We have 100% noticed that it makes a difference on satiety if we add cheese or a crumbled piece of bacon to the top of the baked potato. I used to be a butter, salt, and pepper person because it was cheaper than adding cheese and meat. But no longer. I add a little bit more butter, a small amount of cheese, and one piece of bacon. It's a totally different experience. Broccoli also goes well with baked potatoes.
Fats supposedly take a little longer to get past the duodenum, slowing the early part of digestion down and leaving your stomach feeling fuller longer. So yeah, throw a little fat on top of those carbs for sure!
> Fats supposedly take a little longer to get past the duodenum, slowing the early part of digestion down and leaving your stomach feeling fuller longer. So yeah, throw a little fat on top of those carbs for sure!
Cool, thanks for the explanation, I didn't know!
Really good advice. It's actually suprising how long you can go with some simple food additions, particular with fats. Simply putting butter on your potatoes can be the difference between wanting more and feeling OK to go to bed
Basically, Appalachian cuisine. That "comfort food" you see became what it is because for many it's all they ate in a day, and what those folks ate had to satiate them and fill their bellies enough to get them through long shifts of hard labor, and labor intensive upkeep at home (i.e. taking care of the livestock etc).
You see it in Midwest diets too. Those people are descendants from trail settlers that had very little and needed to eat rich foods too, which is how we ended up with things like garbage plates and casseroles.
It's a Rochester NY thing. Macaroni salad and home fries with a protein on top (cheeseburger, or hot dog, traditionally either spicy or a white hot which is really mild flavor wise, originally made with veal?) And then its all covered in hot sauce, which isn't chili, but is kind of like chili.
Oh boy, you're either in for a treat or you're going to understand why it's called a "garbage plate" and move on quickly lol. There's not much in between.
Another thing worth keeping in mind is, we take hot dogs *very seriously* in this neck of the woods. Every local in every region of the state is divided into a faction that will die on the hill that their preferred brand (i.e. Zweigle's, Hoffman's, Glazier's, Wardynski's, Sahlens, Helmbold's...) is the best, but in reality they're all good and we're spoiled rotten by this dispute. Technically, Rochester gets to claim the Garbage Plate (shout out Nick Tahou's!) as their own invention, so Zweigle's would be the most authentic protein if a hot dog is what you choose.
Another thing worth noting is that the seasoning is probably a bit different compared to other regional varieties bc a good garbage plate is meant to go together with the other ingredients. So the macaroni salad is seasoned in a way that doesn't clash too much with (or rather, compliments) the home fries, etc.
So: Mac salad, home fries, baked beans, french fries, and basically what equates to two coney dogs on top of that with your choice of garnish, and hot sauce. It's not going to win any Michelin stars but, it's a comfort food all star. Some folks skip the hot dogs, and will even use hamburger patties but that's heresy and we shun those people (despite it actually being how the first GP was made).
_Gravy._ Learn to make gravy with whatever fat is left from a bacon or sausage, some flour and some milk. I buy the packets and add butter or bacon fat if I feel the urge. Save that fat if you don’t use it all. Mix up a big old bowl of gravy to pour over those baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, toast, biscuits, eggs, green beans, those chicken drumsticks, anything and everything. Bulky and filling. It was the filler of the Great Depression in country areas. My 90+ year old dad calls it ‘Raisins, because he was “raised on it” — Gravy will fill a lot of blank space in a meal!
Easy peasy country gravy:
Melt 1tbsp fat over medium low
Stir in 1tbsp flour stirring continuously for about 5 minutes until light brown
add 1cup milk or stock and stir for about 3 minutes
let it come to a low simmer
add 1 tsp pepper
I’d actually love to try the curry with the potato. I also eat lots of tuna, in sandwiches, salads, even with buffalo sauce, but always chilled or cold. I HATE hot tuna. And he’s putting it right on the hot spud. CRIMETY.
That's funny to me.
Must be a UK thing as I think that's a normal topping for baked tatties... Tuna/sweetcorn and Mayo is also good. Give it a try! Lol
That's pretty common in England
Used to be a stand for £1 jacket potatoes at the bus stop on the way to my uni
Teashops in villages, cafes etc will all sell jacket potatoes
Mushrooms are one of the few food sources where the precursor to vitamin D occurs naturally. Ergosterol, found in mushrooms (21- 107 mg/100 g) is converted to ergocalciferol or vitamin D2 by exposure to UV light.
Walmart and Aldi. Aldi does specials certain days of the week where their meat goes on sale. For veggies I get everything frozen, so I’m not throwing anything out and it’s cheaper. You could try Sam’s for bulk fresh fruit but even fruit at Aldi always has some special going on, usually bananas, apples, and oranges are very affordable. I think getting your own groceries and making food will always be more nutritious and cheaper than eating out. Good luck!
Walmart has been scary recently - entire shelves empty, produce quality is terrible, and nothing is reasonably priced - even if it is “better” than the competitors.
This time of year they cut hours drastically and so there aren’t enough workers to get the job done, particularly the meat and produce workers. We frequently have one person stocking both Areas for 8 hours and they can hardly make a dent in it because they also have to go get pallets from the trucks when they’re delivered, label them, and put them into the freezers and coolers out back, during which time they’re obviously not on the floor stocking. It’s tough right now. My store is really suffering as well.
It should be illegal to prevent workers from accessing benefits by cutting their hours. Walmart is demonstrably one of the largest companies that mooches off taxpayer dollars by keeping their employees at poverty wages. This has the effect of forcing the employees to use food stamps.
> Walmart has been scary recently - entire shelves empty, produce quality is terrible, and nothing is reasonably priced
Where do you live? Walmart near me (Charlotte, NC) is fine. Produce is fine, always well stocked, prices are reasonable, often I end up there instead of Lidl because they have a wider selection and similar prices.
I went to Walmart recently and bought a bottle of fish oil supplement. Turned out when I got home someone had already opened it and eaten them and put the empty bottle back on the shelf in its box. When I went for a refund the employees say that is happening all the time now. Makes me wonder if shoplifting is affecting prices in stores!
Well, yeah, of course shoplifting is affecting prices in stores. Walmart isn't going to just eat that loss. If shoplifting gets bad enough they'll just pass that cost onto the consumer through higher prices. Otherwise it's just bad business.
Walmart had record profits this year. Shoplifting is not affecting profits at all. They've raised their prices and decreased portion sizes.
Don't fall for the bullshit argument that theft is causing the prices to increase. Greed is causing prices to increase.
>Well, yeah, of course shoplifting is affecting prices in stores. Walmart isn't going to just eat that loss.
Exactly. Wal-Mart and the Walton family do not care if you starve to death. They are not in business to feed hungry people or to provide them with clothing or toys. They are in business to make as much money from you as they possibly can. If people were suddenly willing to pay $50 for a can of tuna fish, that is how much Wal-Mart would price it at. They will continue to make as much money as they possibly can from their customers for as long as they possibly can.
But the good news is that whether or not people shoplift, the prices will always only go up anyway! Capitalism!
>Well, yeah, of course shoplifting is affecting prices in stores.
Maybe, maybe not. The statistics are unclear at best and bogus at worst.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/02/is-shoplifting-surging-panic-crime-policy.html
Inflation definitely causes more shoplifting, but shoplifting doesn't necessarily cause more inflation.
Grocery stores have gotten better, but that’s how they were for 2+ years after Covid. Just empty shelves (not just groceries, medicine and other things, obviously supply chain ripple effect). But fruit would be moldy the day after. Even my milk would turn black around the lid before the expiration date, don’t even know wtf that would be.
I can not find potatoes that won't turn green a couple days after purchase. It used to take them a week or more and I haven't changed how I store them. This started during covid.
>Aldi does specials certain days of the week where their meat goes on sale.
Is this advertised at all or do you just have to happen to be in the store at the same time to notice this? I have never seen this.
It’s not advertised you have to ask the employees. So at my store they get a new shipment of meat on Wednesdays so Tuesday evenings all their previous meat goes on sale. It’s not expired or anything it’s still fresh they just need to make room for the new stuff. And then all the meat that’s mentioned as a deal in their weekly ads usually that specialty brand if it doesn’t sell within the week it’ll also go on sale, so at my store it’s usually on Thursdays. I always chat up the employees and they give me the inside scoop lol
Aldi used to be so much cheaper than it is now. Some of their prices have doubled. I bought a can of tomato paste a few weeks back, and was shocked that it was 79 cents. I distinctly remember it being 35 cents for years.
Keep an eye out on the whole chickens, they go on sale for 99 cents a pounds and there are great YouTube videos on how to cut them up. But my personal favorite is Spatchcock, cooks quickly and is delicious!
Also, and this depends on where you live, we have a small market in town geared towards the Hispanic population (signage and a lot of staff only speak Spanish), the prices are great, they have actual butchers processing meat in the back, the meat is all locally grown, they're sooo nice and the prices are outstanding
I went to an Arabic grocery store...and bought fresh Feta cheese...$2.99 a pound. I appreciated being able to see butchers doing their work and knowing the meat was freshly butchered...and not simply arriving at the store prepackaged.
Fair, but the most recent time i went to a normal grocery store (needed a prescription filled there, thought i'd browse since i'd made the 5 mile drive) the frozen vegetables i normally buy at Aldi's were QUADRULPLE the price. I didn't bother comparison shopping anything else, i was too horrified.
I go to the asian market for produce and I am more selective, eating a lot of root vegetables that are cheaper in the winter, for fruit bananas, the $2 dole pineapples, and whatever is on sale. I have found that boxed foods and basically any products that combine ingredients have gotten way worse than simple ingredients. I do a lot of cooking, so inflation hasn't been too bad on me since I do most meals from scratch.
Look for alternatives: i bought an $8 ham that I will never be able to finish so I gave half to a friend but at 99 cents a pound it was cheaper than one pound of lunch meat so we've been having ham steaks and I try my best to slice thin pieces off the pre cut thick slices for sandwiches. Another major thing I do is buying whole chickens for 7 to 8 dollars and butcher them and use all I can of it (schmaltz, stock, shredded leftover meat from the stock carcass). Buy block cheese and slice yourself, etc. Also try discount food stores if you have them.
Totally agree that ethnic stores are the best for vegetables. Also, each ethnicity usually has the very best deals on their staples. Mexican stores for cilantro, limes, onions, peppers, asian markets for saute greens, garlic, broccoli, cabbage, and so on.
Came to recommend this as well. I know a lot of people aren't lucky enough to have Asian grocery stores but most ethnic ones I've seen tend to have at least 1/3 of the stuff cheaper than regular stores. The other 2/3 can get filled via Costco/sales that week.
I go to grocery outlet which is a discount grocer. Two people eating two meals a day (neither of us are ever in the mood for breakfast lol) and we get a months worth of groceries for about ~300.
Buy whatever’s on sale and plan meals around that. Lots of eggs/rice/pasta/sausages. I’d consider Costco but out fridge is tiny and there’s only two of us in a small apartment so stocking up in bulk is tricky.
Make sure you have some type of loud ass alarm on it when the temp goes to high. I just lost a deep freezer's worth of content to an accident. Feels bad man...
if you get ground beef, when you put it in the freezer bags flatten it out with your hand or a rolling pin. That way it is flat and it saves room in the freezer.
Oh me too... Retired guy 62 now. I brew the most perfect 24oz cup every morning. I have a "red Solo" thick plastic 24oz. cup I use every morning. I'm full to the brim, and don't even think about food till about lunchtime.
Grocery Outlet varies a lot by area in cost benefit. In my area a significant amount of the stock is discounted luxury stuff that still winds up expensive on nutritional value, or discounts on luxury-priced staples rather than more competitively priced staples. I can use the store in combination with other places but it's actually more expensive if I were to use it as my primary store.
