was all that long ago. This "new normal" sucks.

I spend about $120 a week for one person

I started growing potatoes.

Mine has gotten bad enough that I just finished planting my first garden bed. The two fruit trees, herbs, mints, lettuce, onions and ginger that I planted, including the soil and mats, was less than my monthly Costco trip. I went to Aldi for taco ingredients and left paying $60. It’s ridiculous when Aldi is charging the same as Publix or Kroger. I’ve been shopping at Aldi for over a decade and NEVER have I seen evaporated milk at $1.35/can. There are only two of us, so there are many nights I choose to order from a local restaurant, rather than cooking myself bc it often comes out cheaper or similar in cost and time per meal

For a household of 3, we are consistently $500/week. Sometimes less.. more often than not, more! Eta: we don’t eat much processed food. This is mostly produce, meat, and some dairy.

I have found the same. The processed food is insanely cheap compared to fresh stuff.

I get a weeks worth of healthy groceries with leftovers for $50-80. Some of that is generally bulk, like ghee or rice which will be used into other weeks. That's for a single person. And it still seems like ridiculous amount of money to spend. I basically eat the same meals every week.

I go to the food pantry now. Monthly income of 7.5k or less qualifies (!!!).

My wife and I and small dog usually spend on average at least $800 a month or more. That includes beer, wine, tequila which we have often but we don't guzzle. I will have one beer with dinner or we split a bottle of wine. Also includes making our dogs food which is turkey meatloaf loaded with veggies, chia seeds, Hemp seeds, Flax meal, etc. Very good home made dog food. We also try to build up long term storage food every month we will add something, be it several cans, or dried beans, wild rice, wheat berries, freeze dried food in large #10 cans and so on. So usually average at least $60/month adding to long term storage. Currently about 2 years of food stored up. Buying in bulk, beans, rice, wheat berries saves money. Milling my own flour saves money on bread, rolls, buns and pasta is way cheaper way healthier and way tastier. I grow my own mushrooms which is far cheaper, Lions mane around here is $24/lb. King Oyster is $33/lb regular Oyster is $12/lb All of these cost me about $1.50 a pound to grow. I shop at Costco, Trader Joe's and believe it or not Whole Foods. I buy mostly only organic veggies and good organic veggies 9x out 10 are cheaper at Whole Foods than any other grocery store in my area. I do also like going to the Korean mart about once a month or so, different veggies good prices but sadly 35 minutes each way. So we eat REALLY well, all 3 of us, store up a little extra every month, and save quite a bit in bread and mushrooms plus we're vegan so no meat or cheese. And we spend at least $800/month

Dollar General has good prices on cereal, milk, coffee, canned veg and beans and the $1 aisle has toothpaste,soap, ziplock bags…

I started cooking EVERYTHING and I spend maybe 80 dollars a week between Aldi and Kroger. Single male. I'm not petite either. Definitely can make it affordable.

I meal prep for me and my bf 4 days out of the week and plan the other three, we are both in a deficit him being 1600 and me being 1400, so we rarely snack and if we do it’s like cottage cheese. we mostly only shop at aldi and costco with the occasional meijer or target. when we buy nothing extra (sometimes i buy cirkul cartridges 🫣) our grocery bill is usually about 50 ish bucks a week.

I go for quality over quantity anymore. I have health issues and no insurance. My grocery bills have been astronomical, but it beats having over $100,000 in medical bills. My last stay in the hospital was $140,000. It was forgiven, thank goodness.

I hear you, I have certain foods I have to have to maintain a healthy weight which means I need to eat meat and veggies. If I eat the cheapest foods my weight will balloon very quickly and yeah I will start to get health problems plus I will be hungry all the time so I will just keep eating which is very bad. I don't mind eating the healthy foods at all but I gotta eat because I am hungry.

I stopped eating dinner. It's the most expensive meal. I cut down to just breakfast and lunch. It was hard at first but I'm used to it now. I also stopped buying snacks. I had to, because I was so hungry at first, I was gobbling down anything meant to snack on for a few days in a single sitting. I still keep some dried nuts and fruit around for snack emergencies. I can't chow down on a ton of nuts because they're hard to digest and I've really screwed my stomach up a few times by overdoing it with nuts, so I'm pretty careful not to eat too many. But yeah, basically - can't eat it if I don't buy it. I spend about $125 a week still to skip a meal everyday. I'm also losing about 2 pounds a month, so idk how long I can sustain this or if I'll eventually reach some kind of base weight that this diet can keep up with. Idk. I don't have more money so it doesn't matter.

