I don’t know how they think we’re all going to survive with these prices.
I haven’t reached the point yet where I’m personally dumpster diving, but I have a friend who has an inside connection at a major grocery store. They call when it’s time to take out the garbage, set it outside the compactor, and my friend swings by to snag it. It’s incredible how much gets thrown out. He preserves what can’t be used immediately and gives it away to those who don’t have a problem with the source. I’ve benefited from a 5 lb bag of jerky and a box full of dried fruits, veggies, and other items.
Otherwise, I’m always on the lookout for sales and deals. When I find one I stock up, like the one going on now at Amazon for Sweet Sue canned chicken that worked out to 78 cents for a 5oz can.
I’m fortunate enough to have a few acres and access to water at agricultural rates, so I grow enough produce to supply myself and a few other families that subscribe to my farm-to-home service. It’s enough to pay the costs and buy the grandkids some nice presents, but I ain’t getting rich off it.
I’ve just stopped eating, I’m hoping it will make the survival aspect a moot point after awhile.
Brilliant!
Where I live, the grocery prices aren’t up anywhere near the double or triple that other people have mentioned. The basics / necessities have generally seen more modest price increases over the past few years. There have been obvious exceptions like when there’s been shortages of specific things or like if I were to compare out of season produce prices to the prices of stuff when its in season, but in those cases I just go without (which also kind of proves they weren’t necessities to begin with).
For the most part, any luxury items or luxury brands that have dramatically increased their prices and engaged in shrinkflation, I stop buying that stuff or cut way back. Even if I can afford that stuff, I’m not going to pay the prices. And if I weren’t really able to afford to feed myself, I would definitely not be buying anything like that. No organic apples for me. No potato chips. No microwave meals. No soda.
In my adult life, I’ve twice experienced food insecurity. I can’t speak to anybody’s situation in specific, but for me what worked was willingness to be flexible and getting creative. I would grow as much of my own food as I could, even in a small shared living space I could grow some lettuce or spring onions in a window. I was also pretty knowledgeable about edible plants, including local/wild stuff, so that helped to supplement my diet as well.
I taught myself how to cook and it’s been life-changing.
Any advice or tips on how you did it?
I literally just looked up instructions online and in cookbooks and followed them. Learned common patterns in cooking by using a bunch of recipes.
It’s actually pretty easy. You just have to put in the effort and be willing to try, follow instructions, and fail sometimes.
I continue to be spoiled by Costco’s low prices. Seriously, check them out if you can.
I also imagine that similar wholesale clubs also have lower prices, but I cannot say from 1st hand experience.
It’s low per unit, but high up front. And you gotta hope you don’t get tired of whatever you bought
Aldi is also great if you’ve got one near you and are not able (or don’t need) to buy in bulk.
If you haven’t shopped there before, they’re a German based chain that’s spread across the rest of Europe and a lot of North America and almost-only sells their own store-brand products. Their prices are similar to Walmart and Kroger store brand but, IMO, they’re of much better quality. As a person with ADHD, I find shopping there to be much less anxiety inducing… it’s a grocery store the size of a Walgreens. If I need pickles, there’s one brand with five different cuts in three flavors; there’s only two kinds of ketchup, six kinds of fruit juice, four different laundry detergents… one kind of paper plates. Also, the cashiers are scary fast.
I can complete my weekly shop in like twenty minutes without a headache or back pain. It’s genuinely like someone designed a grocery store just for me and it’s cheap AF… just remember to bring your own reusable bags and a quarter. You’ll need a quarter to unlock the shopping cart from the rack. You get your coin back when you return your cart like a civilized human being. They have paper bags for sale at the register for like 28¢ if you forget to bring your own.
I agree, Aldi is great. Especially for 1-2 person households.
Aldi >>>> Costco
A lot of shit at Costco isn’t even a good deal these days. People just assume it must be because they are bad at basic arithmetic. Like, there are some good deals still, but not like how it was ten years ago. These days most stuff is legitimately cheaper at Aldi.
We are almost exclusively Costco and WinCo for groceries. They are consistently the best places to go, price-wise.
That said, I’m getting really fucking tired of corporate greed making hard to live.
Costco is great, but I have to force myself to shop without a cart to prevent me from buying stuff I don’t need (so I only get the essentials that I can carry).
