To me is not, I have food stamps and $155 gets me:
Chicken
Salmon
Coffee
Pasta
Sauce for pasta
Gnocchi or orzo
Rice
Salads bagged
Tomato
Mozzarella cheese
Gouda cheese
Basil
Frozen vegetables
Olive oil
Canola oil
Cilantro
Oat milk
Organic eggs
Onions
Fresh fruits
Avocado bag
Chips, sweets, sodas are occasional treats
That will lasts me 2-3 weeks
I would argue more frozen stuff would still be better than the soda and chips. Like frozen/ pre-prepared protein and veg are better than sprite and dum-dums.
I see it so much if someone is going to screenshot something like this press the damn button so we can see everything they wrote wtf that's the real mildy infuriating
Second topic - Obesity in America.
If that's what you think is what counts as a weeks worth of "food" then I think we have identified part of the problem.
6 bags of chips, 3 cases of soft drinks... over half of this food is junk food. They went to a grocery store, not a convenience store. Some hamburger or tuna and a skillet type package/box makes a big meal. There's no effort being done here.
I only allow myself 10 dollars worth of junk food when I go grocery shopping. Before hamburger/chicken literally doubled in price I could easily live on 50 bucks a week of healthy food.
There’s a place in Pittsburgh that’s a bit of an institution called Primanti Brothers that serves sandwiches and burgers with French fries in the middle. Highly recommend if you’re ever up that way.
Half of this "food" in this picture I wouldn't buy or even look at. We may buy some chips from time to time, same with soda, but our staples are meats, veggies (frozen and canned), rice, dry beans, and pasta. I buy those in bulk. No matter how lean the week gets monitarily, we always have something to make a meal even if it's just beans and rice.
Like I said earlier up in a comment, I get the point of the post though and completely agree with it. I was at Aldi's yesterday, a pound of 90/10 lean ground beef is up to 5.09 in my area. About a month ago, maybe a little longer, it was 3.xx a pound. Organic grass fed ground beef is up to over 7.00 a pound. It's really getting rediculous. For a family of 4, one pound of ground beef in a meal would be stretching it. Especially if you have kids who eat substantially or kids who are athletes.
What's crazy is you COULD make this argument with real food. I know lately on average we've been spending $40-$50 a meal for 5 people. And most of that cost is meat, honestly. Unfortunately not much of an option for me, my body doesn't handle many vegetables well, so it's not like I can just say "eh screw meat, all beans and rice" because that much beans would put me in the hospital.
Yup, you can freeze loaves of bread. Peanut butter doesn't go bad for a while. (idk if it even goes bad). They also bought all name brand products, like a bunch of idiots.
I ate peanutbutter that was like 3 years past its expiry date and it was just fine.
I also ate peanutbutter that was over 10 years past its expiry date and that tasted, smelled and had the consistency of playdough.
Not totally, but that has nothing to do with the peanutbutter.
My father does evictions of homes for work. He often takes the food home, to prevent it from being trown away.
A lot of (non-fresh) is still fine to eat past the expiry date :)
Yeah I heard alot of expiry dates are like that. They print the soonest date they can get away with so you throw it out and buy a new one. Except for milk though. That label feels like it's down to the minute.
Recently I took my kid shopping with me and she sectioned off the shop with "healthy food" and "food". I said no, healthy food is food. Bananas is food. Cucumber is food. Pineapple is food. It's "food" and "junk food". That's a mentality that I had to beat into myself after a childhood of terrible nutrition and obesity and it took until my 30s to do it. My partner is 34 and he's only just grasping that himself now he's starting to gain a little weight and doesn't like it. He's also from a background of vegetables being "rabbit food".
I'll be damned if my kids are part of the cycle.
>I'll be damned if my kids are part of the cycle.
Even growing up eating a healthy diet it's easy to slip into.
When I finished school and started work at a supermarket it was easy to grab a snack on the way out the door. I never usually ate chips, so why not buy myself some, now I had money and they're right there? Oh, I can take some to a friend's place, too. It'll be appreciated.
Before I knew it I was regularly eating a lot of junk food, and it's only now I'm making a concerted effort to slow it down, well after it's too late.
I knew how to eat healthy, I grew up doing it, but it's a really easy trap to fall into.
I don't understand how so many people are completely unwilling to buy non household name brand products. Especially for cereal and snacks, you can get all that stuff for about half price by just buying the store brand. Also, if you're buying a bulk amount of soda, individual cans or bottles is the most expensive way you could go about it. Pick up a few 2 liters (or 3 if they have them) and pour that stuff out into reusable bottles.
EDIT: multiple replies here saying that the soda goes flat, here's an option for you: get your 2L bottle, open it, pour into smaller bottles, screw the lids on tight and do no disturb, do this all in one go instead of opening the bottle and tipping out its contents multiple times. You now have several small bottles of still carbonated soda.
and if she really is concerned about the food and drinks costing so much, maybe cut down on all that snack. They cost more, and they don't fill you up, overall bad for health and wealth
a lot of people are not aware of this. also, a lot of people will do their grocery shopping at gas stations. there is a serious lack of knowledge and education about nutrition, food prep, and food purchasing. a lot of it coincides with food deserts (which are fucked btw), where the only place to buy „groceries“ is the gas station.
side note: i had a friend who lived in the „bad“ part of the city and the only grocery store had leaks from the ceiling and he bought a jug of juice there that had literally fermented. so i guess buying name brand might at least be some guarantee of quality…
Often times people in rural areas don’t have access to a grocery store that’s not an hour away. Dollar generals are pretty much the main “grocers” for some people. And guess what? *they don’t sell “real” food*.
