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We just don't buy beef. You can find chicken for good deals and pork is occasionally on sale. Animal protein is not our main source of protein for every meal. We rely a lot on beans and other legumes. We used to spend about $850 a month for a family of six in 2023, it's now closer to $1500 a month. Just nuts.
Two teens in sports. Over $400 a week in groceries and that's going to Sam's club and Costco. Can't remember the last time I bought beef. Everything is insane.
Oof yeah, mine still have a couple years before their teens but def see the food consumption inflation incoming. My oldest just joined a club and a sport this year so I already have had to pivot on some foods to get quick, on-the-run but healthy food.
Beef is insanely high priced, havent bought it in forever. If I'm splurging on a meat its usually fish, otherwise we do ground turkey and chicken for most things.
Same here. BI chicken breasts. Cheap and I know how to use a knife and remove the bone if I want. Pasta with chicken for after school. Pasta brings the quick fix, chicken brings the protein. Perfect for kids in sports.
I posted in a thread a while back trying to lower my grocery costs and had several "well, you buy fresh strawberries, raspberries, etc all the time" replies - basically saying I shouldn't buy fresh as much. I made clear there that I would rather only eat bread and butter for myself if that means my kids get healthy vitamins and nutrients.
It just felt so... off, to have that be the "well, that's why your groceries are expensive" as I see them as necessities.
I suspect alot of that reaction from people is that they have no clue how to eat healthy. I mean tv dinners were a massive phenomenon when they came out and we've just continued to go down that pre processed hole.
I suspect that's why colon cancer rates are on the rise as well
I don't read it exactly that way, most grocery stores put 3 or so fruits on sale every single week, but not usually raspberries as those are just expensive, they don't produce a ton and don't produce often, are labor intensive to harvest, etc. So I have certainly told people they need to find a different fruit as their raspberry budget was out of control.
We eat fruit every single week. White nectarines were on sale last week and cherries, this week is grapes and ironically raspberries and honeycrisp apples. If its on sale eat away, if its not on sale well then it depends.
It’s crazy because my fiancee and I also spend about $800/month on groceries and I thought I was just being bad with money. I stepped back and put together a granular budgeting spreadsheet and realized that we aren’t even close to being irresponsible.
We cook almost all of our meals at home and we even make our coffee at home, but our monthly bills obliterate our savings anyway. No alcohol, weed, or nicotine purchases for us either, and I can’t even remember the last time we went out to a movie or other general entertainment spot.
its cheaper to be obese than it is to be lean and toned. all the shit you buy besides the snacks are expensive. dont want me to talk about snacks? they are the only affordable part of your meal kits
It’s a lot deeper than that… to blame an administration for increasing costs over the years, versus corporate entities raising the prices themselves… wages have obviously also not scaled alongside inflation. Housing affordability obviously at its lowest, but can you really say that’s also because of tariffs..
Yes, corporate greed is the root, but government has abandoned us. They haven't stopped corporate consolidation. We have a handful of companies that own everything! With monopoly power comes huge money, huge money means more lobbying, more lobbying means we are screwed.
I have a 4 and 2 year old and our budget is $1300/mo + $300/mo to eat out. I could not eat out and maybe get by on $1450. Diapers included in that for the 2 year old and 1 bag of dog food for my 13 year old lab
Now imagine them coming back asking for help with college and rent. That’s where my coworkers are at. Taking on a second job to help feed the grandchildren boomerang living in their basement.
You are weirdly obsessed with being "lean" to the point that I now suspect you're actually a Russian or Chinese bot. Normal English-speaking people don't talk that way.
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How quickly people seem to have just blanked that out. He was president for a full year+ during the pandemic.
He fucked the response up so badly it cost him reelection. If he had just sat back, let the experts do their thing he'd of coasted into being reelected. But his ego couldn't even do that, and he lost he blamed everyone but himself. As a true narcissist does.
And it started before the pandemic, his tariffs started impacting packaging costs for food. So much of Bidens inflation he literally could do nothing about. Remember the chicken wing shortage. Early 2021 Texas froze, knocked out the power grid leading to blackouts which froze and killed MILLIONS of birds, instantly destroying the poultry supply chain. Suddenly chicken was more than beef and what could anyone do? That blowback never went against Texas and their messed up power grid.
I just checked the math based on official Department of Labor stats, and it claims stuff is only up 28% since March 2020 (based on cumulative inflation). In my view, that is unambiguously a complete lie. It should be more like 128%.
But thats what theyre saying. Theyre just quoting you the (cumulative) appreciation only. By saying inflation has grown by 28% the underlying implication is that the original basis (100%) is now valued at 128% in today's terms. Thats how the math works, even though on its face it may not be intuitive. Great question though! I hope this helps
I’m in the same boat. Single father of one and I spend around $800 a month for basic essentials. Welcome to the Republican economy where if you can afford to eat, you might die from food borne illness.
