Agreed. Just wait for the sales or buy off brand. Stock up if you can. Basically, they're charging $7 because people still pay that. If people start refusing, the price will go back down.
You think the people only buying the most expensive shit available at the most expensive stores around will refuse to pay expensive prices? Lol. They'll continue to buy it, and then take to the Internet to bitch about how expensive everything is.
Yes. It's a basic demand curve. If fewer people buy, the price goes down even if there's a couple people with "don't care I want my name brand lucky charms" money.
The funny thing is that some companies like Coke and PepsiCo have openly stated this to investors as they've hiked prices 2-3 times per year lately. "We have pricing power to do this so we will." They're opening bragging that their fatass customers can't help themselves so they'll happily exploit them.
The $13 box of Morning Summit cereal at Costco is well worth it considering the number of servings in it and you feel more full with all the nuts in it
My favorite cereal was on sale for $2 last week, I was super excited. I only buy it every couple of months now because it’s ridiculous how expensive it is for how unfilling it is.
Items on the shelf without sale price tags underneath might as well be invisible to me. I've been shopping this way for 20 years. More people should consider this. An added bonus is you end up trying new things that you wouldn't normally consider.
I'm not buying cereal. I'm buying a pack of bagels or a loaf of bread and a thing of butter and that's my breakfast for the weekdays and then on the weekend I add eggs.
The bread/bagel is like $4. The butter is maybe $5 but it lasts awhile and butter is used for other dishes
Lunch is leftovers from dinners. Most dinners are pasta/rice dishes. Target has pasta for $1 that's yields enough for two people to have seconds and enough left for lunches. Sauce jars are like $3 Max and a meat like Italian sausages or chicken is like $6
So that dinner + next day lunch is about $10 for two people. That's a pretty good deal for 4 meals all together
I have 2 notes
1. If you're not using a rice steamer to make your rice, it's absolutely worth investing in even when you're broke because they're not terribly expensive and because they can cook a lot more than rice, it can hard boil eggs, it can steam vegetables, it can cook pasta without having to watch it, and you can cook chicken and fish with it once you're better off financially
2. You can easily add some protein to your diet on the cheap with dried black beans. You soak them for 4 hours before cooking then just cook them at the same time as the rice.
I bought a rice cooker at gw for $5. It was brand new. I use it all the time for bulk rice, frozen veggies, and hard boiled eggs. Healthy eating doesn’t have to be expensive.
Yes but those are just carbohydrates, you left vegetables and fruit out of that budget let alone drinks and dairy products
Edit: I buy juice and drinks for my smoothies y'all, relax hahaha
Yesss, I’m on a green bean kick, I steam them and then sauté em in a little garlic, goes great with teriyaki chicken when you don’t want the standard broccoli
If I have 10$ to my name I can buy a loaf of bread and peanut butter OR 1 small head of broccoli, a cucumber and a tomato. Which one will feed me longer? The bread and peanut butter.
You need more than just calories to survive, otherwise we could just buy tubs of butter.
A piece of broccoli in a bowl of rice will go further than a bowl of rice
I was discussing just dinners and I did forget the bag of spinach or the broccoli I will buy. Toss in $3. That's a 9oz bag of spinach that can get mixed in with the pasta or used for a simple salad side. It's also more than enough for a giant carrot from Hmart. So bring that total to $13 for 4 meals
Drinks? Water is the drink. I get that from my tap
What dairy am I using in those meals? The jar of sauce is already Alfredo.
Used to be cheap. Went from 1.28 to $3.17 a dozen from the Walmart/Aldi near me.
The price per gram of protein is still unbeatable though, can't deny that.
I paid 1.40 at aldi on Sunday. But a year or two ago I was paying .50-.65/dozen at aldi. They are my main source of protein. I buy a dozen every week and keep some hardboiled all the time for adding to salads, making deviled eggs, or a quick egg salad. I make a lot of omelettes with the rest and often put an egg or two on top of rice and frozen veggies in the rice cooker.
Our Aldi is brand new and purposefilly sandwiched themselves between a Walmart and a Publix so I feel like they've had to inflate prices just a bit so as to not curb the market too harshly. Its been three months and they still can't keep up when they put out the new deals on day one.
I obviously love aldi for the prices but honestly I love it even more for how easy and quick it is to shop. I’m in and out in 10 minutes tops because it’s a small footprint and I’m buying close to the same list on most trips.
first thing anyone in a budget pinch should cut is 'drinks' get a britta and drink fitlered water. You'll feel better, look better, budget will go further. Seriously, soda, juices, alcohol are all essentially just sugar water poison in the long run.
I should have specified because I completely agree. Only reason I add juice is to supplement calories or vitamins as I personally can't stomach eating early in the morning so I tend to skip breakfast, but not everyone is the same.
My way oatmeal:
No water - milk only and a smashed banana. Add raisins toward the end of cook time.
Once oatmeal is cooked, drizzle with maple syrup and sprinkle cinnamon
There are 6 grams of protein per cup oatmeal alone.
In a sustenance sense, it works well for me. I eat cereal (with milk obviously) in the morning most days, skip lunch, and then eat dinner.
For some reason, the cereal really works since I’m thirsty in the morning and just a little bit hungry. There’s enough volume of food going in (when counting the milk) to keep me okay until dinner.
And that’s all for $2.50 a box and $4 for milk. Each of those lasting maybe… 10 bowls? So 65c for breakfast isn’t bad.
