Food costs

[anna7602]

I feel like this deserves a spin-off thread from Dulce's post about whether to jump ship.

Seriously, tell me what I am doing wrong. I saw this:

Jul 30, 2012 4:07:53 GMT -5 clickerish said:

YES! Why are groceries in the US so expensive? And why is it that for 20 euros, I can buy really fresh fruit and veggies for an entire week whereas in the US, when we do that, we spend over 100 dollars? Even accounting for the exchange rate, it's absurd.

There is no way in hell I can buy fresh fruit and veggies for 20 Euros here for the whole week. I drop at least 40 euros every time I go to my local farmer's market, and that's with the expectation that I will go to at least one other farmer's market at another point during the week AND hit the regular grocery store for other stuff.

Yesterday's 40 Euro run included blueberries (4,50 for a small bag), 2 small baskets of raspberries (6 Euros total), a red pepper, some fresh breads (all eaten throughout the course of the day, I ran out for breads again this morning), peaches, a big hunk of Cheese (8 Euros) and some meats/veggies I cooked up for lunch yesterday.

The cheese will last us all week. The blueberries are almost gone. The raspberries will be gone by tomorrow for sure. Everything else was consumed yesterday.

[aMrsin09]

I saw that too and I was paying about what you are when we were in France.

As for everyone saying US groceries are $$, after paying OZ prices I would LOVE to only have to pay US prices.

[dulcemariamar]

In Spain, food can be cheap but the prices have been going up the last few years.

To be honest, I do spend a lot of money on food. I rather spend money on food than on other things. I dont mind spending money as long as the quality is good. It sucks because when I first came here fruit and veggies used to taste like something, now you have to spend a lot of money to get decent food.
If you buy the cheap meat, it is like eating gum. After living in Argentina, I dont mind paying for a good steak.

Anna: Blueberries and raspberries are expensive here too. How about locally grown food? Is it that expensive?

I think we spend 15-20 euros for fresh fruit and veggies.

[anna7602]

Jul 30, 2012 5:44:53 GMT -5 dulcemariamar said:

Anna: Blueberries and raspberries are expensive here too. How about locally grown food? Is it that expensive?

I think we spend 15-20 euros for fresh fruit and veggies.

As far as I can tell, the berries are local. But I guess the farmers still have transportation costs to get into and out of the city and be at all the farmers' markets throughout the week.

As a basis for comparison, mangos are NOT local and those are absurdly expensive, something like 7 or 8 euros for 1 mango. Or 4 Euros for sliced mango at the grocery store (and it's the equivalent of about half a mango).

Locally, cheese and wine are less expensive than if I bought the same kinds in the U.S. (or even cheaper quality kinds in the U.S.) But I can't think of any fruits or vegetables that cost noticeably less here.

I like good food, though, so I'd rather just budget for this and cut back elsewhere.

[crimsonandclover]

Occasionally when the Germans start to complain about rising food prices, they'll show on the news the percentage of income that different Europeans spend on their food. The Germans are at the very, very bottom. So I know it's cheaper in Germany than in other European countries. Milk starts at 69 cents / liter. Where I shop, chicken and turkey are 9.99 / kg (legs and thighs are only 4.99), regular pork cuts are 6.99 / kg. Bell peppers are usually 2.99-4.99 / kg depending on the season, tomatoes are 1.99-2.99 / kg.

I have to say that I usually shop more seasonal veggies, so peppers and tomatoes in the summer and leeks and cabbage in the winter, so of course they're cheaper during those seasons. And sometimes I'll buy tomatoes & co in the winter, so I'll pay more.

My grocery bill (for 2) is usually about 40€ / week. Since DD it has gone up just because of formula, but even then I'm usually around 60€ / week. In the US we're regularly over $100, and that's even with my parents helping out.

[jrabbit]

This is one of the things that annoy me most about returning back to the US: Cost and quality of food.

Honestly, I don't pay attention to how much I pay for fresh fruits/veggies. As long as they are good and fresh, its 80% of my diet so I just pay it and don't pay attention (bad, I know).

