Market Friday Story :The Cost Of Groceries And Healthy Eating During Greedflation
Does your grocery shopping habit change during greedflation?
I notice that people have been talking about the rising cost of food and general goods. This phenomenon seems to have been happening globally and for some of us is affecting the way we shop and do groceries. I particularly don’t follow much of the price of food but for all I know, eggs are among the few staple foods that I follow. For example, last year, the price of a carton egg was hovering around 17000IDR and now it’s around 22000 and even 27000 in some places. Last Friday, I went to the grocery doing my weekly runs and noticed that now, $50 isn’t quite enough to feed 3-4 persons at home as I live with my mom, grandma , and my cousins. In the past, that much money was able to fill up my cart with a lot of things but now to maintain a healthy eating, balanced carb, protein, and vitamins, I have to think twice when doing my grocery shopping.
Unlike in the past where I did not bother to count my groceries or make notes, these days I make sure to stick with a budget. The most common staple in our house is rice but for me, since I don’t eat them too often, it sort of helped with my budget. We don’t necessarily buy the bigger sack but smaller ones that would be enough for a week. My favorite thing to do when grocery shopping is seeing the fresh sections.
To stretch the money and make sure we are all having some sort of veggies and fruits, the store has this cut up section of fruits that costs a fraction of what I could buy. In our house, we are taught to buy enough and not too much as it could lead to waste. So buying these multiple smaller cut up veggies will give us not only variety but also avoiding waste.
This grocery shopping is great when it comes to fresh vegetables and meat. The meat is hygienic and is neatly arranged and presented. For my family, we also like to buy a whole chicken and a few pounds of meat. Usually my mom would come up with a meal plan and so do I. What I eat is the most different compared to the other family members here and honestly, I swapped a little bit of my protein. In the past, I could eat steak almost everyday as I also trained at the gym but now, it’s only 2-3 times a week with chicken as my other variety. And like I said, $50 isn’t filling up my cart anymore like it used to.
In this store, they also have ready meals and it always looks scrumptious. I usually buy the smaller fish that I eat as a snack. They cost less than $1 so it’s fine and it includes in my snack budgeting as even though I don’t eat, I still snack on protein or fish most of the time. I think budgeting really helps and living with my family not only help me save but also gives me a sense of how much things cost and a bit more responsibility in comparison to when I was living alone. I simply gave my mom enough money to eat for a week and for me,I would simply order. Everything is certainly quadruple more expensive but since living with them again, it was nice to know how much things actually cost and realistically how much we all need to eat. During this potential inflation and greedflation, I have told my mom that though we need to save up more, eating healthier is something we can not sacrifice. I personally cut some of my “fun” expenses and allocated more to savings and healthy eating recently. I also shop even more mindfully and also stick to some sort of budget instead of going overboard.
Another way of combating this is that I told my mom that we’ll be growing a few basic vegetables and spices. It’s nice to have a small patch that would help us cut costs on spices. We already have some basic spices in our garden but we certainly need more, especially these days. All in all, I think that my personal shopping habit changed quite a bit in terms of things that I buy and swap for more reasonable options. What about you? Do you make some adjustments too?
This post was also written inspired from @phoenixwren. I left a comment on her post and I ranted away because it resonated with me & today, I am also sharing my experiences with it.
 | 𝘔𝘢𝘤 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘫𝘢 & 𝘤𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘶𝘳 . 𝘈 𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦, 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴, 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨, 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦. 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴, 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘴, 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴, 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵. 𝘖𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘣𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘯, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘪𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺. 𝘚𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘤𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴. 𝘍𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘫𝘰𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯! 𝘋𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘱𝘷𝘰𝘵𝘦, 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬. 𝘈 𝘳𝘦-𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘰. |
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Feeling the pinch here in the US too. Prices are crazy, everything I buy has almost doubled or even tripled in some cases.
yeah, I heard about that to be the case. It's insane but it's global phenomenon now. I don't know how long this will last but hopefully, not for long. As that would suck.