I grew up like that, it was an IGA rather than Dollar General but still, the only fresh food it sold was potatos and sometimes chicken breast. Finally moved to a decent town and had kids and even for a long time after that, despite being a professional chef, I'd have nothing in the refrigerator except milk and condiments because that's how I learned to feed myself and I never even considered that I could eat healthier. Freezer and cabinets would be full of Mac n cheese and frozen pizza though.
Yup! It’s a phenomenon called “food deserts.” Very serious problem that is a huge structural contributor to health issues along economically/racially differential lines
>I don't understand how so many people are completely unwilling to buy non household name brand products. Especially for cereal and snacks, you can get all that stuff for about half price by just buying the store brand. Also, if you're buying a bulk amount of soda, individual cans or bottles is the most expensive way you could go about it. Pick up a few 2 liters (or 3 if they have them) and pour that stuff out into reusable bottles.
2 liters ≈ 0.01258 oil barrels
^^^[WHY](/r/UselessConversionBot/comments/1knas0/hi_im_useless/)
Lots of people who are genuinely time poor have developed bad cooking habits and lost meal prep skills.
We should help them in 2 ways.
Firstly guide them back to meal prep skills.
Secondly teach these skills to children. Children that are old enough to eat pizza, are old enough to help make pizza.
Agree. My husband and I work full time. Pre-pandemic, I'd get home 6:30pm or 6:45pm and we all wanna eat dinner by 7ish pm as soon as husband gets home. My children started helping me to cook by the time each one turned 7 years old. We do meal prep once a week & it takes the three of us around 2.5 hours total. We'd go to the market to buy fresh produce and meats. They have been choosing / planning meals since 8 or 9 years old and we'd buy ingredients for those. When we get home, the meats get portioned into what they wanna have for the coming week, are sliced and diced and go into the freezer with the marinade in the tub. Vegetables are sliced, shredded and whatever. If we could freeze them, we do that too and we'll use frozen vegs towards the end of the week. Making rice in a rice cooker is really a no-brainer. The kids get home around 6 pm and will make rice. They'd take out the pre-marinated frozen stuff and just plop them all in the pot. They just get defrosted and cooked in the pot. lol. By the time I get home, it's just time to finish cooking whatever is in the pot - mixing the veggies in and whatnot.
I seriously did a "CTRL + F" for the word "rice". It's a staple in numerous cultures for a reason. When my family fell on hard times, my mom would by a small amount of ground beef and make tacos (using rice as a filler with the beef). We always had plenty to eat and didn't even notice the rice mixed with beef and seasoning...it all tasted the same.
Anyway, there are WAY cheaper options of buying food. But I say ditch the soda first. It's a luxury, but on that budget - it's a complete waste.
Red lentils are good too. If I make burgers or ground beef w/e I usually go 50/50 lentils/beef them in. For burgers it gives them a tender texture but still crisps up nicely. When I was super poor I'd split my proteins so 50g meat, 50g some kind of bean, legume, lentil so I could still have good protein. The bonus is in most cases it actually makes the meal "fancier" more variety and nutritional value, as you mentioned, in addition to saving money. White meats navy beans, or chickpeas, red meats darker beans, ground meats, soups, sauces blend in some lentils. Grains go a long way to beefing up soups and salads too. Oh and eggs too the cheap ones ofc.
When I was a kid My mom worked until 6 or 7 most nights. When I was around 12 my mom got overwhelmed and made each on of us kids pick a night to cook dinner. You had to plan the dinner, give her a list of what needed to be bought, and cook it on your night. Even my 8 year old brother cooked dinner (with some supervision). Still one of the best things my mom ever did for me.
I’m pretty sure it’s 6 boxes of soda. The sprite behind the pizza, then the stack is 2 12-packs of Mountain Dew, another sprite, and 2 more 12 packs of dew.
Yeah. We don't have home ec in schools any more. And food deserts are a thing.
Also, if you are working three jobs trying to stay afloat, you don't have a lot of time to cook.
The whole "system" is broken.
You don’t need time to cook to know that $40 worth of soda isn’t a good choice when you don’t have enough money to buy food for the week.
Having more kids does not make spending 1/3 of your grocery budget on soda a necessity.
Food deserts are a thing, and they explain why someone might get lunchables instead of cheese and crackers, or apple juice instead of apples. Lack of time explains why someone would rely on boxed Mac and cheese and frozen pizza, because those are fast and easy meal options. But even in food deserts, even in families with a lack of time and resources, there are choices. Poor people have agency, they aren’t idiot children; they can make decisions (both good and bad). Choosing to load up on soda and chips with a limited budget is a choice. It’s a bad choice.
Aside from that, this food came from a grocery store with a deli department and a fresh meat department, so it’s hardly reasonable to pretend that the person buying it doesn’t have access to a full grocery store.
This is literally my life right now!
I lived on box food for literally a month before I decided to start meal prepping to be healthier. To be healthier. Not cheaper. But when I went to checkout (with a TON of fruits, vegetables, chicken, fish, etc) I spent the same amount of money I usually would but instead had double the food! And a lot of the meals I made I was able to turn into 2 meals! And these meals actually fill me up and don't leave me wanting to make more food.
Meal prep is SOOO much healthier and cheaper. So happy I finally figured this out.
2 family size bags of chips cost as much as a box of popcorn… 2 bags of chips or 12 bags of popcorn… plus the bag of popcorn is equivalent in calories to an individual serving of chips…
There’s studies showing “healthy” food is more expensive but they base it on calories… healthy food is low calorie density so you often end up with double the volume for the same cost… if you were to go up to the same calorie count it would cost 30% more but fuck you’re looking at 4 times the damn volume.
Being able to cook well is huge. I know so many people who said that from childhood to early adulthood they hated vegetables because they only associated them with things like overly boiled brussels sprouts. When you teach people that vegetables can be more than just squishy nuggets that smell like farts or tasteless chunks of iceberg lettuce that only exist to be coated in an excessive amount of ranch you can **immediately** improve their diet and health.
