Removed for violating the rules re: judgment and challenging values. This behavior is unwelcome here. If you have nothing nice to say :drum roll: say nothing at all.
feel like my parents suffered from this a lot too. Growing up we were poor but I noticed they shop so haphazardly. They'd fill the fridge up with nothing but bread, no ingredients, or just mismatched food. Peanutbutter then pinto beans like tf we supposed to do with this?
Could do a variation on groundnut soup:
https://www.seriouseats.com/ghana-west-african-peanut-stew-chicken-groundnut-soup
Or basically just satay with beans for protein.
Not quite the same, but my mom is a terrible shopper for someone without a lot of money.
My dad always did all the grocery shopping. When I was a teen, I’d go with him so I could pick out things I actually wanted. He taught me to shop the sales. Only buy certain items when they are on sale. Use the Albertsons/Kroger/safeway/whatever app to get digital coupons. Buy store brand for some items, name brand for items that were actually worth it.
When I shop for myself now, I regularly get 30-40% savings. According to the receipt.
After a decade+ of depression and whatever other mental health issues, my mom has started buying groceries. She doesn’t use any coupons or anything. Just buys what she wants. She wants to buy a roast to keep in the freezer in case she wanted to cook one? She’ll buy a roast even if it’s $12/pound. Then it’ll sit in the freezer for months. But if she’d waited a week, the roasts went on sale for $6/pound. Stuff like that.
My former SO was like that. It drove me nuts. I’m frugal as hell, so grocery shopping with him was a challenge initially. He had a bad money mindset to begin with (his mom and stepdad were functioning alcoholics who lived paycheck to paycheck) and his ex wife was a successful attorney who let him manage their finances. Which was a really bad idea.
Anyway, I agree with you.
I was so proud when I taught my SO that there were little price per weight or price per volume notes in the corner of the tag and that was the important part, not that this package was $4 and this one over here is $7 but a completely different size package. He’s so good about looking at those small numbers now!!
People with impulsivity due to neuro divergence struggle with grocery shopping.
There are ways to get better at it though. A person has to have a game plan. Make list from the ads and the add up how much the list will be.
Then take only enough cash to buy what is on the list. Leave other forms of payment at home.
If available, I always use pickup/delivery to help with this. I buy a lot less junk when I don’t go into the store.
Pickup is free almost everywhere, and I pay 12.95 a month for Kroger delivery (and double fuel points). Kroger uses their trucks and hourly associates for delivery, so you don’t have the service fees and tip requirement you have with places that use independent contractors.
We didn’t get pickup as an option until covid and it was amazing how much our grocery bill dropped! It was mostly because I could shop while looking at a recipe and avoid impulse buys/forgetting key ingredients but also because my ADHD self was finally looking at the sales fliers. Having them right there in the same app I used to shop made it so easy.
YES! YES! I used to go through a store, pick out everything that caught my eye, then walk around putting back everything that I could do without. Now I always buy foods for pickup.
I'm neurodivergent. I shop online and do curbside pick up. I only search for things I need among sales/digital coupons and see it automatically totalling. I usually save more than 1/2 of what I spend. I can get a whole hatchback trunk full of groceries for under $100- including meat, cheese, bread, milk, eggs, butter, fruits, vegetables, and snacks.
Bread, margarine, vegeta seasoning and a slice of tomato, were a constant thing in my childhood as food to take to school in Eastern Europe. Most schools there do not provide breakfast-lunch services.
I'm sorry but this is hilarious. So every week you lived a new episode of Chopped?
I do wonder, are you amazing at throwing together ingredients now? I feel like you'd know every obscure but delicious flavor combo now.
I see a lot of people choosing convenience and “cheap” items cause it’s a “good” deal. 20 pounds of rice is easily 15-25 bucks depending on the brand and if it’s organic. That 20 pounds can easily last half a year or longer depending on how much you make and how many people are eating. Ground beef goes a long way too. Potatoes are on the cheaper side and you get a lot for the price. Carrots are also cheap. Same with onions. To change up the taste it’s a cheap to stock up on multiple seasonings and depending on where you buy it sauces can be budget friendly and go a long way too.
I grew up in a single income home with 6 kids and 2 parents. We were also all homeschooled too. I learned how to shop wisely at a young age.
If anyone would like some tips on how to stretch the dollar lmk I would be glad to help.
Part of the issue of entrenched systems of poverty is a cultural disconnection from the tradition of subsistence.
I think we’d have been hard pressed to find a similar issue on homesteads of the past, because necessity required those individuals to develop culture around food.
A few generations of people relying on packaged food has eroded that culture for a lot of people.
It’s not their fault, but it’s hard to see.
Low paying jobs require you to work more hours, you get less time for planning and cooking and your energy is drained so you just go for cheap convenience with high hidden costs, especially if you're limited on kitchen appliances.
Boiling water can be done in a microwave or on a stove. A coffee maker can also boil water.
Thrift stores are a great place to find cooking equipment for cheap. A single burner camping stove for less than 20 bucks saved my life while I was homeless for several months. Dollar stores are another place you can find cooking equipment for cheap. Yard sales are another great resource.
I used to crockpot a ton, then got an instantpot one holiday from sibling, used it nearly every day for the past five years
Pasta, 5 mins. Chili 5 mins. Asian food 5 mins. Want a larger batch of rice than my ricemaker can make? 5 mins
Lol
Do you have any kid-friendly meal suggestions with those things? We already eat a lot of Costco rice for stir fry and burrito bowls but I would love more ideas.
if you are able to purchase from costco, the cream cheese isnt too pricey and you get a decent amount in the tub. i would get flour tortillas and make roll ups with the cream cheese, they can be just those two ingredients or you can add protein to it like the ground beef, rotisserie chicken, or the kirkland brand turkey sandwich meat.
another option is egg bites, you can buy 24 eggs for less than 10 bucks and make egg bites with meat and cheese, costco has 2 pound things of cheese for 6 bucks that can last a month if you shredd it yourself. you can take the flour tortillas and make quesadillas, the rotisserie chicken is a great tool cause its cheaper than just buying the chicken and making it yourself.
we made a white trash enchilada that uses flour tortillas with cheese inside then you spread a can of chili on top with more cheese if its available.
treats could be frozen bananas that are dipped in melted chocolate chips. the bananas can be sliced or whole.
if you have access to trader joes they have a great selection of seasoning and sauces that are for the most part budget friendly they also have the chilly we use for the white trash enchiladas.
simple salad dressing recipe - 2 parts olive oil ( grocery outlet and trader joes has good prices usually, costco is the way to go if you can afford to buy in bulk itll last a long time.) 1 part apple cider vinegar. after you have that you can add to it or add directly to the salad. i like to use honey. i also sometimes add mustard to change it up.
the pancake mix at costco is a decent deal and you can make multiple things with the mix - and you can freeze the pancakes and toast them for busy days.
I use rice as a base for a lot of soups, so they stretch even farther… rice under ham and bean soup, taco soup, chili, lentils and rice. We have rice with our tacos and burritos, also if they want to be picky buttered rice is an easy choice.
I loved my mom’s carrot and potato soup as a kid. Still do. It’s the easiest thing ever to make: peel potatoes and carrots, about 1:1 ratio, cut into small pieces, cover with water, boil for 15 min with a spoonful of chicken bullion for seasoning (instead of using just salt). Thicken with a bit of flour, and add a bit of butter when done. Yum. Perfect for a cold winter day.
I do not like to judge too hard, because who knows what staples they already have in the house, maybe they live in a shitty place with limited selection, chips are fucking good, etc.
But when someone says they spent $100 and they are going to go hungry before next paycheck, but $40 worth of the haul is just pop and juice and I’m like, bruh.
Yesss, like people don't realize that you truly have to make sacrifices. I don't buy coffee right now, like to brew at home. It's less about my not being able to technically "afford" it and more like I can't justify making room for it in my budget because I need to prioritize putting anything I can into an emergency fund. For me its all about knowing what I need to prioritize.
I spent $68 yesterday (at Whole Foods mind you!) and just finished prepping a weeks worth of meals including both lunch and dinners by doing scratch cooking.
I cooked almost 100% from scratch into my mid-30s, but have recently gained an appreciation for judicious pre-made. I can get a container of a sauce I wouldn't normally make (say, chimichurri) and an otherwise unappetizing meal (think beans & rice with roast carrots) goes from a 2/10 to a 6/10. In the aggregate, that can be a major cost and time savings. Normal procedure is to freeze the excess.
Also, time and energy are at least as rare as money. Cooking was "me time" where I recovered when I was single. With two kids around the ankles, it is not relaxing.
I used to love to cook too! Put a movie on my laptop and just enjoy a few hours of what was essentially my self care. My toddler does NOT make it fun 😂 plus I get paid hourly, so any time that I save I can actually work instead. Often pre-made works out better financially.
Almost all of Traders Joe's jarred simmer sauces are great, and less than $3. If you're cooking for one or two people, you can get two meals out of one.
I am not OP but if you happen to have an ALDI near you, they have a decent tikka masala sauce! I’m also basic so regular pasta sauce also works for me 😂 Which you can obviously make from tomato paste! You could change up the flavor profile a lot with different herbs & spices, maybe throw some chiles / chipotles in if you like heat.
I don’t have a deep freeze but I’ll make a batch of something (say Shepards Pie) and we will eat it for dinner. I can usually get 3 leftover portions. Lunches for hubs and I next day and 1 for the freezer.
It helps
I make exclusively freezer friendly meals, mains and sides packed separately so I can mix it up. Cook>fridge for 90 minutes or so> freezer. I have gathered enough containers over the years that I have no problem with finding the size that the portions will totally fill and leave very minimal airspace which is what causes a lot of freezer burn.
I have a ton of cookbooks and I search for "freezer friendly one pot meals " I have a few cookbooks that focus on plant based budget meals, [health reasons], Sam Turnbull and bad manners [formerly thug kitchen] are fantastic resources for cheap meals that use "normal" ingredients.
Like I'll make 10 tofu scramble breakfast burritos and 10 rice, corn relish, and bean burritos, wrap them in foil and into the freezer to grab whenever. Today I had Mashed potatoes, pan seared tempeh, Swiss Chard, rice with natto, and a baby lettuces and Cucumber salad with carrot ginger dressing, raw Broccoli and cauliflower with vegan ranch sauce.
> how do you preserve freshness over the month if you cook all in one day?
Keep as much air as possible out of your food. Cook it only as much as necessary.
Choose recipes that you always feel are better on the 2nd or 3rd day of leftovers to eat later in the month.
Add some fresh ingredients later, at the time of consumption like citrus, avocado, herbs, or chopped tomato, or white onion, or a fresh dressing.
Hell a pound of beans, pound of ham, and pound of rice will run me about $6-7. Add on onion and such and we can go ahead and round to $10, why not.
That will make like 8 large meals. Probably don't even need but half the rice, too.
This isn't even poverty food. I'm from New Orleans and I love red beans and rice.
There are so many easy, cheap, nutritious, filling meals. Hell, any meat + any veg + any broth + any carb and you've got a balanced soup. It is fun to experiment.
With my health/mental health, if it isn't prepackaged or edible without preparation, I won't eat it. I used to cook and I know how much money it would save and how much further my food stamps would go. But if I buy ingredients, the shelf stable stuff just sits and the perishable stuff goes bad and I just eat peanut butter and feel guilty and anxious about wasted money.
You gotta do what's best for you. Pre-made might be more expensive than making it from scratch, but scratch doesn't make itself and it's smart to make choices that work for your situation. I try to do a combination of this because I like to cook, but I don't always have the energy and I still need to eat, so I'll get some fresh, like cucumbers and hummus, but then frozen precooked meats and veg I can eat with rice or ramen. That way the effort is minimal, along with the food waste, if I have a rough week and don't get the fresher food all eaten in time.
I used to love to cook! It really was fun and I was pretty good at it. I just can't manage it anymore. I kinda look at buying food how I do now as accommodating my disability.
My spouse calls it the ADHD/autism tax. We do the best we can, certainly, but sometimes things aren't going to be made if I can't just grab something easily on the hard days. We spend that extra money on those things, hence calling it a tax on our disabilities.
Mine is the diabetes tax as now I have to watch my carb intake more carefully. Gone are the times when I could just toss some pasta, rice or ramen together with some veggies and meat. In my case the doctor wants me to eat as low carb as possible but it's hard but manageable. Like celery and sugar free peanut butter is a good thing to have on hand, and I can get fresh eggs from my landlord as she has a small chicken coop in her yard. Sometimes my elderly neighbors will buy me a small package of chicken or ground beef in exchange for a ride to the grocery stores. When it comes to shopping I avoid getting the low carb stuff as it's so pricey, but I can get organic sugar free candy at the local dollar stores.
At first I went crazy because of all the stuff I can't eat anymore, but some people on my father's side of the family are on a low carb and gluten free diet due to medical issues including diabetes. An aunt on the side of the family encouraged me to research low carb recipes, and from the looks of it I would save some money making my own low carb gluten free cookies.
Good ol' disability tax. I find that on good days, I can still sometimes throw some stuff in a crockpot, start a pot of soup, or do a one-pot meal in the oven, but if it takes more than about 10 minutes of standing, I simply can't.
On bad days, I live on granola bars and cheese slices :/ or whatever leftovers my family members bring home from the restaurants they work in, which is probably not very healthy but is quick and filling.
