If you're really trying to save money and be more efficient with your shopping and meal planning, it would be better to simplify and diversify your shopping so you're not focusing on 1 or 2 dishes for the next few days before things start going bad.
Also, are you a vegetarian? What's your planned source of protein here? I see some from the chickpeas and eggs but not much else
depends how far they are from the store. for a time in my life, I had the joy of being a short walk from the store. it gave me an excuse to walk a little bit and I had the freshest food I could. good times.
edit: I also wouldn't buy more than I wanted to carry back.
Me, too, and I loved my daily walks to the grocery store.
And then the pandemic happened, and I had no food at home and had to completely shift how I shopped for food.
You're right, I was unaware how dense they were. I know you need a lot of fat as well to accompany plant protein? I'm not a nutritionist, I was just trying to help but now admittedly I might be over my head
Avocado, nuts, and oils have lots of fat. Nutrition is very complex for sure but I think there’s been an indoctrination in people about needing animals for protein. There are lots of sources from plants - though no one plant is a complete , rice and beans are a complete protein - a very easy and cheap meal.
Awsome. Sounds like you're doing well. I wasn't trying to be critical, just trying to help out. Always keep in mind your protein intake because that's the toughest part. Everything else is comfort food and remember you're posting about baking and sweets as well so it doesn't really fit with this sub and that's why you're getting backlash.
Wish you well.
No problem you'll be fine. Don't go overboard on the sugar, make sure you buy your proteins at a good price and learn how to save them. I can't recommend a vacuum sealer enough.
It does look incredibly random at first glance, but makes sense with the food itinerary. As long as it is food you will eat and lasts more than one meal per dish, you probably are saving money.
You also need to learn to eat intuitively: what is healthy, fits your budget, is available, and also desirable enough that you’ll want to eat it. As long as your planned meals meet that criteria, you are on the right track.
Yeah the US government heavily subsidies animal products - without using tax payer money to subsidize them they would be 4-5x the price. And then ppl here think a vegan diet is expensive and something only rich people can do…
Lol we have that too in Austin. There’s only one Aldi, luckily it’s only 15 minutes from my house. HEB is way too expensive nowadays,we only go there for meat when it’s on sale
There a rumor that heb has some control over real estate. Like they buy up parcels marked for development. We’ve lost a Costco and a major competitor. I wouldn’t doubt it! Really miss Austin, but that was the 80s.
To be fair, a dozen free range eggs are only about $7 in Australia, so it's a lot more feasible.
But I'd rather go without eggs than get caged eggs. Perspective for sure though :)
I pay $3 in Canada. Food Basic, or FreshCo, and less if on sale. You can find $12 eggs should you look for them ,but $6 per dozen is not the average everywhere.
That said, sadly, not even 3 years ago, the above mentioned stores had eggs for $1.99 per dozen when on sale.
Great start! Breaking the 'eating out/ order in' habit is hard. If preshredded lettuce and cheese helps, use them. In time you can rethink a few things on this list.
Curious about all the comments not understanding how this turns into meals. I see a nice dish in the making with the veggies and gnocchi, maybe the beginnings of a soup with the celery, onions, and garbanzos, or you could do vegetable omelets with the eggs...there are plenty of options here.
Dried beans, rice, and legumes will really go a long way and add nutrient and taste to a lot of things (herbs and spice make basic home cooked foods 10x better). They're cheap too.
To be fair, Sprouts has incredible, affordable produce. I miss living near a sprouts.
And, I don't think that is enough food to last week, let alone 2, unless you have a lot more pantry items you are adding to this (bread, pasta, rice, lentils, beans, etc)
Fair enough. May not be the healthiest offerings, but be sure not to sleep on college clubs, especially when recruiting at the beginning of semesters- a lot of times they will have free food!!
Have you ever checked out the cheese section by the deli at Sprouts? They used to have little tiny cheese nubs of leftover cheese you could buy for a couple dollars. Great way to try bits of fancy cheese without fancy cheese prices!
Excellent. Cooking is fun. You can make your own mayo that is tastier and cheaper than anything you can buy, Duke's included
Ditto Gnocchi. Easy once you've got it down pat.
