Can we talk about grocery prices? Who wants to guess $

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

DH and I just went to Aldi this afternoon to pick up a few things. We spent $38 for 19 items. It probably would have been at least $60 if not more at Shoprite and forget it at Acme (there it would probably be close to double). Completely agree that we can't do all our shopping there and we aren't particularly fond of most of the produce. And it definitely is frustrating when you find something you really like and then it's not there the next several times you go. We go at least once a month but shoot for every other week since there are some staples that are considerably cheaper there.

 

[snowwite]

I agree. I'm in PA and when I shop at Wegmans, my groceries is about the same price as when I shop at Weis. But the quality and variety of fresh produce is way better at Wegmans. I go to Weis more often because it's only 2 miles away whereas the closest Wegmans is about 15 miles away. If there was a Wegmans within 5-7 miles, I'd shop there all the time.

I'm constantly baffled at how I used to spend about $1200/month on groceries when I had 5 kids living at home and I cooked meals 6 days a week. Now DH & I are empty nesters (for the most part -- youngest child is in college) and I'm still spending close to $1000 a month on groceries -- and that's without buying organic or high-priced meats. I buy far less meat now than when the kids were at home, but I buy far more fresh fruits and vegetables...and we go out for lunch and dinner all weekend (and eat leftovers from that for usually 2 days) so it's crazy how much a weeks worth of groceries is costing me. I usually only need to cook meals 3 or 4 days a week. Sadly, it's not cheap to eat the foods that are good for you. I looked forward to my "cheap" grocery bills once the kids moved out. HA! The joke was on me!

Yeah cost are definitely up.

 

[tvguy]

I have to admit I don't buy everything at Aldi though. I buy locally sourced chicken and beef. I stopped buying those weird giant chicken breasts a long time ago. And we buy grass fed beef. Aldi's has it but it is from Australia.. that feels weird to me. There is a local farm we chose instead.

OT, but why grass fed instead of grain fed? Just because it's cheaper?

 

[Beezle2]

OT, but why grass fed instead of grain fed? Just because it's cheaper?

It fits into keto and even though I am not strictly keto dieting anymore I still like it. I buy grass fed milk also.

 

[Beezle2]

For those of you who have shopped Costco and Samsclub, I have a question.

I am a Samsclub member and really don't have a Costco as near as the Samsclub. It's actually probably twice the distance away, maybe even more. Is Costco really that much different than Sams to make it worth the trip and membership? Just curious if I should give it a shot or not.

I think it can be. How much $$ do you usually spend per month or year at Sam? And are you getting a basic membership?

 

[TippyThomas]

I think it can be. How much $$ do you usually spend per month or year at Sam? And are you getting a basic membership?

I do the plus membership because I like to take advantage of the delivery when I can versus driving about an hour round trip to actually shop in person. Many of the things I get there aren't available for shipping and/or delivery though, so that's kinda up in the air too. I don't spend enough to make it worth having both for sure. It seems Sams is probably the best choice just based on location alone at this point.

 

[tvguy]

It fits into keto and even though I am not strictly keto dieting anymore I still like it. I buy grass fed milk also.

Thanks.

 

[Beezle2]

I do the plus membership because I like to take advantage of the delivery when I can versus driving about an hour round trip to actually shop in person. Many of the things I get there aren't available for shipping and/or delivery though, so that's kinda up in the air too. I don't spend enough to make it worth having both for sure. It seems Sams is probably the best choice just based on location alone at this point.

So Costco would be over an hour just to get to approximately? Yeah..not worth it

 

[georgina]

For those of you who have shopped Costco and Samsclub, I have a question.

I am a Samsclub member and really don't have a Costco as near as the Samsclub. It's actually probably twice the distance away, maybe even more. Is Costco really that much different than Sams to make it worth the trip and membership? Just curious if I should give it a shot or not.

