This is $87 worth of shopping. Please feel free to use the space below to critique my purchases
how is the value proposition here? was this an adequate use of money?
(keeping in mind as well fwiw i don't eat meat)
Presliced cheese is typically more expensive than block. Alfredo is cheap to make from scratch. The instant Mac that comes in the microwavable bowls are like 2.5x the price per ounce of the ones that are just packets.
I've always held that belief about block vs shredded/sliced cheese, but in my receny grocery trips, I've noticed that all the stores in my area charge the same by weight for block, shredded, and sliced. Obviously YMMV
The instant Mac that comes in the microwavable bowls are like 2.5x the price per ounce of the ones that are just packets.
They also use some sort of thickener that turns into mucusy slime when water is poured on it so you don't have to use milk or butter. We're at the point now where there are better ways to eat your processed foods, LOL.
It’s a lot of processed bread / carb products and very little protein.
So, some points for consideration….
Canned vegetables will have around half their product weight in Canning Liquid. So keep that in mind when comparing prices on frozen ($0.082/ozverse canned ($.044/oz).
Frozen is also usually better in quality (texture, nutrient value) and lower in salt and other preservatives. Modern freezing centers are frequently able to get nearly as good as fresh; and might come out on top if you’re not buying from the farmers market.
Lentils and rice represent a whole protein, and are easily adapted to a variety of flavors; (For example); takes about 10 minutes of prep, 25-30 of reasonably hands off time and can be easily made in advance and augmented with fruits and vegetables. (For example, sautéed squash/zucchini plopped on top.) or basically any kind of stir fry mix.
Block cheeses are going to save you money, compared to sliced or shredded.
On that note, Alfredo (or rather pasta al burro) is super simple to make; albeit requiring some technique and experience : reserve some (hot) pasta water, in a large bowl, soft butter and the drained pasta. Stir until coated toss in the parmigano regianno; use the pasta water to help emulsify and melt the cheese. (Alfredo melts 3x butter with heavy cream, reduces that then adds the pasta and cheese, a bit more work, imo.)
You’re probably thinking I’m a snob for using the Italian name for Parmesan. Fun fact: in the US Parmesan is not in fact Parmigiano reggiano as it is in the EU- but if you stick to block cheese and away from that Kraft shaker Parmesan, you’ll be fine. (It’s cheese, mostly, but there’s stuff added to it that makes it… not good… for sauces.)
Also, in a similar vien, a mornay sauce can replace Mac and cheese tubs, and generally don’t require extra time compared to just cooking the pasta. (Equal parts melted butter and flour, whisk together until smooth, medium-low heat. Whisk in milk slowly until the consistency of heavy cream, then whisk in shredded or cubed cheese a bit at a time, letting it melt. When the pasta is mostly cooked, reserve some of the water and drain the rest, finish the pasta in the sauce, using the pasta water to control consistency and as an emulsifier.)(if you want to get fancy, before making the roux, sauté a minced clove of garlic and maybe some minced onion in the butter, then proceed. Black pepper to taste.)
Oh, and pro tip, heads of garlic cost less than the jars of minced grossness. Similarly, saving scraps like onions, carrots, celery, ginger, mushrooms, and stuff, can then be simmered in a lot of water to make stock, and can add flavor and nutrients to things like rice or stews (potatoes, mushrooms?)
Authentic Parmigiano Reggiano is technically not vegetarian, it contains rennet (though usually people don't care)
Rennet is one of those things that are going to depend on which vegetarian you're talking to. It's certainly not vegan. There's also vegan alternatives to it that can be used. A lot of cheeses are made with rennet since it's one of the most effective enzymes for curdling.
FWIW, I bought cheese made with vegan rennet the other day. I had to look it up, and apparently it's made from mushrooms. It blew my mind.
Also if note keep an eye on value when selecting sizes. Rice and grains go down in price per weight drastically when you buy larger quantities. I buy extreme bulk for flour and rice. The flower lasts me months the rice lasts me years and I'm paying less than half as much for my rice and flour
if it's brown rice, it doesn't last years- 3-6 months is good, you can vacbag and freeze, though. But while white rice might last years at room temperature, you're still paying for storage, and running the risk of vermin or it getting wet or otherwise ruined while it is being stored. This is one of those "you do you" things, but, I know my pantry doesn't have space for 2 years worth of rice...
