Holy mackerel!

[dreamshark]

Richard and I just spent almost $400 on a grocery shopping trip. No, we weren't shopping at Kowalski's; it was Cub. And we weren't buying party munchies or gourmet food, although we did buy some things I wouldn't buy if I were on a strict budget (things like meat and fresh fruit and a little jar of roasted peppers, nothing really crazy). When did food get so expensive?

Maybe I'll go back to The Hunger Site and click on it a few more times. (Thanks to pegkerr for pointing me there with her Project Decrease Worldsuck entry for today).

Comments

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Yikes. And here I was sweating the $118 that I exchanged for a cart of groceries a few days ago.

"(things like meat and fresh fruit and a little jar of roasted peppers, nothing really crazy)"

You'd think that kind of money would have funded lobster for the whole family, an indulgent visit to the Lund's or Byerly's cheese counters, and then some, wouldn't you? At least, I would.

Good luck!

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

If that was for one person, it's in the same ballpark as our shopping spree, really. We were shopping for three.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

Aldi is cheaper than Cub and Rainbow, usually. Quality on much of what Aldi sells is decent -- though they add more water to their meat than most groceries do.

Target has some good food prices.

There are at least two sf stories in which someone uses a time machine for grocery shopping.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Yikes; my last shopping run topped $50 for the first time in a while, and that was high (but explicable; we bought more meals worth of stuff, and hit a couple of staples needing replenishing all at once).

Eight times that kinda scares me. How many person-meals is that? I'm sure you're cooking more than we are. Are you regularly feeding three people? And I'm getting lunch at work (quite good cafeteria at just-over fast-food prices).

[carbonel]

Yes, but what do your bills from Simon Delivers (or its successor) look like?

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Much higher, but those also aren't feeding me and Lydy very much (more just lately, since Pamela and Eric have been cooking, sometimes stuff Lydy and I will eat).

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

"How many person-meals is that?"

Oh, gosh, no idea. This was one of those Restocking the Shelves shopping trips. We hadn't done a major shopping run for a couple of weeks, and were out of practically all fresh food, and low on the kinds of things that hide on pantry shelves and in freezers. We don't actually spend $380/week for 3 people on a regular basis.

But I'm pretty sure this is the most I've ever personally spent on a single grocery shopping trip; I'm just astounded that it is POSSIBLE. Richard and Thorin do most of the grocery shopping these days, which is, I suppose, why I'm surprised. I often do smaller shopping runs to Kowalski's, and I just kinda thought that K's was a much more expensive place than Cub. No, it's not that much more. Food has just gotten more expensive.

[wombat-socho.livejournal.com]

This is really weird. I usually manage to get out of Harris Teeter (roughly equivalent to Lunds) for less than $30/week, and that includes meat & dairy stuff. And DC is supposed to be a high-cost area. What are you people buying?

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

$30/week is pretty cheap, even for one person. Do you eat lunch out?

Honestly, we probably bought enough food on this shopping run to subsist on for a month or two (if we didn't care about having fresh food): lots of canned goods and frozens, 8 boxes of cereal (it was on sale), extra bread to put in the freezer, that kind of thing. We've also gotten into the habit of buying quite a bit of fresh produce (which can be pricey in Minnesota in the winter), Greek yogurt instead of the cheap kind, and other indulgences. We certainly could spend less if money were tight. On the other hand, we could easily spend a lot more.

[wombat-socho.livejournal.com]

I try not to eat out at lunch if I can avoid it; I'm smack in the middle of an industrial park, so deli lunch will easily run me $10, and the other options are McDonald's and Wendy's. I've gotten into the habit of packing a couple of sandwiches and a can of soup. So, yeah...I also buy a lot of staple foods at Walmart, which is hard to beat for things like eggs, milk, bread, flour, etc.

Fresh produce is pricy everywhere, I think - but at least you can get it in the winter. I think we're both old enough to remember when that wasn't the case.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I bet I spend a comparatively huge amount on groceries. But I believe that I have a responsibility to support small, local, and/or organic producers as much as possible, and so I do.

I haven't been to Cub on Nicollet fora long time, but was there this week. They've really spiffed the place up. I was also very very impressed with the huge selection of dried beans and peas. That sort of good cheap food is not stocked at Lund's and Kowalski's. They have a few beans, but they are packaged for yuppies, and so are more expensive without adding value.

K.

[sunshinenilkcub]

I shopped at Cub once after regularly shopping at Aldi's and I freaked out at how much it cost. Food is getting so expensive!