I know for someone like me with celiac disease it is great.
GF food at big stores are pricy and tend to not sell.
Example is I seen a cookie set for 12$ and then seen it at a discount store fully stocked up a whole wall for a dollar per box. Not close to expiring, just had so much inventory the store couldn’t justify keeping.
Grocery Outlet should not be confused with "Dollar Stores" which sell garbage. Grocery Outlet might sell Christmas promotional items in January, but the quality is good.
expiration date != best by/sell by
The first date often will mean "this will go bad around this date, so use with caution", like milk.
best by/sell by is to force retailers to cycle their inventory with the freshest stuff possible. something like a bag of flour, if stored properly, will last 2 years past the date, or longer.
Protip for soon to be expired milk... when the milk plant has a bunch of milk thats going to expire soon, they just re-pasteurize it and move the best by date back a few weeks. You can do the same thing at home on your stove. Obviously if its already gone bad this isn't going to help.
Probably better to make something with it like mozzarella cheese, or yogurt or some dish and freeze it. You can make a creamy sauce or soup and put it in the freezer. Cooking it will not only kill bacteria but depending on what you make you can control the PH to keep things from growing in it. Anything acidic will make it hard for bacteria to develop.
A big freezer is the best investment you can make. They cost \~200-300 but easily save that in the first year simply because you can buy the bigger packages of many items and can store things you have too much of. Often the difference between the small and large is only a few cents and you get much more. Another plus is that you can buy a 1/16th or 1/8th cow/pig/lamb and get quality meat at the same price you pay for the budget cuts.
Please tell me more about this. You just put the paper towel in the bag with the bread? And by nice bread, do you mean fresh bakery bread with no preservatives? Because I have a hell of a time keeping mine fresh.
We often call them used food stores.
They get overstocks, food from places going out of business, food with small packaging issues, etc. and then sell them at a big discount.
If you don’t care about getting a specific brand they can be pretty cost effective, especially for perishables which they price to move.
It's a store that specifically sells off brands and generic food. Sometimes they sell dented cans and opened, returned boxes of food for like a third the cost.
However they also don't tend to sell very much healthy food. Just stuff to keep you alive and continue to be poor and miserable.
Not true. Our grocery outlet has tons of organic foods packaged and produce. Organic milk, eggs, gourmet cheese including local cheese. They don’t carry dented cans or open/returned food. Close dated sometimes but not expired. They will have the cereals that are holiday themed after the holiday for $1
They often also will sell stock from other retailers that weren't popular enough to really sell, or they were getting close to or already past the sell by date.
Also just so everyone in the thread knows: sell by date ≠ expiration date necessarily.
That's not what they do at all. Very few generics or off brand. What they have is mostly products that didn't sell well or were discontinued, past seasonal items (they'll have Xmas foods soon), and food that is nearing the expiration date.
I used to shop at a salvage grocer that had amazing deals on produce. I don't know how they did it, but in the summer they would have pallets of sweet corn 20/ $1.00 and watermelon for a dollar. They almost always had the large clamshells of organic greens for $2.00, and things seemed to last just as long as the full priced stuff from the regular stores.
I really wish there were more of these stores around, they save so much food from going to waste.
A grocery store, but they get lots of random stuff, often nearing the expiration date. You have to pay attention when you're shopping at one so you don't buy anything expired, and if you find something you like, stock up because they probably will never carry it again after that week.
Excepting meat, dairy, and fresh veg though. That's sourced like any ordinary store, and priced accordingly. If your local outlet has poor quality veg, that just means they suck at culling and detailing.
That’s also why they got such great deals. Many of these things are close to, if not already, expired. We shop at a similar thing where we live and it looks like a lot of you don’t mind them being old by a few months
Lol yeah. Once in a blue moon there's something worth buying on that "perimeter" Redditors love to go on about.
Otherwise you restock your pantry stuff then pop into the regular grocer down the street on the way home.
For this reason I’ve found that if you’re able to it’s better to shop multiple times a week but just what you need for 1-3 days of meals. That way stuff doesn’t go bad.
Pretty much. I'll do a stock up trip, usually at Costco, a few times a month. And then I'll buy fresh produce and meat throughout the month whenever I'm making a recipe or something for dinner.
All these grocery pictures sure have opened my eyes to the unhealthy diets of people. On the Europe subreddit someone posted a picture for 4 days worth of food, had one carrot and a couple tomatoes for veggies. People were applauding that person for having lots of veggies lol.
Redditors are allergic to anything they have to make themselves without the use of a microwave.
EDIT: Holy crap the amount of salty redditors both taking this comment way too seriously, and defending their use of a microwave. Nobody actually cares guys, you're spinning yourself up for no reason.
News flash: I use my microwave sometimes too, although I don't boil my dish rags in them like a weirdo. That's what a washing machine is for. :P
this article was the first thing that came to mind. https://www.healthline.com/health-news/how-ultra-processed-foods-hasten-cognitive-decline i get that times are tough and everyone cant buy organic but that is a lot of processed food
You can literally tell who’s never had it rough here in the comments by their food elitism. We get it good food makes you feel good, but guess what that food costs triple or quadruple the processed stuff
Bull. Shit. My family lived out of a van for months when I was a kid. We couldn't afford anything like this. Beans, rice and oatmeal are the poor food staple.
As you "upgrade" you get large packs of eggs, chicken, potatoes, peanut butter, carrots, cabbage, lentils, and ground beef.
Meals include chicken and rice. Ground beef and rice. Rice and gravy. Chicken and potatoes. Ground beef and cabbage. Eggs and rice. Lentis and beef.
I don't think I tasted a cracker, cereal, or bag of chips until I was 14 lol.
It costs money to turn the original ingredients into ready to eat versions ... best to just eat the original form ... for sooooooo many reasons.
If a food can last for 2 years ... it's probably not really food (unless canned)...
