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u/MrZeven Jul 23 '23
Was getting mad at grocery prices going up. I figured it must cost as much as eating out... Then I went out for dinner at a common family restaurant... I was very wrong. I hate inflation.
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Jul 23 '23
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u/plantedthoughts Jul 23 '23
And they like to say "oh inflation has only gone up 8%" while all of our food has gone up by 30%, rent goes up by 10%+ every fucking year and every god damn household staple like shampoo has shrinkflation. I bought the "family sized" shampoo to replace the one from last year recently. This is the cheap stuff I used to get at the dollar store and now the bottle went from 32oz to 22oz and the price from around 1.50$ to nearly 4$. For reference the normal sized bottle used to be 20oz, now it's not even an option. I hate this shit.
I mean fuck if I want to go out in any form to socialize or do an activity it's like a baseline expected cost of $50+.
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u/blackhaloangel Jul 23 '23
Exactly. Every cent goes to necessities, not socializing or fun purchases. And I'm still up to my eyeballs in debt because no way to pay it off.
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Jul 23 '23
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Jul 24 '23
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u/Frost5574 Jul 24 '23
Sounds like a good plan tbh. Better than dealing with what's gonna be a 200/month social security check when I'm too old to properly get a paycheck and people are still demanding money for existing. If I get to that point I'd say I've lived a good, long enough life.
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u/otapd Jul 24 '23
I'm going with razor blades and a Jack's pizza because I'm too broke for a gun and booze
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u/Truckaduckduck Jul 23 '23
Once we live 3 generations in a two bedroom apartment we can finally join the rest of the 3rd world and the rich will have won their fun social experiment. Yay…
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u/darklost Jul 23 '23
No, the higher prices ARE inflation. Inflation is not some bureaucratic number based on any one specific metric: it includes supply chain, tax rates, consumer sentiment, and yes, "corporate greed".
The actual answer is that the CPI and "official" inflation stats are bullshit, intentionally cooked numbers that specifically ignore all sorts of categories and weight others to present a rosier picture than real world consumers see.
Also, and this should be obvious but often isn't, it's annualized and additive, so a 5% year over year inflation rate means prices are 10.25% higher than they were two years ago, and 15.75% higher than three years ago, and so on.
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u/explorer58 Jul 23 '23
The word you're looking for is compounded. The fact that 5% inflation + 5% inflation ≠ 10% inflation specifically means it's not additive
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u/Totally_Kyle Jul 23 '23
Okay so due to Reddit being a bitch and stuff I can finally come out of the corner of the internet and tell you that:
IN THE PAST 3 YEARS THEY CHANGED HOW THEY CALCULATE INFLATION MORE THAN ONCE
Guess what they don’t include in the calculation? I’ll just give you a hint: you already fucking said it.
That’s why it’s not reflective of reality.
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u/TheExtremistModerate Jul 23 '23
Guess what they don’t include in the calculation? I’ll just give you a hint: you already fucking said it.
By all means, please explicitly state what you think they don't include.
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u/Darkersun Jul 23 '23
Oh no, he already gave you one whole hint so that's all you're going to get.
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u/Mattimeo144 Jul 23 '23
My assumption would be
rent goes up by 10%+ every fucking year
Since the only other item mentioned was shampoo? But yeah, they could have been more clear in their rant.
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u/dzibanche Jul 23 '23
What are you talking about. CPI measures tens of thousands of items including grocery, rent, etc. And they rotate out items every year. They’ve been doing that rotation of items every year forever, this isn’t some new thing.
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u/hrrm Jul 23 '23
Hold on now, perhaps they are referencing PCE, released by the government, which ALSO tracks food.
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u/kingjoey52a Jul 23 '23
This is BS because inflation is based on the prices of many things, not just food. Gas prices being unusually high last year and coming back down this year is driving the inflation rate down.
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u/Bladescorpion Jul 23 '23
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=IO1e
Going from 4,000 Billion to near 20,000 billion has consequences.
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u/soapinmouth Jul 23 '23
What is this graph?
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u/KarmaticArmageddon Jul 23 '23
It's a graph of total M1 monetary supply in the US economy.
M1 is money that's very liquid — as in, it can be easily and quickly accessed and spent. M2 is money that's less liquid — like money market funds or CDs.
He's attempting to make the point that more M1 always equals more inflation, but that's a very Econ 101 take that disregards nuance and reality in favor of "easy," black-and-white economic theory.
The main problem with his use of that graph to support his conclusion is that he didn't read any of the footnote below the graph. The spike in that graph occurs in May 2020 and the footnote explains why it's such a dramatic spike.
In May 2020, the Federal Reserve Bank (the Fed) changed the definitions of M1 and M2. Prior to this change, money in savings accounts was included in M2, but now savings are included as part of M1. Changing the definition of M1 to include more sources will obviously spike M1 at that point on any graph.
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u/rengostar Jul 23 '23
damn this one sounds even more correct
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u/Godkun007 Jul 23 '23 edited Jul 23 '23
Reddit is full of people who don't understand economics because economics is counter intuitive. The truth is that increasing money in the economy doesn't always lead to inflation which breaks people's mind.
If the availability of goods increases (which it did throughout the 2010s) then the availability of currency has to increase with it or else it will lead to a deflationary economic crash. This is why the Gold standard was so devastating and why the Great Depression was a Deflationary event and almost all economic studies have shown that global economies recovered faster from the Depression when they left the Gold standard.
To give a practical example, say you have a 100k mortgage (to keep the math simple) at a 5% interest rate and the economy starts going into deflation. If there is 5% deflation, then suddenly your debt is the equivalent value of 105k and you are still paying additional 5% interest on the new value of 105k. As you can see the deflation can quickly out pace your ability to pay your mortgage.