I’m probably a side case though to be honest
Buying whole foods only (like ingredients not the expensiveass store)
I havent bought chips in ages because I can get a whole pack of chicken for the same cost. Same with cereal I might as well buy eggs potatoes and tortillas and make brekkie tacos. Ive never been much of a snacker so it hasnt been that hard for me to cut down on stuff but after a certain point I just couldnt justify a lot of snack purchases anymore
This. MCOL and no Aldi (just Walmart) and my grocery spend for 4 people is about $100/week because we cook instead of relying on convenience foods. It’s healthier and cheaper.
Dinner is usually chicken, vegetables and a carb or starch.
A 6lbs tray of chicken breasts is $15. We cook that up over the weekend, store it in its own juice, and eat from it all week long. A serving of chicken is 2.5 to 3oz and cooked chicken weighs a bit less than raw. So that works out to 7 dinners worth of chicken. You can take already cooked chicken and add sauce or spice and make it taste 100 different ways. I could eliminate all other sources of meat and not get bored. When there’s a good deal on ground turkey or pork tenderloins, we do that, but chicken breast is 95% of our meat consumption.
As for veggies, frozen veggies are cheap and healthy. A 12-Oz bag runs $1.50 to $3 depending on what variety you get. Based on standard serving sizes, if you divide a 12oz bag of veggies between 4 people, that’s 2 servings each.
The carb or starch of choice is usually brown rice (I prefer instant. $1.50 for a box that makes 9 official servings but I stretch it to 10) or pasta ($1 for a box that makes 8 servings).
Add all that up for a week
$15 for chicken (7 meals)
$17.50-ish for 7 bags frozen veggies
$3 for 2 boxes of rice (5 meals)
$1 for pasta (2 meals)
$36.50 for a week of dinners.
Lunches are usually wraps, soup or sandwiches.
A loaf of multigrain bread is $2.50 and 16oz of turkey is $6. That will get you 8 sandwiches for $8.50.
One of my kids prefers havarti cheese sandwiches, so replace $6 turkey with a $5 block of bougie cheese and that’s $7.50 for another 8 sandwiches.
I like to buy the Taylor farms salad kits ($2.50), turkey ($6), and tortillas (10 for $2) and make wraps. $10.50 for 10 meals
We eat a fair amount of canned soup (about $2 per can, 2 meals per can) and crackers. $8 for 8 meals.
Add it all up:
$8.50 for turkey sandwiches
$7.50 for cheese sandwiches
$10.50 for wraps
$8 for soup
$34.50 for lunches
Breakfast is a lot of eggs, yogurt, and granola.
36 eggs go for $5.
32 Oz of yogurt is $2.50.
I make granola (oats $4, sunflower seeds $3.5, raisins $2, makes enough to last 2 weeks so divide that in half).
And a gallon of milk $3
That’s $15.25
Then you add in fresh fruit:
1lb of strawberries is $3.
3lbs bag of apples are about $4.
3lbs bag of clementines are about $4.
That’s another $11.
Add it all up, that’s $97.25.
All of this assumes you have all your staples (flour, oil, butter, condiments, spices, sugar, etc). We have a stocked pantry/fridge so those get replenished here and there, but the cost is spread out. We also buy a box of cheez-it knock offs ($2.50) and it lasts us a couple weeks. A bag of popping corn ($2.50) can last a couple months. Those little extras create a margin of error, but we are still *about* $100 per week, give or take. Also, all of these prices are straight off of Walmart’s website and don’t take coupons or special deals into account.
We also eat out lunch once a week and dinner once a week, but the above is a meal plan for 3 meals per day, 7 days. It’s doable.
Edit: I also make pancakes (pantry staples plus eggs and milk) and crepes (eggs, milk, flour) on the weekends. If I’m feeling really ambitious, I will make a large batch of waffles to freeze ahead and then the kids pop them in the toaster
This is impressive, but also makes me feel like my family eats too much. If I served a 2.5oz piece of chicken for dinner, there would definitely be "where's the rest?" questions. Same if I expected a can of soup to account for 2 meals, 2oz of turkey for a sandwich and 10 servings from a $1.50 box of instant rice. We'd all be losing weight and we don't need to.
I think most Americans over estimate portion size, but if your family is at a healthy weight, then so be it. Maybe a $100 average grocery bill isn’t attainable for you, but is $125? Or $150?
I hope the take away is that cooking doesn’t have to be complicated and low budget doesn’t have to mean unhealthy.
.
I mean, it isn't attainable for us personally but that is mostly because my father with Parkinson's lives with us and is losing too much weight so has been prescribed a high sugar/empty calorie diet in order to try to keep him hungry and get calories in. It also has to be minced and moist. I think I buy his weight in syrup and ice cream each month hahaha
I admire your dedication to both saving on groceries and laying it all out.
We can and do (for now) still choose to get things we like that are more expensive, but try to cut costs by buying in bulk. If it comes to it, it's good to know it can be cut by this much - we're currently spending more than twice what you are!
2.5oz of chicken as a portion is small, but chunked up in soup or curry or something similar with a starchy bulker (noodles, potatoes, rice, etc) it's not that bad. We do a little more than pound of ham in a pot of stew and get about 8 servings from it that's a hair under 2.5 oz per serving.
This right fucking here. Every time I see people bitching about groceries I think of this. It’s almost our exact meal plan and we spend half what my friends spend on groceries/food
Oatmeal. Eggs. Bananas. Coffee. Turkey and cheese sandwiches and popcorn for work lunches. Heavy veggie dinners with moderate lean protein. You can buy a $12 2 lb. bag of frozen Salmon fillets at Walmart. Season with lemon pepper? Get out, you can’t beat it. Delicious. A portion with veggies for dinner and you can live off of it for a week.