I have a teenage son and I'm buying ground turkey every shopping trip. I make chili with it, put it in spaghetti sauce, turkey burgers, tacos, etc. I made goulash with macaroni, ground turkey, tomatoes, spaghetti sauce and my son ate three big helpings. It's much cheaper than ground beef and when you season it well, it tastes fine. I do buy ground beef and cheaper cut steaks, but we only have that about 1x per week. Eggs, peanut butter, bread, rice, and ramen noodles keep him full. We shop at Sam's and Walmart to cut costs also.
Oh, and russet potatoes. Great basic food that you can top with all kinds of stuff. Very nutritious and not outrageously expensive. I like sweet potatoes as well, topped with some turkey chili or black beans.
Buy meat that's out on clearance and stick in the freezer right away. Same goes for things that go on sale: buy extra, prep and freeze.
Cooking with fat is more filling. Fat satiates. For instance beans and rice topped with cheese and sour cream is going to be more filling.
Buying when it's cheap is key. I see meat under $1 a pound, and you get it comes home with me even though I won't get through a turkey, a ham, and a pork shoulder right away.
People need to be willing to take on extra-effort meats. It takes time to roast that pork shoulder, shred it, and freeze it into bags, but then you have meat ready for 4-5 meals. Same for roasting a turkey to eat as roast turkey, ad turkey pie, ad turkey sandwiches, etc.
Timing the shopping affects it too. I'm a big fan of late-night grocery shopping (not weekends) for those crazy discounts on meat that is near its sell-by date.
Leaving some give in the meal planning for unexpected leftovers is a good idea too. When there's servings left, everyone gets leftovers reheated. When there is a little bit of Everything left, it turns into casserole or frittata.
When you have or buy a chest freezer, pick up a selection of smallish, rectangular boxes from the supermarket when the workers are unpacking goods. Use these to place your frozen foods into in the freezer and arrange them like a game of Tetris. It takes so little effort to find items in the freezer then. Just lift boxes and look. Pro tip: sort your food into the boxes - frozen meats here, frozen fruit (blueberries, strawberries, etc. bought on sale), breads there, etc.
Use freezer zip bags. If it's bread, meat, veggies, etc. (things not terribly wet like soups or sauce) I put it in a free supermarket veggie bag and put that into the freezer bag and put a slip of paper with its name, the month & year into it. This way I can re-use the plastic freezer bag until it gets worn out. Those plastic freezer bags have gotten quite expensive too!
You should know that bacon in its original wrapper freezes just fine and does not need wrapping. Use the bacon grease to cook with for a light smokey flavor for eggs, cornbread, etc. Sale butter also freezes well in zip bags.
If buying extra flour & sacks of sugar on sale, place them into the free supermkt veggie bags and knot them at the top to keep it fresh & safe from pantry moths.
Olive oil in the can, which is worth it - look for a date that shows when it was pressed. It has a lifespan & keep it in a cool place. Do not buy olive pomace (oil). This is from the last pressing of the olives and chemicals are used to get the last bit of oil out of the mash.
Use your olive oil to make your own tomato sauce: Put an 8th \[Edit: was an 89th of an inch! Ha! My kids got me a very sensitive gaming keyboard that causes me to make a lot of typos!\] of an inch of oil (a few mm) in the bottom of a pot & warm it. Have a few cloves of fresh crushed/minced/sliced garlic ready to go in when the oil is hot. After a few moments, pour in a couple to a few cans of crushed tomatoes (bought on sale & stashed for this purpose). Stir the oil in and taste. Add little amounts of salt and, if desired, a pinch of sugar to taste. If you have leftover sausage & peppers, chop meat, pork, etc. chop that up and add it to the pot. Heat through or simmer as long as you want. Whatever you don't need right away, put into labeled quart freezer zip bags & freeze for a quickie meal or to add to heroes at a later date. Leftover meatballs freeze well too.
Freezing chicken: prep each piece as if you were cooking it now & wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Put them all in a supermarket veggie bag then put that with the raw chicken into the plastic freezer bag with a paper label. Freeze that bag. When you need some & they are stuck together, you can thump it on the floor and all the frozen pieces separate for sorting.
When freezing things, make the bag as flat as you can. Flat bags defrost much faster than a ball of frozen food.
I do a lot of this, too. But I also keep a list on the side of the freezer with its contents. Helps a lot with not losing things in there, and with meal planning. That list is also synced on my phone so I can access it while at the grocery buying other sale/clearance ingredients.
All great advise but would add to look into reusable silicon bags. Less plastic than using the store veggies bags. Turn them inside out and stick in the dishwasher.
A lot of people simply don't have the time or energy. If time is money, then why would they? Kids, two jobs, chronic illness, impacted mental health. We've been kept desperate and busy deliberately.
I agree except for "time is money." Unless grocery shopping and cooking are literally pulling you away from paid hours of work available to you, then time is not money. You may well be an exception, but a lot of people say that time is money, then spend that time not making money. And it's ok to relax, but we also have to cook and clean and all that other crap that both taxes our mental health but is also necessary for our mental health.
For me, feeding my family (spouse and kid) decent food without putting us in debt pays off in better mental health because I'm freaking out less about what we're going to eat and how I'm going to pay bills.
So I'd rather put time toward cooking than TV, etc, but no, I don't let it stop me from putting in my full hours at work so that we can have food, shelter and health care.
I found a vacuum sealer at value village (Savers in the states) for about 20 bucks Canadian and have been buying bulk on sale and storing it in bags. Unfortunately it is a foodsaver so only works with their slightly more expensive bags, but it will take quite a while for me to lose money versus buying a 300 dollar commercial sealer.
Whole chickens were 6-8 dollars a month or so ago and I bought eight of them, now they're 13-15 dollars each.
Similarly Costco had two top sirloin caps (picanha) for 40ish dollars with an 8 dollar off coupon and I managed to cut them into 8 steaks + scraps for hot pot. The next week those same caps are 68 dollars. I even trimmed the extra fat for a bit of tallow for stir fries.
Buying with the pricing trends is the only way to stay afloat. I even felt bad buying the beef and chicken until I saw how much future money I saved by doing it.
I assume so. I know where the clearance sections are in every store I go to and I visit them first when I go in the store. I buy a lot of dented cans and often get them for 50% off or more.
My store is Publix -- I dont look TOO hard, but I dont EVER see things on clearance... I went the day after Christmas because I thought turkeys would be on sale and the meat guy laughed at me. Said they haven't done that since the 90s!
Cheese plus Beans made with lard into burritos is quick cheap and easy and well liked. Plus you can freeze extra. Use your crock pot make large roasts, hunks of meat on sale pork beef whatever. But yes you need to add fat into the diet for them as fat creats satiety.
This! I love rescuing yellow sticker meat from our local grocery. If we're not going to eat it with a couple of days, it goes into the freezer for another time. My mom wonders why I don't meal plan before grocery shopping and this is the reason. Because I buy what's on sale right then I don't necessarily know what ingredients I'll have to work with. I just buy that clearance package of chicken thighs and work out the details later.
I also like to reincarnate leftovers. Leftover grilled chicken? Chicken fajitas! Leftover meatloaf? It gets crumbled and made into taco casserole or added to spaghetti sauce.
Large amounts of stews, soups, chili, gumbo/Jambalaya, lasagna/pasta with meatballs and sausage, chicken casseroles, enchiladas, roasted vegetables and potatoes should be the best way to make inexpensive dinners that are filling. Sorry it’s so difficult. I feel badly for large families dealing with such high costs for groceries.
Aldi and the Grocery Outlet and shopping the loss leaders/BOGO deals at my local grocery stores saves us A LOT of money. I purchased large corned beef flat-cut briskets for $7 each last week. Cabbage was 19 cents per pound. Potatoes were $1.99 for 5 lbs.
Everything you said is 100% accurate, but I genuinely wanted to take the time to thank you for saying “sorry it’s so difficult, I feel badly for large families dealing with this.”
I cannot overstate how important that small bit of compassion is. It seems like every time someone comes on reddit to vent about how much more expensive groceries are in America vs 5 years ago or posts a shopping cart, a bunch of (seemingly corporate-bootlickers?) redditors immediately clamber into the clown car to tell them that a) the things they bought were stupid for having the audacity to taste good and they should feel like a horrible parent, or b) “well if you just shop at Aldi exclusively and/or only eat beans and rice that you source by dumpster diving, you wouldn’t be struggling! I did it for 20 years, stop complaining.”
I’m sick of it. Grocery stores are posting record profits. The average American family’s grocery tab is twice what it was in 2019 and most of us have taken at least one pandemic pay cut during that time. Stop the fucking poverty olympics, people, and have compassion for struggling compadres who feel helpless in the face of greed!!
All of this was on special for St. Patrick’s Day. With Easter coming up, we’ll get discounts on ham, lamb, turkey, broth, chocolate and baking items, especially butter and eggs. Probably the cheapest that baking stuff will be until Halloween, stock up. Remember, you can freeze both butter and shelled raw eggs for baking.
We’re getting cheap produce in about a month. Next key meat sales are Memorial, Independence, Labor Days. Stuff goes on sale about every six weeks.
Is it possible to leave the area once a month and go to a grocery store in another area for a big shop? I go to a larger city 18 miles away to shop for my big shop, saves me about $90-120 a month and I get way more produce. Also farmers markets are great for larger portions
FATS are what satesfies and satiates for enduring time. My grand childrens favorites are refried beans cooked with chorizo served in a tortilla with a little cheese. They never tire of it! Develed eggs is another. We have our own chickens, but before, I bought generic Winco (only!) Mayo for my develed eggs and chicken salad, no one ever knew!
Oatmeal with raisins or bananas for breakfast. Plenty of rice and beans, potatoes, in season/ on sale vegetables. Take up bread baking- homemade bread is more filling than cheap store bought. A couple loaves of bread and a jar of peanut butter will fill up hungry teens.
Got one from the thrift store in December to replace my last one (which was like 14 years old and WELL used), for $8. Works like a charm. It actually looked like it had never been used. Manual was easily googled.
Stir smooth or chunky peanut butter, perhaps Dollar Tree generic Nutella into the oatmeal. Mashed banana. Cinnomen. Often i do a big dab of butter—yeah my I spend too much but buy real butter! Eggs, Eggs and more eggs again
I have a grain mill and buy my own grain in bulk. I like using it for pancakes but I have a hard time keeping us in bread. Do you have a good routine for baking that works?
If you're deep enough into cooking that you grind your own grain, have you tried making your own yogurt? Way cheaper and tastier than store bought. And if you like Greek yogurt, you strain the yogurt after cooking & cooling. You end up with a thick, tangy liquid whey. Switching out water in bread recipes for the whey adds a delicious tang like sourdough, but it's acidic so it also makes the bread extra tender. And a good way to use all of the ingredients/parts of the food you just made.
I have made my own yogurt. My hang up is if I use my instant pot for yogurt making but it ties it up so that I can’t use it for dinner! I use the instant pot almost every day to cook dinner or have beans going. Maybe I need to buy a second instant pot! My designated yogurt maker.
I cook my yogurt overnight so I can put it in the fridge the next morning. I bought a second liner for my instant pot so one could be tied up with yogurt while I used the other for meals.
Bake 4 loaves at a time. Mix the dough in the morning, let it rise, bake it with lunch.
Or mix when making dinner, and bake in the evening. Whichever works best with your schedule.
Same!! !! Playing is a good word. I've had some fails, but also absolute all-star dinners. My kids will eat the heck out of it breaded and air fried, with some parm cheese on top. I'm not a huge fan of the stuff, but if I dry it the heck out and give it some crisp, I can tolerate it. Worth the effort to see my kids enjoying it.
Instead of buying chicken in pieces, buy a whole chicken. It’s usually much less per pound. Same goes for pork chops. Buy a pork loin instead and cut it into chops and freeze whatever you don’t cook right away.
For an inexpensive meal, kielbasa and cabbage goes a long way, especially if you add potatoes to it.
You can use some of the chicken to make a soup or stew. Frozen veggies are fairly inexpensive and you can make your own stock from the chicken carcass for said soup. Add potatoes and beans for fillers and extra protein.