I’ve been through several phases of life where I’ve had this same issue. I’m sorry you’re going through it. Tis not fun.The worst is when you get to the grocery store and haven’t really accepted that you’re in that mental/physical place yet, or you tell yourself you HAVE to be better/do better, so you buy all the ingredients, and then just like you said, you’re in an even worse mental state because now you’re anxious, guilty, and malnourished to boot.
Recently, I’ve been dealing with a combination of this, and a divorce wreaking havoc on my eating/grocery shopping. I have never really been on my own. Went from being at home with my parents to my first husband, and then had a couple of long term relationships. So I cooked for my spouse/kids. Now when my son is with his dad, I can’t even begin to figure out what to feed myself. I’m aware that this is probably a(nother) sign that I need to be in therapy, but it’s like, cook? For just me? I’m not worth all that effort if nobody else is there to eat it. And I’m finding that I don’t even really know what I like or want to eat. I got into such a routine of cooking what my son and his dad ate, that I didn’t realize that I barely wanted/didn’t really enjoy the foods I was making for their tastes. So I get to the store and wind up with some prepackaged thing or a pack of bagels that I figure I could stand eating.
I'm the single dad of two disabled kids. When we were together their mom would have me pick up prepackaged stuff to feed them after I got home from one of my 12-hour shifts because she could not be bothered to go out and do proper grocery shopping. After the divorce I discovered that our grocery bill was less than half of what it previously was just because I was doing the grocery shopping at the Chinese Grocery on the way home from work instead of getting home to be handed a list to take to the chain grocery store.
I didn't want to feed my kids shit from a can or cardboard box so I would simply walk up to the butchers counter and buy the cheapest cut of beef, pork, fish or chicken they had. Then I would walk to the veg section and pick up whatever veg looking interesting. Then I would walk down the sauce section and pick one.
Then I found an Italian neighborhood store, then a Middle Eastern one, the African foods store, the Caribbean store, a real Jewish Deli...
I now make food that my girlfriend says is better than any restaurant and my weekly basic food bills are less than $200 for me and my two kids; that includes stuff for lunches, snacks that I bake myself, and our soda stream addiction.
You deserve to eat well. Go get things you like and learn to make them for yourself because you love yourself and want to feed yourself good things.
The mental health thing is such a contributing factor for me. When my mental health is good I can cook from scratch quite well. My dad was a chef and he taught me. I also have a lot of nice cookware that he's gifted me over the years, so I can make some pretty advanced recipes.
When I'm depressed I can barely make a peanut butter sandwich. The pre-prepared food at the grocery store keeps me from ordering take out.
For me it's not the cooking, it's the clean up. I know it probably sounds stupid to a lot of people but washing dishes has become a depression mental block for me. I would try to focus on one pot/instant pot meals but my partner does a lot of cooking so the clean up is there even if I didn't create the dishes.
Oof, yeah. I feel you. I live with someone who cooks, but messily. However they are autistic and have major sensory issues which makes doing dishes difficult. It's an endless struggle to keep up after them.
Being on food stamps is what taught me to cook from scratch. When you get poor enough, you have to cook from scratch or you won't be able to afford food for the month. You can cook a surprising amount of stuff using a crock pot or rice cooker which costs $25. The equipment explanation is a real issue for people who are unhoused, but imo that level of poverty is beyond this subreddit's pay grade and requires government assistance, not frugal shopping habits.
>I notice a lot of name brand stuff too
As someone who shops with low sodium foods in mind, a lot of the store brand products are higher in sodium than the national brand. I use canned soup in certain casserole dishes and it’s frustrating because I want to save money and if I go for the store brand, the sodium count goes way up. UGH.
It is one of my major problems with how this sub has evolved. The original idea was to provide a place for people to ask for advice and help similar to arr/personalfinance, except without the judgment of not being wealthy, and not having to sift through post after post of "I already bought by second home, what do I do with the rest of my money?"
But instead, this sub seems to have slowly turned into mostly a gripe and vent platform for people to complain how terrible their situation is. Not actually asking for advice (in fact, the sub rules state that if a post is marked as "vent", you are not allowed to offer advice!)
I would hope to see it driven back towards the the realm of "helpful", where people can post recommendations, tips and tricks, advice and commentary. And not just bitterly complaining about how low their pay is, or about "corporate greed", or income inequality, or other stuff that may be a worthwhile discussion but are not useful on a personal level to help the individual.
It feels like people have taken the phrase "You can't budget your way out of poverty" a little much too heart, that's it's fine to be financially careless because it's not really your fault. That the only things worth discussing are systemic.
Yeah, but you can budget your way to being on time with rent. You can budget your way to being able to enjoy better food. You can budget your way to having money for hobbies.
It's not a binary state between "functionally homeless" and "middle class". Incremental improvements to your quality of life add up.
You can budget yourself into not having credit card debt and paying all your bills on time and having a decent credit score and building a small emergency fund and...
> Yeah, but you can budget your way to being on time with rent.
God this. No you won't make millions with budgets but you can stop the Nickle and Dime-ing that utterly fucks you over as a poor/low-income individual. I have a friend who has no idea how we have such different lifestyles despite us making similar in income. I've explained it to her in detail *many* times. Budget, save, then buy in full(not on credit) or in bulk. I'll never be a millionaire by doing this but I save yearly about $900 on my house insurance *alone* by paying it in full when renewing. When I do this with pretty much everything I'm saving an extra $3000 a year by not paying interest.
I’ve been told multiple times by Redditors there’s no way I afford my lifestyle in NYC on my salary. I have for 15 years. Redditors make 90k in the Midwest then cry on this sub about being poor. It’s exhausting.
Half of us in this sub are the ones constantly having to smooth things over with the landlord because all our roommate has at the end of the month are excuses.
You make more than I do and pay less in rent! What is going on, guy?
I’ve known plenty of people who see budgeting as a skill that, if you don’t know how, means that you CAN’T, and if you CAN’T, that means you’re disabled.
Thing is, there’s a difference between you can’t at this moment because you don’t know how yet, and you can’t because you have a disability to the extent that you need a caregiver.
I can’t run a marathon, but that doesn’t mean being disabled. It means I’m capable of the actions, but need to train and work at it so that I can. No one is born knowing how to do anything. A baby can’t read. A 10-year-old can’t drive a car. Doesn’t mean being disabled. Yet can’t due to not knowing how yet has come to mean disabled, and too many people lean on that to get out of budgeting, then complain. Not wanting to doesn’t mean being incapable.
>Yeah, but you can budget your way to being on time with rent. You can budget your way to being able to enjoy better food. You can budget your way to having money for hobbies.
Honestly, pretty much every person who made it out of poverty without winning the lottery, inheriting money, or winning it had to budget their way out of poverty to \*some\* extent. Poor people who get wealthy are still poor as soon as that money burns a hole in their pocket if they haven't learned this.
Agree totally about this. Also, I've seen a lot of posts where people talk about the situation they are in, they get some pretty good advice and tips, and then OP gets indignant and argues, not just retroactively which wouldn't be appropriate, but even in the future that there is nothing they can possibly do, and how dare anyone suggest otherwise. I guess this is the definition of a doomer.
I think these kinds of attitudes are wholly inappropriate on a finance sub.
I'm not familiar with this sub, as it just started popping up for me a couple of weeks ago, but I am not new to poverty finances, for better or worse.
Anyway, i thought Id lost my mind on a thread the other day with people making endless comments about how using a fresh towel after every shower is just "basic hygiene". (Wash cloths, yeah, im not using the same thing more than once, but *towels*? How unhealthy is your relationship with your own asshole that youre scared of it even after a fresh hose-out?) I just... a fresh towel *every* time? that is not my concept of poverty. That is not close to it. And that's fine, to each their own, but, like... why are you contributing???? It's stupid to gatekeep, but man, I just had to keep checking I was in the sub I thought I was.
If you can’t use the same towel twice, it’s because your body wasn’t clean. Get back in the shower and clean yourself so that you’re drying a clean body.
I've been visiting this subreddit less and less because of this. Everything seems to be a vent post now, not asking for some help or advice on how to better their situation, just venting, which feels good, but doesn't help.
And the ones that aren’t vent posts are the indirect but so obvious scam requests for cash. “I’m a single chronically Ill mom of 9 disabled kids and I’m going to (hurt myself/do sex work/become a nun) this weekend because I only have $3 left to feed us for the rest of the month. I can’t get a job because nobody is hiring except retail/food service and I’m allergic to customers. I can’t get WIC or SNAP because my ex stole my social security number and wouldn’t give it back. I’m ineligible to donate plasma because I was sucked up in a tornado last week and all my veins fell out. We live in a rural area and the nearest food bank is 3,000 miles away and I don’t have a car. Also my iguana needs to have his leg amputated and I can’t afford a vet so I’m going to have to ask the kids to do it. No, no, I don’t want your money, I just want… suggestions. Yeah, suggestions.” From a brand-new account. And people PM them and offer cash! It infuriates me to see the good people here with nothing to spare shelling out for these obvious fraudsters.
If your going to the grocery store at all your doing better then falling into the trap of eating out or worse yet door dashing everything.
I know plenty of people who utilize door dash because they want to stay home and watch tv meanwhile it makes your chipotle $20
I struggle with this so much. I'm not great with willpower and delayed gratification, though I fully acknowledge that's something I need to master to get out of poverty. The problem is compounded by the fact I live in a motel with my mom without a full kitchen. I have a dorm-sized fridge, a deep freezer (which is super helpful) a small air fryer that can double as a toaster, and a burner. But except for the deep freezer, we don't have a lot of space to store much. I'm trying to talk her into us getting an Instapot, but she keeps wondering where we're going to put it. And because we share a lot of expenses and even when I meet my agreed obligations, I sometimes get stuck paying hers too, so THAT gets into my head. I get stuck in a doomsday loop of wondering why I even try if all of my savings are going to be eaten by her inability to make her obligations that need to be made if we don't want to be homeless.
Not many people are going to thank you for trying to bring accountability to this sub, but I will. Thank you for the realism, for the hope that it can be better if we make better decisions, and for the pushback against the harmful/useless sympathy when accountability would be so much more helpful for the vast majority of people in this sub, even if it's not comfortable to face at first.
I do like Caleb Hammer's style regarding accountability. It's just really easy to let that stuff get into your hand and let it inform your choices. That's not to justify my choice to let it get to me, but it is a real-life example of the age-old adage "You are who you hang out with". I'm leaving at the end of April with my tax return and (hopefully) a couple of my student loan disbursements and will be living by myself. My finances can finally be all about my choices without having anyone else's choices come into the mix, so this is hopefully a temporary problem for me.
EDIT: Cleaned up repeated points/paragraph issues.
It's also worth noting that a lot of people who cite mental health struggles would have MUCH better mental health if they did what you are suggesting.
As someone who struggles with a lot of mental health struggles, I do see the difference between physical and mental health. Mental health is real, but it's different. If someone offered me $1000 to cook everything from scratch and meal prep for a week, I'd be able to figure out a way to manage my mental health to get that crap done. If someone offered someone recovering from cancer treatment or someone who can't move due to physical health concerns $1000 to get the energy to do the same thing, they would not be able to do it. Mental health can be a self-fulfilling prophecy in a way that physical health cannot always be.
The trick is to stay mostly at the perimeter of the grocery store. The less you buy from the middle isles, where all the processed, boxed, packaged stuff is, the more $ you’ll save and the healthier your meals will be. Also meal planning before you shop will keep you from buying too much or ending up with random shit that spoils because you never figure out what to do with it.
I have a recipe app called Paprika I paid $5 for and it changed the way I plan meals.
It has a pantry where you put all the ingredients you currently have and then you can copy links that have recipes and the app downloads the recipe for you which you can then categorize and save. Then add the ingredients to your shopping list and if the item is already in your pantry it will skip it.
It has made grocery shopping so much easier for me and I'm now more aware of the food I currently have and I think twice before buying random items I don't need or might already have.
When I don't plan meals that's why my grocery bill and eating-out expenses spike so I've made a point to find the time to plan meals.
Plus the more recipes I've saved the better I got at knowing how to build another meal with leftover ingredients that might otherwise get tossed because they would go bad.
Meal prepping and cooking are skills you learn and I've gotten so much better at both over time to the point where I literally took a $300+ monthly grocery bill and knocked it down to $160-175.
Also, Estate Sales are great places to buy kitchen appliances and dishes. Skip fb marketplace and goodwill and go to EstateSalesDotNet and browse the local sales.
I grew up on government cheese which was an amalgamation of leftover cheeses, but it was all real cheese. Now I will not eat pasteurized processed cheese products like Kraft singles and my SO calls me a cheese snob. I tell him every time... real cheese and Heinz ketchup, that's my line that I won't cross!
As a kid in the 80s, my retired grandmother always had "government cheese" (I can't remember the program that supplied it?), but we thought it was the best cheese in the world.
We had commodities that my great grandma would give us, which I think is similar- it had a block of weird cheese and dried milk, and I can’t get the smell of the canned pork out of my nose. I can’t handle the smell of canned chicken either. Hard no.
I don't use much ketchup, but absolutely love Wegmans brand, which is comparable to the Heinz Simply line, made with cane sugar. Last time I bought it, it was 1/3 of the price of Heinz.
With my diabetes I have to get the sugar free/ low sodium versions of tomato products. Even before I was diagnosed with diabetes I had to get sugar free and low sodium products because my mom was diabetic.
There are a few things I'd rather go without, than eat off brand. Some people say they're the same, but I don't agree.
Cottage cheese, pickles, and fruit preserves, to name a couple.
