family of 4 here but kids are under 5 (though holy crap they can eat)

We were solidly at $125/wk but now we are $150-200 sometimes $225 which includes all groceries and take out 1-2x per week.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I cook a lot of my own meals, but I never roast a chicken. I just buy the roasted ones from whatever grocery store I'm in for like $8. Is there something I'm missing?

They aren’t as good as they used to be, typically smaller,
More expensive and more additives. Roasting is super east if you dry brine it (remove anything in the cavity, lift the skin, rub salt in, let it sit wrapped in the fridge for a day and then into the oven- tons of veggies around the bird, put broth in the cooking dish, pepper outside and a little oil or butter and that’s it.

Try this recipe from Delish. You cook the chicken in a bundt pan so the drippings fall on the vegetables surrounding the chicken. It's delicious, healthy and cost effective if you buy the whole chicken on sale. I also grow my own herbs so I don't have to buy them at the store.

https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/a51763/bundt-pan-roast-chicken-recipe/?epik=dj0yJnU9TFpyYXhzV0Vma0pLeEJ4SlgzMFNLVlQxUkNvNnNDTlgmcD0wJm49a21kMFFOa0VDUXBIdG4xWVRLRzdKdyZ0PUFBQUFBR01rY0JZ

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I cook a lot of my own meals, but I never roast a chicken. I just buy the roasted ones from whatever grocery store I'm in for like $8. Is there something I'm missing?

They aren’t as good as they used to be, typically smaller,
More expensive and more additives. Roasting is super east if you dry brine it (remove anything in the cavity, lift the skin, rub salt in, let it sit wrapped in the fridge for a day and then into the oven- tons of veggies around the bird, put broth in the cooking dish, pepper outside and a little oil or butter and that’s it.

Is the bird in a roaster in contact with the pan or do you place the veggies under the bird?

They are in contact - but to the side. I use a large circular pan. Bird in the center, veggies surrounding it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I cook a lot of my own meals, but I never roast a chicken. I just buy the roasted ones from whatever grocery store I'm in for like $8. Is there something I'm missing?

They aren’t as good as they used to be, typically smaller,
More expensive and more additives. Roasting is super east if you dry brine it (remove anything in the cavity, lift the skin, rub salt in, let it sit wrapped in the fridge for a day and then into the oven- tons of veggies around the bird, put broth in the cooking dish, pepper outside and a little oil or butter and that’s it.

Is the bird in a roaster in contact with the pan or do you place the veggies under the bird?

I'm the PP asking about pre-roasted birds. Thanks for the advice, all!

We are trying our absolute best to only shop at Costco. The price differential is around 25%. We don’t do takeout but do date night. But for those we use Costco dining cards.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I cook a lot of my own meals, but I never roast a chicken. I just buy the roasted ones from whatever grocery store I'm in for like $8. Is there something I'm missing?

They aren’t as good as they used to be, typically smaller,
More expensive and more additives. Roasting is super east if you dry brine it (remove anything in the cavity, lift the skin, rub salt in, let it sit wrapped in the fridge for a day and then into the oven- tons of veggies around the bird, put broth in the cooking dish, pepper outside and a little oil or butter and that’s it.

I just did this yesterday. The veggies around the bird soak up the chicken flavor and are absolutely delicious. I also collect the drippings and use them (with some additional broth) to cook lentils.

Anonymous wrote:I cook a lot of my own meals, but I never roast a chicken. I just buy the roasted ones from whatever grocery store I'm in for like $8. Is there something I'm missing?

They aren’t as good as they used to be, typically smaller,
More expensive and more additives. Roasting is super east if you dry brine it (remove anything in the cavity, lift the skin, rub salt in, let it sit wrapped in the fridge for a day and then into the oven- tons of veggies around the bird, put broth in the cooking dish, pepper outside and a little oil or butter and that’s it.

Anonymous wrote:I cook a lot of my own meals, but I never roast a chicken. I just buy the roasted ones from whatever grocery store I'm in for like $8. Is there something I'm missing?

Those chickens have a kot of additives. Look at the ingredient list. 90 percent are not organic. Good price though and tastes good.

About $400 all in for our family of 4, including school lunches, pizza or cheap takeout 1-2x/week, and usually one restaurant outing. About $200 of that is for groceries, mostly from Aldi. Tonight’s relatively humble beef taco dinner cost about $15, spices and leftovers excluded. I used to be able to cook dinner for less than $10, easy.

I cook a lot of my own meals, but I never roast a chicken. I just buy the roasted ones from whatever grocery store I'm in for like $8. Is there something I'm missing?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everything has gone up.

And yet everyone here will still vote for the D’s in 7 weeks.

What’s your party’s solution?

Racism and treason should fix it!

Restaurant prices so high. I like to check the menu pictures on Yelp before going to a new restaurant and read a few reviews. Every time I go to the actual restaurant, the prices are 10-30% higher than the Yelp pictures, lol.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Family of five, two adults with an 18, 17, and 15 years old. We are spending about $800/week on groceries. We buy lot of seafood (lobsters, fish) and steaks on top of lot of vegetables, fruits and milk. Kids are hungry.

Insane that some people are now spending north of $40,000 per year to feed their families.

That is an outlier of 3 older age teens. They have expensive tastes with the seafoods.

Some of what I find works best for us is Costco every 2 weeks or so. Buy the sale stuff that is good and stock up and freeze it like chicken sausages.

Another store for grass milk and pasture raised eggs. Everything else is from Costco or trader joes once a month or so.

Giant and HT are no longer good value unless you stock up on the BOGO items.

Hmart also expensive.

WF keeps getting relatively cheaper for basics like produce and good meat.

Aldi and lidl still pretty good value but make sure to check the produce before buying. Up to 20 percent is garbage, soon to be rotten.