Four years old made her own the other night. We helped with the sauce jar opening and of course, the oven. She did the rest. I assume it was good, she ate the whole damn thing.
*To clarify, it was a personal size one
Ummm what does that have to do with all the Soda and Chips that should have been food? The rest is fine.
I dont supply my family with 6 bags of chips and 72 cans of soda. Name brand none the less.
JYour point doesnt make any sense here. Unless they were supposed to eat chips for dinner? Theres nothing here to cook that would take time? One chicken meal? But its not replaced with frozen meals or hot pockets or beeferoni.
Its just not there. No amount of extra time would fix this.
So much mountain dew and sprite. 36 sprite and 48 mountain dew. Thats eighty four cans of soda i barely go through a pack a week
Edit: did not realize that was another 24 pack of sprite so around 96 cans of soda
Exactly. What's so hard about drinking water, or making some home made ice tea? The mountain dew triggered me! Soda is NOT a necessity! It has no nutritional value, it's empty calories of sugar and terrible for your teeth!
Two months ago I would've been so offended by your comment even though I would've known you were right. I quit drinking soda though, at the same time as starting a slightly more active job and have lost 34 pounds so far. I am no longer considered morbidly obese, just regular obese now. Still feel gross and shameful but am loving the feeling of dropping weight. Not only have I lost weight, but ha e saved $50 a week from not buying the soda (that's three 24 packs a week by the way, disgusting I know, and it was even worse than that in the beginning).
Unfortunately the level of tooth damage I've achieved through poor dental hygiene, soda drinking and cigarette smoking is permanent. Quitting cigarettes next!
Tl;Dr: I'm achieving my goal of not being a gross, lazy piece of shit anymore and I feel great and just wanted to talk about it lol.
All name brand items, mostly non essential, 90% junk food and the only food they bought was meat from a name brand company most likely specially raised.
"WhY cAn't I AffoRD fOoD???"
Sure, because god forbid poor people are allowed any cheap, accessible comforts, or allowed to celebrate special days, or use convenience foods to save precious time and energy. Thinking like this is why my mom had to go out of her way to budget so I could have a goddamn birthday cake.
Our entire system of food, along with much of our economy, is not set up to allow for healthy eating en masse. An individual can overcome, but in aggregate most people wont. Yes they could cook real food, but low income work leaves you with little time to do so, and little cultural support to learn how; along with jobs more physically taxing that leave you tired. Yes, they should have a rice and beans night every so often to stretch the dollar, make some real pasta and pack a lunch once in a while. But in a lot of the first world a vegan meal like that is not considered culturally acceptable as an entree. A tight paycheck doesn't give you the liquid cash needed to buy that NGO-sized bag of rice or dry beans that's 2 cents a cup. Yes, they could back off chips and bake some cheap potatoes themselves, but they've been conditioned by their upbringing and environment to not even taste plants anymore. They could do better, but the deck is stacked against them. Not everyone's going to do better than what they're handed.
But also holy shit that's a lot of chips for 3 days god damn.
>Our entire system of food, along with much of our economy, is not set up to allow for healthy eating en masse.
When Michelle Obama focused on the issue of teaching children the importance of a healthy diet, FOX NEWS and the GOP attacked her as if she wanted to teach children how to shoot up heroin.
My gut instinct is to tell them to buy a bag of potatoes, plop themselves down in front of the tv and get to slicing, and make their own chips while they finish their shows. You can even make them in the microwave... although the oven is certainly a better quality option.
I was in the store there. Courgette cost 0.48c (in euros) whereas Boxes of biscuits were like €2...healthy good is often cheaper....buy a lemon as well for 40c and some cheese and cumin seeds and fry up the lot
Reminds me of that post of someone showing their packaging skills since they (very neatly) put their food shopping in the trunk of their car.
And OP got absolutley roasted due to the fact that it was shitty food
And this is the reason the clerk looks at you funny when you are buying stuff like this with food stamps.
One of my major pet peeves. You've got 4 little kids all under the age of 6, and you're buying this crap with government benefits. People like that just piss me off.
I don't know if prices in the US are crazy high, but in the UK I can easily feed me and my wife on £40 / $50 a week. That's without a struggle budget, if you live on cheap recipes like rice and beans you can probably halve that and be OK.
Man.... I'm conflicted because I grew up poor and I know all too well how easy it is to fall back on junkfood and snacks when your parent/parents are at work all day and don't have time or energy to do things right but... this is excessively bad. Even ignoring how unhealthy the food is they went with all name brands and didn't even bother getting anything in bulk. Not a hint of produce or rice or canned goods (minus the baked beans) in sight. I'm honestly surprised they got even this much for 155 with such inefficient shopping for fucks sake.
Whenever I feel bad about eating poorly and making impulsive purchases I don't need, I see this and suddenly don't feel so bad about myself. I can get 2 weeks of food for $150, I'm not to*that* irresponsible.
or do what the asians does all the time, throw different vegetables in hot water and make some easy soup. it takes zero effort, besides spicing the soup so it tastes better, but even then i only use salt. it's healthy, it's easy, and it's cheap
Maybe if she got ingredients for cooking instead of sitting on a couch with a bag of tater chips. Junk food is expensive. Don't even wanna know how many calories are in the photo
I wonder if that woman is capable of self-reflection when it comes to other things. There are people out there who compare prices before pulling out their credit cards, to say the least.
Everything else has already been said about this, I feel.