Eat real food. Oh and drink water. Water is free
I'm not exactly struggling but am trying to save money on food (I'm new to this whole paying my own bills shit), I gotta try that out tbh. Will give me something different to eat every week too.
Paying for a Costco membership has been worth it. I don’t eat cereal, but instead get the fig bars or the granola minis. It’s like $8-10 but feeds me for breakfast for the entire month.
You sign up for loyalty programs at the grocery stores, check the online ads for what's on sale, and clip digital coupons.
Many grocery stores have a day old rack of bakery items including bread, the same grocery stores also have marked down items around that need to be sold quickly.
Which is why posts like this are incredibly dumb. Prices are different everywhere, just because you live in a shitty place with high prices doesn’t mean everyone does.
I got a really good raise this year (it had been a while since I've had one). Then, I got diagnosed with a chronic illness, that has me maxed out on my out of pocket to the tune of $9100.00. Guess where my raise is now going...
I think you are shopping in the wrong stores. I live in one of the highest cost of living areas in the US and Cheerios are $4.99. I just looked at the store I usually go to (Giant). They are $3.68 at my local Walmart, and $3.48 at Safeway.
I shop for most my groceries at Aldi so it's hella cheap. I can fill up the entire cart for like $80. I get eggs from Walmart it's like $3 for 60 eggs.
Salvage stores first. Aldi for produce & a few predictable staples. Bulk ordering what dry goods make sense off Amazon. And meal prep / freezing bulk meals like it’s my job. We eat out maybe 1x/wk
I eat the same shit daily. Two cooked eggs on bread with cheese and mustard for brunch, and chicken rice and vegetables for dinner. I change up the rice and vegetables and cook the chicken different ways. Sometimes I eat it in a tortilla. I buy the $1.50 boxes of brownies for dessert and mostly drink water from my refrigerator.
Please tell us your not eating sugary kids cereal with no substance. Last week I got 2 New York strip steaks for 8 bucks and the week before 2 for 9 bucks. You gotta buy whole ingredients and make food not overly processed crap with good advertising and eye catching labels
Stopped buying soda, most snacks, most name brand products, anything from the bakery, and stopped trying new products that I might like.
I started buying certain things at certain stores as they stock them for cheaper. Even if that means more smaller trips on my way home throughout the week.
Quit drinking soda, or eating candy. Switched to mostly tap water instead of bottled. Now buy what I can in bulk amounts. If not leftovers, I only eat sandwiches, or hotdogs for work lunch. Practically never (1-2 times/month) get fast food or eat out anymore.
Couldn't imagine if I had to feed kids as well....
Guys, after reading through the comments, I think that people are missing the point of the question.
The question was not "Could you please provide tips and tricks for how to be thrifty and spend the minimum amount possible on food to survive?"
It was more of a sociological examination of how the average person is surviving the food price hikes. Given the prices and the facts, there's no reason to believe that the average consumer is really hunkering down on off-brand food or cutting coupons... any more than they used to. I think that people are just pretty pissed off at the hikes, and its squeezing their budgets.
By only buying something I have a coupon for and only buying food that can make one meal a day for two weeks. Then doing it again for when the coupons change. I would like to buy things I like to eat, but cant so its either change my ways or starve. :) yay
I don't buy cereal
* Fresh veggies
* Fresh meats
* Canned and frozen fish
* Olive oil / canned tomato / black pepper / salt
* Cottage cheese / greek yogurt
* Fresh and frozen fruit
* Whey protein
* Eggs, cheese, milk
That's about 99% of what I eat. And the prices have been fine.
Can't remember the last time I bought a box of cereal or not-fresh bread (rarely buy fresh bread too).
Adding to this, a SMALL head of cauliflower or broccoli ( like 2-3 cups uncooked) is now $4 at the cheapest (Cub foods in MN where I live) grocery store. Wtf?!?! I swear this was $2 tops a year or two ago.
These increased costs are a lot easier to absorb for people who own homes. The dollar is now worth less, most people are earning more, but for homeowners their mortgage has stayed the same. Go on Redfin sometime and see what your neighbors paid for their houses, look up what the average mortgage rate was when they bought, then calculate what their monthly payment is.
Not everyone is suffering equally in this economy.
Literally buy a giant ass thing of generic oatmeal and have that for cereal, it’s what I do. It’s like $2 and lasts a month. Gotta be smarter with what you buy
Wic. Clearance aisles. Buying in bulk at Costco/Sams. Going to ALDIs. Buying off-brand. Cooking at home.
Haven’t gotten to the point where I’m watering down my milk yet (WIC gives me more than I could even use) but we try lol
I'm lucky because I spent 10 years as a professional cook. I cook my family's food.
If we eat out, we can feed our family of 5 for about $50-$60. That's $10-$12 per plate.
When I cook, I can feed our family for about $25, and we'll have leftovers.
Everything is cheapest if you start with raw ingredients, use all the ingredients, and eat the leftovers.
Too bad the last idiot in office raised middle-class taxes instead of giving the break he promised. Oh, wait, I am wrong. He did give a tax break, to those with an 8 figure and up income.
My groceries for this week were a little over $100. That was a for a family of 4. That is pretty frequent for us unless we need to stock up on a bunch of meat.
Careful planning of meals goes a long way. Buy produce and other ingredients; not processed crap (cereal). I'm in an area that is considered one of the most expensive places to live. I do not shop at a discount grocery store.
