When people said we needed to focus on. A class war, they weren’t trying to tell the middle, lower middle, and lower class to fight each other. Yet here we are
Sometimes when I hear how much money people spend on groceries, I’m in awe. Who the fuck is spending 500$ on groceries per person per month? HOW the fuck are they doing it?
My monthly food bill is typically around $120.
- A lot of beans or other canned vegetables: $30
- Bread: $5
- Peanut butter, $8
- bananas: $10
- rice: $10
- Other fruit that’s on sale: $10
- Some fresh vegetables (usually onions, broccoli, peppers): $10
- Flour: $10 (may last more than a month)
- yeast: $5
- Seasonings: $5 (also lasts more than a month)
- Cheese: $5
- Tomato sauce: $5
- Pasta: $5
I got laid off a while ago so I’m trying to make my dollars go farther. When I had a well paying job, I’d also buy more stuff, but nothing too crazy. I miss hummus the most, I think. I never buy soda.
The other day I was with someone and we decided to order food like old times, and it was like $40 for two of us. I was like, fuck, that’s a third of my whole month’s budget right there. But I don’t want to live like a monk all the time.
Seperate from groceries, ordering out has gotten crazy fucking expensive. Literally doubling in cost in just the past 5 years or so. Insane shit. I haven’t bought even fast food for myself in probably 2 years at this point.
My monthly food bill is around 150$ since I’ve gotten slightly more financially stable - no more surviving on ramen and cereal! I can buy good bread, fruit, corn, frozen chicken, and cheese. Life is good.
Soda was always a non-negotiable purchase, since I’m an addict, but buying on sale helps. It’s not like it goes bad quickly, after all.
I’m not defending it nor am I saying it’s typical, but it’s not that hard to spend $500 per person per month on groceries.
It’s definitely doable (and then some) for folks living in high cost of living places. I recently went on a quick weekend trip to such a place. I knew I didn’t have the type of money to dine out, but I figured I could suffice on a few staples from the grocery store. I visited several different stores, and the prices were all about the same (i.e. insane). The little pint (or half pint?) Ben and Jerry’s was $10 - 12. A container of romaine lettuce was $8. A package of Oscar Meyer sliced deli meat was $15. These prices are easily 3 - 4 times what they typically cost where I live.
Also, a lot of people shop at the kinds of stores where you can find everything from apples to Apple watches. And when people do their “grocery” shopping, they’re buying bulk paper towels, a case of wine, a new Switch game for the kids, cosmetics, cat litter, clothes, 30 pack of batteries, a couple azaleas, and a partridge in a pear tree and then calling that their grocery bill. So, it’s not exactly a fair label nor an accurate assumption that the grocery bill is just groceries (i.e. food).
And honestly, if you mean HOW as in how can they afford it: $500 x 4 = $2,000 or $24,000. A lot of money, sure, but median household income (in the USA) is like $80,000 and I’m guessing that $500 a month per person is above median expenditure (especially if we’re excluding the folks that like to include the partridge in their grocery bill), so most people spending that much on food would be earning way more than median income.
There’s a difference between having enough to eat and having enough healthy food to live well. I’m sure you could survive on like on &100 per person per month if you wanted to eat ramen and canned meat. But throwing in fresh fruits and veggies runs that number up.
Yeah, but most Americans aren’t eating healthy either. So it’s more of a worst of both worlds situation.
Indeed.
if i can feed a family of five on twenty dollars a week, theres nothing I cant do
It’s a weird feeling when you don’t know if that’s alot or not
500$ per person is a lot. Like, I don’t consider myself to be living the life of an involuntary ascetic anymore, but it’s over triple what I spend for myself. And I legit waste some food.
In my defense, it’s so fucking easy to buy a bunch of bananas and say “I’ll have a few tomorrow”, but tomorrow you have one, and the day after that you don’t feel in the mood for bananas, and before you know it the bastards have gone mushy
That’s banana bread or banana pancakes time
Per person???
We eat good, always have snacks and get a few bs quick meals whenever we go shopping. $800 for a family of 4 and I feel like that’s too much.
Granted I make a lot of stuff from scratch, but I feel like the snack and quick meals even that out price wise.
Its post covid. These a holes have been price gouging us. Everyone outside of costco is out to get you.
Listen man dunkaroos ain’t cheap alright
Do they even make dunkaroos anymore?
I remember they made them when I was a kid and then they were discontinued and then they returned, but I thought they got discontinued again.
