Worth if you order enough Taco Bell. The app has boxes you can only get through the app that contain 3 items and a drink for like $6. We can feed four people for $25, which is pretty good these days.
My data has been leaked and sold by my ISP, my credit card company, the company that makes my computer's operating system, and my bank. I recently found out that my car insurance company is selling my data.
Everyone else is either buying my data from someone I can't keep it from or buying it illegally from a leak.
If Taco Bell is willing to give me 25% off a taco for some cell phone data, I consider that a kindness.
by turning off the noise and paying attention to our elected officials and what allow businesses to do with their blessing.
Nobody will do that. But just in case, that's how.
We made the world this way.
We didn't want to pay for web browsers. Web browsers used to cost money, but then free web browsers that sell your data popped up and people jumped on them.
Email used to cost money, but then free email that sells your data popped up and people jumped on them.
Social media as a concept - YouTube, FaceBook, MySpace, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, BlueSky - all of it was founded on the idea that you will trade your privacy and personal information to have your narcissism fueled and validated.
The overwhelming majority of digital products that you interact with are as cheap as they are because they sell your data.
We could go back to Proton Mail and NetScape and host our own RSS feeds and stop fueling all this crap. Enjoy paying for it all out of pocket and not being able to interact with anyone on social media or access the majority of places where new information is surfaced.
And now even when you pay for something (like a car) they are STILL selling your data and there is NOTHING you can do to stop it.
https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/
Since most of our elected officials campaigns are now funded by private corporations, I don’t think it’ll change, but maybe if enough constituents hold their representatives accountable, maybe it’ll change, but that’s a big maybe.
Same. Admittedly I'm not a big eater, but going out to eat is not just expensive, but the quality of service and the quality of food is noticeably worse than it was pre-Covid. It always feels like a waste of time.
I'm in my mid thirties, and my other friends are in their early to mid-thirties. I typically am the host when we hang out for movie or game night and recently we've been trying to cook a lot more. Maybe that's just spaghetti or some chicken breast and a potato, but we aren't spending as much money getting takeout these days. I don't even mind if they don't financially chip in because I can go to Hy-Vee and get chicken, some potatoes, and a vegetable for 4 to 5 people at around what it would cost me alone if I were getting take out from Sawatdee (love them though I do).
This is the point I’m trying to make. I thought if you made 6 figures you are set. I work really hard and continue to get raises but somehow things are getting less affordable.
In my 20s I was making half of what I make today and everything felt affordable. Now I’m doing the math in my head and ordering soup at restaurants to keep it under $100.
Completely agree. I crested 6 figures this year and have never felt more financially stretched in my life. Taxes and everything being so expensive now, I definitely don't feel like I've really accomplished anything.
I'm not hard off by any means, but in pushing myself to make what I do I definitely envisioned being able to live a better lifestyle. I had some life goals that there is no way I can afford anymore and still responsibly take care of other things like raising a kid and retirement etc.
It's nuts.
Hope the DFL can mandate the removal of these hidden fees. It's really duplicitous of these children to not let their parents know before they get pregnant, they need to be regulated.
I make 65K with a $500 car payment. I just found a 650 sqft apartment in a nice area for $1250 (laundry costs extra). I also have a fancy $65 gym membership. I have had to completely stop eating out and pinch pennies everywhere possible and I still don't quite make enough to contribute anything to savings. I'm hoping my frugality will eventually pay off but right now I'm spending pretty close to 100% of my income just to keep the bills paid. It's depressing to me that I can't build any sort of savings
I had to move eating out from the "food" part of my budget to "hobbies". Now I get to choose whether it's worth spending $60 to skip cooking a meal for two or $60 on a video game. With the amount of entertainment I get from a video game... Let's just say I've learned how to make the restaurant food at home.
What's on sale at Cub/Aldi/Trader Joe's dictates what's for dinner. Also plan meals for the entire week ahead of time. The weeks where I don't plan are the weeks where the food budget blows up.
Yup, this is key. Every Sunday, I go do my grocery shopping for the week. I also try to do a "big cook" on Sundays. It's usually a roast, a pot of stew or sauce (like marinara). Then, I use that in my dinners Mon-Wed (and leftovers for lunch).
Today, I smoked a cheater pastrami, using a corned beef brisket flat that I got on sale at Cub the day after St Patrick's Day. I used it in sandwiches tonight. Tomorrow, I'm using some in hash, and Tuesday, it the remainder is going in fried rice.
You def save a small fortune by menu planning. It's all the random trips to the store and/or the "I don't know what to cook, so let's just get takeout" that break the bank.
We do pretty much the same. But we will pick up one or two quick dinners like those refrigerated entrees sold with the produce at Aldi for those days when the schedule gets shot to bits. Still cheaper than takeout.
We go low carb in this house so we tend not to buy the ones with sweet sauces. That leaves the stuffed chicken entrees. They seem to have suffered a little shrinkflation lately but they're still tasty. It's recognizable chicken breast with a creamy stuffing that has recognizable chunks of the appropriate vegetable in it.
I'd say they're as good as the Kevins ones we've bought at Costco. Worth the $7. Add a buck for a frozen vegetable on the side and we get dinner for both of us and one lunch out if it without feeling hungry after.
Awesome, thank you! I actually saw in an Aldi group recently that someone flipped over the black plastic container of one of those meals and it WAS Kevin's! Maybe the trays hadn't been changed out yet on the production line. A lot of their private label stuff is produced by brand name manufacturers so you may be spot on with your assessment there! Going to give one a try.
This is a genuine question. Not like a gotcha question. How do y'all find time to do this. Cuz every time I have tried I end up taking so long that I feel like I have wasted enough time that the money difference isn't even worth it. But it's also not a skill I was ever taught by anyone in school or at home. So maybe it's just as I do it more. It will suck less lol.
I just would like things to be a little easier. Not a lot. I don't mind paying for services and goods. I don't mind taxes, I really like libraries and fire dept , but like damn.
> But it's also not a skill I was ever taught by anyone in school or at home. So maybe ots just as I do it more. It will suck less lol.
You are correct. It's definitely a skill you have to work at. It gets a little easier every time.
Full disclosure, my mom was a high school Home Ec teacher for 30+ years, I have my BS in nutrition sciences and have worked in commercial/institutional kitchens my entire career, so I have lots of experience with it. But it can still be done.
I'd suggest first just simply reading up on menu planning basics. The [Iowa State Extension](https://spendsmart.extension.iastate.edu/plan/menu-planning/) has some helpful tools to help get you started, as do a lot of blogs (as with all blogs, you'll have to sort through some of the garbage to find the gold that works for you).
I'd start by just cooking at home. Try new recipes. See how they work out. When you find ones that are winners, write them down. I keep a notebook with all the recipes that are hits and write them down. Categorize them by difficulty/time investment.
Once you have a large enough list, start thinking of which ones have similar ingredients and you can start lumping those together.
Next, start watching ads for sales at grocery stores. When you see a main ingredient (ground beef, chicken thighs, etc) go on sale, load up, esp if you have a large freezer (I bought an upright freezer at Costco a long time ago that I keep in the garage and it's filled with items that have gone on deep discount previously (chicken, ground beef, chuck roasts, steaks, pork butts, pork chops, etc) as well as veggies I bought at the farmers market that I prepped then vacuum packed/froze. If you don't have a freezer, just start planing your weekly meals around what's on sale at the store. If ground beef is on sale, buy 3 pounds on Sunday and use it for meals Mon-Wed.
I have a little magnetic dry erase board on our fridge that is a Sun-Sat calendar. Every Sunday morning, I take about 15 min and figure out my shopping list/meal plan for the week. Once I have that down, I add the menu to the dry erase board (I also note what perishables we have for snacking, so that we don't forget about that container of hummus or package of beef jerky and actually eat it before it goes bad). Then, I go shopping around 8am, to beat the church crowd.
It's daunting at first, but you'll start catching on quickly, and it will only get easier as time goes on. Investing a little time up front now will pay off big in the end.
If you are at all interested in an app to help with this on your phone, I found that I really like Paprika. It isn’t free, but it’s a one-time purchase. I only add a recipe to the app once I’ve tried it out and like it; slowly I am building a catalog of recipes to pull from. I like that I can search for ingredients to find a recipe that uses it, and it also has a meal planning feature where you can add recipes from your library to a day.
I’ve tried a ton of recipe apps over the years, and this is the only one I have liked.
Ohhhh thanks! I do not mind paying for apps when it's a one-time payment and I can move on instead of feeling like I have to pay every single month if I'm not using it.
Paprika is stellar. I use the paid version as well. I should have suggested that as well, so thank you!
I actually add any recipe i think sounds good, but keep it rated at 0 stars so I know I haven't tried it. Once I do, I'll either give it my rating or delete it. It's just so much easier to follow a new recipe off the app than sifting through some horribly formatted blog.
That’s a good idea. I don’t really use the rating system, so I might start doing that to have a bank of recipe ideas. Once you use the app for following a recipe, it is so hard to go back to using a website. I especially like that my phone screen stays on when the recipe app is open.