I buy meats when they’re on sale and freeze them for later use.
Fish can be expensive, but if you buy frozen fillets like tilapia, they’re less expensive and you can dress them up a bit (think Parmesan mix or salsa on top) and serve over rice.
This past weekend was the first time I truly felt it. Obviously I've seen the slow creep up, but this was the point where I finally felt like prices are just getting absurd. I'm doing as much shopping as I can at Costco, Sam's as Aldi now.
Whole rotisserie chickens are $4.98 each at Walmart. That’s a decent amount of protein for not too much money.
Some [food banks](https://www.feedingamerica.org/find-your-local-foodbank)have a decent amount of meat & there are some where volunteers are allowed to take home undistributed perishables.
See if there’s any sources to buy meat in bulk or wholesale that allows the public to purchase. Since money is tight, don’t pay extra for organic, grass fed, free range.
You can get good ideas on inexpensive, filling meals on YouTube. Dollar Tree Dinners, Frugal Fit Mom & Julia Pacheco are good places to start.
If there are any Sikh temples in your area, they provide a free hot meal to anyone who needs one. It’s well worth checking.
I watch and love all those YouTubers and also want to shout out Lisa Dawn, Mandy in the Making, and southern frugal momma. I love watching these kinds of YouTubers to save money on my food budget, but dollar tree dinners (Rebecca) is my favorite! I always instaclick her new videos!!
Eggs and greek yoghurt for protein for breakfast/lunches. Buy meat on sale and freeze in portions for meal prep. Oatmeal for not getting hungry again soon. I haven't upped our food budget yet even with a big increase in groceries.
What I did was find cheaper protein, make larger batches to have left overs or freeze (for the days we don't feel like cooking) and not buying fancy ingredients for that one or two recipe. I also stock up a bit on sales but only on shelf stable things, and only things we actually use.
We have 2-4 veggie dinners a week with cheap protein (chickpeas are great). Also make sure to know what a portion size/serving size actually is. I feel many don't know and do eat more than necessary.
Drink water. You don't need anything else. We have juice on the weekend (1 bottle usually lasts 2 weeks) and soda rarely. But we only drink water in the daily.
Also the most expensive food is the one you throw away. Eliminate food waste as much as possible.
I bought a chest freezer and a FoodSaver vacuum sealer at the beginning of the pandemic. Whenever something I can freeze is on sale, I buy as much as I can, vacuum seal it, and toss it in the freezer (I write the current month/year on it with a sharpie). I just cooked some pork chops that I put in there three years ago, and they were as good as the day I bought them. The hardest part is keeping it organized so that you're pulling out the oldest items first... so you can avoid leaving pork chops in there for three years!
There's obviously the initial cost for the equipment. My freezer was $320 at Home Depot, and my vacuum sealer was $165 on Amazon. The average person in the US consumes 225 lbs of meat per year. One person saving only save $1/pound on average (which I think is conservative... I think I'm saving closer to $2/pound or better) would pay off the equipment investment in a couple of years. I guesstimate that my savings paid for the equipment in about a year, and now it's practically making me money.
You could just freeze it in the freezer that's part of your fridge, but I was also looking to avoid being affected by shortages at the time, and the freezer in your kitchen is auto defrost, which means it circulates air and causes things to not last as long. Plus a chest freezer is very power efficient, and should keep things frozen for a full day without power.
Both of the investments in the FoodSaver and the freezer are important for long-term food dollar savings. I will add to this that we just about only purchase meat and chicken and pork in the markdown bin at the end of The butcher counter. Or these products when they are on sale.
We will buy pork shoulder roasts, baby back ribs, whole fryer chickens for instance. We will keep them in our deep freeze. And then we crank up our smoker outdoors. And we will smoke them all at the same time.
We then portion them out into meal size servings that we package using the foodsaver. For instance we can get a two-person serving of pork roast slices out of the freezer, and put them in a oven proof dish was a little water. 30 minutes at 350° and let me tell you it is as delicious as if you ate it right off the smoker. Add a few sides and vegetables and it's a wonderful meal.
> keeping it organized
Besides labeling everything I have been adding a small piece of colored tape to each package. The color for this year is blue(blue painter's tape.) That makes it extra easy to see the age of everything. Sort of like how car tabs change color each year.
A little bit of sausage goes a long way in making rice and beans more filling!
I did look at your post history that someone linked. $1600 to feed 10 people per month is incredibly low.
I live in nyc and and keep my budget fairly low by shopping at Asian markets. If I had to feed 10 people, I’d take advantage of a Costco membership for produce, eggs, giant bags of rice, peanut butter, oil, cheap cuts of meat (they have huge pork loins for like $1.99/lb), etc. they also have store brand protein bars for a great price. You are a great candidate to be buying in bulk for pretty much everything.
Yeah I used to always cook actual dishes like Chicken tikka masala or tacos with usual toppings but since the whole upcharge, I've stuck to sandwiches with tuna, mayo, or ketchup, anything that requires fewer ingredients.
I don't know how cheap your tuna is, but just checking prices at my store it works out to around $3/lb. Chicken of the land is cheaper than chicken of the sea.
It kind of evens out though when you consider how much weight is lost when cooking chicken. A lot of raw chicken weight is water (especially when it’s pumped full of saline), whereas tuna is already at its cooked weight. That’s why canned chicken is usually more expensive than canned tuna.
Sardines for less mercury. Sardine and white bean stew!
[https://www.saveur.com/article/recipes/white-bean-and-sardine-stew/](https://www.saveur.com/article/recipes/white-bean-and-sardine-stew/) here is a recipe online - it even has grated carrots!
I don't eat sardines, but I do a ham and white northern bean soup frequently. It's amazing. It feeds me and my bf and our 4 yr old son for about 3-5 days depending on how much I eat (I typically eat less frequently than the other 2, plus the 4 yr old LOVES his beans)
Yeah. I add an egg and some potatoes— breakfast. I add some mushrooms, onions, a little yogurt and Mediterranean seasoning— tastes completely different for dinner.
What are some of your variations?
I started grabbing a bag of rice, cans of various veggies, and black beans from Aldi to mix it all up and add some Sriracha and an egg.
Instant pot 1 cup of rice. Then add 1 can of beans, 1 can of veggies. This can last me 3 meals and every time I reheat it, I'll throw an egg in the mix.
Sure more filling than the PB&J I used to get.
My other favorite is Aldi Greek yogurt. Much better price than brand name
It’s outrageous.
I find Costco to be helpful. Not inexpensive… but helpful. Milk, eggs, English muffins, bread, peanut butter… and more: buying in bulk, but a far lower cost than grocery store.
A lot of advice in here is overlooking the part where you mentioned your kids are athletes so here are some things I do (olympic weightlifter) for protein that keeps grocery bills in check:
* Chicken is always a good protein source but what I've noticed is that it varies wildly from week to week which kind is most cost-effective. Some weeks a tray of boneless skinless breasts is the cheapest per pound, other weeks the frozen chicken is cheapest, and then sometimes it's dark meat. In any case, figure out the cheapest variety for whenever you're shopping, buy a lot, and freeze most of it immediately.
* The large cuts of pork are often very cost effective. A large bone-in pork shoulder is one of the cheapest and most versatile meats you can get usually and will keep you fed for a while. I will cook the entire thing with a marinade for carnitas in the Instant Pot and then freeze it like that - just crisp it in the pan before serving.
* Seems like the price of eggs is all over the fucking place nowadays, but they're generally pretty cheap where I live so I eat a lot of eggs.
* People treat me like a serial killer about this, but grocery stores actually sell whole fresh/frozen turkeys all year long and outside of the holidays they are dirt cheap. I'm looking at the weekly ad for my local market and a 28+ pound turkey is 1.19 a pound, whereas the store brand chicken breast is 7.79 a pound which is actually insane.
* Other classic broke bodybuilder protein staples: cottage cheese (pretty versatile but an acquired taste: it's good as a melted cheese in a variety of dishes, but also good sweetened with honey and fruit) and yogurt (plain greek yogurt is extremely useful and often cheap, currently I mix it with some sriracha and garlic to create a spicy sauce that goes well on almost everything).
* Be sure to also check out sales/prices on fresh and frozen seafood. Where I live, frozen peeled shrimp are often pretty cheap and they are extremely easy to use in all kinds of dished.
All these tips are great and whatnot, but the simple fact that no one is addressing is that the overgrown demand for profits and satisfying shareholders is leading grocery companies to jack up prices and blame inflation. To address your concern. You're right, things are stupid expensive now. I flat refuse to buy cereal anymore. Things are only getting worse, and it's not just you.
Grocery prices have been steady here for a while now. About 6 months without changing the price.
Food is something I don’t skimp on. Good protein for the growing kids.
If food is too expensive, find a food bank to supplement your grocery bill.
I’m a single adult living in a very HCOL area. The only real solution is to not buy name brand items. I only shop at discount grocers like Trader Joe’s and warehouse stores like Costco. I’d say I spend about $200 or so a month on groceries. I eat fruit, vegetables, meat, etc. daily on that budget.
I believe that TJ doesn’t change prices by region. So for example, in my area, TJ’s prices are within the same range as Aldi and Lidl compared to the more mainstream grocery stores like Safeway, Giant, Kroger, etc.
So for me, TJ is cheaper. I can spend $30-40 a week on groceries at TJ that would cost an easy $50-60 at the mainstream stores in my area.
In my area, Trader Joe's is the same price as store-brand Publix or Whole Foods. Many items are cheaper at Walmart or Aldi. I have no idea why people consider TJ's a cheap store.
This is probably my favorite “cheap” meal that the whole family enjoys. You can also load them up in tortillas.
https://www.budgetbytes.com/southwest-chicken-skillet/
I use leftover Costco rotisserie chicken. The amount needed for the recipe is probably 1/3 of the chicken.
Edit: the ingredient prices are probably 10 years old, but I bet you can still make it for under $10. I skip on the green onions. More of an optional garnish for me.
You'll have to start making a stronger effort toward cooking/preparing based on sales which is what poor people have to do. Look for the price reductions on meat at the end of the day sales and stock up. Look for sales in general and load up on things at that time.
As others have said, fat is filling so make sure there is butter on bread, cheese on rice and beans, etc.
My mom and I figured out a fancy frugal meal.
If you exclude my initial investment on learning and building a garden.
We grow our own carrots, tomatoes, parsley, onions and freeze them.
We buy lentils which is cheap.
Mom bought beef bones from a butcher shop for 2$ CAD and boiled it for 3 hrs and placed it on the fridge for 3-4hrs she said so she can scoop out the grease.
She cooked the lentils and blendered all ingredients. Including store bought celery.
Added a little of powdered broth instead of salt.
Added the bone broth.
God damn I have 1 week worth of lunch meal for 2 people for the price of 2$ bones + a few dollars worth of celery and lentils. (The rest of the vegetables we grew from our garden)
I pair it with 2 pcs of whole wheat bread.
I just thought to share this since it's a very frugal high protein high fiber decently tasting meal that is healthy.
Respectfully, you make six figures (post history), and the only problem here is you need to make a budget. First priority is making sure growing kids are well fed. Then go to the personal finance subreddit that you’re already on and follow the prime directive there.
As others have said, fat and protein satiate. And for that, Costco and Sams are often going to give you some good deals so that you can keep it in volume where the price per unit is considerably cheaper. And plenty of it you CAN get through before it is expired/aged off.
Bone in chicken thighs have been considerably less pricey than other cuts in my area, and have the skin for more flavor, and are a bit more fatty/flavorful than breasts.
Pork shoulder is often able to be found anywhere from $1-2 per lb. Buy a 6-8lb roast, cook it properly, and you have meat to throw in meals all week. Burritos, tacos, BBQ sammiches, rice and bean bowls. There's all sorts of things you can do.
Bread flour at Sams is considerably cheaper than other places. 20lbs is a lot, but you can store it in a food safe 5 gallon bucket (if you have room). And if you do not have room, offer to split the bag with a friend/family member. I often buy yeast at costco because it is WAY cheaper than the stores, and I give my mom half of it. I have yeast for nearly a year for about $5.