Someone that has an $87 food budget probably isn't going to buy imported Italian cheese.
There's some US-made "parmesan" that's somewhat decent and quite a bit cheaper than the legit Italian stuff, just make sure you buy a block of it and not anything pre-grated, and that it doesn't have any filler ingredients.
Some US-made parmesan is produced using similar techniques to Parmigiano Reggiano, they just can't legally call it that since it's not made in a specific area in Italy.
Block cheese in general will be okay, but some of it isn’t even made eith the same process and is instead just flavored with crap to make it taste the same.
Which in general, buy the best you can afford. Doesn’t have to be amazing, most people won’t even really know the difference anyhow.
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On the garlic front taste a spoonful of minced garlic and then a clove of fresh garlic and you will then know how little garlic flavour is in that minced garlic. It'll be night and day. spit the clove of garlic out once you do that cus it will be overpowering.
I would suggest not putting a full clove of raw garlic in your mouth, lol.
(the only time I do that is when people try to tell me garlic isn't spicy and insist peppers are the only 'spicy' food. capsaicin isn't spicy- it's not even a flavonoid. It triggers the heat/temperature receptors rather than taste receptors; which is why it feels like burning. chewing a whole clove of garlic is a great way to cause an afternoon of indigestion, though.)
Take it from someone who knows vegetarian eating, this is a dangerously low amount of protein, and no those cheese slices do not cover it. I'd wager your daily protein macro is a single digit percentage (most sources suggest around 15-35% depending on exercise and lifestyle and all that). If this haul is your entire diet for the week and you're not leaving out stuff you already have at home or something, I would strongly advise looking for more protein dense foods before protein deficiency starts to affect your well being. I've been there and it's really not good.
Am currently there. Have started drinking Pea Protein shakes (to stay plant-based) quite often. But that would have bumped this shopping trip to $100
Best of luck! It really sucks, and the worst part is it's hard to notice at first, and easily written off as working too much or something until you realize you're doing it to yourself. I've heard good things about pea protein but sadly it's not really a thing in my country yet so I haven't had a chance to try it.
Anyway, whey powder can be pretty cheap these days (they have cheese so dairy isn't a restriction), and there are enough duplicates in this picture that they could cut a couple things and keep the same price point if the budget is tight.
Idk I feel like buying a cat with your groceries was a bit too much. Should have just skipped the groceries and only bought the cat
Good deal on the cat, tho. The food is basically free.
This whole picture can be summed up in two words:
Can't cook
Exactly. So much of it is like refined and premade/finished shit. Presliced cheese? 😂 Buy a cheese plane/slicer and a block of cheese ffs. Much cheaper.
Although depending on the country, the actual price on the low end is comparable or even pricier for the blocks.
However, you get access to tons more really good cheese if you buy in blocks.
honestly you don't even need to learn to cook, just buy an assload of vegetables and some protein and toss that in a big pot, fry it up for a bit, then add water and let simmer for as long as you can.
soup/stew is, in practical terms, the best food.
also depending on what exact ingredients you get you can do what we in sweden call "mess in a pan" where you just dice up some root vegetable, onions, some protein (e.g. sausage), fry that up with some salt and pepper, and maybe serve with an egg. Trivial and hilariously cheap.
For 80 bucks you get AT LEAST 8 kg of that dish, and if you just add a bunch of different root veggies and peas and whatever fits, that's basically pet food but for humans. You shouldn't be missing any particular nutrient and it's so good that i barely mind eating nothing but that day in and day out.
They sell cats at Walmart?
Lotsa carbs. At least you’ve got some veg in there.
Try adding beans or other veg with protein, more filling and less likely to snack. Nuts, quinoa, asparagus or avocado will help, too.
Agreed. Almonds and walnuts aren't too expensive. Peanuts are still mostly just peanuts. And I heard my neighbor sold her mercedes for 5 cashews. Lots of options in the nut department.
