I don’t know how they think we’re all going to survive with these prices.
I haven’t starved yet. I know from experience that if I get calorically restricted for too long, I will do anything to fill my stomach. So fortunately, it hasn’t got to the point where my morality starts to degrade yet.
Buy in bulk.
Buy lots of dried beans, rice, etc. (living in earthquake land, I like to keep our canned goods fairly stocked and just rotate out old ones only).
Buy from farmers markets when available, frozen veg when not.
Buy whatever the supermarket is trying to get rid of. In Japan, I end up with mystery seafood a fair amount, but just about anything is fine fried or in a stew.
Stay away from things out-of-season and pre-prepared foods.
Use any space you have to grow something. Even in my Tokyo apartment, I was growing herbs and chilis.
The above helps. I think everyone has some thing they don’t want to give up and that’s fine. When I first got out on my own in the US, I ended up surviving off of whatever I could get at the restaurants I worked at and boxed, instant mashed potatoes from the dollar store.
“real food” is the most affordable. I stick to that. The outside of the store. Not the middle
Aldi.
If you have one near you, get your staples from there. It’s so much cheaper than Kroger, Costco, Publix, and Target.
Shout out to WinCo also. As a heads up they only take cash/debit though, not credit.
Aldi is a great option when you don’t need something specific, like a cut of meat. Or a single lemon instead of 50 of them. I do Aldi first then Wegmans or Price Rite for whatever is not there.
No Aldi in WA State.
Lidl is even better. Aldi is more for snack by me. I still goto Stop and Shop for niche things.
I’m lucky enough to live near both and they’re the only things keeping me eating relatively healthily while I lack access to a full kitchen…
I’m doing a lot more cooking that’s for sure
Pancakes can really go with anything, they’re basically a large flat biscuit. Not to mention they keep quite nicely if frozen or simply put in the fridge
My local grocery chain has decent coupons, and a debit card with cash back on their brand of products, so I’ve been making a lot of use out of those.
Been buying a lot of large orders of cheap dry goods that can last a while like rice and beans. Some rice, some beans, throw some cheese and some sauces in there, get creative with some seasonings, and you can make some pretty bomb-ass burritos at home for super cheap. I’m not vegan/vegetarian, but I often make them without any meat (but use some “meaty” seasonings), and you can easily just skip the cheese if you wanna make it vegan, I suppose.
I eat a lot of beans and rice because it’s healthy. In bulk it’s cheap as well since I cook both.
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I’ve yet to go to a coop that wasn’t much more expensive for questionable quality food.
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Ramen keeping me alive.
Is it partly budget-time or budget only? You need nutrition.
Ramon is a good guy. Glad you got ‘em in your life to help keep ya goin.
I continue to be spoiled by Costco’s low prices. Seriously, check them out if you can.
I also imagine that similar wholesale clubs also have lower prices, but I cannot say from 1st hand experience.
Aldi is also great if you’ve got one near you and are not able (or don’t need) to buy in bulk.
If you haven’t shopped there before, they’re a German based chain that’s spread across the rest of Europe and a lot of North America and almost-only sells their own store-brand products. Their prices are similar to Walmart and Kroger store brand but, IMO, they’re of much better quality. As a person with ADHD, I find shopping there to be much less anxiety inducing… it’s a grocery store the size of a Walgreens. If I need pickles, there’s one brand with five different cuts in three flavors; there’s only two kinds of ketchup, six kinds of fruit juice, four different laundry detergents… one kind of paper plates. Also, the cashiers are scary fast.
I can complete my weekly shop in like twenty minutes without a headache or back pain. It’s genuinely like someone designed a grocery store just for me and it’s cheap AF… just remember to bring your own reusable bags and a quarter. You’ll need a quarter to unlock the shopping cart from the rack. You get your coin back when you return your cart like a civilized human being. They have paper bags for sale at the register for like 28¢ if you forget to bring your own.
Aldi >>>> Costco
A lot of shit at Costco isn’t even a good deal these days. People just assume it must be because they are bad at basic arithmetic. Like, there are some good deals still, but not like how it was ten years ago. These days most stuff is legitimately cheaper at Aldi.
I agree, Aldi is great. Especially for 1-2 person households.
We are almost exclusively Costco and WinCo for groceries. They are consistently the best places to go, price-wise.
That said, I’m getting really fucking tired of corporate greed making hard to live.
It’s low per unit, but high up front. And you gotta hope you don’t get tired of whatever you bought
Costco is great, but I have to force myself to shop without a cart to prevent me from buying stuff I don’t need (so I only get the essentials that I can carry).
Getting 1.5kg of cereal lasts me way longer which is amazing, when the normal grocery stores have “family size” boxes that have just been shrinking and shrinking.
Prices haven’t gone up that much where I live, and some of the things that have risen in price have actually started going back down recently. But I guess it all varies from one place to another.
But in general, I shop the sales flyers, I get things that are discounted such as meat that will expire soon, and I get the cheap staples like rice and beans. I stopped buying name brand items and unnecessary snack foods. I also use the Ibotta app which gives me some cash back. Usually not a lot, but over the course of a year it’s meaningful.
I started harvesting stinging nettle to replace spinach
Grow my own raspberries and strawberries. Blackberries grow on the property as do salmon berries, huckleberries, and elderberries.
I have a cherry tree but the squirrels and the jays get to those before I do lol
In the garden I can grow a handful of veggies that’ll last the year.
For meat I hunt or buy directly from the rancher/butcher when I can. I can get crayfish out of the creek every now and then as well.
Step 1) plant potatoes Step 2) cry
Some things can be grown at home with relative ease and not much space. A lot depends on where you are, how much space you have, your soil, if you can invest money, what spare time you can give. So either research or experimentation is key.
I live in Florida (I’m sorry I’m voting as hard as I can) and have had success with these from seeds or cut-offs from store bought items: Kiwis, passion fruit, pineapple, tomatoes, garlic, turmeric, onion, ginger. These I have bought the plant or seeds from nurseries (or Korean supermarket): Brocoli, any peppers, any dark leafy greens.
There is so much information on youtube. I found the initial time to set up a small garden is about 10- 20 hours in the first 2 weeks, then about 10-20 mins every 2 to 3 days.
It ain’t fun, not even close.
Buying cheaper stuff. Doing fine I guess
My prices have come down quite a bit over the past few months. It was a stretch to feed myself on $250 but now I’m ending the month with a few dollars left over
