Who here is living with $700 a month on food? Article states that's some kind of average. I think I spend $110 for 2 days right now... Just myself and wife no kids in California.
I have a family of 4 and I can feed the entire family for one meal for $10. For example, pasta ($2), sauce ($3), and a protein ($5). Rice ($1), protein ($5), and a veggie ($4). For breakfast, milk ($1) and cereal ($1).
On the other hand I took the family out to sushi yesterday which cost $100 and was admittedly more delicious than a home-cooked pasta meal.
The main thing I’ve found with food prices is how processed you buy - the simpler the ingredients you use, likely the cheaper overall you’ll be. This isn’t always the case (I’m pretty sure I can buy sauce for less than buying the component parts) but you can easily hit $20-30 a day per person and still feel you’re “cooking at home”.
Buy ingredients. Not ready-to-eat, highly processed foods.
Where possible, buy from local producers (directly from farmer, bakery on the corner) rather than big box store.
Like dried beans: soak overnight, cook, add some veggies & spices, enjoy.
Tastier & cheaper than canned food.
But for things like meat, you’ll never get small farm steak for cheaper than Walmart or Aldi - because the cows aren’t shoved in intensive dense cages. But the price will beat similar quality meats.
The other key is learning to cook what is “in season” (see https://www.saltfatacidheat.com/ for general advice) - there’s a short period locally where strawberries become almost free. Get in tune with the seasons and eat the appropriate foods and your bills drop precipitously.
Sure, you won’t eat strawberries in winter because you’re not having them shipped from Brazil, but you’ll also get a varied table.
The other main thing I would say is get used to eating ugly foods. A local farmer can give you “factory seconds” - plants that are perfectly fine but LOOK bad - for cheap.
Also keep an eye on waste - buying fifty pounds of potatoes for cheap from Costco is NOT a deal if half of them end up going to seed; getting a feel for how much you will actually use and not throw away brings the costs down further. Otherwise you’re throwing money directly in the trash (or compost pile, if you’re cooking at home you should be composting because soon you’ll be wanting to grow your own, even if it’s just herbs).
The trade off for buying less and less processed ingredients is spending more time to prepare them. I like to be on the side of “more time less processed food” but with two kids we are only able to accomplish that by having parents or a nanny live with us.
Interestingly, a Safeway 5 miles from there seems to have prices that run about 180% of those at WinCo, and it has plenty of customers. I worry sometimes that WinCo will find out. :)
And that $500-$600 per month is not really trying to squeeze every dollar. We could knock off another $100-150 if we absolutely had to by replacing some of the more expensive items with cheaper, but still healthy options.