Eating well while dodging inflation

[FireLane]

I was reading this report from the New York comptroller's office about how much the average NYC household spends on food:

https://www.osc.ny.gov/files/reports/osdc/pdf/report-2-2026.pdf

The report talks about how COVID, bird flu, the Ukraine war, and now tariffs have had an inflationary effect on prices. It says the overall food price index in NYC has risen 25.2% since 2018-2019.

I found this interesting, because I track all my spending and I have records going back that far. When I look at what I spent on groceries:

2018: 7019.37
2019: 7052.48
2020: 7651.87
2021: 6903.55
2022: 7539.61
2023: 7096.58
2024: 7323.10

Where's all that inflation I'm supposed to be suffering from? My food costs have been flat since 2018!

My total spending bounces around near $7000. For my household of two adults and a growing child, that's about $2.13 per meal.

There's no real trend in the numbers. My cheapest year, 2021, was right after my most expensive year, 2020.

In fact, I've got a shot at beating my own record. So far in 2025, I've spent $2260 on food. If you extrapolate that, my grocery spending for the year should come out to $6780, which would be the lowest number yet. It's because I started shopping at Lidl, which is incredibly cheap.

I wouldn't describe myself as hardcore frugal, either. In fact, I consider this an extravagant budget. I don't deprive myself and I don't eat rice and beans for every meal (although there's nothing wrong with rice and beans).

I eat a diverse and balanced diet with lots of fresh fruit and salads, organic and fair-trade products when I can get them, exotic spices and olive oils, and luxury foods like salmon at least once a month. Plus, Mrs. FL has some special dietary needs and my son is going through a picky-eating phase, both of which I have to make allowances for.

I haven't been making any special effort to change what I buy to avoid inflation. But somehow, my spending hasn't gone up. I have to assume that most of the price increases have been hitting luxury foods like beef (which I rarely eat), prepackaged convenience foods (which I almost never eat), or name-brand goods, since I usually buy store brands.

The other possibility is that prices are increasing in food deserts where there's little competition. My neighborhood has at least five supermarkets within easy driving distance, and the competition keeps prices down.

[Tasse]

Our numbers are extremely close to yours. My records only go back to June 2023, but we spend an average of $379/month, or $4548 annualized, for two people. Comes out to $2.08 per meal, although that's a bit lower than realistic since we're ignoring restaurant meals.

We prioritize walking to the grocery store over price comparison, so I'm sure we could be doing better if we shopped around. But the simplicity, plus sunlight and leg-stretching, of going to the place that's half a mile away beats that financial optimization in my book.

I think our numbers have gone up since we moved last year; we were closer to $350/month before, and we hit $400 more often after. It's hard to say whether that's inflation or just due to the change in primary grocery store, though.

Also, I live in a LCOL area and you live in NYC, so I think your number is considerably more impressive!

[clarkfan1979]

I change my spending habits based on price, so I haven't really experienced much inflation. I have experienced some, but probably less than the average consumer. I have moved to different parts of the country over the years, so it's not a true apples to apples comparison (pun intended), but here are some of things that I remember.

I remember not buying chicken when I lived in California 1998-2006 because it was $5.99 pound. I now buy chicken breast in Colorado for $2.79 pound in 2025. I remember paying $3.99 for a gallon of gas for about two years (2004 to 2006). I now pay $2.79 in Colorado for a gallon of gas in 2025.

I remember paying $2.50 pound for honeycrisp apples when I lived in Florida 2011 to 2015. I now pay $1.82 pound for honeycrisp apples in 2025.

I remember not buying mushrooms when I lived in Hawaii full-time (2015 to 2019) because they were $7.99 pound, even at Costco. However, I bought tons of Ahi Tuna on sale for $4.99 pound. I now buy mushrooms for $2.67 pound and Ahi Tuna for $7.75 pound in Colorado in 2025. 

Our numbers are extremely close to yours. My records only go back to June 2023, but we spend an average of $379/month, or $4548 annualized, for two people. Comes out to $2.08 per meal, although that's a bit lower than realistic since we're ignoring restaurant meals.

We prioritize walking to the grocery store over price comparison, so I'm sure we could be doing better if we shopped around. But the simplicity, plus sunlight and leg-stretching, of going to the place that's half a mile away beats that financial optimization in my book.

I think our numbers have gone up since we moved last year; we were closer to $350/month before, and we hit $400 more often after. It's hard to say whether that's inflation or just due to the change in primary grocery store, though.