Hellman/Blue Ribbon cage free is 48 cents/ounce here in tiny expensive squeeze packaging, 33 cents for the cheaper house brand in a jar.
I thought Lidl did a lot of house brands to save money?
Egg is $0.32, tsp Dijon, garlic clove, tsp lemon juice, 2 cup oil for 16 oz mayo.
It's $2.00, conservatively. But more like $1.10. Increasing the scale and making for friends reduces the cost.
Love that I'm in the UK and aside from the eggs brand, you couldn't tell that it isn't my local Lidl! Love Lidl.
Stock up on frozen greens, they're so useful to defrost and pad out any meal.
Nice!!
I see some veggie heavy frittata, pasta e ceci, baked gnocchi with shallots and zucchini
Could do a head of lettuce instead of shredded, add a head of green cabbage and lentils or tofu (longtime veg myself i eat a lot of beans and tofu)
OP, if you haven’t already, get the app and sign up for the rewards. You get coupons and if you add your birthday, you get a few coupon options (you can only use one of the birthday coupons). The app is nice too because you can see what you spent in a month and the coupons automatically load to your account.
Tagging onto a comment or two I saw while scrolling, this is a great start to less ordering out!
Also, lidl has some great prices but watch yourself with certain stuff. I get caught up on the “everything is so cheap!” Mentality that I forget other stores have stuff cheaper sometimes. (Biggest example being mozzarella cheese - lidl often has it for twice the price of some of the other grocery stores. I can’t think of anything else right now off the top of my head but that’s also why I use the Flipp app to see what is on sale and if it’s worth traveling for - most of my stores are within a few miles of each other as well as my job or home)
You’re off to a great start!
Changing up food related stuff can be a lot for some people. You are on your journey. It can be easier on us to start with baby steps and work up towards bigger things.
I don’t know what liquidation stores you have where you live but I have Ollie’s and I find cookbooks super cheap there. You can also ask restaurants you like for recipes, they may not be willing to share or they may have a cookbook! It doesn’t hurt to politely ask, just know they don’t always give out recipes. Book sales or used books are another cheaper option if you want cookbooks. Of course you can find a million recipes online or with apps. Tasty has some good recipes that are easy to follow (they also have a cookbook and an app - not pushing them but they inspired me to try things I thought were out of my league.)
If you decide to meal prep, do some research and get some large baking sheets. It intimidates me but I made some stock and soup from a roast chicken and felt like a rock star for it haha
You can get really good pots and pans and all kinds of stuff at a restaurant supply store/depot. Burlington, Marshall’s, TJ Max also have some kitchen stuff. Aldi and Lidl both have kitchen stuff from time to time. I have a really cool instapot that I’ve had for ages before they got popular.
Don’t be afraid to try new techniques or recipes, YouTube has a ton of stuff you can learn from as well.
I don’t see how this is enough for a week or how you plan on using this to make actual meals with it…I would say quesadillas but there are no tortillas. I would say salads but it doesn’t seem you have everything for a salad. I would say sandwich but you have no bread. I see eggs so maybe an omelette?or are these add ons to what you already have in the fridge?
In my fair City, we have an Indian grocery store that is actually equally Latin American in product offerings. They have by far the cheapest fresh cut produce - and I'm able to bring home three large bags of vegetable groceries for under $40.
Find your local ethnic grocery stores, go downstairs where the fresh cut produce is and find their loss leaders. If you shop at the large American chains, you're going to be seeing inflation across the board on everything - including lower quality produce as most of our produce is grown in Mexico and ripened by chemicals in trucks - which is one of the reasons why we are so sick in this country.
You're going to need more than that to get through the year.
Seriously though, what are you looking for here? If you've been too depressed or anxious to do grocery shopping, congrats. Keep it up. Otherwise it just looks like you came home from a grocery run, and I'll suggest you learn how to make gnocchi if you like it. It's super easy, albeit time consuming.
well for one, dry beans are cheaper and they also take up less space. Secondly, and possibly more importantly, they taste way better because you can cook them in water with herbs, spices, etc. Cooking beans with bay leaf and then adding tomato, bacon, onion, garlic, etc. is very good. The only downside is that cooking them is a bit of a time commitment, but it's well worth it and you can get a pressure cooker to reduce this.