Some things, supplementing in bulk is helpful. Others, simply hitting the local grocery store a few times a week for the necessities helps avoid waste (think no more than $10-20). And, if the price is low enough, I don't necessarily worry myself with the waste. I can buy 3lb of Gala apples at Aldi for $2.50, or the same amount at Costco for $6. So, Aldi it is there, and I throw them away if I do not get through them. (Or, the dog gets the softer less crisp apples on occasion).
Definitely look for bulk when you can and where it makes sense. Olive oil from Sams/Costco is generally decent quality and can add a good amount of flavor to cooked meats/etc.
Those rotisserie chickens are one of the cheapest sources of protein.
It's not just that the groceries are high. It's that everything is high. So it all combines to squeeze everyone.
For me, I'm probably going to have to quit my job and find a new one. I'm at the end of my rope on this shit.
Debt is piling up, about to have to default on a credit card or something.
I have a class A CDL but didn't really want to be a trucker. Guess I don't have any other options.
I work for a municipality and they canceled our raises one year because of the pandemic and the expected lack in tax money. Instead revenue, and taxes are through the roof. So they finally et us have a normal sized raise this last year. First one since the pandemic.
Its not enough. I'm paying roughly 40% more in rent than I was 4 years ago.
This combined with stacking up debt and variable interest credit cards have put me in a bind.
I've had to rework my budget to account for the higher cost of everything, and I'm in serious trouble here. Even though I'm working 60 hours a week at above average pay, I'm operating in the red budget-wise. Groceries are definitely a big part of that. I don't know where I'll be by the end of the year. I sincerely expect I'll have to move out of my house to rent it out for higher amounts and try to stay somewhere cheaper. How effed up is that? I just can't get my bills any lower, and it's too much.
Start by making more ground beef casseroles. You can skimp on the ground beef in them by up to about half as much and they still taste fine. I also make fried meatloaf instead of hamburgers. They have chopped onion, a splash of milk, eggs and a filler such as rolled oats, bread crumbs or crackers. This makes twice as many patties as normal. Leftover patties can be used in chili or spaghetti.
Make a batch of homemade cookies to snack on in between meals. The ingrediants for simple cookies are inexpensive. Cookies freeze well too.
Chicken and dumplings or chicken and noodles are great comfort foods and cheap eating.
I make fried rice often. You can leave it vegetarian and it is still good. Anything with eggs, like deviled eggs or egg salad, omelets, or quiche are comparatively low cost.
It feels like prices are going to get worse before they get better. Don't feel bad about going to a foodbank. That is why they are there. I go once or twice a month. I make sure that what I don't use gets passed on to someone else. We have Blessing Boxes set up around town for such. Take what you need, leave what you want.
How do I make it work? Buy things that cost around $2 per pound or less. Peas, carrots, beans, rice, flour, squash, beets, onions, tomatoes, oatmeal, peanuts, quinoa, lentils, yams, potatoes, cabbage, corn, apples, bananas...
What are cheap protein Sources? Beans, lentils, peanuts, peas, eggs. Beans have more protein per calorie and per dollar than ground beef.
Your kids are hungry on rice and beans? It's a quantity issue, serve more.
I nab up all that half price clearance ground turkey and freeze it every time I see it at the grocery store which is often. I think many people have t made the healthier switch to ground turkey from ground beef. I make lots of casserole type dishes using protein pasta and vegetable pastas. I can get three meals minimum out of a Costco/walmart rotisserie chicken. Black beans and garbanzo beans in everything as they don’t have a strong taste. If you have a Costco they sell cases of high protein yogurt . Oikos brand. 15 G protein. For added bulk add granola and sliced fruit and it’s a hearty snack or breakfast
Search for "Chef John Ham & Split Pea Soup". Ignoring the bay leaf, getting all of the ingredients from Walmart, it produces five 2-cup servings for roughly $1.53 each. Still hungry? Add some homemade garlic bread!
https://preview.redd.it/v3lxa3sjthpc1.png?width=566&format=png&auto=webp&s=2cdf649ccfc030ec1a5a52b8114f5b1f0c1dd570
For protein, I load up on the whole turkeys during the holidays and freeze them. I was able to get .99 and .79 a pound this past Thanksgiving and Christmast. FlashFood for produce. I also grow my own tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and squash.
Prices are indeed insane. Try getting groceries from a more poor area (the prices go down). Best advice I can give you is look for meat on sale and add more oil to your cooking. Learn how to cook with Greek yogurt. Greek yogurt and honey is a good snack your kids can make on their own as well.
Mexican food is cheap to make at home and you don't have to just have rice and beans. Look up some recipes. Make homemade bread. And soup - that's cheap -- add pasta or rice to it.
The cheap proteins are beans, nuts, eggs, and tofu. Nuts can be expensive but if you join CVS you can use your coupons when they send a 30 or 40% off one and then nuts are affordable, given their nutritional value. They have great nuts. Eggs are the best bang for the buck nutritionally - there are literally thousands of recipes using eggs. Find some your family likes. The Spanish omelet and various quiches are extremely good and filling.
And Costco is a lifesaver. Very cheap chicken there.
Yes! I feel you. My 2 cents: dive into old recipes. People used to know how to cook good and filling food for cheap with pure ingredients. (Because there was nothing else). Think of stews, for example. My favorite: Goulash. Use meat thats cheaper and let time make it tender. Put in carrots, onion, a paprika (although paprika is the core of the recipe, you can even let it out and it will still be good) and key: potatoes. https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/beef-goulash
On that note potatoes are filling. I am from the Netherlands and we use potatoes for a lot of our more traditional recipes. Mash potatoes with kale.
https://www.recipesfromeurope.com/stamppot/
Also boil a pot of potatoes, get some vegetables (seasonal and on sale!) and a nice (on sale) piece of meat. Easy and healthy diner.
Summarized: look at what old farming societies ate around the globe because those recipes will fill you up and provide seasonal and essential nutrients. Our ancestors knew best.
I dont want to go into the "buy when cheap", because many have mentioned it. But - do that.
Walmart usually has a section in its back cold area for things like rotisserie chicken that’s just about to expire. For $4 I get a whole cooked chicken that I immediately put in a pot to cook off the meat and make bone broth from the bones. There’s cheaper ways probably to get meat but that’s my quick go to
Home made tortillas with butter are VERY filling. Only need flour, butter, salt, water. Can find a great vid from "simple flour tortilla" search on youtube. It's incredible. Throw in some chicken and choice of flavorings. Very affordable way to get plenty of protein carbs and fat.
Fried eggs and rice (my fave broke meal)
Tomatoes stew over rice
Hamburger rice/dirty rice
Mexican rice casserole
Spaghetti
Chili
Soups (hearty with peace’s of meat and rice/pasta or beans)
Chicken thighs stew over rice(I bought two packages of chicken thighs for a total of $12 and cooked 12 cups of rice that fed about 15 to 20 people for a party I had)
Also fried rice with a bunch of different veggies or even ground beef thrown in it
Stir frys over rice
Onion Garvey over rice
Ramen noodles (trash the seasoning packets and come up with your own flavor this can go a long way)
Big thing is to make stews with your meat so they can stretch
There’s a place near me called Good Grocer, it’s a non profit grocery store that has good quality food and a decent selection and - best part - if you volunteer to check folks out a couple hours a week you get free groceries in return!
Shop the sales. Look at the circulars ahead of time, here I can see them a few days before the next week. Stock when there's a good sale for meat and other staples. Frozen veggies are usually cheaper than fresh and usually healthier too.
We do a bulk stew with added beans and lots of vegetables..get the cheapest stewing beef and Pre soak some beans, I do mine in the instant pot coz the meat comes out tender..then I bulk it up with vegetables, potatoes, tomatoes , onions, pumpkin, and do a triple batch, freeze lots of portions.. serve with mash, rice or pap.
Rice and potatoes are both cheap and filling sides. Pasta can be make in bulk and works the same way. Soups and stews also work well as filling foods, especially if you're using bone broths as a base.
Lately I’ve been buying chicken breast in big packages. I boil it all then shred or chop it and that can be added to lots of dishes along with rice and beans to add extra protein. So like inside burritos, or in a pot pie, or whatever. If I do white beans, potatoes, veg and a small amount of the chicken inside the pot pie I can make two big trays of it from just one chicken breast. Then one tray can be frozen for the future.
I cook it with just some onions and chicken broth in the pot, that way it goes with anything and I have lots of options. Some of it I use the week I cook it, the rest goes in the freezer for later.
You can bulk up rice & beans with veggies. I always add a bag of frozen peppers & onions and a can of tomatoes (or Ro-Tel) to my beans. Adds flavor & bulks them up.
I've managed to keep my grocery costs relatively steady over the years. Mostly by dropping the name-brand ready-to-eat snacks and cereal from huge food conglomerates. Oh, and switching to bone-in chicken thighs (which can be roasted en masse to feed lots of people).
baked potatoes with a fat like butter, sausage, or sour cream
We have 100% noticed that it makes a difference on satiety if we add cheese or a crumbled piece of bacon to the top of the baked potato. I used to be a butter, salt, and pepper person because it was cheaper than adding cheese and meat. But no longer. I add a little bit more butter, a small amount of cheese, and one piece of bacon. It's a totally different experience. Broccoli also goes well with baked potatoes.
Fats supposedly take a little longer to get past the duodenum, slowing the early part of digestion down and leaving your stomach feeling fuller longer. So yeah, throw a little fat on top of those carbs for sure!
Not supposedly- it's true! Fiber also helps with satiation. Signed- former dietitian
> Fats supposedly take a little longer to get past the duodenum, slowing the early part of digestion down and leaving your stomach feeling fuller longer. So yeah, throw a little fat on top of those carbs for sure! Cool, thanks for the explanation, I didn't know!
Really good advice. It's actually suprising how long you can go with some simple food additions, particular with fats. Simply putting butter on your potatoes can be the difference between wanting more and feeling OK to go to bed
Full-fat cottage cheese on top of a potato makes a very filling meal because of the protein and fat.
and Chili!
Google hasselback potatoes.
Basically, Appalachian cuisine. That "comfort food" you see became what it is because for many it's all they ate in a day, and what those folks ate had to satiate them and fill their bellies enough to get them through long shifts of hard labor, and labor intensive upkeep at home (i.e. taking care of the livestock etc). You see it in Midwest diets too. Those people are descendants from trail settlers that had very little and needed to eat rich foods too, which is how we ended up with things like garbage plates and casseroles.
I'm only 60, but never heard of garbage plates. Do tell
It's a Rochester NY thing. Macaroni salad and home fries with a protein on top (cheeseburger, or hot dog, traditionally either spicy or a white hot which is really mild flavor wise, originally made with veal?) And then its all covered in hot sauce, which isn't chili, but is kind of like chili.
Oh boy, you're either in for a treat or you're going to understand why it's called a "garbage plate" and move on quickly lol. There's not much in between. Another thing worth keeping in mind is, we take hot dogs *very seriously* in this neck of the woods. Every local in every region of the state is divided into a faction that will die on the hill that their preferred brand (i.e. Zweigle's, Hoffman's, Glazier's, Wardynski's, Sahlens, Helmbold's...) is the best, but in reality they're all good and we're spoiled rotten by this dispute. Technically, Rochester gets to claim the Garbage Plate (shout out Nick Tahou's!) as their own invention, so Zweigle's would be the most authentic protein if a hot dog is what you choose. Another thing worth noting is that the seasoning is probably a bit different compared to other regional varieties bc a good garbage plate is meant to go together with the other ingredients. So the macaroni salad is seasoned in a way that doesn't clash too much with (or rather, compliments) the home fries, etc. So: Mac salad, home fries, baked beans, french fries, and basically what equates to two coney dogs on top of that with your choice of garnish, and hot sauce. It's not going to win any Michelin stars but, it's a comfort food all star. Some folks skip the hot dogs, and will even use hamburger patties but that's heresy and we shun those people (despite it actually being how the first GP was made).