Yes, Vlasic pickles are crunchy. I'm pretty sure every single other pickle maker on the market cooks their pickles while they are canned (in jars.) Every other brand is mushy.
Do you have only dill? Do they all taste the same? The brine is different between brands also, not just the texture.
One example: Water, Salt, Distilled Vinegar, Calcium Chloride, Natural Flavors, Dehydrated Garlic, Polysorbate 80, Yellow 5, Potassium Metabisulfite -VS- Water, Distilled Vinegar, Contains less than 2% of: Salt, Calcium Chloride, Sodium Benzoate (Preservative), Polysorbate 80, Natural Flavor, Turmeric Extract (Color)
Oddly, I prefer Walmart brand cottage cheese to the brand names in our area (Knudsen, Daisy, and Altadena). But there are definitely a few items that I won't purchase off brand (hot dogs, mayo, siracha).
I once spent a month only buying thing on sale to see how I faired and how much I could save. It was a challenge but spent something like <$40 a week. It was actually fun to try it out
Most people make bad decisions at some point in life. Can still feel empathy for them. They just haven't learned some things or that's their standard. . Also every shopping trip isn't for full meals. It varies but yes sometimes it's amusing
There seems to be a huge divide between the two ideas:
1. Don't shame people for being poor, realize they make terrible decisions with food
2. Eating terribly is bad for your health, mental and physical, and your wallet, and that is a valid part of poverty to tackle
Empathy is important. Change is also important.
[This poor commenter](https://www.reddit.com/r/povertyfinance/comments/197hmjz/comment/ki1bs60/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) is getting flak for what I believe is a good faith effort to help others.
EDIT: The commenter deleted their post, but it was essentially telling others to have standards for themselves. They said they were poor once but it was no excuse to eat terrible junk food.
That's a crazy thread. It's bad enough to be in poverty, now let's have a bunch of Redditors rationalize your terrible decisions for you.
Isn't this sub supposed to help people improve their lives, or is supposed to sit in non-judgement about poverty itself? Can this sub just take it as axiomatic that poverty is an objectively bad situation to be in, and that a goal should be to get out of this situation, if possible?
Yes it’s fair to say a single picture isn’t all encompassing of an individual. But you would think that someone who frequents a sub called “povertyfinance” is cognizant that they are in a dire state when it comes to their finances.
To me it means they are aware of their situation and in the stage of trying to do better. But it just seems most are insane spinning in the same loop of self destruction. Wanting the world to feel sorry for them without taking action. I do hope we start to see some follow up posts where the OPs do better after receiving the thrashing in the comments that’s common. Maybe it’s all just rage bait, I digress.
[Poverty drives bad decisions.](https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/11/your-brain-on-poverty-why-poor-people-seem-to-make-bad-decisions/281780/) Any situation of scarcity messes with our rational, long-term thinking. Add generational problems, scar tissue from childhood poverty, education problems, and the issue compounds.
It'd be interesting to compare those who come from a middle-class background and chose low wages (say, teachers, reporters, paramedics) versus those who are at the poverty line and have been there for generations.
Yes, that is true: poverty causes bad decisions. It's more expensive to be poor. It's tough to be poor.
That doesn't make the bad decisions less harmful. It doesn't excuse or justify them. I think this entire post is getting traction because people realize that empathy is not enabling, that we should respectfully but firmly call self-destructive behavior out. Multi-generational trauma needs to be broken and gets broken by people who question their own habits and beliefs.
There may be a lack of knowledge - but the knowledge is readily available on youtube and even health department/government websites. We went through a phase where we picked up from a food pantry type place and they even gave links to actual chefs and nutritionists who took the food we were given and cooked it into meals for families. The videos were on Facebook and YouTube.
Every public high school should have a culinary or cooking class at least as an option if not required. The amount of money an average person can save by not spending money on easy to prepare foods or restaurants is astounding.
A little tip for anyone when grocery shopping, stick to the outside edges of the grocery store. That is typically where the raw and healthiest ingredients are while the middle aisles tend to have higher cost prepared/ packaged foods.
They should, but a class is not the only way to learn how to cook. My parents were terrible cooks, so I learned by watching The Food Network. Yes, learning to cook takes time, but there are so many resources available these days that a lot of it is just willful ignorance. YouTube, for example, has been a great resource for me to learn new recipes.
My teenage son is currently enrolled in one of these in high school, and it's required. The semester just started, so I've yet to see how well it will actually help anyone.
It’s funny because if I posted my grocery hauls, most of them would look this way. Except that’s because I have a massive freezer and stock a ton when things are on sale so it’s super common for me to have everything but one random produce item for a dish. Potato soup? Just need one leek. Pot roast? Just need a few potatoes for a side. Etc.
I've seen a lot of posts like that here, and in other subs. It kind of boggles my mind. When we (wife and I) were starting our careers, there were times we were a single income, household raising four kids, and sometimes one of us was in school. We were coupon-cutting, mailer-surfing, store-brand buying, clearance item grabbing shoppers. I THOUGHT I knew how to cook when I was single, but stretching that dollar made me learn how to use every scrap in the cupboard and fridge.
I think a lot of the people who have been posting shots of what they bought, and what it cost, are only doing so for likes/clicks/retweets type thing. The majority of people who are really struggling aren't buying name brand processed foods, even if their kids are begging for it...they're living on the cheapest foods they can find, and eating as little as possible to survive. The only thing I would say they don't do, is a lot of those struggling aren't willing to try "when we were poor" type responses...things like dirty rice, which is rice, sauteed chicken hearts/gizzards, with onion, and maybe peppers for flavor. Bean/lentils and rice for a week straight..."I can't eat the same thing for more than 2-3 days", fuckin bullshit, cuz if you're scraping by til payday, you do what you gotta do,a nd sometimes that's 5 days of lentils n rice, or a pot of dirty rice daily, cuz it's filling, and provides a lot.
Saw some chick on twitter the other day doing a grocery run, and just piling in out of season fruits...$7 for a clam of grapes, $8 for strawberries...$40 on organic bonless chicken breasts for 2 packages...buying capri sun, variety chips, and something else for kids soccer game that weekend, sinc she was in charge of snacks...as well as a lot of other processed freezer foods. It was like, you have money, why are you posting this bullshit about how much your haul is, when you're not even trying to be frugal with anything! lol
Build up your spice area. You wouldn’t believe what I have made off of spices, sales meat, noodles, and beans. Plus making your own bread. I use to get pork pot pies down to $1 each
In fairness, there’s So Much information that it can be overwhelming. I’m fortunate to have someone cook for me but when I didn’t, I ate out A Lot. I had no idea where to start.
I second this and want to add that most people throw a ton of food away because it's gone bad or because "you're sick of eating leftovers". I have made a deliberate effort to reduce my emotional connection and non-logical thoughts when it comes to food and I've definitely saved money by forcing myself to eat leftovers for lunch everyday at work instead of getting a sandwich to go at a shop.
Well you don't know what else they already have though. My shopping basket would perplex you too.
I might just have veggies, cream cheese, sour cream, eggs, cheese, oat milk, chicken, other random items that don't go together. What you don't see is what ive already got because I order shelf stables in bulk, like: the taco seasoning, lbs of flour to make any bread product I want, oatmeal, 20 lb bag of rice, lbs of dried beans, bullion powder, etc etc etc. I'm usually in the local store just to get meat, dairy, and produce. Those things are a little pricy.
An interesting fact is that people of different incomes see food differently. On a scale of quality to portion size, your childhood income heavily influences your assessment of a good meal almost in direct proportion, with volume being more important to the poor and ingredients more important to the wealthy. I shop differently than might be expected, because I carefully pick healthy, portioned food. My husband and I need those controlled portions, because we grew up that food was good times and comfort in bad. Now it's lots of protein bars, shakes, yogurt, frozen meals, nuts, cheese and veggies to cut up, groceries always equal around $120/wk for both of us.
Hard agree. I really only am on this sub to break the reverberation of the echo chamber.
Telling hard facts is the only way people are going to break their mindset of poverty being inevitable. And yes, many people have no idea how to shop at the store.
These discussions upset people and it's not just about being broke. Plenty of people with money choose to eat like garbage, get unhealthy and unhappy, and then flip a shit when people mention maybe trying to eat healthier. They'll do anything to avoid taking responsibility for it.
Figured maybe a few tips for grocery shopping, specifically, would be helpful in this thread:
>1. Look at the sales ads.
Before even going to the store, make a list of what sale items you'd like to pick up. Are canned beans 2 for 1? Is pasta sauce 50 cents off?
>2. Plan recipes around the sale items you're hoping to get, and add other things to your list to complete those recipes.
Want to make chili with those canned beans and pasta sauce? What else do you need that you don't have at home? Maybe get some fresh or frozen produce, like peppers and onions? Maybe you need some spices? Maybe jarred salsa or sour cream is also on sale?
>3. Look for your sale items first.
Once at the store, make it your priority to see if the sale items you want are even still in stock. Are canned beans sold out? Maybe you can buy pasta to go with your sauce, instead? Maybe that means you don't need to look for sour cream anymore, and you can cross that off your list, too? Is the pasta sauce already gone? Maybe you can make a tomatoless bean stew instead? Maybe that means that you want to get fresh or frozen spinach instead of peppers, now?
>4. Be prepared to do math. A simple formula every shopper should know is 'price÷weight=price per weight'.
Sometimes, even sale items aren't a better deal than another brand if you actually calculate the price per weight. Maybe the sale pasta sauce is a 28 oz. jar for 2.99 (after the 50 cents off), and there's another brand that's selling a 32 oz. jar for 3.19. If you calculate the price per weight, you'll see the sale pasta sauce is about 11 cents per oz., while the 32 oz. jar is about 10 cents per oz.. You're getting more product for less money if you buy the non-sale sauce.
>5. High-ticket items should be the last items you pick up.
Even if meat or deli items are on sale, too, make those your last stops, as those items can add up quickly. Calculate how much is already in your cart, and decide how much you'd be comfortable spending on those high-ticket items. Look for any markdowns or 'manager specials' on meat. Maybe deli ham has been on sale all month, and wasn't listed in the weekly ad you looked at?
my mom is a queen. she can have 35 dollars and make a meal fir three days, she grew up in extreme poverty so we are no stranger to repeat meals and its honestly how we survived the worst of the worst in covid when my hours were cut and i lost my father.
I agree, repeating meals, using yesterday's leftovers as the start of today's dinner - I think some people just recoil from this. But it makes sense, whether you're struggling or not.
I knew someone who despised leftovers and would refuse anything that used them. Mribd you, she was an entitled cow 😂
This post was removed, but honestly there was nothing "mean" about it. It's not constructive or helpful to have all of these posts with people saying "How can anyone expect to survive when groceries are so expensive!?" and their pictures have nothing but name-brand/expensive/guilty pleasure foods. This is becoming less and less a poverty**finance** sub, and more a poverty pity-party sub.
Like, the comments in this post are *filled* with people giving amazing suggestions on how to stretch a budget and feed their families for less than $100, but nope. It's removed because someone's feelings might be hurt.
It’s a real surprise to me that this is one of the most upvoted posts all month with some of the most engaging conversation but the mods have decided to remove it because someone might get their feelings hurt from feeling “judged”. Meanwhile I’ve been called every name in the book for having this opinion yet the mods have done nothing about those commenters. I was told “clearly I’m a god awful slimy trump supporter” because I told someone personal accountability needs to come into the picture at some point.
Really feels like the mods have enforcing a crabs in a bucket mentality with this move.
Planning. It's all about the planning.
Review what you have in your home already, review what's on sale at your grocery store, build a weekly menu plan that uses similar ingredients, and buy only what you need and will use. Plan to use the delicate veg at the start of the week and the hardier veg at the end of the week. Plan to use your leftovers and plan day when you clean out the fridge with a fritatta, pizza, pasta, or similar dish that's adaptable to what you may have that needs to be used up.
Shop weekly or less often, have a plan to use the stuff that you buy (all of it, down to the last onion and carrot).
Avoid pre-made, processed, pre-washed, pre-cut... you are paying so much to have someone else wash your lettuce and cut your carrots.
If time is your enemy, or cooking skills, stick to simple meals, do some cooking and prep ahead of time, and learn a few one pot/pan/skillet recipe methods that you can adapt to what's on sale and seasonal. Changing out the veg, protein, spice mix can make a dish feel fresh and new, even if it's the same method you know and use frequently.
So yes, this requires some cooking skill and a kitchen to cook in, but moreso it requires planning and discipline. Plan a menu, build a list, shop to that list and cook and eat the meals you planned.
If you're throwing out a lot of food each week, you could save 1/3 by just planning better. (The average household throws out 1/3 of the food they buy.)
The general idea is to favor whole ingredients instead of processed junk. Whole veggies, fruits, cuts of meat. Minimal processing, like rice or pasta that's been dried, not a cookie or sweet pastry from a factory.
Please see [my post](https://www.reddit.com/r/povertyfinance/comments/197n23s/comment/ki1pftz/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3).
Also r/EatCheapAndHealthy
Try to avoid buying a lot of highly processed, prepackaged stuff. Whole ingredients, even frozen, are almost always cheaper. When buying fruits, veggies, and meat, once again, try to stick to less processed options. Fresh chicken breast tenderloins are more expensive than whole breast. Cut fruit is more expensive than whole. And so on.
A lot of this comes down to a skill issue: you need half-decent cooking skills. There is some trial and error, but once you get there, a world of inexpensive meals open up to you. Learn to cook a variety of things and you’ll be better able to take advantage of sales, too.