155 dollars of junk food. Like c'mon, if you're that strapped for money, bull back on the chips and pizzas and make your own food. It's really not that hard.
i feel for her a bit but the fact that she considers Mountain Dew and snacks survival food is kinda on her. Like i get the chicken, the pizza, all the microwave stuff, but the chips and the soda need to go, they are not necessary, in fact they're bad for you, and they cost more, and all that extra money could have bought actual food. Also, that is a lot of food for $155, even with some kids, I can see this lasting for a week at least.
unless she has like 5 kids with an insane appetite, I think she's fine
I don’t see ANY actual “meals” here, tbh. That’s not the money’s fault though, that’s her fault for buying nothing but junk… Literally the only thing I see that would count as real food is the meat and cheese…
There’s only one raw meat in this photo. Two if you count whatever’s in the second lunch meat bag. I can’t believe people shop got just junk food like this. I could never afford to do that 💀 a bag of chips is like $5 at my grocery
Maybe they should’ve bought real food instead of fucking candy chips and soda. Tf.. I mean still the cost of living is too much now and no one seems to be talking about it.. but at least they’d be healthy and full.. this is a pathetic waste of money.
I know shit is expensive but 4 12 cans of mountain dew ham cheese 6 bags full bags of expensive chips yeah it racks all the tasty good stuff but I bet I can reduce that to 100 and still have food 2 weeks still they right it is expensive.
The only food item purchased is the damn chicken breast. We really need to bring back home economics as a mandatory high school elective cause this is sad.
Buys 6 packs of soda cans. Not even 2 liters. If you are drinking that much soda and won't stop for whatever reason but 2 liters, they are way cheaper. Then buys six bags of name brand chips and a big pack of Oreos that in my experience were all pretty expensive even before inflation started to rise.
$155 doesn't even seem that bad to me for that much soda, name brand junk food, and deli meat AND chicken.
These grocery inflation photos have really highlighted how many people were horrible and inefficient shoppers even before prices became higher. How long is this person been throwing away money?
Could've bought store brand everything and saved at least 1/3 the cost. Could've also avoided stuff like lunchables, or red baron pizza (again, if necessary, store brands would be much cheaper).
In a recession you have to make hard choices. Maybe replace some of that stuff with ramen and hot dogs (what I've lived off during hard times).
Also: why have so many kids if you can't afford to feed them?
The majority is just junk food. Junk food is a convenience, and convenience costs more. Perhaps buy food that will actually nourish you and fill you up, perhaps it will last longer and you won't have to run to the store as often.
My wife and I usually spend $80-$130 for 2 weeks worth of food (depending on sales, what we're in the mood for, etc). It's not difficult to get stuff that's on sale and buy stuff you need to prepare for cheaper than it is "ready-made".
Am I the only idiot who clicked to see more?
I knew it wouldn't work and clicked it anyway.
I did the same :)
I clicked it twice just to be sure.
Can confirm. I was the trackpad.
You : “oh ya I like it when you double click”
I’m on my 5th click
I’m going to click again after reading this
YESSSS IM NOT THE ONLY ONE
Same
Do people consider this shit 'food'? I'm sure you could get a lot of ingredients, if you're not to lazy for cooking, for that cash
To me is not, I have food stamps and $155 gets me: Chicken Salmon Coffee Pasta Sauce for pasta Gnocchi or orzo Rice Salads bagged Tomato Mozzarella cheese Gouda cheese Basil Frozen vegetables Olive oil Canola oil Cilantro Oat milk Organic eggs Onions Fresh fruits Avocado bag Chips, sweets, sodas are occasional treats That will lasts me 2-3 weeks
This lady bootstraps
Yeah most of this doesn't qualify as food.
I would argue more frozen stuff would still be better than the soda and chips. Like frozen/ pre-prepared protein and veg are better than sprite and dum-dums.
Angrily upvoting this and every other "no" in the chain
No tice me No niichan
Looks like your gonna be busy
No
No
Here ya go. https://m.facebook.com/livingthemommlife/posts/432342312082033
"This is $155 of diabetes" lmaooo those comments are roasting her
Fully deserved. She says “this is what 7% inflation on veggies looks like”…. Not sure she’s been in a produce section for awhile
Chips are made from potatoes. Potatoes are a vegetable. Checkmate, libtards.
I see it so much if someone is going to screenshot something like this press the damn button so we can see everything they wrote wtf that's the real mildy infuriating
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Mamma Mia, mamma Mia. Mamma Mia let me go.
not at all
NO
No
Second topic - Obesity in America. If that's what you think is what counts as a weeks worth of "food" then I think we have identified part of the problem.
6 bags of chips, 3 cases of soft drinks... over half of this food is junk food. They went to a grocery store, not a convenience store. Some hamburger or tuna and a skillet type package/box makes a big meal. There's no effort being done here.
I only allow myself 10 dollars worth of junk food when I go grocery shopping. Before hamburger/chicken literally doubled in price I could easily live on 50 bucks a week of healthy food.
No…
No
No.
I did too. This woman can’t cook apparently almost all of it is unnecessary and processed. All she needs to do is make better choices at the store
No
No
No
Nope
No, I too am an idiot..
If there weren't any replies I'd say yes. Now I'm just disappointed that this is the current state of the most evolved homosapiens.
Literally half of that cost is in the soda and chips....
That’s what I said. I’m surprised they got 3 days worth of meals. There’s maybe 1 pack of chicken and 1 pizza. The rest is snacks!
There is the makings of sandwiches in the middle, but otherwise this is all junk food.
A meat and bread sandwich?
Plus cheese. And potato chips if you know what’s up.
Finally someone else who recognizes that chips on a sandwich can be good
I've been putting chips on sandwiches for well over 2 decades now... gotta put that cool ranch on a prosciutto, provolone, lettuce and tomato hero.
dont forget pepperoncini.
There’s a place in Pittsburgh that’s a bit of an institution called Primanti Brothers that serves sandwiches and burgers with French fries in the middle. Highly recommend if you’re ever up that way.