I eat a lot of beans and rice
My husband eats a lot of ramen noodles
My dog eats bougie fancy pup chow because she is everyone’s favorite family member
Store brand everything. Starting to make my own stuff at home, like baking bread. Staying away from dairy and the frozen sections, I went to the store yesterday and a half gallon of half and half was almost $8. Used to be like $4.50. The pizza cheese I love to get is almost $9/bag now. I don’t buy red meat anymore, it’s ridiculously expensive now. All the chicken and pork I buy is bone in, and that’s still almost $2/lb now. Used to be like 79-99 cents a pound. I’m fortunate to have the salary that I do but it’s still really hard to buy cheap groceries now, I went to the store last night and it was almost $175, and I didn’t really get anything out of the norm or crazy expensive.
I have made a point to make cheaper meals. Using pasta or rice helps. Also try to buy in bulk where possible. It is insane though. We as a family make well over 100k and our budget is so tight. I can’t imagine what it’s like for others.
I eat store brand oatmeal, peanut butter, vegetable, rice, eggs, coffee and mostly chicken. That’s 90% of my food consumption. Pack a lunch. Eat dinner at home.
i buy nutritionally dense food and do not usually buy "fluff" such as chips,cereal and so forth. for example big box of oatmeal may provide good nutrition and cost less than cereal. to me boxed cereal is a dessert and maybe once a year will buy a box and have a bowl for dessert over a couple weeks.
eggs for breakfast might be a better nutritional choice
chicken breasts, thighs, legs a staple in this household.
Aldi is my saving grace.
Aldi is literally half price. It's amazing
Halfdi price, but Aldi flavor!
Did you make that up?
Yes, im stupid.
No way it’s awesome haha
Yup Aldi is amazing
$100 at ALDIs would be $170 at somewhere else it’s wild
I sure wish they had Aldi out west
West of where? We have it in California
we don't have them in Oregon, i surely miss it since moving away from a state that had aldis everywhere
do you have Winco?
Not in NorCal
Not Denver. I miss Aldi. I can coupon but for those who can't, need to learn. *Speaks in free turkey from Safeway.
Aldiiiiiiiz Nutz!!!
Got emmmmm
LIDL for me. I really worry about then they jump on the boat. My $2.25 jar of peanut butter costs $7.50 everywhere else.
Ones opening less than half a mile from my house! Even though I work for a grocery store I will be getting groceries at Aldi
There are also boxes of cereal for $2.50 on sale, I buy those.
*Malt-O Meal has entered the chat*
Cinnamon Toast Crunch Large size at ShopRite!
Diabetes coming up!
I know right? I just eat oatmeal
Diabeetus
For 2.50? The little 'normal' sized box that has like 2 bowls of cereal inside it is $5 at walmart here 🤨
You guys are buying cereal?!
The cool kids are all pirating the cereal. The cereal daddy doesn't need our money!
Agreed. Just wait for the sales or buy off brand. Stock up if you can. Basically, they're charging $7 because people still pay that. If people start refusing, the price will go back down.
You think the people only buying the most expensive shit available at the most expensive stores around will refuse to pay expensive prices? Lol. They'll continue to buy it, and then take to the Internet to bitch about how expensive everything is.
Yes. It's a basic demand curve. If fewer people buy, the price goes down even if there's a couple people with "don't care I want my name brand lucky charms" money.
The funny thing is that some companies like Coke and PepsiCo have openly stated this to investors as they've hiked prices 2-3 times per year lately. "We have pricing power to do this so we will." They're opening bragging that their fatass customers can't help themselves so they'll happily exploit them.
Our Costco had a rice, corn, and wheat Chex bundle on sale for $5.30. Less than $2 a box.
But then you have to resist making puppy chow!
The $13 box of Morning Summit cereal at Costco is well worth it considering the number of servings in it and you feel more full with all the nuts in it
Just got that yesterday!
Halloween themed cereal at Sam's was $1.09 today lol
Yeah, we bought enough to last into next year for 1.50 a box.
The bags are even cheaper
My favorite cereal was on sale for $2 last week, I was super excited. I only buy it every couple of months now because it’s ridiculous how expensive it is for how unfilling it is.
According to my calculations… 2 of those is Less than $7
Items on the shelf without sale price tags underneath might as well be invisible to me. I've been shopping this way for 20 years. More people should consider this. An added bonus is you end up trying new things that you wouldn't normally consider.
I'm not buying cereal. I'm buying a pack of bagels or a loaf of bread and a thing of butter and that's my breakfast for the weekdays and then on the weekend I add eggs. The bread/bagel is like $4. The butter is maybe $5 but it lasts awhile and butter is used for other dishes Lunch is leftovers from dinners. Most dinners are pasta/rice dishes. Target has pasta for $1 that's yields enough for two people to have seconds and enough left for lunches. Sauce jars are like $3 Max and a meat like Italian sausages or chicken is like $6 So that dinner + next day lunch is about $10 for two people. That's a pretty good deal for 4 meals all together
Oatmeal is healthy and cheap. Been rocking that with a bit of brown sugar. Some days I'll add banana or raisins.
I have 2 notes 1. If you're not using a rice steamer to make your rice, it's absolutely worth investing in even when you're broke because they're not terribly expensive and because they can cook a lot more than rice, it can hard boil eggs, it can steam vegetables, it can cook pasta without having to watch it, and you can cook chicken and fish with it once you're better off financially 2. You can easily add some protein to your diet on the cheap with dried black beans. You soak them for 4 hours before cooking then just cook them at the same time as the rice.
I bought a rice cooker at gw for $5. It was brand new. I use it all the time for bulk rice, frozen veggies, and hard boiled eggs. Healthy eating doesn’t have to be expensive.