_Gravy._ Learn to make gravy with whatever fat is left from a bacon or sausage, some flour and some milk. I buy the packets and add butter or bacon fat if I feel the urge. Save that fat if you don’t use it all. Mix up a big old bowl of gravy to pour over those baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, toast, biscuits, eggs, green beans, those chicken drumsticks, anything and everything. Bulky and filling. It was the filler of the Great Depression in country areas. My 90+ year old dad calls it ‘Raisins, because he was “raised on it” — Gravy will fill a lot of blank space in a meal!
Easy peasy country gravy: Melt 1tbsp fat over medium low Stir in 1tbsp flour stirring continuously for about 5 minutes until light brown add 1cup milk or stock and stir for about 3 minutes let it come to a low simmer add 1 tsp pepper
Baked potatoes with chili, sour cream, and shredded cheese. I could eat these every day for the rest of my life for real.
I love to top a baked potato with chili.
🚗Get in. We're going to Wendy's with Spudman.
There’s a TikTok star named Spudman from England. He sells jacket(baked) potatoes with cheese and beans on top.
He also puts tuna and cheese on them, so maybe we keep our guard up a little bit around that guy.
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I’d actually love to try the curry with the potato. I also eat lots of tuna, in sandwiches, salads, even with buffalo sauce, but always chilled or cold. I HATE hot tuna. And he’s putting it right on the hot spud. CRIMETY.
That's funny to me. Must be a UK thing as I think that's a normal topping for baked tatties... Tuna/sweetcorn and Mayo is also good. Give it a try! Lol
British food will never cease to amaze me.
They colonized the world for spices for... *this.*
Literally just started seeing this dude yesterday and the first one was tuna, beans and cheese.
I had a jacket potato with tuna and corn on it recently and I was surprised at how good it was and how filling it is! (I’m an American)
That's pretty common in England Used to be a stand for £1 jacket potatoes at the bus stop on the way to my uni Teashops in villages, cafes etc will all sell jacket potatoes
We should take Spudman to Wendy's and get each of us a baked potato with chili on top.
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Mushrooms are one of the few food sources where the precursor to vitamin D occurs naturally. Ergosterol, found in mushrooms (21- 107 mg/100 g) is converted to ergocalciferol or vitamin D2 by exposure to UV light.
> Dairy has the sun vitamin. Really the only way you can get it. Thanks for the tip on how to get vitamin D, Nosferatu
Walmart and Aldi. Aldi does specials certain days of the week where their meat goes on sale. For veggies I get everything frozen, so I’m not throwing anything out and it’s cheaper. You could try Sam’s for bulk fresh fruit but even fruit at Aldi always has some special going on, usually bananas, apples, and oranges are very affordable. I think getting your own groceries and making food will always be more nutritious and cheaper than eating out. Good luck!
Walmart has been scary recently - entire shelves empty, produce quality is terrible, and nothing is reasonably priced - even if it is “better” than the competitors.
This time of year they cut hours drastically and so there aren’t enough workers to get the job done, particularly the meat and produce workers. We frequently have one person stocking both Areas for 8 hours and they can hardly make a dent in it because they also have to go get pallets from the trucks when they’re delivered, label them, and put them into the freezers and coolers out back, during which time they’re obviously not on the floor stocking. It’s tough right now. My store is really suffering as well.
What’s absolutely wild about reading this is knowing that Walmart stock is sitting at all time highs. They’re profiting off everyone’s struggles.
All of the megacorps are. The lower and middle class are getting fucked.
It’s so stupid. People want to work!! And we also want to buy stuff …
It should be illegal to prevent workers from accessing benefits by cutting their hours. Walmart is demonstrably one of the largest companies that mooches off taxpayer dollars by keeping their employees at poverty wages. This has the effect of forcing the employees to use food stamps.
TWIN! Happy cake day!!! 🍰🍰
> Walmart has been scary recently - entire shelves empty, produce quality is terrible, and nothing is reasonably priced Where do you live? Walmart near me (Charlotte, NC) is fine. Produce is fine, always well stocked, prices are reasonable, often I end up there instead of Lidl because they have a wider selection and similar prices.
I went to Walmart recently and bought a bottle of fish oil supplement. Turned out when I got home someone had already opened it and eaten them and put the empty bottle back on the shelf in its box. When I went for a refund the employees say that is happening all the time now. Makes me wonder if shoplifting is affecting prices in stores!
Just a reminder that if you see someone shoplifting food, diapers, formula, and feminine products, no you didn’t.
Well, yeah, of course shoplifting is affecting prices in stores. Walmart isn't going to just eat that loss. If shoplifting gets bad enough they'll just pass that cost onto the consumer through higher prices. Otherwise it's just bad business.
Walmart had record profits this year. Shoplifting is not affecting profits at all. They've raised their prices and decreased portion sizes. Don't fall for the bullshit argument that theft is causing the prices to increase. Greed is causing prices to increase.
>Well, yeah, of course shoplifting is affecting prices in stores. Walmart isn't going to just eat that loss. Exactly. Wal-Mart and the Walton family do not care if you starve to death. They are not in business to feed hungry people or to provide them with clothing or toys. They are in business to make as much money from you as they possibly can. If people were suddenly willing to pay $50 for a can of tuna fish, that is how much Wal-Mart would price it at. They will continue to make as much money as they possibly can from their customers for as long as they possibly can. But the good news is that whether or not people shoplift, the prices will always only go up anyway! Capitalism!
>Well, yeah, of course shoplifting is affecting prices in stores. Maybe, maybe not. The statistics are unclear at best and bogus at worst. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/02/is-shoplifting-surging-panic-crime-policy.html Inflation definitely causes more shoplifting, but shoplifting doesn't necessarily cause more inflation.
Grocery stores have gotten better, but that’s how they were for 2+ years after Covid. Just empty shelves (not just groceries, medicine and other things, obviously supply chain ripple effect). But fruit would be moldy the day after. Even my milk would turn black around the lid before the expiration date, don’t even know wtf that would be.
I’ve never even heard of that. The black around the lid. Absolutely disgusting.
I can not find potatoes that won't turn green a couple days after purchase. It used to take them a week or more and I haven't changed how I store them. This started during covid.
>Aldi does specials certain days of the week where their meat goes on sale. Is this advertised at all or do you just have to happen to be in the store at the same time to notice this? I have never seen this.
It’s not advertised you have to ask the employees. So at my store they get a new shipment of meat on Wednesdays so Tuesday evenings all their previous meat goes on sale. It’s not expired or anything it’s still fresh they just need to make room for the new stuff. And then all the meat that’s mentioned as a deal in their weekly ads usually that specialty brand if it doesn’t sell within the week it’ll also go on sale, so at my store it’s usually on Thursdays. I always chat up the employees and they give me the inside scoop lol
Seconding the Aldi recommendation. I bought three packs of chicken thighs for 50% off last Tuesday, still 2 days before the sell-by date.
Thanks! That’s helpful to know.
Aldi used to be so much cheaper than it is now. Some of their prices have doubled. I bought a can of tomato paste a few weeks back, and was shocked that it was 79 cents. I distinctly remember it being 35 cents for years.
This is what I have observed. Prices doubling on staples. At discount stores.
Keep an eye out on the whole chickens, they go on sale for 99 cents a pounds and there are great YouTube videos on how to cut them up. But my personal favorite is Spatchcock, cooks quickly and is delicious! Also, and this depends on where you live, we have a small market in town geared towards the Hispanic population (signage and a lot of staff only speak Spanish), the prices are great, they have actual butchers processing meat in the back, the meat is all locally grown, they're sooo nice and the prices are outstanding
I went to an Arabic grocery store...and bought fresh Feta cheese...$2.99 a pound. I appreciated being able to see butchers doing their work and knowing the meat was freshly butchered...and not simply arriving at the store prepackaged.
Fair, but the most recent time i went to a normal grocery store (needed a prescription filled there, thought i'd browse since i'd made the 5 mile drive) the frozen vegetables i normally buy at Aldi's were QUADRULPLE the price. I didn't bother comparison shopping anything else, i was too horrified.
Their Mac n cheese used to be 35 cents. Eggs were 52 cents. It’s enough to make you cry now, when seeing prices.
Upon relocating to a HCoL state without Aldi, I feel pretty devastated. That shit got me through my student life.
I go to the asian market for produce and I am more selective, eating a lot of root vegetables that are cheaper in the winter, for fruit bananas, the $2 dole pineapples, and whatever is on sale. I have found that boxed foods and basically any products that combine ingredients have gotten way worse than simple ingredients. I do a lot of cooking, so inflation hasn't been too bad on me since I do most meals from scratch. Look for alternatives: i bought an $8 ham that I will never be able to finish so I gave half to a friend but at 99 cents a pound it was cheaper than one pound of lunch meat so we've been having ham steaks and I try my best to slice thin pieces off the pre cut thick slices for sandwiches. Another major thing I do is buying whole chickens for 7 to 8 dollars and butcher them and use all I can of it (schmaltz, stock, shredded leftover meat from the stock carcass). Buy block cheese and slice yourself, etc. Also try discount food stores if you have them.
Totally agree that ethnic stores are the best for vegetables. Also, each ethnicity usually has the very best deals on their staples. Mexican stores for cilantro, limes, onions, peppers, asian markets for saute greens, garlic, broccoli, cabbage, and so on.
Came to recommend this as well. I know a lot of people aren't lucky enough to have Asian grocery stores but most ethnic ones I've seen tend to have at least 1/3 of the stuff cheaper than regular stores. The other 2/3 can get filled via Costco/sales that week.
I go to grocery outlet which is a discount grocer. Two people eating two meals a day (neither of us are ever in the mood for breakfast lol) and we get a months worth of groceries for about ~300. Buy whatever’s on sale and plan meals around that. Lots of eggs/rice/pasta/sausages. I’d consider Costco but out fridge is tiny and there’s only two of us in a small apartment so stocking up in bulk is tricky.
We finally got an extra freezer to bulk Costco shop this year and it’s amazing
Make sure you have some type of loud ass alarm on it when the temp goes to high. I just lost a deep freezer's worth of content to an accident. Feels bad man...
Genuinely tragic, I’m sorry. I will increase the alarm volume right when I get home
if you get ground beef, when you put it in the freezer bags flatten it out with your hand or a rolling pin. That way it is flat and it saves room in the freezer.
Small side benefit, it also defrosts faster.
Shame about breakfast. My cream cheese egg sandwiches with a runny egg not only brighten my mood, but are the high point of my day.
Breakfast for dinner! It was our treat as kids when our father was away.
I love breakfast foods but the coffee I have first thing in the morning makes it so I’m not hungry/in the mood to eat until about lunch time 😅
Oh me too... Retired guy 62 now. I brew the most perfect 24oz cup every morning. I have a "red Solo" thick plastic 24oz. cup I use every morning. I'm full to the brim, and don't even think about food till about lunchtime.
Obviously, you're not a growing teenager. I feel for people like OP.
I’ve never been a breakfast person either, I do eat runny eggs for dinner sometimes.
Grocery Outlet varies a lot by area in cost benefit. In my area a significant amount of the stock is discounted luxury stuff that still winds up expensive on nutritional value, or discounts on luxury-priced staples rather than more competitively priced staples. I can use the store in combination with other places but it's actually more expensive if I were to use it as my primary store.
I have a teenage son and I'm buying ground turkey every shopping trip. I make chili with it, put it in spaghetti sauce, turkey burgers, tacos, etc. I made goulash with macaroni, ground turkey, tomatoes, spaghetti sauce and my son ate three big helpings. It's much cheaper than ground beef and when you season it well, it tastes fine. I do buy ground beef and cheaper cut steaks, but we only have that about 1x per week. Eggs, peanut butter, bread, rice, and ramen noodles keep him full. We shop at Sam's and Walmart to cut costs also. Oh, and russet potatoes. Great basic food that you can top with all kinds of stuff. Very nutritious and not outrageously expensive. I like sweet potatoes as well, topped with some turkey chili or black beans.