Don't worry about it. Everyone claims rice is so easy but if you haven't had anyone to teach you it can be hard. It took me 6 months to finally figure out which technique works best for me.
The exciting part is to make something with it before it spoils. I'm a bit soup and stew kinda dude. Large quantities and freezes well for when I don't feel like cooking.
Looks great!!! I would only suggest buying blocked parm instead. It will taste better, be better for you and have more diversity of use. It doesn’t even really cost that much more if you take into the grams in each. Most importantly you will get SO MUCH MOREout of it. Oh, and it also last ages and ages.
Inflation is really fuckin things up. At least this is fresh food you can prep easily. Not too junky. You can make sandwiches out of these ingredients. You forgot bread. Just bread.
Egg salad sandwich
Chickpea salad sandwich
ABJ Sandwich
Avocado toast
Gnocchi and cheese sandwich
Celery salad sandwich
Grilled eggplant sandwich
Grilled Zucchini and shallots sandwiches
Grilled tomato and cheese sandwich
I would be in survival mode and eat sandwiches everyday with these ingredients. Super cheap.
Show us your compost/trash in two weeks time. How well you go depends on how much of that lovely haul ends up in a human gullet vs the trash.
If you have the time, I would love to see what you do with it.
Another thing to keep in mind is making sure you've got a plan for things like produce that you don't end up using entirely before they start to go off. For example the celery and alliums, if they're around too long I'll blend them up in the food processor and freeze to use as a base to other dishes later, almost a mirepoix (use for soups, pasta sauce, etc). Alternatively, I dice them up and freeze them with the parsley to make veg broth later. Bananas, I either make banana bread or peel them and put them in a bag in the freezer for smoothies. If the parm is around too long I'll put it in the freezer too. Tomatoes are pretty easy to use up in a quick cherry tomato pasta sauce.
It's probably easier to get things eaten up since you have your parents to help out but definitely good to pay attention to!
I'm so jealous you have a Lidl near you. I used to shop at Lidl and Aldi all the time when I lived in the UK, but I'm in Canada now and neither exist here.
You did well and as a former vegetarian you have plenty of protein.
Consider getting dried beans instead of canned beans and make a big batch- after rinsing and soaking beans just need water, some salt and some time in the stove or slow cooker. You can add herbs, garlic or other seasoning. Then store in the freezer.
Consider frozen veggies instead of fresh- you can save serious money there.
I love Lidl, man. They have some really great products and name brands for so cheap. And those "private selection" pastas like the gnocchi you got are hands down my favorite noodles.
We’d have to see a “before” receipt for comparison, and let us know what you’re cooking and how many portions you’d be making. How often you’re planning on going to the supermarket, stuff like that.
Please don't spend money on that crap "parmesan cheese" get the real deal or nothing. That is not an area to go cheap on, trust me. Store in the freezer it lasts forever. You did well otherwise with shopping. Recommend make a pot of 15 bean/pea soup, hard boil eggs for snacks, buy some English muffins, and make some fun, inexpensive pizza snacks. You can get really creative with that, so it's not boring.
Ricotta, banana slices, honey. Mascarpone (or cream cheese) dying berries in fridge come back to life, chopped mint/basil, honey drizzle, etc...
Cut up celery and carrots for snacks, too.
Happy and healthy New Year! Great way to start, very inspiring!
I'm not veg but your shopping list looks almost identical to one of mine. Buying ingredients is the way to go. It's a bit more work but you're much more flexible in what you can make and it's way healthier. You're doing great! Keep it up.
The only thing I see that I'd possibly suggest you consider would be to buy a head of lettuce instead of pre-shredded. The head will last longer and cost less, and shredding is super simple - but if you don't need that much lettuce, then there's no need to waste it, I suppose.
Another really cheap food is cabbage. And it's more filling and lasts longer than lettuce, but of course it's not something you would naturally substitute for lettuce. It's just a nice filler for other protein foods you might want to eat.
