Also, Costco tends to have few locations and require storage of larger quantities or sharing to avoid wasting. I find the food prices in HI Costco similar to many of the CA Costco prices, but HI still trends higher.
It is not reasonable to believe that people with SNAP have access to Costco–membership, car or other transportation, storage, extra overhead to buy in bulk, etc. and I am not sure Costco even accepts SNAP.
It is interesting that some of the pictures do NOT include much in beverages while others include a lot of beverages. Similarly with preprocessed and refined foods.
Well, I only buy boneless chicken when it is on sale for $1.99 a pound. Some of my other items were partial bags, like the brown rice, the apples, and the onions. I think I did underestimate the cost of the beans, though. I buy cabbage when it is 59 cents a pound, not when it is $1.29. I stock up on canned tomatoes when they are on sale, I buy meat from the reduced area if possible and if not will buy the cheaper roasts on sale and cut them up, and so forth. I’ll buy a whole loin of pork at BJs, cut it into stir fry, chops, a roast, and make sausage out of the chain and fatty trimmings. I used to make all of our bread, which is a LOT cheaper than buying it. I save chicken trimmings in the freezer to make stock.
As for Gwyneth Paltrow: seven limes??? What an ass.
Consolation, $1.29 a pound IS a sale price for cabbage around here. It can easily be $2/pound or more otherwise. It rarely ever drops to $.59/pound. There are ways to be as economical as possible, but we can’t change the basic produce and food costs of our area. HI is a very expensive place for food and housing, period.
One thing that we find very inexpensive, is our local Thai restaurant. Now I don’t think it would be cheap enough to be in the food stamp challenge, but for about $21, we can get Thai curry, Basil chicken, and rice. It would provide about 5-6 meals for one person. If you had some rice already and whatever vegetables you have left in the frig, you could probably stretch it for another two meals. It is delicious, healthy, and has plenty of protein and vegetables. It would be much more expensive (and far worse), to make something like this on your own.
Aldi may have cheap prices, but the round trip plane ticket from San Jose to Minneapolis might eat into the savings. Plus the ice cream would melt on the way home and the frozen vegetables would get all mushy.
Well, no it wouldn’t. Not if you have access to a Thai/Cambodian/Vietnamese type market. I could make those dishes for a lot less than that, and they would be authentic. (I make my own Thai curry paste and freeze it, for example.) I would not find the typical take-out portions of those dishes enough for 5-6 meals, though.
I think Gwyneth was aiming at some either Thai or Mexican flavoring, since she also bought a bunch of cilantro.
In my experience Trader Joe’s had the best prices for cheese, by a long shot.
San Jose has Food for less. Trust me my family survived almost 2 years on very little income in the Bay Area almost 10-12 years ago. My kids didn’t know we were unemployed. I still see the shop down here near large Hispanic area like Santa Ana.
Been eating off a Costco rotisserie chicken (what do they cost, $5.99?) for a few days now. Made a salad tonight and cut up the last of the chicken, added celery and mayo and made chicken salad. Would guesstimate that we spend about $75/week at the supermarket (empty nesters) but that includes household items. Stopped by the dollar store today for some gift bags. Didn’t get any food items.
Not any more. The closest ones are in Stockton (70 miles away, on the other side of the Diablo Range) and Salinas (60 miles away and on the other side of the Santa Cruz Mountains). I guess the best options for cheap groceries in my area might be Mi Pueblo or Ranch 99, the latter a Chinese grocery chain.
I buy cabbage when it is 59 cents a pound, not when it is $1.29. I stock up on canned tomatoes when they are on sale, I buy meat from the reduced area if possible and if not will buy the cheaper roasts on sale and cut them up, and so forth. I’ll buy a whole loin of pork at BJs, cut it into stir fry, chops, a roast, and make sausage out of the chain and fatty trimmings. I used to make all of our bread, which is a LOT cheaper than buying it. I save chicken trimmings in the freezer to make stock.