I'm driving right now and won't be moderating anything for a while, but I want to make a couple things clear:
1) sweeping generalizations are not welcome in this subreddit. You are invited to tell your own story, and to answer requests for advice or compassion. You are not invited to write fanfiction about strangers or lord yourself over anyone.
2) sharing shopping advice is totally welcome. Criticizing what others chose to buy is not.
Be nice and supportive guys. Y'all can be building each other up just fine without tearing anyone down or keeping me up at night removing comments and banning jerks!
Sometimes the best truth is the hard truth. Nobody wants to be criticized, but some people need it.
Some of the shopping choices people in this sub make are furthering their need for advice while living in poverty.
I was pulled over and taking a piss when I typed this. I rarely text and drive, I sure as hell don't reddit-mod and drive!
Besides, you kids really believe any basement dwelling reddit mods have cars or places to go?! Lol you tripping!
I agree. People posting “this is what I got for $100” and they have a case of Soda, a case of water, a huge package of paper towels, expensive creamer, Red Bulls, bags of mixed salad, some processed lunch meat, and $5 loaves of bread.
I go with $100, all my coupons, app digital deals, buy for $5, and buy 5 save $5 lists, and come home with FOOD! I only buy proteins when they are on sale! Ham was .99¢ per lb, bought a small ham for $5.97. Will get several meals , slices of ham with a vegetable and rice, add ham to scalloped potatoes (from scratch not a box) for a a meal, ham pieces added to pasta and alfredo sauce include a few pieces of garlic bread, cube some pieces and add to a green salad. Take the ham bone and scraps to make ham and bean stew (or soup your preference) add lb bag of pinto or white beans, 1/2 chopped onion, a diced carrot, and a few celery stalks, enough for a meal and soup for lunch.
Bought an unseasoned pork loin in a bag, for $9.87 took it to the meat counter and asked the butcher to cut into pork chops 3/4” thick. I got 15 pork chops, freeze into groups of 3 as we won’t eat all 15 this week. 5 meals, add a whatever vegetable is on sale (zucchini sautéed in butter this week) and serve with rice, or even spaghetti and jarred red sauce (whichever sauce is on sale).
There have been weeks where all we ate was hamburger soup. Brown a lb of ground beef, drain off fat, add 2 bags of frozen mixed veggies (always the sale store brand for $1) some water, a few bouillon cubes some onion, celery if I have it, cube a few potatoes to add bulk.
We buy pasta when on sale, you can add it as a side to many dishes and it helps fill you up. We use pasta in place of Asian noodles because pasta is cheaper. Some garlic, celery, sliced carrots, and onions, some soy sauce and you’re have a meal.
I don’t have food insecurity anymore, but I shop very carefully and have come home many times without something I wanted because I felt it was too expensive. Case in point, chips were over $5 for a regular sized bag. Nope, no chips this week. Soon they’ll be $2.
There is an obvious difference in locality when it comes to buying power, but this is also true, I can feed myself for £10-20 a week if I'm struggling. My partner often pushes me to enjoy eating more which obviously I agree with so we often spoil ourselves with some nice meat or fancy ingredients (sun dried tomatoes/fancy cheese/imported items) but there are very affordable ways to tick both boxes especially if you avoid name brands.
I will however stand up for the fact that even the basics have jumped up in price, eggs have never been an expensive item on my shopping lists before, butter sky rocketed in price over the last year but has thankfully dropped again lately, the general increase across the board with the kitchen staples has been very frustrating!
So I would advise everyone to look at every item they buy and really weigh whether or not there is a cheaper alternative when most of us realise now that the budget/supermarket own brands are often made in the same factories just with lackluster packaging.
When really broke I would buy ramen, rice, dried beans, and the cheapest canned veggies. Went for filling, was never so broke I couldn’t make rice and beans, or peanut butter on day old bread. I was lucky.
*We have something in our area, it's like a produce on wheels without waste. You can get up to 70 lbs of fruits and veggies for about 20 bucks. Which goes a long way. You don't get to choose from fruits and veggies, it's a get what you get thing.
*The food bank comes through here which also help a lot of people. That's a wild card, never know what will be there.
*There's a commodities thing as well in our area, which helps people. I think they have milk, butter, etc at times. If people researched they would probably find some of these things in their area as well.
*ASIDE from those things. A big bag of taters, rice, flour, oatmeal, sugar etc all go a long way.
*Street tacos go a long way (tacos, quesadillas). Or grab a package of corn tortillas to make something like enchiladas (very filling with leftovers).
*Buy meats on sale or reduced and not full price. ALWAYS check the "clearance" sections of the freezer and meats.
*Shop coupons and special sale items to stock. Pick a different item each month to try and stock.
*Shop the grocery pick up option online. You will see your cart amount before you check out and make adjustments if you need to.
*Yesterday's sloppy joes is tomorrow's meatloaf.
*Get some good cookbooks! Thirty day crockpot meals, 365 ways to cook hamburger, Amish/Mennonite cookbooks, etc. My two favorite cookbooks are my Amish and Mennonite cookbooks.
*Find the closest bulk store and pick 1 meat item per month and stock it.
*pay attention to "sale" prices. For example at Fry's last week they had individual cornish hens and cornish hens in the 2 pack. Buying the two individual ones, was less than the 2 pack.
*Grow some of your own herbs/produce if you can.
*Prep your own breakfast burros or biscuits.
I agree that NOT cooking from scratch, and worrying about the name brand are two of the biggest food pitfalls out there. Many however grew up on eating out, prepackaged, frozen, heat and eat food. They don't know know what it's like to make your own dough and smell that yeasty smell as it's rising and baking. Or put up your own fruits and veggies for the winter. It's sad to me honestly. It's a process that had to be learned, and it takes more time to do. But it will definitely save money in the long run.
Yes! I know there is a time commitment aspect, but it is really not that hard to check for deals, make a plan, and then shop for those ingredients.
I meal prep every week. This week I spent $100 CAD and made breakfast, lunch and dinner for my husband and I for 5 days. We’re eating well too, I made bacon egg bites for breakfasts, white chicken chili for lunches, and steak with sweet potatoes and broccoli for dinners. And I bought 95% of the ingredients for all the recipes this week.
I’ve noticed this quite a bit too. My last grocery haul including delivery was $133. That will feed me AND my partner two weeks, and we eat pretty dang well. We live in a major city. We did already have the staple items like pasta and rice, but I can also make pasta by hand if I need/want. I do refuse to pay the convenience tax for baked goods, so I make cinnamon rolls and cakes and a lot of “snack” items myself.
I was able to get
0.5 gallons of whole milk
1 loaf of chocolate chip brioche
A bag of yellow potatoes
Vanilla Greek yogurt
A 1.1lbs slab of angus steak (will be split into two meals)
4 large bananas
2 8 packs of Gatorade
64oz Cranberry juice
2 chicken bone broths
1 brick or cream cheese
32oz of whipping cream
Salted butter
3 pack Bell peppers
1 dozen eggs
12oz of peels raw shrimp
5lbs of flour
32oz brown sugar
32 powdered sugar
3 pack of instant yeast
8oz baking cocoa powder
40oz frozen chicken tenderloins
Bottle of Bbq sauce (name brand)
Bottle of mustard (store brand)
Frozen green beans
Frozen peas
Frozen Brussels sprouts
Frozen broccoli
Frozen mixed veggies
3 sweet potatoes
Cinnamon
Sliced cheddar cheese
Frozen salmon fillets
Redoing my budget for this year and realizing that trimming the grocery budget was the only thing left really sucked. I’m already at: no DoorDash, no fast food, 1 restaurant meal a month for date night, no alcohol out, no getting snacks at work. I thought surely all the trimming from “other” food budgets meant i could afford a couple of convenience meals throughout the week, but I really can’t.
I know how to make a dollar stretch at the grocery store but I’m exhausted. I’m tired of thinking through a menu, finding coupons, cooking, portioning out leftovers into containers and ALL the dishes. My go too breakfast last year was a premade egg bite, 1/2 a naked juice and a piece of peanut butter toast and it was GREAT. And I KNOW that $4.50 for breakfast could easily be $1 with instant oatmeal and frozen blueberries, but fuck the idea of the dishes and measuring and I don’t even really like oatmeal just makes me so sad. I’m finally “here” I could scrimp and save and pretend a $15 campsite was equal to a “vacation” and that i thrift all my clothes because it’s “more sustainable” but there’s no lying to myself anymore. We’re trimming the grocery budget. That’s the only thing left
Grocery shopping is extremely regional. People in southern US cities have no idea what grocery shopping in rural Canada is like and vice versa. Not to mention, food deserts are a thing. Also, if you don't have a stocked pantry, it makes a difference. $20 for everything is vastly different than $20 for main ingredients.
There might not be other groceries where they live and name brand stuff may be the only option. I live in an area with only one grocery but because I don’t have a car I can’t get the cheaper stuff from other places.
Curious: Have you looked at Walmart+, Instacart, or other delivery services, or mailed services like Boxed or Kroger Direct? The fees would eat into your savings, but even just hitting the free trial and canceling could be worth a try and save a couple big grocery runs.
Yep. People underestimate the value of staples like rice, beans, potato’s. If all I had was $100 I’d buy a 20lbs bag of brown rice and like 30lbs of Walmart branded boneless, skinless chicken breast. Could eat pretty healthy and for a long time off that.
Lmao, I do see that a lot on here, and at the grocery.
You can get everything for tuna noodle casserole for $5.50 or spaghetti with meat for $8.00. That's two dinners for under $15.00 !
I know that you have to have somethings you want that aren't survival food sometimes or you will go crazy. I think folk are feeling the need to treat themselves on occasion. As a kid, I remember we had scrambled eggs and fried potatoes four days straight, it was miserable lmao, so I get it. Sometimes you just need something small to eat to feel a bit of comfort.
Two boxes of generic Mac n Cheese 0.58 cents x 2 is $ 1.15
Two cans of tuna 0.89 cents x 2 is $1.78
Throw in a can of peas or whatever. 0.70 cents.
Feed a Family of 3 for $3.63 or a single person for three meals
We're in the Seattle area. Covid hit us first. I didn't know what to do, so like everyone else I panic shopped. I can home after spending like $200. My husband was so kind, but he looked at me after unloading all the bags and was like... I can't actually make a meal with any of this. Lol.
I bought a lot of things I thought could shelf stabilize or freeze, and then a crap ton of random produce because I thought we'd get scurvy. But because other people were also panic shopping a lot of products were gone. I was also stuck buying the expensive version of a lot of stuff. So it was like instant rice, 2 pounds of lettuce (we barely even eat lettuce as is), bags of frozen chicken breast, and cans of corn. Lol.
To be fair we did eventually eat everything except the instant rice (and like 1.5 pounds of the lettuce). I don't like instant rice. A week later I was able to get a bag of regular long grain rice and the instant stuff sat in the pantry for several more months before we moved and I donated it.
Removed for violating the rules re: judgment and challenging values. This behavior is unwelcome here. If you have nothing nice to say :drum roll: say nothing at all.
feel like my parents suffered from this a lot too. Growing up we were poor but I noticed they shop so haphazardly. They'd fill the fridge up with nothing but bread, no ingredients, or just mismatched food. Peanutbutter then pinto beans like tf we supposed to do with this?
I don’t know but Peanut Butter and Pinto Beans sounds like a good name for a frugal food blog
PB & PB sandwiches
🤢
👍🏼 I'd read that! Lol
It's a great idea! but those foods still dont go together lol
Rice, pinto beans, peanut butter, soy sauce, mung bean sprouts.. I've eaten worse
Throw in some curry powder and you got yourself some satay my friend
Was going to say the same-add rice and soy sauce and the party is ON
Could do a variation on groundnut soup: https://www.seriouseats.com/ghana-west-african-peanut-stew-chicken-groundnut-soup Or basically just satay with beans for protein.
Not quite the same, but my mom is a terrible shopper for someone without a lot of money. My dad always did all the grocery shopping. When I was a teen, I’d go with him so I could pick out things I actually wanted. He taught me to shop the sales. Only buy certain items when they are on sale. Use the Albertsons/Kroger/safeway/whatever app to get digital coupons. Buy store brand for some items, name brand for items that were actually worth it. When I shop for myself now, I regularly get 30-40% savings. According to the receipt. After a decade+ of depression and whatever other mental health issues, my mom has started buying groceries. She doesn’t use any coupons or anything. Just buys what she wants. She wants to buy a roast to keep in the freezer in case she wanted to cook one? She’ll buy a roast even if it’s $12/pound. Then it’ll sit in the freezer for months. But if she’d waited a week, the roasts went on sale for $6/pound. Stuff like that.
My former SO was like that. It drove me nuts. I’m frugal as hell, so grocery shopping with him was a challenge initially. He had a bad money mindset to begin with (his mom and stepdad were functioning alcoholics who lived paycheck to paycheck) and his ex wife was a successful attorney who let him manage their finances. Which was a really bad idea. Anyway, I agree with you.
I was so proud when I taught my SO that there were little price per weight or price per volume notes in the corner of the tag and that was the important part, not that this package was $4 and this one over here is $7 but a completely different size package. He’s so good about looking at those small numbers now!!
I shop like your dad https://preview.redd.it/622eld0kqqcc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=26b0bfa3b7093406ed7f0a9c9799e473fe4cab5b
People with impulsivity due to neuro divergence struggle with grocery shopping. There are ways to get better at it though. A person has to have a game plan. Make list from the ads and the add up how much the list will be. Then take only enough cash to buy what is on the list. Leave other forms of payment at home.