Anyway, when I was in college I learned you can make a big ass batch of dunkaroo frosting super cheap
https://basicswithbails.com/popular/baking/homemade-dunkaroo-dip-funfetti-cake-batter-dip/
https://callascleaneats.com/viral-dunkaroo-dip-high-protein-low-carb/
Soda is really expensive. Ben & Jerry’s is pricey. Gatorade is expensive. Brand name cereal is expensive. Etc… they aren’t buying fresh fruit, rice, refried beans, you know, things that are still pretty reasonably priced but don’t taste as good.
Man, I buy soda and brand name cereal (store brand tastes like sadness 9/10 times) and still don’t hit anywhere close to that.
I can probably give some explanation. We as a household of 3 mainly cooks at home. We get fruits and veggies from costco and farmers markets mainly. The monthly grocery bills are close to 500$ with everything added up. We do try to eat as healthy as possible and cooks majority of the days. A days cooking almost looks like this
- Breakfast: Eggs/bread/avocado etc
- Lunch: Rice/Quinoa + salad/stir fry + protein(eggs/fish)
- Dinner: steel cut oats with yogurt or something similar
- Some snacks during the day and in the evening
- Coffee(homemade to reduce cost)
Almost everything adds up. Asparagus is almost 5$ a bunch. Spinach adds up to 4$. Milk is close to 7$. At the end of month when we tallied up, it was close to 500$. I dont think we are actually eating that much or even buying a lot of junk. Post covid has been a ride
I mean, that’s three people though, not 500$ PER person.
I grew up on the lower end of middle class. Govnment cheese grilled cheese sammies is definitely something I loved eating as a kid. This forced us to be industrious. My parents gardening, did their own DIY home improvements, woodworking, hunting, and more. They weren’t survivalists because of some doomsday shit, but lived this way because we couldn’t afford not to if we wanted to live in a house in a big city suburb in the late 80s & 90s. Over time, my mother took on work utilizing the skills she gained doing the stuff for ourselves and we slowly climbed out of the near poverty life and I was able to have nice things in my teens.
I’m now doing well for myself, solidly middle class in this economy and region. But as things are shifting like crazy around us, I just decided to turn my yard into a garden so I can at least feed myself fresh food if shit becomes unavailable or unsafe to eat. If I have to start hunting again, I will.
I’m not panicking, I’m just going to control what I can, and will do my best to have a good life, and will fight for everybody else to have a chance at a good life too.
if they got 5$ coffee for one cup instead of brewing their own, they are not truely poor lol
“ah man I cant afford anything besides the takeout everyday”
Hey, I still regularly troll driveways for stuff they are tossing on trash days.
Reminds me of this The Onion sketch https://youtu.be/05RZJxDIhTU
“Mansion Trash” lmao
How is the economy what anyone is freaking out about?
I bet you’d start freaking out too if you don’t have a roof over your head or food to eat…
When you can’t afford food, fishing regulations are just a suggestion.
Unless the pond is radioactive.
Or PFAS
Depends on how hungry you are
My job is shit I make minimum wage, but dog the fascist right terror regime overshadows that by a longshot.
The opposite of Nouveau Riche: Nouveau Pauvre. They lack the culture of people who were born into poverty.
I legitimately think this is a thing.
I suspect folks who grew up with door dash see it as a normalized service. I grew up poor before it was a thing, and even though I’m financially better now it’s only used when we’re absolutely pooped.
There are just… So many more entrenched predatory services now that only serve to extract money more efficiently. All that klarna “buy now pay later” stuff? Absolutely deadly if someone doesn’t know how to budget.
Using IASIP for this meme is pretty silly, considering everyone on that show (except for maybe Mac) has a seemingly unlimited amount of money via Frank.
The meme is literally a scene directly from iasip.
It’s from the economy episode brah
Full blown shanty town
A relevant discussion on the topic: https://youtube.com/watch?v=05RZJxDIhTU
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As someone who went poverty -> comfortable -> not so well off, I can confirm. It was (mentally) easier to get up from the bottom than to deal with the loss and try to do it all over again and risk even further loss.
As the old curse says - May you have and then not have.
I married a trust fund kid and then got saddled with his credit card debt after he dumped me.
Got to go on nice expensive vacations, ate ridiculous food on the top of Harrod’s in London. Now I’m making pillows out of old t-shirts because I don’t have a mattress.
The big lesson I learned is that it actually does not matter how smart, talented or hard working you are. It’s about having rich family.
Yep!
But, hey, we must abolish the family anyway, so…
Bro you can just go to the salvation army, you don’t have to wear pillows as tshirts LMAO 🤣
Not if you’re in any way queer. They don’t help us.
Plenty of other charities exist to choose from
Not really. Too many give to the christofascists.
You have it backwards. They’re using old t-shirts to sew pillows. The same way some people use old shirts for quilting, or for window cleaning rags.
