The Price of Groceries

[FunInTheSunParticipant 8283]

Sometimes I add up my receipts to see how much money I’ve spent on groceries. I can easily spend $150 in a month. There was a time (long ago) when $50 could buy a lot of groceries, but now it doesn’t seem to buy much—unless you like to eat a lot of bread and peanut butter. I’m trying to avoid the frozen TV dinners—unless they’re on sale. A lot of TV dinners have enticing covers, but when you open up the package, you don’t get much for the price. $4 for a box of cereal or a bag of potato chips seems a bit too much for me. It probably only costs the company a small fraction of that to actually produce the product.

Are the prices getting higher in your part of the world? I lived in a couple of states in The South (USA) and I noticed the grocery prices where cheaper there.

"I saw that there comes a point, in the defeat of any man of virtue, when his own consent is needed for evil to win-and that no manner of injury done to him by others can succeed if he chooses to withhold his consent. I saw that I could put an end to your outrages by pronouncing a single word in my mind. I pronounced it. The word was ‘No.’" (Atlas Shrugged)

[Anonymous 12]

I think in Australia they are pretty stable. I don’t pay a great deal of attention to be honest. What I do however is buy up big when things are on sale, about twice a year Woolworth’s will have washing detergent on 50% off, I buy up BIG, as in I bought about 40 boxes 3 years ago and I still have a huge amount of boxes left, so I’m using detergent at 2013 prices.

Same with meats when they are heavily reduced, I have a freezer so will stock that up. I do it with anything I need or want that I can store.

[BeerParticipant 11832]

I usually just buy whats on sale and prices haven’t really gotten much higher by doing that. I also try to avoid pre-made food as its really not any cheaper than just making your own food. Its the sales and coupons that make the difference though.

Last week for example…I bought a pork loin for 1.79lb, and some grapes for 1.99lb. This week neither of those things are on sale and they are both going for 3.99lb. That 6 dollars worth of meat and 5 dollars worth of grapes I bought last week would have cost me more than double this week…so instead this week I bought the chicken breasts that were on sale, some oranges, and pears that were all under 2 bucks a pound.

I also buy canned foods when they have big sales since they last for a long time there is no harm on stocking up even if its something you might not use for a year. Same for things like garbage bags and shampoo…I’ll buy the bigger sizes as they are generally cheaper per bag or per ounce and easy enough to store until needed or refill a smaller container with.

Yes…I think grocery prices have gotten f~~~ing outrageous if you just run in and blindly grab stuff and don’t look at prices, but if you are smart about it they haven’t really gone up all that much. I know I’ve had trips to the grocery store in the past where I thought god damn…how did that cost so much…but once I started cooking my own food more and paying attention to prices more I generally walk out feeling like I’m getting a lot more bang for my buck and my price per meal for real food is probably about 2-3 dollars per feed.

[FunInTheSunParticipant 8283]

Beer wrote:

but once I started cooking my own food more and paying attention to prices more I generally walk out feeling like I’m getting a lot more bang for my buck and my price per meal for real food is probably about 2-3 dollars per feed.

That’s a great idea.

"I saw that there comes a point, in the defeat of any man of virtue, when his own consent is needed for evil to win-and that no manner of injury done to him by others can succeed if he chooses to withhold his consent. I saw that I could put an end to your outrages by pronouncing a single word in my mind. I pronounced it. The word was ‘No.’" (Atlas Shrugged)

[MoonlightParticipant 223]

Since the Canadian dollar dropped about 20-30% in value, all imported food has roughly doubled or tripled in price within a year’s time. I plan all my meals around sales although the sale prices are often the former regular prices. Thankfully there’s no tax on food.

[ResidentEvil7Participant 9541]

I shop at my local Aldi (which is coincidentally headquartered 2 miles from where I live), and there I get skim milk for $1.49 a gallon, I get the cheapest chicken breast they have there, which I usually get between $2.80 – $3.30, I like to get a whole chicken for under $5, I get a 2-pound value pack of tilapia fish for $4.99. I also get my vegetable favorites like: regular onions, green onions, frozen broccoli, sliced mushrooms, grape tomatoes. I get my canned white kidney beans, canned spinach, canned pineapples, canned black olives (costs almost as much as a gallon of milk). I like to get frozen blueberries and strawberries for my protein shake smoothies. I get my solid white tuna fish. My average grocery bill is about $40 a week, and I don’t pay tax on them since SNAP benefits remove the tax.

So I do pretty good on groceries. I don’t need to go to a higher end grocery store like Jewel-Osco (now playing a Monopoly contest game) to get the foods I need. Aldi is like 50% off everything the other stores charge. Who cares if it’s not a known brand name? It all tastes the same to me.

https://themanszone.webs.com/

[Anonymous 3]

I buy groceries in the local big supermarkets most of the time. They seem to always mess and mix up the departments and the prices, and put things to another shelves to make you search more and spend more time in the shop. When I was shorter on money, I created a list on a sheet of paper about the different type of groceries I use, and went into the shops just to figure out prices. Now I know from the list, if a given price is “expensive” or “cheap”. I have a habit to always buy the same brand of things, that are cheap. Of course, prices are changing randomly, one has to be careful.

[The Laughing ManParticipant 1020]

Damn, I spend at least 150 a week and only really eat meat and veggies. Most of the cost go to cleaning supplies, toiletries, and snacks. It’s the snacks mostly, I can’t keep them around so end having to buy lots of small portions which isn’t very cost effective. My diet dicipline has its limits haha.

I thought what I'd do was I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes...or should I?

[ResidentEvil7Participant 9541]

$150 a week? You must have a family to take care of or you live in an up-scale town, because I only live on $40 a week.

https://themanszone.webs.com/

[The Laughing ManParticipant 1020]

No family and renting a 440 sqft apartment in the suburbs. I have a good job which allows me a healthy life style. If I lost that job those numbers would be adjusted.

On the flipside I live paycheck to paycheck while hammering away dept so definitely not light the high life.

I thought what I'd do was I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes...or should I?

[hollowtipsParticipant 681]

Honestly for me I stopped paying for red meat. It’s a rip off in today’s society and full of all kinds of hormonal s~~~. I might on special occasions have burgers or ribs but I mostly eat chicken, fish and vegetables for protein.

All the snacks I have in the day are fruits. A couple months ago I would spend 10-25 dollars on snacks weekly. Now I spend about 8 on fruits. I’ve become crazy health. Banana’s and oranges are good staples and you need to just look around for whats on sale.

Cook you own food at home and save the leftovers. Oatmeal is a staple cheap breakfast in bulk that can last easily a month or two. Same with rice as a staple dinner. Pasta lasts a long time as well. It’s true you must be more consciously aware and careful if you want to hang onto your dollars these days but it’s possible.

Oh I also drink nothing but water and occasionally beer or wine. Paying money for a drink when water is free is a rip off.

[Anonymous 42]

Snacks:$0.00
Soda: $0.00
Alcohol: $0.00
Tobacco: $0.00
Meats: $25.00
Fruits: 20.00
Vegetables: $15.00
Pussy: $0.00
Life: PRICELESS

[RennieParticipant]

In Canada prices of food have definitely been creeping up. I am in the process of cutting back, especially on fast food.

I need to stock pile a bunch of those tasty, inexpensive canned meatball stews.

[Author]

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