The inflation has been affecting us here in my country too. And I could not agree more with the fact you mentioned that way back, we could just grab anything without looking for its price. But now, we gotta stick to a tight budget.
I have heard layoffs happening too and that would make it even more challenging for some. What are your shopping strategy these days?
Here in Nigeria, the inflation has been hitting us badly as well. Atimes I wake up to see some people at the gate begging for food. Things are just high, even the egg 🥚 you talked about is like 4 times the old price now as well. The best thing is just to spend within our budget, cut off some things which are not too important and focus on healthy living.
I heard chicken is also sold at higher price too. It's definitely insane how cost have gone up but globally, I think many people have expected this. And yeah, cutting some unnecessary budget would help.
Yeah eggs here are about double what they were a year ago! I see it with cat food too, Yuan's crunchy food used to be $20 for the small bag and $36 for the large bag; now the small bag is $33 and I don't even know what the large bag is. A case of big cans of wet food for him used to be around $35 and now it's around $55.
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Oh wow, that's pretty significant change. I don't know if this year things will improve but hopefully!
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BEER.The price of everything goes up astronomically high here in the Philippines. Eggs are also part of the staple diet that we had but due to avian flu that is rampant, the price of one small egg almost doubled. Aside from that inflation rate last year ended at 8% which was the highest than the target that the government had (2% was the goal).
As someone who goes to the market almost every other day, budgeting and buying goods became a challenge. More often than not, I just lessen the weight of the things that I bought originally. Some alternative products, though may be cheaper don't go on par with the quality that we are expecting.
Thanks to some farm folks here in Hive @jhero and @eunoia101 I got interested in growing vegetables too. I am thinking about what I can plant in the small backyard of our home nowadays.
I heard of Avian flu but didn't realize it's a thing. I haven't seen the news much lately as I've been resting and being busy. It's just sad that we have come to this situation. And yes, through both @jhero and @eunoia101, I learned a bit of gardening and also homesteading. I certainly can't be on their level but their knowledge have helped me too!
I dont know where are you from but its crazy how vegetables are day by day closing the price gap with meat. Counting that produce meat is far more expensive!
Then i realize that big markets are pretty good at his vegs but with time i found that stores dedicated to fruit are much better in all ways! For example you can choose the country where those grow, for example the bananas from Ecuador are far better than any other country! More sweet and tasty, and in fact the prize uses to be lower than in big markets.
With eggs and meat is the same, local shops have better cuts of meat and sometimes better prices on eggs
I learned that there are different grades of eggs. But i stop, there is just to much information to decide for a meal haha
But somehow i dont go anymore to big markets, not that they are bad. But i think that local little markets have much more to offer and some times in a better price. Except for milk and big manufacture as cookies, those are the things i found at better price on big supermarkets.
Thanks for sharing!
Everywhere has gone up, some places more than others. My mom and dad raised nine kids and I can't even imagine what it would be like to raise all those kids today!
Our eggs have doubled and some places tripled in price. I am in the Washington, DC area and I think some things are just more expensive here, but, it seems everyone is suffering the tight squeeze. Meat is astronomical now, especially beef. My chicken is actually a little cheaper, but, I buy it from a small butcher. Vegetables are expensive, but, I now get it at the farmer's markets and even though it is not cheaper, I am supporting the small farmer AND I know it is fresh.
There are four of us at home, and my grocery bill is much higher. I am more mindful of my spending and I do make a weekly plan so I know what I need, this also prevents waste. I thnk what you are doing is awesome and it is a big adjustment to reallocate how the food is being used.
I find it interesting to compare, not by the world's standards, but, by how we find the quality of our life with different indicators than the world does. It is not always about the wealth in money, sometimes money means very little when there is no value behind it. You cannot buy health although you can take care of what you have. Being educated isn't always about schooling, but acquiring knowledge and using it for the better good and happiness of the society you are living in. It is with great pleasure that I read through this and all of the posts, with these thoughts in mind.
Don't miss the small things in your life, they usually make no noise but can be indicators of bigger things. I enjoy learning more about you and hope you feel the same. I hope you are having an amazing week!
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