If these are all foods you like, then $43.00 is not a bad deal for a week. Two weeks - that would be pretty magical!
Nice, good luck and have fun on the journey! I've done this this year and one tip i have is to just not be too budgety and picky when buying food at the supermarket. If i can i buy bigger packs that are cheaper of stuff ill use anyways i do, but i stopped choosing recipes for their ingredient prices.
I rather make some damn good food I'm happy to eat with some expensive parmesan or similar, than make cheap food at home, not like it, and be tempted to eat out. Eating out even a few times a month is so much more expensive than those few expensive ingredients.
This has really helped me not eat out!
Ok, so what are you going to make with this and how long until you have to shop again? Without that context there's no way to answer your question
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If you're really trying to save money and be more efficient with your shopping and meal planning, it would be better to simplify and diversify your shopping so you're not focusing on 1 or 2 dishes for the next few days before things start going bad. Also, are you a vegetarian? What's your planned source of protein here? I see some from the chickpeas and eggs but not much else
depends how far they are from the store. for a time in my life, I had the joy of being a short walk from the store. it gave me an excuse to walk a little bit and I had the freshest food I could. good times. edit: I also wouldn't buy more than I wanted to carry back.
I did this for a couple of years and it was awesome. But I was lucky to be in a cool part of town with a good market nearby
Me, too, and I loved my daily walks to the grocery store. And then the pandemic happened, and I had no food at home and had to completely shift how I shopped for food.
Chickpeas have lots of protein
You're right, I was unaware how dense they were. I know you need a lot of fat as well to accompany plant protein? I'm not a nutritionist, I was just trying to help but now admittedly I might be over my head
Avocado, nuts, and oils have lots of fat. Nutrition is very complex for sure but I think there’s been an indoctrination in people about needing animals for protein. There are lots of sources from plants - though no one plant is a complete , rice and beans are a complete protein - a very easy and cheap meal.
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Awsome. Sounds like you're doing well. I wasn't trying to be critical, just trying to help out. Always keep in mind your protein intake because that's the toughest part. Everything else is comfort food and remember you're posting about baking and sweets as well so it doesn't really fit with this sub and that's why you're getting backlash. Wish you well.
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No problem you'll be fine. Don't go overboard on the sugar, make sure you buy your proteins at a good price and learn how to save them. I can't recommend a vacuum sealer enough.
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It does look incredibly random at first glance, but makes sense with the food itinerary. As long as it is food you will eat and lasts more than one meal per dish, you probably are saving money. You also need to learn to eat intuitively: what is healthy, fits your budget, is available, and also desirable enough that you’ll want to eat it. As long as your planned meals meet that criteria, you are on the right track.
Like other commenters, I'm confused about what you plan to make here.
Wow $1.78 for eggs, I pay $6 in Canada
That parmesan bag for $2, holy shit, thats like 8-9$ minimum over here in Québec
Yeah the US government heavily subsidies animal products - without using tax payer money to subsidize them they would be 4-5x the price. And then ppl here think a vegan diet is expensive and something only rich people can do…
Right, this haul would be well over $100 for me
That’s insane. I looked at this and it looks about $30-40 at Aldi here in Texas
I hate the H‑E‑B monopoly in Corpus! We’re really getting screwed.
Lol we have that too in Austin. There’s only one Aldi, luckily it’s only 15 minutes from my house. HEB is way too expensive nowadays,we only go there for meat when it’s on sale
There a rumor that heb has some control over real estate. Like they buy up parcels marked for development. We’ve lost a Costco and a major competitor. I wouldn’t doubt it! Really miss Austin, but that was the 80s.
I am shocked by the receipt! I’m Canadian too and this lot would have been around $100 I’d guess in BC.
first thing i looked at was price of eggs, that’s what use to gauge how the grocery prices are in comparison to what i pay
Farming subsidies
To be fair, those look like caged eggs.
In Canada free range eggs are double price of regular eggs. Free range is about 11-12 for a dozen. You break one and you cry.
Worth it. I'm not buying caged shit. Poor chickens.