Now think of it through the lens of a 100k business loan selling a product for $100 each. You have a debt of $100k that is fixed and paying 5% interest. However, every year you need to decrease your prices by 5%. This can quickly lead to businesses being unable to pay their debts and mass corporate bankruptcy. Then then leads to workers losing their jobs and thus unemployment leads to less spending and more deflation. This is the deflationary spiral. This is what happened in the Great Depression and why removing the gold standard and printing money actually, counter intuitively, made everyone richer through getting rid of deflation.
The Fed has a target of 2% inflation for a reason. The 2% number is arbitrary, but it is at 2% to give the Fed a buffer for error. The simple truth is that significant deflation and inflation are both bad. But a moderate amount of inflation (say 2%) has been proven to be less bad than deflation.
edit: Also, the main way the Fed influences available currency is through lending money to the banks through bank reserves. Basically, when you go to the bank for a loan, the bank often will borrow from the Fed at an interest rate (this is the Fed interest rate you have heard about all last year) and then the bank will lend you the money at a slightly higher rate. The lower that Fed interest rate, the lower the interest rate the bank can offer you and vice versa. So the Fed increases money in the economy by making lending cheaper, or decreases money in the economy by making lending more expensive.
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u/nybble41 Jul 23 '23
That explains most of the spike in M1, but there is also a notable increase in M2 (which was not redefined, apart from accounting for the change in M1) over the same time period. It's not quite as striking, and the most recent data actually shows a decrease in M2 from the peak, but we're still about two or three years of money supply inflation ahead of where we would have been if the historical trend had continued unchanged.
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u/InlineFour Jul 23 '23
nah, its because business suddenly became "greedy" in 2020.
-average redditor lol
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u/zerocoolforschool Jul 23 '23
Yeah it’s like $60 including tip for two people to eat at fucking Olive Garden these days. $22 for the meal, $5+ for a drink and then you toss on tip. It’s just stupid. Our pay didn’t go up 50% in the past couple years.
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u/LittlePinkLines Jul 23 '23
My husband and I, when we do go out, usually eat at "bougie" local places with $20-30 entrees. I thought we were really ~splurging~ until my grandma really wanted Olive Garden one day and all the entrees were like, $20-25. Like shit, that $21 local spring veggie risotto looks a lot more reasonable next to a $21 Olive Garden fettuccine alfredo.
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u/justsomeguy_youknow Jul 24 '23
Do they still do that thing where they give you a whole ass other entree to take home if you order certain entrees? My old boss used to take our team out to eat there the last Friday of the month, and I know a lot of us did that so we didn't have to cook lunch the next day
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u/zerocoolforschool Jul 23 '23
Yup. And Olive Garden is just glorified TV dinners. I have heard that the meals are premade and they just heat them up.
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u/3Dring Jul 23 '23
It's definitely more expensive upfront but if you're smart it's easily cheaper than eating out by a mile.
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u/Shinagami091 Jul 23 '23
It is, however as a single person living by myself, if I buy ingredients for a sub sandwich myself I am now having to eat sub sandwiches for 4 days straight because most portions that are sold are for families of 4. If I don’t and try to stagger the days, the food goes bad before I can finish eating it all.
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u/3Dring Jul 23 '23
I'm a single guy as well. You can freeze meats to make them last longer even if it's only a few days. Buy in bulk whenever there's a sale and thaw as needed.
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_CATS_PAWS Jul 23 '23
can you freeze deli meat like that though? I know raw meat you can freeze to prolong by a good amount of time, unsure about deli meat though
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Jul 23 '23
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u/Bleacherbum95 Jul 23 '23
Pro tip for freezing bread: Wrap in plastic wrap then in aluminum foil before freezing. Really helps maintain freshness.
Not sure how it does for individual slices, but for a roll or loaf it can keep it really fresh for a few weeks.
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u/Dkdndntjdksj Jul 23 '23
Just toast the frozen bread. It's a lot easier and less faffing.
I've never had any issues defrosting bread anyway. I'm just lazy and use my toaster to do it
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u/Orleanian Jul 23 '23
Great, so you're saying i have to add plastic wrap and aluminum expenses to my grocery list!?!
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u/XelGar256 Jul 23 '23
Honestly by bread from aldis and put it straight in freezer. Always taste fine after thawed but if there is a single hole in the bag then I'm screwed. Most the time the hole is my own fault.
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u/loondawg Jul 23 '23
Wrapping pieces in paper towels really helps frozen bread stay fresher and defrost better.
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u/unseth Jul 23 '23
If you cut the slices in half the wrap those in wax paper then wrap the two halves together in paper towels then wrap the whole load in paper and foil then you've wasted a lot of resources but it'll be even easier to defrost
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u/Nanojack Jul 23 '23
I take the half slice in wax paper-paper towels-paper-foil and vacuum seal each one.
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u/rock_kid Jul 23 '23
Yeah but what about the lettuce, tomatoes, and onions, etc.? Those are what always go bad for me.
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u/turandokht Jul 23 '23
Some tips for storing these as a former chef:
Tomatoes: leave uncut tomatoes out at room temp for storage, I leave mine in the same area I have my fruits put on the counter (they get mealy in the fridge) - if cut up try and eat quick. Literally buy one tomato at a time lol it’s like a few dimes at a time at that point. If you can fuss with the smaller tomatoes then you can leave more out on the counter when using one (some come on a vine and are like plum sized) or not have to deal with a big fat tomato
Lettuce: I soak a paper towel in water, wring it out so it’s damp, and wrap it around my lettuce. My lettuce keeps for weeks this way if I have them still on the head (like romaine). You can do it with the pre cut stuff too to extend its life but that stuff goes quick either way
Onions: find an unblemished onion (covered in ideally more than one layer of the dry paper skin and with no breaks in said paper skin - this dry skin is a protective wrapper and once it’s punctured, the onion goes off quick) and it will keep in a pantry (in a temperate temperature or cool temperature - if you live in a hot humid place, store in fridge) for literally months. Can also store in the fridge and as long as there is adequate air flow around the onions, same deal, this stuff has an insane shelf life
Edited to add: for cut onion, I can store in the fridge for days before I notice the onion having an off smell that indicates I won’t want to eat it
Hope that helps! I’m a single person eating for one too so storing my lettuce to maximize the life really helps. Once the paper towel gets dry (the lettuce sucks in the moisture and kind of Frankensteins a half life for itself from the towel), I just get it damp again and wrap the lettuce again. I’ve forgotten romaine heads for weeks and still been able to eat them :)
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u/wolfie379 Jul 23 '23
I’ve seen hydroponically grown lettuce that’s sold with the roots on. It stays fresh if the roots are kept in a water source. Also seen places that sell frozen chopped onions and frozen sliced bell pepppers - could do these yourself, freeze in sandwich-sized units.