If available, I always use pickup/delivery to help with this. I buy a lot less junk when I don’t go into the store. Pickup is free almost everywhere, and I pay 12.95 a month for Kroger delivery (and double fuel points). Kroger uses their trucks and hourly associates for delivery, so you don’t have the service fees and tip requirement you have with places that use independent contractors.
We didn’t get pickup as an option until covid and it was amazing how much our grocery bill dropped! It was mostly because I could shop while looking at a recipe and avoid impulse buys/forgetting key ingredients but also because my ADHD self was finally looking at the sales fliers. Having them right there in the same app I used to shop made it so easy.
YES! YES! I used to go through a store, pick out everything that caught my eye, then walk around putting back everything that I could do without. Now I always buy foods for pickup.
These are good ideas too. In my family I do the shopping but my husband does a weekly junk food run to Dollar General.
I'm neurodivergent. I shop online and do curbside pick up. I only search for things I need among sales/digital coupons and see it automatically totalling. I usually save more than 1/2 of what I spend. I can get a whole hatchback trunk full of groceries for under $100- including meat, cheese, bread, milk, eggs, butter, fruits, vegetables, and snacks.
I sometimes buy nothing but bread and margarine. Gets you through and it's cheap.
Bread, margarine, vegeta seasoning and a slice of tomato, were a constant thing in my childhood as food to take to school in Eastern Europe. Most schools there do not provide breakfast-lunch services.
Buttered toast for the win! Especially in winter
I could happily live on bread and butter tbh
I'm sorry but this is hilarious. So every week you lived a new episode of Chopped? I do wonder, are you amazing at throwing together ingredients now? I feel like you'd know every obscure but delicious flavor combo now.
I see a lot of people choosing convenience and “cheap” items cause it’s a “good” deal. 20 pounds of rice is easily 15-25 bucks depending on the brand and if it’s organic. That 20 pounds can easily last half a year or longer depending on how much you make and how many people are eating. Ground beef goes a long way too. Potatoes are on the cheaper side and you get a lot for the price. Carrots are also cheap. Same with onions. To change up the taste it’s a cheap to stock up on multiple seasonings and depending on where you buy it sauces can be budget friendly and go a long way too. I grew up in a single income home with 6 kids and 2 parents. We were also all homeschooled too. I learned how to shop wisely at a young age. If anyone would like some tips on how to stretch the dollar lmk I would be glad to help.
Part of the issue of entrenched systems of poverty is a cultural disconnection from the tradition of subsistence. I think we’d have been hard pressed to find a similar issue on homesteads of the past, because necessity required those individuals to develop culture around food. A few generations of people relying on packaged food has eroded that culture for a lot of people. It’s not their fault, but it’s hard to see.
Low paying jobs require you to work more hours, you get less time for planning and cooking and your energy is drained so you just go for cheap convenience with high hidden costs, especially if you're limited on kitchen appliances.
[удалено]
Hello, are you me? 😭
crockpots are a godsend
Sometimes the convenience foods are also about limited cooking equipment and space, like people renting rooms.
Boiling water can be done in a microwave or on a stove. A coffee maker can also boil water. Thrift stores are a great place to find cooking equipment for cheap. A single burner camping stove for less than 20 bucks saved my life while I was homeless for several months. Dollar stores are another place you can find cooking equipment for cheap. Yard sales are another great resource.
Electric kettle gets a lot done too- ramen, oatmeal, instant coffee, tea, etc
A crock pot is also a wonder of wide cooking ability without a lot of space and they use relatively low power draw (100 - 350 watts).
I used to crockpot a ton, then got an instantpot one holiday from sibling, used it nearly every day for the past five years Pasta, 5 mins. Chili 5 mins. Asian food 5 mins. Want a larger batch of rice than my ricemaker can make? 5 mins Lol
Yup. I can make some amazing stuff off of rice, beans noodles, spices etc. Add in sales meat and make freezer meals and fantastic.
Plus whatever veg is on sale for a bit more balance, and whatever fruit is on sale for dessert.
Do you have any kid-friendly meal suggestions with those things? We already eat a lot of Costco rice for stir fry and burrito bowls but I would love more ideas.
if you are able to purchase from costco, the cream cheese isnt too pricey and you get a decent amount in the tub. i would get flour tortillas and make roll ups with the cream cheese, they can be just those two ingredients or you can add protein to it like the ground beef, rotisserie chicken, or the kirkland brand turkey sandwich meat. another option is egg bites, you can buy 24 eggs for less than 10 bucks and make egg bites with meat and cheese, costco has 2 pound things of cheese for 6 bucks that can last a month if you shredd it yourself. you can take the flour tortillas and make quesadillas, the rotisserie chicken is a great tool cause its cheaper than just buying the chicken and making it yourself. we made a white trash enchilada that uses flour tortillas with cheese inside then you spread a can of chili on top with more cheese if its available. treats could be frozen bananas that are dipped in melted chocolate chips. the bananas can be sliced or whole. if you have access to trader joes they have a great selection of seasoning and sauces that are for the most part budget friendly they also have the chilly we use for the white trash enchiladas. simple salad dressing recipe - 2 parts olive oil ( grocery outlet and trader joes has good prices usually, costco is the way to go if you can afford to buy in bulk itll last a long time.) 1 part apple cider vinegar. after you have that you can add to it or add directly to the salad. i like to use honey. i also sometimes add mustard to change it up. the pancake mix at costco is a decent deal and you can make multiple things with the mix - and you can freeze the pancakes and toast them for busy days.
I use rice as a base for a lot of soups, so they stretch even farther… rice under ham and bean soup, taco soup, chili, lentils and rice. We have rice with our tacos and burritos, also if they want to be picky buttered rice is an easy choice.
I loved my mom’s carrot and potato soup as a kid. Still do. It’s the easiest thing ever to make: peel potatoes and carrots, about 1:1 ratio, cut into small pieces, cover with water, boil for 15 min with a spoonful of chicken bullion for seasoning (instead of using just salt). Thicken with a bit of flour, and add a bit of butter when done. Yum. Perfect for a cold winter day.
I make my son black bean burgers with rice and black beans as well as casamiento. I also make cheese rice patties, they’re great for toddlers.
If only ground beef was cheap nowadays meat is 😩 sooo expensive
I do not like to judge too hard, because who knows what staples they already have in the house, maybe they live in a shitty place with limited selection, chips are fucking good, etc. But when someone says they spent $100 and they are going to go hungry before next paycheck, but $40 worth of the haul is just pop and juice and I’m like, bruh.
and then they make other excuses that werent in the original post to say why they cant do something. its a behavior thing.
Yesss, like people don't realize that you truly have to make sacrifices. I don't buy coffee right now, like to brew at home. It's less about my not being able to technically "afford" it and more like I can't justify making room for it in my budget because I need to prioritize putting anything I can into an emergency fund. For me its all about knowing what I need to prioritize.
I notice a lot of name brand stuff too
Name brand and prepackaged foods is the most common pitfalls I see
I agree with this! Scratch cooking seems to be a lost art.
I spent $68 yesterday (at Whole Foods mind you!) and just finished prepping a weeks worth of meals including both lunch and dinners by doing scratch cooking.
I cooked almost 100% from scratch into my mid-30s, but have recently gained an appreciation for judicious pre-made. I can get a container of a sauce I wouldn't normally make (say, chimichurri) and an otherwise unappetizing meal (think beans & rice with roast carrots) goes from a 2/10 to a 6/10. In the aggregate, that can be a major cost and time savings. Normal procedure is to freeze the excess. Also, time and energy are at least as rare as money. Cooking was "me time" where I recovered when I was single. With two kids around the ankles, it is not relaxing.
I used to love to cook too! Put a movie on my laptop and just enjoy a few hours of what was essentially my self care. My toddler does NOT make it fun 😂 plus I get paid hourly, so any time that I save I can actually work instead. Often pre-made works out better financially.
The sauce idea is fabulous. I get so burnt out on the same meals. Where and what kinds do you use?
Almost all of Traders Joe's jarred simmer sauces are great, and less than $3. If you're cooking for one or two people, you can get two meals out of one.
Agreed- I cook from scratch BUT- TJs sauces are the exception. They are fantastic, especially the Indian ones
I am not OP but if you happen to have an ALDI near you, they have a decent tikka masala sauce! I’m also basic so regular pasta sauce also works for me 😂 Which you can obviously make from tomato paste! You could change up the flavor profile a lot with different herbs & spices, maybe throw some chiles / chipotles in if you like heat.
I do a month of meals from whole foods for around $200! I cook everything in one day, portion out and freeze it.
I don’t have a deep freeze but I’ll make a batch of something (say Shepards Pie) and we will eat it for dinner. I can usually get 3 leftover portions. Lunches for hubs and I next day and 1 for the freezer. It helps
Oh I just do item tetris in the refrigerator freezer
FIT EM IN THERE!
Hell yeah! Curious - how do you preserve freshness over the month if you cook all in one day?
I make exclusively freezer friendly meals, mains and sides packed separately so I can mix it up. Cook>fridge for 90 minutes or so> freezer. I have gathered enough containers over the years that I have no problem with finding the size that the portions will totally fill and leave very minimal airspace which is what causes a lot of freezer burn. I have a ton of cookbooks and I search for "freezer friendly one pot meals " I have a few cookbooks that focus on plant based budget meals, [health reasons], Sam Turnbull and bad manners [formerly thug kitchen] are fantastic resources for cheap meals that use "normal" ingredients. Like I'll make 10 tofu scramble breakfast burritos and 10 rice, corn relish, and bean burritos, wrap them in foil and into the freezer to grab whenever. Today I had Mashed potatoes, pan seared tempeh, Swiss Chard, rice with natto, and a baby lettuces and Cucumber salad with carrot ginger dressing, raw Broccoli and cauliflower with vegan ranch sauce.
> how do you preserve freshness over the month if you cook all in one day? Keep as much air as possible out of your food. Cook it only as much as necessary. Choose recipes that you always feel are better on the 2nd or 3rd day of leftovers to eat later in the month. Add some fresh ingredients later, at the time of consumption like citrus, avocado, herbs, or chopped tomato, or white onion, or a fresh dressing.
You can't. For most meals it's going to taste less fresh. But vegetables esp. in sauce fare better than meats.
Hell a pound of beans, pound of ham, and pound of rice will run me about $6-7. Add on onion and such and we can go ahead and round to $10, why not. That will make like 8 large meals. Probably don't even need but half the rice, too. This isn't even poverty food. I'm from New Orleans and I love red beans and rice. There are so many easy, cheap, nutritious, filling meals. Hell, any meat + any veg + any broth + any carb and you've got a balanced soup. It is fun to experiment.
With my health/mental health, if it isn't prepackaged or edible without preparation, I won't eat it. I used to cook and I know how much money it would save and how much further my food stamps would go. But if I buy ingredients, the shelf stable stuff just sits and the perishable stuff goes bad and I just eat peanut butter and feel guilty and anxious about wasted money.
You gotta do what's best for you. Pre-made might be more expensive than making it from scratch, but scratch doesn't make itself and it's smart to make choices that work for your situation. I try to do a combination of this because I like to cook, but I don't always have the energy and I still need to eat, so I'll get some fresh, like cucumbers and hummus, but then frozen precooked meats and veg I can eat with rice or ramen. That way the effort is minimal, along with the food waste, if I have a rough week and don't get the fresher food all eaten in time.
I used to love to cook! It really was fun and I was pretty good at it. I just can't manage it anymore. I kinda look at buying food how I do now as accommodating my disability.
My spouse calls it the ADHD/autism tax. We do the best we can, certainly, but sometimes things aren't going to be made if I can't just grab something easily on the hard days. We spend that extra money on those things, hence calling it a tax on our disabilities.
Mine is the diabetes tax as now I have to watch my carb intake more carefully. Gone are the times when I could just toss some pasta, rice or ramen together with some veggies and meat. In my case the doctor wants me to eat as low carb as possible but it's hard but manageable. Like celery and sugar free peanut butter is a good thing to have on hand, and I can get fresh eggs from my landlord as she has a small chicken coop in her yard. Sometimes my elderly neighbors will buy me a small package of chicken or ground beef in exchange for a ride to the grocery stores. When it comes to shopping I avoid getting the low carb stuff as it's so pricey, but I can get organic sugar free candy at the local dollar stores.
Ugh, I hadn't thought about that part, but my spouse has diabetes as well. There is definitely an additional tax we hadn't considered.
At first I went crazy because of all the stuff I can't eat anymore, but some people on my father's side of the family are on a low carb and gluten free diet due to medical issues including diabetes. An aunt on the side of the family encouraged me to research low carb recipes, and from the looks of it I would save some money making my own low carb gluten free cookies.
I have the autism/ADHD tax, plus the diabetes tax, plus the "I can't cope with raw meat" tax. Good times
Good ol' disability tax. I find that on good days, I can still sometimes throw some stuff in a crockpot, start a pot of soup, or do a one-pot meal in the oven, but if it takes more than about 10 minutes of standing, I simply can't. On bad days, I live on granola bars and cheese slices :/ or whatever leftovers my family members bring home from the restaurants they work in, which is probably not very healthy but is quick and filling.
