I don’t know why people find this hard to believe. Yeah prices are way up but if you take some simple steps you can keep your food costs relatively low.
My partner and I spend about $50 per week but we live in California. We grow a lot of veggies, buy everything in bulk and eat simply - a lot of rice and beans, tofu and whole grains.
One of the key things is to eliminate or minimize processed foods. I.e. extract the value of your labor not add to some company’s profit margin. As a slightly extreme example, crackers are very expensive per calorie. We make our own for a tiny fraction of the cost. Or… as soon as you buy meat your costs are way higher. We do but e.g. we’ll buy a whole chicken instead of the cut pieces, and then make stock from the carcass (sorry vegans). Or instead of buying orange juice, buy oranges at a discount from road side stands and make your own. You can freeze it. And don’t buy things out of season.
Not to be critical, but when I see what people have in their carts I can fully understand why they find food expensive. And then they gotta constantly work more to cover the higher costs. No thanks…
People have nearly lost the ability to prepare a full meal it seems in this thread. I can fill an entire US sized grocery cart to the top and be under $300 and that’ll last a couple nearly a month.
You literally just need to buy unprocessed food. Yes it has gone up a bit, but not nearly to the extent processed shit has.
Yes it has gone up a bit, but not nearly to the extent processed shit has.
This is a great point. Big corporations always look to generate “value” out of nothing, and processed foods are a great example. And when they can take advantage of “inflation” (LOL) to pad their margins, they will go nuts. When margins are lower and the percentage of “value add” is lower, there is much less price to inflate. So to speak.
You could take an ingredient like potatoes, cook them and add flavoring and voila, huge markup. The potatoes only went up 1% 2022-2023 but the average price of a 16oz bag of potato chips went up 27% over roughly the same period.
I don’t know why people find this hard to believe. Yeah prices are way up but if you take some simple steps you can keep your food costs relatively low. My partner and I spend about $50 per week but we live in California. We grow a lot of veggies, buy everything in bulk and eat simply - a lot of rice and beans, tofu and whole grains.
One of the key things is to eliminate or minimize processed foods. I.e. extract the value of your labor not add to some company’s profit margin. As a slightly extreme example, crackers are very expensive per calorie. We make our own for a tiny fraction of the cost. Or… as soon as you buy meat your costs are way higher. We do but e.g. we’ll buy a whole chicken instead of the cut pieces, and then make stock from the carcass (sorry vegans). Or instead of buying orange juice, buy oranges at a discount from road side stands and make your own. You can freeze it. And don’t buy things out of season.
Not to be critical, but when I see what people have in their carts I can fully understand why they find food expensive. And then they gotta constantly work more to cover the higher costs. No thanks…
People have nearly lost the ability to prepare a full meal it seems in this thread. I can fill an entire US sized grocery cart to the top and be under $300 and that’ll last a couple nearly a month.
You literally just need to buy unprocessed food. Yes it has gone up a bit, but not nearly to the extent processed shit has.
This is a great point. Big corporations always look to generate “value” out of nothing, and processed foods are a great example. And when they can take advantage of “inflation” (LOL) to pad their margins, they will go nuts. When margins are lower and the percentage of “value add” is lower, there is much less price to inflate. So to speak.
You could take an ingredient like potatoes, cook them and add flavoring and voila, huge markup. The potatoes only went up 1% 2022-2023 but the average price of a 16oz bag of potato chips went up 27% over roughly the same period.
Cooks Illustrated Best Skillet Recipes literally changed my life.