I feel like I'm losing my mind tbh. I shop at No Frills, I buy the cheapest versions of everything, I meal prep on Sundays like everyone says to do and somehow I'm still spending like $380 a month just on food for myself. That's insane right? Like that used to be what I'd spend feeding two people a few years ago.
I don't even buy anything fancy anymore, just chicken thighs when they're on sale, rice, frozen veggies, eggs, the discount bread. I stopped buying coffee out, I bring lunch to work every single day. My coworkers go out for lunch and I'm sitting there with my sad container of leftover stir fry for the third day in a row.
The worst part is I'll look at my receipt and it'll be like $87 for what feels like nothing? A pack of chicken, some produce that'll probably go bad before I use it all, pasta, and somehow it adds up so fast. I tried doing the whole "only shop the perimeter" thing and "stick to your list" but prices are just wild now.
Am I missing something obvious here or is everyone just quietly struggling with this and nobody wants to admit it? Because I'm tired of eating the same rotation of like 5 meals but genuinely don't know what else to cut without just eating rice and beans every day.
Cheap groceries seem impossible now, is anyone else's budget completely out of control?
byu/Signal_Way_2559 inFrugal
Posted by Signal_Way_2559
14 Comments
That seems pretty high, are you shopping at like Aldi or a Kroger/Food Lion equivalent?
It’s outrageous. I get legitimate anxiety going grocery shopping.
I eat rice and beans with a different animal protein
every single day
I started shopping for enough to last three days instead of shopping once a week. Then I try to make the three days of food last for five days. (Sometimes by making a soup from the left-overs and sometimes by adding extra sides.) I’ve found that I’m much better at using the food before any of it is wasted using this method of planning.
I built myself a “capsule” style shopping list. I buy the same things every week and they all work well with each other. Means I get plenty of variety. It is obviously tuned to my dietary lifestyle (Keto & OMAD), but the concept can be applied to any. You just have to make sure to factor in all the things you need from it without cutting too much variety. I can still make plenty of different meals with a good variety of flavour profiles. I’m in the UK so costs are quite different, but my monthly groceries spend is around £100.
it’s getting impossible to stay alive.
I evolved into eating once a day and substituting most of my calories with milk. I had a soup today and half a gallon of milk. Still probably amounted to about 8 dollars worth of food i ate which is still .. 240 a month.
You’re not alone. It’s insaaaane. Most of my friends spend around $500/month on groceries just for themselves. I couldn’t imagine drinking, smoking, or going out regularly being added on top of that😬
Dried beans, potatoes, rice, canned veggies, not fresh, just get the no salt added variety. Frozen fruit is cheaper than fresh and doesn’t go bad.
Buy in bulk when possible. Like pork chops just but a whole pork loin to cut up
Switching to doing 90% of my grocery shopping at ALDI and making two or three trips throughout the week to make sure I’m not overbuying produce and such that ends up going bad has been the biggest help in keeping my grocery budget under control. It definitely takes a lot more effort and planning than it did a few years ago, though.
So similar to our Grocery Outlet here.
Honestly? It’s just scary, it’s not you. Everything’s is messed up.
I thought you were a divorced woman in LA? How are you shopping at a Canadian grocery store?
https://www.reddit.com/r/Divorce_Women/comments/1qlhyy8/is_divorce_mediation_actually_worth_trying/
Doing grocery pickup helps me stick to my list. But yeah it’s hard to stay under 400 a person per month honestly