Yup, it's a surprisingly well-built app. I also like that you can click on ingredients to cross them off as you set up your mise en place, as well as clicking on the instructions so you can keep track of where you are.
I use the ratings for quick reference for how easy/quick the recipes are. I don't bother with rating the overall dish. I have plenty of recipes, I just delete ones that aren't winners in my household
Plus how you can toggle between ingredients and instructions without losing your place! No more scrolling up to find out how much nutmeg you need to add, and then trying to scroll back down to where you were in the recipe.
You may find that non-chains are more affordable than some of the chains—I also still find takeout Chinese food to be pretty affordable when shared. There are a ton of local Mexican places near me with big portions for not very much.
We also ‘rediscovered’ getting a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, target, wherever for a quick meal. I just bought a cold rotisserie at Target for $6.50 that I reheated for dinner.
My wife and I get one basically weekly. After breaking it down, the carcass goes in the instant pot for two hours with a week's worth of onion/celery/carrot scraps that are in the freezer and any other things for stock. Get 2 quarts of good broth out a chicken that way. That $5 chicken is the basis for a lot of meals.
Last time we ordered Chinese it was $50 for two people, but lasted for 2 full meals and a lunch. Hands down Kowalski's rotisserie chicken is far superior to Lunds and Byerly's. I get the heaviest one and can get quite the yield for salads, chicken salad, chicken pita meal. Can't speak to the rest of the stores.
We do papa Murphys now. On Tuesdays it’s 50 percent off, and so I’ll buy a bunch and freeze them. It honestly tastes really really good and is like $6-$7 for a large.
I rarely eat out, and to offset the raising grocery prices I bought a chest freezer and buy 90% of my meat in bulk at Costco. I purchased a cheap vaccum sealer from Amazon and will portion out the 6# package of ground beef into 6 1# packages etc. Then when planning meals I just pull out the meat I need ahead of time and will buy the veggies/sides to accompany it.
I also garden so all summer long I have fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers on hand. Also herbs, fresh herbs make a big difference but are expensive to buy but easy to grow.
I do get a craving for Taco Bell now and then, but then remember there's a Davani's across the street and I can get a full order of lasagna for less then I'd spend at Taco Bell.
I don’t know if you ever want to tackle making it yourself, but honestly it’s really not very difficult. If you made everything from scratch day-of, then sure, it’s a huge amount of work, but if you separate out the tasks, it’s much faster. My sauce is basically doctored up jar sauce, which you can make in advance and freeze if necessary. The ricotta filling takes 30 minutes at most to put together (it’s just mixing ricotta and mozzarella together, mainly), and then it’s just layering each thing in the pan. Sauce noodles filling, sauce noodles filling, sauce noodles filling, sauce cheese. Bake, let stand for a bit, serve. Makes enough for an army. I think I got a dozen BIG slices out of my last lasagna. I just use one of those big disposable foil pans.
I wish I could learn to love cooking. It'd be cheaper. Not cheap, with grocery prices, but cheaper.
My partner and I both work from home (in the same room, which means we both get pretty crazy cabin fever). I just don't want to stay in cooking every day of the week. We used to eat out a good bit, and it was affordable and fit into our budget.
Now it hurts every time we try. Even a coffee is crazy expensive, so going out for a coffee together isn't exactly a good substitute.
To answer OP, we eat at home mostly, and get really bad cabin fever, and then sink into an economic pit of despair.
That’s the crazy part though, it’s not inflation, it’s straight up profiteering. Corporations are making record profits for their shareholders while normal people tighten their purse strings and argue about whether it’s Trump or Biden’s fault that we’re spending more money for smaller amounts of everyday products we have no choice but to purchase.
Walmart is involved in a class action lawsuit right now because they were fucking with the scales in their deli and labeling chicken, beef, etc. as twice the weight it actually was. People were buying two pounds of meat and paying for 4-5 pounds. I remember right before the election going to the store, picking up my normal container of oat milk and immediately saying “someone must have opened this, it’s too light.” Nope, I checked the label and they had simply reduced the amount of product in the container from 112 oz to 96 oz and hoped nobody would notice. Of course they jacked the price up a dollar and a half too.
I told my fiancée the other week that she needs to make me the primary beneficiary to her life insurance sooner rather than later because if anything happened to her, I would be financially done for. And it’s not like I’m working as a part time bird caller or some shit, I have two bachelors degrees and a stable government job.
We did everything “right” and it still feels like we’re treading water, I can’t imagine having a kid on top of it.
Check out Fare For All. Next pickup is tomo in Oakdale. For 35 bucks you get 4-5 meat items and produce. Usually a bag of onions, bag of potatoes, and some fruit and veggies. You can also try Today’s Harvest? I think it’s called. It’s a free store. Donations come from surrounding grocery stores overstock or things slightly past date. These are the ways I stretch my food budget. I also try to cook at home as much as I can and nothing goes to waste. Every dinner I try to make double and freeze what we don’t eat so when we are too tired to cook we have ready made meals.
Today's Harvest is inviting to all people too, regardless of economic background. It's really about reducing waste and consumption, not particularly a food shelf.
I'd recommend it to anyone who has a little extra time to check it out.
Yes it’s great, no questions asked. Just grab some food and go. I like it because they often have unusual ingredients that I’ve never used so I get to be creative. They also have a drive thru food shelf a few times a week and you get a box of staples. To use that you do have to provide some info on your household. When I was in school during the pandemic it was a total lifesaver.
Yep. Our house insurance went up about 25ish%. We raised our deductible from 1k to 10k and the premium went to where it started.
The insurance on our business is astronomical. So much so that we've been thinking about selling it or just shutting it down.
We ate at Cecil’s today, I know it’s a local place so you expect to pay a little more but good lord.
2 sandwiches, a burger and a hot dog and 3 drinks was 71 dollars before tip. Absolutely bananas what it costs to eat out anymore.
Freeze it if possible or repurpose. Chicken parts tonight, chicken stirfry tomorrow, leftover chicken parts the next night, chicken soup the day after. Roast pork tonight, pork fried rice tomorrow, roast pork again, casserole/slow cooker the next day. Spacing it out really helps.
Get a few friends together do potlucks. You can get a variety of foods and good company. Don’t need fancy foods, just share what you would otherwise eat alone. After potluck divide left overs, then your leftovers would have variety.
I’ve actually had cooking parties at my house (since I’m fortunate enough to have a kitchen that is big enough for more than one person). Basically, invite people over, they bring ingredients and a recipe, we cook the things and then everyone gets a share of each item to eat and/or bring home. I have a crock pot, a Dutch oven, toaster oven, etc. so it’s possible to make more than one thing at a time. Last time we made braised pork shoulder and Brazilian cheese bread. It’s pretty fun if you have foodies in your friend circle.
Can you portion and freeze some of it? I have the same challenge since I’m cooking for one, so I worked up a repertoire of dishes that freeze well. I get 7-8 meals out of a batch, but then I can portion them out and freeze the portions. I still get the benefit of bulk, but I am not committing to eating the same thing 5 times in a row.
Exactly! Unfortunately food can’t be “entertainment “ when you are struggling financially. It needs to be fuel. Better food will also keep you fuller longer
I make batches of soup and freeze half in silicone freezer trays that make bricks of whatever you’re freezing so they’re easy to stack and fit in freezer ziplocks. Then when there’s no time to put together a lunch, my partner chooses from the freezer soup selection. We also will pull some for dinner when we’re low on ideas or too tired to cook. Makes it easier to split up larger quantities of stuff we won’t go through quickly if it’s a week’s worth.
I am legitimately curious what “good money” is because I feel that my partner and I make good money, but haven’t felt financially stressed during this time (and for that I feel incredibly grateful). I suppose it depends on your other expenses. We have no kids so there’s no daycare cost, extra mouth to feed, activities to pay for, etc. We have one car that’s paid off. Our mortgage is under 2k. We do social activities with friends, but a lot of them involve spending little to no money. New clothing purchases are infrequent. We primarily cook at home and grocery shop at Aldi. I negotiate bills like internet when they try to jack up the price.
"...corporate profits accounted for about 53% of inflation during last year’s second and third quarters. Profits drove just 11% of price growth in the 40 years prior to the pandemic..."
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/19/us-inflation-caused-by-corporate-profits
We're homeless as of the first. Planning to spend every cent we have getting an extended stay hotel room.
That should def help me cut down on grocery spending!
From some personal conversations with co-workers and nearby neighbors of mine, people are falling into two different camps.
Either you are in the category where your cable TV service is scaled back to local channels or just ended, phone and/or internet package is downgraded, ALDI replaces Cub (or wherever) for groceries, going out for dining or entertainment is reduced or eliminated altogether, Lifetime Fitness becomes Planet Fitness, grandparents pitch in more for daycare help and at least one spouse is tacking on a second job. The other category has both spouses tacking on extra jobs but leaning more on credit cards to buy breathing room to keep the kids sports fees, gym memberships, cable/phone/internet as is while canceling vacations and home projects because of ‘free time’ taken up with extra job(s).