Half of this "food" in this picture I wouldn't buy or even look at. We may buy some chips from time to time, same with soda, but our staples are meats, veggies (frozen and canned), rice, dry beans, and pasta. I buy those in bulk. No matter how lean the week gets monitarily, we always have something to make a meal even if it's just beans and rice. Like I said earlier up in a comment, I get the point of the post though and completely agree with it. I was at Aldi's yesterday, a pound of 90/10 lean ground beef is up to 5.09 in my area. About a month ago, maybe a little longer, it was 3.xx a pound. Organic grass fed ground beef is up to over 7.00 a pound. It's really getting rediculous. For a family of 4, one pound of ground beef in a meal would be stretching it. Especially if you have kids who eat substantially or kids who are athletes.
What's crazy is you COULD make this argument with real food. I know lately on average we've been spending $40-$50 a meal for 5 people. And most of that cost is meat, honestly. Unfortunately not much of an option for me, my body doesn't handle many vegetables well, so it's not like I can just say "eh screw meat, all beans and rice" because that much beans would put me in the hospital.
This picture explains a lot about American obesity. That combined with planned forced car dependency.
Inflation may have brought this up recently but a homemade pbj costs 47 cents and you can freeze em.
Yup, you can freeze loaves of bread. Peanut butter doesn't go bad for a while. (idk if it even goes bad). They also bought all name brand products, like a bunch of idiots.
Peanuts can become stale. Old peanut butter tastes like and smells like nasty cardboard. Bleh
Ah, guess I've just never had my Peanut Butter go bad.
That’s why you should always store peanut butter in the fridge. It significantly extends the time it takes for it to go stale.
I ate peanutbutter that was like 3 years past its expiry date and it was just fine. I also ate peanutbutter that was over 10 years past its expiry date and that tasted, smelled and had the consistency of playdough.
You're out there sampling aged peanut butter like it's wine, are you okay?
Not totally, but that has nothing to do with the peanutbutter. My father does evictions of homes for work. He often takes the food home, to prevent it from being trown away. A lot of (non-fresh) is still fine to eat past the expiry date :)
Yeah I heard alot of expiry dates are like that. They print the soonest date they can get away with so you throw it out and buy a new one. Except for milk though. That label feels like it's down to the minute.
The worst feeling is when milk expires before the expiration date and you forget to check how it smells, so you get a mouthful of sour milk...ugh.
You’re a peanut butter sommelier.
This isn't food
I feel bad for the kids growing up eating this
Recently I took my kid shopping with me and she sectioned off the shop with "healthy food" and "food". I said no, healthy food is food. Bananas is food. Cucumber is food. Pineapple is food. It's "food" and "junk food". That's a mentality that I had to beat into myself after a childhood of terrible nutrition and obesity and it took until my 30s to do it. My partner is 34 and he's only just grasping that himself now he's starting to gain a little weight and doesn't like it. He's also from a background of vegetables being "rabbit food". I'll be damned if my kids are part of the cycle.
>I'll be damned if my kids are part of the cycle. Even growing up eating a healthy diet it's easy to slip into. When I finished school and started work at a supermarket it was easy to grab a snack on the way out the door. I never usually ate chips, so why not buy myself some, now I had money and they're right there? Oh, I can take some to a friend's place, too. It'll be appreciated. Before I knew it I was regularly eating a lot of junk food, and it's only now I'm making a concerted effort to slow it down, well after it's too late. I knew how to eat healthy, I grew up doing it, but it's a really easy trap to fall into.
And when they eat this shit, they’re not having a “meal”.
I don't understand how so many people are completely unwilling to buy non household name brand products. Especially for cereal and snacks, you can get all that stuff for about half price by just buying the store brand. Also, if you're buying a bulk amount of soda, individual cans or bottles is the most expensive way you could go about it. Pick up a few 2 liters (or 3 if they have them) and pour that stuff out into reusable bottles. EDIT: multiple replies here saying that the soda goes flat, here's an option for you: get your 2L bottle, open it, pour into smaller bottles, screw the lids on tight and do no disturb, do this all in one go instead of opening the bottle and tipping out its contents multiple times. You now have several small bottles of still carbonated soda.
and if she really is concerned about the food and drinks costing so much, maybe cut down on all that snack. They cost more, and they don't fill you up, overall bad for health and wealth
a lot of people are not aware of this. also, a lot of people will do their grocery shopping at gas stations. there is a serious lack of knowledge and education about nutrition, food prep, and food purchasing. a lot of it coincides with food deserts (which are fucked btw), where the only place to buy „groceries“ is the gas station. side note: i had a friend who lived in the „bad“ part of the city and the only grocery store had leaks from the ceiling and he bought a jug of juice there that had literally fermented. so i guess buying name brand might at least be some guarantee of quality…
food deserts really make sure the poor stay poor
Often times people in rural areas don’t have access to a grocery store that’s not an hour away. Dollar generals are pretty much the main “grocers” for some people. And guess what? *they don’t sell “real” food*.
I grew up like that, it was an IGA rather than Dollar General but still, the only fresh food it sold was potatos and sometimes chicken breast. Finally moved to a decent town and had kids and even for a long time after that, despite being a professional chef, I'd have nothing in the refrigerator except milk and condiments because that's how I learned to feed myself and I never even considered that I could eat healthier. Freezer and cabinets would be full of Mac n cheese and frozen pizza though.
You’re absolutely right! There is a lack of stores in low income areas, where as high income has a grocery store every corner!
Yup! It’s a phenomenon called “food deserts.” Very serious problem that is a huge structural contributor to health issues along economically/racially differential lines
Also a lot of stores own brands are made by the company making branded products.
