Science How Redditors Save Money on Groceries

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How Redditors Save Money on Groceries​

Gas and airfare are not the only prices surging at the moment. Grocery prices saw a 0.7% jump from March to April, with beef pricesresuming their record climb and tomatoes climbing 15.1% in a single month — and 39.7% in the last year, according to the latest CPI report.
With higher prices making shoppers anxious, we took a deep dive into Reddit sentiment to see how people are making food shopping more affordable. We used an AI tool to help analyze and summarize responses. People post anonymously, so we cannot confirm their individual experiences or circumstances.
Here are some common strategies:

• Reverse meal plan: Check what you have on hand at home and look for recipes that include those ingredients.
• Have an “Eat Everything” night: Designate one night a week to polish off leftovers or make a big soup or stew from produce on its last legs. Some users take one week per month to eat only what’s in the house to clear out pantry food.
• Use free pickup services: Ordering groceries ahead for free pickup reduces impulse shopping and allows you to see the full price of your cart before you check out. Another strategy: Shop with a basket if you only need a few things.
• Hit stores strategically: Try ethnic grocery stores for cheaper spices, produce and staples like rice or beans.
• Keep an inventory sheet: A physical or digital list of what’s in your freezer and pantry prevents duplicate buying, which can lead to wasted food.
• Stretch your protein: Make your meat go further by replacing part of it with lentils, finely chopped mushrooms, grated carrots or zucchini, or even oats.
• Keep an emergency meal in the freezer.Stash a frozen pizza or frozen burritos for the nights when you’re too tired to cook — it will save you the $50 Door Dash.

 

[The Connected Nose]

• Reverse meal plan: Check what you have on hand at home and look for recipes that include those ingredients.

It's called "keep a cookbook" and know what you can make from it with what you have. It's not hard once you've done it for a bit.

• Hit stores strategically: Try ethnic grocery stores for cheaper spices, produce and staples like rice or beans.

No, I don't think I will. I'm not going into some beaner shop and getting stabbed by a cholo, or harassed by some geriatric SEA-monkey at the asian market.

• Keep an inventory sheet: A physical or digital list of what’s in your freezer and pantry prevents duplicate buying, which can lead to wasted food.

Nigga that's a "shopping list." You make one before you go to the store, because you're checking what you HAVE to see what you NEED. Do people seriously go to the store without making a list first?

• Stretch your protein: Make your meat go further by replacing part of it with lentils, finely chopped mushrooms, grated carrots or zucchini, or even oats.

Replace...meat...? What is this madness? Oh yeah, more "stop eating meat, goyim!" Reddit nonsense.

• Keep an emergency meal in the freezer.Stash a frozen pizza or frozen burritos for the nights when you’re too tired to cook — it will save you the $50 Door Dash.

Or, if you've learned how to not be retarded in the kitchen (impossible for redditors, I know), then you know what you can whip up quickly with minimal effort. Or if you're into meal-prepping, all you have to do is reheat something you've already made. No need for some chemically-stabilized calorie bomb with 3 days worth of salt mixed into it.

Every time I hear "my wife's boyfriend" I just want to scream into my pillow.

If you're screaming into your pillow, that's because pegging from your wife or her boyfriend isn't for you.

 

[Tasty Tatty]

This is what the kids call "adulting"... what we normal people call being fucking alive.

 

[Gef Mongoose]

I came across someone on Twitter today that said that planning out a meal prep with fresh produce (including berries) bought in bulk for two weeks was “living like a third worlder”.
The kids are actually cooked right now.

Most of the younger people around me don’t even go to the cheaper stores like Aldi. They either get their groceries picked up/delivered or go to the local bougie grocery store because that’s where their parents shop at.

Right now I live in a household where meat is bought on sale and frozen. So sometimes you’re going to be eating more tuna or Italian sausage with sloppy Joe sauce. But the meat is perfectly fine.

 

[DickMain]

Every time I hear "my wife's boyfriend" I just want to scream into my pillow.

idk stop cucking then

 

[indigoisviolet]

It's shoplifting, isn't it? That's Reddit's answer to everything.

 

[TowinKarz]

I came across someone on Twitter today that said that planning out a meal prep with fresh produce (including berries) bought in bulk for two weeks was “living like a third worlder”.

