Not sure if it’s just me but my grocery spending hasn’t changed in the last year. It’s definitely more expensive then say 2 years ago but seems like prices have stabilized.
I cook often so most of what I buy are produce and it’s generally cheaper than other stuff.
I agree. On one hand I look at prices of stuff and think “damn is it really this much now? Was half this price last year”. But on the other hand, my shopping receipts really haven’t doubled since a year ago, I don’t feel like they increased at all… But I also buy produce and cook for myself most of the time.
I haven’t changed my shopping habits, but I definitely notice the ripoffs of significantly higher prices on some of the same food items I’ve been buying for years. Overall it’s still much cheaper to buy groceries and make your own food than the vast majority of restaurants and such.
Fast food prices have gotten more noticeably higher than groceries have in my area. So I assume that most of the people I hear complaining the loudest about “Inflation” are the ones who eat fast food as a staple of their diet.
Nah, I remember when I could fill an entire cart with food and it’d be about $75 way back in the ancient days of 2019. Now I’d have to pay double to do that and even then I might end up with less food.
We are in Canada. I scratch cook everything and we grow the vast majority of our own food. Most grocery shopping is staple stuff like flour and sugar. Our grocery bill has trippled in the past 2 years and it’s still rising. Our gardens have gotten considerably bigger to make up for it.
The fact that the battle against spending lots of money on groceries is to spend even more money in groceries. I hate that you’re right and we’re doomed.
Right, this is the worst part. The people who most desperately need to get cheaper groceries can’t afford to save money on groceries by buying in bulk. It’s shitty and sad.
Have you looked into the one time expense of buying an air fryer? You can make your own chips/fries/etc which are both cheaper and healthier. Obviously you have to buy the appliance but it pays off in terms of health and groceries eventually. Like, crackers are usually loaded with crap ingredients. You could air fry some potatoes in a little spray of healthy oil for a dollar or two and do your wallet and your heart a solid AND you’re still getting your daily allotment of potatoes lol
You don’t need the gadget. You can make these things with a normal stove and oven. As someone who cooks a lot someone gave me one of these for xmas. It’s a damn convection oven. A tiny one worth way too much money. Learn to use the appliances you have and stop with the useless gadgets.
It is a convection oven but most people don’t have a fancy oven with a convection oven. Yeah you can make it in the oven but it comes out better in the air fryer and mine heats in literally one minute, I can use it in summer because it doesn’t add nearly as much heat to my house, etc. It’s way more convenient than using the massive oven for a plate of fries or something and I can even cook an entire pizza in the air fryer I got using the bake setting, which again is just much easier and more convenient for me.
I am lucky that my income to expenses is a good ratio so I can buy what I want without undue hardship but I cringe because I used to feed myself for about half the money.
I do buy items in bulk when the bulk unit price is significantly lower if it will keep and I will use it eventually. I will also try to get these items while they are on sale. This is a one time high expenditure that pays off in the long run and unfortunately the people who need to do this most are the ones who can’t afford the extra expense at one time of buying bulk. I do this with things like rice, beans (I’m vegetarian so I’m not eating beans because I can’t afford anything else, it’s a big part of my diet). Also things like flour, salt, pepper, anything that doesn’t easily spoil and will get used eventually.
I also allow the store to track the fuck out of me on their app by clipping store coupons. Unfortunately this is a necessary evil because it usually saves me $10 to $15 per week.
With fruits and vegetables, buying what’s in season during the growing months saves a lot and buying frozen vegetables instead of fresh has the same or better nutritional profile but can be much cheaper.
On a similar note to what @lagomorphlecture I have an instant pot and that’s made cooking stuff that’s cheap but usually takes time to make really easy, brown rice or a potato based soup are a click away. At of course the cost of an upfront investment.
Also, some recipes can be really cheap if you have the time. Rossotto, homemade bread (with yeast or baking soda), baked beans (from dry bulk pinto beans), pasta (homemade & store bought) naan bread & homemade wheat tortillas, and baked oatmeal are all things I enjoy that come to mind and might be worth trying. They taste good and can be made for super cheap.
I’m a vegetarian and my instant pot is great for beans. I didn’t bring that up since canned beans are cheap but they’re high sodium and are probably more contaminated with plastic than dried beans. I would never bother with dried beans without the instant pot but they’re super easy with it. So I guess depending on your diet either an instant pot, slow cooker or air fryer can really have a huge impact on your grocery bill.
Part of it probably depends on what beans. I eat a lot of chickpeas and I think they’re a harder bean and less likely to get mushy. The other one is black beans and definitely they would be easier to overcook. Did you do the quick release? If not, next time quick release then immediately drain them and give them a quick rinse in cold water. I’m just using the bean setting on my instant pot so if that’s what you’re doing and it’s still mushy with the quick release, figure out how long that cooks for and drop it by a minute or two.
I’ve been shopping at WinCo, it’s a further bike ride than Fred Meyer or Trader Joes but the prices are hard to beat. This year I’m looking at buying into a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). The one I’m looking at is $400 for 12 boxes of food spread across 24 weeks. We’ll see if it’s a good deal. I’ll be planting a garden soon too. Hoping to get a 3 sisters plot or two as well as some potatoes in containers
I am lucky enough to have a yard, so grow leafy greens in most seasons and some other veg.
Other than that, what I noticed about the food inflation is that prices converged, whole foods were already expensive but their prices came down a little while our regular grocery and the cheaper place increased theirs a lot, regular grocery prices worse than whole foods in quite a lot of the things I actually buy so I just buy stuff at whole foods and local ethnic groceries now, not much from the chain grocery.
Dried beans and canned beans we use for near every meal but have always done, that’s not a change.
Housing here has increased way more than food. Rent and purchase prices went crazy and are now dropping so slowly.
I mostly buy ingredients and cook bulk batches of food. Before, we were splurging on instacart, but they got crazy expensive with their upcharges (MINIMUM 15% increase in item cost, + service charge, +delivery fee (or the annual delivery fee), +tip (it started to feel like 15% was too low, on top of the 15% grocery upcharge).
We stopped that and we actually spend less now even after this inflation.
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