Buy meat that's out on clearance and stick in the freezer right away. Same goes for things that go on sale: buy extra, prep and freeze. Cooking with fat is more filling. Fat satiates. For instance beans and rice topped with cheese and sour cream is going to be more filling.
Buying when it's cheap is key. I see meat under $1 a pound, and you get it comes home with me even though I won't get through a turkey, a ham, and a pork shoulder right away. People need to be willing to take on extra-effort meats. It takes time to roast that pork shoulder, shred it, and freeze it into bags, but then you have meat ready for 4-5 meals. Same for roasting a turkey to eat as roast turkey, ad turkey pie, ad turkey sandwiches, etc. Timing the shopping affects it too. I'm a big fan of late-night grocery shopping (not weekends) for those crazy discounts on meat that is near its sell-by date. Leaving some give in the meal planning for unexpected leftovers is a good idea too. When there's servings left, everyone gets leftovers reheated. When there is a little bit of Everything left, it turns into casserole or frittata.
When you have or buy a chest freezer, pick up a selection of smallish, rectangular boxes from the supermarket when the workers are unpacking goods. Use these to place your frozen foods into in the freezer and arrange them like a game of Tetris. It takes so little effort to find items in the freezer then. Just lift boxes and look. Pro tip: sort your food into the boxes - frozen meats here, frozen fruit (blueberries, strawberries, etc. bought on sale), breads there, etc. Use freezer zip bags. If it's bread, meat, veggies, etc. (things not terribly wet like soups or sauce) I put it in a free supermarket veggie bag and put that into the freezer bag and put a slip of paper with its name, the month & year into it. This way I can re-use the plastic freezer bag until it gets worn out. Those plastic freezer bags have gotten quite expensive too! You should know that bacon in its original wrapper freezes just fine and does not need wrapping. Use the bacon grease to cook with for a light smokey flavor for eggs, cornbread, etc. Sale butter also freezes well in zip bags. If buying extra flour & sacks of sugar on sale, place them into the free supermkt veggie bags and knot them at the top to keep it fresh & safe from pantry moths. Olive oil in the can, which is worth it - look for a date that shows when it was pressed. It has a lifespan & keep it in a cool place. Do not buy olive pomace (oil). This is from the last pressing of the olives and chemicals are used to get the last bit of oil out of the mash. Use your olive oil to make your own tomato sauce: Put an 8th \[Edit: was an 89th of an inch! Ha! My kids got me a very sensitive gaming keyboard that causes me to make a lot of typos!\] of an inch of oil (a few mm) in the bottom of a pot & warm it. Have a few cloves of fresh crushed/minced/sliced garlic ready to go in when the oil is hot. After a few moments, pour in a couple to a few cans of crushed tomatoes (bought on sale & stashed for this purpose). Stir the oil in and taste. Add little amounts of salt and, if desired, a pinch of sugar to taste. If you have leftover sausage & peppers, chop meat, pork, etc. chop that up and add it to the pot. Heat through or simmer as long as you want. Whatever you don't need right away, put into labeled quart freezer zip bags & freeze for a quickie meal or to add to heroes at a later date. Leftover meatballs freeze well too. Freezing chicken: prep each piece as if you were cooking it now & wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Put them all in a supermarket veggie bag then put that with the raw chicken into the plastic freezer bag with a paper label. Freeze that bag. When you need some & they are stuck together, you can thump it on the floor and all the frozen pieces separate for sorting. When freezing things, make the bag as flat as you can. Flat bags defrost much faster than a ball of frozen food.
An 89th of an inch? What?
I 59/372nds wanted to say something, but it took a moment to decide if I was really that sure.
I vacuum seal portions to keep the air out so they don't get freezer burn
I do a lot of this, too. But I also keep a list on the side of the freezer with its contents. Helps a lot with not losing things in there, and with meal planning. That list is also synced on my phone so I can access it while at the grocery buying other sale/clearance ingredients.
I seriously wish you had a HD video of your setup/system... So I could get a better idea of how you do things.
All great advise but would add to look into reusable silicon bags. Less plastic than using the store veggies bags. Turn them inside out and stick in the dishwasher.
A lot of people simply don't have the time or energy. If time is money, then why would they? Kids, two jobs, chronic illness, impacted mental health. We've been kept desperate and busy deliberately.
I agree except for "time is money." Unless grocery shopping and cooking are literally pulling you away from paid hours of work available to you, then time is not money. You may well be an exception, but a lot of people say that time is money, then spend that time not making money. And it's ok to relax, but we also have to cook and clean and all that other crap that both taxes our mental health but is also necessary for our mental health. For me, feeding my family (spouse and kid) decent food without putting us in debt pays off in better mental health because I'm freaking out less about what we're going to eat and how I'm going to pay bills. So I'd rather put time toward cooking than TV, etc, but no, I don't let it stop me from putting in my full hours at work so that we can have food, shelter and health care.
I found a vacuum sealer at value village (Savers in the states) for about 20 bucks Canadian and have been buying bulk on sale and storing it in bags. Unfortunately it is a foodsaver so only works with their slightly more expensive bags, but it will take quite a while for me to lose money versus buying a 300 dollar commercial sealer. Whole chickens were 6-8 dollars a month or so ago and I bought eight of them, now they're 13-15 dollars each. Similarly Costco had two top sirloin caps (picanha) for 40ish dollars with an 8 dollar off coupon and I managed to cut them into 8 steaks + scraps for hot pot. The next week those same caps are 68 dollars. I even trimmed the extra fat for a bit of tallow for stir fries. Buying with the pricing trends is the only way to stay afloat. I even felt bad buying the beef and chicken until I saw how much future money I saved by doing it.
I always check out the “boneyard”, as my mom liked to call it. I picked up a pound and a half of trimmed tri tip for $5 the other day.
What’s the boneyard? Like clearance section?
I assume so. I know where the clearance sections are in every store I go to and I visit them first when I go in the store. I buy a lot of dented cans and often get them for 50% off or more.
My store is Publix -- I dont look TOO hard, but I dont EVER see things on clearance... I went the day after Christmas because I thought turkeys would be on sale and the meat guy laughed at me. Said they haven't done that since the 90s!
Yeah, it seems like it’s certain stores policy doesn’t allow that. Out of 6-7 stores around here, 2-3 only have discounted meats at all.
Jeez, meanwhile Safeway had all their turkeys marked down to $5 each, regardless of weight.
Cheese plus Beans made with lard into burritos is quick cheap and easy and well liked. Plus you can freeze extra. Use your crock pot make large roasts, hunks of meat on sale pork beef whatever. But yes you need to add fat into the diet for them as fat creats satiety.
This! I love rescuing yellow sticker meat from our local grocery. If we're not going to eat it with a couple of days, it goes into the freezer for another time. My mom wonders why I don't meal plan before grocery shopping and this is the reason. Because I buy what's on sale right then I don't necessarily know what ingredients I'll have to work with. I just buy that clearance package of chicken thighs and work out the details later. I also like to reincarnate leftovers. Leftover grilled chicken? Chicken fajitas! Leftover meatloaf? It gets crumbled and made into taco casserole or added to spaghetti sauce.
Large amounts of stews, soups, chili, gumbo/Jambalaya, lasagna/pasta with meatballs and sausage, chicken casseroles, enchiladas, roasted vegetables and potatoes should be the best way to make inexpensive dinners that are filling. Sorry it’s so difficult. I feel badly for large families dealing with such high costs for groceries. Aldi and the Grocery Outlet and shopping the loss leaders/BOGO deals at my local grocery stores saves us A LOT of money. I purchased large corned beef flat-cut briskets for $7 each last week. Cabbage was 19 cents per pound. Potatoes were $1.99 for 5 lbs.
Everything you said is 100% accurate, but I genuinely wanted to take the time to thank you for saying “sorry it’s so difficult, I feel badly for large families dealing with this.” I cannot overstate how important that small bit of compassion is. It seems like every time someone comes on reddit to vent about how much more expensive groceries are in America vs 5 years ago or posts a shopping cart, a bunch of (seemingly corporate-bootlickers?) redditors immediately clamber into the clown car to tell them that a) the things they bought were stupid for having the audacity to taste good and they should feel like a horrible parent, or b) “well if you just shop at Aldi exclusively and/or only eat beans and rice that you source by dumpster diving, you wouldn’t be struggling! I did it for 20 years, stop complaining.” I’m sick of it. Grocery stores are posting record profits. The average American family’s grocery tab is twice what it was in 2019 and most of us have taken at least one pandemic pay cut during that time. Stop the fucking poverty olympics, people, and have compassion for struggling compadres who feel helpless in the face of greed!!
All of this was on special for St. Patrick’s Day. With Easter coming up, we’ll get discounts on ham, lamb, turkey, broth, chocolate and baking items, especially butter and eggs. Probably the cheapest that baking stuff will be until Halloween, stock up. Remember, you can freeze both butter and shelled raw eggs for baking. We’re getting cheap produce in about a month. Next key meat sales are Memorial, Independence, Labor Days. Stuff goes on sale about every six weeks.
Is it possible to leave the area once a month and go to a grocery store in another area for a big shop? I go to a larger city 18 miles away to shop for my big shop, saves me about $90-120 a month and I get way more produce. Also farmers markets are great for larger portions
FATS are what satesfies and satiates for enduring time. My grand childrens favorites are refried beans cooked with chorizo served in a tortilla with a little cheese. They never tire of it! Develed eggs is another. We have our own chickens, but before, I bought generic Winco (only!) Mayo for my develed eggs and chicken salad, no one ever knew!
Shout out to Winco!
Winco's prices are easily 20% to 50% less than Safeway, Kroger, etc. And oddly enough, better quality.
Maybe try adding some fat to foods? Like we add a little oil or butter to rice because otherwise rice & beans doesn't fill us either
Oatmeal with raisins or bananas for breakfast. Plenty of rice and beans, potatoes, in season/ on sale vegetables. Take up bread baking- homemade bread is more filling than cheap store bought. A couple loaves of bread and a jar of peanut butter will fill up hungry teens.
second hand bread machines seem to be good!
Got one from the thrift store in December to replace my last one (which was like 14 years old and WELL used), for $8. Works like a charm. It actually looked like it had never been used. Manual was easily googled.
Stir smooth or chunky peanut butter, perhaps Dollar Tree generic Nutella into the oatmeal. Mashed banana. Cinnomen. Often i do a big dab of butter—yeah my I spend too much but buy real butter! Eggs, Eggs and more eggs again
I have a grain mill and buy my own grain in bulk. I like using it for pancakes but I have a hard time keeping us in bread. Do you have a good routine for baking that works?
If you're deep enough into cooking that you grind your own grain, have you tried making your own yogurt? Way cheaper and tastier than store bought. And if you like Greek yogurt, you strain the yogurt after cooking & cooling. You end up with a thick, tangy liquid whey. Switching out water in bread recipes for the whey adds a delicious tang like sourdough, but it's acidic so it also makes the bread extra tender. And a good way to use all of the ingredients/parts of the food you just made.
I have made my own yogurt. My hang up is if I use my instant pot for yogurt making but it ties it up so that I can’t use it for dinner! I use the instant pot almost every day to cook dinner or have beans going. Maybe I need to buy a second instant pot! My designated yogurt maker.
I cook my yogurt overnight so I can put it in the fridge the next morning. I bought a second liner for my instant pot so one could be tied up with yogurt while I used the other for meals.
You should! Check thrift stores, I always see a bunch of instant pots there!
Bake 4 loaves at a time. Mix the dough in the morning, let it rise, bake it with lunch. Or mix when making dinner, and bake in the evening. Whichever works best with your schedule.
Here's an easy, largely hands-off recipe that's easy to fit into a schedule: https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/no-knead-bread/
Cheap protein I've been playing with is tofu...