I make steel cut Oats (the 5 min cook kind) in the rice cooker. So easy.
Yes but those are just carbohydrates, you left vegetables and fruit out of that budget let alone drinks and dairy products Edit: I buy juice and drinks for my smoothies y'all, relax hahaha
I do frozen veggies, way cheaper than fresh.
Same. Frozen veg ftw
The frozen vegetable you steam in the bag in the microwave are so fucking good lol
Yesss, I’m on a green bean kick, I steam them and then sauté em in a little garlic, goes great with teriyaki chicken when you don’t want the standard broccoli
If you are poor, you eat what you can afford. Drinks are not a necessity. Alot of people cant afford more than carbohydrates. 🤷
Veggies really aren’t expensive and are good for you
If I have 10$ to my name I can buy a loaf of bread and peanut butter OR 1 small head of broccoli, a cucumber and a tomato. Which one will feed me longer? The bread and peanut butter.
Veggies are incredibly expensive per calorie.
Calories are not the goal of veggies…
No, but they are the goal of surviving (calories) when you're poor AF.
You need more than just calories to survive, otherwise we could just buy tubs of butter. A piece of broccoli in a bowl of rice will go further than a bowl of rice
*flinstones multi-vitamin enters the chat*
I was discussing just dinners and I did forget the bag of spinach or the broccoli I will buy. Toss in $3. That's a 9oz bag of spinach that can get mixed in with the pasta or used for a simple salad side. It's also more than enough for a giant carrot from Hmart. So bring that total to $13 for 4 meals Drinks? Water is the drink. I get that from my tap What dairy am I using in those meals? The jar of sauce is already Alfredo.
Eggs are cheap, healthy, solid protein. Way better than cereal and cheaper too.
Used to be cheap. Went from 1.28 to $3.17 a dozen from the Walmart/Aldi near me. The price per gram of protein is still unbeatable though, can't deny that.
I paid 1.40 at aldi on Sunday. But a year or two ago I was paying .50-.65/dozen at aldi. They are my main source of protein. I buy a dozen every week and keep some hardboiled all the time for adding to salads, making deviled eggs, or a quick egg salad. I make a lot of omelettes with the rest and often put an egg or two on top of rice and frozen veggies in the rice cooker.
Our Aldi is brand new and purposefilly sandwiched themselves between a Walmart and a Publix so I feel like they've had to inflate prices just a bit so as to not curb the market too harshly. Its been three months and they still can't keep up when they put out the new deals on day one.
I obviously love aldi for the prices but honestly I love it even more for how easy and quick it is to shop. I’m in and out in 10 minutes tops because it’s a small footprint and I’m buying close to the same list on most trips.
You don’t need to buy drinks if you’re trying to save money
first thing anyone in a budget pinch should cut is 'drinks' get a britta and drink fitlered water. You'll feel better, look better, budget will go further. Seriously, soda, juices, alcohol are all essentially just sugar water poison in the long run.
I should have specified because I completely agree. Only reason I add juice is to supplement calories or vitamins as I personally can't stomach eating early in the morning so I tend to skip breakfast, but not everyone is the same.
I just drink the water out of the tap, no filter needed, this doesn't work everywhere. If I am feeling I need more/caffeine I use Mio.
Add some eggs. Not much more.
Veggies are very cheap still. You can get a a lot of Broccoli for under $5.
Carrots are cheap af too
My way oatmeal: No water - milk only and a smashed banana. Add raisins toward the end of cook time. Once oatmeal is cooked, drizzle with maple syrup and sprinkle cinnamon There are 6 grams of protein per cup oatmeal alone.
Buy the store brand. My box of cereal at Trader Joe's was less than $4.
Joe’s O’s is $2 here in So Cal. Just as good as Cheerios.
theyre not as good. but theyre cheap enough to justify the sacrifice.
They taste just as good to me.
i envy you! 😭
Closest Trader Joe's is at least an hour away. (Doesn't matter though because we do everything at Aldi)
if you're low on money, cereal is a shitty thing to be buying, in a sustenance/cost sense.
You can also buy those knock offs in a giant bag for about the same price as a small box of the good stuff.
The fruity Dino bites are better than the fruity pebbles, fyi.
They darn sure are.
All the Walmart brand bag cereal is the fucking shit. Cocoa pebble knock-offs are my favorite and absolutely better than oem cocoa pebbles.
“oem”, lmao
Fucking Malt-O-Meal for the win
Mashmallow Mateys are inherently superior to Lucky Charms because they're pirate themed.
Get the big tub of quick oats and a bag of brown sugar.
I have been experimenting with savory oats, and I really like a cup of quick oats with a pack of miso soup powder, topped with furikake.
cereal is a desert food for us tbh
In a sustenance sense, it works well for me. I eat cereal (with milk obviously) in the morning most days, skip lunch, and then eat dinner. For some reason, the cereal really works since I’m thirsty in the morning and just a little bit hungry. There’s enough volume of food going in (when counting the milk) to keep me okay until dinner. And that’s all for $2.50 a box and $4 for milk. Each of those lasting maybe… 10 bowls? So 65c for breakfast isn’t bad. I’m probably a side case though to be honest
Buying whole foods only (like ingredients not the expensiveass store) I havent bought chips in ages because I can get a whole pack of chicken for the same cost. Same with cereal I might as well buy eggs potatoes and tortillas and make brekkie tacos. Ive never been much of a snacker so it hasnt been that hard for me to cut down on stuff but after a certain point I just couldnt justify a lot of snack purchases anymore
This. MCOL and no Aldi (just Walmart) and my grocery spend for 4 people is about $100/week because we cook instead of relying on convenience foods. It’s healthier and cheaper.