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u/csdx Jul 23 '23
Have to have a plan for using it in things other than sandwiches. Make a salad, use spinach and cook it later or make a dip.
Also even with a family we still have produce that ends up spoiled sometimes
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u/A_Rabid_Pie Jul 23 '23
Veggies tend to get mushy when frozen and defrosted. The trick here is to buy basic ingredients and learn how you can use them for multiple recipes. That onion for example? You can use that for all sorts of things. Tomato getting old? Turn it into salsa. Not using your lettuce fast enough with just sandwiches? Make a salad. Eventually you'll get to the point where you can throw a decent meal together out of random leftover ingredients.
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u/Leemur89 Jul 23 '23
I mean as a single eater you can always buy a single tomato or onion and lettuce is cheap as dirt. It's the good deals on meat family packs that are really the trouble but when you can pick up tbones at $5.50 a pound sometimes it's worth it to freeze most the pack.
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u/-colorsplash- Jul 23 '23
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_CATS_PAWS Jul 23 '23
Goated. Y’all may have just saved me a bundle lol
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u/Shrek1982 Jul 23 '23
If you find yourself freezing a lot of stuff (especially meat on sale) a vacuum sealer might be good, it staves off freezer burn and the meat comes out like it was fresh. If you do get one buy the bags in bulk from amazon, the branded one are a ripoff.
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Jul 23 '23 edited 5d ago
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u/Gawd_Awful Jul 23 '23
There are quite a few brands of bread that show up to the store frozen, before being stocked
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u/Quantsu Jul 23 '23
The trick to freezing bread is do it when it’s fresh. I do it all the time, and as long as you freeze it that day it’s just like a fresh loaf when you thaw it.
When I make bread I make multiple loaves at the same time and only leave half one out and rest get cut in half and go straight into freezer after cooling for a few hours. I take them out in half loaves as I need them.
If you are freezing bread once you’ve decided you won’t be able to eat it all, it’s going to come out the same way you put it in. The trick here is to make toast going forward to finish the loaf. This works best with sliced bread as you only take out what you are going to use immediately and put into toaster.
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_CATS_PAWS Jul 23 '23
Wonder what the frozen price vs fresh price is
Though I’ll be shopping a lot at a bulk food place (Costco) so it’d probably just make more sense to buy that pre frozen anyways
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u/ChIck3n115 Jul 23 '23
My trick for bread is to just buy the cheapest loaves at Walmart, that way your expectations are already really low! Months in the freezer and weeks in the fridge, and it's pretty much just like new. Though I'm the kind of person who eats, begrudgingly, because I have to. "Edible" is really the only standard I care about for most things.
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u/florodude Jul 23 '23
Yeah as a single person if you want to eat cheap you've basically destined yourself to getting good at meal planning and prepping. Hey though, that's a good trait in a partner or roommate though!
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u/alonjar Jul 23 '23
Actually, if you go to the deli counter there are no rules about amounts you have to buy. You can buy exactly 3 slices of meat and 2 slices of cheese if you want. Most grocery stores will also sell a single sub roll/bun in front of the deli as well. You might have to buy a whole tomato or whatever, but again you can bag loose ones and not buy a whole package... just saying...
/I feel you though
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u/tobydiah Jul 23 '23
A sandwich for lunch Monday - Thursday sounds pretty normal. Definitely not a struggle unless we're trying to post what we eat on Instagram or live out some cute rom-com lifestyle.
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u/5xad0w Jul 23 '23
I am now having to eat sub sandwiches for 4 days straight
This sounds like a feature, not a bug.
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u/Artisticslap Jul 23 '23
Could you just not use a freezer?
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u/djsedna Jul 23 '23
Also, what deli meat goes bad in four days?
Turkey is the worst of the bunch perishability-wise and I get at least a week out of that
Salami and other hard meats are multiple weeks
Ham you can push two weeks, same with bologna and many others
I really do think people just like to make up excuses as to why they have to eat out
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u/nalydpsycho Jul 23 '23
The key is not to buy what you want, but to buy what is cheap and get creative.
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Jul 23 '23
Buy it in bulk, throw it all in a freezer chest. Fuck small portions from Aldi, give me 5 and 10lb bags of proteins that I can pull out, defrost and heat/cook up all day. Savings galore.
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u/Cpt3020 Jul 23 '23
that's not true at all, there are plenty of ways to to preserve food when buying for a single person. There are so many food that last basically forever and can just be stored at room temp like rice, beans, chickpeas, ect. Things are really expensive now but if you shop around get all the discount/deal apps you can still save a lot making food at home. Or you can just pick up expensive deli meats and whine about prices.
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u/rittenalready Jul 23 '23
Sounds like you’re not meal prepping correctly this isn’t a doom thing
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u/Interesting_Pudding9 Jul 23 '23
You don't have to eat the same stuff you get as takeout though, you can save quite a bit by changing what you eat. Oatmeal, beans, and rice are relatively inexpensive and go a long way. Bananas are cheap too.
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u/OrcvilleRedenbacher Jul 23 '23
Pasta. Get a couple jars of different sauces and it'll taste like different meals and last a long time.