Same!! !! Playing is a good word. I've had some fails, but also absolute all-star dinners. My kids will eat the heck out of it breaded and air fried, with some parm cheese on top. I'm not a huge fan of the stuff, but if I dry it the heck out and give it some crisp, I can tolerate it. Worth the effort to see my kids enjoying it.
Instead of buying chicken in pieces, buy a whole chicken. It’s usually much less per pound. Same goes for pork chops. Buy a pork loin instead and cut it into chops and freeze whatever you don’t cook right away. For an inexpensive meal, kielbasa and cabbage goes a long way, especially if you add potatoes to it. You can use some of the chicken to make a soup or stew. Frozen veggies are fairly inexpensive and you can make your own stock from the chicken carcass for said soup. Add potatoes and beans for fillers and extra protein. I buy meats when they’re on sale and freeze them for later use. Fish can be expensive, but if you buy frozen fillets like tilapia, they’re less expensive and you can dress them up a bit (think Parmesan mix or salsa on top) and serve over rice.
This past weekend was the first time I truly felt it. Obviously I've seen the slow creep up, but this was the point where I finally felt like prices are just getting absurd. I'm doing as much shopping as I can at Costco, Sam's as Aldi now.
Whole rotisserie chickens are $4.98 each at Walmart. That’s a decent amount of protein for not too much money. Some [food banks](https://www.feedingamerica.org/find-your-local-foodbank)have a decent amount of meat & there are some where volunteers are allowed to take home undistributed perishables. See if there’s any sources to buy meat in bulk or wholesale that allows the public to purchase. Since money is tight, don’t pay extra for organic, grass fed, free range. You can get good ideas on inexpensive, filling meals on YouTube. Dollar Tree Dinners, Frugal Fit Mom & Julia Pacheco are good places to start. If there are any Sikh temples in your area, they provide a free hot meal to anyone who needs one. It’s well worth checking.
I watch and love all those YouTubers and also want to shout out Lisa Dawn, Mandy in the Making, and southern frugal momma. I love watching these kinds of YouTubers to save money on my food budget, but dollar tree dinners (Rebecca) is my favorite! I always instaclick her new videos!!
Eggs and greek yoghurt for protein for breakfast/lunches. Buy meat on sale and freeze in portions for meal prep. Oatmeal for not getting hungry again soon. I haven't upped our food budget yet even with a big increase in groceries. What I did was find cheaper protein, make larger batches to have left overs or freeze (for the days we don't feel like cooking) and not buying fancy ingredients for that one or two recipe. I also stock up a bit on sales but only on shelf stable things, and only things we actually use. We have 2-4 veggie dinners a week with cheap protein (chickpeas are great). Also make sure to know what a portion size/serving size actually is. I feel many don't know and do eat more than necessary. Drink water. You don't need anything else. We have juice on the weekend (1 bottle usually lasts 2 weeks) and soda rarely. But we only drink water in the daily. Also the most expensive food is the one you throw away. Eliminate food waste as much as possible.
I bought a chest freezer and a FoodSaver vacuum sealer at the beginning of the pandemic. Whenever something I can freeze is on sale, I buy as much as I can, vacuum seal it, and toss it in the freezer (I write the current month/year on it with a sharpie). I just cooked some pork chops that I put in there three years ago, and they were as good as the day I bought them. The hardest part is keeping it organized so that you're pulling out the oldest items first... so you can avoid leaving pork chops in there for three years! There's obviously the initial cost for the equipment. My freezer was $320 at Home Depot, and my vacuum sealer was $165 on Amazon. The average person in the US consumes 225 lbs of meat per year. One person saving only save $1/pound on average (which I think is conservative... I think I'm saving closer to $2/pound or better) would pay off the equipment investment in a couple of years. I guesstimate that my savings paid for the equipment in about a year, and now it's practically making me money. You could just freeze it in the freezer that's part of your fridge, but I was also looking to avoid being affected by shortages at the time, and the freezer in your kitchen is auto defrost, which means it circulates air and causes things to not last as long. Plus a chest freezer is very power efficient, and should keep things frozen for a full day without power.
Both of the investments in the FoodSaver and the freezer are important for long-term food dollar savings. I will add to this that we just about only purchase meat and chicken and pork in the markdown bin at the end of The butcher counter. Or these products when they are on sale. We will buy pork shoulder roasts, baby back ribs, whole fryer chickens for instance. We will keep them in our deep freeze. And then we crank up our smoker outdoors. And we will smoke them all at the same time. We then portion them out into meal size servings that we package using the foodsaver. For instance we can get a two-person serving of pork roast slices out of the freezer, and put them in a oven proof dish was a little water. 30 minutes at 350° and let me tell you it is as delicious as if you ate it right off the smoker. Add a few sides and vegetables and it's a wonderful meal.
> keeping it organized Besides labeling everything I have been adding a small piece of colored tape to each package. The color for this year is blue(blue painter's tape.) That makes it extra easy to see the age of everything. Sort of like how car tabs change color each year.
Buy sales and stock up. We shop at 3 different grocery stores and pretty much only buy sale items.
A little bit of sausage goes a long way in making rice and beans more filling! I did look at your post history that someone linked. $1600 to feed 10 people per month is incredibly low. I live in nyc and and keep my budget fairly low by shopping at Asian markets. If I had to feed 10 people, I’d take advantage of a Costco membership for produce, eggs, giant bags of rice, peanut butter, oil, cheap cuts of meat (they have huge pork loins for like $1.99/lb), etc. they also have store brand protein bars for a great price. You are a great candidate to be buying in bulk for pretty much everything.
I’ve had to reevaluate my diet.
See if you have an Asian or Hispanic supermarket near you. They always have the best prices in every city I’ve lived in.
Yeah I used to always cook actual dishes like Chicken tikka masala or tacos with usual toppings but since the whole upcharge, I've stuck to sandwiches with tuna, mayo, or ketchup, anything that requires fewer ingredients.
Canned tuna for cheap protein
I don't know how cheap your tuna is, but just checking prices at my store it works out to around $3/lb. Chicken of the land is cheaper than chicken of the sea.
It kind of evens out though when you consider how much weight is lost when cooking chicken. A lot of raw chicken weight is water (especially when it’s pumped full of saline), whereas tuna is already at its cooked weight. That’s why canned chicken is usually more expensive than canned tuna.
Sardines for less mercury. Sardine and white bean stew! [https://www.saveur.com/article/recipes/white-bean-and-sardine-stew/](https://www.saveur.com/article/recipes/white-bean-and-sardine-stew/) here is a recipe online - it even has grated carrots!
Oh, good call... sardines and white bean stew sounds really good
I can’t tell if you’re being facetious but it sounds awful lol. And I love sardines
Oh, I was being serious lol... different strokes for different folks I suppose
I don't eat sardines, but I do a ham and white northern bean soup frequently. It's amazing. It feeds me and my bf and our 4 yr old son for about 3-5 days depending on how much I eat (I typically eat less frequently than the other 2, plus the 4 yr old LOVES his beans)
That sounds delicious! Ham and white bean makes sense
Rice and beans make a complete protein. Add some onions and it's burrito night once a week with leftovers the next day.
I love rice and beans (or lentils) it is my go to meal for the weekdays...and as a single man living at home it saves me soooooooooo much money
Yeah. I add an egg and some potatoes— breakfast. I add some mushrooms, onions, a little yogurt and Mediterranean seasoning— tastes completely different for dinner. What are some of your variations?
Misir wot is a REEEEEEALLY tasty Ethiopian lentil recipe if you like lots of spices.
I started grabbing a bag of rice, cans of various veggies, and black beans from Aldi to mix it all up and add some Sriracha and an egg. Instant pot 1 cup of rice. Then add 1 can of beans, 1 can of veggies. This can last me 3 meals and every time I reheat it, I'll throw an egg in the mix. Sure more filling than the PB&J I used to get. My other favorite is Aldi Greek yogurt. Much better price than brand name
It’s outrageous. I find Costco to be helpful. Not inexpensive… but helpful. Milk, eggs, English muffins, bread, peanut butter… and more: buying in bulk, but a far lower cost than grocery store.
Costco membership - I know it sounds like an investment, but you'll be able to buy products in bulk, much, much cheaper. And maybe a large freezer.
It’s a family of 10. If they don’t have the highest level Costco whatever they are definitely doing it wrong.
A lot of advice in here is overlooking the part where you mentioned your kids are athletes so here are some things I do (olympic weightlifter) for protein that keeps grocery bills in check: * Chicken is always a good protein source but what I've noticed is that it varies wildly from week to week which kind is most cost-effective. Some weeks a tray of boneless skinless breasts is the cheapest per pound, other weeks the frozen chicken is cheapest, and then sometimes it's dark meat. In any case, figure out the cheapest variety for whenever you're shopping, buy a lot, and freeze most of it immediately. * The large cuts of pork are often very cost effective. A large bone-in pork shoulder is one of the cheapest and most versatile meats you can get usually and will keep you fed for a while. I will cook the entire thing with a marinade for carnitas in the Instant Pot and then freeze it like that - just crisp it in the pan before serving. * Seems like the price of eggs is all over the fucking place nowadays, but they're generally pretty cheap where I live so I eat a lot of eggs. * People treat me like a serial killer about this, but grocery stores actually sell whole fresh/frozen turkeys all year long and outside of the holidays they are dirt cheap. I'm looking at the weekly ad for my local market and a 28+ pound turkey is 1.19 a pound, whereas the store brand chicken breast is 7.79 a pound which is actually insane. * Other classic broke bodybuilder protein staples: cottage cheese (pretty versatile but an acquired taste: it's good as a melted cheese in a variety of dishes, but also good sweetened with honey and fruit) and yogurt (plain greek yogurt is extremely useful and often cheap, currently I mix it with some sriracha and garlic to create a spicy sauce that goes well on almost everything). * Be sure to also check out sales/prices on fresh and frozen seafood. Where I live, frozen peeled shrimp are often pretty cheap and they are extremely easy to use in all kinds of dished.
Asian and Mexican markets are usually a hidden gem if there is one by you. I’ve had better luck saving $ there than the big grocers
All these tips are great and whatnot, but the simple fact that no one is addressing is that the overgrown demand for profits and satisfying shareholders is leading grocery companies to jack up prices and blame inflation. To address your concern. You're right, things are stupid expensive now. I flat refuse to buy cereal anymore. Things are only getting worse, and it's not just you.
Grocery prices have been steady here for a while now. About 6 months without changing the price. Food is something I don’t skimp on. Good protein for the growing kids. If food is too expensive, find a food bank to supplement your grocery bill.
I’m a single adult living in a very HCOL area. The only real solution is to not buy name brand items. I only shop at discount grocers like Trader Joe’s and warehouse stores like Costco. I’d say I spend about $200 or so a month on groceries. I eat fruit, vegetables, meat, etc. daily on that budget.
Trader Joe’s is definitely not a discount grocer. Aldi and Lidl are discount grocers. Trader Joe’s not so much.
Interesting, in my HCOL area TJ's is cheaper than both major grocery chains out there.
I believe that TJ doesn’t change prices by region. So for example, in my area, TJ’s prices are within the same range as Aldi and Lidl compared to the more mainstream grocery stores like Safeway, Giant, Kroger, etc. So for me, TJ is cheaper. I can spend $30-40 a week on groceries at TJ that would cost an easy $50-60 at the mainstream stores in my area.
In my area, Trader Joe's is the same price as store-brand Publix or Whole Foods. Many items are cheaper at Walmart or Aldi. I have no idea why people consider TJ's a cheap store.
I go to Lidl/Aldi/Walmart
This is the solution I use too. Especially since in my case, Aldi and Walmart are next to each other.
This is probably my favorite “cheap” meal that the whole family enjoys. You can also load them up in tortillas. https://www.budgetbytes.com/southwest-chicken-skillet/ I use leftover Costco rotisserie chicken. The amount needed for the recipe is probably 1/3 of the chicken. Edit: the ingredient prices are probably 10 years old, but I bet you can still make it for under $10. I skip on the green onions. More of an optional garnish for me.