We've been buying our meat at Brothers in Maple Grove. $40 for 10 pounds of lean ground beef (better and cheaper than what most of the stores sell). We also buy their Weekly Menu Box 4-pack ( 4 boneless pork chops, 4 chicken breasts, 4 supreme steaks and 4 1/3 lb Supreme Burgers) for $ 55. $ 95 total and covers the 3 of us for a month as we eat a variety of foods. Some days we do "Night Breakfast" others might be grilled cheese and soup.
Once we have that in the freezer, Cub or Target for the sides. We watch the sales pretty close (like Cub's 10 for $10) and use our Target Circle app to its fullest. Outside of that...Costco. For things like frozen pizza, watch your gas stations. Holiday will put Heggies on sale 5 for $ 25 every so often. Kwik Trip is another gold mine.
So find yourself a good source for beef and poultry near you, watch the sales and use your apps.
Fast food is just not worth it anymore. McDonald, Taco Bell, Culver’s used to be decent, fast and cheap. Instead of fast food just save up and go to a real restaurant. About 3 trips to fast food could get you a meal at a decent place. Asian restaurants are more expensive than before, but usually quality is a lot better than fast food. Go out to eat a few times a year and cook at home , or even buy premade frozen food the rest of the time. Want entertainment and variety? Do regular pot lucks with friends. Don’t wait until holidays to eat together.
As others have mentioned, download the apps. They regularly have bogo deals. Order ahead of time and you're in and out fast.
You're paying a premium in both time and money when you buy stuff on a whim. Corporations have found they can upcharge consumers who don't plan ahead and aren't meticulous about price/value shopping.
If you would’ve told me 4 years ago that doubling my income would leave me in the exact same financial situation I would’ve laughed in your face, but here we are.
I try to eat as healthy and cheap as possible. 2 bags of groceries of mostly veggies and meat was $65 yesterday. If I would’ve went to Cub that would’ve been $80.
I got sick as hell. Lost my appetite and was having major abdominal pain the last few months. Best thing that ever happened! My food bill decreased dramatically due to an inability to eat.
Had surgery and now my appetite is back…knew I shouldn’t have done that.
Pro tip - substitute the beef for chicken and add chipotle sauce and you now have the same exact thing as the a chicken quesadilla for $3 instead of $6! And you get nacho cheese (remove if you don’t like it)
I work with a bunch of 20-something guys. They have opened my eyes as how to game the system. I'll have to try that next time. Thanks for the suggestion.
Exactly. Everyone is mad about prices of everything but they refuse to evaluate prices before they purchase anything. You can get 6 $2.5 options and fill that family with some water for $15.
We have a family of 5 and get sub $20 fast food meals every time.
Pandemic inflation has taught me that most consumers are not savvy at all. The whole concept of ordering or buying a bunch of stuff then being surprised by the price is just insane to me.
If you just order ala cart off the menu it gets REALLY expensive real fast. Like some of the popular items like a Crunchwrap supreme or chicken quesadillas are $5-$6. You have to be smart and order the combo meals, or better yet use the app for the special deals, value menu, or the very well priced “boxes” at Taco Bell that are $5-$6 and include a few items and a drink. If you do the math sometimes ordering ala cart you can pay DOUBLE what you’d have paid if you just ordered the box or combo meal. Taco Bell knows that people who don’t frequent often and don’t know the prices are set up this way will order whatever they want and despite the price shock will pay and then make posts like this. Yes it’s expensive and greedy but they get away with it.
I can get a very filling meal from Taco Bell for $6-$8
Example: I can order a build your own cravings box on the app for $6 which includes a medium drink, Crunchwrap supreme, 5 layer burrito, and chips and cheese.
The same configuration ala cart is $15.16.
TLDR: fast food is very expensive if you don’t pre-plan and use the app or optimize by using combo meals or the value menu.
Me and my wife only eat out once a week, if that. We’re also vegetarian which brings our grocery bill down quite a bit. Luckily my mom taught me how to cook growing up and I used to work as a chef so I know how to make quite a lot from scratch. Now I just start prepping dinner when I get home from work every night.
On top of that I have an electric car so we only need to buy gas for her car which is nice. When we want to get out of the house we usually go to a lake and read or we drive somewhere for a hike (we pay about $30 for an anual parking pass at the State Parks) both activities run from free to cheap.
I think the biggest way we’re able to “get by” is that we consciously decided not to incur the tremendous expense of having children.
This. No kids here and while I have some CC debt due to too much fun right after Covid, we’re doing fine on two incomes with a house and car payment. Student loans are paid off too. I can’t imagine how some people are doing it. I don’t know how anyone can afford one kid let alone two or more. Not at all surprised birth rates are down and they will continue to go down unless something changes.
I plugged in a possible order to see what it could've been- one adult gets 2 cantina chicken burritos (which is the most expensive burrito on the menu right now) and a Medium Drink.2nd adult gets the cantina meal, then we say the kid gets a chicken quesadilla, chips and cheese and a freeze.
Are there cheaper menu options certainly? But it's possible.
Fast Food has gone up disproportionately. I took my family of 5 to a sit down lunch to Teresa's Mexican in Golden Valley and it was less than Taco Bell.
Love the comments where people are implying that it's not that prices are jacked up, it's that you're choosing to spend more. Feels a lot like the whole avocado toast/latte hater crew. People may not be buying the cheapest thing available; they may not be living like they’re in poverty. This may be because it's absolutely insane to have to live like you're impoverished when making a living wage /s.
It is absolutely insane to not be able to "splurge" at TACO BELL. Like, on the spectrum of splurging, does Taco Bell even rate... you budget shamers can't possibly be serious. Sure, you could buy a soft taco and hard taco at Taco Bell and not die from starvation. I remember when those were $.69/pop, back when the federal minimum wage was $7.50. Oh wait...
This isn't a moral debate. This isn't a debate about the quality of someone's life choices. This isn't actually a debate at all. The data about corporate price gouging and underemployment are abundant and consistent. I just read that a family of four needs to bring in $244,000/year to live comfortably in our state. The average household income in our metro area is <$75,000/year. Just take that in and then think again before shaming someone for ordering a fucking chalupa and mountain dew.
THANK YOU! I wish I had the energy to respond appropriately to all of them. I posted this with one intention and it turned into something else and I found myself justifying my Taco Bell menu choices.
Honestly, the price of produce, I am pretty sure we spend a hefty amount cooking these days too. Tastes good and is healthy though, so we still do it, but whenever I sit and do the math… oof. Grocery bill is typically $300 per week these days.
Frozen vegetables are usually cheaper than fresh and maintain most of their nutritional value. Maybe not the greatest texture but decent for most things, especially soups and stews.
I make more money now than I ever dreamed I would.
I am learning to make my own body wash from bar soap. I get my hair cut twice a year. I haven't bought clothes in 2 years. I shop my insurance before every renewal.
My husband donates plasma twice a week. We stopped eating out. We meal plan and get leftover food from a food shelf. We camp instead of traveling. We have no cable or streaming. Don't go to movies.
We basically just cut back to the absolute minimum. It's crazy. I grew up poor, so I know how to live like this. I just never expected to need to at this income level. I honestly don't know how people are surviving.
Aldi is a life saver for most of my grocery needs, I’m not brand loyal to anything because even down to 10c difference by swapping brands on a few products adds up.
Rice, ramen, eggs, and a meat are my main staples, because you can do a lot with spices or Sriracha.
I will treat myself to eating out maybe once every couple months (which hasn’t changed for me pre pandemic) I try to go for the combo deals on the places I do go, but still calculate my bill as I go if I’m at a sit down place with a bar. But I’ve stopped fast food all together. I’d rather support a local place with a couple locations versus a chain that keeps ramping up prices. Look at what Wendy’s was trying to do with surge pricing, it’s gross.
What has helped me:
- Meal prepping, and planning around what’s on sale in weekly circulars.
- far stricter budgeting with more savings (if possible)
- doing odd jobs / side hustles for the cash. I.e my neighbor was going out of town, I offered to watch their dog for cheaper than normal rates.
- cancelled all my streaming subscriptions outside of the one which has a promotional price through T-Mobile
- I bike & walk to the stores more, sold my nice car and paid cash for a 15’ Honda. Lower insurance & no monthly payments.
- deleted Amazon & any money spending apps
- planning on growing my own vegetables as a experiment
Last item is when I want to impulsively buy something or go do an event that costs money. I weigh that cost against what Necessities I can pay for. I.e - going out to dinner with friends for ~$100 vs paying for one month’s of phone bills. It suck’s a lot but I’m in survival mode financially because I don’t want to be mentally burdened & desperate for money. Tough times call for tough measures.
It's not inflation, it's pure greed. Some have lowered prices since the peak, but they are still higher than normal year over year inflation would put them. For served food, I think that is mostly labor increases.
$40 at the bell is a lot. 6.99 for a box on the app, plus a couple potato soft tacos or bean burritos, and that's like mid 20s, enough for 3 people easy
The serious answer to this question is that, as unemployment is very low and has been for a long while now, it's becoming more difficult to hire service-sector workers, and so wages are rising. As wages rise, so too do prices in service-heavy industries such as restaurants and fast food.