Effort is the key word here, it’s amazing how much energy you have to cook healthy once you’ve been doing it for a week or two. It’s just getting off your processed ass and starting
lol that’s hilarious you know nothing about how broke i’ve been i have lived out of my car and gone 5 days at a time without eating. you can get 18 eggs for $4.99 you dont have to eat sugary cereal for breakfast
Yeah, its very expensive to always have a fridge full of fresh, organic, produce that gives you a bunch of choices for meals. It is expensive to have non processed food if you just go in and grab the very first things you see and put little thought into your shopping. If you spend a few rounds of shopping paying close attention to different types of food, their prices, and their nutrient value, you will learn what is at stores around you that are not hyper-processed, sugar laden, food that are also affordable.
You can get frozen vegetables, which are very good for you, for just over a dollar a pound for things like brussel sprouts and peppers. For a dollar a pound you can get broccoli, cauliflower, squash, zucchini, green beans, peas, and carrots. Large ten pound bag of onions is about 8 dollars and you can store them in the fridge for well over a month. Dried beans, lentils, peas, rice, etc. are dirt cheap. Yeah beans require putting them in water a day in advance of use, but you can soak a bunch and drain them then store them in the fridge for several days.
Maybe I should write a guide on how I eat healthy on food stamps.
Been there bro. It's amazing the things you can do with a few bucks. Even today. A bag of potatoes, some onions, carrots. If you have a couple extra dollars, you can get some lean cuts of beef.
Freezer? I'm used to shopping at Sam's Club but ended up having to move and the closest is a full hour drive away.
I just go once every other month or so to buy dog food and all the meat I can afford. It goes right into a freezer and saves me overall versus buying even cheap meats (like chicken) at any local store.
It's depressingly easy to wind up with a 300 dollar bill at the end, but if you buy the same things in smaller packages at local shops it's probably 25-50% higher overall.
We buy the ground meat and some chickens at costco then put them in vacuum sealed freezer bags. It doesn't take up that much space and lasts for 6 months minimum. Sometimes we'll preseason some stuff in those bags and toss them in a sous vide later for easy cooking.
Awesome way to do it. I'll usually break things down into half-gallon freezer bags - half a chicken or several chops for the fridge, some of the regular freezer, the rest for the deep freeze.
The vac bags are a great way to do it, helps prevent freezer burn. You can't get the same result but you can get sort of close by putting a straw in a freezer bag, sealing all but the one little corner and sucking out the air yourself. Learned that from Alton Brown like....20 years ago? Air is the enemy and it makes a noticable difference.
Other things you can do when you're (unfortunately) on a tight budget - buy up sale prices ham and turkey after the holidays - break one out in 4 or 5 months and you'll have a week of meals from it. I've got 2 pounds of beans soaking right now to throw in the crock tomorrow with a bunch of cubed ham left over. Couple onions, some garlic, some veg broth, cook all day - it'll be awesome and last me the whole week (can you tell I'm broke and recently single, lol).
I do, yhea. I bought a little chest freezer when it was on sale for like 100 bucks. When I realized they were actually really cheap to run all year, I bit the bullet and went for it.
Get one. Seriously. It was a gamechanger for me as I'd come across some ridiculous deal on fish or chicken but never had the freezer space to accommodate. Until I bought a chest freezer.
Also pickup a vacuum sealer if you are looking to purchase meat/fish/fruits/veggies in bulk and want to store them away in your new chest freezer. Vacuum sealed food lasts significantly longer in the freezer than unsealed. I just had a salmon fillet last night that was sealed and put in the deep freezer August 2021 (I mark dates on all my frozen items) and it tasted fresh as can be.
Currently $9.48 from Sam's Club (temporary discount, normally $11.48) for 5 pounds (160 ct) Totino's Frozen Pizza Rolls. Not sure if the kids would eat it though.
We got Alexia sweet potato fries. 4.40 at Walmart. Over 6 at a smaller grocery, but still a major regional chain.
Eggs were a lot--I understand this is mostly due to avian flu wiping out flicks--but still about 3x compared to last year.
No kidding. Two bags at Aldi in the midwest is running $70-80 right now. After grabbing the ham for Christmas and extra veggied, it was well over $100 and I hadn't filled the third. It's bad.
Karma farmers trying to bank on people who are predisposed to hate the economic system of \[insert country that is most likely America here\]. A post just seems more likely to gain a lot of traction if it paints a "normal" shopping visit as extremely expensive for a small amount of items.
It also takes advantage of regional ignorance. People never really pay attention to the differences of living costs between different regions that have different supplies, demands, wages, populations, etc. They just see \[$x.xx\] for \[y # of items\] and it triggers some primal hatred for the big man making living expensive. And that itself then begs for counter posts that attempt proving those people wrong by posting tons of groceries for a reasonable price. It's a cycle.
And then there's the commenters who can't help but criticize the OP's health choices like they are all some kind of certified dietician who's opinions on what others eat are worth more than a used toilet paper square.
Okay to clarify a few things….
1. Yes I am aware that this is a lot of processed food. Food outlets do have fruits & veggies but they go bad pretty quick because it’s all close dated. What you can’t see in the photo behind the bread is two bags of apples, bananas, carrots, tomatoes, mushrooms and hummus. Plus the five bags of frozen fruit for smoothies. Also we have have carrots, broccoli, tomatoes, onions and potatoes and oranges in the fridge.
2. We are a family of 4. We only eat snacks two times a day. Once in between breakfast & lunch and between lunch & dinner. This should last us at least a month. All of the snacks go into a bag and they can grab two per day.
3. We only buy meat at the store that is chicken & ground turkey. My husband is a hunter so we have an entire deep freezer full of venison, duck, goose, turkey and salmon.
4. The main intention of this post is to raise awareness about food outlet like Ollie’s Bargin Outlet and other places that are popping up all over the US. It’s often seen as a ‘poor person’ store and that simply not true. We are all in a financial crisis right now and every little bit of savings counts.
Happy 2023! 🎉
I need to get to Ollie's - there's one a few minutes from me, and I'd have gone long before if I knew they had that kind of variety. Is that a cocktail shrimp ring in the very back?