There is no Sam's club near me, plus I don't like Walmart. Costco is close to me, has wine in Virginia and hard spirits in DC, and I love their soup and meat. Cheaper gas but now that we have one electric car I only fill up the other car every 2 months. DH gets glasses through Costco. I use rental car discounts and free extra driver. If you don't have one nearby, not worth it.

 

[bluezy]

That is crazy to me. I spend about $50 a week on groceries (for just myself). Maybe up to $60 once a month. I eat relatively healthy.

It feels a little crazy to me, too, but it really shows how much prices have gone up around here over the years. Kind of like how our Disney trips for the last 8 years or so have all cost generally the same amount (same resort, same tickets, same length of stay) but we've had fewer and fewer kids with us on the trips. Our trip coming up in June with 1 child is costing us about the same amount as our trip in 2016 with 3 kids. Just another example of how we were fooled into believing that as our 5 kids grew up and stopped traveling with us, the cost of our Disney trips would go down.

I could probably cut our groceries expenses down a bit if we didn't want a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables and if we were willing to buy store brand items, but we're not. And I'm really not buying anything that gets wasted or thrown away. I'm also not willing to spend $20 in gas and 4 hours of my time to drive around to various grocery stores out of the area in order to get the "cheapest" version of whatever I'm buying and save $25.

In PA I lived around the corner from an Aldi and the prices for a really wide array of organic and interesting foods were notable. The egg prices and the produce, like the bagged mini peppers were enough to keep me stopping in for a very long time. Also, the $4 fresh flowers became a habit for me such a nice way to brighten up a cold winter

I got into that habit about 5 years ago. The local HS band members were doing a fundraiser where you paid $20 for this punch card that you took to a local large-scale retail greenhouse. Every month you got something specific for free -- a seasonal potted plant, a hanging plant, a pumpkin in October, etc. It was a great deal since each item was worth $5-12+. The first month I had the card, the free item was a bouquet of fresh-cut flowers. I brought them home, cut them down, and put them in a Mason jar on my kitchen window sill. It was a very dreary January and those flowers made me soooo happy every time I looked at them. I was hooked. It's amazing how much a $5-6 bunch of flowers can brighten up a space and they usually last 2 weeks, so that's a real bargain to me. And even better, the church secretary calls me if someone doesn't come pick up the altar flowers they sponsored so I can come pick them up for myself. Free flowers is even better!

 

[NYCgrrl]

We used to shop at Costco via older sister’s membership but stopped when we cut back on entertaining. We had a membership to BJ’s for a time but dropped it for similar reasons.

I find the pay to play discount food centers worth the money for families of four or more but a waste of money for smaller households in general.

 

[LuvOrlando]

We only added Costco this past year because it seems worth it for big ticket stuff like tires, which I saved $250 on for a particular Michelin I wanted to special order and am having them put on soon. Also seems worth it for good quality meats here in Massachusetts because in most stores they are generally just so over the top expensive with lesser quality than Shoprite, with the exception of the things I like at Wegmans.

Just so you don't think I'm knocking the place I do totally love it and seafood here, which we all love is so above and beyond I often find myself wondering if the fish I used to buy in PA was even the same species, I mean it was edible but literally tastes nothing at all like fresh fish in Mass which we have all the time and the prices are the same if not better than PA for seafood.

It is tough to get used to most of the prices though, Pennsylvania is like another world in all its costs and I am reminded every time I go back. Right now I think the food costs in Massachusetts match my mortgage in PA

 

[barkley]

For those of you who have shopped Costco and Samsclub, I have a question.

I am a Samsclub member and really don't have a Costco as near as the Samsclub. It's actually probably twice the distance away, maybe even more. Is Costco really that much different than Sams to make it worth the trip and membership? Just curious if I should give it a shot or not.

we used to live where there was the 2 of them right across the street from each other. i miss samsclub b/c they had stuff costco did not like take and bake breakfast pizzas, fresh meatball subs...but what realy appealed to us was they sold items in smaller sizes so certain things we did'nt end up overstocked on.

driving about an hour round trip to actually shop in person.

i get it-ours is at least 45 minutes one way so we only go once every 2 or 3 months. when they were still doing frozen food shipping costco got allot more bsns from us.

i also have an online only membership with bj's. during the pandemic they were the only resource for a few staples (as well as some great snacks) we could find. we use it strictly for shipped orders b/c there's none in our state-ran me $20 for the membership (though you can do a one day free pass and make an order).

