4 ms·

> Food is huge here I thought about that recently when I went to the grocery store - when I was fresh out of college, making ~$30k/year, I remember always goin

> Food is huge here I thought about that recently when I went to the grocery store - when I was fresh out of college, making ~$30k/year, I remember always going to the grocery store and keeping a running total in my head of how much I was spending so I didn't go over $70, since I knew my debit card would be declined if I did. Now I don't even pay attention to how much individual items cost - I just grab what I need.

legitster 4y ago
I dunno. Even when I was making minimum wage, groceries never seemed like a significant part of my budget. I never understood people trying to save 10c to get, like, the cheapest mustard possible. Compared to the big expenses (rent) food was really a small percentage of a budget, especially if you avoid stocking up on meat or alcohol. I remember being much more frustrated by friends trying to drag me out to eat at restaurants or throwing away food. Like, one sit down meal was worth three days of groceries!
- RealityVoid 4y ago
  On a really tight budget, the kind of food makes a difference. I used to be living on about 150 USD food budget a month in college (non-us). You can bet I used to eat _a lot_ of rice.
  - azmodeus 4y ago
    I remember as a student money was tight towards the end of the year and had a budget of about 1.20 USD per meal for 2 month It was not easy I rarely ate meat and only cheap meat at that. I still felt lucky as it was a temporary thing.
- TheFlyingFish 4y ago
  Living on your own vs. having a family (even just a spouse) makes a huge difference here. Feeding just-yourself vs. feeding yourself-plus-others can make the difference between "Groceries are at the bottom of my expense list" and "groceries are my second-biggest monthly expense".
Melting_Harps 4y ago
> Food is huge here Typically, this is how I measured my success as well: when I stopped looking at the prices of things and just shopped or ordered what I wanted without too much concern. (Within reason of course, because as a former cook when I want splurge it can easily hit 4 digits.) Everything else never felt as a re-assuring,; I've bought lots of cars and motorcycles, signed leases, traveled etc... over the years, but nothing made me more comfortable than knowing that the food bill wasn't going to ruin my finances for the month(s) as it used to before. I used to live on $100/month for food during university, it's partly why I decided to work in kitchens and I know I can stretch out a meal quite a lot and not lose on quality. And if it's just me, I tend to like simple meals that I can iterate upon: a ragu can turn into about 5 different dishes and all uses cheap(er) cuts of meat. But I still remember having to wait to buy things from grocery stores like yogurts or juice or pasta only when they were on special (loss leaders) and it's actually how I got a pretty good at understanding the market dynamics of a food supply's value chain, which helped when I ran kitchens and when I got into supply chain. It ultimately culminates in focusing my cuisine on farm to tables because eating in-season not only tastes the best, is more environmental, but when you're in charge of food costs in menu development you can achieve ROIs and ARRs to justify larger expenses by buying and sourcing from farms who you can count on for price breaks for other items/prioritization for other items by buying their entire harvest ahead of planting. As both a former farmer and chef, this was a huge relief and allows you to utilize capital where it's needed most without taking as many loans for repairs, labour, training, expansion etc...

legitster 4y ago

I dunno. Even when I was making minimum wage, groceries never seemed like a significant part of my budget. I never understood people trying to save 10c to get, like, the cheapest mustard possible. Compared to the big expenses (rent) food was really a small percentage of a budget, especially if you avoid stocking up on meat or alcohol. I remember being much more frustrated by friends trying to drag me out to eat at restaurants or throwing away food. Like, one sit down meal was worth three days of groceries!

RealityVoid 4y ago
On a really tight budget, the kind of food makes a difference. I used to be living on about 150 USD food budget a month in college (non-us). You can bet I used to eat _a lot_ of rice.
- azmodeus 4y ago
  I remember as a student money was tight towards the end of the year and had a budget of about 1.20 USD per meal for 2 month It was not easy I rarely ate meat and only cheap meat at that. I still felt lucky as it was a temporary thing.
TheFlyingFish 4y ago
Living on your own vs. having a family (even just a spouse) makes a huge difference here. Feeding just-yourself vs. feeding yourself-plus-others can make the difference between "Groceries are at the bottom of my expense list" and "groceries are my second-biggest monthly expense".

Melting_Harps 4y ago

> Food is huge here Typically, this is how I measured my success as well: when I stopped looking at the prices of things and just shopped or ordered what I wanted without too much concern. (Within reason of course, because as a former cook when I want splurge it can easily hit 4 digits.) Everything else never felt as a re-assuring,; I've bought lots of cars and motorcycles, signed leases, traveled etc... over the years, but nothing made me more comfortable than knowing that the food bill wasn't going to ruin my finances for the month(s) as it used to before. I used to live on $100/month for food during university, it's partly why I decided to work in kitchens and I know I can stretch out a meal quite a lot and not lose on quality. And if it's just me, I tend to like simple meals that I can iterate upon: a ragu can turn into about 5 different dishes and all uses cheap(er) cuts of meat. But I still remember having to wait to buy things from grocery stores like yogurts or juice or pasta only when they were on special (loss leaders) and it's actually how I got a pretty good at understanding the market dynamics of a food supply's value chain, which helped when I ran kitchens and when I got into supply chain. It ultimately culminates in focusing my cuisine on farm to tables because eating in-season not only tastes the best, is more environmental, but when you're in charge of food costs in menu development you can achieve ROIs and ARRs to justify larger expenses by buying and sourcing from farms who you can count on for price breaks for other items/prioritization for other items by buying their entire harvest ahead of planting. As both a former farmer and chef, this was a huge relief and allows you to utilize capital where it's needed most without taking as many loans for repairs, labour, training, expansion etc...