If you spend less than DCUM average on groceries
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
This. I also shop at Whoel Foods and find it to be way fresher and less expensive than Giant. One tip -- I very, very rarely go into the aisles. I stay on the outskirts -- produce, meat, dairy, bread, and cheese. I'll go into the aisle if I need to buy more flour or salt or something, but as I rule I don't go in there. Packaged food is so much more expensive and doesn't taste as good, IMO. |
Anonymous
| Our grocery bills were out of control with inflation. Our household ranges from 3-5 depending on if our oldest kids are away at school. The first change I made was to only purchase items on sale with the exception of some true necessities like milk and eggs. This makes a huge difference. I also paid more attention to the price differences between stores on frequently purchased brands. I’ve learned no one store is cheaper for everything. I stopped being brand loyal for most things. For decades I believed generics were low quality but I started experimenting and found some generic substitutions that work. One of those has surprisingly been cereal. I buy the brand when on a good sale but otherwise generic and there have been no complaints. My kids eat a lot of fruit, especially the priciest fruits. I stopped buying fruits like berries unless they’re a really good deal. I stopped buying pre-packaged salads and cut up produce as well. We used to eat pretty expensive cuts of meat but now I buy drumsticks and thighs for chicken recipes (and we enjoy them more) and only serve something like a ribeye once every 6-8 weeks. I cut back on packaged, processed foods, especially individually packaged snacks and yogurts. I buy those only at Costco or Sam’s and only on sale. I also bake my own desserts most of the time (I enjoy baking). Tastes better and there are no artificial ingredients on top of saving money. |
Anonymous
|
I agree with meal planning - and when meal planning - scope out what you already have in pantry or freezer to use. I have egg noodles that I need to figure out how to use in a recipe one of these days.
Also - maybe you can do meatless mondays - try for one vegetarian meal a week. We had baked ziti last night and I have a bean and cheese quesadilla recipe that I sometimes use, and a chickpea / spinach curry over rice that I sometimes do. And we make pizza too! |
Anonymous
|
I admire all of you who have done such an amazing job of controlling your food budgets, and I'm especially impressed with how delicious your menus are.
But I don't have the time/energy/bandwidth to get to know what items are cheaper at WF/Aldi/Giant/Wegman's etc (let alone make a spreadsheet about it). Or make my own granola and hummus and bread. Or even spend a weekend day meal prepping. And I know I never will. I left for work yesterday at 6:30am and got home at 8:30. Too tired for most of this stuff, y'all. |
Anonymous
This is OP. I don’t think this thread is for you  and that is okay.
I’m already spending a lot of time shopping different stores and cooking from scratch. Reading everyone’s responses the only thing I could do is go completely vegetarian (we have two to three non meat days a week already) or make super basic meals that no one will enjoy. |
Anonymous
|
no snacks
no drinks frozen, not fresh fruits and vegetables generic brands limit meat purchases this is in addition to shopping/meal planning sales and buying bulk. |
Anonymous
|
The best way to save is to have one main store and meal plan around their sales. Buy loss-leaders, especially proteins. We also favor larger, bone-in cuts that we roast or smoke and then use for many meals. I freeze the cooked meat in 1 lb bags.
We get many staples from Aldi, specialy veggies and cheeses from Trader Joes or the market. I make our own bread, but rarely pass up a day-old sale. I meal plan for 4 nights and we always have a leftover night (reduces food waste) and pizza night. |
Anonymous
| Get a grocery buddy to share large packages of produce from Costco/Sam's. This also works for their huge egg packages, giant blocks of cheese and if you don't have a large freezer, on meat. I know some people on DCUM are prissy about the quality, but as many things are cheaper there as long as you don't waste it. |
Anonymous
|
OP - I had another idea. Do you use something like YNAB? It might show you where you can and can't cut money - and it may not be groceries for now. Also Ramit Sethi says with things like with respect to groceries - don't try to be so drastic with your cuts at first. Did you spend $1600 last month on groceries? Try $1550 this month, and so on.
Also, when I started YNAB I cut coffee subscription and wine club subscription - reasoning I could get both of those cheaper at the grocery store. I'm not sure what adult things you have in there that you could do cheaper. I also buy store brand where possible these days. |
Anonymous
| So the answer is - reduce your standard of living because of food prices. That’s Bidenomics! |
Anonymous
It sounds like you are convinced that you cannot save money, so there’s no point in telling you otherwise. For people with a more open mind, there’s no reason meals have to be super basic and unenjoyable. Restrictions can spark creativity. There are a billion blogs that can show you how. Here are 2, off the top of my head: https://www.spendwithpennies.com/ https://www.budgetbytes.com/ |
Anonymous
|
I'll repeat earlier points that you save money by changing what you eat, not where you shop. The price differential between WF and most supermarkets is not that fundamentally different. If you're spending 400 a week on groceries at WF, changing to the Giant might bring that down to 350. And the quality goes down so you're not really saving money.
I do think we've lost sight of food frugality as an everyday norm in modern society. If you read old cookbooks and cooking magazines and even general pop culture observations up through the 1970s, it was the *norm* to be frugal with food. Middle class people were used to hotdog meals, basic spaghetti, bean chilis, canned soup and tuna fish, anything to make the budget stretch. You didn't eat like this every day but several days a week would be the cheap boring meals. And people did do things like a Sunday roast chicken with the leftovers the next day and then a chicken and rice soup later that week with the remnants of the carcass, with sliced bread and butter on the side. And potatoes. A lot of potatoes. Potatoes fill you up like nothing else and provide plenty of nutrients. Potato soups, potatoes with roasts, mashed potatoes, very cheap to make and very filling, which means you can have smaller portions of everything else. The trick is to start thinking in this mode and once it becomes a habit, then shopping and cooking frugally becomes natural to you. And your taste buds will change and adapt to the new reality. It also doesn't help that today's food shopping scene is so much more glamorous and upscale compared to the past that the temptation to just spend is greater. It's not just the plethora of upscale groceries and delis and prepared foods, but things like berries, which used to be a luxury expense, are now commonly available in large quantities. Remember when blueberries only ever came on small little packages? So we fall into the habit of buying large quantities of imported berries for our breakfasts every day rather than as a special treat or seasonal treat. So the kids become used to having a cup of blueberries on their cereal every day when 30 years ago it'd have just been milk and cereal. |
Anonymous
| We make food in pots and eat multiple days. Yesterday I made a pot of chicken soup that will last whole week. Pot full of soup costed less than 10$ |
Anonymous
|
Anonymous
Well, incomes at all time highs. That is the point of inflationary times. Everything goes up. Including profits. It’s the real buying power that changes. Profits may be at all time highs, but so is cost of food, cost of housing, salaries and so on. But the buying power has declined. Robert Reich is either a fool or disingenuous. |