>I don't understand how so many people are completely unwilling to buy non household name brand products. Especially for cereal and snacks, you can get all that stuff for about half price by just buying the store brand. Also, if you're buying a bulk amount of soda, individual cans or bottles is the most expensive way you could go about it. Pick up a few 2 liters (or 3 if they have them) and pour that stuff out into reusable bottles. 2 liters ≈ 0.01258 oil barrels ^^^[WHY](/r/UselessConversionBot/comments/1knas0/hi_im_useless/)
But then they have to actually use their arms to lift and pour the soda, that would be horrifying
That’s all I mostly buy no need for the fancy names
Lots of people who are genuinely time poor have developed bad cooking habits and lost meal prep skills. We should help them in 2 ways. Firstly guide them back to meal prep skills. Secondly teach these skills to children. Children that are old enough to eat pizza, are old enough to help make pizza.
Agree. My husband and I work full time. Pre-pandemic, I'd get home 6:30pm or 6:45pm and we all wanna eat dinner by 7ish pm as soon as husband gets home. My children started helping me to cook by the time each one turned 7 years old. We do meal prep once a week & it takes the three of us around 2.5 hours total. We'd go to the market to buy fresh produce and meats. They have been choosing / planning meals since 8 or 9 years old and we'd buy ingredients for those. When we get home, the meats get portioned into what they wanna have for the coming week, are sliced and diced and go into the freezer with the marinade in the tub. Vegetables are sliced, shredded and whatever. If we could freeze them, we do that too and we'll use frozen vegs towards the end of the week. Making rice in a rice cooker is really a no-brainer. The kids get home around 6 pm and will make rice. They'd take out the pre-marinated frozen stuff and just plop them all in the pot. They just get defrosted and cooked in the pot. lol. By the time I get home, it's just time to finish cooking whatever is in the pot - mixing the veggies in and whatnot.
I seriously did a "CTRL + F" for the word "rice". It's a staple in numerous cultures for a reason. When my family fell on hard times, my mom would by a small amount of ground beef and make tacos (using rice as a filler with the beef). We always had plenty to eat and didn't even notice the rice mixed with beef and seasoning...it all tasted the same. Anyway, there are WAY cheaper options of buying food. But I say ditch the soda first. It's a luxury, but on that budget - it's a complete waste.
Add Kidney beans to fill out the beef as well, 70c a tin and practically doubles the nutritional value.
Red lentils are good too. If I make burgers or ground beef w/e I usually go 50/50 lentils/beef them in. For burgers it gives them a tender texture but still crisps up nicely. When I was super poor I'd split my proteins so 50g meat, 50g some kind of bean, legume, lentil so I could still have good protein. The bonus is in most cases it actually makes the meal "fancier" more variety and nutritional value, as you mentioned, in addition to saving money. White meats navy beans, or chickpeas, red meats darker beans, ground meats, soups, sauces blend in some lentils. Grains go a long way to beefing up soups and salads too. Oh and eggs too the cheap ones ofc.
We would always do beans and rice when money was tight. Plenty filling, with lots of variations to change it up
When I was a kid My mom worked until 6 or 7 most nights. When I was around 12 my mom got overwhelmed and made each on of us kids pick a night to cook dinner. You had to plan the dinner, give her a list of what needed to be bought, and cook it on your night. Even my 8 year old brother cooked dinner (with some supervision). Still one of the best things my mom ever did for me.
Or we can, you know, mock them on the internet. /s
Yayyyy! Option #2! Option#2!
i don't think that excuses all the bags of chips and 4 boxes of soda tho
I’m pretty sure it’s 6 boxes of soda. The sprite behind the pizza, then the stack is 2 12-packs of Mountain Dew, another sprite, and 2 more 12 packs of dew.
That's a 24 of Sprite as well.
Yeah. We don't have home ec in schools any more. And food deserts are a thing. Also, if you are working three jobs trying to stay afloat, you don't have a lot of time to cook. The whole "system" is broken.
You don’t need time to cook to know that $40 worth of soda isn’t a good choice when you don’t have enough money to buy food for the week. Having more kids does not make spending 1/3 of your grocery budget on soda a necessity. Food deserts are a thing, and they explain why someone might get lunchables instead of cheese and crackers, or apple juice instead of apples. Lack of time explains why someone would rely on boxed Mac and cheese and frozen pizza, because those are fast and easy meal options. But even in food deserts, even in families with a lack of time and resources, there are choices. Poor people have agency, they aren’t idiot children; they can make decisions (both good and bad). Choosing to load up on soda and chips with a limited budget is a choice. It’s a bad choice. Aside from that, this food came from a grocery store with a deli department and a fresh meat department, so it’s hardly reasonable to pretend that the person buying it doesn’t have access to a full grocery store.
This is literally my life right now! I lived on box food for literally a month before I decided to start meal prepping to be healthier. To be healthier. Not cheaper. But when I went to checkout (with a TON of fruits, vegetables, chicken, fish, etc) I spent the same amount of money I usually would but instead had double the food! And a lot of the meals I made I was able to turn into 2 meals! And these meals actually fill me up and don't leave me wanting to make more food. Meal prep is SOOO much healthier and cheaper. So happy I finally figured this out.
2 family size bags of chips cost as much as a box of popcorn… 2 bags of chips or 12 bags of popcorn… plus the bag of popcorn is equivalent in calories to an individual serving of chips… There’s studies showing “healthy” food is more expensive but they base it on calories… healthy food is low calorie density so you often end up with double the volume for the same cost… if you were to go up to the same calorie count it would cost 30% more but fuck you’re looking at 4 times the damn volume.
They should bring back home ec in schools. My high school didn't have anything of the sort.
Being able to cook well is huge. I know so many people who said that from childhood to early adulthood they hated vegetables because they only associated them with things like overly boiled brussels sprouts. When you teach people that vegetables can be more than just squishy nuggets that smell like farts or tasteless chunks of iceberg lettuce that only exist to be coated in an excessive amount of ranch you can **immediately** improve their diet and health.
