General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Americans are choking on surging fast-food prices. "I can't justify the expense," one customer says [View all]NJCher
(36,092 posts)I still buy food at 2022 prices at the supermarkets, though. I just peruse the sale ads. I have a good stock of food at home and grow most of my fresh produce. I have a spreadsheet where I keep track of my best prices and where I got them. This is kind of a hobby with me. This is how I know I am still buying at 2022 prices, sometimes even lower.
Here are some example prices:
Supermarket kombucha: anywhere from $2.50 for their house brand on sale to $4 or nearly $5. I laugh when I see this. It's just fermented tea, for Dog's sake.
Aldi kombucha: very good stuff for $2.24. Numerous flavors.
Best deal is to make it yourself, though. It's fun experimenting with flavors. The fermentation process is also interesting. I'm on a kombucha forum and we have a lot of fun sharing information about our passion, kombucha.
OK, here are some other prices:
Aldi cottage cheese, lg size: $2.25. Supermarket: $4.39.
Supermarket canned pears: $1.99, Aldi $1.49.
Supermarket crackers $3.49. Aldi $1.99 or less.
Lidl, a company without the integrity of Aldi, has good buys but not as good as Aldi. Sometimes they're fun to shop.
Where I live we have an Aldi and a Korean greengrocer, very large store, in proximity. Next to the greengrocer a Lidl is opening. I've got it made for competitive pricing.
My mom taught me all about shopping and planning menus based on sale ads. Whatever was on sale, that's what we were having for dinner. She showed me how to do it. She had quite the pantry where she would stock up on good buys, and so do I.
The standard sale price is 20% off. When she taught me how to do this, she asked me, "Do you want to be one of those people for whom life is 20% more?"