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.

It’s a weird feeling when you don’t know if that’s alot or not

if i can feed a family of five on twenty dollars a week, theres nothing I cant do

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.

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.

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.

Listen man dunkaroos ain’t cheap alright

“Mansion Trash” lmao

I bet you’d start freaking out too if you don’t have a roof over your head or food to eat…

The meme is literally a scene directly from iasip.

It’s from the economy episode brah

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.

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.

Found a new poor.

Quitting coffee has never make anyone rich. That’s not a cost that kills you.

Are you implying that the poor should be denied luxury items?

That’s gas station coffee. Talk about new poor.

those don’t look like Starbucks cups? Aren’t the only brown parts on a smaller sleeve? This cup looks mostly brown?

Stole it.

You think old poor don’t have crushing credit card debt?

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.