Damn, then it clearly shows this guy privilege, poverty related.
No poor person is thinking about comfort when sleeping, but being dressed and covered from the elements? Yeah that ranks higher
I feel like Salvation Army pillows are going to be gross and hard to clean - might pick up bed bugs. Thrifting the stuffing/pillow forms and sewing them into t-shirts makes something quick and comfortable.
Tom Wolfe said that if a person goes from middle class to homeless in a shelter their life changes 50%. They still have the same clothes, watch the same TV shows, eat the same kind of food.
If someone goes from being a billionaire to middle class their life has changed 100%.
…he said, drinking his Starbucks coffee
Found a new poor.
Quitting coffee has never make anyone rich. That’s not a cost that kills you.
That’s not a cost that kills you.
For real.
Some folks have a vice where they can’t start a single day without a fancy grande latte or whatever, but mostly when I see that, it’s middle-managey types that make more in a month than I’d ever see in my account at any given time.
How many skipped small vanilla cold-brews or boba teas (+a tip for my fellow working class ✊) buys an average healthcare deductible or car repair beyond my DIY abilities? Heck let’s lower the bar…An oil change?
Just filling the tank costs like 8 enjoyable refreshing coffees. What a lame exchange rate!
Even if we struggle, it’s still okay to enjoy things once in a while.
Are you implying that the poor should be denied luxury items?
Aren’t luxury items supposed to be high quality?
Are you dumb? thanks
those don’t look like Starbucks cups? Aren’t the only brown parts on a smaller sleeve? This cup looks mostly brown?
These Nouveau Pauvre can’t tell a gas station French vanilla from a Starbucks caramel macchiato
i used “Starbucks” in a “generic expensive coffee to go”- way
That’s gas station coffee. Talk about new poor.
oh so there is they also a chance they have a car
You can go to the gas station to get their coffee, you don’t have to also get gas.
Cheaper to drink my homebrew moonshine.
Sure. It’s also cheaper to just drink water. However, gas station coffee is cheaper than Starbucks by a fair amount at least where I’m from, and it’s not half bad.
I give out so many free coffees too, literally anyone that asks.
How so?
Stole it.
You think old poor don’t have crushing credit card debt?
As an old poor I don’t, bank wouldn’t even trust me with an overdraft.
Ironically poor people tend to put more emphasis on buying name brands, certainly for things that other people see, like clothes, vehicles etc.
Value signaling is a thing.
My dad grew up poor and he can’t stand going to budget stores like Aldi and Lidl. It’s almost a matter of principe for him, he can afford to go to the more expensive store so he will.
I love Aldi. Week of food for 15 quid, easily. Fried rice is a popular cheap meal for me
I know, I love it too.
Man I’m the complete opposite. I grew up in the hood, if you had nice things, you wouldn’t have them for long.
Driving nice cars and wearing name brand clothes just states “I have more money than you and I’m proud of it” which is a) universally a dick move, especially when you drive that fancy car past a dozen homeless every day, and b) makes you a mark. Oh you’re driving a Benz? You’ve probably got valuables in it, let’s take a look.
Nowadays I still drive a beat up old car and wear off brand clothes, both because I can’t afford better but I also don’t want to even look like I can afford better for the above reasons. It’s just being an ass and also putting a target on yourself.
It’s the whole “couponing is only trashy if you’re poor” mentality.
For the rich, couponing is a game. See how much you can get, for as little as possible. You have the storage space for it, so you’re not worried about excess or waste. All you care about is gaming the system to see what you can get. You had to buy 18 months worth of laundry detergent to get the discount? That’s fine, cuz you have space for it at home. And your basic necessities are already covered, so the coupons don’t need to be for staples that you’ll use quickly or regularly.
For the poor, couponing is a necessary evil. You’re eating chicken every day this week; Not because you really like chicken, but because it’s what you had a coupon for. And now you need to eat it before it goes bad, because you need the space in the fridge for this week’s coupons and you can’t afford to simply toss it out.
This makes me appreciate Aldi so much. No loyalty cards, no coupons, no bullshit. Just cheap food for all. I hate Tesco as they are the opposite. No loyalty card? Pay extra then. Also under 18s can’t get loyalty cards.
Yeah but it’s also: logos on clothes are huge on items marketed to poorer people. You won’t find old money walking around in overtly branded clothes. They do buy better quality stuff, but the branding is less important.
Supermarkets do plain clothes really cheaply here
This sounds like a Nouveau Riche thing because your dad now has money to spend. If he can go to Whole Foods over Aldi, he ain’t pauvre.
It’s not only my father in taking about
