(03-05-2022, 04:19 AM)TheO-LineMatters Wrote: Who spends that much on groceries anyway. I go twice a month and my total bill is like $300. Buy generic brands. They're almost always just as good. I'll never starve. I have a pond full of fish and woods full of tasty varmints.

Late to this discussion but wanted to add my two cents lol. That's a lot of money though I do know people who have bills like that. Interestingly enough some of the people that I know of who have that type of bill are elderly couple who live by themselves. I do wonder if they are sharing some of that food with grown children/other relatives and their families. I grew up in a large family with six kids and we never (even when you adjust for inflation) ate that much money in food. But we weren't hungry or anything. My dad knew how to cook and that helped a lot.

(03-05-2022, 06:07 AM)Caldrac Wrote: It's always going up. Like Oline pointed out though. If you're not overly picky about "organic" this or "cage free, no hormones" that? You can find plenty of options meal wise to get by on a relatively light budget. I do most of the cooking at my house anyway so my wife doesn't complain. I like buying the same [BLEEP] over and over and just making things in bulk to eat throughout the week.

Chicken and Dumplings
Beef Stew
Breakfast Bowl
Chili
Smoked Chicken or Ribs
Canned or Frozen Vegetables
Hotdogs and homestyle Fries
Spinach alfredo sauce and Pasta

All of that is relatively inexpensive if you shop right and if you have a crockpot or two laying around the house you can put most of this [BLEEP] in a pot, let it sit all day and be done with it. Just buy spices and seasoning so the [BLEEP] doesn't taste bland. Also, you can save money by making your own [BLEEP] from scratch. I make dumplings with cake flour, a pinch of salt, a little bit of milk and some baking powder. I can probably get 6 - 8 rounds of dumplings out of that Vs. buying a can of biscuits every time. They taste better too.

(03-05-2022, 03:43 PM)TheO-LineMatters Wrote:

(03-05-2022, 06:07 AM)Caldrac Wrote: It's always going up. Like Oline pointed out though. If you're not overly picky about "organic" this or "cage free, no hormones" that? You can find plenty of options meal wise to get by on a relatively light budget. I do most of the cooking at my house anyway so my wife doesn't complain. I like buying the same [BLEEP] over and over and just making things in bulk to eat throughout the week.

Exactly. For instance I save money by looking what kind of meat is on sale that week. I buy ground beef instead of ground chuck or ground round. I buy chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts, not only because they are much cheaper, but because at the grocery stores near me, I the chicken aisles have nearly been wiped out of all the premium (white meat) cuts of chicken. I will buy a family size pack of chicken thighs and then I take it home and break it down into packs of 2 each. I have a cheap vacuum sealer and I put them in the deep freeze. When I do this, I get meals for pennies on the dollar. Always buy meat in bulk and break it down when you get home and portion it out. The savings is ridiculous. I buy whole pork loins and break them down into butterfly chops as well. I can get 5-8 meals off of one $12 pork loin, depending on how thick you cut them. I was raised in the country as well, so I'm not opposed to eating some things other people might not even look at. I love chicken gizzards and hearts. You can buy those dirt cheap. 

There is also a grocery store near me that is in an out of the way, small town that only the residents know about. They have the best tasting meat and they have a daily sale case that they keep stocked all the time (everything there is still in date.) All the meat in the case is 5 packs for $20. They can have anything from ground beef to strip steaks to Turkey legs, to pork roast to sausage to chicken breast and many more. I'll go there like 3 times a year and spend like $200 and I get a ton of meat. I then bring it home and package it up for the deep freeze. I have quality meat year round for cheap. My whole family goes there to get meat. The beef is very good. In fact, I quit buying beef from the large chain grocery closer to my house, because the meat started having no flavor and had the consistency of shoe leather. The stuff I buy now always comes out tender and juicy.

Yeah, and there is noting wrong with store brand stuff. Some store brand stuff tastes better than the name brand stuff IMO. I've liked some store brand stuff like food lion and some of the higher ends stores stuff like Lowes Food and Harris's Teeter's brand better than some of the name brand stuff. Some store brand stuff is healthier as well. 

Making home cooked meals is also a good idea. It often tastes better and is usually cheaper and healthier. I love Chicken Thighs and think they are best part of the chicken. They are cheaper and juicer than the other parts of the chicken. I like to buy them and cook with them. Ground Turkey is cheaper where I live then ground beef/beef product sometimes. So that maybe can be an option for people at times, if it's cheaper where they live. Take advantage of sales and coupons. The food lions where I live often have close out sales or manager specials, those are things that people can look for at their local grocery stores. Sometimes Food Lion will have meat on sale at very good prices, including healthier meets like vegetarian fed meats. People here don't eat that as much and often times those meats will go on sale. I know everyone may not eat Pork for various reasons, but if you do/can eat it, that's a cheaper meat to eat at times. And sometimes you can find certain types of beef for cheap as well. 

I recently found some store brand (Taste of Inspirations) frappucino style coffee drinks for .90 each. They taste about as good as the Starbucks brand and are like 1/3 (if not more) of Starbuck's price. The Taste of Inspiration brand is like Food Lion's higher end store brand, but often times I can find cheaper products from that brand in closeout sales from the store. That brand has a lot of tasty products in it.

Walmart still has a lot of very cheap products. Their cheeses were pretty cheap here including stuff like goat cheese, though I suspect that will go up. Publix isn't really cheap no matter how you slice or dice it lol. I really only go there for their subs, or some desserts like ice cream (and I recently found some on sale), frozen yogurt and I used to buy immune shooters from them. Other than that I don't buy a bunch of groceries from Publix. Cheaper, more local grocery stores could be the way to go if people have them around. 

I'm also fortunate to be able to shop at the Commissary on base sometimes. The food there is way cheaper than anywhere else. They had bacon there recently under $3. And they have small packs of chicken legs and thighs for under $2 and $3.  Some of them will let people enter them with a family member or friend, who has an ID Card. Granted you may have to give the money to your family member/friend to pay (the one near me is fine with people doing that), but that may be an alternative, for people near military communities who can get on a base. Though I know that isn't an option for most people. 

People may have to change the way they shop. More people may have to take the time when they can get it and just go in a store and meal plan based off of what's on sell. The days of just throwing any and everything in a shopping cart (like some people do) and not checking how much it cost may not be over for some right now.

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