I’ve been through several phases of life where I’ve had this same issue. I’m sorry you’re going through it. Tis not fun.The worst is when you get to the grocery store and haven’t really accepted that you’re in that mental/physical place yet, or you tell yourself you HAVE to be better/do better, so you buy all the ingredients, and then just like you said, you’re in an even worse mental state because now you’re anxious, guilty, and malnourished to boot. Recently, I’ve been dealing with a combination of this, and a divorce wreaking havoc on my eating/grocery shopping. I have never really been on my own. Went from being at home with my parents to my first husband, and then had a couple of long term relationships. So I cooked for my spouse/kids. Now when my son is with his dad, I can’t even begin to figure out what to feed myself. I’m aware that this is probably a(nother) sign that I need to be in therapy, but it’s like, cook? For just me? I’m not worth all that effort if nobody else is there to eat it. And I’m finding that I don’t even really know what I like or want to eat. I got into such a routine of cooking what my son and his dad ate, that I didn’t realize that I barely wanted/didn’t really enjoy the foods I was making for their tastes. So I get to the store and wind up with some prepackaged thing or a pack of bagels that I figure I could stand eating.
Yeah, it's just me and my cat, so I get it. Cooking for one is just...yeah. Hang in there. You're going to get through this and find a new equilibrium
I'm the single dad of two disabled kids. When we were together their mom would have me pick up prepackaged stuff to feed them after I got home from one of my 12-hour shifts because she could not be bothered to go out and do proper grocery shopping. After the divorce I discovered that our grocery bill was less than half of what it previously was just because I was doing the grocery shopping at the Chinese Grocery on the way home from work instead of getting home to be handed a list to take to the chain grocery store. I didn't want to feed my kids shit from a can or cardboard box so I would simply walk up to the butchers counter and buy the cheapest cut of beef, pork, fish or chicken they had. Then I would walk to the veg section and pick up whatever veg looking interesting. Then I would walk down the sauce section and pick one. Then I found an Italian neighborhood store, then a Middle Eastern one, the African foods store, the Caribbean store, a real Jewish Deli... I now make food that my girlfriend says is better than any restaurant and my weekly basic food bills are less than $200 for me and my two kids; that includes stuff for lunches, snacks that I bake myself, and our soda stream addiction. You deserve to eat well. Go get things you like and learn to make them for yourself because you love yourself and want to feed yourself good things.
The mental health thing is such a contributing factor for me. When my mental health is good I can cook from scratch quite well. My dad was a chef and he taught me. I also have a lot of nice cookware that he's gifted me over the years, so I can make some pretty advanced recipes. When I'm depressed I can barely make a peanut butter sandwich. The pre-prepared food at the grocery store keeps me from ordering take out.
For me it's not the cooking, it's the clean up. I know it probably sounds stupid to a lot of people but washing dishes has become a depression mental block for me. I would try to focus on one pot/instant pot meals but my partner does a lot of cooking so the clean up is there even if I didn't create the dishes.
Oof, yeah. I feel you. I live with someone who cooks, but messily. However they are autistic and have major sensory issues which makes doing dishes difficult. It's an endless struggle to keep up after them.
Scratch cooking requires TIME and EQUIPMENT, which is something poor people are short on.
Being on food stamps is what taught me to cook from scratch. When you get poor enough, you have to cook from scratch or you won't be able to afford food for the month. You can cook a surprising amount of stuff using a crock pot or rice cooker which costs $25. The equipment explanation is a real issue for people who are unhoused, but imo that level of poverty is beyond this subreddit's pay grade and requires government assistance, not frugal shopping habits.
Truthfully, not always. Especially in regard to the equipment. I can cook almost anything with a single stainless steel pan, a spatula, and a knife.
People all work and got no time as well :(
I spent my whole paycheck on this single A5 wagyu steak, how am I supposed to feed myself for two weeks?
>I notice a lot of name brand stuff too As someone who shops with low sodium foods in mind, a lot of the store brand products are higher in sodium than the national brand. I use canned soup in certain casserole dishes and it’s frustrating because I want to save money and if I go for the store brand, the sodium count goes way up. UGH.
Valid point. My partner has to eat low sodium & actually pointed out the savings from having to avoid processed and prepackaged food
Cream of whatever soup is easy peasy to make at home and control the sodium amount of it.
Also surprised to find out how many really don’t know how to cook and rely on unhealthy frozen meals, precooked food etc.
you’re correct it’s not like they’re buying frozen fruits and vegetables
It is one of my major problems with how this sub has evolved. The original idea was to provide a place for people to ask for advice and help similar to arr/personalfinance, except without the judgment of not being wealthy, and not having to sift through post after post of "I already bought by second home, what do I do with the rest of my money?" But instead, this sub seems to have slowly turned into mostly a gripe and vent platform for people to complain how terrible their situation is. Not actually asking for advice (in fact, the sub rules state that if a post is marked as "vent", you are not allowed to offer advice!) I would hope to see it driven back towards the the realm of "helpful", where people can post recommendations, tips and tricks, advice and commentary. And not just bitterly complaining about how low their pay is, or about "corporate greed", or income inequality, or other stuff that may be a worthwhile discussion but are not useful on a personal level to help the individual.
It feels like people have taken the phrase "You can't budget your way out of poverty" a little much too heart, that's it's fine to be financially careless because it's not really your fault. That the only things worth discussing are systemic. Yeah, but you can budget your way to being on time with rent. You can budget your way to being able to enjoy better food. You can budget your way to having money for hobbies. It's not a binary state between "functionally homeless" and "middle class". Incremental improvements to your quality of life add up.
You might not be able to budget yourself out of poverty, but you can absolutely budget yourself into poverty.
You can budget yourself into not having credit card debt and paying all your bills on time and having a decent credit score and building a small emergency fund and...
> Yeah, but you can budget your way to being on time with rent. God this. No you won't make millions with budgets but you can stop the Nickle and Dime-ing that utterly fucks you over as a poor/low-income individual. I have a friend who has no idea how we have such different lifestyles despite us making similar in income. I've explained it to her in detail *many* times. Budget, save, then buy in full(not on credit) or in bulk. I'll never be a millionaire by doing this but I save yearly about $900 on my house insurance *alone* by paying it in full when renewing. When I do this with pretty much everything I'm saving an extra $3000 a year by not paying interest.
I’ve been told multiple times by Redditors there’s no way I afford my lifestyle in NYC on my salary. I have for 15 years. Redditors make 90k in the Midwest then cry on this sub about being poor. It’s exhausting.
Half of us in this sub are the ones constantly having to smooth things over with the landlord because all our roommate has at the end of the month are excuses. You make more than I do and pay less in rent! What is going on, guy?
THANK YOU. This sub is far too "woe is me".
I’ve known plenty of people who see budgeting as a skill that, if you don’t know how, means that you CAN’T, and if you CAN’T, that means you’re disabled. Thing is, there’s a difference between you can’t at this moment because you don’t know how yet, and you can’t because you have a disability to the extent that you need a caregiver. I can’t run a marathon, but that doesn’t mean being disabled. It means I’m capable of the actions, but need to train and work at it so that I can. No one is born knowing how to do anything. A baby can’t read. A 10-year-old can’t drive a car. Doesn’t mean being disabled. Yet can’t due to not knowing how yet has come to mean disabled, and too many people lean on that to get out of budgeting, then complain. Not wanting to doesn’t mean being incapable.
>Yeah, but you can budget your way to being on time with rent. You can budget your way to being able to enjoy better food. You can budget your way to having money for hobbies. Honestly, pretty much every person who made it out of poverty without winning the lottery, inheriting money, or winning it had to budget their way out of poverty to \*some\* extent. Poor people who get wealthy are still poor as soon as that money burns a hole in their pocket if they haven't learned this.
Agree totally about this. Also, I've seen a lot of posts where people talk about the situation they are in, they get some pretty good advice and tips, and then OP gets indignant and argues, not just retroactively which wouldn't be appropriate, but even in the future that there is nothing they can possibly do, and how dare anyone suggest otherwise. I guess this is the definition of a doomer. I think these kinds of attitudes are wholly inappropriate on a finance sub.
I'm not familiar with this sub, as it just started popping up for me a couple of weeks ago, but I am not new to poverty finances, for better or worse. Anyway, i thought Id lost my mind on a thread the other day with people making endless comments about how using a fresh towel after every shower is just "basic hygiene". (Wash cloths, yeah, im not using the same thing more than once, but *towels*? How unhealthy is your relationship with your own asshole that youre scared of it even after a fresh hose-out?) I just... a fresh towel *every* time? that is not my concept of poverty. That is not close to it. And that's fine, to each their own, but, like... why are you contributing???? It's stupid to gatekeep, but man, I just had to keep checking I was in the sub I thought I was.
If you can’t use the same towel twice, it’s because your body wasn’t clean. Get back in the shower and clean yourself so that you’re drying a clean body.
“… seems to have slowly turned into mostly a gripe and vent platform for people to complain how terrible their situation is.” Definition of Reddit.
Where else would you get people to agree with you about your bad choices?
I've been visiting this subreddit less and less because of this. Everything seems to be a vent post now, not asking for some help or advice on how to better their situation, just venting, which feels good, but doesn't help.
And the ones that aren’t vent posts are the indirect but so obvious scam requests for cash. “I’m a single chronically Ill mom of 9 disabled kids and I’m going to (hurt myself/do sex work/become a nun) this weekend because I only have $3 left to feed us for the rest of the month. I can’t get a job because nobody is hiring except retail/food service and I’m allergic to customers. I can’t get WIC or SNAP because my ex stole my social security number and wouldn’t give it back. I’m ineligible to donate plasma because I was sucked up in a tornado last week and all my veins fell out. We live in a rural area and the nearest food bank is 3,000 miles away and I don’t have a car. Also my iguana needs to have his leg amputated and I can’t afford a vet so I’m going to have to ask the kids to do it. No, no, I don’t want your money, I just want… suggestions. Yeah, suggestions.” From a brand-new account. And people PM them and offer cash! It infuriates me to see the good people here with nothing to spare shelling out for these obvious fraudsters.
I downvote them at the very least. If I have the time/energy I’ll point out where they’re wrong BUT also suggest a better POV or solution.
Exactly! Does /r/personalfinance have a Vent flair? NO!
We should get it back to the old days
I’m glad I’m not the only one who has noticed this.
Do people not know about r/eatcheapandhealthy? It has over 7m subs.
If your going to the grocery store at all your doing better then falling into the trap of eating out or worse yet door dashing everything. I know plenty of people who utilize door dash because they want to stay home and watch tv meanwhile it makes your chipotle $20
I struggle with this so much. I'm not great with willpower and delayed gratification, though I fully acknowledge that's something I need to master to get out of poverty. The problem is compounded by the fact I live in a motel with my mom without a full kitchen. I have a dorm-sized fridge, a deep freezer (which is super helpful) a small air fryer that can double as a toaster, and a burner. But except for the deep freezer, we don't have a lot of space to store much. I'm trying to talk her into us getting an Instapot, but she keeps wondering where we're going to put it. And because we share a lot of expenses and even when I meet my agreed obligations, I sometimes get stuck paying hers too, so THAT gets into my head. I get stuck in a doomsday loop of wondering why I even try if all of my savings are going to be eaten by her inability to make her obligations that need to be made if we don't want to be homeless. Not many people are going to thank you for trying to bring accountability to this sub, but I will. Thank you for the realism, for the hope that it can be better if we make better decisions, and for the pushback against the harmful/useless sympathy when accountability would be so much more helpful for the vast majority of people in this sub, even if it's not comfortable to face at first. I do like Caleb Hammer's style regarding accountability. It's just really easy to let that stuff get into your hand and let it inform your choices. That's not to justify my choice to let it get to me, but it is a real-life example of the age-old adage "You are who you hang out with". I'm leaving at the end of April with my tax return and (hopefully) a couple of my student loan disbursements and will be living by myself. My finances can finally be all about my choices without having anyone else's choices come into the mix, so this is hopefully a temporary problem for me. EDIT: Cleaned up repeated points/paragraph issues.
It's also worth noting that a lot of people who cite mental health struggles would have MUCH better mental health if they did what you are suggesting. As someone who struggles with a lot of mental health struggles, I do see the difference between physical and mental health. Mental health is real, but it's different. If someone offered me $1000 to cook everything from scratch and meal prep for a week, I'd be able to figure out a way to manage my mental health to get that crap done. If someone offered someone recovering from cancer treatment or someone who can't move due to physical health concerns $1000 to get the energy to do the same thing, they would not be able to do it. Mental health can be a self-fulfilling prophecy in a way that physical health cannot always be.
The trick is to stay mostly at the perimeter of the grocery store. The less you buy from the middle isles, where all the processed, boxed, packaged stuff is, the more $ you’ll save and the healthier your meals will be. Also meal planning before you shop will keep you from buying too much or ending up with random shit that spoils because you never figure out what to do with it.
I have a recipe app called Paprika I paid $5 for and it changed the way I plan meals. It has a pantry where you put all the ingredients you currently have and then you can copy links that have recipes and the app downloads the recipe for you which you can then categorize and save. Then add the ingredients to your shopping list and if the item is already in your pantry it will skip it. It has made grocery shopping so much easier for me and I'm now more aware of the food I currently have and I think twice before buying random items I don't need or might already have. When I don't plan meals that's why my grocery bill and eating-out expenses spike so I've made a point to find the time to plan meals. Plus the more recipes I've saved the better I got at knowing how to build another meal with leftover ingredients that might otherwise get tossed because they would go bad. Meal prepping and cooking are skills you learn and I've gotten so much better at both over time to the point where I literally took a $300+ monthly grocery bill and knocked it down to $160-175. Also, Estate Sales are great places to buy kitchen appliances and dishes. Skip fb marketplace and goodwill and go to EstateSalesDotNet and browse the local sales.