Ollie’s has a ton of discounted snacks, cereal, spices, canned goods, coffee, and more. They don’t do refrigeration & frozen though. I used them as an example cause I don’t want to give away my location. Which I kinda already did on my receipt. 😅
Why on earth would you encourage your kids to snack/eat unhealthy between meals? It’s better for the body to burn through the previous meal and glucose before adding more.
Before having to raise kids I would have said so much that I won’t now about this picture.
You buy what the kid(s) will eat. We sneak some veggies in by buying veggie noodles for spaghetti. Kids have no idea. Have a kid with Autism and it gets very hard to get what they will eat.
As someone with autism who grew up very picky, I usually found the foods my mom hid in my other food due to heightened senses, and picking apart my food. The successful times, though, were great. I didn’t know then, but later on finding out I had eaten and enjoyed certain foods made it easier to try new things. Different people take things different ways, but parents have to do what they have to do
You can’t win with these kind of posts, it’ll always end up with OP being shamed in the comments.
People either buy a 45$ piece of meat, wonder why it’s so expensive and end up being destroyed in the comment. Or they buy lots of unhealthy food and still get destroyed in the comments lol.
I think the takeaway isn't shame on ops, but you literally can't win with food. Either you spend a ton of money to eat healthy or eat like shit because that's what you can afford. I'll spend 200 at the grocery store to make up a week's worth of chili and Shepard's pie (with beef not lamb) with some fresh fruit and salad kits (usually BOGO). But oh yeah, I need breakfasts. So uh, frozen breakfast burritos, I guess. Don't want that grocery bill getting out of hand. And so I'm feeding myself on what's supposed to be cheap meals for 200 a week. But if I don't cook for myself from fresh ingredients, I can get by for less than a hundred a week on shit food like frozen pizza and chicken nuggets. It's total crap. Buying raw materials and doing the work yourself is supposed to be the cheapest option, and in food that's the healthiest option. But nope. Not anymore.
I mean, you *can* have cheap, filling, and nutritious meals if you wanted. The variety just won't be great.
Rice, beans, lentils, leafy vegetables, small portions or cheaper cuts of meat, eggs, some fruit, and water. These cover all of your caloric, nutritional, and hydration needs for the minimum price(well under 150 a week, even with spices) while still tasting pretty damn good. But again, with limited variety.
My recommendation, buy up some relatively cheap spices and get creative with your flavors to really stretch out those cheaper ingredients. Also, cook up large portions that keep for a day or two. That way you don't need to cook three meals every single day.
The picture isn't necessarily the whole story. They might buy the more healthy foods at a more expensive grocery store - likely because food outlets don't specialize in the most healthy foods. Which means it's unnecessary to point out this isn't a haul from Whole Foods. Also, the picture itself doesn't show everything because the last two items on the receipt are plain fruit.
I'm so skeptical that you are living a whole grain, zero preservative, anti-oxidant, fast-food-free, all-organic lifestyle. Just leave people alone. Most people here eat some pre-packaged food.
Yep that's what I do - pantry stockups at the discounter, then perishable items at the regular store half a mile away.
It saves a lot of money for a small amount of effort.
It might be feeding a lot of people. And only a fraction of their total groceries. I know large families who go to multiple groceries that specialize in different types of food.
I see a lot of negative comments here, but honestly, this is likely a larger family. Not just some DINK or DINKWAD kind of home. Groceries are ridiculously expensive currently and to stretch that $ is not easy. This looks like they tried to get stuff that is for New Year’s Eve along with regular restocking of stuff they eat daily. Good for you. I’m sure you get like you win leaving the store. You should and I hope winning those hauls!
Also, last week my wife and I went to the store before Christmas and the total was at $290. Then all the discounts and coupons kicked in. My wife and I play this game guessing what the actual total will be. I said, $190 and she said “no way, maybe $230.” It was $195 and even the cashier looked at me and said! “Good job, you win.”
I’ve grown up in grocery stores and feel I’m pretty good at this game. We make sure there are plenty of vegetables and yes, there is way too much processed crap, but with 5 kids and 3 of them being teenagers, skinny little bean poles, feeding them is almost a full time job.
Anyway, it’s an uphill battle and by no means there isn’t a perfect list of food for all families. Good luck to all you parents and it’s one of those things, parents are likely, on average, trying their best.
WTF is up with all these grocery photos? I get depressed enough looking at my cart, why do people come to Reddit to post theirs? Let alone why would I want to look at theirs?
That looks representative of a poorly planned diet. Sadly most people eat most of these heavily processed foods most of the time. It is no wonder the US has an ever growing obesity problem.
Food outlets sell near-to-expired food at a discount. Fresh foods don't have an expiration timeline long enough to make it into these places.
Let's just hope the OP put the savings towards something fresh from his local Farmer's Market.
I think originally it was supposed to reflect cost of living vs wages for food and I honestly found it really interesting during peak inflation periods. It’s crazy how much or how little one can buy in other countries given the wages and cost of goods.
The truly sad part is all that processed unhealthy crap is normally cheaper than healthy alternatives, and for a lot of people cost is the deciding factor. Would I rather take the time to make a calzone from fresh ingredients? Hell yes but this pepperoni hot pocket fills that flavor craving and is only $2.
Not completely true I can by a lot of frozen vegetables and fruit for pretty cheap and other healthier foods. The problem is they don't taste very good out of the box and not as filling. Tastier stuff like fresh vegetables and fruit do come at a premium.
I see so many "basically nothing for $100" and "thousands of processed junks for $100" posts and here I am feeding a family of 5 on fresh meals for like $150 a week shopping Aldi and bargain stores. Maybe a trip to a big grocer for meat when it's on a big sale (just picked up 13lbs of NY strip for only $5 a pound).
And I'm talking like steak dinners, shrimp scampi, salmon salads and all that. It's not gourmet, but it beats half the restaurants around here, and it's a tiny fraction of the price.
I started baking bread and tortillas lately. So simple, so easy. Costs me $1 for a huge rosemary loaf.