If you eat a lot of pasta I would recommend learning some simple sauce recipes. Tomato sauce is probably the cheapest, and it's basically a can of whole tomatoes, half an onion, some garlic, and some herbs. Cream sauces might be cheaper to buy canned, but you can make those with some cream, onions, garlic, and Parmesan cheese.
Other than that it looks like you're making good choices. The system just sucks ass. I hope your next trip is more fruitful.
Bechamel costs pennies per serving to make and is the base for a million other sauces. Also far far better for you than that prego garbage.
Just wanted to second this. Learning to use a roux as a base saves me so much money and effort. A bit of butter(or any oil) and flour makes any creamy sauce/soup/stew you'd like. Add milk, broth, spices, garlic, cheese... The skies the limit and it's a lot cheaper than cream or cream cheese, and I always have it in the house.
I hope your next trip is more fruitful.
Hey now, OP bought tomatoes, those are technically a fruit!
Also, you don't have to make fresh sauce everytime. You can make a large batch, then freeze it in ice cube trays, then move the cubes into ziplock.
Processed food is usually more expensive per portion than the ingredients alone. The farther you get from the raw ingredients the more expensive it gets. Plus, you're eating all sorts of junk ingredients.
I had about ten years of experience with a very tight food budget to learn what was good value for effort/ingredients.
Good:
Flour, sugar, canned tomatoes, spices, frozen veggies, fresh produce
Bad:
Presliced or pre-grated cheeses, at least in my experience, are marked up 1.5x to 2x the cost per pound of a block. Another commenter said that wasn't the case in their store, but check and see if that is true for you and if the cheeses you got are available in blocks. You can even go to a place with a deli counter and they will slice cheese for you for free, and you will get exactly how much you want with less waste (yes it's an interaction with another human, it'll be alright).
Uncrustables/swiss rolls/mac and cheese... it's not for me to judge what someone chooses for an indulgence, maybe those things are what get you through your day, but you can definitely do better value wise. Mac and cheese from a box is cheaper than those individual cups, and homemade mac and cheese from scratch is even better and extremely easy if you have any kitchen experience. Uncrustables will always be more expensive than just making the sandwich yourself. The swiss rolls... well you know they're a treat. In my opinion if you're going to treat yourself to something unhealthy spend the extra dollar and get something luxurious.
Breads and muffins, again if you could learn how to make them yourself you might be impressed with the results. Bread can be a tricky balance of time, effort and cost of ingredients, and homemade fresh baked bread is incredible, but if you're short on time there's nothing wrong with buying it. Muffins are a quick bread though that you could make at home in under an hour with a mixing bowl and a cupcake pan, and then you could control exactly how much sugar went into them and have hot, fresh muffins. It's worth making them yourself at least once to see if it's something you can add to your routine, you can get a cupcake pan for cheap from a thrift store if you don't have one.
Sauces and dips, as other people have said, they are a lot simpler than you might think to make yourself. In my experience they are one of those things you should challenge yourself to make at least once or twice and see how much effort and time it takes you, and then re-evaluate the jarred/canned stuff. Maybe after making it you realize it is worth the extra dollar or so to save yourself the effort, but maybe you realize it's not that hard and you're able to save money in the long run and have more control over the quality and ingredients.
All this stuff is incremental, and any one thing isn't going to magically fix food costs. Plus as the amount of time in your life to spend on meal prep fluctuates you might find it's worth it to spend the extra money on convenience. However it's important to at least get some experience with the alternatives so you understand what amount of time and effort you are buying by getting those processed foods. Good luck :)
Muffins spelled backwards is sniffum
Coulda bought 8 of these instead, just sayin'
Now that's savvy spending!
$87 for grocery used to get you gourmet organic foods. In 2024 you get uncrustables. I hate this timeline.
Uncrustables have always been expensive, relatively speaking. That box represents 10-20 depending on where they are. Going with 10, that could have been a jar of pb and jam, and a loaf of whole grain….and the jar of jams and pb will last more than a single loaf will.
Even less if you buy the same crappy bread they use.