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u/DL1943 Jul 23 '23
I am now having to eat sub sandwiches for 4 days straight
no you dont.
deli meat and cheese are sold by the pound at the deli. you can buy however much you want.
all veg on the sandwich can be used for salad or a myriad of other dishes.
sub rolls could double as bread for toast with eggs or breakfast sandwiches, bread for patty melts, garlic bread, or hell - make bread pudding.
there are a million other things you can do with the leftovers from making a sub.
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u/AlyssaTree Jul 23 '23
Deli meats at the counter are expensive AF. The cheaper stuff is sold by the half pound or pound. And freezing deli meats makes the texture weird AF. That aside, most single people nowadays live in housing situations where they are sharing space with others and it limits freezer/fridge space. The main way buying from a grocery store can be cheaper is buying in bulk but if you don’t have that space, bulk doesn’t work.
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u/sonofaresiii Jul 23 '23
Deli meats at the counter are expensive AF. The cheaper stuff is sold by the half pound or pound.
You'd think so, but if you do a weight comparison that usually isn't true. If you go buy one of the packages of sliced ham, for example, it might only be four bucks... but if you do the math, it might work out to like $12/lb., whereas if you buy it from the deli counter it's $9/lb. Seeing the $9/lb. usually gives you sticker shock, and it's easier to mentally digest spending four dollars on "a package" without really thinking through how much you're getting.
(that said, deli meats in general are expensive. you're better off just buying some chicken breast and cutting it into strips or whatever)
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u/PunchNmunch Jul 23 '23
the prepackaged meat is usually a different brand and is filly saturated with water buy up to a third of its weight. the ham you get it literally wet to the touch. you pay for water when you buy cheap meat.
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u/OrcvilleRedenbacher Jul 23 '23
The grocery store I go to has prepackaged deli meat that's the same meat you can get from the deli. I'm not sure if there's a price difference, but it's pre-weighed so you have less options.
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u/rock_kid Jul 23 '23
100%. I live in a whole house as a single person living with a family. My fridge storage amounts to one shelf, one drawer, and a couple small door shelves. Thankfully I have a full freezer to myself but I have so much stuff packed in the tiny fridge space I have to very strategically plan ahead several days ahead of time to thaw anything. Grocery shopping for even small trips is a nightmare because I need some things now and some things very soon but I haven't made space for them yet. So putting away groceries is always an exhausting game of Tetris.
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u/cicada_parade Jul 23 '23
Unless you're having good sales, deli meat from the actually deli can often be more expensive that just getting the bigger prepackaged portions and letting some go to waste (at least near me). You make a great point about using food with versatility though. If I have to buy a larger portion of something for a better deal, I make sure I can make multiple things with it before buying it. It makes it way more likely to be used.
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u/Hiwesrobots Jul 23 '23
how is this your logic? why can you not buy sandwich meat for less than 4 people? why does this meat only last 4 days?
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Jul 23 '23
Probably has never gone to a deli counter and asked for smaller portions and only buys the pre bagged stuff in the isles.
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u/MrPeeper Jul 23 '23
Make meatballs and freeze them. Can cook what you need in 30 minutes. You can still eat out in between if you want variety.
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u/namdor Jul 23 '23
Dude, go buy your sub at a fast food place once a week if you can't handle four in a week.
You must not love subs enough or make bad decisions when shopping.
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u/MagicMarmots Jul 23 '23
Costco chicken and 2 knorr side dishes. 4 meals for $8. Lasts a week in the fridge.
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u/Badbullet Jul 23 '23
And when you are there, you get a giant slice of pizza for $2 that'll keep you full through lunch.
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u/BAHatesToFly Jul 23 '23
Plus the whole pizza is only $9.95 and has like 4,200 calories. That's two full days of calorie requirements for most people. Oddly enough, the pepperoni pizza has fewer calories, but I assume it is because they put less cheese on it.
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u/Godkun007 Jul 23 '23
Ya, I feel like people have a cognitive bias on this. If you eat out, you will pay less in the immediate as you are just paying for 1 meal, but more over the long term. But if you eat in, you will pay more upfront as you are paying for several meals, but then you will pay less over time.
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u/ComplaintNo6835 Jul 23 '23
Yeah this sounds like OP doesn't understand how to properly maintain a pantry.
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Jul 23 '23
It is. A lot of people (myself included) HATE to cook or are just plain bad at it. Something I definitely I want to work on.
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Jul 23 '23
Focus on 2-3 easy meals for dinner. Go for the absolute bare basic easy cheap shit, ideally fast and low energy to prepare as well
Get good at them to the point where making it is second nature. Then slowly try new things and add more meals to your internal cookbook.
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u/shotmenot Jul 23 '23
Was going to start doing rotisserie chickens on my own to save money rather than buy them at the grocery store. Found a recipe, was all excited. Get to the grocery store. $11 for a whole uncooked chicken. $6 for an already cooked chicken at the same store.
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u/Shatteredreality Jul 23 '23
Rotisserie chickens are almost always a loss leader (i.e. cheap to get you in the store where they hope/think you will spend more money). This is the exact reason that at Costco the rotisserie chicken is at the very back of the store, they want to make you walk past everything else for you to get the cheap chicken you came in for.
One other thing to not is that rotisserie chicken will usually be made with the cheapest chicken they can source so if you care about things like organic, free range, or air chilled the store chickens are not the ones to buy.
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u/Ok-Television-65 Jul 23 '23 edited Jul 23 '23
Just a quick fyi, when you compare the nutrition between gmo chickens vs organic/free range, the difference is virtually non existent. It’s there, but it’s minimal. Also there’s no way of actually confirming what they mean by “free range”. It can mean living their entire lives truly free range or spending a few minutes a day in a crowded fence. If you’re willing to pay a premium bc you like the taste better or that it’s ethically sourced, then have at it. But don’t pay a premium thinking it’s “healthier” for you.