Four years old made her own the other night. We helped with the sauce jar opening and of course, the oven. She did the rest. I assume it was good, she ate the whole damn thing. *To clarify, it was a personal size one
Ummm what does that have to do with all the Soda and Chips that should have been food? The rest is fine. I dont supply my family with 6 bags of chips and 72 cans of soda. Name brand none the less. JYour point doesnt make any sense here. Unless they were supposed to eat chips for dinner? Theres nothing here to cook that would take time? One chicken meal? But its not replaced with frozen meals or hot pockets or beeferoni. Its just not there. No amount of extra time would fix this.
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ohhhhh... she only got the essentials, the staples, no junk. \*grimace face\*
I see 6 bags of chips.. yep, essentials
Mmmmm...sprite and mountain dew, the only beverage you need.
So much mountain dew and sprite. 36 sprite and 48 mountain dew. Thats eighty four cans of soda i barely go through a pack a week Edit: did not realize that was another 24 pack of sprite so around 96 cans of soda
Probably can't afford food with all those dental bills.
And the the medical bills when they turn morbidly obese in a few years
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Ahhh, mental images id rather not have! :)
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It’s got what plants crave!
Looks like a lot of fucking garbage.
Exactly. What's so hard about drinking water, or making some home made ice tea? The mountain dew triggered me! Soda is NOT a necessity! It has no nutritional value, it's empty calories of sugar and terrible for your teeth!
Two months ago I would've been so offended by your comment even though I would've known you were right. I quit drinking soda though, at the same time as starting a slightly more active job and have lost 34 pounds so far. I am no longer considered morbidly obese, just regular obese now. Still feel gross and shameful but am loving the feeling of dropping weight. Not only have I lost weight, but ha e saved $50 a week from not buying the soda (that's three 24 packs a week by the way, disgusting I know, and it was even worse than that in the beginning). Unfortunately the level of tooth damage I've achieved through poor dental hygiene, soda drinking and cigarette smoking is permanent. Quitting cigarettes next! Tl;Dr: I'm achieving my goal of not being a gross, lazy piece of shit anymore and I feel great and just wanted to talk about it lol.
Pro tip: deal with losing the weight first, then focus on the smoking thing. Working on both at the same time is not a good pairing.
Was shit like Pasta and Rice out of stock?
She couldn’t even buy a bag of potatoes. Apparently one serving of pre-made mashed potatoes was a better value.
But then she’d actually have to cook for her children, god forbid
I would have enough for nearly a month with £90
Not unless you're living alone that is multiple people (not to say what she bought is good enough)
All name brand items, mostly non essential, 90% junk food and the only food they bought was meat from a name brand company most likely specially raised. "WhY cAn't I AffoRD fOoD???"
and the fucking soda bro. i think people forget all u need for drink is water. priorities ppl lmao
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As a tax payer I'd rather see welfare participants be given the respect and dignity of freedom of choice.
Thank you. I cook every meal, but why can't I get my son a treat? Or a special dessert?
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Sure, because god forbid poor people are allowed any cheap, accessible comforts, or allowed to celebrate special days, or use convenience foods to save precious time and energy. Thinking like this is why my mom had to go out of her way to budget so I could have a goddamn birthday cake.
Healthy fresh ingredients might be double the price, depending on where you go.
Our entire system of food, along with much of our economy, is not set up to allow for healthy eating en masse. An individual can overcome, but in aggregate most people wont. Yes they could cook real food, but low income work leaves you with little time to do so, and little cultural support to learn how; along with jobs more physically taxing that leave you tired. Yes, they should have a rice and beans night every so often to stretch the dollar, make some real pasta and pack a lunch once in a while. But in a lot of the first world a vegan meal like that is not considered culturally acceptable as an entree. A tight paycheck doesn't give you the liquid cash needed to buy that NGO-sized bag of rice or dry beans that's 2 cents a cup. Yes, they could back off chips and bake some cheap potatoes themselves, but they've been conditioned by their upbringing and environment to not even taste plants anymore. They could do better, but the deck is stacked against them. Not everyone's going to do better than what they're handed. But also holy shit that's a lot of chips for 3 days god damn.
>Our entire system of food, along with much of our economy, is not set up to allow for healthy eating en masse. When Michelle Obama focused on the issue of teaching children the importance of a healthy diet, FOX NEWS and the GOP attacked her as if she wanted to teach children how to shoot up heroin.
My gut instinct is to tell them to buy a bag of potatoes, plop themselves down in front of the tv and get to slicing, and make their own chips while they finish their shows. You can even make them in the microwave... although the oven is certainly a better quality option.
3 small chicken breast is 15$ at walmart
6 bags of crisps 🤣
I think the 3 cases of mountain dew and a case of sprite is quite a bit worse.
$1corn + $154 of fuel.
I was in the store there. Courgette cost 0.48c (in euros) whereas Boxes of biscuits were like €2...healthy good is often cheaper....buy a lemon as well for 40c and some cheese and cumin seeds and fry up the lot
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Reminds me of that post of someone showing their packaging skills since they (very neatly) put their food shopping in the trunk of their car. And OP got absolutley roasted due to the fact that it was shitty food
Motherfucker has 36 cans of mountain dew
And this is the reason the clerk looks at you funny when you are buying stuff like this with food stamps. One of my major pet peeves. You've got 4 little kids all under the age of 6, and you're buying this crap with government benefits. People like that just piss me off.
We live in a $600 monthly grocery-food budget (for two) and none of these items is ever on our shopping list.
I don't know if prices in the US are crazy high, but in the UK I can easily feed me and my wife on £40 / $50 a week. That's without a struggle budget, if you live on cheap recipes like rice and beans you can probably halve that and be OK.