Also, I live in a LCOL area and you live in NYC, so I think your number is considerably more impressive!

[GuitarStv]

I dunno.  Granted, I'm Canadian, but I've noticed a pretty obvious increase in the price of cheese, fresh fruit, bread, milk, eggs, and meat in the last while.  We live in Toronto and have access to multiple supermarkets in a relatively close range (including some ethnic grocery stores that occasionally have crazy good deals) and it's still possible to get stuff at discount and shop around for the cheapest prices . . . but around here at least the sales prices are close to where the regular prices were five years ago.  Our yearly food prices have slowly inched up over the years - probably around 20 or so percent higher at this point . . . and we have definitely changed the things that we buy in favour of more cost effective choices over that period because of prices.

[Zikoris]

Our grocery spending here in Vancouver (two adults) has been:

2024: $5,042
2023: $5,069
2022: $4,666
2021: $4,661
2020: $4,132

There's been a bit of an increase, but I'd argue it's mostly due to bad habits versus inherent price increases. Also, we've gradually started including more things under groceries that we used to split out because fuck it. Our grocery spending includes quite a bit of non-food items now.

[FireLane]

Our numbers are extremely close to yours. My records only go back to June 2023, but we spend an average of $379/month, or $4548 annualized, for two people. Comes out to $2.08 per meal, although that's a bit lower than realistic since we're ignoring restaurant meals.

Same here. In fairness, the numbers I gave are just for grocery stores. My restaurant spending is a lot more variable. Most months I try to keep it low, but occasionally I'll have a date night at a nice restaurant, and when I travel, I eat out for most meals. Mrs. FL also visits her mom at least once a week and usually buys lunch for both of them.

I don't think it affects the per-meal average by much, since it's such a small percentage of the total meals I eat.

Also, I live in a LCOL area and you live in NYC, so I think your number is considerably more impressive!

Thanks!

I think the secret of NYC is that you can spend any amount of money you want. There are great deals at Costco, Lidl, ethnic grocery stores... or you can go to Whole Foods or the luxury hipster market and spend $50 for a bottle of cucumber water and a slice of cheese.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@clarkfan1979 - where were you shopping in California to see $5.99/lb for chicken? I pay about 1/2 that, 20 years later. 

[J.P. MoreGains]

I think you numbers look good in the $600 range per month. I think you can eat well off of that for a family provided you cook and plan a little.

Like you say... name brands, pre-packaged food, luxury items are more expensive.

Everything is always so expensive until you plan for it.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

To answer the main thread question, our grocery bill has gone up substantially over the past 7 or so years, but I have an 18 & 19 year old, and they eat a lot. I expected a bigger drop in groceries this year when the 19 year old was away at school. However, the 18 year old is very, very social & we host his friends a significant amount. This is a cost I'm more than willing to pay. He's a senior, and next year will be away at school. I've loved the past few years of getting to know his friend group more, and having them over is our pleasure. But, it definitely adds cost.

At some point, I'll be able to unpack our actual grocery spending, but it will inevitably be dropping without the kids home. SO, no good benchmark.

[jsap819]

We've also been tracking our grocery spending in more detail since the pandemic and we are actually trending downwards. Last year we spent less than $5k total for a family of 3. Granted, we make all our meals from scratch and we also buy our meat in bulk and I'd vacuum seal them in batches for the month which can take a lot of work.

What's helped is that my wife plans out our menu for the week (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) so that no food/produce goes to waste. I will cook our meals on Sundays (lunch and dinner) and just reheat them to consume during the week. Breakfast is just a rotation of cereal, eggs and toast, and oatmeal which takes very little effort. This has also allowed us to eat out less since there's always food to eat. We were able to cut down on eating out by 70% the past 3-4 years. We used to spend close to $5k a year eating out and now it's barely cracking $1500 and majority of that is treating out families who come to visit or if we are out on vacation.

We've also learned to adjust how we choose to buy our proteins. When beef prices were going out of control, we mostly based our meals around pork and chicken. Same thing applies to certain produce when inflation was hitting them hard. It also helps that we are Southeast Asians (Filipino) so a lot of our meals are eaten with rice and the dishes consists of mostly veggies with the proteins so even a little bit goes a long way.   

[clarkfan1979]

@clarkfan1979 - where were you shopping in California to see $5.99/lb for chicken? I pay about 1/2 that, 20 years later.