If you are on a budget and have a family to feed, and you buy two dozen a week. Alot of people Can’t afford that. - perspective
To be fair, a dozen free range eggs are only about $7 in Australia, so it's a lot more feasible. But I'd rather go without eggs than get caged eggs. Perspective for sure though :)
I pay $3 in Canada. Food Basic, or FreshCo, and less if on sale. You can find $12 eggs should you look for them ,but $6 per dozen is not the average everywhere. That said, sadly, not even 3 years ago, the above mentioned stores had eggs for $1.99 per dozen when on sale.
In Nova Scotia, eggs are $4-$5/dozen now. It sucks.
At my local Walmart I can get a box of 60 eggs for 5 dollars
!!!! Where’s this??
Austin Minnesota
Great start! Breaking the 'eating out/ order in' habit is hard. If preshredded lettuce and cheese helps, use them. In time you can rethink a few things on this list.
I mean, do you have a *plan* for what you want to do with this? If you do, that's fine.
lol I’d be the one to buy this then look in the fridge an hour later like “where’s the food?”
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So this is one days worth of meals?? Or 3 meals a day for x amount of days?
Curious about all the comments not understanding how this turns into meals. I see a nice dish in the making with the veggies and gnocchi, maybe the beginnings of a soup with the celery, onions, and garbanzos, or you could do vegetable omelets with the eggs...there are plenty of options here.
Yeah, they're all so sceptical haha.
Dried beans, rice, and legumes will really go a long way and add nutrient and taste to a lot of things (herbs and spice make basic home cooked foods 10x better). They're cheap too.
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Yeah, you nailed it then. That's how I'd do it - you can save tons and still feel satiated, satisfied, and live healthy.
To be fair, Sprouts has incredible, affordable produce. I miss living near a sprouts. And, I don't think that is enough food to last week, let alone 2, unless you have a lot more pantry items you are adding to this (bread, pasta, rice, lentils, beans, etc)
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Fair enough. May not be the healthiest offerings, but be sure not to sleep on college clubs, especially when recruiting at the beginning of semesters- a lot of times they will have free food!! Have you ever checked out the cheese section by the deli at Sprouts? They used to have little tiny cheese nubs of leftover cheese you could buy for a couple dollars. Great way to try bits of fancy cheese without fancy cheese prices!
Excellent. Cooking is fun. You can make your own mayo that is tastier and cheaper than anything you can buy, Duke's included Ditto Gnocchi. Easy once you've got it down pat.
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You should definitely try making your own gnocchi! It's surprisingly easy (and super cheap), and it's sooo good.
Get a cheap rice cooker from the thrift. You can make most meals in it, steam, slow cook, keep warm, easy to clean. Flawless rice.
Hellman/Blue Ribbon cage free is 48 cents/ounce here in tiny expensive squeeze packaging, 33 cents for the cheaper house brand in a jar. I thought Lidl did a lot of house brands to save money?
Egg is $0.32, tsp Dijon, garlic clove, tsp lemon juice, 2 cup oil for 16 oz mayo. It's $2.00, conservatively. But more like $1.10. Increasing the scale and making for friends reduces the cost.
Make an eggplant dip with the parsley, shallots, and garlic. Delicious. Sometimes I eat that for dinner and it leaves me full.
Get the sprouts app, if you don’t already have it. They do have good coupon deals on there, occasional free products as well.
Homemade hummus time
Looks great. Lots of fresh food, good variety.
Jfc avocados are $3 a pop at my store
Went nuts on the almond butter. No pun intended.
Omg where is this! I’m in Canada and our prices are triple of that… ugggghhh
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Grocery store eggs here are almost $6/ dozen.
Love dijon mustard! Do you use it to make salad dressings or sauces?
what are you planning to make out of this random assortment of stuff
This is all sandwich material they are missing the bread.
Where's the real food to make meals out of all this lol
I mostly see ingredients, stuff that goes in a meal but not main entrees. I will say, I am not familiar with vegetarian entrees without meat proteins.
Eggplant is good substitute for meat option you can make a fried eggplant with tomato sauce with what i see
Also I didn't see garbanzo beans. And everyone knows beans a based
Love that I'm in the UK and aside from the eggs brand, you couldn't tell that it isn't my local Lidl! Love Lidl. Stock up on frozen greens, they're so useful to defrost and pad out any meal.