Getting 1.5kg of cereal lasts me way longer which is amazing, when the normal grocery stores have “family size” boxes that have just been shrinking and shrinking.
“real food” is the most affordable. I stick to that. The outside of the store. Not the middle
I’ve been searching for lentil recipes.
This Slowcooker Lentil Soup tastes great and freezes well.
Mmm, that looks great.
I found this one on an old man’s Instagram account. It was really nice! I subbed some of the stock for a can of IPA.
Lentil Soup Recipe
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 chopped onion
4 cloves of chopped garlic
3 medium carrots, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
1 can of diced tomatoes
1/8 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes, or more to taste
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, or more to taste
1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
1 teaspoon of cumin
1 teaspoon of chili powder
1 teaspoon of salt
6 cups of chicken stock
1 cup of red lentils, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup of yellow lentils, rinsed and drainedInstructions:
Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.
Add onions and garlic and cook until the onion is translucent, about five minutes.
Stir in the carrots and celery and cook until the vegetables are tender, about eight more minutes.
Stir in your tomato paste, crushed red pepper, cayenne pepper (if you decide to use), salt, black pepper, smoked paprika, cumin, and chili powder.
Mix in your lentils and chicken stock.
Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low and simmer until the lentils are soft, about 40 minutes.I put lentils in my vegetarian chili. Do chilli however you like - I prefer a bean blend over straight kidney beans- and just boil a pot of lentils and use them in place of the ground beef if your doing a quick chili. I would think you wouldn’t want them pre cooked if you’re doing a slow cook chili.
This recipe is so good. I’m a vegetarian, not vegan, but I’m always looking for really good no meat options and this is just delicious, basically it’s beef stew flavored.
Also you can replace the meat in tacos and gyros with lentils using the same seasoning, also delicious. Just use whatever recipe you normally like for those.
You should look into chickpeas. Personally I find that lentils work great where you might use red meat and chickpeas work great where you might use white meat/chicken so you don’t even need specific recipes because you can just omit the meat and add the legumes instead.
Thanks, that recipe looks delicious. I want to give lentils in pasta sauce but I’m afraid I won’t like it. I’ve tried chickpeas and I just can’t seem to like them.
Were vegetarians and don’t buy any prepared foods or much processed food. Inflation hasn’t been uniform. Rice, beans, tofu, and a lot of vegetables are at or near the same price as pre pandemic.
My partner and I are mostly-vegetarian and it’s insane how much stuff still costs. Soy milk is constantly $2-3 a half gallon more than cow milk, veggies are expensive unless you’re only getting rice and beans, and don’t even get me started on meat substitutes
Rice and beans aren’t vegetables
Yes they are.
Nah. Rice is a grain. Beans are legumes. You are perhaps using the word to mean “edible plant”, which is not quite accurate.
There are such things as ‘culinary vegetables and fruits’. If people used scientific labeling on everything in casual language, we’d be here all day.
Tofu easily doubled here in BC since then
Step 1) plant potatoes Step 2) cry
Some things can be grown at home with relative ease and not much space. A lot depends on where you are, how much space you have, your soil, if you can invest money, what spare time you can give. So either research or experimentation is key.
I live in Florida (I’m sorry I’m voting as hard as I can) and have had success with these from seeds or cut-offs from store bought items: Kiwis, passion fruit, pineapple, tomatoes, garlic, turmeric, onion, ginger. These I have bought the plant or seeds from nurseries (or Korean supermarket): Brocoli, any peppers, any dark leafy greens.
There is so much information on youtube. I found the initial time to set up a small garden is about 10- 20 hours in the first 2 weeks, then about 10-20 mins every 2 to 3 days.
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.
I shop at grocery outlet and ultimately eat very little.
My prices have come down quite a bit over the past few months. It was a stretch to feed myself on $250 but now I’m ending the month with a few dollars left over
Super Hans is the man
Woodman’s
I still have 50 lb of COVID rice in my pantry.
I’ve been slipping over to Aldi or Costco for produce. Sure I have to buy more at Costco, but the price is there are still lower per pound than they were at my grocery store before inflation.
I make a lot of stuff from scratch I don’t rely on a lot of mixes. The price of bulk flour and the price of bulk rice hasn’t gone up nearly as much as Purdue chicken breast.