Yes, I was living in San Diego County. I was in college and shopped all the groceries stores for the best deals. I could never find a deal on chicken breast, so I never bought it. I think Henry's occasionally did a special deal on a whole chicken. I would buy that maybe once every 2-3 months. Is Henry's the same as Sprouts? If not, same concept.

[Dicey]

@clarkfan1979 - where were you shopping in California to see $5.99/lb for chicken? I pay about 1/2 that, 20 years later.

Yes, I was living in San Diego County. I was in college and shopped all the groceries stores for the best deals. I could never find a deal on chicken breast, so I never bought it. I think Henry's occasionally did a special deal on a whole chicken. I would buy that maybe once every 2-3 months. Is Henry's the same as Sprouts? If not, same concept.

IIRC, Sprouts bought Henry's. Though I have one really close to home, I rarely darken Sprouts door, as their prices are nuts! Their bulk bins are ridiculous, especially compared to Winco's.

To answer the original question, I don't track food spending, but I shop differently than most people. Costco, Grocery Outlet, a local produce stand, and an occasional pilgrimage to Winco are where our dollars go. While things are definitely more expensive, it's easy to modify what you buy and follow the deals. Example: Fresh avocado prices have soared. I found two-pound bags of flash frozen avocado chunks at Grocery Outlet for $5.99. I just wish they'd had more than two on hand.

After a year of working down my pantries, I decided to load up on staples in anticipation of tariff-related price increases. With the exception of fresh fruits and veggies, we're set for a good long time again.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@clarkfan1979 - where were you shopping in California to see $5.99/lb for chicken? I pay about 1/2 that, 20 years later.

Yes, I was living in San Diego County. I was in college and shopped all the groceries stores for the best deals. I could never find a deal on chicken breast, so I never bought it. I think Henry's occasionally did a special deal on a whole chicken. I would buy that maybe once every 2-3 months. Is Henry's the same as Sprouts? If not, same concept.

Crazy! Maybe the prices by the college were also particularly inflated.

[Magenta_screwdriver]

My grocery shopping went way up. But inflation plays a small role in that. It’s more that I buy way more processed crap than I was before. I’m currently working on lowering my grocery spending, and I am pretty confident I can bring it back to my 2018-2019 levels.

[314159]

I don't have records of our grocery spending. But I would definitely expect our spending has increased. For instance, it used to be easy to find eggs for $3/dozen but now I'm lucky to find them for $4 or $4.50. And that is after I downgraded from mostly buying "happy" eggs to mostly buying "cruelty" eggs. So even if that downgrade allowed my egg spending to remain the same, I still would have taken a hit from inflation, just not in the wallet.

Of course, I could decrease my egg consumption, but I've decided eggs are worth it even at the higher cost. Eggs are delicious and nutritious. Love them.

So overall yes, I am negatively affected by higher food prices. I'm sure this has led me somewhat to spend more and somewhat to substitute my purchases. But I'm not sure what the ratio is.

[Weisass]

Our spending has gone up a litttttttttttle, but its pretty modest, considering the average inflation numbers.
 
For a family of six, two of whom are now teenage garbage disposals (aka they could almost always eat more), our bills have looked, on a monthly average, as follows:

2025: 1216/month (202 per person per month)
2024: 1,393/month (232 per person per month)
2023: 1,138/month (189 per person per month)
2022: 1101/month (183 per person per month)
2021: 1500/month (250 per person per month)
2020:1059/month (176 per person per month)

much like @FireLane , there has been some considerable variation in there, with our highest year actually being 2021. It gets harder when you go back further, because before 2020, we start having less people in the family, and while the trend is absolutely that it is getting more expensive, we also eat almost all of our meals at home, and make our own food. So I don't feel super bad about an average of $2.75 per meal per person in a typical month. It's certainly a lot cheaper than the alternative.

[FireLane]

Here's an interesting fact I came across.

Most months, I spend between $500 and $600 on groceries for my 3-person family. That seemed like a lot to me, and I've been experimenting with ways to spend less without compromising on diet quality.

I just found out that the USDA publishes a monthly Cost of Food report with four sample budgets. From cheapest to most expensive, the budgets are Thrifty, Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost, and Liberal. The Thrifty plan is what's used to determine the amount for SNAP (food stamps).

As of April 2025, the latest month there's a report for, the Thrifty budget says I should be spending the following on groceries:

For an adult male (me), it's $309.50 per month.
For an adult female (Mrs. FL), it's $247.20 per month.
For an 8-year-old child (Little FL), it's $202.60 per month.

