Asklemmy

43761 readers

1124 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

121

I spent $10k on food last year. What’s good way to track grocery spending? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 9 months ago by Aquila@sh.itjust.works to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

57 comments fedilink hide all child comments

So I’m just one dude and 10k a year just on food seems incredibly high. I don’t go out that often, ~$1600 was at restaurants. I’m not really sure what I’m doing wrong while shopping at grocery stores and want to track grocery purchases better. The store I typically go to doesn’t have online receipts to use.

I’m wondering what kind of apps are available for tracking grocery expenditures that Lemmings would recommend? It would be nice to be able to go back and check prices/sizes of things too, so what is being shrinkflated/skimpflated

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] MrVilliam@lemmy.world 26 points 9 months ago (15 children)

I'm not sure about tracking your spending, but I can tell you that you're grocery shopping is way too wasteful. That's like $200/week on groceries for one person. Unless you have a very limited diet, you're paying more than double what you should be at the grocery store. For context, when I get groceries for me and my wife, I rarely spend over $50. Get store brands, buy bigger sizes, and shop at cheaper stores like Aldi. Stop buying frozen and processed garbage; buy fresh meat and vegetables and cook big batches and have leftovers. This time of year is great for a big pot of soup/chili!

I think if I were interested in tracking spending like that, I might just build a simple spreadsheet with dates and costs, maybe add variables for the unusual things like stocking up to have guests to feed or whatever. Sorry I can't be more helpful on that front. If you're not experienced with cooking, there are some really good YouTube channels that can teach you some good, versatile recipes that are very budget-friendly.

[–] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 1 points 9 months ago (6 children)

$50 for two people for a week? That's about $1.20 per meal and rivals what companies like Aramark spend per inmate/school child per meal. I have a tough time believing this holds true for more than a week unless you're just eating beans and rice.

[–] MrVilliam@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago (5 children)

Not fully representative, but it's the closest I've got. I had taken a picture of two receipts to show that buying one bag of groceries from Giant costs as much as most of our week's grocery run. I would typically buy a little more than this, and what I would buy in addition is the pricier things admittedly, but it's usually $35-50 depending on what needs replenishing and what's on sale.

[–] XBannedx@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Do you eat meat?

[–] MrVilliam@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Yes, but I buy bigger packs, so I don't always need more. That's why this receipt was so much lower than the $35-50 I was talking about. A big pack of chicken thighs from Aldi is under $10, usually $7ish. But based on that receipt, I was probably doing a sweet potato black bean something or other. Hearty, satisfying vegetarian meals can be as delicious as they are cheap.

load more comments (3 replies)

load more comments (11 replies)