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

For those of you who have shopped Costco and Samsclub, I have a question.

I am a Samsclub member and really don't have a Costco as near as the Samsclub. It's actually probably twice the distance away, maybe even more. Is Costco really that much different than Sams to make it worth the trip and membership? Just curious if I should give it a shot or not.

It would be for me. But you'll have to see for yourself. They'll let you in once without a membership. Take a look around and if you like what you see get yourself a membership. If you don't, don't. Where I see a difference is anything fresh. Bakery, produce, meat, all vastly superior at Costco. Store brand is also better at Costco.

 

[DCLMP]

Costco has a lot better quality on everything especially on meat. Sam's club is cheaper for condiments, can goods, and fresh produce. I love Sam's club produce section. I think most of it local or from Mexico.

I shop at both and I have specific items that I get at both. If I had to choose one hands down Costco. Costco is also great for booking cruises. You get 8% back in a Costco card. I do the executive membership at Costco. It always ends up being free and then some. Costco has much better food court and Pizza. Costco also has a great clothing section, and better service. Overall Costco wins for me by a mile., but I like belonging to both. Both are a 10 minute drive for me.

 

[NotUrsula]

We have both memberships, and we find that each one is better for different things. We have had Sam's for decades (we first got that for diapers, but quickly started buying most of our less-perishable groceries there. We switched to Plus because our spend there justifies it for the rebates, and DH also likes to shop early in the morning.) Costco we added a few years ago to take advantage of the car rental discounts; at the time there were no stores nearby at all, but we saved so much on a single car rental that it more than paid for itself. There are now 3 Costco stores nearby, including one en route to my office. (there is also a Sam's en route there, but much closer to the house.)

What we find is that, as a general rule of thumb, Sam's works best for us in terms of food (including fresh food, especially fresh breads), while Costco is better for services and big-ticket items such as electronics, because they offer an extraordinarily good warranty on them. We routinely buy eyeglasses and tires from Costco, and use their Automotive program quite a lot. We have the regular membership there.

 

[MICKIMINI]

We doubled our food budget since c19. We went from $100 a week to $200 (2 adults). I try to shop carefully and we have a freezer/large pantry so I can buy in bulk. We've been hitting Aldi's about once a month (saved about $30 spending $130) but can't get the total amount down. If I wasn't so careful, it would likely be $300 a week. I don't know how a family can afford to eat!

I guessed your tab was around $150-175 so wow! That is crazy!

 

[NYCgrrl]

Currently, there are two food items where the prices have gone up considerably in my shopping cart: eggs and vegetables.

Most meat prices have kept up with inflation and/or demand, unfortunately.
I don’t buy prepped or pre cooked items in general so I don’t track those foods; same for frozen goods and pantry items (just too lazy to track pantry goods although I’ve noted that kosher salt price per lb has gone up substantially in the last years).

I used to pay attention to Fed and state level subsidies for dairy goods but do not anymore and wonder if any have changed. I get why vegetable prices have skyrocketed but that doesn’t keep me from grumbling, LOL

 

[LuvOrlando]

Paper products are the most jaw dropping ridiculous increase to me, that whole aisle including garbage bags.

 

[MICKIMINI]

Paper products are the most jaw dropping ridiculous increase to me, that whole aisle including garbage bags.

Paper towels are crazy though we did get a huge package on sale not too long ago with a $10 gift card back from Market Basket. Garbage bags too...I read all the cost per 100 stickers and it takes forever to figure out which is the best deal!