It's fine that you don't eat meat, but where's the protein in your diet? Beans, tofu, peas?
The cat
I see five packets of cheese
I see plenty of protein.
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People are out here choosing to eat canned green beans? When you could just as easily eat NOTHING and have roughly the same nutritional value and none of the slimy, masochistic horror show that is canned green beans. (I don't care for canned green beans).
When you could just as easily eat NOTHING and have roughly the same nutritional value
I'm no nutritionist, but that seems incorrect based on my cursory Google search. lol
I actually like canned green beans slightly more than fresh or frozen. It has something to do with the texture, but idk what exactly. Though imo most veggies are definitely better fresh, for some reason I really enjoy canned peas too (I know I'm a weirdo).
How much did you pay for the cat and how would you cook it?
Not a bad haul, I might be biased as an Australian, but that looks like good value for money for food that's balanced and easy to cook.
As a fellow non-meat eater, I am deeply disturbed by the lack of legumes in this photo, but if you're not a fan of cooking from dried, then I get it, canned can get expensive for what you get out of it.
Some charred chickpeas with olive oil lightly smashed on that rosemary bread would end up being my breakfast for a week straight if this was my house.
What do you mean no meat? The cat is right there!
(Kidding, I love my cat.)
Oh I assumed that was a cat for farming fur balls, not meat.
Don't know how expensive is in Australia, but in Europe most of the time you can find the supermarket brands of legumes at about a euro for a can (medium sized). So it's not that bad, and more practical unless you are cooking for several people.
Not too far off, $1AUD (0.60 euros) would be a cheap can of beans (which is often mostly water, even if it's a 400g can, once you drain the beans, your millage varies by brand) $3 a can is average for name brands that fill the can to the brim.
But when you can buy 500g of dried beans for $3.99, and that will make the equivalent of 8-10 cans of beans, as someone who doesn't eat meat (and has allergies so can't eat commercial "mock meats"), I eat at least 2 serves of legumes every single day. Buying cans adds up at that scale even though I'm just one person. So I always buy dry legumes when I can.
I definitely have some cans in the pantry for emergencies though, because they are very convenient.
But I also have some pre-cooked, unseasoned beans and chick peas in the freezer, when I cook up a big pot I always throw a few portions in the freezer. They defrost in less than a minute in the microwave, so I'll use them before I crack open a can of beans.
You’re eating far too much healthy food. Try mixing in some junk to balance things out.
Not bad, not great. I buy my veggies from a grocery that specializes in that, it's much cheaper and less plastic. No yogurt? No solid/brick cheese? No nuts and dried fruit? No canned beans or dried beans? Peanut butter?
What you really need is a $/portion table to see what's actually expensive here.
I think the muffins tip you over the edge into junk food land. They are very empty and basically the same as the rolls, the kraft dinner, and whatever is in the red box. A fair bit of this stuff is basically sugar and bread.
I was wondering if maybe OP has kids.
My SO and I recently found out that Walmart (I see the Great Value brand) has actually become one of the more expensive places to buy goods from. We've done comparisons from Trader Joe's, Fry's, and Safeway. We've found that Walmart is the least value. Take what you will.
I get 3x as many groceries at Costco for the same price as at Walmart.
I can shop at Costco for my family of two. There are a lot of bulk items that don't make sense for me to buy, but non-perishables and especially any electronics or big (for me) money items I try to buy from them
I just say that because I hear a lot of people hesitant to shop there with the reason they won't be able to finish everything before it goes bad. But they sell a lot of household items and the lifetime guarantee is worth the membership cost by itself
Also if you're an executive member you can add someone else for free! They don't even have to be in your household. I added a friend in need so they could get some necessities
Needs butter, eggs, beans, garlic (i assume you already have salt & pepper), rice (get a bigger bag, it's cheap! Learn different rice recipes) and noodles...lose the uncrustables, the muffins, and the Swiss rolls. Get a big bag of cereal instead (good for snacking + breakfast) and a box of muffin mix (you get more for cheaper). Room for improvement, but good instincts with the veggies, just get some fruit too 🤙🤙
Edit- canned diced tomatoes and chicken broth really go a long way when making rice- I love using knorrs tomato/chicken bullion when making Mexican rice
Needs more cats
You're doing a great job for a 5 year old (based on the Uncrustables)
Is the cat included? If yes, it's worth the price
6/10, 8/10 with rice
It's an old meme, but it checks out.