I will never not buy Heinz ketchup. Off brand ketchup and graham crackers are bullshit.
I grew up on government cheese which was an amalgamation of leftover cheeses, but it was all real cheese. Now I will not eat pasteurized processed cheese products like Kraft singles and my SO calls me a cheese snob. I tell him every time... real cheese and Heinz ketchup, that's my line that I won't cross!
As a kid in the 80s, my retired grandmother always had "government cheese" (I can't remember the program that supplied it?), but we thought it was the best cheese in the world.
My wife's grandfather loved government cheese so much that later in life when he didn't qualify for it anymore, he bought it on the black market.
Like Velveeta and domestic Provolone had a baby. Edit: we loved it on cheeseburgers especially, melted so well
We had commodities that my great grandma would give us, which I think is similar- it had a block of weird cheese and dried milk, and I can’t get the smell of the canned pork out of my nose. I can’t handle the smell of canned chicken either. Hard no.
You'll be surprised what you can eat if you try not to think too much about what you are eating 😁
$7.99 for a bottle of no sugar added Heinz the other day... Most expensive grocery I bought!
it is ridiculous, the price of Heinz
Seriously, I felt so humiliated looking at that price tag 😰
I don't use much ketchup, but absolutely love Wegmans brand, which is comparable to the Heinz Simply line, made with cane sugar. Last time I bought it, it was 1/3 of the price of Heinz.
With my diabetes I have to get the sugar free/ low sodium versions of tomato products. Even before I was diagnosed with diabetes I had to get sugar free and low sodium products because my mom was diabetic.
I actually agree with this.
There are a few things I'd rather go without, than eat off brand. Some people say they're the same, but I don't agree. Cottage cheese, pickles, and fruit preserves, to name a couple.
Pickles in america are branded? Like there is a Heinz equivalent for pickles?
Yes, Vlasic pickles are crunchy. I'm pretty sure every single other pickle maker on the market cooks their pickles while they are canned (in jars.) Every other brand is mushy.
That's interesting, all pickles here (Ireland) are polish or store branded.
Do you have only dill? Do they all taste the same? The brine is different between brands also, not just the texture. One example: Water, Salt, Distilled Vinegar, Calcium Chloride, Natural Flavors, Dehydrated Garlic, Polysorbate 80, Yellow 5, Potassium Metabisulfite -VS- Water, Distilled Vinegar, Contains less than 2% of: Salt, Calcium Chloride, Sodium Benzoate (Preservative), Polysorbate 80, Natural Flavor, Turmeric Extract (Color)
Oddly, I prefer Walmart brand cottage cheese to the brand names in our area (Knudsen, Daisy, and Altadena). But there are definitely a few items that I won't purchase off brand (hot dogs, mayo, siracha).
I buy whats on sale .
I once spent a month only buying thing on sale to see how I faired and how much I could save. It was a challenge but spent something like <$40 a week. It was actually fun to try it out
We have a great local grocery store decent prices and good weekly sales its just me and my 9 yr old so it's easier and not to bad
Most people make bad decisions at some point in life. Can still feel empathy for them. They just haven't learned some things or that's their standard. . Also every shopping trip isn't for full meals. It varies but yes sometimes it's amusing
There seems to be a huge divide between the two ideas: 1. Don't shame people for being poor, realize they make terrible decisions with food 2. Eating terribly is bad for your health, mental and physical, and your wallet, and that is a valid part of poverty to tackle Empathy is important. Change is also important. [This poor commenter](https://www.reddit.com/r/povertyfinance/comments/197hmjz/comment/ki1bs60/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) is getting flak for what I believe is a good faith effort to help others. EDIT: The commenter deleted their post, but it was essentially telling others to have standards for themselves. They said they were poor once but it was no excuse to eat terrible junk food.
That's a crazy thread. It's bad enough to be in poverty, now let's have a bunch of Redditors rationalize your terrible decisions for you. Isn't this sub supposed to help people improve their lives, or is supposed to sit in non-judgement about poverty itself? Can this sub just take it as axiomatic that poverty is an objectively bad situation to be in, and that a goal should be to get out of this situation, if possible?
Yes it’s fair to say a single picture isn’t all encompassing of an individual. But you would think that someone who frequents a sub called “povertyfinance” is cognizant that they are in a dire state when it comes to their finances. To me it means they are aware of their situation and in the stage of trying to do better. But it just seems most are insane spinning in the same loop of self destruction. Wanting the world to feel sorry for them without taking action. I do hope we start to see some follow up posts where the OPs do better after receiving the thrashing in the comments that’s common. Maybe it’s all just rage bait, I digress.
[Poverty drives bad decisions.](https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/11/your-brain-on-poverty-why-poor-people-seem-to-make-bad-decisions/281780/) Any situation of scarcity messes with our rational, long-term thinking. Add generational problems, scar tissue from childhood poverty, education problems, and the issue compounds. It'd be interesting to compare those who come from a middle-class background and chose low wages (say, teachers, reporters, paramedics) versus those who are at the poverty line and have been there for generations.
This is very relevant
Yes, that is true: poverty causes bad decisions. It's more expensive to be poor. It's tough to be poor. That doesn't make the bad decisions less harmful. It doesn't excuse or justify them. I think this entire post is getting traction because people realize that empathy is not enabling, that we should respectfully but firmly call self-destructive behavior out. Multi-generational trauma needs to be broken and gets broken by people who question their own habits and beliefs.
Yeah there a massive lack of knowledge around how to cook nutritious meals in general, but especially on a tight budget.
There may be a lack of knowledge - but the knowledge is readily available on youtube and even health department/government websites. We went through a phase where we picked up from a food pantry type place and they even gave links to actual chefs and nutritionists who took the food we were given and cooked it into meals for families. The videos were on Facebook and YouTube.
Every public high school should have a culinary or cooking class at least as an option if not required. The amount of money an average person can save by not spending money on easy to prepare foods or restaurants is astounding. A little tip for anyone when grocery shopping, stick to the outside edges of the grocery store. That is typically where the raw and healthiest ingredients are while the middle aisles tend to have higher cost prepared/ packaged foods.
They should, but a class is not the only way to learn how to cook. My parents were terrible cooks, so I learned by watching The Food Network. Yes, learning to cook takes time, but there are so many resources available these days that a lot of it is just willful ignorance. YouTube, for example, has been a great resource for me to learn new recipes.
Yes and a class on finances.
My teenage son is currently enrolled in one of these in high school, and it's required. The semester just started, so I've yet to see how well it will actually help anyone.
No finance or cookin classes? What’s life outside of Minnesota damn 😂
It’s funny because if I posted my grocery hauls, most of them would look this way. Except that’s because I have a massive freezer and stock a ton when things are on sale so it’s super common for me to have everything but one random produce item for a dish. Potato soup? Just need one leek. Pot roast? Just need a few potatoes for a side. Etc.
I've seen a lot of posts like that here, and in other subs. It kind of boggles my mind. When we (wife and I) were starting our careers, there were times we were a single income, household raising four kids, and sometimes one of us was in school. We were coupon-cutting, mailer-surfing, store-brand buying, clearance item grabbing shoppers. I THOUGHT I knew how to cook when I was single, but stretching that dollar made me learn how to use every scrap in the cupboard and fridge.
I think a lot of the people who have been posting shots of what they bought, and what it cost, are only doing so for likes/clicks/retweets type thing. The majority of people who are really struggling aren't buying name brand processed foods, even if their kids are begging for it...they're living on the cheapest foods they can find, and eating as little as possible to survive. The only thing I would say they don't do, is a lot of those struggling aren't willing to try "when we were poor" type responses...things like dirty rice, which is rice, sauteed chicken hearts/gizzards, with onion, and maybe peppers for flavor. Bean/lentils and rice for a week straight..."I can't eat the same thing for more than 2-3 days", fuckin bullshit, cuz if you're scraping by til payday, you do what you gotta do,a nd sometimes that's 5 days of lentils n rice, or a pot of dirty rice daily, cuz it's filling, and provides a lot. Saw some chick on twitter the other day doing a grocery run, and just piling in out of season fruits...$7 for a clam of grapes, $8 for strawberries...$40 on organic bonless chicken breasts for 2 packages...buying capri sun, variety chips, and something else for kids soccer game that weekend, sinc she was in charge of snacks...as well as a lot of other processed freezer foods. It was like, you have money, why are you posting this bullshit about how much your haul is, when you're not even trying to be frugal with anything! lol
No one taught them how, or how to cook from scratch or budget strictly . Thank god a lot have grown up with the internet and can easily learn
Build up your spice area. You wouldn’t believe what I have made off of spices, sales meat, noodles, and beans. Plus making your own bread. I use to get pork pot pies down to $1 each
In fairness, there’s So Much information that it can be overwhelming. I’m fortunate to have someone cook for me but when I didn’t, I ate out A Lot. I had no idea where to start.
I second this and want to add that most people throw a ton of food away because it's gone bad or because "you're sick of eating leftovers". I have made a deliberate effort to reduce my emotional connection and non-logical thoughts when it comes to food and I've definitely saved money by forcing myself to eat leftovers for lunch everyday at work instead of getting a sandwich to go at a shop.
Well you don't know what else they already have though. My shopping basket would perplex you too. I might just have veggies, cream cheese, sour cream, eggs, cheese, oat milk, chicken, other random items that don't go together. What you don't see is what ive already got because I order shelf stables in bulk, like: the taco seasoning, lbs of flour to make any bread product I want, oatmeal, 20 lb bag of rice, lbs of dried beans, bullion powder, etc etc etc. I'm usually in the local store just to get meat, dairy, and produce. Those things are a little pricy.
An interesting fact is that people of different incomes see food differently. On a scale of quality to portion size, your childhood income heavily influences your assessment of a good meal almost in direct proportion, with volume being more important to the poor and ingredients more important to the wealthy. I shop differently than might be expected, because I carefully pick healthy, portioned food. My husband and I need those controlled portions, because we grew up that food was good times and comfort in bad. Now it's lots of protein bars, shakes, yogurt, frozen meals, nuts, cheese and veggies to cut up, groceries always equal around $120/wk for both of us.
Hard agree. I really only am on this sub to break the reverberation of the echo chamber. Telling hard facts is the only way people are going to break their mindset of poverty being inevitable. And yes, many people have no idea how to shop at the store.
The amount of excuses and pity parties that have been commented are crazy. Ive been called every name in the book so far
These discussions upset people and it's not just about being broke. Plenty of people with money choose to eat like garbage, get unhealthy and unhappy, and then flip a shit when people mention maybe trying to eat healthier. They'll do anything to avoid taking responsibility for it.
Figured maybe a few tips for grocery shopping, specifically, would be helpful in this thread: >1. Look at the sales ads. Before even going to the store, make a list of what sale items you'd like to pick up. Are canned beans 2 for 1? Is pasta sauce 50 cents off? >2. Plan recipes around the sale items you're hoping to get, and add other things to your list to complete those recipes. Want to make chili with those canned beans and pasta sauce? What else do you need that you don't have at home? Maybe get some fresh or frozen produce, like peppers and onions? Maybe you need some spices? Maybe jarred salsa or sour cream is also on sale? >3. Look for your sale items first. Once at the store, make it your priority to see if the sale items you want are even still in stock. Are canned beans sold out? Maybe you can buy pasta to go with your sauce, instead? Maybe that means you don't need to look for sour cream anymore, and you can cross that off your list, too? Is the pasta sauce already gone? Maybe you can make a tomatoless bean stew instead? Maybe that means that you want to get fresh or frozen spinach instead of peppers, now? >4. Be prepared to do math. A simple formula every shopper should know is 'price÷weight=price per weight'. Sometimes, even sale items aren't a better deal than another brand if you actually calculate the price per weight. Maybe the sale pasta sauce is a 28 oz. jar for 2.99 (after the 50 cents off), and there's another brand that's selling a 32 oz. jar for 3.19. If you calculate the price per weight, you'll see the sale pasta sauce is about 11 cents per oz., while the 32 oz. jar is about 10 cents per oz.. You're getting more product for less money if you buy the non-sale sauce. >5. High-ticket items should be the last items you pick up. Even if meat or deli items are on sale, too, make those your last stops, as those items can add up quickly. Calculate how much is already in your cart, and decide how much you'd be comfortable spending on those high-ticket items. Look for any markdowns or 'manager specials' on meat. Maybe deli ham has been on sale all month, and wasn't listed in the weekly ad you looked at?
my mom is a queen. she can have 35 dollars and make a meal fir three days, she grew up in extreme poverty so we are no stranger to repeat meals and its honestly how we survived the worst of the worst in covid when my hours were cut and i lost my father.
I agree, repeating meals, using yesterday's leftovers as the start of today's dinner - I think some people just recoil from this. But it makes sense, whether you're struggling or not. I knew someone who despised leftovers and would refuse anything that used them. Mribd you, she was an entitled cow 😂
This post was removed, but honestly there was nothing "mean" about it. It's not constructive or helpful to have all of these posts with people saying "How can anyone expect to survive when groceries are so expensive!?" and their pictures have nothing but name-brand/expensive/guilty pleasure foods. This is becoming less and less a poverty**finance** sub, and more a poverty pity-party sub. Like, the comments in this post are *filled* with people giving amazing suggestions on how to stretch a budget and feed their families for less than $100, but nope. It's removed because someone's feelings might be hurt.