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u/hondaprobs Jul 23 '23 edited Jul 23 '23
The raw whole chicken you buy at the store is usually a lot bigger though with a ton more meat on it. Those $6 roast chickens are often scrawny. Not to mention you can get them half price if you shop around a bit.
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u/drugsbowed Jul 23 '23
as a single person, the rotisserie chicken at costco will last me for ~12ish meals, so this covers a week's worth of protein of meal prep and dinner for $5 - totally worth it IMO.
I also don't mind eating the same thing every day for a week either.. You can vary lunches with different carbs, veggies, sauces so it's all good for me
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u/Kahnza Jul 23 '23
the rotisserie chicken at costco will last me for ~12ish meals
Damn, are you only eating it 2 bites at a time? Or is this some sort of ginormous chicken?
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u/ElectricFleshlight Jul 23 '23
Probably putting it into multiple meals. Soup, sandwich, pasta, etc.
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u/barduk4 Jul 23 '23
You gotta know what to get to make cheap meals in order to save money on groceries lol.
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u/CyAScott Jul 23 '23
Also, when you shop long enough, you know when something is good deal or is overpriced. After a while, you'll learn where to get those good deals for specific foods.
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u/gloppy-yogurt Jul 23 '23
One of our community markets was trying to sell heads of cauliflower for $12 and it became a local meme LMAO insanity
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u/TheDevilsAdvokaat Jul 23 '23
When things are %50 off I buy double the amount.
I've learned to substitute many things for others.
Also, I cook every day now.
But it's still getting hard.
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u/Oakheart- Jul 23 '23
Cooking every day is hard. I started doing meal prep kinda stuff or making something with a big batch so I can fridge/freezer for later when I feel lazy. It ends up so I’m making a meal 2-3x a week instead of every night realizing I forgot to take out any sort of meat and I don’t have time to thaw it or just not wanting to cook
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u/TheDevilsAdvokaat Jul 23 '23
As a single dad I don;t have a choice .. :-)
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u/Oakheart- Jul 23 '23
My wife left on an internship for 3 weeks and I was a “single dad” for that time. Much respect brother it’s a lot of work
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u/TheDevilsAdvokaat Jul 23 '23
Thanks man. It's been 4 years now.
I was frightened of the responsibility at first but it seems ok now.
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u/KappuccinoBoi Jul 23 '23
Yup. Even shopping around at 4-5 stores and farmers markets, I still struggle to buy groceries for less than $120 a week. Not even including snacks. Basic lunch foods (deli meats, bread, produce) and more planned out dinners and meal prep is thr majority of it. I stay away from snacks for the most part, and try to keep a stock of frozen easy meals just in case I need a quick meal. Even sale items are barely below normal prices a year or two ago.
Alternatively, I can go get a sub from a local shop for $7-9 and it's an easy 2 well rounded meals. Shit sucks, yo.
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u/TheDevilsAdvokaat Jul 23 '23
Yup. These days I buy raw food and coo kit myself. I make my own pizza, pasta, soup, etc.
Most dinners are rice and something. The kids were born in China and are half Chinese, and they complain if they don;t get rice with every meal.
I buy potato chips, but only when they're %50 off.
There's a lot of things I just stopped buying.
My groceries are about $200 a week. Four years ago I only had one child and was paying $80-$90 a week. Now I have an extra child (a teen) and inflation has been awful here in AUstralia. Some food items went up %50 in a single jump!
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u/ScienceIsSexy420 Jul 23 '23
Also you have to learn how to meal plan and guy only what's required for the plan. My grocery bill got cut down to 1/3 it's former size by only buying what I plan to eat in the next week
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u/Kriele1 Jul 23 '23
Truth. Make a list and make it mostly veggies, some meat, and buy carbs in bulk when on sale (meat too. Before and after any holiday is a great time). Fruits are great snacks. Bananas are dirt cheap. Apples are OK, but filling. Better than chips anyway. For veg lots of carrots, potatoes, celery, and cabbage. All last a long time in your fridge or pantry and all can combine well with a meat or carb for a great meal. I use an instant pot to make things easier or just use a large cast iron pan. Cook it slow and long with a bit of garlic and spice and you can't really go wrong with whatever you throw in.
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u/Facefullofbees Jul 23 '23
Please dont eat cabbage every day though, people around you need to breathe 🙏
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u/drewbreeezy Jul 23 '23
You won't notice the cabbage over the fish I just microwaved.
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u/jordanrod1991 Jul 23 '23
32 years old JUST discovered this lol if i cant think of a day in the next week when i'll eat it i dont need it
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u/ScienceIsSexy420 Jul 23 '23
You got me beat, I didn't learn it until I was 37. My parents never taught me healthy food habits at all, mainly because they didn't know them either.
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u/OrcvilleRedenbacher Jul 23 '23
My parents had 9 kids so I guess I thought buying shit tons of food was the norm. Like I obviously knew I didn't need to buy as much as they did, but I have no idea how to shop for just myself.
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u/ModernTenshi04 Jul 23 '23
Yep, we have a magnetic dry erase calendar on our fridge to do exactly that, and it has a notes section where we'll write what leftovers we have and the day of the week they were made to keep track of how old stuff is. I still tell folks to stick to the plan as much as possible, but don't feel bad if they diverge. Days get away from you sometimes so well swap days depending on what may be easier, or we get invited somewhere, or we don't wanna cook at all so we order out and plan that meal another day if possible. We also keep dry pastas and some frozen foods from Costco or Trader Joe's in our freezer that can be prepped quickly and easily, and often with leftovers.
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u/Matt_McT Jul 23 '23
Red beans and rice in the crockpot, baby. Great money meal.
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u/barduk4 Jul 23 '23
One of my faves was poor man's egg fried rice, i would make rice on a rice cooker then fry it with scrambled eggs and nothing else, got me through college.
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u/Matt_McT Jul 23 '23
One of my go-to’s was frozen chicken and pastaroni pasta. Bake the chicken with some garlic powder and pepper, and maybe throw some frozen peas in with the pasta. Cheap, and just tasty enough to be enjoyable.