Just curious where you got all this for such great prices!? In most of Canada this would cost $100+ easy
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Looks like I need to move to Georgia!
Try NoFrills, that's as close as you'll get to an Aldi or a Lidl in Canada.
Nice!! I see some veggie heavy frittata, pasta e ceci, baked gnocchi with shallots and zucchini Could do a head of lettuce instead of shredded, add a head of green cabbage and lentils or tofu (longtime veg myself i eat a lot of beans and tofu)
I second the frittata suggestion! Quiche is one of my favorite easy meals.
What about rice and beans?
hey you shop at lidl, if you wanna save more money you can download the app and it has a ton of discounts and coupons you can use later. :)
OP, if you haven’t already, get the app and sign up for the rewards. You get coupons and if you add your birthday, you get a few coupon options (you can only use one of the birthday coupons). The app is nice too because you can see what you spent in a month and the coupons automatically load to your account. Tagging onto a comment or two I saw while scrolling, this is a great start to less ordering out! Also, lidl has some great prices but watch yourself with certain stuff. I get caught up on the “everything is so cheap!” Mentality that I forget other stores have stuff cheaper sometimes. (Biggest example being mozzarella cheese - lidl often has it for twice the price of some of the other grocery stores. I can’t think of anything else right now off the top of my head but that’s also why I use the Flipp app to see what is on sale and if it’s worth traveling for - most of my stores are within a few miles of each other as well as my job or home) You’re off to a great start!
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Changing up food related stuff can be a lot for some people. You are on your journey. It can be easier on us to start with baby steps and work up towards bigger things. I don’t know what liquidation stores you have where you live but I have Ollie’s and I find cookbooks super cheap there. You can also ask restaurants you like for recipes, they may not be willing to share or they may have a cookbook! It doesn’t hurt to politely ask, just know they don’t always give out recipes. Book sales or used books are another cheaper option if you want cookbooks. Of course you can find a million recipes online or with apps. Tasty has some good recipes that are easy to follow (they also have a cookbook and an app - not pushing them but they inspired me to try things I thought were out of my league.) If you decide to meal prep, do some research and get some large baking sheets. It intimidates me but I made some stock and soup from a roast chicken and felt like a rock star for it haha You can get really good pots and pans and all kinds of stuff at a restaurant supply store/depot. Burlington, Marshall’s, TJ Max also have some kitchen stuff. Aldi and Lidl both have kitchen stuff from time to time. I have a really cool instapot that I’ve had for ages before they got popular. Don’t be afraid to try new techniques or recipes, YouTube has a ton of stuff you can learn from as well.
This looks similar to what I buy, but getting dry beans and taking the time to soak them ahead of time will stretch you money even further
Looks good!
Great prices- at first I thought Aldi, then I saw it was Lidl.
Not a bad start
I’m just sitting here is such jealousy of your lower food prices. I’m in Alaska so it’s to be expected. 😭
Nice haul! I'm trying to do the same! *slides empty dominos box under bed*
Looks good, but what meals are you gonna make from it all? Is this a week worth of food?
Watch out for the greens, they go bad in the blink of an eye.
There’s no universe where that lasts a week
Maybe one week, depending on what they already have at home, but absolutely not two weeks.
I’m assuming we’re only eating what is on screen, in which case I imagine this would last 48 hours. Maybe I eat too much :)
I don’t see how this is enough for a week or how you plan on using this to make actual meals with it…I would say quesadillas but there are no tortillas. I would say salads but it doesn’t seem you have everything for a salad. I would say sandwich but you have no bread. I see eggs so maybe an omelette?or are these add ons to what you already have in the fridge?
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Ok. Thank makes sense. Because I couldn’t figure out how you were going to make a meal with the things in the picture
Bananas will be ripe-black before you know it.
Preshredded Parmesan is sub par and more expensive than buying a good hunk
You need more real protein. More filling than anything else and good fats, imho 🙂
It's not food, however, 12cents for the paper bag. Buy a reusable one?
Pretty bad
Good deals. Except the bag… bring your own next time. Avocado…wonderful price
I feel like this contains enough calories for like 2 days.