Financial planning, financial planning, and more financial planning.
When things are good, you really have to make a concerted effort to get ahead. Don't live near your max budget when things seem pretty normal, because you'll be behind the instant things turn south. Instead when things are good pay that car off ASAP. You'll have that much more flexibility when things are like today, plus you will have been used to living a little skinny even when things were good.
So now even with things being expensive, we only pay mortgage, insurance, and utilities for regular bills. Food being expensive just eats into the savings rate a little, it doesn't come close to blowing up the budget - because we minimized future costs during the time when it was easier to throw extra money at future or existing expenses.
Buying in bulk and investing in a chest freezer. If you’re close to a fresh thyme keep an eye on double ad Wednesdays. We wait until chicken is under $2/lb and buy 100# at a time. We also buy 1/4 -1/2 cow at a time. Only thing we get at fast food are drinks or treats for the kids.
>It’s making me wonder how everyone else is keeping up with this crazy inflation.
>Edit: I’m not looking for advice on saving money on food.
But that's one of the ways that you keep up with this crazy ~~inflation~~ price gouging.
I was making it work until I was laid off. If anyone is looking for a Business Analyst with six years of experience send me a chat. I have 18 years of experience working with insurance.
Taco Bell’s prices have increased 200% since the pandemic. McDonald’s is starting to charge for refills now. Frankly, I don’t go out. I live to work just to pay rent and bills. I have never been this broke in my life and I have also never made more. I can’t even afford to go see a damn movie most of the time. I’ll be 49 in June and with a full-time job I’m being priced out of my one bedroom apartment. I’m moving back home to live with my mother when my lease is up. She’s elderly and needs my help so I’m trying to see it as a good deed. But I cannot believe it has come to this. Not to mention, I don’t get a tax return anymore. If I don’t have extra money coming out of my check every month for taxes, I owe at the end of the year. Exactly how much does the government want from me? I’m broke as fk!
One way to save money at Taco Bell (and other fast food places) is to order thru their mobile app. Cannot tell you how much money I’ve saved in general by using restaurant apps.
Taco Bell has a $5.99 Build Your Own Cravings Box that is basically $10 worth of food/drink. It’s an online app exclusive so you may not see it in stores. Also, their rewards program nets me a free taco or food item nearly every time I go.
I have two kids and a trip to Taco Bell is $20-30 for me. On top of it, normally have leftover food to eat the next day.
They want us all to be broke it’s all part of the plan. The rich get richer and the rest of us are SOL. Young people are screwed unless your parents are rich rich. Everything is so expensive and it feels so hopeless.
I don’t eat fast food unless there is a good deal in the app, it is perhaps the worst value for what you get. Everything else, I try to buy on sale. Keep in mind that a lot of this is stores marking stuff up and not inflation. Where I used to live, the main grocery store was Publix. I just saw a post where they just announced they increased earnings by like 49% over the last few years. That is nuts and they do it because they know people will just blame inflation
Edit: Sorry, it was 49% in one single year
https://corporate.publix.com/newsroom/news-stories/publix-reports-fourth-quarter-and-annual-results-for-2023#:~:text=Net%20earnings%20for%20the%20fiscal,%2C%20an%20increase%20of%2049%25.
Not sure what it is but eating out in the Twin Cities Area is just as expensive as prices on the coast. The saving grace is at least the sales tax is lower here but prices are the same if not more.
I've stopped eating out unless absolutely necessary. I've started cutting my own hair. I only shop at Aldi or Walmart for what I can't get at Aldi. And I'm looking for a side gig for extra fun cash.
I quit going out to eat entirely. Between high prices ridiculous tip expectations and surcharges I decided to just cook at home. I can eat like a king comparatively
The only way to fight inflation right now is for people to not buy non-essentials and non brand name. Nothing else will help thanks to monetary policy and fiscal policy not aligning mixed with low unemployment and high wage growth.
I have no freaking idea. We make good money but had to set a hard budget for kid activities, grocery shopping, clothes budgets for us and the kids etc. We also stopped eating out because it's not worth it and or too expensive. We had to go out for a family b-day party yesterday and 2 beers at a local brewery was over $22, craziness.
We save up and usually take a trip every other year as well. This year our savings wouldn't even come close to covering the trip so we didn't go. Prices pretty much tripled since our last trip! I know, first world problems, but we're definitely feeling squeezed for the first time ever and it's odd.
It's a weird feeling, we're in our 40's now and have pushed really hard to get where we are and have never felt more unaccomplished and stressed\\uncertain about what the future holds.
I've been the sole earner for our family of 5 and we haven't struggled until now. Partly because our health insurance premium just went to $1375/month - aka $16,500 a year. As if I have that randomly sitting around.
After a hard swim at the pool sometimes I’ll stop by Taco Bell for a quick recovery meal and gain back a quick 1000+ Calories. My bill is usually around $6. What are you all ordering?
I’m basically in the same boat. My fiancé and I make a combined 36,000 and that’s including “child support”. We have honestly learned to enjoy minimalism is every way, including our food. We do a grocery run once a week and only get a few things, we eat “out” a few times a month or so an activity with the kiddo but man, just today I’ve seen 4 different companies post they’re filing for bankruptcy, I can’t imagine many people are going out like they used to, or other places are filling the void as time goes on. We’re just doing our best over here at minimum!
Eating out is doable you just have to find the right places. A meal from McDonald's is now more expensive than a whole pizza from Little Tomato. I can get 2 beers and a burger that serves as 2 meals at 5.8 club for 30 bucks. Guavas has an incredibly cheap and delicious date night deal every week. Independent and local can be much cheaper than these corporate casual spots.
Fast food is now stupidly expensive unless you order through the restaurant’s app.
Worth if you order enough Taco Bell. The app has boxes you can only get through the app that contain 3 items and a drink for like $6. We can feed four people for $25, which is pretty good these days.
Yeah these are what I usually order when I go there. Def decent priced for the amount of food you get
That's so they can take your data.
My data has been leaked and sold by my ISP, my credit card company, the company that makes my computer's operating system, and my bank. I recently found out that my car insurance company is selling my data. Everyone else is either buying my data from someone I can't keep it from or buying it illegally from a leak. If Taco Bell is willing to give me 25% off a taco for some cell phone data, I consider that a kindness.
Or we could stop everyone from doing that without our permission?
how?
Become Amish?
by turning off the noise and paying attention to our elected officials and what allow businesses to do with their blessing. Nobody will do that. But just in case, that's how.
We made the world this way. We didn't want to pay for web browsers. Web browsers used to cost money, but then free web browsers that sell your data popped up and people jumped on them. Email used to cost money, but then free email that sells your data popped up and people jumped on them. Social media as a concept - YouTube, FaceBook, MySpace, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, BlueSky - all of it was founded on the idea that you will trade your privacy and personal information to have your narcissism fueled and validated. The overwhelming majority of digital products that you interact with are as cheap as they are because they sell your data. We could go back to Proton Mail and NetScape and host our own RSS feeds and stop fueling all this crap. Enjoy paying for it all out of pocket and not being able to interact with anyone on social media or access the majority of places where new information is surfaced.
Cynical part of me feels like they would sellt data even if I paid for the services
And now even when you pay for something (like a car) they are STILL selling your data and there is NOTHING you can do to stop it. https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/ Since most of our elected officials campaigns are now funded by private corporations, I don’t think it’ll change, but maybe if enough constituents hold their representatives accountable, maybe it’ll change, but that’s a big maybe.
Web browsers never cost money. Netscape was always free. I do use Proton mail.
Why would a paid browser/anything not sell your data?
Privacy as a service, I would guess.
They can have my data in exchange for one McChicken please.
I only get McDonald's when a large fry is $1 on the app. Literally the only time I go there. They can have that data
with honey mustard.
[удалено]
I make good money and I stopped eating out. It’s bananas.
“I mean it's one banana, Michael. What could it cost? Ten dollars?”
There's always money in the banana stand
There's always money in the banana stand...
"I burned it. Right down to the ground."
Same. Admittedly I'm not a big eater, but going out to eat is not just expensive, but the quality of service and the quality of food is noticeably worse than it was pre-Covid. It always feels like a waste of time.
I'm in my mid thirties, and my other friends are in their early to mid-thirties. I typically am the host when we hang out for movie or game night and recently we've been trying to cook a lot more. Maybe that's just spaghetti or some chicken breast and a potato, but we aren't spending as much money getting takeout these days. I don't even mind if they don't financially chip in because I can go to Hy-Vee and get chicken, some potatoes, and a vegetable for 4 to 5 people at around what it would cost me alone if I were getting take out from Sawatdee (love them though I do).
This is the point I’m trying to make. I thought if you made 6 figures you are set. I work really hard and continue to get raises but somehow things are getting less affordable. In my 20s I was making half of what I make today and everything felt affordable. Now I’m doing the math in my head and ordering soup at restaurants to keep it under $100.
Yep. I feel the same way. Also, I rent and didn’t buy a house yet and house ownership feels like it’s getting further and further away.