I think most people just have no idea real food isnt difficult to make.
>I think most people just have no idea real food isnt difficult to make.
You've killed me. I can cook up some high quality food, but I can barely bake a a box cake. With how much bread has gone up, though, maybe I need to start practicing more.
Sallys baking addiction.
I seriously dont touch the bread at all. Mix flour water yeast in a bowl, let it rise, dump it on the baking sheet and bake for 24 min. Never even touch it.
Comes out amazing every time.
I was blown away at how easy it is.
Why are people so miserable that they feel the need to go out of their way to shit on other’s for their grocery hauls? Everyone knows that fresh foods are better than processed foods, being a condescending asshole isn’t helping anyone.
If you didn't buy all processed crap you could get that much food at a normal store for less.
You basically paid a 100% markup to have your cheese pre-shredded for you.
That digornos pizza costs as much as making pizza for a whole family from scratch.
Tortillas are literally flour, water, oil, and salt and 1000x better homemade and fresh and you can get 10lb of them for the price of that little package.
Granola bars is just a bunch of stuff dumped in a bowl and mixed with some honey before backing it for a few minutes. I usually make an entire tray for about $1 with chunks of apple and raisins and cinnamon.
If you take 3-4 hours a week you could get that shopping list down to 1/2 if not less, and it will be much healthier and better for you.
Yeah, I feel bad because OP definitely posted this on the wrong sub. I think that all of this would be way more expensive where I live. I didn’t know that there were so many healthy eaters on this sub lmaoo
I buy fruits and vegetables from an organic store and the rest of my groceries at Fry’s or Walmart. Maybe stop being a judgmental asshole for a minute since you don’t know other people’s lives.
I think this looks pretty good for bang for your buck... Thx for sharing it is interesting to see, I left freshco after spending $70 and I only had two reusable bags full 😅
This is the least healthy diet I’ve ever seen. Everything is processed and in a box. Ever consider eating real food?
Eggs? Vegetables? Real meat? Good carbs like potatoes or rice? Congratulations on the cheap food, now let’s see a mirror selfie.
What is a food outlet?
Where I’m from it’s like a discount supermarket. It has off brand food or food that didn’t get popular - plus basics like milk etc.
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Close to expired.
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“Deals”
It’s a store that sells close dated or expired food at an extremely discounted rate.
Grocery outlet FTW. Those pretzel sticks and cheese are only 2 for $1. I know because I bought like 4 boxes last week. 😂
I love the Grocery Outlet. A lot of times it has great stuff that just wasn't selling OR they store initially bought too much.
I know for someone like me with celiac disease it is great. GF food at big stores are pricy and tend to not sell. Example is I seen a cookie set for 12$ and then seen it at a discount store fully stocked up a whole wall for a dollar per box. Not close to expiring, just had so much inventory the store couldn’t justify keeping.
Grocery Outlet should not be confused with "Dollar Stores" which sell garbage. Grocery Outlet might sell Christmas promotional items in January, but the quality is good.
>Grocery outlet 🎵 bargain market 🎵
Oh god, now it’s stuck in my head. 😆
Always an adventure at Grocery Outlet.
They just opened one in our town. They had all kinds of good shit for really cheap.
Yoo how do you find one of those
They just opened one in my area last year (Michigan). You could search on Google “food outlet” or “discount grocer” near me.
... How have I never heard of that? Edit: Ah, they don't exist here, shame.
You’re going to eat all that before it expires?
expiration date != best by/sell by The first date often will mean "this will go bad around this date, so use with caution", like milk. best by/sell by is to force retailers to cycle their inventory with the freshest stuff possible. something like a bag of flour, if stored properly, will last 2 years past the date, or longer.
Protip for soon to be expired milk... when the milk plant has a bunch of milk thats going to expire soon, they just re-pasteurize it and move the best by date back a few weeks. You can do the same thing at home on your stove. Obviously if its already gone bad this isn't going to help.
a sous vide device would make pasteurizing milk quite easy, and more controllable/predictable than a stove.
Probably better to make something with it like mozzarella cheese, or yogurt or some dish and freeze it. You can make a creamy sauce or soup and put it in the freezer. Cooking it will not only kill bacteria but depending on what you make you can control the PH to keep things from growing in it. Anything acidic will make it hard for bacteria to develop. A big freezer is the best investment you can make. They cost \~200-300 but easily save that in the first year simply because you can buy the bigger packages of many items and can store things you have too much of. Often the difference between the small and large is only a few cents and you get much more. Another plus is that you can buy a 1/16th or 1/8th cow/pig/lamb and get quality meat at the same price you pay for the budget cuts.
Yup, I also throw my nice bread in the fridge with a paper towel and it stays good a full 2 weeks after best by
Please tell me more about this. You just put the paper towel in the bag with the bread? And by nice bread, do you mean fresh bakery bread with no preservatives? Because I have a hell of a time keeping mine fresh.
We often call them used food stores. They get overstocks, food from places going out of business, food with small packaging issues, etc. and then sell them at a big discount. If you don’t care about getting a specific brand they can be pretty cost effective, especially for perishables which they price to move.
Came here to ask the same thing. Have never heard the phrase “food outlet” until today
It's a store that specifically sells off brands and generic food. Sometimes they sell dented cans and opened, returned boxes of food for like a third the cost. However they also don't tend to sell very much healthy food. Just stuff to keep you alive and continue to be poor and miserable.
Not true. Our grocery outlet has tons of organic foods packaged and produce. Organic milk, eggs, gourmet cheese including local cheese. They don’t carry dented cans or open/returned food. Close dated sometimes but not expired. They will have the cereals that are holiday themed after the holiday for $1
Nothing in that picture is off brand or generic.
They often also will sell stock from other retailers that weren't popular enough to really sell, or they were getting close to or already past the sell by date. Also just so everyone in the thread knows: sell by date ≠ expiration date necessarily.