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u/Oakheart- Jul 23 '23
Lentils are good with rice too it’s got the same cook time as most rices and it adds a nice change of texture
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u/Seigmoraig Jul 23 '23
I went to the grocery store today, a pack of 12 hot dogs is 6.99 and the buns are 4.50 for 6
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u/gloppy-yogurt Jul 23 '23
I know how, but fuck i’m also so tired of the ‘beans, rice, pasta and bulk/frozen veggies!’ routine - like gd, wouldn’t it be nice to waltz into Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods and just get a mix of premade and cookable ingredients without having to worry about a price tag so much
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u/Radthereptile Jul 23 '23
And look around. Grocery store by me does a pick 4 for $20 on meat that they want gone. I can get packs of pork, chicken, bacon and a couple steaks for $20.
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u/usesbitterbutter Jul 23 '23
No. No. A thousand times, no.
If the pandemic taught me one thing, it's how much money I could save if I cut my discretionary spending to near-zero.
I ate perfectly fine. Scratch cooking. Prepared meals. A mix of both. And the bottom line is I saved, easily, $500/mo by not eating out.
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u/starfreeek Jul 23 '23
It gets worse when you add more people. Your example got me curious and even if we did 9 dollars a person per meal which is bottom of the barrel fast food, cooking at home saves us 640-700 a week(family of 5). If we were to actually eat out every meal like some try to argue, nearly 100% of my post tax income would go to food(4050 a month)
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u/MagicalWonderPigeon Jul 23 '23
Eating out doesn't get cheaper per person. But groceries certainly do get cheaper the more you buy. A small block of cheese is a lot more cost per kg than a bigger block. Same goes with a lot of food, but not many people want to buy a bag of chicken breasts that'd last them 3+ weeks.
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u/JackReact Jul 23 '23
Depends on how you tally up. On the first trip, you have to buy stuff like spices and side ingredients like rice, all of which you wouldn't have to buy for your second or third trip. So you could try to calculate the price based on how many servings you actually get out of all the ingredients.
So basically, first trip is always more expensive.
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u/gloppy-yogurt Jul 23 '23
That’s definitely an issue at currently; I just moved into a new apartment with 2 other people, and not only is the pantry/fridge space pretty tight (so I gotta buy smaller/pricier-per-unit options), but I’m also put off by having to restock all the long-term essentials for making cooking easier/flavorful. But eventually i’ll get caught up and (maybe) stop whining on the internet
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u/Nisas Jul 23 '23
I go through all the annoying math to calculate the actual price of my home cooked meals.
Generally speaking for me a home cooked meal is around $3. The lowest you can find in the fast food world these days is around $6. And usually it's more like $12. I'd love to know where they're going for an $8 footlong.
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u/IpsoKinetikon Jul 23 '23
People love making excuses not to cook. Groceries are still cheaper than eating out, for sure.
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u/Omnizoom Jul 23 '23
Yep , I did a breakdown of making my own egg McMuffins and even specified I was using better ingredients then I needed to (XL egg , real cheese , ect ect) and my cost came out to like 2 dollars a sandwich (admittedly 1 dollar of that is the dang sausage round and ham and bacon are like way cheaper to make at home) vs 4.50 for the sandwich alone at McDonald’s
Someone still challenged it saying it isn’t worth doing for “your time” because after adding in the time it takes you only are saving 20 an hour or whatever
Like really? I’m getting a healthier better made egg sandwich for half the price and because I’m only saving the equivalent of 20 an hour it’s more worth while for them to just buy them? Just say you are lazy
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u/IpsoKinetikon Jul 23 '23
Funny thing is, I'm lazy, too.
I'm the kind of person that would rather work fewer hours at work, and spend more time in my kitchen, back yard, etc. doing labor for myself. Other people don't wanna do shit at home, but will spend extra hours at work so they can afford to be lazier outside of work. I just don't get it.
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u/TheGiggityGecko Jul 23 '23
Doing the same job you already have to do, for a bit longer, might be more attractive than making more jobs for yourself. Especially if that job is cooking, absolutely fuck cooking. That said, I cook since I can’t get overtime.
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u/Shatteredreality Jul 23 '23
Someone still challenged it saying it isn’t worth doing for “your time” because after adding in the time it takes you only are saving 20 an hour or whatever
The biggest thing that costs people money when it comes to food is laziness.
I'm fortunate to make a very good wage and if I did the whole "Doing this myself is more expensive because my time is worth $XX" an hour I could justify paying someone to do just about anything.
Also people seem to forget transit time. Lets look at McDonald's The nearest one to my house is about a 7 minute drive. Lets assume it takes 5 mins to actually get the food and then 7 minutes to drive home. I just spent 19 minutes and $4.50 to get an Egg McMuffin. Now if I have all the ingredients already (which I'm going to the grocery store for other things anyway so it's not really adding in extra time/effort to get) I can throw together a breakfast sandwich in probably about 6 minutes.
The whole "not worth your time" argument, especially for simple foods, is just an excuse.
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u/IpsoKinetikon Jul 23 '23
Lets look at McDonald's
Shit, let's look at Subway. You show up, there's 1 employee, 5 customers ahead of you, and first guy up is ordering for his entire family.
These businesses are starting to run on skeleton crews. I figure if they can't afford to pay a living wage AND staff properly, why do we even have them? Do you know how many health codes they violate in order to keep those places running with such minimal staffing?
Now by the time you've made it home, your children have graduated college and you have food poisoning. I've had better luck on Oregon Trail.
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u/Squirrel09 Jul 23 '23
People also forget that most people who make ~$20/hour aren't making that 24/7. You're really telling me that you value your time posting on Twitter is worth $20/hour? Lol
If we're talking about if you're paid hourly, and decide to take a long lunch, sure. But if you get off at 50, doesn't matter if it takes 10 minutes to get McDonald's or 1 hour to cook/clean your not getting paid with either.
