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I always split shopping between a few chain stores, and recently added in a Big Box to the mix for certain staples. Seeing prices at least 50% above pre-covid, and that is with my "chain-inflation" trade down behavior. Lots more store brands, off-brands, and bulk purchases.
Big brands like Unilever, P&G, Kraft/Nabisco, etc. they are all sticking it to people hard. It's good product they make but it if it's not on a steep discount, I ain't buying it.
Let us be thankful for private label brands I've been getting those lately to offset some of the cost of name-brand stuff its just as good if not better than name brand.
h going to the store and buying ingredients is almost as expensive as eating out.
Not by a long shot! even if you are eating empty calories with deep-fried fast-food, you're still paying several times as much as if you were eating real food you cooked yourself.
And you don't have to go high-end stores like whole foods to get fresh veggies. Just about every supermarket has the basics of potatoes, brocolli, onions, apples, lettuce, etc.
One thing you might try is opening one's definition of what the menu should be for each meal. Ie, what do people usually have for breakfast? Bacon, eggs, maybe breakfast tacos? Well, at the current price of eggs, one can be eating that bill up rather quickly because, traditionally, they are expected each day. It might even involve not having traditional breakfast, say, meals but something else at that hour.
Prepared meals are big money wasters. You paying for the convenience, and the factory preparation approach and packaging. The heavily-processed "food" is also less healthy and less nutritious.
Deli meats are particularly horrible as to added sodiums and nitrites. It finally sunk in for me when I developed kidney stones.
Lunch meats without nitrates and nitrites are available. Sliced ham, roast beef and turkey are just fine. The lunch meats made from compressed bits and pieces are blech.
I also keep a supply of frozen dinners and deli-prepared foods for days when I don't feel well enough to cook. And when I do cook from scratch, I don't enjoy it, at all. The cleanup is even worse. But I do love to eat so I make the effort to cook when I can.
So no, I do not consider prepared foods to be money wasters. They have their place for some of us.
In an attempt to provide sales and "specials" on certain items, the grocery stores have BOGO sales. These are very frustrating to those of us who live alone and don't need two pints of tomatoes when one will suffice. The second pint rots before the first pint is consumed.
I don't need two of almost anything. I don't have a basement in which I can store the second non-perishable package of toilet tissue and I can't eat enough for the BOGO of perishable items. I often don't take the second pint of tomatoes or the second container of cut fruit. I would just have to throw them in the trash. So, the grocery store may think they are providing sales and value, but not for many people, particularly seniors, who cannot avail themselves of these promotions.
I wish I could just BO at half the price and not have to GO to get value.
You can in certain states. I found that out when we moved from Miami to Savannah last year. Publix, Kroger, and others all let you buy just one item of a BOGO sale and receive it for 1/2 price.
I'm not against cooking but definitely not one to make things from scratch. But even if you don't eat out much going to the store and buying ingredients is almost as expensive as eating out.
Food cost is about 1/3 of what you pay at a restaurant. So if you pay $24 for a meal, it has about $8 worth of food in it. The rest is for the convenience of having someone else cook, serve, and clean up.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VTsnowbird
Food cost is about 1/3 of what you pay at a restaurant. So if you pay $24 for a meal, it has about $8 worth of food in it. The rest is for the convenience of having someone else cook, serve, and clean up.
Last Friday we went out for pizza, medium, plus two salads, a beer and a coke, $54 plus tip. When I make a pizza at home it's flour, yeast, salt and water, and maybe $4 worth of toppings and cheese. Salad is less than a dollar for the greens and maybe $0.50 in dressing. With one beer and soda bought at Costco in 24 pack, the whole meal for two is less than $10.
Last Friday we went out for pizza, medium, plus two salads, a beer and a coke, $54 plus tip. When I make a pizza at home it's flour, yeast, salt and water, and maybe $4 worth of toppings and cheese. Salad is less than a dollar for the greens and maybe $0.50 in dressing. With one beer and soda bought at Costco in 24 pack, the whole meal for two is less than $10.
Seriously?? For pizza, salads, a beer and a soda???? Good grief!!!
Yes, part of the cost is I do buy a lot of prepared meals frozen dinners, deli sandwiches stuff like that for something quick and easy.
I do cook but not nearly enough I am trying to cook more and spend less money it is a chore though.
Crock pots are my friend.
I make a crockpot of beans like once every 2 weeks. Sometimes it's redbeans and rice, sometimes it's pinto beans with a ham bone and scraps, sometimes it's 15 bean soup with andoullie sausage...
Beans are cheap, and they go far. We usually get 2 or 3 meals out of a pot of beans. And we LIKE beans...so it's all good.
In an attempt to provide sales and "specials" on certain items, the grocery stores have BOGO sales. These are very frustrating to those of us who live alone and don't need two pints of tomatoes when one will suffice. The second pint rots before the first pint is consumed.
I don't need two of almost anything. I don't have a basement in which I can store the second non-perishable package of toilet tissue and I can't eat enough for the BOGO of perishable items. I often don't take the second pint of tomatoes or the second container of cut fruit. I would just have to throw them in the trash. So, the grocery store may think they are providing sales and value, but not for many people, particularly seniors, who cannot avail themselves of these promotions.
I wish I could just BO at half the price and not have to GO to get value.
Lillie
In North Carolina you can buy just ONE of a BOGO and get the half-price! Found this out at Publix when we moved here from Florida. Especially great for produce BOGO's and potato chip BOGO's. It might be the law here because other stores do it too.
(woops I see MadMan already said this about Georgia which I didnt know)
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Seriously?? For pizza, salads, a beer and a soda???? Good grief!!!