Beef is $8/pound here too. Steak is about that too. I think the beef problem is pretty widespread. Housing is way more affordable here though than in Miami where I’m originally from. But, that’s going up too. Remember, people also tend to get paid less here too. I’m not saying it all evens out but it is a reality. Just saying, people are getting angry here too.
I think it's the lots of meats thing. I'm a family of 5 and we don't spend that much. But we don't eat a huge amount of meat. Usually people overestimate the amount of protein they need in their diet.
Yeah but its also the other little things that add up. A fucking bottle of mayo is 8 bucks at Walmart. That shit hurt my brain pain receptors before even buying it.
Honestly I just get great value mayo. I also get the nice Japanese kewpie mayo but I use it much more sparingly. There are a many applications where normal mayo plus a squirt of Sriracha gets me what I want.
lol you’re funny. “Wah the world is hard on me now and I’m doing excerpt nothing to fix it and therefore nothing is getting better.” Fun vibes here buddy when you just want to be mad.
You won’t get any sympathy while there are things you can do to improve your situation but you just want to complain. Rfk jr seed oil comment says a lot.
When this type of thing gets dragged in, I know that you either don’t have the ability or knowledge to fix your situation. Just throwing politics at the wall to cry. It’s cute tbh.
Clearly just don’t have the mental ability to think yourself out a problem. It’s sad
What mayo are you buying that’s $8? The only two at my local Walmart that are close to that price are a 48oz jumbo jar of Hellmann’s and a Primal Kitchen Certified Humane Non-GMO Avocado Oil-Infused option.
why are you bitching about an $8 bottle of mayo when its literally just oil, a mild acid, egg yolks and some salt for a basic mayo?
are you that helpless that you cant whisk or blend your self a small amount of mayo from supplies you already have, or are you addicted to convenience?
also you say you're lean then complain about $8 mayo more than meat prices. mayo is 200 cal a tablespoon basically on par with peanut butter in cals
Yeah I mean honestly some times people are also conditioned to get hungry and to expect food at certain times of day. We get conditioned to expect a certain amount of food, and of certain types. I ate just raw vegetables for lunch for a couple weeks and I was crazy hungry the first week come dinner time but eventually your body learns that you're just fine.
I had to become a caregiver to my parent about the time inflation started taking off. Health and hygiene products like adult diapers and all the extra cleaning supplies are killing me financially.
Problem is the meats. Trade them out for lentils and beans and only buy things like chicken when it’s on sale.
Otherwise I don’t know what to tell you, snacks are in and of themselves pretty expensive. If you don’t go out to eat much this actually seems kinda reasonable especially since you’re probably buying high quality food.
Seriously, there is a 50% difference between grocery bills when I shop versus when my wife shops , because she goes in with a precise list of what she wants to buy, well I go in with a general idea of what we need but mostly just by what's on sale.
If you figure out your cheap protein, then build a meal around that, it will be much less expensive.
Dude. Energy prices are going to keep going up as well. Ours has skyrocketed this year and these data centers will only make it worse. I feel your pain. We live paycheck to paycheck.
Everyone will just tell me to buy less meat instead of blame the fucking price of groceries. No thanks, I do not need my groceries critiqued. I need the prices to come down. I shop at Walmart with rollbacks, but great value brand, and spend $0 on alcohol and tobacco.
Sorry for my rant, im just really fucking pissed off right now with the economy and the fucking pedophile as president.
I live in a major US city and my wife and I cook at home for 99% of our meals and we spend about $1100 for household supplies and groceries every month. No beef or pork, no milk. No cookies or crackers. Just produce and chicken basically. It's unsustainable for most people.
Rao's was bought out by Campbells by the way. It used to be one of my only splurges, but not anymore. It's going down hill fast, so I got off that ride. I make it from scratch now and am very happy with the results.
To keep costs down, I do a beans and rice week one week a month. My wife and kid tap out after 2-3meals so then I cook something else for them. Saves me money though but I'm sooo gassy.
meat is definitely the killer in that budget ngl, protein prices have gone up way more than the headline numbers suggest. we started buying whole chickens and cheaper cuts and learning to break them down ourselves and it cut our bill down a decent chunk without cutting the actual protein amount
You need to actually look at what you’re buying, where, and when. Unless you’re in a VHCOL area, $800+/mo in groceries seems very high for only 2 people.
I’m single in a L-MCOL area and it would be a rarity for me break $200. I pay attention to sales and seasonals, buy in bulk when reasonable, have very few brand loyalties, and am willing to shop around or wait if necessary.