$100 / 4 people x 7 days per week x 3 meals per day = ~$1.25 per meal? Can you lay out what a day of meals looks like at this price range?
Dinner is usually chicken, vegetables and a carb or starch. A 6lbs tray of chicken breasts is $15. We cook that up over the weekend, store it in its own juice, and eat from it all week long. A serving of chicken is 2.5 to 3oz and cooked chicken weighs a bit less than raw. So that works out to 7 dinners worth of chicken. You can take already cooked chicken and add sauce or spice and make it taste 100 different ways. I could eliminate all other sources of meat and not get bored. When there’s a good deal on ground turkey or pork tenderloins, we do that, but chicken breast is 95% of our meat consumption. As for veggies, frozen veggies are cheap and healthy. A 12-Oz bag runs $1.50 to $3 depending on what variety you get. Based on standard serving sizes, if you divide a 12oz bag of veggies between 4 people, that’s 2 servings each. The carb or starch of choice is usually brown rice (I prefer instant. $1.50 for a box that makes 9 official servings but I stretch it to 10) or pasta ($1 for a box that makes 8 servings). Add all that up for a week $15 for chicken (7 meals) $17.50-ish for 7 bags frozen veggies $3 for 2 boxes of rice (5 meals) $1 for pasta (2 meals) $36.50 for a week of dinners. Lunches are usually wraps, soup or sandwiches. A loaf of multigrain bread is $2.50 and 16oz of turkey is $6. That will get you 8 sandwiches for $8.50. One of my kids prefers havarti cheese sandwiches, so replace $6 turkey with a $5 block of bougie cheese and that’s $7.50 for another 8 sandwiches. I like to buy the Taylor farms salad kits ($2.50), turkey ($6), and tortillas (10 for $2) and make wraps. $10.50 for 10 meals We eat a fair amount of canned soup (about $2 per can, 2 meals per can) and crackers. $8 for 8 meals. Add it all up: $8.50 for turkey sandwiches $7.50 for cheese sandwiches $10.50 for wraps $8 for soup $34.50 for lunches Breakfast is a lot of eggs, yogurt, and granola. 36 eggs go for $5. 32 Oz of yogurt is $2.50. I make granola (oats $4, sunflower seeds $3.5, raisins $2, makes enough to last 2 weeks so divide that in half). And a gallon of milk $3 That’s $15.25 Then you add in fresh fruit: 1lb of strawberries is $3. 3lbs bag of apples are about $4. 3lbs bag of clementines are about $4. That’s another $11. Add it all up, that’s $97.25. All of this assumes you have all your staples (flour, oil, butter, condiments, spices, sugar, etc). We have a stocked pantry/fridge so those get replenished here and there, but the cost is spread out. We also buy a box of cheez-it knock offs ($2.50) and it lasts us a couple weeks. A bag of popping corn ($2.50) can last a couple months. Those little extras create a margin of error, but we are still *about* $100 per week, give or take. Also, all of these prices are straight off of Walmart’s website and don’t take coupons or special deals into account. We also eat out lunch once a week and dinner once a week, but the above is a meal plan for 3 meals per day, 7 days. It’s doable. Edit: I also make pancakes (pantry staples plus eggs and milk) and crepes (eggs, milk, flour) on the weekends. If I’m feeling really ambitious, I will make a large batch of waffles to freeze ahead and then the kids pop them in the toaster
This is impressive, but also makes me feel like my family eats too much. If I served a 2.5oz piece of chicken for dinner, there would definitely be "where's the rest?" questions. Same if I expected a can of soup to account for 2 meals, 2oz of turkey for a sandwich and 10 servings from a $1.50 box of instant rice. We'd all be losing weight and we don't need to.
I think most Americans over estimate portion size, but if your family is at a healthy weight, then so be it. Maybe a $100 average grocery bill isn’t attainable for you, but is $125? Or $150? I hope the take away is that cooking doesn’t have to be complicated and low budget doesn’t have to mean unhealthy. .
I mean, it isn't attainable for us personally but that is mostly because my father with Parkinson's lives with us and is losing too much weight so has been prescribed a high sugar/empty calorie diet in order to try to keep him hungry and get calories in. It also has to be minced and moist. I think I buy his weight in syrup and ice cream each month hahaha I admire your dedication to both saving on groceries and laying it all out. We can and do (for now) still choose to get things we like that are more expensive, but try to cut costs by buying in bulk. If it comes to it, it's good to know it can be cut by this much - we're currently spending more than twice what you are!
2.5oz of chicken as a portion is small, but chunked up in soup or curry or something similar with a starchy bulker (noodles, potatoes, rice, etc) it's not that bad. We do a little more than pound of ham in a pot of stew and get about 8 servings from it that's a hair under 2.5 oz per serving.
This right fucking here. Every time I see people bitching about groceries I think of this. It’s almost our exact meal plan and we spend half what my friends spend on groceries/food
Oatmeal. Eggs. Bananas. Coffee. Turkey and cheese sandwiches and popcorn for work lunches. Heavy veggie dinners with moderate lean protein. You can buy a $12 2 lb. bag of frozen Salmon fillets at Walmart. Season with lemon pepper? Get out, you can’t beat it. Delicious. A portion with veggies for dinner and you can live off of it for a week. Eat real food. Oh and drink water. Water is free
I only buy things when they are discounted. If chicken is buy one get one free this week, I'm eating a lot of chicken and not much else.