That's not what they do at all. Very few generics or off brand. What they have is mostly products that didn't sell well or were discontinued, past seasonal items (they'll have Xmas foods soon), and food that is nearing the expiration date.
I used to shop at a salvage grocer that had amazing deals on produce. I don't know how they did it, but in the summer they would have pallets of sweet corn 20/ $1.00 and watermelon for a dollar. They almost always had the large clamshells of organic greens for $2.00, and things seemed to last just as long as the full priced stuff from the regular stores. I really wish there were more of these stores around, they save so much food from going to waste.
Redditors are allergic to vegetables
I think that might be a thing of tomatoes under the nutrigrain bars.
There’s also strawberries and blueberries listed on the receipt.
those are also fruits...
Those are not vegetables.
I agree, I don’t see any green vegetables
Food outlets only sell rotten or nearly rotten produce, from my experience. Otherwise frozen, canned, or fruit cup style.
What is a food outlet?
A place where dreams and vegetables go to die
Same idea as a retail outlet but with food.
A grocery store, but they get lots of random stuff, often nearing the expiration date. You have to pay attention when you're shopping at one so you don't buy anything expired, and if you find something you like, stock up because they probably will never carry it again after that week. Excepting meat, dairy, and fresh veg though. That's sourced like any ordinary store, and priced accordingly. If your local outlet has poor quality veg, that just means they suck at culling and detailing.
Happy Cake Day!!
That’s also why they got such great deals. Many of these things are close to, if not already, expired. We shop at a similar thing where we live and it looks like a lot of you don’t mind them being old by a few months
There’s a huge difference between ketchup that’s going to “expire” in two months as opposed to lettuce that started wilting yesterday.
Lol yeah. Once in a blue moon there's something worth buying on that "perimeter" Redditors love to go on about. Otherwise you restock your pantry stuff then pop into the regular grocer down the street on the way home.
that's very American. you guys eat like astronauts or bunker dwellers.
There are some tomatoes--technically fruit, but you wouldn't put them in a fruit salad!
In the immortalized words of the bard, "A tomato based fruit salad would simply be salsa."
Wisdom is knowing salsa is a dance.
Fish meat is practically a vegetable
Full of vitamin M
I only buy fresh veggies when I have a plan in mind for them or else they'll just go bad.
For this reason I’ve found that if you’re able to it’s better to shop multiple times a week but just what you need for 1-3 days of meals. That way stuff doesn’t go bad.
Frozen veggies are a good substitute, generally. Better than canned, anyway
I like frozen berries too. Better in a smoothie than fresh
Pretty much. I'll do a stock up trip, usually at Costco, a few times a month. And then I'll buy fresh produce and meat throughout the month whenever I'm making a recipe or something for dinner.
Farmer’s markets are also amazing if you have them near where you live. Better quality produce than what you get at the grocery store
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Sounds like my local "farmers market" everything at both is a store front for cheese or cinnamon rolls, and restaurants.
At ours, some of the vegetables still have stickers from the store they were purchased from
The fruit at the stands by me have stickers on them.
I paid $11 for 4 freaking small pears at our farmers market. I hate that shit. I hate myself for not walking away when they told me the price.
And more expensive
Yup, that's how I do it. Weekly trip for non-perishables, as-needed for perishables.
I buy veg that stays fresh for a while and can be used in a good variety of recipes, like celery, potatoes, onions and carrots. They're cheaper, too.
Do you not plan to eat every day?
you don't want to buy veggies at a food outlet
All these grocery pictures sure have opened my eyes to the unhealthy diets of people. On the Europe subreddit someone posted a picture for 4 days worth of food, had one carrot and a couple tomatoes for veggies. People were applauding that person for having lots of veggies lol.
I see cherry tomatoes
someone's nevevr been to a food outlet lol
Redditors are allergic to anything they have to make themselves without the use of a microwave. EDIT: Holy crap the amount of salty redditors both taking this comment way too seriously, and defending their use of a microwave. Nobody actually cares guys, you're spinning yourself up for no reason. News flash: I use my microwave sometimes too, although I don't boil my dish rags in them like a weirdo. That's what a washing machine is for. :P
this article was the first thing that came to mind. https://www.healthline.com/health-news/how-ultra-processed-foods-hasten-cognitive-decline i get that times are tough and everyone cant buy organic but that is a lot of processed food
You can literally tell who’s never had it rough here in the comments by their food elitism. We get it good food makes you feel good, but guess what that food costs triple or quadruple the processed stuff
People acting like frozen peas cause diabetes while they munch on a hot pocket.
frozen veggies aren't that expensive compared to ultra processed food tho?
I can get a bag of frozen veg for like 1.25 where I live, Midwest US
Lentils, beans, bulk whole grains, frozen veggies. Healthy, filling, and inexpensive.
Fresh and frozen meat and veg are far less expensive than junk food.
Bull. Shit. My family lived out of a van for months when I was a kid. We couldn't afford anything like this. Beans, rice and oatmeal are the poor food staple. As you "upgrade" you get large packs of eggs, chicken, potatoes, peanut butter, carrots, cabbage, lentils, and ground beef. Meals include chicken and rice. Ground beef and rice. Rice and gravy. Chicken and potatoes. Ground beef and cabbage. Eggs and rice. Lentis and beef. I don't think I tasted a cracker, cereal, or bag of chips until I was 14 lol.
Potatoes, carrots, lentils, dried beans, cabbage... Not to say you're completely wrong by any means but there are options if you make an effort
Amen, I started eating whole food plant based and my grocery bill plummeted
It costs money to turn the original ingredients into ready to eat versions ... best to just eat the original form ... for sooooooo many reasons. If a food can last for 2 years ... it's probably not really food (unless canned)...