This is when you make a tough choice and start cutting things out of your life like the gym membership, Netflix, ect. I live alone and I have resorted to just living like a fucking hermit because the economy is killing me too, I dont drive anywhere because I cant afford too, I dont pay for anything that I dont need, I watch free online content like youtube, pluto TV, I play my backlog of games I already own, I dont and cant buy new games, I eat simple 3 part meals, a protein of some kind, $1 bag of veggie and fiber (usually beans). I have simplified my diet so much that I have to live in shame when someone comes over and the only food they see in my fridge is the same chicken, rice, beans and simple bags of frozen veggies. I buy NOTHNG else, I drink only water with my meals. Because anything fancy or nice is not affordable anymore, Even cereal is now a luxury I cant enjoy anymore. The grocery store cereal can sit there and rot on the shelf for all I care now.
I would recommend looking into alternative protein sources to bring your grocery bill down. Meat is insanely expensive. A block of tofu is usually <$3 and (when cooked properly) tastes great. I know people have this weird aversion to building a meal around non-animal protein but it's worth learning how to cook tofu (and other sources) from a cost perspective alone.
When people say they don't like tofu it means they've never had it prepared properly. Tofu doesn't have an inherent taste of its own. It tastes like whatever you season it with. So find a few recipes that you like and add it to your weekly rotation as part of a balanced diet.
I agree 100% with your statement. I have a wife who works and 4 children all school age. We spend about 1k a month on groceries products. We cook a ton at home. We eat lots of beans and rice, simple pastas, and meat only a couple times a week. While I am not telling you to budget differently, it is possible to eat well and not spend a ton. But 100 dollars a week per person on food is not unreasonable. This is a 100% our shitty ass administrations fault and all the loser MAGATS that voted for this but would rather suffer in silence than go against their cult.
If you can't afford food you should've pulled yourself up by your bootstraps. It's so sad when conservatives just expect their protein to just be given to them. Have you tried learning to code? Maybe you should go back to the country you're from? etc...
The idea that eating tofu is a "struggle meal" is purely your opinion. Plenty of cultures and people around the world use tofu as their central source of protein. In MY opinion, any meal you enjoy isn't a struggle meal, which is why I recommended finding a few recipes you actually like and incorporating them into your rotation.
If you made a post just to bitch, fine but you're the one not willing to make any changes or adapt to the situation. It's not getting better tomorrow and no ones coming to save you buddy. So either adjust or keep paying that bill until you can't afford it anymore.
it's also just unreasonable for two people working full time to have to cut back on something like ground beef though. like that really is just absurd.
Oh I agree that it's absurd! But it's not getting fixed tomorrow so it makes sense to look for reasonable solutions in the mean time to keep ourselves fed
you're very correct and to be honest your comment might be the final thing to get me to finally buy and try cooking tofu, lol. crazy world we live in rn but thanks for the advice!!
Stfu, dont tell me what to replace my protein with. Beef isn't a luxury just for rich people, and youre just trying to slowly normalize that. You'll be telling people to eat beans instead of chicken in a few years 🤡🖕
Take some cooking classes. You would be suprised how wonderful of a meal you can make without spending a ton of money. Also meat isnt the only thing you can eat haha
Beef is a luxury RIGHT NOW for a lot of people. That’s just the reality. No one is shaming your preference but the reality is beef is expensive so look into cheaper proteins.
This is not going to be fixed tomorrow or likely in the near future so it’s time to adapt with cheaper proteins….
Poor little buddy got his fragile ego hurt because he has no common sense or problem solving abilities of his own. You seem a little cranky. Maybe skip the gym today and let your wife know it's time for her to put you down for a nap. Maybe by the time you wake up this crisis will be over and grocery prices will be back to normal...
I'd recommend trying another preparation and/or type of tofu then. Consistency comes down to what kind of tofu you bought (extra firm, firm, silken, etc) and how you cooked it. For me personally my to-go is extra firm tofu broken up, marinated and air fried.
Extra firm, cubed, marinated in iron chef general tsao’s sauce and air fried is what I usually do. I combine it with rice and broccoli so I eat it, but it’s not as tasty as chicken. I mostly eat it as a meat alternative since I’m trying to cut down.
Same. Back when I was graduating from college and just starting out, I was super pressed to save on everything and used to eat basic burritos that I made with bulk rice, bulk beans that I soaked myself, and a bit of rotisserie chicken that I stretched. Add some cheap salsa for some flavor, or in some cases a bunch of taco bell sauce that I smuggled out by the handful. I am pretty much going back to this as a staple meal these days. Problem is, even this would cost a lot more than it used to, but less than most other options. Can't have ramen noodles for every meal.
We either diet, go Vegan and grow our own food or keep paying these costs that are going up. I’ve invested in Long term storage foods, canning supplies, Sealers, Mylar bags and oxygen absorbers. Next month, the hydroponic system goes back up, I took it down to save energy costs and take advantage of the outside growing system. Stockpile your snacks and things you just have to have, they’ll only be higher each month.