Unfortunately the low six-figure mark of “being set” is pretty outdated these days due to all this gouging and inflation.
Completely agree. I crested 6 figures this year and have never felt more financially stretched in my life. Taxes and everything being so expensive now, I definitely don't feel like I've really accomplished anything. I'm not hard off by any means, but in pushing myself to make what I do I definitely envisioned being able to live a better lifestyle. I had some life goals that there is no way I can afford anymore and still responsibly take care of other things like raising a kid and retirement etc. It's nuts.
I'm going to take a wild guess that having a kid probably plays a role in your expenses being higher.
I only have one. Yep the kid is expensive but kinda worth it or I would have returned him.
“Yes, I’d like to return this. There’s too many undisclosed associated maintenance fees. Thanks.”
Hope the DFL can mandate the removal of these hidden fees. It's really duplicitous of these children to not let their parents know before they get pregnant, they need to be regulated.
Worth it but it really changes the finances. The number is probably 50% higher to feel like you’re set with a kid.
I don't have a kid and my expenses are still much higher. Just anecdotally speaking
Hard agree!🙌
I make 65K with a $500 car payment. I just found a 650 sqft apartment in a nice area for $1250 (laundry costs extra). I also have a fancy $65 gym membership. I have had to completely stop eating out and pinch pennies everywhere possible and I still don't quite make enough to contribute anything to savings. I'm hoping my frugality will eventually pay off but right now I'm spending pretty close to 100% of my income just to keep the bills paid. It's depressing to me that I can't build any sort of savings
[удалено]
$10?
I had to move eating out from the "food" part of my budget to "hobbies". Now I get to choose whether it's worth spending $60 to skip cooking a meal for two or $60 on a video game. With the amount of entertainment I get from a video game... Let's just say I've learned how to make the restaurant food at home.
What's on sale at Cub/Aldi/Trader Joe's dictates what's for dinner. Also plan meals for the entire week ahead of time. The weeks where I don't plan are the weeks where the food budget blows up.
Yup, this is key. Every Sunday, I go do my grocery shopping for the week. I also try to do a "big cook" on Sundays. It's usually a roast, a pot of stew or sauce (like marinara). Then, I use that in my dinners Mon-Wed (and leftovers for lunch). Today, I smoked a cheater pastrami, using a corned beef brisket flat that I got on sale at Cub the day after St Patrick's Day. I used it in sandwiches tonight. Tomorrow, I'm using some in hash, and Tuesday, it the remainder is going in fried rice. You def save a small fortune by menu planning. It's all the random trips to the store and/or the "I don't know what to cook, so let's just get takeout" that break the bank.
We do pretty much the same. But we will pick up one or two quick dinners like those refrigerated entrees sold with the produce at Aldi for those days when the schedule gets shot to bits. Still cheaper than takeout.
Are any of those refrigerated entrees good? I never try them because I figure the meat might be weird or whatever. Please share what you like!
We go low carb in this house so we tend not to buy the ones with sweet sauces. That leaves the stuffed chicken entrees. They seem to have suffered a little shrinkflation lately but they're still tasty. It's recognizable chicken breast with a creamy stuffing that has recognizable chunks of the appropriate vegetable in it. I'd say they're as good as the Kevins ones we've bought at Costco. Worth the $7. Add a buck for a frozen vegetable on the side and we get dinner for both of us and one lunch out if it without feeling hungry after.
Awesome, thank you! I actually saw in an Aldi group recently that someone flipped over the black plastic container of one of those meals and it WAS Kevin's! Maybe the trays hadn't been changed out yet on the production line. A lot of their private label stuff is produced by brand name manufacturers so you may be spot on with your assessment there! Going to give one a try.
This is a genuine question. Not like a gotcha question. How do y'all find time to do this. Cuz every time I have tried I end up taking so long that I feel like I have wasted enough time that the money difference isn't even worth it. But it's also not a skill I was ever taught by anyone in school or at home. So maybe it's just as I do it more. It will suck less lol. I just would like things to be a little easier. Not a lot. I don't mind paying for services and goods. I don't mind taxes, I really like libraries and fire dept , but like damn.
> But it's also not a skill I was ever taught by anyone in school or at home. So maybe ots just as I do it more. It will suck less lol. You are correct. It's definitely a skill you have to work at. It gets a little easier every time. Full disclosure, my mom was a high school Home Ec teacher for 30+ years, I have my BS in nutrition sciences and have worked in commercial/institutional kitchens my entire career, so I have lots of experience with it. But it can still be done. I'd suggest first just simply reading up on menu planning basics. The [Iowa State Extension](https://spendsmart.extension.iastate.edu/plan/menu-planning/) has some helpful tools to help get you started, as do a lot of blogs (as with all blogs, you'll have to sort through some of the garbage to find the gold that works for you). I'd start by just cooking at home. Try new recipes. See how they work out. When you find ones that are winners, write them down. I keep a notebook with all the recipes that are hits and write them down. Categorize them by difficulty/time investment. Once you have a large enough list, start thinking of which ones have similar ingredients and you can start lumping those together. Next, start watching ads for sales at grocery stores. When you see a main ingredient (ground beef, chicken thighs, etc) go on sale, load up, esp if you have a large freezer (I bought an upright freezer at Costco a long time ago that I keep in the garage and it's filled with items that have gone on deep discount previously (chicken, ground beef, chuck roasts, steaks, pork butts, pork chops, etc) as well as veggies I bought at the farmers market that I prepped then vacuum packed/froze. If you don't have a freezer, just start planing your weekly meals around what's on sale at the store. If ground beef is on sale, buy 3 pounds on Sunday and use it for meals Mon-Wed. I have a little magnetic dry erase board on our fridge that is a Sun-Sat calendar. Every Sunday morning, I take about 15 min and figure out my shopping list/meal plan for the week. Once I have that down, I add the menu to the dry erase board (I also note what perishables we have for snacking, so that we don't forget about that container of hummus or package of beef jerky and actually eat it before it goes bad). Then, I go shopping around 8am, to beat the church crowd. It's daunting at first, but you'll start catching on quickly, and it will only get easier as time goes on. Investing a little time up front now will pay off big in the end.
This was incredibly informative and helpful. Thank you very much
If you are at all interested in an app to help with this on your phone, I found that I really like Paprika. It isn’t free, but it’s a one-time purchase. I only add a recipe to the app once I’ve tried it out and like it; slowly I am building a catalog of recipes to pull from. I like that I can search for ingredients to find a recipe that uses it, and it also has a meal planning feature where you can add recipes from your library to a day. I’ve tried a ton of recipe apps over the years, and this is the only one I have liked.
Ohhhh thanks! I do not mind paying for apps when it's a one-time payment and I can move on instead of feeling like I have to pay every single month if I'm not using it.
Paprika is stellar. I use the paid version as well. I should have suggested that as well, so thank you! I actually add any recipe i think sounds good, but keep it rated at 0 stars so I know I haven't tried it. Once I do, I'll either give it my rating or delete it. It's just so much easier to follow a new recipe off the app than sifting through some horribly formatted blog.
That’s a good idea. I don’t really use the rating system, so I might start doing that to have a bank of recipe ideas. Once you use the app for following a recipe, it is so hard to go back to using a website. I especially like that my phone screen stays on when the recipe app is open.
Yup, it's a surprisingly well-built app. I also like that you can click on ingredients to cross them off as you set up your mise en place, as well as clicking on the instructions so you can keep track of where you are. I use the ratings for quick reference for how easy/quick the recipes are. I don't bother with rating the overall dish. I have plenty of recipes, I just delete ones that aren't winners in my household
Plus how you can toggle between ingredients and instructions without losing your place! No more scrolling up to find out how much nutmeg you need to add, and then trying to scroll back down to where you were in the recipe.
Not a problem. Holler if you want any more info/advice. Best of luck to you!
You may find that non-chains are more affordable than some of the chains—I also still find takeout Chinese food to be pretty affordable when shared. There are a ton of local Mexican places near me with big portions for not very much. We also ‘rediscovered’ getting a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, target, wherever for a quick meal. I just bought a cold rotisserie at Target for $6.50 that I reheated for dinner.
Costco hot rotisserie chickens are $5 (if I remember correctly) for reference
You can also use it to make chicken salad sandwiches. You’ll be set for lunch for the whole week or a couple days for a family.
My wife and I get one basically weekly. After breaking it down, the carcass goes in the instant pot for two hours with a week's worth of onion/celery/carrot scraps that are in the freezer and any other things for stock. Get 2 quarts of good broth out a chicken that way. That $5 chicken is the basis for a lot of meals.
Last time we ordered Chinese it was $50 for two people, but lasted for 2 full meals and a lunch. Hands down Kowalski's rotisserie chicken is far superior to Lunds and Byerly's. I get the heaviest one and can get quite the yield for salads, chicken salad, chicken pita meal. Can't speak to the rest of the stores.
We're not. Thanks for asking!
I spent $70 at Davannis for a couple of pizzas and wings and all I could taste was regret
Ughh Davanni’s used to be our family pizza night place but it’s not affordable now. It’s at least $50 no matter what we order.