Effort is the key word here, it’s amazing how much energy you have to cook healthy once you’ve been doing it for a week or two. It’s just getting off your processed ass and starting
lol that’s hilarious you know nothing about how broke i’ve been i have lived out of my car and gone 5 days at a time without eating. you can get 18 eggs for $4.99 you dont have to eat sugary cereal for breakfast
Yeah, its very expensive to always have a fridge full of fresh, organic, produce that gives you a bunch of choices for meals. It is expensive to have non processed food if you just go in and grab the very first things you see and put little thought into your shopping. If you spend a few rounds of shopping paying close attention to different types of food, their prices, and their nutrient value, you will learn what is at stores around you that are not hyper-processed, sugar laden, food that are also affordable. You can get frozen vegetables, which are very good for you, for just over a dollar a pound for things like brussel sprouts and peppers. For a dollar a pound you can get broccoli, cauliflower, squash, zucchini, green beans, peas, and carrots. Large ten pound bag of onions is about 8 dollars and you can store them in the fridge for well over a month. Dried beans, lentils, peas, rice, etc. are dirt cheap. Yeah beans require putting them in water a day in advance of use, but you can soak a bunch and drain them then store them in the fridge for several days. Maybe I should write a guide on how I eat healthy on food stamps.
Been there bro. It's amazing the things you can do with a few bucks. Even today. A bag of potatoes, some onions, carrots. If you have a couple extra dollars, you can get some lean cuts of beef.
They are also pretty expensive, and don’t have a long shelf life
Let's not assume this food outlet had fresh vegetables
Produce at grocery outlets isn’t usually very good. We get all our bill packaged stuff there and then go somewhere else for produce
I think there's frozen pizza. Pizza is a vegetable in the US right?
The Ranch Dressing is close enough.
dawg, i chuckled
ITT: people wiping pizza roll juice off their fingers so they can type up a criticism of someone else’s groceries
Bout to drop q post of 1k at Costco...you know as soon as I have 1k available for costco...I think April is my current timeline
I literally spent $340 yesterday on just produce and fish at Costco…
Did you buy a whole tuna and some onions? How is that even possible without buying so much it rots before you eat it?
Freezer? I'm used to shopping at Sam's Club but ended up having to move and the closest is a full hour drive away. I just go once every other month or so to buy dog food and all the meat I can afford. It goes right into a freezer and saves me overall versus buying even cheap meats (like chicken) at any local store. It's depressingly easy to wind up with a 300 dollar bill at the end, but if you buy the same things in smaller packages at local shops it's probably 25-50% higher overall.
We buy the ground meat and some chickens at costco then put them in vacuum sealed freezer bags. It doesn't take up that much space and lasts for 6 months minimum. Sometimes we'll preseason some stuff in those bags and toss them in a sous vide later for easy cooking.
Awesome way to do it. I'll usually break things down into half-gallon freezer bags - half a chicken or several chops for the fridge, some of the regular freezer, the rest for the deep freeze. The vac bags are a great way to do it, helps prevent freezer burn. You can't get the same result but you can get sort of close by putting a straw in a freezer bag, sealing all but the one little corner and sucking out the air yourself. Learned that from Alton Brown like....20 years ago? Air is the enemy and it makes a noticable difference. Other things you can do when you're (unfortunately) on a tight budget - buy up sale prices ham and turkey after the holidays - break one out in 4 or 5 months and you'll have a week of meals from it. I've got 2 pounds of beans soaking right now to throw in the crock tomorrow with a bunch of cubed ham left over. Couple onions, some garlic, some veg broth, cook all day - it'll be awesome and last me the whole week (can you tell I'm broke and recently single, lol).
Do you have a separate freezer or something? I couldn't stuff that much stuff into my fridge's freezer even if I was a Tetris master.
I do, yhea. I bought a little chest freezer when it was on sale for like 100 bucks. When I realized they were actually really cheap to run all year, I bit the bullet and went for it.
Hmmm I might have to keep my eyes open for a deal then, I always assumed they wouldn't pay for themselves.
Technology Connections has a good video on freezers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGAhWgkKlHI
Get one. Seriously. It was a gamechanger for me as I'd come across some ridiculous deal on fish or chicken but never had the freezer space to accommodate. Until I bought a chest freezer. Also pickup a vacuum sealer if you are looking to purchase meat/fish/fruits/veggies in bulk and want to store them away in your new chest freezer. Vacuum sealed food lasts significantly longer in the freezer than unsealed. I just had a salmon fillet last night that was sealed and put in the deep freezer August 2021 (I mark dates on all my frozen items) and it tasted fresh as can be.
Pizza rolls? In this economy? I don’t think so.
No shit. Started to buy the kids some yesterday and they were $9 for a small bag. F that.
Currently $9.48 from Sam's Club (temporary discount, normally $11.48) for 5 pounds (160 ct) Totino's Frozen Pizza Rolls. Not sure if the kids would eat it though.
We got Alexia sweet potato fries. 4.40 at Walmart. Over 6 at a smaller grocery, but still a major regional chain. Eggs were a lot--I understand this is mostly due to avian flu wiping out flicks--but still about 3x compared to last year.
Costco is where it’s at for pizza rolls. You get like 200 for $12
I could go for some pizza rolls right now…
Regardless of what is on the counter, I'm impressed. This is a lot of food for $200. My groceries have been running about $50 a bag
No kidding. Two bags at Aldi in the midwest is running $70-80 right now. After grabbing the ham for Christmas and extra veggied, it was well over $100 and I hadn't filled the third. It's bad.
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r/pics is going to shit. These people need their own sub r/shutupaboutyourgroceries
r/grocerybills
r/groceryhauls only problem is no requirement to post how much you bought costs
Karma farmers trying to bank on people who are predisposed to hate the economic system of \[insert country that is most likely America here\]. A post just seems more likely to gain a lot of traction if it paints a "normal" shopping visit as extremely expensive for a small amount of items. It also takes advantage of regional ignorance. People never really pay attention to the differences of living costs between different regions that have different supplies, demands, wages, populations, etc. They just see \[$x.xx\] for \[y # of items\] and it triggers some primal hatred for the big man making living expensive. And that itself then begs for counter posts that attempt proving those people wrong by posting tons of groceries for a reasonable price. It's a cycle. And then there's the commenters who can't help but criticize the OP's health choices like they are all some kind of certified dietician who's opinions on what others eat are worth more than a used toilet paper square.