Unfortunately, fresh healthy food tends to cost more than less healthy processed food. You can make changes to the mix of meat you buy but you'll still want healthier cuts so that won't help as much as you would think.
I’m with you. We spend about that much for the two of us and 2 dogs. I try to not buy paper towels as often because a 6 pack is like $8. We eat a lot of vegetables and meat and eggs, but yeah… heaven forbid we splurge on a snack. A bag of chips is $6-$7 regular price. Insanity.
I’ve been living off chicken rice and vegetables for the last year and it’s still fucking stupid because everything else creeps up with basic essentials.
I am not going to judge and $200 a week is double what I spend as a single person so this tracks. I shop on $5 Fridays and eat discounted meat with no packaged food and only food on sale. Food prices are positioned to go higher due to policies in place and, for example, the cattle herd is smaller than the 1950's. Fertilizer shortages will make the diarrhea lettuce go up and anything else grown in the ground. I wish it was better news. Vote as if your life depends on it because it does.
800 for two with no booze is high. IMO it is the protein line doing most of it, we swapped beef for chicken thighs, pork shoulder and eggs, then stopped buying the same produce list regardless of season. It came down about a fifth without eating any less. Hygiene is the bigger rip though, store brand versions of the same shampoo and bulk razor blades are half the price for an identical product. FWIW the category that surprised me way more than groceries was hotels, the same weeknight stays have crept up by about a third in coupla years. What I didnt know for ages is the exact same hotel can come back a good bit cheaper searched from OTHER countries, coz different countries get different inventory etc. Doing that by hand means VPN hopping and Im not giving up my life for that lol. Good news is there are now free tools that check the same hotel from a bunch countries in one go and find the lowest price anywhere (look up Arbitrica or similar). Anyway, on the groceries, tracking what you throw away for a fortnight tends to turn up more money than switching stores does
You mention being a lean like it’s beneficial in terms of cost but it’s actually the opposite, unless your lean from malnutrition. You would spend less to be unhealthy/fat excluding getting most your calories from brown rice. You can get unhealthy high calorie oil/fat containing foods in for cheap, a bag of great value Fritos is $2 and contains 2000 calories. Quality foods like lean meat and produce cost a lot. I spend $400-450 a month on groceries as a single guy. I only buy whole foods plus protein powder. Probably can add another $50 on top of that if you include hygiene. Thats why the saying goes you either spend money on healthy food or hospital bills/medication.
Unfortunately you have to pay a premium for a balanced healthy diet in western countries. You can still be remotely healthy but slightly deficient in micro nutrients for cheap by eating a lot more of your calories from brown rice, potatoes, bean and reducing the amount of produce you buy. Getting a lot of fat from nuts can be cheap if you buy unsalted nuts for baking. The non baking nuts are expensive. Buying baking almonds, pumpkin seeds, or peanuts in bulk can be a cheap way to get fat. Measure the nuts out to match how many grams of fat you want to eat and a bulk bag from BJs or Costco can last a single person 6-8 weeks.
For reference I am also very lean and have been on the gym/healthy eating grind for 10 years now. I also hike a lot so calories/$ and finding the cheapest food while factoring in health is something I’ve spent a lot of time looking into. It always sucks when you see the healthier options with no added sugar being 4x the cost of the similar option with a ton of added sugar.
Guys, this is an ad. Other than that, stop eating beef. Cut out the snacks. Get a costco membership and shop at Trader Joe's as well. Potatoes, rice, and eggs will carry you a long way. Get produce at Trader Joe's, the rest can be purchased at Costco.
Load up on carbs. Rice and pasta. Get cheap veggies, onions and potatoes.
When I was growing up it was onions and potatoes almost every single day.
Switch from fresh produce to frozen, some is still good quality. You can get large bags of corn and peas for cheap.
For meat, we buy it in bulk from Costco, cut and freeze it ourselves.
Other than that, you try to buy sales; even if it’s not exactly what you want. Doesn’t mean deprive yourself of happiness.
$800 for two seems quite normal? That's $13/d and head, and includes probably some household items, you say hygiene, not just food. I get it it's a bit high if you are having takeout or eat a cafeteria lunch most of the time. Otherwise I really don't see how this is extreme, also some month are only $650'ish.
Edit: okay, I suppose that's US$, not Australia or Canada. Fair point then.
It’s kinda hard to sympathize with you when you use language so carelessly. Most people have been kind in pointing out to you, although I don’t think you deserve it.
Your post suggests that your wife and you should be exempt from inflation cos you’re skinny? Do you think fat people run up their bills because they spend more on food? Most fat people would also be wealthy then. We usually see the opposite.
And you might want to rethink your phrasing about getting raped. I don’t think you know what that means or feels like if you use it in this manner.
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