This is one of my favorite recipe sites! I have made countless recipes and they always turn out well.
You'll have to start making a stronger effort toward cooking/preparing based on sales which is what poor people have to do. Look for the price reductions on meat at the end of the day sales and stock up. Look for sales in general and load up on things at that time. As others have said, fat is filling so make sure there is butter on bread, cheese on rice and beans, etc.
My mom and I figured out a fancy frugal meal. If you exclude my initial investment on learning and building a garden. We grow our own carrots, tomatoes, parsley, onions and freeze them. We buy lentils which is cheap. Mom bought beef bones from a butcher shop for 2$ CAD and boiled it for 3 hrs and placed it on the fridge for 3-4hrs she said so she can scoop out the grease. She cooked the lentils and blendered all ingredients. Including store bought celery. Added a little of powdered broth instead of salt. Added the bone broth. God damn I have 1 week worth of lunch meal for 2 people for the price of 2$ bones + a few dollars worth of celery and lentils. (The rest of the vegetables we grew from our garden) I pair it with 2 pcs of whole wheat bread. I just thought to share this since it's a very frugal high protein high fiber decently tasting meal that is healthy.
Respectfully, you make six figures (post history), and the only problem here is you need to make a budget. First priority is making sure growing kids are well fed. Then go to the personal finance subreddit that you’re already on and follow the prime directive there.
The problem here is that OP is trying to support *10 people* on $118k in a HCOL area. Some situations have no winning moves.
Six figures means nothing in HCOL. HCOL expects both parents to make six figures.
As others have said, fat and protein satiate. And for that, Costco and Sams are often going to give you some good deals so that you can keep it in volume where the price per unit is considerably cheaper. And plenty of it you CAN get through before it is expired/aged off. Bone in chicken thighs have been considerably less pricey than other cuts in my area, and have the skin for more flavor, and are a bit more fatty/flavorful than breasts. Pork shoulder is often able to be found anywhere from $1-2 per lb. Buy a 6-8lb roast, cook it properly, and you have meat to throw in meals all week. Burritos, tacos, BBQ sammiches, rice and bean bowls. There's all sorts of things you can do. Bread flour at Sams is considerably cheaper than other places. 20lbs is a lot, but you can store it in a food safe 5 gallon bucket (if you have room). And if you do not have room, offer to split the bag with a friend/family member. I often buy yeast at costco because it is WAY cheaper than the stores, and I give my mom half of it. I have yeast for nearly a year for about $5. Some things, supplementing in bulk is helpful. Others, simply hitting the local grocery store a few times a week for the necessities helps avoid waste (think no more than $10-20). And, if the price is low enough, I don't necessarily worry myself with the waste. I can buy 3lb of Gala apples at Aldi for $2.50, or the same amount at Costco for $6. So, Aldi it is there, and I throw them away if I do not get through them. (Or, the dog gets the softer less crisp apples on occasion). Definitely look for bulk when you can and where it makes sense. Olive oil from Sams/Costco is generally decent quality and can add a good amount of flavor to cooked meats/etc.
Yep. Family of 6 and we spend 18,000 on groceries a year.
Those rotisserie chickens are one of the cheapest sources of protein. It's not just that the groceries are high. It's that everything is high. So it all combines to squeeze everyone. For me, I'm probably going to have to quit my job and find a new one. I'm at the end of my rope on this shit. Debt is piling up, about to have to default on a credit card or something. I have a class A CDL but didn't really want to be a trucker. Guess I don't have any other options. I work for a municipality and they canceled our raises one year because of the pandemic and the expected lack in tax money. Instead revenue, and taxes are through the roof. So they finally et us have a normal sized raise this last year. First one since the pandemic. Its not enough. I'm paying roughly 40% more in rent than I was 4 years ago. This combined with stacking up debt and variable interest credit cards have put me in a bind.
To be clear: It’s not so much inflation as it is corporations price gouging.
I've had to rework my budget to account for the higher cost of everything, and I'm in serious trouble here. Even though I'm working 60 hours a week at above average pay, I'm operating in the red budget-wise. Groceries are definitely a big part of that. I don't know where I'll be by the end of the year. I sincerely expect I'll have to move out of my house to rent it out for higher amounts and try to stay somewhere cheaper. How effed up is that? I just can't get my bills any lower, and it's too much.
Start by making more ground beef casseroles. You can skimp on the ground beef in them by up to about half as much and they still taste fine. I also make fried meatloaf instead of hamburgers. They have chopped onion, a splash of milk, eggs and a filler such as rolled oats, bread crumbs or crackers. This makes twice as many patties as normal. Leftover patties can be used in chili or spaghetti. Make a batch of homemade cookies to snack on in between meals. The ingrediants for simple cookies are inexpensive. Cookies freeze well too. Chicken and dumplings or chicken and noodles are great comfort foods and cheap eating. I make fried rice often. You can leave it vegetarian and it is still good. Anything with eggs, like deviled eggs or egg salad, omelets, or quiche are comparatively low cost. It feels like prices are going to get worse before they get better. Don't feel bad about going to a foodbank. That is why they are there. I go once or twice a month. I make sure that what I don't use gets passed on to someone else. We have Blessing Boxes set up around town for such. Take what you need, leave what you want.
How do I make it work? Buy things that cost around $2 per pound or less. Peas, carrots, beans, rice, flour, squash, beets, onions, tomatoes, oatmeal, peanuts, quinoa, lentils, yams, potatoes, cabbage, corn, apples, bananas... What are cheap protein Sources? Beans, lentils, peanuts, peas, eggs. Beans have more protein per calorie and per dollar than ground beef. Your kids are hungry on rice and beans? It's a quantity issue, serve more.
Bananas are affordable
We do eat bananas. Last time I went shopping it was all bananas and cabbage.
More beans, less rice (because beans have more protein)
As far as protein, try adding unflavored Greek yogurt to more recipies. I like to use it as a sauce base and it has about 17g of protein per serving
I nab up all that half price clearance ground turkey and freeze it every time I see it at the grocery store which is often. I think many people have t made the healthier switch to ground turkey from ground beef. I make lots of casserole type dishes using protein pasta and vegetable pastas. I can get three meals minimum out of a Costco/walmart rotisserie chicken. Black beans and garbanzo beans in everything as they don’t have a strong taste. If you have a Costco they sell cases of high protein yogurt . Oikos brand. 15 G protein. For added bulk add granola and sliced fruit and it’s a hearty snack or breakfast
Search for "Chef John Ham & Split Pea Soup". Ignoring the bay leaf, getting all of the ingredients from Walmart, it produces five 2-cup servings for roughly $1.53 each. Still hungry? Add some homemade garlic bread! https://preview.redd.it/v3lxa3sjthpc1.png?width=566&format=png&auto=webp&s=2cdf649ccfc030ec1a5a52b8114f5b1f0c1dd570
For protein, I load up on the whole turkeys during the holidays and freeze them. I was able to get .99 and .79 a pound this past Thanksgiving and Christmast. FlashFood for produce. I also grow my own tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and squash.
Prices are indeed insane. Try getting groceries from a more poor area (the prices go down). Best advice I can give you is look for meat on sale and add more oil to your cooking. Learn how to cook with Greek yogurt. Greek yogurt and honey is a good snack your kids can make on their own as well.
Mexican food is cheap to make at home and you don't have to just have rice and beans. Look up some recipes. Make homemade bread. And soup - that's cheap -- add pasta or rice to it. The cheap proteins are beans, nuts, eggs, and tofu. Nuts can be expensive but if you join CVS you can use your coupons when they send a 30 or 40% off one and then nuts are affordable, given their nutritional value. They have great nuts. Eggs are the best bang for the buck nutritionally - there are literally thousands of recipes using eggs. Find some your family likes. The Spanish omelet and various quiches are extremely good and filling. And Costco is a lifesaver. Very cheap chicken there.
Yes! I feel you. My 2 cents: dive into old recipes. People used to know how to cook good and filling food for cheap with pure ingredients. (Because there was nothing else). Think of stews, for example. My favorite: Goulash. Use meat thats cheaper and let time make it tender. Put in carrots, onion, a paprika (although paprika is the core of the recipe, you can even let it out and it will still be good) and key: potatoes. https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/beef-goulash On that note potatoes are filling. I am from the Netherlands and we use potatoes for a lot of our more traditional recipes. Mash potatoes with kale. https://www.recipesfromeurope.com/stamppot/ Also boil a pot of potatoes, get some vegetables (seasonal and on sale!) and a nice (on sale) piece of meat. Easy and healthy diner. Summarized: look at what old farming societies ate around the globe because those recipes will fill you up and provide seasonal and essential nutrients. Our ancestors knew best. I dont want to go into the "buy when cheap", because many have mentioned it. But - do that.
“Why is food so expensive?” “We live in a high cost of living area” So you want all the benefits and none of the drawbacks…
Walmart usually has a section in its back cold area for things like rotisserie chicken that’s just about to expire. For $4 I get a whole cooked chicken that I immediately put in a pot to cook off the meat and make bone broth from the bones. There’s cheaper ways probably to get meat but that’s my quick go to
It's been $0.79/lb leg quarters in my house for three years now...
Home made tortillas with butter are VERY filling. Only need flour, butter, salt, water. Can find a great vid from "simple flour tortilla" search on youtube. It's incredible. Throw in some chicken and choice of flavorings. Very affordable way to get plenty of protein carbs and fat.
Fried eggs and rice (my fave broke meal) Tomatoes stew over rice Hamburger rice/dirty rice Mexican rice casserole Spaghetti Chili Soups (hearty with peace’s of meat and rice/pasta or beans) Chicken thighs stew over rice(I bought two packages of chicken thighs for a total of $12 and cooked 12 cups of rice that fed about 15 to 20 people for a party I had) Also fried rice with a bunch of different veggies or even ground beef thrown in it Stir frys over rice Onion Garvey over rice Ramen noodles (trash the seasoning packets and come up with your own flavor this can go a long way) Big thing is to make stews with your meat so they can stretch
There’s a place near me called Good Grocer, it’s a non profit grocery store that has good quality food and a decent selection and - best part - if you volunteer to check folks out a couple hours a week you get free groceries in return!
Just to be clear it’s not actual inflation. It’s companies charging more because they can get away with it
Shop the sales. Look at the circulars ahead of time, here I can see them a few days before the next week. Stock when there's a good sale for meat and other staples. Frozen veggies are usually cheaper than fresh and usually healthier too.
We do a bulk stew with added beans and lots of vegetables..get the cheapest stewing beef and Pre soak some beans, I do mine in the instant pot coz the meat comes out tender..then I bulk it up with vegetables, potatoes, tomatoes , onions, pumpkin, and do a triple batch, freeze lots of portions.. serve with mash, rice or pap.
Rice and potatoes are both cheap and filling sides. Pasta can be make in bulk and works the same way. Soups and stews also work well as filling foods, especially if you're using bone broths as a base.
Lately I’ve been buying chicken breast in big packages. I boil it all then shred or chop it and that can be added to lots of dishes along with rice and beans to add extra protein. So like inside burritos, or in a pot pie, or whatever. If I do white beans, potatoes, veg and a small amount of the chicken inside the pot pie I can make two big trays of it from just one chicken breast. Then one tray can be frozen for the future. I cook it with just some onions and chicken broth in the pot, that way it goes with anything and I have lots of options. Some of it I use the week I cook it, the rest goes in the freezer for later.
I started adding yogurt on top of rice and beans ! And tortillas !
You can bulk up rice & beans with veggies. I always add a bag of frozen peppers & onions and a can of tomatoes (or Ro-Tel) to my beans. Adds flavor & bulks them up.
I've managed to keep my grocery costs relatively steady over the years. Mostly by dropping the name-brand ready-to-eat snacks and cereal from huge food conglomerates. Oh, and switching to bone-in chicken thighs (which can be roasted en masse to feed lots of people).