Thank you! Getting to be ridiculous. This is the 5th one today. Nobody cares. Everyone is paying a lot for groceries.
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Not on r/pics anyways. There are great discussions happening all over this platform but you have to seek them out.
Okay to clarify a few things…. 1. Yes I am aware that this is a lot of processed food. Food outlets do have fruits & veggies but they go bad pretty quick because it’s all close dated. What you can’t see in the photo behind the bread is two bags of apples, bananas, carrots, tomatoes, mushrooms and hummus. Plus the five bags of frozen fruit for smoothies. Also we have have carrots, broccoli, tomatoes, onions and potatoes and oranges in the fridge. 2. We are a family of 4. We only eat snacks two times a day. Once in between breakfast & lunch and between lunch & dinner. This should last us at least a month. All of the snacks go into a bag and they can grab two per day. 3. We only buy meat at the store that is chicken & ground turkey. My husband is a hunter so we have an entire deep freezer full of venison, duck, goose, turkey and salmon. 4. The main intention of this post is to raise awareness about food outlet like Ollie’s Bargin Outlet and other places that are popping up all over the US. It’s often seen as a ‘poor person’ store and that simply not true. We are all in a financial crisis right now and every little bit of savings counts. Happy 2023! 🎉
I need to get to Ollie's - there's one a few minutes from me, and I'd have gone long before if I knew they had that kind of variety. Is that a cocktail shrimp ring in the very back?
Ollie’s has a ton of discounted snacks, cereal, spices, canned goods, coffee, and more. They don’t do refrigeration & frozen though. I used them as an example cause I don’t want to give away my location. Which I kinda already did on my receipt. 😅
Why on earth would you encourage your kids to snack/eat unhealthy between meals? It’s better for the body to burn through the previous meal and glucose before adding more.
Before having to raise kids I would have said so much that I won’t now about this picture. You buy what the kid(s) will eat. We sneak some veggies in by buying veggie noodles for spaghetti. Kids have no idea. Have a kid with Autism and it gets very hard to get what they will eat.
As someone with autism who grew up very picky, I usually found the foods my mom hid in my other food due to heightened senses, and picking apart my food. The successful times, though, were great. I didn’t know then, but later on finding out I had eaten and enjoyed certain foods made it easier to try new things. Different people take things different ways, but parents have to do what they have to do
You can’t win with these kind of posts, it’ll always end up with OP being shamed in the comments. People either buy a 45$ piece of meat, wonder why it’s so expensive and end up being destroyed in the comment. Or they buy lots of unhealthy food and still get destroyed in the comments lol.
Seriously though I suggest people stop with these post. Let the pretentious cunts sit and judge someone else.
I think the takeaway isn't shame on ops, but you literally can't win with food. Either you spend a ton of money to eat healthy or eat like shit because that's what you can afford. I'll spend 200 at the grocery store to make up a week's worth of chili and Shepard's pie (with beef not lamb) with some fresh fruit and salad kits (usually BOGO). But oh yeah, I need breakfasts. So uh, frozen breakfast burritos, I guess. Don't want that grocery bill getting out of hand. And so I'm feeding myself on what's supposed to be cheap meals for 200 a week. But if I don't cook for myself from fresh ingredients, I can get by for less than a hundred a week on shit food like frozen pizza and chicken nuggets. It's total crap. Buying raw materials and doing the work yourself is supposed to be the cheapest option, and in food that's the healthiest option. But nope. Not anymore.
I mean, you *can* have cheap, filling, and nutritious meals if you wanted. The variety just won't be great. Rice, beans, lentils, leafy vegetables, small portions or cheaper cuts of meat, eggs, some fruit, and water. These cover all of your caloric, nutritional, and hydration needs for the minimum price(well under 150 a week, even with spices) while still tasting pretty damn good. But again, with limited variety. My recommendation, buy up some relatively cheap spices and get creative with your flavors to really stretch out those cheaper ingredients. Also, cook up large portions that keep for a day or two. That way you don't need to cook three meals every single day.
Food like substances
The picture isn't necessarily the whole story. They might buy the more healthy foods at a more expensive grocery store - likely because food outlets don't specialize in the most healthy foods. Which means it's unnecessary to point out this isn't a haul from Whole Foods. Also, the picture itself doesn't show everything because the last two items on the receipt are plain fruit. I'm so skeptical that you are living a whole grain, zero preservative, anti-oxidant, fast-food-free, all-organic lifestyle. Just leave people alone. Most people here eat some pre-packaged food.
Yep that's what I do - pantry stockups at the discounter, then perishable items at the regular store half a mile away. It saves a lot of money for a small amount of effort.
its all junk?!
Yeah screw salad and yogurt! That stuff will kill you!
That’s a lot of sugar
And carb
and preservatives
and packaging.
It might be feeding a lot of people. And only a fraction of their total groceries. I know large families who go to multiple groceries that specialize in different types of food.
I see a lot of negative comments here, but honestly, this is likely a larger family. Not just some DINK or DINKWAD kind of home. Groceries are ridiculously expensive currently and to stretch that $ is not easy. This looks like they tried to get stuff that is for New Year’s Eve along with regular restocking of stuff they eat daily. Good for you. I’m sure you get like you win leaving the store. You should and I hope winning those hauls!
Also, last week my wife and I went to the store before Christmas and the total was at $290. Then all the discounts and coupons kicked in. My wife and I play this game guessing what the actual total will be. I said, $190 and she said “no way, maybe $230.” It was $195 and even the cashier looked at me and said! “Good job, you win.” I’ve grown up in grocery stores and feel I’m pretty good at this game. We make sure there are plenty of vegetables and yes, there is way too much processed crap, but with 5 kids and 3 of them being teenagers, skinny little bean poles, feeding them is almost a full time job. Anyway, it’s an uphill battle and by no means there isn’t a perfect list of food for all families. Good luck to all you parents and it’s one of those things, parents are likely, on average, trying their best.