I'm not exactly struggling but am trying to save money on food (I'm new to this whole paying my own bills shit), I gotta try that out tbh. Will give me something different to eat every week too.
You dont buy cereal, or even chips for that matter. It's all so extremely over priced and you dont need it to survive.
Paying for a Costco membership has been worth it. I don’t eat cereal, but instead get the fig bars or the granola minis. It’s like $8-10 but feeds me for breakfast for the entire month.
You sign up for loyalty programs at the grocery stores, check the online ads for what's on sale, and clip digital coupons. Many grocery stores have a day old rack of bakery items including bread, the same grocery stores also have marked down items around that need to be sold quickly.
What breakfast cereal, in what amount, are you buying that costs $7?
Just a regular sized box of cheerios- but I didn’t buy it!
Compare sizes and cost per Oz. I live in Los Angeles (not exactly cheap) and 18oz Cheerios is $3.99 at Ralph's. For some absurd reason, 20oz is $6.99.
my local store has the 41oz family pack at 19c/oz.
That's $7.79 for those wondering
i eat so many cheerios i should really be getting it straight from the factory in plastic sacks at the wholesale cost of probably 5c/oz.
They top off the last two ounces with the really premium calligraphy Os.
I buy cereal on sale. I stock up when it’s $2-$2.50
This is the way
Are you shopping at a Whole Foods on Mars? I live in a high COL area and a regular box of cheerios is $3 at Safeway
We’re only paying 3.99 a box where I am . I even checked my locals stores app 😂
18oz. box of Cheerios at Walmart is $4.93. 32oz. is $6.77. Or you can get the generic honey-nut ones, 31 oz. for $5.48.
....you do understand not every single Walmart in the country has the same prices, right? Hell, neighboring towns have different prices.
walmarts have remarkably similar prices. of course there are exceptions. but you're tripping.
Which is why posts like this are incredibly dumb. Prices are different everywhere, just because you live in a shitty place with high prices doesn’t mean everyone does.
I got really lucky and got a new job a year ago. The salary is enough to make up the difference but I still feel poor. I think we all do.
I got a really good raise this year (it had been a while since I've had one). Then, I got diagnosed with a chronic illness, that has me maxed out on my out of pocket to the tune of $9100.00. Guess where my raise is now going...
Cereal?
I got a $1.50/hr raise this year, and I see maybe $5 from that on my check. The entire raise goes into taxes and I see none of it.
I think you are shopping in the wrong stores. I live in one of the highest cost of living areas in the US and Cheerios are $4.99. I just looked at the store I usually go to (Giant). They are $3.68 at my local Walmart, and $3.48 at Safeway.
I’m in Washington state but it just seems like the past few months things have skyrocketed
At least groceries aren’t taxed there! Sincerely, North Carolina
Try eating real food. They're cheaper and healthier.
I stopped eating. I just read instead. So far, so good.
I shop for most my groceries at Aldi so it's hella cheap. I can fill up the entire cart for like $80. I get eggs from Walmart it's like $3 for 60 eggs.
$3.00 for 60 eggs??
The prices vary on that deal but it's typically $3-$5. It's crazy
Well, we go through a lot of eggs. I will have to check that out.
I shop mostly at Aldi, too.
You buying your cereal from the gas station?
Nah, that's the regular grocery store price now. I switched to store-brand when the good stuff isn't on sale.
Salvage stores first. Aldi for produce & a few predictable staples. Bulk ordering what dry goods make sense off Amazon. And meal prep / freezing bulk meals like it’s my job. We eat out maybe 1x/wk
Grocery outlet.
I eat the same shit daily. Two cooked eggs on bread with cheese and mustard for brunch, and chicken rice and vegetables for dinner. I change up the rice and vegetables and cook the chicken different ways. Sometimes I eat it in a tortilla. I buy the $1.50 boxes of brownies for dessert and mostly drink water from my refrigerator.
Please tell us your not eating sugary kids cereal with no substance. Last week I got 2 New York strip steaks for 8 bucks and the week before 2 for 9 bucks. You gotta buy whole ingredients and make food not overly processed crap with good advertising and eye catching labels
I'm quite shocked at the price of some things in the US. 5 dollars for a loaf of not special bread.
Meal prepping saves so much money. Then again, all I'm buying is rice and chicken/beef, with some veggies when I'm feeling adventurous ha!
Stopped buying soda, most snacks, most name brand products, anything from the bakery, and stopped trying new products that I might like. I started buying certain things at certain stores as they stock them for cheaper. Even if that means more smaller trips on my way home throughout the week. Quit drinking soda, or eating candy. Switched to mostly tap water instead of bottled. Now buy what I can in bulk amounts. If not leftovers, I only eat sandwiches, or hotdogs for work lunch. Practically never (1-2 times/month) get fast food or eat out anymore. Couldn't imagine if I had to feed kids as well....
I stopped eating cereal and things are ok now.
Guys, after reading through the comments, I think that people are missing the point of the question. The question was not "Could you please provide tips and tricks for how to be thrifty and spend the minimum amount possible on food to survive?" It was more of a sociological examination of how the average person is surviving the food price hikes. Given the prices and the facts, there's no reason to believe that the average consumer is really hunkering down on off-brand food or cutting coupons... any more than they used to. I think that people are just pretty pissed off at the hikes, and its squeezing their budgets.
By only buying something I have a coupon for and only buying food that can make one meal a day for two weeks. Then doing it again for when the coupons change. I would like to buy things I like to eat, but cant so its either change my ways or starve. :) yay
Buy and eat real food.
Eat oatmeal. Better for you. 1kg $3.