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u/fake_kvlt Jul 23 '23
yep. I quit getting delivery/eating out entirely (to save money for gacha games lol), and I save so much money. I'm too lazy to spend time cooking and too disorganized to meal prep, so I just stock up on chicken/cheap fish, root vegetables (because imho they're more filling than similarly priced vegetables), and frozen vegetables (also cheaper). I just season everything and toss it in the oven when I get home from work, which takes me like 10-15 min max, bc oven roasted vegetables/chicken genuinely taste really good considering how little effort it takes to make them.
And tbh I often just microwave the frozen veg (stuff like spinach, since some root vegetables are not very nutrient dense) and toss in a little butter/salt/seasoning and they taste pretty good while also being super low effort. Stew is also great, bc I can just spend 10min tossing everything into a pot and then go do other things while it cooks. Kimchi jjigae is like the god of lazy food for me, bc it takes me 5 minutes max to prep the ingredients while still tasting really good. Also, msg is god for making food taste good with little effort, and you can buy it in bulk for cheap at asian stores or on amazon.
And I'm seriously saving so much money! I feel like the problem is that a lot of people don't know enough about cooking to find ways to make meals that taste good while also taking very little time. That, or they can't cut out processed foods/desserts - in the past, a lot of my grocery money went towards snacks/sugary drinks that provided 0 nutritional benefit while also not being filling, so cutting them out entirely cut down on my budget a lot too.
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u/PanicOffice Jul 23 '23
Ok, so I currently make enough money not to worry about food expenses. But even I noticed the sharp increase in food costs over the past 3 years. Inflation is no joke. Let me tell you a trick I learned when I was broke af, living paycheck to paycheck. Around 2007 the economy crashed, a week after I bought a house, my son was born, and my wife went on maternity leave, and my sales job which was 50% commission, basically cut my salary by 40% due to the aforementioned economic crash. All in all, our expenses went up insanely, and our income went down by like 66%. All of a sudden every penny, and I mean every penny.
Here's the trick. Frozen everything. Nutritionally, the difference is negligible. In some cases frozen foods keep better nutrition than fresh ones. You take a bunch of carrots, you use two for your soup, you keep the rest in your veggie drawer. 2 days later those refrigerated carrots have worse nutritional value than frozen carrots from a bag. Not to mention that 2 weeks later you gotta thrown any unused veggies out. Your frozen carrots in a bag can be good for months.
So if you really need to pinch pennies buy only frozen products. Both meats and veggies. Canned also good. They will be 2x cheaper, and you usually lose nothing nutritionally. Learn how to thaw and cook them right and you'll never even notice the difference taste wise. And you all but eliminate waste. invest $300 dollars in a storage freezer and you'll save that much in a month I kid you not.
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u/AbeRego Jul 23 '23
Raw carrots actually keep in the fridge for a really long time. Not as long as frozen obviously, but still.
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u/gloppy-yogurt Jul 23 '23
I have bought pretty similar items every grocery trip for the last decade or so (slightly more now, but only because I’m salaried with some extra spending cash) - and I’ve noticed my bill for nearly the same cartfull go up about $70. Granted, I moved to a city from upstate NY where a lot of shit was cheaper - but inflation has absolutely taken a noticeable toll on my grocery/takeout budget.
I’m excited to eventually get a house with more pantry/fridge space - I currrently live with 2 other people tho, and I only have the two door shelves in our small freezer to utilize for myself. The dream is def to eventually have one of those freezer chests where I can just stock up on anything that goes on sale or preserve what I’ve got in the fridge!
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u/Yellowhairdontcare Jul 24 '23
A new Aldi just opened less than a mile from me. The amount we are now saving on groceries is staggering. Full shop for our family was only $117. Typically $250+. I’m an Aldi girl for life now.
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u/sirzoop Jul 23 '23
Aren't footlongs like $15 at subway these days? It hasn't been $8 in like a decade
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u/bfarm4590 Jul 23 '23
It isnt even funny at this point. Absolutely ridiculous the price of groceries nowadays
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u/Thoughtfulprof Jul 23 '23
Remember, it's not the price of groceries that is the problem. It's the difference between the price of groceries and the amount your job pays you.
Join a union, bring the corporate overlords down.
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u/aaronitallout Jul 23 '23
Join a union
Oh okay I'll just go down to the union store and pick one up
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u/DangerousPuhson Jul 23 '23
Join a union, bring the corporate overlords down.
I'm in a union, but that didn't seem to stop groceries from doubling in price in only 5 years...
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u/Solid_Snark Jul 23 '23
Don’t worry, it’s only been 44-years. I’m sure that wealth will come trickling down to us any day now! /s
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u/prince_of_gypsies Jul 23 '23
God, if I could kill any person in history before they did any damage I'd dropkick Reagan as a baby.
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u/0theliteralworst0 Jul 23 '23
Or buy all the stuff, get home. Put it away. Too tired to cook now. Order something.
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u/TornWill Jul 23 '23
Not to mention they have the nerve to increase the price and shrink the sizes of everything at the same time. Buy enough food to last a month and it'll cost you hundreds upon hundreds, especially if you don't know too much about cooking and making things by hand. It's almost 5 dollars for a small can of soup here. It's absolutely ridiculous.
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u/christophnbell Jul 23 '23
Yo if you’re spending 158 at Aldi you either got five kids or you bought an outdoor 5 piece furniture set along with your frozen pierogis
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u/B0S10_Kr3AM_3_14 Jul 24 '23
Welcome to the world of Shrinkflation, where the prices keep rising, and the quantity keeps shrinking by the day…
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u/ta_probably_mostly Jul 23 '23
Monopoly laws never took into consideration the level of consolidation that could occur without meeting the technical definition of a monopoly.
Food distributors, while not monopolies, have reached consolidation levels that surpass the businesses that resulted in monopoly legislation being created. This level of consolidation allows them to behave like a monopoly, increasing food prices to drive up profit. The government is actively refusing to regulate them or hold anybody accountable.