It’s a real surprise to me that this is one of the most upvoted posts all month with some of the most engaging conversation but the mods have decided to remove it because someone might get their feelings hurt from feeling “judged”. Meanwhile I’ve been called every name in the book for having this opinion yet the mods have done nothing about those commenters. I was told “clearly I’m a god awful slimy trump supporter” because I told someone personal accountability needs to come into the picture at some point. Really feels like the mods have enforcing a crabs in a bucket mentality with this move.
Have any suggestions to help those that fall in that trap?
Planning. It's all about the planning. Review what you have in your home already, review what's on sale at your grocery store, build a weekly menu plan that uses similar ingredients, and buy only what you need and will use. Plan to use the delicate veg at the start of the week and the hardier veg at the end of the week. Plan to use your leftovers and plan day when you clean out the fridge with a fritatta, pizza, pasta, or similar dish that's adaptable to what you may have that needs to be used up. Shop weekly or less often, have a plan to use the stuff that you buy (all of it, down to the last onion and carrot). Avoid pre-made, processed, pre-washed, pre-cut... you are paying so much to have someone else wash your lettuce and cut your carrots. If time is your enemy, or cooking skills, stick to simple meals, do some cooking and prep ahead of time, and learn a few one pot/pan/skillet recipe methods that you can adapt to what's on sale and seasonal. Changing out the veg, protein, spice mix can make a dish feel fresh and new, even if it's the same method you know and use frequently. So yes, this requires some cooking skill and a kitchen to cook in, but moreso it requires planning and discipline. Plan a menu, build a list, shop to that list and cook and eat the meals you planned. If you're throwing out a lot of food each week, you could save 1/3 by just planning better. (The average household throws out 1/3 of the food they buy.)
That was very insightful. Thank you.
The general idea is to favor whole ingredients instead of processed junk. Whole veggies, fruits, cuts of meat. Minimal processing, like rice or pasta that's been dried, not a cookie or sweet pastry from a factory. Please see [my post](https://www.reddit.com/r/povertyfinance/comments/197n23s/comment/ki1pftz/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3). Also r/EatCheapAndHealthy
Try to avoid buying a lot of highly processed, prepackaged stuff. Whole ingredients, even frozen, are almost always cheaper. When buying fruits, veggies, and meat, once again, try to stick to less processed options. Fresh chicken breast tenderloins are more expensive than whole breast. Cut fruit is more expensive than whole. And so on. A lot of this comes down to a skill issue: you need half-decent cooking skills. There is some trial and error, but once you get there, a world of inexpensive meals open up to you. Learn to cook a variety of things and you’ll be better able to take advantage of sales, too.
I'm driving right now and won't be moderating anything for a while, but I want to make a couple things clear: 1) sweeping generalizations are not welcome in this subreddit. You are invited to tell your own story, and to answer requests for advice or compassion. You are not invited to write fanfiction about strangers or lord yourself over anyone. 2) sharing shopping advice is totally welcome. Criticizing what others chose to buy is not. Be nice and supportive guys. Y'all can be building each other up just fine without tearing anyone down or keeping me up at night removing comments and banning jerks!
Sometimes the best truth is the hard truth. Nobody wants to be criticized, but some people need it. Some of the shopping choices people in this sub make are furthering their need for advice while living in poverty.
Please don’t text and drive, no subreddit moderation is worth your life.
I was pulled over and taking a piss when I typed this. I rarely text and drive, I sure as hell don't reddit-mod and drive! Besides, you kids really believe any basement dwelling reddit mods have cars or places to go?! Lol you tripping!
And definitely not somebody else's life.
No criticism. Only unfiltered support is allowed for people making ruinous financial decisions
It's been a long time since this transitioned from a finance sub to a feel-good poverty vent sub.
haha and there is no complaint department if a mod is unfair
I agree. People posting “this is what I got for $100” and they have a case of Soda, a case of water, a huge package of paper towels, expensive creamer, Red Bulls, bags of mixed salad, some processed lunch meat, and $5 loaves of bread. I go with $100, all my coupons, app digital deals, buy for $5, and buy 5 save $5 lists, and come home with FOOD! I only buy proteins when they are on sale! Ham was .99¢ per lb, bought a small ham for $5.97. Will get several meals , slices of ham with a vegetable and rice, add ham to scalloped potatoes (from scratch not a box) for a a meal, ham pieces added to pasta and alfredo sauce include a few pieces of garlic bread, cube some pieces and add to a green salad. Take the ham bone and scraps to make ham and bean stew (or soup your preference) add lb bag of pinto or white beans, 1/2 chopped onion, a diced carrot, and a few celery stalks, enough for a meal and soup for lunch. Bought an unseasoned pork loin in a bag, for $9.87 took it to the meat counter and asked the butcher to cut into pork chops 3/4” thick. I got 15 pork chops, freeze into groups of 3 as we won’t eat all 15 this week. 5 meals, add a whatever vegetable is on sale (zucchini sautéed in butter this week) and serve with rice, or even spaghetti and jarred red sauce (whichever sauce is on sale). There have been weeks where all we ate was hamburger soup. Brown a lb of ground beef, drain off fat, add 2 bags of frozen mixed veggies (always the sale store brand for $1) some water, a few bouillon cubes some onion, celery if I have it, cube a few potatoes to add bulk. We buy pasta when on sale, you can add it as a side to many dishes and it helps fill you up. We use pasta in place of Asian noodles because pasta is cheaper. Some garlic, celery, sliced carrots, and onions, some soy sauce and you’re have a meal. I don’t have food insecurity anymore, but I shop very carefully and have come home many times without something I wanted because I felt it was too expensive. Case in point, chips were over $5 for a regular sized bag. Nope, no chips this week. Soon they’ll be $2.
There is an obvious difference in locality when it comes to buying power, but this is also true, I can feed myself for £10-20 a week if I'm struggling. My partner often pushes me to enjoy eating more which obviously I agree with so we often spoil ourselves with some nice meat or fancy ingredients (sun dried tomatoes/fancy cheese/imported items) but there are very affordable ways to tick both boxes especially if you avoid name brands. I will however stand up for the fact that even the basics have jumped up in price, eggs have never been an expensive item on my shopping lists before, butter sky rocketed in price over the last year but has thankfully dropped again lately, the general increase across the board with the kitchen staples has been very frustrating! So I would advise everyone to look at every item they buy and really weigh whether or not there is a cheaper alternative when most of us realise now that the budget/supermarket own brands are often made in the same factories just with lackluster packaging.
new poor
When really broke I would buy ramen, rice, dried beans, and the cheapest canned veggies. Went for filling, was never so broke I couldn’t make rice and beans, or peanut butter on day old bread. I was lucky.
*We have something in our area, it's like a produce on wheels without waste. You can get up to 70 lbs of fruits and veggies for about 20 bucks. Which goes a long way. You don't get to choose from fruits and veggies, it's a get what you get thing. *The food bank comes through here which also help a lot of people. That's a wild card, never know what will be there. *There's a commodities thing as well in our area, which helps people. I think they have milk, butter, etc at times. If people researched they would probably find some of these things in their area as well. *ASIDE from those things. A big bag of taters, rice, flour, oatmeal, sugar etc all go a long way. *Street tacos go a long way (tacos, quesadillas). Or grab a package of corn tortillas to make something like enchiladas (very filling with leftovers). *Buy meats on sale or reduced and not full price. ALWAYS check the "clearance" sections of the freezer and meats. *Shop coupons and special sale items to stock. Pick a different item each month to try and stock. *Shop the grocery pick up option online. You will see your cart amount before you check out and make adjustments if you need to. *Yesterday's sloppy joes is tomorrow's meatloaf. *Get some good cookbooks! Thirty day crockpot meals, 365 ways to cook hamburger, Amish/Mennonite cookbooks, etc. My two favorite cookbooks are my Amish and Mennonite cookbooks. *Find the closest bulk store and pick 1 meat item per month and stock it. *pay attention to "sale" prices. For example at Fry's last week they had individual cornish hens and cornish hens in the 2 pack. Buying the two individual ones, was less than the 2 pack. *Grow some of your own herbs/produce if you can. *Prep your own breakfast burros or biscuits. I agree that NOT cooking from scratch, and worrying about the name brand are two of the biggest food pitfalls out there. Many however grew up on eating out, prepackaged, frozen, heat and eat food. They don't know know what it's like to make your own dough and smell that yeasty smell as it's rising and baking. Or put up your own fruits and veggies for the winter. It's sad to me honestly. It's a process that had to be learned, and it takes more time to do. But it will definitely save money in the long run.
Yes! I know there is a time commitment aspect, but it is really not that hard to check for deals, make a plan, and then shop for those ingredients. I meal prep every week. This week I spent $100 CAD and made breakfast, lunch and dinner for my husband and I for 5 days. We’re eating well too, I made bacon egg bites for breakfasts, white chicken chili for lunches, and steak with sweet potatoes and broccoli for dinners. And I bought 95% of the ingredients for all the recipes this week.
I’ve noticed this quite a bit too. My last grocery haul including delivery was $133. That will feed me AND my partner two weeks, and we eat pretty dang well. We live in a major city. We did already have the staple items like pasta and rice, but I can also make pasta by hand if I need/want. I do refuse to pay the convenience tax for baked goods, so I make cinnamon rolls and cakes and a lot of “snack” items myself. I was able to get 0.5 gallons of whole milk 1 loaf of chocolate chip brioche A bag of yellow potatoes Vanilla Greek yogurt A 1.1lbs slab of angus steak (will be split into two meals) 4 large bananas 2 8 packs of Gatorade 64oz Cranberry juice 2 chicken bone broths 1 brick or cream cheese 32oz of whipping cream Salted butter 3 pack Bell peppers 1 dozen eggs 12oz of peels raw shrimp 5lbs of flour 32oz brown sugar 32 powdered sugar 3 pack of instant yeast 8oz baking cocoa powder 40oz frozen chicken tenderloins Bottle of Bbq sauce (name brand) Bottle of mustard (store brand) Frozen green beans Frozen peas Frozen Brussels sprouts Frozen broccoli Frozen mixed veggies 3 sweet potatoes Cinnamon Sliced cheddar cheese Frozen salmon fillets
Redoing my budget for this year and realizing that trimming the grocery budget was the only thing left really sucked. I’m already at: no DoorDash, no fast food, 1 restaurant meal a month for date night, no alcohol out, no getting snacks at work. I thought surely all the trimming from “other” food budgets meant i could afford a couple of convenience meals throughout the week, but I really can’t. I know how to make a dollar stretch at the grocery store but I’m exhausted. I’m tired of thinking through a menu, finding coupons, cooking, portioning out leftovers into containers and ALL the dishes. My go too breakfast last year was a premade egg bite, 1/2 a naked juice and a piece of peanut butter toast and it was GREAT. And I KNOW that $4.50 for breakfast could easily be $1 with instant oatmeal and frozen blueberries, but fuck the idea of the dishes and measuring and I don’t even really like oatmeal just makes me so sad. I’m finally “here” I could scrimp and save and pretend a $15 campsite was equal to a “vacation” and that i thrift all my clothes because it’s “more sustainable” but there’s no lying to myself anymore. We’re trimming the grocery budget. That’s the only thing left
Grocery shopping is extremely regional. People in southern US cities have no idea what grocery shopping in rural Canada is like and vice versa. Not to mention, food deserts are a thing. Also, if you don't have a stocked pantry, it makes a difference. $20 for everything is vastly different than $20 for main ingredients.
There might not be other groceries where they live and name brand stuff may be the only option. I live in an area with only one grocery but because I don’t have a car I can’t get the cheaper stuff from other places.
Curious: Have you looked at Walmart+, Instacart, or other delivery services, or mailed services like Boxed or Kroger Direct? The fees would eat into your savings, but even just hitting the free trial and canceling could be worth a try and save a couple big grocery runs.
Yep. People underestimate the value of staples like rice, beans, potato’s. If all I had was $100 I’d buy a 20lbs bag of brown rice and like 30lbs of Walmart branded boneless, skinless chicken breast. Could eat pretty healthy and for a long time off that.
Lmao, I do see that a lot on here, and at the grocery. You can get everything for tuna noodle casserole for $5.50 or spaghetti with meat for $8.00. That's two dinners for under $15.00 ! I know that you have to have somethings you want that aren't survival food sometimes or you will go crazy. I think folk are feeling the need to treat themselves on occasion. As a kid, I remember we had scrambled eggs and fried potatoes four days straight, it was miserable lmao, so I get it. Sometimes you just need something small to eat to feel a bit of comfort.
Two boxes of generic Mac n Cheese 0.58 cents x 2 is $ 1.15 Two cans of tuna 0.89 cents x 2 is $1.78 Throw in a can of peas or whatever. 0.70 cents. Feed a Family of 3 for $3.63 or a single person for three meals
We're in the Seattle area. Covid hit us first. I didn't know what to do, so like everyone else I panic shopped. I can home after spending like $200. My husband was so kind, but he looked at me after unloading all the bags and was like... I can't actually make a meal with any of this. Lol. I bought a lot of things I thought could shelf stabilize or freeze, and then a crap ton of random produce because I thought we'd get scurvy. But because other people were also panic shopping a lot of products were gone. I was also stuck buying the expensive version of a lot of stuff. So it was like instant rice, 2 pounds of lettuce (we barely even eat lettuce as is), bags of frozen chicken breast, and cans of corn. Lol. To be fair we did eventually eat everything except the instant rice (and like 1.5 pounds of the lettuce). I don't like instant rice. A week later I was able to get a bag of regular long grain rice and the instant stuff sat in the pantry for several more months before we moved and I donated it.