For the price of one 10 pack of uncrustables you can get 2 loaves of bread and a jar each of PB and J, and have sandwiches for 2 weeks!
I assume you are making the cat into tacos and for that you made some good choices
You could've saved $3 on the pack of tortillas by spending $10 on a bag of masa and 6 hours making enough tortillas to feed a small battalion
Fresh tortillas are delicious, though time consuming
More veggies, less Smuckers
I have cravings for Uncrustables. I know that you can just like... make a pbj for way cheaper, but they just hit different.
Probably all the added sugar, lmao.
Needs more legumes, nuts and or seeds, maybe some starches and fruit.
Am I missing the beans here? Or is this insane to have all these fixens and no beans?
Suggestion: Get some canned refried beans. With the tortillas and cheese, you can make burritos.
Better suggestion: Get a bag of dried pinto beans and learn how to make your own beans. It's really simple, just needs to be aimmered a long time.
Beans would be a good source of protein. Rice and beans and spice!
You can use a pressure cooker to trim down the time it takes to cook beans to 10-15m. Just remember to soak them at least 8h beforehand (which you should be doing anyway) except for blackeye beans which don't need that.
Also works on pretty much anything that you boil and would take a long time to cook (mainly stews).
You're basically trading the extra investment of buying a pressure cooker (which also works fine as a normal pan) for the savings in gas an electricity from cooking such things about 3x faster.
I've always just checked for rocks, wash them, then put them into a pot of water on low heat for a few hours on the stove. Just add salt midway through and check periodically.
Side note, if you prep em this way wait a bit for the water to get to a soupy consistency. A really easy and cheap recipe my mom always made when I was a kid:
Ingredients-your beans you just cooked, tortillas, and Chihuahua cheese
Pour some of the beans with the soupy water into a bowl. Heat up some corn tortillas and then tear them into small squares and mix them with the soup. Top with your preferred amount of cheese, preferably grated or torn to small pieces so it melts faster. Can also add salt, pepper, or any seasoning you like but it usually tastes good as is.
If you got time and wanna be fancy you can dice up tomatoes, onions, avocados and/or jalapenos and chuck em straight into the soup.
I wish I could get this much food, I keep ending up buying candles instead
I'm so hungry
Value wise it's not very good: you could have made the sauces yourself, slice your own cheese, cut your own broccoli, make your own muffins if you really want to save, make your own mac and cheese, etc. Would save you probably 50%.
I don't want to cook after I get home from work. From scratch, doubly so.
That's when you do weekly preps.
For the sauces you can make a batch once then freeze it for later.
Well, i get that.
And too, many "sauces" you could cook for your pasta are easy, cheaper and wont cost you a second more time thn the pasta needs to cook.
This is an extremely binary haul. Items are either very healthy or very unhealthy with nothing in between. It's kind of impressive.
Tips: Make your own Mac & Cheese and tortillas. Both are cheap, easy to make, and taste way better than premade stuff.
Time is also a factor
Yepp.
And making a simple cheese sauce takes you the time that the pasta cooks.
Heat broth or milk or both slowly in a pot. Shredd cheese (i like a mix of bluecheese and swiss) and add. Stirr until solved. Add salt, pepper, nutmeg, a dash of white wine. Either use potatoe-starch to thicken or use enough cheese to have it be thick by itself.
Takes you 10 mins tops.
You have a kitty, swiss rolls, and (from the looks of it) a hammock. Are you accepting house guests?
great value swiss rolls 🤢
The kitty seems impressed.
Ahh, I see someone's making swiss roll enchiladas!
With Alfredo sauce, just like Mom used to make.
That is a lot of processed food.
It looks like a reasonable buy for what you're probably used to in terms of cooking, convenience and diet. As long as you get at least one cooked meal in you each day, you're doing good. Don't sweat it if you don't want to, there's plenty of other things to worry about.