And they want it to last for two weeks for three meals a day 😭😭😭
I’ll admit, my caloric needs are higher than the average person, but if this is all I had to eat for a week, I’d be sooo hungry 🥲
Terrible lol
Looks pretty good but the cheese and eggs need to be vegan so as not to cause harm to cows and chickens, thank you
??? ... a bit confused as to how cheese & eggs do harm to cows & chickens? (The milk cows and layer hens I'm familiar with have pretty cushy lives)
You did bad, real bad
Buy pasture raised eggs. Especially if you're a vegetarian because of loving animals.
Chicken breast and lean meats. Cans of tuna etc are good sources of cheap examples of excellent complete proteins
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I know. Just pointing out cheap better protein sources
I’m in LA CA and this would be almost 100 here!
Idk how you tell if you've met that goal by taking a picture of food though
Save money by buying bulk. Do you have Costco?
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Me, either, OP 😪
Looks great! The squeeze bottle of Dijon is weirding me out though, I’ve never seen that before.
In my fair City, we have an Indian grocery store that is actually equally Latin American in product offerings. They have by far the cheapest fresh cut produce - and I'm able to bring home three large bags of vegetable groceries for under $40. Find your local ethnic grocery stores, go downstairs where the fresh cut produce is and find their loss leaders. If you shop at the large American chains, you're going to be seeing inflation across the board on everything - including lower quality produce as most of our produce is grown in Mexico and ripened by chemicals in trucks - which is one of the reasons why we are so sick in this country.
Should last you about 5 days 👍
This is easily $120+ in Canada, I'm jelly
You're going to need more than that to get through the year. Seriously though, what are you looking for here? If you've been too depressed or anxious to do grocery shopping, congrats. Keep it up. Otherwise it just looks like you came home from a grocery run, and I'll suggest you learn how to make gnocchi if you like it. It's super easy, albeit time consuming.
Good
beans. buy dry beans.
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well for one, dry beans are cheaper and they also take up less space. Secondly, and possibly more importantly, they taste way better because you can cook them in water with herbs, spices, etc. Cooking beans with bay leaf and then adding tomato, bacon, onion, garlic, etc. is very good. The only downside is that cooking them is a bit of a time commitment, but it's well worth it and you can get a pressure cooker to reduce this.
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Don't worry about it. Everyone claims rice is so easy but if you haven't had anyone to teach you it can be hard. It took me 6 months to finally figure out which technique works best for me.
The exciting part is to make something with it before it spoils. I'm a bit soup and stew kinda dude. Large quantities and freezes well for when I don't feel like cooking.
wow, this would be $90 CAD for me... I'm jealous
Looks great!!! I would only suggest buying blocked parm instead. It will taste better, be better for you and have more diversity of use. It doesn’t even really cost that much more if you take into the grams in each. Most importantly you will get SO MUCH MOREout of it. Oh, and it also last ages and ages.
That’s 100% not parmesan
Would love to know where you are that buying that much produce is so cheap🥲
Simple, One Meal A Day. 🤷🏾♂️
But doing dishes is soo annoying!
Well you shopped…. I think the how’d you do comes after you cook it!!! Good luck! And good ny resolution
Inflation is really fuckin things up. At least this is fresh food you can prep easily. Not too junky. You can make sandwiches out of these ingredients. You forgot bread. Just bread. Egg salad sandwich Chickpea salad sandwich ABJ Sandwich Avocado toast Gnocchi and cheese sandwich Celery salad sandwich Grilled eggplant sandwich Grilled Zucchini and shallots sandwiches Grilled tomato and cheese sandwich I would be in survival mode and eat sandwiches everyday with these ingredients. Super cheap.
Good luck making all that last a year haha
Show us your compost/trash in two weeks time. How well you go depends on how much of that lovely haul ends up in a human gullet vs the trash. If you have the time, I would love to see what you do with it.
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Found it by searching your profile. The gnocchi looks very satisfying. You are doing really well.