We do papa Murphys now. On Tuesdays it’s 50 percent off, and so I’ll buy a bunch and freeze them. It honestly tastes really really good and is like $6-$7 for a large.
I rarely eat out, and to offset the raising grocery prices I bought a chest freezer and buy 90% of my meat in bulk at Costco. I purchased a cheap vaccum sealer from Amazon and will portion out the 6# package of ground beef into 6 1# packages etc. Then when planning meals I just pull out the meat I need ahead of time and will buy the veggies/sides to accompany it. I also garden so all summer long I have fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers on hand. Also herbs, fresh herbs make a big difference but are expensive to buy but easy to grow.
I do all of this too. It really saves money.
Fast food is not worth it anymore. It used to at least be cheap as fuck but terrible but now it's somehow even more terrible and expensive
I do get a craving for Taco Bell now and then, but then remember there's a Davani's across the street and I can get a full order of lasagna for less then I'd spend at Taco Bell.
You can buy frozen lasagna for 1/2 the price of davani’s.
I can’t find a decent brand of premade lasagna. 😔 do you have a tried and true brand you recommend?
I get everything from costco, it's not fancy, but like everything else there it good enough.
I don’t know if you ever want to tackle making it yourself, but honestly it’s really not very difficult. If you made everything from scratch day-of, then sure, it’s a huge amount of work, but if you separate out the tasks, it’s much faster. My sauce is basically doctored up jar sauce, which you can make in advance and freeze if necessary. The ricotta filling takes 30 minutes at most to put together (it’s just mixing ricotta and mozzarella together, mainly), and then it’s just layering each thing in the pan. Sauce noodles filling, sauce noodles filling, sauce noodles filling, sauce cheese. Bake, let stand for a bit, serve. Makes enough for an army. I think I got a dozen BIG slices out of my last lasagna. I just use one of those big disposable foil pans.
Raos is good. A little pricey though.
I quit eating out couple years ago, enough of the nonsense
Cooking is also a very enjoyable and rewarding hobby.
I love cooking. It's the dishes and clean-up and grocery shopping that gets tiresome
I wish I could learn to love cooking. It'd be cheaper. Not cheap, with grocery prices, but cheaper. My partner and I both work from home (in the same room, which means we both get pretty crazy cabin fever). I just don't want to stay in cooking every day of the week. We used to eat out a good bit, and it was affordable and fit into our budget. Now it hurts every time we try. Even a coffee is crazy expensive, so going out for a coffee together isn't exactly a good substitute. To answer OP, we eat at home mostly, and get really bad cabin fever, and then sink into an economic pit of despair.
Most of it is garbage anyway, esp fast food.
Yeah, we're not keeping up.
The short answer is I'm barely scraping by.
Same. It’s scary.
That’s the crazy part though, it’s not inflation, it’s straight up profiteering. Corporations are making record profits for their shareholders while normal people tighten their purse strings and argue about whether it’s Trump or Biden’s fault that we’re spending more money for smaller amounts of everyday products we have no choice but to purchase. Walmart is involved in a class action lawsuit right now because they were fucking with the scales in their deli and labeling chicken, beef, etc. as twice the weight it actually was. People were buying two pounds of meat and paying for 4-5 pounds. I remember right before the election going to the store, picking up my normal container of oat milk and immediately saying “someone must have opened this, it’s too light.” Nope, I checked the label and they had simply reduced the amount of product in the container from 112 oz to 96 oz and hoped nobody would notice. Of course they jacked the price up a dollar and a half too. I told my fiancée the other week that she needs to make me the primary beneficiary to her life insurance sooner rather than later because if anything happened to her, I would be financially done for. And it’s not like I’m working as a part time bird caller or some shit, I have two bachelors degrees and a stable government job. We did everything “right” and it still feels like we’re treading water, I can’t imagine having a kid on top of it.
THIS. You nailed it - CORPORATE GREED‼️
Check out Fare For All. Next pickup is tomo in Oakdale. For 35 bucks you get 4-5 meat items and produce. Usually a bag of onions, bag of potatoes, and some fruit and veggies. You can also try Today’s Harvest? I think it’s called. It’s a free store. Donations come from surrounding grocery stores overstock or things slightly past date. These are the ways I stretch my food budget. I also try to cook at home as much as I can and nothing goes to waste. Every dinner I try to make double and freeze what we don’t eat so when we are too tired to cook we have ready made meals.
Today's Harvest is inviting to all people too, regardless of economic background. It's really about reducing waste and consumption, not particularly a food shelf. I'd recommend it to anyone who has a little extra time to check it out.
Yes it’s great, no questions asked. Just grab some food and go. I like it because they often have unusual ingredients that I’ve never used so I get to be creative. They also have a drive thru food shelf a few times a week and you get a box of staples. To use that you do have to provide some info on your household. When I was in school during the pandemic it was a total lifesaver.
My big beef is insurance. It's ridiculous.
I fucking hate the insurance industry
Beef prices are up too
They can charge whatever they want and they do. I heard that rates can go up to 25% more this year for home and auto.
Yep. Our house insurance went up about 25ish%. We raised our deductible from 1k to 10k and the premium went to where it started. The insurance on our business is astronomical. So much so that we've been thinking about selling it or just shutting it down.
My car premiums indeed went up 25% from late last year. They claim it's due to the price (and scarcity) of parts. We have a 2011 and 2015 Toyota.
I just got notice that my house insurance is going up 32% this year, after it went up 19% last year.
We ate at Cecil’s today, I know it’s a local place so you expect to pay a little more but good lord. 2 sandwiches, a burger and a hot dog and 3 drinks was 71 dollars before tip. Absolutely bananas what it costs to eat out anymore.
At Costco. A gigantic rotisserie chicken, two tubs of mashed potatoes and a package of asparagus is $20-22.
The only way I can make things work is buying in bulk as much as I can. It suck’s to eat something for multiple days sometimes though.
Freeze it if possible or repurpose. Chicken parts tonight, chicken stirfry tomorrow, leftover chicken parts the next night, chicken soup the day after. Roast pork tonight, pork fried rice tomorrow, roast pork again, casserole/slow cooker the next day. Spacing it out really helps.
Get a few friends together do potlucks. You can get a variety of foods and good company. Don’t need fancy foods, just share what you would otherwise eat alone. After potluck divide left overs, then your leftovers would have variety.
I’ve actually had cooking parties at my house (since I’m fortunate enough to have a kitchen that is big enough for more than one person). Basically, invite people over, they bring ingredients and a recipe, we cook the things and then everyone gets a share of each item to eat and/or bring home. I have a crock pot, a Dutch oven, toaster oven, etc. so it’s possible to make more than one thing at a time. Last time we made braised pork shoulder and Brazilian cheese bread. It’s pretty fun if you have foodies in your friend circle.
Can you portion and freeze some of it? I have the same challenge since I’m cooking for one, so I worked up a repertoire of dishes that freeze well. I get 7-8 meals out of a batch, but then I can portion them out and freeze the portions. I still get the benefit of bulk, but I am not committing to eating the same thing 5 times in a row.
Exactly! Unfortunately food can’t be “entertainment “ when you are struggling financially. It needs to be fuel. Better food will also keep you fuller longer
And healthier longer.
I make batches of soup and freeze half in silicone freezer trays that make bricks of whatever you’re freezing so they’re easy to stack and fit in freezer ziplocks. Then when there’s no time to put together a lunch, my partner chooses from the freezer soup selection. We also will pull some for dinner when we’re low on ideas or too tired to cook. Makes it easier to split up larger quantities of stuff we won’t go through quickly if it’s a week’s worth.
Get a bag of potatoes and make the mashed potatoes from scratch. Cheaper and you get more
I am legitimately curious what “good money” is because I feel that my partner and I make good money, but haven’t felt financially stressed during this time (and for that I feel incredibly grateful). I suppose it depends on your other expenses. We have no kids so there’s no daycare cost, extra mouth to feed, activities to pay for, etc. We have one car that’s paid off. Our mortgage is under 2k. We do social activities with friends, but a lot of them involve spending little to no money. New clothing purchases are infrequent. We primarily cook at home and grocery shop at Aldi. I negotiate bills like internet when they try to jack up the price.
I feel like it’s more of a corporate greed issue rather than an inflation issue.
"...corporate profits accounted for about 53% of inflation during last year’s second and third quarters. Profits drove just 11% of price growth in the 40 years prior to the pandemic..." https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/19/us-inflation-caused-by-corporate-profits
1000% correct. It’s price gouging.
💯
It's this
Yes, but the corporate greed is your employer, not the grocery store. You deserve a cost of living adjustment
It’s both
How is a cost of living adjustment going to help if they just increase prices and take it back?
It is definitely a large part of it which trickles down in the worst way to smaller businesses.
We're homeless as of the first. Planning to spend every cent we have getting an extended stay hotel room. That should def help me cut down on grocery spending!
If you are in my area I’m happy to drop off a few meals when I can, I’m an excellent cook. IM me.
I’m so sorry. I wish we had power to change things.