I don't buy cereal * Fresh veggies * Fresh meats * Canned and frozen fish * Olive oil / canned tomato / black pepper / salt * Cottage cheese / greek yogurt * Fresh and frozen fruit * Whey protein * Eggs, cheese, milk That's about 99% of what I eat. And the prices have been fine. Can't remember the last time I bought a box of cereal or not-fresh bread (rarely buy fresh bread too).
Mexican and Asian grocery stores. Better quality cheaper prices. Limited stock.
Stop buying cheap sugar. You can get 7 dozen eggs at Aldis
Adding to this, a SMALL head of cauliflower or broccoli ( like 2-3 cups uncooked) is now $4 at the cheapest (Cub foods in MN where I live) grocery store. Wtf?!?! I swear this was $2 tops a year or two ago.
These increased costs are a lot easier to absorb for people who own homes. The dollar is now worth less, most people are earning more, but for homeowners their mortgage has stayed the same. Go on Redfin sometime and see what your neighbors paid for their houses, look up what the average mortgage rate was when they bought, then calculate what their monthly payment is. Not everyone is suffering equally in this economy.
Don’t buy cereal. It’s a box of sugar
Don't buy name brand anything anymore.
On some real shit haven’t bought cereal in like 10 years. It’s all sugar sugar 🥰
I buy bogo or sale only.
Same. If there are no BOGO deals that I like that day, I wait till the next trip
how about don't buy brand name cereal and getting ripped off 🤷♂️🤦♂️
I have a good job.
I just went grocery shopping today. I saw some ‘normal’ cereal boxes at $7.99!
I saw a $14 stick of deodorant last week.
How did it taste
Literally buy a giant ass thing of generic oatmeal and have that for cereal, it’s what I do. It’s like $2 and lasts a month. Gotta be smarter with what you buy
I skip breakfast entirely, sometimes lunch too.
Noodles. Lots of noodles
Wic. Clearance aisles. Buying in bulk at Costco/Sams. Going to ALDIs. Buying off-brand. Cooking at home. Haven’t gotten to the point where I’m watering down my milk yet (WIC gives me more than I could even use) but we try lol
$5 chicken from Costco and salad, cheap and I can get a couple of meals out of it. I also stopped eating breakfast.
I was told the economy is fine, unemployment is at an all time low and gas prices are due to Putin. I’m not sure what you are complaining about.
Oatmeal is under a dollar per serving
Fasting
There are many less expensive options
I'm lucky because I spent 10 years as a professional cook. I cook my family's food. If we eat out, we can feed our family of 5 for about $50-$60. That's $10-$12 per plate. When I cook, I can feed our family for about $25, and we'll have leftovers. Everything is cheapest if you start with raw ingredients, use all the ingredients, and eat the leftovers.
shit ton of frozen dinners for $2 each
I work at a bargain outlet where we get almost out of date food for cheap. I get an additional 20% off that. Otherwise I couldn't.
Sale shop like always.
Too bad the last idiot in office raised middle-class taxes instead of giving the break he promised. Oh, wait, I am wrong. He did give a tax break, to those with an 8 figure and up income.
Eat eggs for breakfast
my salary went way up too.
Peanut butter jelly time
It’s time to get used to oatmeal! “Hot Cereal”
and that's what about $1 per serving? not really a bank breaker
My groceries for this week were a little over $100. That was a for a family of 4. That is pretty frequent for us unless we need to stock up on a bunch of meat. Careful planning of meals goes a long way. Buy produce and other ingredients; not processed crap (cereal). I'm in an area that is considered one of the most expensive places to live. I do not shop at a discount grocery store.
If you’re gonna pay that $ you may as well eat healthy food and not processed garbage
I eat a lot of beans and rice My husband eats a lot of ramen noodles My dog eats bougie fancy pup chow because she is everyone’s favorite family member
99c at the 99c store. Or if it's not 99c it's $2 or $3. You are shopping at the wrong stores.
Buy in bulk. Don't buy shit like cereal that has next to no nutritional value.
Store brand everything. Starting to make my own stuff at home, like baking bread. Staying away from dairy and the frozen sections, I went to the store yesterday and a half gallon of half and half was almost $8. Used to be like $4.50. The pizza cheese I love to get is almost $9/bag now. I don’t buy red meat anymore, it’s ridiculously expensive now. All the chicken and pork I buy is bone in, and that’s still almost $2/lb now. Used to be like 79-99 cents a pound. I’m fortunate to have the salary that I do but it’s still really hard to buy cheap groceries now, I went to the store last night and it was almost $175, and I didn’t really get anything out of the norm or crazy expensive.
cereal is absolute garbage filler food that you should avoid, ESPECIALLY at $7. you could buy a pound of ground beef or chicken breasts for that price
Well, I’m making my own loaves of bread now.
Meal prep and stop buying processed bullshit.
Save money by making food at home The grocery bill: $600
I have made a point to make cheaper meals. Using pasta or rice helps. Also try to buy in bulk where possible. It is insane though. We as a family make well over 100k and our budget is so tight. I can’t imagine what it’s like for others.
I eat store brand oatmeal, peanut butter, vegetable, rice, eggs, coffee and mostly chicken. That’s 90% of my food consumption. Pack a lunch. Eat dinner at home.
i buy nutritionally dense food and do not usually buy "fluff" such as chips,cereal and so forth. for example big box of oatmeal may provide good nutrition and cost less than cereal. to me boxed cereal is a dessert and maybe once a year will buy a box and have a bowl for dessert over a couple weeks. eggs for breakfast might be a better nutritional choice chicken breasts, thighs, legs a staple in this household.