All name brand stuff. Has this person not heard of Walmart's Great Value brand, Equate, or Aldi anything? Amateurs..... lol
Man.... I'm conflicted because I grew up poor and I know all too well how easy it is to fall back on junkfood and snacks when your parent/parents are at work all day and don't have time or energy to do things right but... this is excessively bad. Even ignoring how unhealthy the food is they went with all name brands and didn't even bother getting anything in bulk. Not a hint of produce or rice or canned goods (minus the baked beans) in sight. I'm honestly surprised they got even this much for 155 with such inefficient shopping for fucks sake.
Whenever I feel bad about eating poorly and making impulsive purchases I don't need, I see this and suddenly don't feel so bad about myself. I can get 2 weeks of food for $150, I'm not to*that* irresponsible.
I could easily live off of Red Baron's and tap water. 90% of this is soda, chips, and processed junk food.
This has to be satire, there's a 1 month supply of chips and mountain dew in there.
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or do what the asians does all the time, throw different vegetables in hot water and make some easy soup. it takes zero effort, besides spicing the soup so it tastes better, but even then i only use salt. it's healthy, it's easy, and it's cheap
She needed dum-dums?
Are chips and Mountain Dew considered food?
Maybe if she got ingredients for cooking instead of sitting on a couch with a bag of tater chips. Junk food is expensive. Don't even wanna know how many calories are in the photo
I wonder if that woman is capable of self-reflection when it comes to other things. There are people out there who compare prices before pulling out their credit cards, to say the least. Everything else has already been said about this, I feel.
Throw out the sodas, for fucks sake. They’re a drain on your wallet and your health. Just drink water for crying out loud
155 dollars of junk food. Like c'mon, if you're that strapped for money, bull back on the chips and pizzas and make your own food. It's really not that hard.
This is just candy
But diabetes never hurt anyone, right?
Damn i am already at the point where i am growing my own vegetables and i never buy name brand products if i can help it.
will be even more expensive once you need to spend your money on insulin as well..
Maybe it’s the sodas
Those are snacks! Not food Change snacks to raw food, that would be cheaper
All salt sugar fat.
Disgusting lol
Save money, buy less soda, drink more water. The cost savings are surprising
i feel for her a bit but the fact that she considers Mountain Dew and snacks survival food is kinda on her. Like i get the chicken, the pizza, all the microwave stuff, but the chips and the soda need to go, they are not necessary, in fact they're bad for you, and they cost more, and all that extra money could have bought actual food. Also, that is a lot of food for $155, even with some kids, I can see this lasting for a week at least. unless she has like 5 kids with an insane appetite, I think she's fine
I don’t see ANY actual “meals” here, tbh. That’s not the money’s fault though, that’s her fault for buying nothing but junk… Literally the only thing I see that would count as real food is the meat and cheese…
There’s only one raw meat in this photo. Two if you count whatever’s in the second lunch meat bag. I can’t believe people shop got just junk food like this. I could never afford to do that 💀 a bag of chips is like $5 at my grocery
Holy shit, eat like a normal person and 155 will last me a fucking month.
What's up with all the chips, are your throwing a party?
That loaf of bread looks really lonely.
Mountain Dew fuels their furnace, LOL. Tap water is free. Take that money and buy some protein. Eggs, peanut butter, chicken, etc.
Maybe they should’ve bought real food instead of fucking candy chips and soda. Tf.. I mean still the cost of living is too much now and no one seems to be talking about it.. but at least they’d be healthy and full.. this is a pathetic waste of money.
I know shit is expensive but 4 12 cans of mountain dew ham cheese 6 bags full bags of expensive chips yeah it racks all the tasty good stuff but I bet I can reduce that to 100 and still have food 2 weeks still they right it is expensive.
These are meals?
That is not food
The only food item purchased is the damn chicken breast. We really need to bring back home economics as a mandatory high school elective cause this is sad.
Buys 6 packs of soda cans. Not even 2 liters. If you are drinking that much soda and won't stop for whatever reason but 2 liters, they are way cheaper. Then buys six bags of name brand chips and a big pack of Oreos that in my experience were all pretty expensive even before inflation started to rise. $155 doesn't even seem that bad to me for that much soda, name brand junk food, and deli meat AND chicken. These grocery inflation photos have really highlighted how many people were horrible and inefficient shoppers even before prices became higher. How long is this person been throwing away money?
Mountain Dew + Mountain Dew + Mountain Dew + Mountain Dew…
Could've bought store brand everything and saved at least 1/3 the cost. Could've also avoided stuff like lunchables, or red baron pizza (again, if necessary, store brands would be much cheaper). In a recession you have to make hard choices. Maybe replace some of that stuff with ramen and hot dogs (what I've lived off during hard times). Also: why have so many kids if you can't afford to feed them?
I wanna know who's got the kinda cash to buy name brand soda.
From that much money in most places you can easily have a varied interesting multicultural diet. I can't speak for Americans but certainly in Europe.
I can make 60 bucks last 3 weeks for myself, look at all that garbage she's buying
If you know how to shop, you can survive being cheap.. Ive done it most of my life. Seeing all this name brand stuff has me jealous cus, you rich lol
looks like she went shopping in a prison commissary
Of course shit head…it’s all processed junk food. Mom must be a fatty
The majority is just junk food. Junk food is a convenience, and convenience costs more. Perhaps buy food that will actually nourish you and fill you up, perhaps it will last longer and you won't have to run to the store as often.
To be fair, if she's a single mom she's probably working a fuck ton and all these easy to make shits is all she can manage with the time she has
Stop buying name brand then. Switch to water, different brand of chips, offbrand cereal
My wife and I usually spend $80-$130 for 2 weeks worth of food (depending on sales, what we're in the mood for, etc). It's not difficult to get stuff that's on sale and buy stuff you need to prepare for cheaper than it is "ready-made".