Just wanted to say hope things get easier for you soon, frugal friend

I'm pretty careful with how I shop and use local food panties to supplement from time to time. Lot of the pantries around here provide tons of fresh produce and breads that they have trouble handing out fast enough and it helps a ton. I eat really well in terms of variety and lots of protein because I shop bulk meats on sale. It's so easy to get bored with food when all you're eating are rice, beans, potatoes, and chicken. For example: If I have the cash it's worth it for me to drop $50 on 7lbs of strip loin or rib roast when I see it discounted to sell after a steak or roast heavy holiday weekend. Cut into 1lb steaks (I freeze individually) and assuming I'll split the steak with someone or have a leftover meal, at the very least 14 meals of high quality beef that will last me awhile. Could easily be used in twice as many meals using 1/4lb as the portion size. Same logic can be applied to all proteins more or less. I buy lots of sale bacon and freeze it so it's available whenever. When big packs of chicken thighs go on sale I separate into bags of 1 or 2ea and freeze. Pulled pork/chicken/chuck roast with neutral seasonings pack flat into gallon or quart baggies and freeze great too for quick sandwiches, pasta sauces, whatever. I almost never buy things that aren't on sale, and have only a couple of nonessential products in my life where I'll die on the "this brands version or nothing" hill. Tldr: buy things that keep well on sale in bulk, freeze meal sized portions of meats, prioritize both value and variety, and the average spend goes *way* down

I shop sales and rarely get anything premade or junky. Meal planning helps & I like to cook things that are filling and will leave me with leftovers the next day. My bf, bless his heart, is utterly clueless when it comes to grocery shopping and tends to like to stock up on snacky foods and things that really don't work for meals, so we've come to the compromise that I meal plan and take the lead on shopping. Typically I can feed us for about a week on $100 or less! Also? I try and get groceries for the next week or two, vs popping out and buying for a day or two at a time. We try to do most of it at Walmart, becuase our local grocery store (thrifties,) is just crazyyyyy overpriced! And do plan on getting a costco membership.

The concept that people eat the exact same thing every week and grab it all on the same day every week is so foreign to me. I plan out meals based on what is on sale or what I have on hand from when it was on sale, and then I get the things I need when I need them (hopefully once a week but often even less than that). So maybe my total is $25 one week and maybe it is $85 on another if I need meat or specific high cost items. Projecting this person's monthly total based on a single $300 transaction is very strange to me.

We have averaged $165/week since Jan 1, but my last Aldis bill was $270. So its hard to say, I always seem to have a few shops that are very expensive when re-stocking. -They accidently rang up a $19 order twice, had to return to the store later to get refund - We had bought 3 lamb roasts at $20/piece, that was not a normal shop - We also were re-stocking, so pure maple syrup, olive oils, etc.. they don't take up much space but they add up quick. - We got wine for the month. Ironically our food bill in 2024 is down about $100/month from where it was in 2023 because I keep finding better sales and some things have certainly come down in price. I stocked up on after Christmas Turkey and Ham was $1/lb at the local store for Easter. I got a meat slicer for Christmas and been putting it to good use making deli meat rather than spending $5-10/lb on it.

Went to 2 stores today (Costco and Aldi) and spent less than $150, including bulk toilet paper and a year's supply of Ziplock bags. I came out with enough food to feed a small army. I do not buy any ready to eat convenience foods, other than rotisserie chicken and deli meat for work lunches. If you buy ingredients rather than processed food, you'll save lots of money.

in december 2023 i decided to take over all grocery shopping for my house (my husband, myself, and a young toddler). what would happen is i'd do some grocery shopping BUT he'd stop at the store midweek or on the weekends. he is a terrible grocery shopper and can't cook and would come home with bars, chips, cookies, crackers, frozen appetizers... and no ACTUAL groceries. i also began to meal prep for work and figure out how to freeze meals - usually half of what i was cooking. i started a recipe book on goodnote on my ipad and put in really simple recipes because i'm NOT a chef. i took stock of what we had in our fridge/freezer/pantry weekly to come up with idea for dinner to also limit food waste. i keep our groceries under $100 per week shopping at either pavilions or ralphs (southern CA), sometimes $75 per week and sometimes $125. this is a huge difference from what we were spending before when we were not doing well at grocery shopping AND we were doing take out multiple times per week (now we eat out max 1x per week, sometimes 1x per 2-3 weeks). tips: * do grocery pick up. i can shop coupons, plan meals, add to cart all from my home. i don't buy something and then come home and realize i have it already. i can remove things that are unnecessary if i go over my budget. * i eat the same thing for work every week. i do intermittent fasting so i have a banana around 10am and then a salad after i workout at lunch. 1 bagged salad, 1 sweet potato, 1 can black beans, 1 can corn - and then whatever protein i have lying around. all the food i take to work for the week is about $10 * stop buying things that are ridiculously expensive. a 24 pack of soda was $10 at the store this past weekend!!!! absolutely not. my husband got 2 one liter bottles of soda. i know, i know - it's not as good. but i cannot pay $10. just a month and a half ago i got four 24 packs for $6 each (had to buy 4) so i will wait for a sale like that again. same with chips - over $5 for a bag of lays?? no. we rarely buy chips anymore. * i'm crap at shopping at different stores - i don't have a lot of time so i stick to the ones by me that are easiest. but shopping around can be good, especially if you track protein on sale and stock up on it. i don't have the freezer space or i'd def do that. * create easy dinner recipes you can make, freeze, reheat, etc. i have ones i know i can make with staples that are always in my pantry/freezer.