I can't hardly fathom that level of stupidity..... for you to plan your meals? You have to be assured you'll get them and have some personal choice...... something that the third world, by defintion, doesn't have the luxury of..... I just.....


What did those poor brain cells ever do to you that you had to murder them like that????

 

[DTPN!]

But cuh, how do I work the frickin knob things on the hot box?

 

[Duke Nukem]

@The Connected Nose @DickMain I don't have a wife, it just makes me feel uneasy imagining being in such a setup. I mean WTF do guys get out of it.

We really are the sane faction in internet subcultures, after all.

 

[green&brown]

3. Shove large dildo in ass on the daily.

"How does this save money?"

"Save money?"

 

[FatalTater]

I've never liked the idea of stretching protein with things that aren't protein to be a little off. People need protein, try not to short yourselves. Mixing meat and beans is a good idea. Mixing it with oatmeal? Less so.

Learn to cook potatoes
Learn to cook rice
Learn to cook beans
Learn to cook eggs

Bougie recipes not required. Learn to cook basic things in the most basic way and going hungry will be a rare thing.

Tiny purchasing tip - If you have Amazon Prime then some things can be purchased at the same price as grocery stores and there's free delivery. I like to get canned things in bulk as it saves time. (Is buying a dozen of something at a time considered bulk?) Tuna is currently something I get a lot of, packages of 8 cans at a time. Then when I go to the grocery I don't have to waste time looking for those items.

(I think Amazon Prime can be gotten for half price if you prove to them that you get EBT or SSI or some sort of assistance. Not sure on the details but if anyone needs a discount, look into it.)

 

[Rei is Shit.]

Also, get your own 40 packs of bottled water and break your own goddamn back.

Awful advice. Bottled water has a comical markup.

Buy 3/5 or even 10gal carboys and fill them up with distilled or reverse osmosis water. You can mineralize it a bunch of different ways if you have a particular taste you prefer.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

If Trumps war to make the world safe for Judaism is putting you in the poorhouse, soup beans, mustard greens and cornbread are nutritionally complete and costs something like $3.50 a dinner if I remember correctly.

 

[mold]

I've never liked the idea of stretching protein with things that aren't protein to be a little off. People need protein, try not to short yourselves. Mixing meat and beans is a good idea. Mixing it with oatmeal? Less so.

Learn to cook potatoes
Learn to cook rice
Learn to cook beans
Learn to cook eggs

Bougie recipes not required. Learn to cook basic things in the most basic way and going hungry will be a rare thing.

Tiny purchasing tip - If you have Amazon Prime then some things can be purchased at the same price as grocery stores and there's free delivery. I like to get canned things in bulk as it saves time. (Is buying a dozen of something at a time considered bulk?) Tuna is currently something I get a lot of, packages of 8 cans at a time. Then when I go to the grocery I don't have to waste time looking for those items.

(I think Amazon Prime can be gotten for half price if you prove to them that you get EBT or SSI or some sort of assistance. Not sure on the details but if anyone needs a discount, look into it.)

It’s a trick to get food into kids. Some kids will undereat if the food isn’t tasty, you stretch the tasty stuff in order to get enough food into them.

 

[BelUwUga]

These things are the tits for freezing food:

It's almost always cheaper per-meal to cook something in bulk and there's an endless amount of things that freeze well. You're stretching what you're already cooking like leftovers. However you can have more options available for variety over a much longer period of time. Once it freezes you can pop them out into a bag to save space and get by without having to buy a bunch of these.

 

[Rungle]

THANK GOD I SAVED ALL THAT MONEY.

NOW I CAN SPEND IT ALL ON FUNKO POPS AND VIDEOGAMES!!!

 

[Cuckoman]

I like how they hid the biggest and only material saving of them all at the end of the last bullet: Don't fucking order door-dash for every meal like the fat, lazy and broke rediggot you are.

I mean, sure, all these other suggestions in the thread are good but we are talking about redditors.
Meal prep and buying in bulk is what a lot of adults do, to save money or to save time, or whatever. But these are redditors. The entire 50$ "fast food, but delivered cold and stale" industry is built around redditors and their spending habits.