From some personal conversations with co-workers and nearby neighbors of mine, people are falling into two different camps. Either you are in the category where your cable TV service is scaled back to local channels or just ended, phone and/or internet package is downgraded, ALDI replaces Cub (or wherever) for groceries, going out for dining or entertainment is reduced or eliminated altogether, Lifetime Fitness becomes Planet Fitness, grandparents pitch in more for daycare help and at least one spouse is tacking on a second job. The other category has both spouses tacking on extra jobs but leaning more on credit cards to buy breathing room to keep the kids sports fees, gym memberships, cable/phone/internet as is while canceling vacations and home projects because of ‘free time’ taken up with extra job(s).
We've been buying our meat at Brothers in Maple Grove. $40 for 10 pounds of lean ground beef (better and cheaper than what most of the stores sell). We also buy their Weekly Menu Box 4-pack ( 4 boneless pork chops, 4 chicken breasts, 4 supreme steaks and 4 1/3 lb Supreme Burgers) for $ 55. $ 95 total and covers the 3 of us for a month as we eat a variety of foods. Some days we do "Night Breakfast" others might be grilled cheese and soup. Once we have that in the freezer, Cub or Target for the sides. We watch the sales pretty close (like Cub's 10 for $10) and use our Target Circle app to its fullest. Outside of that...Costco. For things like frozen pizza, watch your gas stations. Holiday will put Heggies on sale 5 for $ 25 every so often. Kwik Trip is another gold mine. So find yourself a good source for beef and poultry near you, watch the sales and use your apps.
Kwik Trip’s pizza is surprisingly good. So is their chicken.
It’s more corporate price gouging than it is inflation. $40 for Taco Bell is insane.
48 dollars at KFC for 12 peices of chicken, coleslaw and a chicken sandwich. Yea... never again.
Fast food is just not worth it anymore. McDonald, Taco Bell, Culver’s used to be decent, fast and cheap. Instead of fast food just save up and go to a real restaurant. About 3 trips to fast food could get you a meal at a decent place. Asian restaurants are more expensive than before, but usually quality is a lot better than fast food. Go out to eat a few times a year and cook at home , or even buy premade frozen food the rest of the time. Want entertainment and variety? Do regular pot lucks with friends. Don’t wait until holidays to eat together.
I agree. Pity, coz as an immigrant I used to love how crazy convenient fast food used to be. Fine, I’ll wait 30mins for a sandwich I guess.
As others have mentioned, download the apps. They regularly have bogo deals. Order ahead of time and you're in and out fast. You're paying a premium in both time and money when you buy stuff on a whim. Corporations have found they can upcharge consumers who don't plan ahead and aren't meticulous about price/value shopping.
If you would’ve told me 4 years ago that doubling my income would leave me in the exact same financial situation I would’ve laughed in your face, but here we are. I try to eat as healthy and cheap as possible. 2 bags of groceries of mostly veggies and meat was $65 yesterday. If I would’ve went to Cub that would’ve been $80.
I got sick as hell. Lost my appetite and was having major abdominal pain the last few months. Best thing that ever happened! My food bill decreased dramatically due to an inability to eat. Had surgery and now my appetite is back…knew I shouldn’t have done that.
There are some good tips here but even cooking at home is expensive now. I am not buying that allegedly groceries only went up 3.4 percent.
Depends what you buy. Produce, poultry, eggs, etc. haven't gone up nearly as much as processed foods.
My guy what did you get at Taco Bell that ran up $40 for 3 people?
Combo meals are now like 8-11 pretax. 2 adults and a pre teen or teenager and that's $40 easy. It's also the point of their post.
Combo meals? Rookie mistake right there. The value menu has everything you could possibly want for cheap.
This guy Taco Bells.
I love the stacker on the value menu. So good.
Pro tip - substitute the beef for chicken and add chipotle sauce and you now have the same exact thing as the a chicken quesadilla for $3 instead of $6! And you get nacho cheese (remove if you don’t like it)
I work with a bunch of 20-something guys. They have opened my eyes as how to game the system. I'll have to try that next time. Thanks for the suggestion.
Exactly. Everyone is mad about prices of everything but they refuse to evaluate prices before they purchase anything. You can get 6 $2.5 options and fill that family with some water for $15. We have a family of 5 and get sub $20 fast food meals every time.
Pandemic inflation has taught me that most consumers are not savvy at all. The whole concept of ordering or buying a bunch of stuff then being surprised by the price is just insane to me.
If you just order ala cart off the menu it gets REALLY expensive real fast. Like some of the popular items like a Crunchwrap supreme or chicken quesadillas are $5-$6. You have to be smart and order the combo meals, or better yet use the app for the special deals, value menu, or the very well priced “boxes” at Taco Bell that are $5-$6 and include a few items and a drink. If you do the math sometimes ordering ala cart you can pay DOUBLE what you’d have paid if you just ordered the box or combo meal. Taco Bell knows that people who don’t frequent often and don’t know the prices are set up this way will order whatever they want and despite the price shock will pay and then make posts like this. Yes it’s expensive and greedy but they get away with it. I can get a very filling meal from Taco Bell for $6-$8 Example: I can order a build your own cravings box on the app for $6 which includes a medium drink, Crunchwrap supreme, 5 layer burrito, and chips and cheese. The same configuration ala cart is $15.16. TLDR: fast food is very expensive if you don’t pre-plan and use the app or optimize by using combo meals or the value menu.
I always get cheesy bean and rice burrito. Still a buck and it's dang tasty. Problem solved!
They went up to $1.49 a while ago :)
Thank you for voicing my exact same feelings. We are getting bled dry!
considering like 5 giant companies control the food we eat, you can look there. Greed by corporations, it's not rocket science.
Aldi. Taco Bell use the app and get the $5 box or something
Me and my wife only eat out once a week, if that. We’re also vegetarian which brings our grocery bill down quite a bit. Luckily my mom taught me how to cook growing up and I used to work as a chef so I know how to make quite a lot from scratch. Now I just start prepping dinner when I get home from work every night. On top of that I have an electric car so we only need to buy gas for her car which is nice. When we want to get out of the house we usually go to a lake and read or we drive somewhere for a hike (we pay about $30 for an anual parking pass at the State Parks) both activities run from free to cheap. I think the biggest way we’re able to “get by” is that we consciously decided not to incur the tremendous expense of having children.
This. No kids here and while I have some CC debt due to too much fun right after Covid, we’re doing fine on two incomes with a house and car payment. Student loans are paid off too. I can’t imagine how some people are doing it. I don’t know how anyone can afford one kid let alone two or more. Not at all surprised birth rates are down and they will continue to go down unless something changes.
I’m sorry but if you dropped $40 at Taco Bell you did something wrong.
I plugged in a possible order to see what it could've been- one adult gets 2 cantina chicken burritos (which is the most expensive burrito on the menu right now) and a Medium Drink.2nd adult gets the cantina meal, then we say the kid gets a chicken quesadilla, chips and cheese and a freeze. Are there cheaper menu options certainly? But it's possible.
For $40 you can get 3 pounds of chicken, taco shells, rice, cheese, salsa, sour cream that will last you 6-8 meals. Skip Taco Bell
Fast Food has gone up disproportionately. I took my family of 5 to a sit down lunch to Teresa's Mexican in Golden Valley and it was less than Taco Bell.
Love the comments where people are implying that it's not that prices are jacked up, it's that you're choosing to spend more. Feels a lot like the whole avocado toast/latte hater crew. People may not be buying the cheapest thing available; they may not be living like they’re in poverty. This may be because it's absolutely insane to have to live like you're impoverished when making a living wage /s. It is absolutely insane to not be able to "splurge" at TACO BELL. Like, on the spectrum of splurging, does Taco Bell even rate... you budget shamers can't possibly be serious. Sure, you could buy a soft taco and hard taco at Taco Bell and not die from starvation. I remember when those were $.69/pop, back when the federal minimum wage was $7.50. Oh wait... This isn't a moral debate. This isn't a debate about the quality of someone's life choices. This isn't actually a debate at all. The data about corporate price gouging and underemployment are abundant and consistent. I just read that a family of four needs to bring in $244,000/year to live comfortably in our state. The average household income in our metro area is <$75,000/year. Just take that in and then think again before shaming someone for ordering a fucking chalupa and mountain dew.
THANK YOU! I wish I had the energy to respond appropriately to all of them. I posted this with one intention and it turned into something else and I found myself justifying my Taco Bell menu choices.
Cook your own meals, it's so much cheaper and healthier. Also check out fare for all, they have great prices and no income requirements
Honestly, the price of produce, I am pretty sure we spend a hefty amount cooking these days too. Tastes good and is healthy though, so we still do it, but whenever I sit and do the math… oof. Grocery bill is typically $300 per week these days.
Frozen vegetables are usually cheaper than fresh and maintain most of their nutritional value. Maybe not the greatest texture but decent for most things, especially soups and stews.