If you are looking for some input, I would probably add more varied sources of protein (lentils, nuts, eggs, beans) and fiber (carrots, cabbage, kale, wholegrain), but I also live on another continent and have both other availability and tradition than you might.
If you're worried that your food is too expensive, there's plenty of suggestions in the other replies better geared toward US markets, but I'll also add that you could make groceries last much longer by learning a bit more about cooking. A lot can be gained by using/substituting with local or seasonal ingredients, as well as re-using leftovers and scraps in creative ways.
If learning cooking is a steep lifestyle change, you could also find a group to share the burden with. Do weekly meal preps together, or for each other, or do batch cooking of condiments/pickles/sauces and swap with each other. It's a fun way to learn from each other, keep to the habit, and might even be a nice way to get to know someone.
Cooking 3 dishes (to get enough variety) for the week's meal prep is a big ask, but you could do one batch each and swap with a couple of friends.
Doing batch cooking and canning of sauces is also an excellent way to use up ingredients that are on their way out. Found cheap second assortment tomatoes on a farmer's market? Pasta sauce for a week! Got too much milk? Make some cheese! Someone's apple tree yielding too much fruit? Apple sauce, dried apple crisp/cubes/snacks, base for indian/far east curries/stews, in salads, drinks, snacks as fresh whole apples or wedges, made into jam/marmelade, used as substitute for potatoes or tomatoes, and/or as part of delicious pie or other dessert.
Also: leftovers can almost always be put into a pie crust (water, flour, butter/oil), covered with shredded cheese, and become a Quiche du semaine/pie of the week. With practice you'll find how much of carbs, protein, fibers and flavouring you prefer in it, and you'll make an actual great dish you look forward to.
On the topic of pie of the week.
You can make dishes with similarly upcycled leftovers in burritos, stir frys, pizza, pasty/pirog, and often in a pasta and/or au gratin (with melted cheese on top). Although I find none of them are quite as versatile as the quiche, they are excellent for variety.
Only 20% is natural ingredients. 80% is processed foods. Typical futile attempt to eat healthy. Terrible diet.
There are better ways to say that
I expect English is their second language, based on the surreal absurdity of the binary state of "healthy" and "futility". It's all a futile attempt, we all die. The comment reads like a Salvador Dali or René Magritte. C'est ne pas une pipe.
Which isn't me ripping on someone for learning a new language, it's just an emergent property of people unconstrained by convention.
Try the app for your grocery. Chances are there are coupons for sone of this stuff on the app. Try fresh or frozen green beans next time. Canned green beans are awful.
Your colon is going to hate you.
How many days worth of food is that?
You could have bought 16 packs of Oreos for that price!
Not a critique, I first wanted to encourage you to try making your own tortillas, but kinda backtracked since it has a big downside which is that they are so much better that going back to store-bought is kinda a dilemma: they taste much worse, but you don't have to spend hours kneading and rolling and cooking. On the other hand home-made can be frozen, so there is that... If you still might like to give it a go, I use a video from Jack Ovens in YT, which I recommend. Now I want to make tortillas...
Had to get to the very end to see you were talking about tortillas
My bad, I now edited it. I rewrote it multiple times and missed it.
Same, but we knew it was going to be about tortillas didn't we.
It was the "hours kneading and rolling and cooking" that gave it away for me, then the end confirmed it.
You can make fresh spinach last longer if you layer in some napkins/paper towels (something something moisture, I don’t really know the science).
Learn to cook/bake, you’ll save even more by not buying processed foods. You’ll get more micronutrients too. Less jars, more fresh produce. Look for protein rich vegetables to make up for the lack of meat, or toss in a few eggs into your diet.
I think buying a cat with your groceries was a great idea, what aisle was it in?
Oh god. Are we gonna do this? Is this gonna spawn a month of "This is how much I got for X in X" posts?
For fun, I tried to find similar or same items for a local grocery store to me to see the price difference… it’s roughly $160CAD. That’s a crazy difference.
Minus a few things on the left, cause it’s hard to tell what they are.