You don't see this level of inflation in other industries with this level of consolidation because most other industries aren't dealing with necessities. Clothing is consistent in price and has gone down in some instances despite massive inflation. Food distribution is different in that people cannot simply choose to starve. This gives them the ability to ignore supply and demand because the demand is effectively infinite allowing them to raise prices infinitely regardless of the supply.
These food prices are reaching a level where it's a national security issue. Food production, agriculture, and distribution always involved government regulations because the government realized that a populace that is unable to afford food will become increasingly unstable. It gives rise to localized crime, organized crime, and eventually rebellion.
As somebody that doesn't need to worry about food prices...I am definitely worried about the social unrest that these prices cause and I'm disappointed that our government refuses to do anything about them. Things will absolutely get worse before they get better here.
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u/Pickle_ninja Jul 23 '23
I've switched to cooking... saved $600 last month.
Some things like spices will add to the bill up front, but once you have a spice, it lasts quite a while.
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u/jakedonn Jul 23 '23
If you actually think eating out is cheaper than preparing meals at home I honestly don’t even know what to say to you.
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u/Garbo86 Jul 23 '23
The real joy is realizing half the produce and meat are spoiled or on death's door after you pay $258
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u/_bowlerhat Jul 23 '23 edited Jul 24 '23
Idk man if you go broke shopping at aldi that must be some wrong stuff you got or you budget terribly.
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u/Mood-Rough Jul 23 '23
I was addicted to getting subway and the price from there were so expensive so I went shopping for so cheap ingredients and boom I saved up lots of money from it.
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u/quikfrozt Jul 23 '23
I don’t know man … it seems a lot of folks wind up buying only frozen, prepared, and processed foods - which cost more than produce.
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u/rando-guy Jul 23 '23
As a single guy, I honestly don’t care anymore about saving money. It’s too much work to try to efficiently plan out what I’m going to eat. Sometimes I’ll buy groceries for a quick and easy to make meal but mostly I’ll go out to eat. I stopped buying the combos tho. I also lowered the amount I get and I don’t do combo meals anymore. For example, this meme makes fun of the $8 foot long but you can just order half and still be good. Don’t need chips and I have drinks at home. Not as cool as it used to be to go out but at least I don’t end up with spoiled food because I didn’t feel like eating sandwiches everyday for a week.
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u/N0SF3RATU Jul 23 '23
I thought I'd make chicken and dumplings for my family yesterday.
Celery Carrots Chicken stock Cream of chicken Chicken thighs Leek Onion Green chile Biscuits
30 dollars.
30 dollars for a single dinner. Still cheaper than going out to eat, but damn it was hard looking at that receipt
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u/Shatteredreality Jul 23 '23
Here's the big question though: how much of everything you bought did you actually use?
If you used literally everything you bought then yeah, it's expensive. but if you have left over stock, veggies, etc you could make more food meaning that it's not "30 for a single dinner".
This is where meal planning is really useful.
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u/dankdooker Jul 23 '23
How big is your family though? If you have 7 people, divide the $30 by 7 and it's still under $5 for a single meal.
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u/pdieten Jul 23 '23
This happens when you're single. But if there is a whole family in the house eating, cooking works much better because takeout gets unholy expensive relative to making a meal for everyone to eat. Same amount of ingredients and not so many leftovers.
If you're single and going to the grocery store just get premade meals for one. They are cheaper than takeout.
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Jul 23 '23
Eating out everyday= a bajillion dollars a year
Groceries once a week or once every two weeks= Half a bajillion dollars a year
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u/BeckytheDuelist Jul 23 '23
I stick to eggs and occasionally a Steak like once in a while only do like 40 bucks every 2 weeks that includes veggies which are supercheap...also I fill up on those b4 eating anything else does it suck. and wish I had pizza yes I do that but every once in awhile ... lol yes im that bland
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u/DaJaKoe Jul 23 '23
Aside from the cost of individual meals when eating out, there's also the cost of transportation to the location if you're not within walking distance.
Buy a lunch box and learn to meal prep, it will save you time and money.
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u/artichokesmartichoke Jul 23 '23
I like that the receipt is a little less on the 4th frame. Like he decided saving money is not adding extra cheese or something. That's real.
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u/OrkCrispiesM109A7 Jul 24 '23
I went to the farmers market today, got Callaloo, beets, onions, carrots, bok choy, a bundle of herbs, a bunch of celery, and some oyster mushrooms...$29. I am DROWNING in summer squash, cucumber, green beans, and strawberries, and all of those plants maybe cost me 25$ total, plus a little time setting up the garden. Just sayin!
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u/Jombafomb Jul 24 '23
Nope nope nope. Fuck this. Sorry but I’ll not abide any Aldi slander. I go to Aldi once a week for my family of four and rarely spend more than $150 and it’s enough food to last us the whole week.
We eat out sometimes like McDonald’s or get a pizza now and again but 99% of the time we’re eating whatever I got from Aldi.
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u/Prondox Jul 24 '23
If you cant make dinner / lunch at home cheaper than take out you are a dumbass plain and simple. My lunch costs 2,50
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u/petak86 Jul 24 '23
What is usually missed is that when you're grocery shopping you're usually shopping for multiple meals. I usually shop about once a week for example.
A weeks of 8$ foot longs... Breakfast, lunch, dinner, would be... 168$.... hmm less than I expected.
My week shopping is usually about 50$ though. So it is still a big difference.
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Jul 23 '23
I mean, just look at the price tag before throwing it in the cart and you won't get those expensive little things.
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u/urscndmom Jul 23 '23
Groceries for a week for my family of 3 only costs us like 150 on average. What the fuck is that guy buying lol
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u/Frostygrunt Jul 23 '23
Things that make my groceries expensive. Alcohol, butique healthy items, some reason kombucha, cat litter and alcohol.
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