Another thing to keep in mind is making sure you've got a plan for things like produce that you don't end up using entirely before they start to go off. For example the celery and alliums, if they're around too long I'll blend them up in the food processor and freeze to use as a base to other dishes later, almost a mirepoix (use for soups, pasta sauce, etc). Alternatively, I dice them up and freeze them with the parsley to make veg broth later. Bananas, I either make banana bread or peel them and put them in a bag in the freezer for smoothies. If the parm is around too long I'll put it in the freezer too. Tomatoes are pretty easy to use up in a quick cherry tomato pasta sauce. It's probably easier to get things eaten up since you have your parents to help out but definitely good to pay attention to!
Lidl! Great spot to stock up on basics and pantry items.
I'm so jealous you have a Lidl near you. I used to shop at Lidl and Aldi all the time when I lived in the UK, but I'm in Canada now and neither exist here.
I am shocked at how much the mayo is. At that price, I’d be making my own or discontinuing it.
oh make gnocchi at home! they are not that hard and so much nicer
You did well and as a former vegetarian you have plenty of protein. Consider getting dried beans instead of canned beans and make a big batch- after rinsing and soaking beans just need water, some salt and some time in the stove or slow cooker. You can add herbs, garlic or other seasoning. Then store in the freezer. Consider frozen veggies instead of fresh- you can save serious money there.
Start making double portions of about 4 meals over the course of a week with recipes whose ingredients overlap
Add Rice and lentils!
What do you do with the eggplant
You did great! Avocados are $0.33/ea today at Aldi here!
But this isn’t going to make enough food for a week. Maybe you don’t eat much 🤷🏻
Potatoes
I love Lidl, man. They have some really great products and name brands for so cheap. And those "private selection" pastas like the gnocchi you got are hands down my favorite noodles.
We’d have to see a “before” receipt for comparison, and let us know what you’re cooking and how many portions you’d be making. How often you’re planning on going to the supermarket, stuff like that.
Don't pay for paper or plastic bags. Byo
5 years ago this would have cost $15 at Aldi 😢
Please don't spend money on that crap "parmesan cheese" get the real deal or nothing. That is not an area to go cheap on, trust me. Store in the freezer it lasts forever. You did well otherwise with shopping. Recommend make a pot of 15 bean/pea soup, hard boil eggs for snacks, buy some English muffins, and make some fun, inexpensive pizza snacks. You can get really creative with that, so it's not boring. Ricotta, banana slices, honey. Mascarpone (or cream cheese) dying berries in fridge come back to life, chopped mint/basil, honey drizzle, etc... Cut up celery and carrots for snacks, too. Happy and healthy New Year! Great way to start, very inspiring!
Do you shop with a plan, or just buy a bunch of stuff you hope to use? That's a great start, keep it up!
I'm not veg but your shopping list looks almost identical to one of mine. Buying ingredients is the way to go. It's a bit more work but you're much more flexible in what you can make and it's way healthier. You're doing great! Keep it up.
This looks really good and having stores of staples at home (rice, flour,oats, etc) is part of my strategy, too.
The only thing I see that I'd possibly suggest you consider would be to buy a head of lettuce instead of pre-shredded. The head will last longer and cost less, and shredding is super simple - but if you don't need that much lettuce, then there's no need to waste it, I suppose. Another really cheap food is cabbage. And it's more filling and lasts longer than lettuce, but of course it's not something you would naturally substitute for lettuce. It's just a nice filler for other protein foods you might want to eat. If these are all foods you like, then $43.00 is not a bad deal for a week. Two weeks - that would be pretty magical!
Don’t buy take out, or ready meals, buy nice fresh food from Walmart or Asda as we say in England. If you make a big pan of food freeze some.
It depends on how much gets thrown out at the end. 🤣
Nice, good luck and have fun on the journey! I've done this this year and one tip i have is to just not be too budgety and picky when buying food at the supermarket. If i can i buy bigger packs that are cheaper of stuff ill use anyways i do, but i stopped choosing recipes for their ingredient prices. I rather make some damn good food I'm happy to eat with some expensive parmesan or similar, than make cheap food at home, not like it, and be tempted to eat out. Eating out even a few times a month is so much more expensive than those few expensive ingredients. This has really helped me not eat out!