Add those up, and it's $759.30. That's less more than I spend.

This was a shock of perspective. I thought I was overspending on groceries. Actually, I'm spending less than the minimum the federal government thinks it's possible to live on. And I'm not depriving myself by any means! I eat a delicious, healthy diet with lots of variety.

If I went by the Liberal plan, it'd be $1215.90 per month. That's more than double my current food budget. What the hell could I even eat to spend that much?

[Tasse]

You meant that's more than you spend, right? ;)

We're in a similar situation--as a couple, USDA says thrifty spending is $556. Our average is about $400. But this makes me feel better about last month's $510!

[41_swish]

I fall firmly in the "Moderate-Cost Plan". I am an adult male and eat right around $400 a month. I don't think I am depriving myself by any means. I eat meat with most meals and eat a fair bit of fresh produce. I just make meals in bulk and tend to eat the same thing for two or three days

[Zikoris]

Here's an interesting fact I came across.

Most months, I spend between $500 and $600 on groceries for my 3-person family. That seemed like a lot to me, and I've been experimenting with ways to spend less without compromising on diet quality.

I just found out that the USDA publishes a monthly Cost of Food report with four sample budgets. From cheapest to most expensive, the budgets are Thrifty, Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost, and Liberal. The Thrifty plan is what's used to determine the amount for SNAP (food stamps).

As of April 2025, the latest month there's a report for, the Thrifty budget says I should be spending the following on groceries:

For an adult male (me), it's $309.50 per month.
For an adult female (Mrs. FL), it's $247.20 per month.
For an 8-year-old child (Little FL), it's $202.60 per month.

Add those up, and it's $759.30. That's less than I spend.

This was a shock of perspective. I thought I was overspending on groceries. Actually, I'm spending less than the minimum the federal government thinks it's possible to live on. And I'm not depriving myself by any means! I eat a delicious, healthy diet with lots of variety.

If I went by the Liberal plan, it'd be $1215.90 per month. That's more than double my current food budget. What the hell could I even eat to spend that much?

It's been a few years since I read that and dug into the numbers a bit, but I think the issue with the numbers was that it was important that the food was a somewhat accurate representation of the specific products people were actually buying - so even though people can theoretically save a lot by shopping smart and buying different types of stuff, for the purposes of that report they can't actually have a spending level that's based around lentils, cooking everything from scratch, and other stuff that's just mostly nonexistent behaviour for Americans.

[FireLane]

You meant that's more than you spend, right? ;)

We're in a similar situation--as a couple, USDA says thrifty spending is $556. Our average is about $400. But this makes me feel better about last month's $510!

Whoops, ha. Yes. Must've blown a fuse in my brain when I typed that out. :)

[JupiterGreen]

Our numbers are extremely close to yours. My records only go back to June 2023, but we spend an average of $379/month, or $4548 annualized, for two people. Comes out to $2.08 per meal, although that's a bit lower than realistic since we're ignoring restaurant meals.

We prioritize walking to the grocery store over price comparison, so I'm sure we could be doing better if we shopped around. But the simplicity, plus sunlight and leg-stretching, of going to the place that's half a mile away beats that financial optimization in my book.

I think our numbers have gone up since we moved last year; we were closer to $350/month before, and we hit $400 more often after. It's hard to say whether that's inflation or just due to the change in primary grocery store, though.

Also, I live in a LCOL area and you live in NYC, so I think your number is considerably more impressive!

This is about where we fall, maybe we spend a little less. We don't eat meat and try to shop mainly at Aldi. When we go to the local chain supermarket though= sticker shock! So I haven't noticed this cost going up in fact I think ours has decreased since moving to a HCOL (from LCOL). The thing about the LCOL area is that the produce was grade D but edible, maybe it was cheaper but it molded in like a day so lots of waste. Biking to Aldi once a week for fresh produce in a HCOL area FTW.

The only substantial difference I see between our LCOL area and our HCOL is housing, utilities are cheaper here (no monopoly), phone is nationwide and doesn't matter where we live, insurance and internet are pretty much the same, gas is negligible, everything else we spend money on is a choice (like restaurants) so they might be higher costs but we can also choose not to spend that money.

[41_swish]

I would kill for an Aldi. The grocery chains here in CO are just okay. King Soopers is respectable, but after that its kind of meh.