Wife has been canning for a few years now and we have a pantry of fruits, veggies, and dehydrated food. She goes to the farmers markets during harvest time and goes to town on entire cases of tomatoes, corn, beans, etc. That will last all year for our family of 5. We also pay a friend to raise a pig on her ranch and butcher that once a year. Just got ours (over 400 lbs!). Pork is A LOT cheaper that way. Haven’t found anyone to go half or a quarter in on a cow. We also would need another deep freezer and don’t really have room for it.
We also meal plan weekly so we only buy groceries for what we need to make meals. That saves a ton of money as you aren’t wasteful as much. Oh and we either do pick up or delivery as you spend more when you’re in the store and see things you want but don’t need.
We make almost everything we can from scratch. Wife recently found a recipe for baked oyster crackers with butter and seasoning on them that make dirt cheap snacks and they’re fantastic. The store brand oyster crackers are $1 for 16oz. That’s almost cheap enough to not make those from scratch too. We haven’t bothered yet.
I’ve always been interested in the idea of canning, but it’s not really a thing in the UK. I know that veg is cheaper and gas is more expensive here than in America but still, surely it costs so much money to can things that you can’t be saving much? Is it only worth it if the produce was in season and therefore really cheap?
I’m in a rural area, it’s really not a thing! Especially not pressure canning with ball jars. People do make pickles and chutneys etc but those are preserved with vinegar and we use kilner jars with a rubber seal to store them. I’ve never once met anyone who has pressure canned vegetables.
Yeah and we obviously have those here although you could just make them in any old jar and keep them in the fridge. The thing that seems to be quite different in America to the UK is the whole pressure canning scene. We do have similar food but it’s all in tins, nobody really makes it themselves and I’m not even sure where you’d get hold of a pressure canner, you’d probably have to import it.
When I was a kid (20 years ago) my parents would make pickles, and some assorted pickled veggies. Usually the veggies would come from a farm around us or an auction where you could buy trays of veggies about the size of a flat of canned drinks. They would also do some fruits in syrup, mainly ones that my uncle would bring us from another part of the country where him and his neighbours had fruit tree.
Definitely not about cost on the veggies. At best it’s break even compared to the store. It’s more about knowing it’s the veggie and water only. Or seasoning too if you like them a certain way. We’ve found corn to be higher quality too. Plus, where we live peaches are fabulous and better than anywhere else in the country so we get to can the best and control the amount of syrup used so they’re healthier. Sorry Georgia, you don’t actually have the best peaches.
Yeah, I’m making a lot myself too, but I sadly don’t have the storage space for large amounts of food. And the homemade goods are often more expensive, unless you can get veggies on the cheap from a farmer
We probably aren’t saving much on the veggies overall for sure. Some are cheaper than canned but others aren’t. However, we know exactly what’s in it and we buy it once a year so we’ve budgeted for it.
i’m gonna assume this post refers to the US’ prices.
it’s definetely noticeable in germany, but i’ll manage. my worker’s union is currently negotiating prices with my employer, and so far it’s looking pretty good.
but i pray for you guys, they really don’t seem to make life worth living over there.
Decent cost of living wage increase, then switched jobs to higher pay on top of that. But I was never struggling to pay for food. Housing is the big one in my budget. But I have a fixed rate mortgage so inflation has not affected that.
Seems like prices have stopped increasing much lately too so I haven’t given it as much thought as a year ago.
Spending a few hundred a week for the two of us to eat a basic equivalent diet to that available in Europe. I brought back all my shampoo, body wash, moisturizers, etc in a 50 lb suitcase which I loaded up at carrefour on my last trip to France.
Grocery Outlet and Trader Joe’s. For GrocOut just go and see what’s cheap, don’t shop off a list. Make sure the prices of the stuff you’re buying is about 50% off or more. At TJ’s everything is priced pretty fairly, just buy what you want to eat.
Don’t drink alcohol or soda, or anything canned really.
Prices haven’t gone up that much where I live, and some of the things that have risen in price have actually started going back down recently. But I guess it all varies from one place to another.
But in general, I shop the sales flyers, I get things that are discounted such as meat that will expire soon, and I get the cheap staples like rice and beans. I stopped buying name brand items and unnecessary snack foods. I also use the Ibotta app which gives me some cash back. Usually not a lot, but over the course of a year it’s meaningful.
Bought instant noodles in bulk. I could have gotten the cheap, tasteless kind, but I prefer the more expensive Asian ones. Still ends up being much less expensive than groceries anyways. I have a good portion of the pantry filled with just different types of instant noodles, all of which were bought in bulk. I do buy groceries, but I avoid the more expensive foods as much as possible. Just stuff like milk, eggs, spinach, fruits, etc.
I don’t eat instant noodles every day, but if I don’t feel like cooking or if I’m running low on food, I can “supplement” the meal with instant noodles. Having instant noodles as “backup” helps takes a bit of the edge off with regards to grocery spending, although I do admit that I could take more drastic measures to save. Despite living in an area where the cost of living is absurd (one of the highest in the country), I feel somewhat well off in that I can get by with just supplementing my meals with instant noodles every now and then.
For the past month I’m paying around 30% more than I was in July 2022, and 10% more than I was in April 2022. (I just picked two random months from where I wasn’t yet either too lazy or busy to track everything I bought on the computer. Really need to catch up on that tbh because I haven’t updated the file for more than a year.)
The amount of stupid bullshit such as energy drinks I buy varies so to get any actually usable stats I’d have to average it over a longer time frame but it seems fine to me.
Stay away from prepared foods and buy more cheap staples like rice, beans, and potatoes. Shop the meats that are the best price per pound and know the highs and lows of fresh fruits and veggies to get better deals. Beef and fish have been basically unaffordable lately while pork and chicken have been more reasonable.
The prepared foods and snacks are getting ridiculous. A half gallon of cold brew coffee is up to $7. I can make it myself for a fraction of that, but it’s more labor for me. A bag of cool ranch doritos was going for $7 a bag… I chose some cheaper chips I don’t like as much, but got 2 bags for $4.50. A can of pad-Thai sauce is $12 at my grocery…
A half gallon of cold brew coffee is up to $7. I can make it myself for a fraction of that, but it’s more labor for me.
I mean, only a little bit of labor. Even with premium grounds, I can’t imagine it costing more than 50 cents to make a half gallon. As for labor, just throw it all in a pitcher, give it a quick shake or stir, then leave it in the fridge for a couple of days. Pour it through a standard filter. I use the basket from my regular coffee maker.
Making your own cold brew is one of the most cost-efficient DIY foods out there.
I’ve been making cold brew with an in-jar filter that is more complicated than it should be but still not hard except for the pre planning for a few days in advance when I’m traveling for work. I’m definitely going to try it the way you describe though.
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