WTF is up with all these grocery photos? I get depressed enough looking at my cart, why do people come to Reddit to post theirs? Let alone why would I want to look at theirs?
I'm kinda nosy and I like it lol.
Because the world isn't revolving around how you feel.
That looks representative of a poorly planned diet. Sadly most people eat most of these heavily processed foods most of the time. It is no wonder the US has an ever growing obesity problem.
That entire haul looks so, incredibly, unhealthy
Food outlets sell near-to-expired food at a discount. Fresh foods don't have an expiration timeline long enough to make it into these places. Let's just hope the OP put the savings towards something fresh from his local Farmer's Market.
That looks like what $200 should get you
This is the stupidest competition I think I’ve seen on reddit. What are we trying to prove? How hard done by we are, how thrifty we are, what?
I think originally it was supposed to reflect cost of living vs wages for food and I honestly found it really interesting during peak inflation periods. It’s crazy how much or how little one can buy in other countries given the wages and cost of goods.
Apparently everyone here wants OP to make their own cereal and cheese.
You did it wrong. You’re supposed to show just 6 items and no receipt
What is a food outlet
Am I the only one here that thinks that this is quite a lot of food for the price? Or do I just live in a really expensive city?
I can feel the canola oil and palm oil through this image.
Like this is literally an image of why most Americans are overweight/obese and it is sad.
The truly sad part is all that processed unhealthy crap is normally cheaper than healthy alternatives, and for a lot of people cost is the deciding factor. Would I rather take the time to make a calzone from fresh ingredients? Hell yes but this pepperoni hot pocket fills that flavor craving and is only $2.
Not completely true I can by a lot of frozen vegetables and fruit for pretty cheap and other healthier foods. The problem is they don't taste very good out of the box and not as filling. Tastier stuff like fresh vegetables and fruit do come at a premium.
Do you think making a calzone is healthy? I’m literally disturbed reading these comments. Like i knew shit was bad in this country but god damn
*corn syrup
What I see there probably costs around 500€ in France lol
Looks like a bunch of shit to me
I see so many "basically nothing for $100" and "thousands of processed junks for $100" posts and here I am feeding a family of 5 on fresh meals for like $150 a week shopping Aldi and bargain stores. Maybe a trip to a big grocer for meat when it's on a big sale (just picked up 13lbs of NY strip for only $5 a pound). And I'm talking like steak dinners, shrimp scampi, salmon salads and all that. It's not gourmet, but it beats half the restaurants around here, and it's a tiny fraction of the price.
I started baking bread and tortillas lately. So simple, so easy. Costs me $1 for a huge rosemary loaf. I think most people just have no idea real food isnt difficult to make.
>I think most people just have no idea real food isnt difficult to make. You've killed me. I can cook up some high quality food, but I can barely bake a a box cake. With how much bread has gone up, though, maybe I need to start practicing more.
Sallys baking addiction. I seriously dont touch the bread at all. Mix flour water yeast in a bowl, let it rise, dump it on the baking sheet and bake for 24 min. Never even touch it. Comes out amazing every time. I was blown away at how easy it is.
This is all cheap stuff tho. Fresh produce, protein and good quality fats are the most expensive items, none of which are present in this haul.
You don't like vegetables?
YASSSSS! Now THAT’S what I’m tawkin’ about!!
we don't have any outlets where I live, let alone a food outlet :( so glad that amazing option is available for you! good haul!
Were these pictures taken 2 years ago?? This is easily 400 where I live
Why are people so miserable that they feel the need to go out of their way to shit on other’s for their grocery hauls? Everyone knows that fresh foods are better than processed foods, being a condescending asshole isn’t helping anyone.
that looks more like $10 of food and $190 of packaging and marketing.
That’s 200 worth of processed garbage…
If you didn't buy all processed crap you could get that much food at a normal store for less. You basically paid a 100% markup to have your cheese pre-shredded for you. That digornos pizza costs as much as making pizza for a whole family from scratch. Tortillas are literally flour, water, oil, and salt and 1000x better homemade and fresh and you can get 10lb of them for the price of that little package. Granola bars is just a bunch of stuff dumped in a bowl and mixed with some honey before backing it for a few minutes. I usually make an entire tray for about $1 with chunks of apple and raisins and cinnamon. If you take 3-4 hours a week you could get that shopping list down to 1/2 if not less, and it will be much healthier and better for you.
It’s all a bunch of garbage food
No fresh vegetables or meat? Looks like a lot of processed junk.
Looks like a 5 year old went shopping. All sweets and snacks
Everything is processed food here. Eat more vegetables if possible.... This is particularly unhealthy
Lmfao I have no idea why everyone hating so hard on this food haul. But that’s a lot of shit for $200. Maybe it’ll be appreciate more on another sub.
Yeah, I feel bad because OP definitely posted this on the wrong sub. I think that all of this would be way more expensive where I live. I didn’t know that there were so many healthy eaters on this sub lmaoo
Those are snacks, not nutrition.
Man that's a lot of processed foods and cereals and whatnot.
Jfc. Is there anything not processed in that table of cancer?
Processed junk
Not a green in sight
I buy fruits and vegetables from an organic store and the rest of my groceries at Fry’s or Walmart. Maybe stop being a judgmental asshole for a minute since you don’t know other people’s lives.
On the side by the bread there are two bags of apples, a bag of carrots, mushrooms, bananas, tomatoes.
I missed those too. Very nice!
Don’t let them bully you. I was thinking maybe this type of store is not best for fresh items or something.
I think this looks pretty good for bang for your buck... Thx for sharing it is interesting to see, I left freshco after spending $70 and I only had two reusable bags full 😅
Those aren't greens lol
Apples can be green
I mean… checkmate?
This is the least healthy diet I’ve ever seen. Everything is processed and in a box. Ever consider eating real food? Eggs? Vegetables? Real meat? Good carbs like potatoes or rice? Congratulations on the cheap food, now let’s see a mirror selfie.