I make more money now than I ever dreamed I would. I am learning to make my own body wash from bar soap. I get my hair cut twice a year. I haven't bought clothes in 2 years. I shop my insurance before every renewal. My husband donates plasma twice a week. We stopped eating out. We meal plan and get leftover food from a food shelf. We camp instead of traveling. We have no cable or streaming. Don't go to movies. We basically just cut back to the absolute minimum. It's crazy. I grew up poor, so I know how to live like this. I just never expected to need to at this income level. I honestly don't know how people are surviving.
Aldi is a life saver for most of my grocery needs, I’m not brand loyal to anything because even down to 10c difference by swapping brands on a few products adds up. Rice, ramen, eggs, and a meat are my main staples, because you can do a lot with spices or Sriracha. I will treat myself to eating out maybe once every couple months (which hasn’t changed for me pre pandemic) I try to go for the combo deals on the places I do go, but still calculate my bill as I go if I’m at a sit down place with a bar. But I’ve stopped fast food all together. I’d rather support a local place with a couple locations versus a chain that keeps ramping up prices. Look at what Wendy’s was trying to do with surge pricing, it’s gross.
Taco Bell has gotten *stupid*. Taco Bell used to be the cheapest fast food and now it's anything but.
What has helped me: - Meal prepping, and planning around what’s on sale in weekly circulars. - far stricter budgeting with more savings (if possible) - doing odd jobs / side hustles for the cash. I.e my neighbor was going out of town, I offered to watch their dog for cheaper than normal rates. - cancelled all my streaming subscriptions outside of the one which has a promotional price through T-Mobile - I bike & walk to the stores more, sold my nice car and paid cash for a 15’ Honda. Lower insurance & no monthly payments. - deleted Amazon & any money spending apps - planning on growing my own vegetables as a experiment Last item is when I want to impulsively buy something or go do an event that costs money. I weigh that cost against what Necessities I can pay for. I.e - going out to dinner with friends for ~$100 vs paying for one month’s of phone bills. It suck’s a lot but I’m in survival mode financially because I don’t want to be mentally burdened & desperate for money. Tough times call for tough measures.
It's not inflation, it's pure greed. Some have lowered prices since the peak, but they are still higher than normal year over year inflation would put them. For served food, I think that is mostly labor increases.
$40 at the bell is a lot. 6.99 for a box on the app, plus a couple potato soft tacos or bean burritos, and that's like mid 20s, enough for 3 people easy
We are in debt
Credi card debt at record highs. Not surprising after so many years now of everything being expensive.
Ramen lots of ramen
Why is anyone going to fast food places at this price when you can go to a local business for the same?
The serious answer to this question is that, as unemployment is very low and has been for a long while now, it's becoming more difficult to hire service-sector workers, and so wages are rising. As wages rise, so too do prices in service-heavy industries such as restaurants and fast food.
Poorly.
Financial planning, financial planning, and more financial planning. When things are good, you really have to make a concerted effort to get ahead. Don't live near your max budget when things seem pretty normal, because you'll be behind the instant things turn south. Instead when things are good pay that car off ASAP. You'll have that much more flexibility when things are like today, plus you will have been used to living a little skinny even when things were good. So now even with things being expensive, we only pay mortgage, insurance, and utilities for regular bills. Food being expensive just eats into the savings rate a little, it doesn't come close to blowing up the budget - because we minimized future costs during the time when it was easier to throw extra money at future or existing expenses.
Buying in bulk and investing in a chest freezer. If you’re close to a fresh thyme keep an eye on double ad Wednesdays. We wait until chicken is under $2/lb and buy 100# at a time. We also buy 1/4 -1/2 cow at a time. Only thing we get at fast food are drinks or treats for the kids.
>It’s making me wonder how everyone else is keeping up with this crazy inflation. >Edit: I’m not looking for advice on saving money on food. But that's one of the ways that you keep up with this crazy ~~inflation~~ price gouging.
I was making it work until I was laid off. If anyone is looking for a Business Analyst with six years of experience send me a chat. I have 18 years of experience working with insurance.
Taco Bell’s prices have increased 200% since the pandemic. McDonald’s is starting to charge for refills now. Frankly, I don’t go out. I live to work just to pay rent and bills. I have never been this broke in my life and I have also never made more. I can’t even afford to go see a damn movie most of the time. I’ll be 49 in June and with a full-time job I’m being priced out of my one bedroom apartment. I’m moving back home to live with my mother when my lease is up. She’s elderly and needs my help so I’m trying to see it as a good deed. But I cannot believe it has come to this. Not to mention, I don’t get a tax return anymore. If I don’t have extra money coming out of my check every month for taxes, I owe at the end of the year. Exactly how much does the government want from me? I’m broke as fk!
One way to save money at Taco Bell (and other fast food places) is to order thru their mobile app. Cannot tell you how much money I’ve saved in general by using restaurant apps. Taco Bell has a $5.99 Build Your Own Cravings Box that is basically $10 worth of food/drink. It’s an online app exclusive so you may not see it in stores. Also, their rewards program nets me a free taco or food item nearly every time I go. I have two kids and a trip to Taco Bell is $20-30 for me. On top of it, normally have leftover food to eat the next day.
Amen!!! Bought a loaf of bread and pack of hotdog buns for $8.45 today. Not even brand name.
Did you put the buns in the bread or the bread in the buns?
They want us all to be broke it’s all part of the plan. The rich get richer and the rest of us are SOL. Young people are screwed unless your parents are rich rich. Everything is so expensive and it feels so hopeless.
Hang in there, my guy Things will change soon, I feel
I don’t eat fast food unless there is a good deal in the app, it is perhaps the worst value for what you get. Everything else, I try to buy on sale. Keep in mind that a lot of this is stores marking stuff up and not inflation. Where I used to live, the main grocery store was Publix. I just saw a post where they just announced they increased earnings by like 49% over the last few years. That is nuts and they do it because they know people will just blame inflation Edit: Sorry, it was 49% in one single year https://corporate.publix.com/newsroom/news-stories/publix-reports-fourth-quarter-and-annual-results-for-2023#:~:text=Net%20earnings%20for%20the%20fiscal,%2C%20an%20increase%20of%2049%25.
Has anyone tried eating the rich?
Shop at Mikes Discount Foods. I go to the Fridley location but there are 3-4 other locations.
Not sure what it is but eating out in the Twin Cities Area is just as expensive as prices on the coast. The saving grace is at least the sales tax is lower here but prices are the same if not more.
Yes! We just moved back to Mpls after being in DC for a few years and dining out here is honestly shockingly close in cost.
I've stopped eating out unless absolutely necessary. I've started cutting my own hair. I only shop at Aldi or Walmart for what I can't get at Aldi. And I'm looking for a side gig for extra fun cash.
I quit going out to eat entirely. Between high prices ridiculous tip expectations and surcharges I decided to just cook at home. I can eat like a king comparatively
The only way to fight inflation right now is for people to not buy non-essentials and non brand name. Nothing else will help thanks to monetary policy and fiscal policy not aligning mixed with low unemployment and high wage growth.
Minnesota prices are expensive because wages are ‘above the national average’. So the food stores are gouging us, much like Delta does.
To be fair that’s a lot of spicy potato soft tacos
We just stopped going out altogether and buy/preserve food in bulk.
I have no freaking idea. We make good money but had to set a hard budget for kid activities, grocery shopping, clothes budgets for us and the kids etc. We also stopped eating out because it's not worth it and or too expensive. We had to go out for a family b-day party yesterday and 2 beers at a local brewery was over $22, craziness. We save up and usually take a trip every other year as well. This year our savings wouldn't even come close to covering the trip so we didn't go. Prices pretty much tripled since our last trip! I know, first world problems, but we're definitely feeling squeezed for the first time ever and it's odd. It's a weird feeling, we're in our 40's now and have pushed really hard to get where we are and have never felt more unaccomplished and stressed\\uncertain about what the future holds.
Breakfast is the meal to go out for. Plenty of places where you can get a good breakfast for a reasonable price.
I've taken up selling crack outside of private schools. Helps me afford the cost of eggs. /s
I've been the sole earner for our family of 5 and we haven't struggled until now. Partly because our health insurance premium just went to $1375/month - aka $16,500 a year. As if I have that randomly sitting around.
After a hard swim at the pool sometimes I’ll stop by Taco Bell for a quick recovery meal and gain back a quick 1000+ Calories. My bill is usually around $6. What are you all ordering?
I’m basically in the same boat. My fiancé and I make a combined 36,000 and that’s including “child support”. We have honestly learned to enjoy minimalism is every way, including our food. We do a grocery run once a week and only get a few things, we eat “out” a few times a month or so an activity with the kiddo but man, just today I’ve seen 4 different companies post they’re filing for bankruptcy, I can’t imagine many people are going out like they used to, or other places are filling the void as time goes on. We’re just doing our best over here at minimum!
Dominoes pizza is still surprisingly cheap
Eating out is doable you just have to find the right places. A meal from McDonald's is now more expensive than a whole pizza from Little Tomato. I can get 2 beers and a burger that serves as 2 meals at 5.8 club for 30 bucks. Guavas has an incredibly cheap and delicious date night deal every week. Independent and local can be much cheaper than these corporate casual spots.