But everything else, dairy, meats, etc...its so much higher in the US. Also, not reusing bags drives me crazy, paying someone to bag when I can bag myself and not returning carts are now peeves LOLOL

[travelingturtle]

I spend more here than in the states, but that's because I ate out most of my meals in the states. Here, I eat out once or twice a month if we're out running errands. We rarely go out just for the pleasure of it.

I spend more than Crimson does, though. I'm pretty sure we spend around 100 Euros/week for groceries. As long as I stay within that price range, I don't pay too much attention to the price of the individual stuff I buy.

[oneslybookworm]

We kept very similar eating habits from home to here, and I can say that our grocery bill is MUCh higher here. We spend, on average, 120 Euros a week on groceries. Most of that is fresh fruit and veg, fresh meats, etc. I want to eat food that is fresh and good for me, so I suck it up and pay it. I also don't coupon clip or shop around, so it COULD be cheaper for me to go somewhere else (no idea, but I'm assuming it could be cheaper).

Back home...we probably spent $100 a week...so around 85 EUR for the same stuff. But...I will say, the quality of the fruit and veg here is much nicer than what we had back home.

[tktravels]

I'm trying to remember how much I used to spend on groceries when I lived in Chicago. I know that if I shopped at the Jewel, I ended up spending a lot more than if I shopped at the little Mexican grocers or places like Harvestime. Unfortunately, I cannot recall prices for any items or even what we spent for a week's groceries.

When we were living in Morocco, locally available seasonal fruit and veg were dirt cheap. I don't recall the specifics on anything (although at one time, I had the prices of everything memorized.. because our town's souk never had anything labeled, and if you didn't know what something should be, you got ripped off at first). Things like dried beans, rice, etc. were cheap too.. as were really delicious fresh eggs. I bought meat once for a party, and spent about 9 euro for a kg of what my friends said was good quality/cut beef.

In Poland, we could easily get decent-to-good fresh fruit and veg for the week for 60PLN/about 14.5Euro. I would buy mostly local and seasonally available items, but did not stop myself from splurging on tomatoes in winter. Overall, the quality of the food in Poland was fresher and tastier than that in the US. In a typical week, we spent about 40Euro on food (we ate out maybe once every two weeks, and neither that nor our wine fund were included in this amount) for the two of us.

Now that we are in Canada, I'm totally experiencing sticker shock. We've lived here before, so I knew food prices are higher than everywhere else I've ever lived. So far, we've been spending about 85 euro/week on food here, not counting eating out or wine.. although I'm hoping that some of those costs were "start up" costs of buying things that you only buy from time to time (spices, condiments, etc).

And now I should go make breakfast. Good day.

[irish]

Wow Anna! €7/8 for a mango!! They're around €1.70 each here in Dublin. Blueberries (€2 for 125g) and raspberries (€3.49 for 125g) are pricey here too but shopping around is always good. Admittedly I don't go to farmers markets (lack of time, none immediately near us) so it is chain shops we go to. Peppers €0.99 each, formula was €13 but we're past that now! But nappies can be €35 for 120 pampers if you don't get them on special (but one of the big shops usually has them on offer!)

We do a big shop once a month or so and stock up on cupboard staples and then shop in between for bread, some meat, fruit & veg. We get milk delivered - 6 litres a week costs €19 a fortnight... (inc €2 for delivery!)

I think that there are some things here that are cheaper than elsewhere for sure but I reckon overall the uk was cheaper than here, or certainly when I moved back initially from London (with same shopping habits). Alcohol is pricier here for sure!!

[glitterfart]

We spend about 100 Euros a week, but get organic for 80-90% of stuff. I get a fresh fruit and veggie and milk delivery once a week (all organic) that´s about 32-35 Euros. We rarely eat meat, but when we do I get organic chicken and it´s about 9 Euros for 300 grams. As long as I don´t go above 450 a month I consider it doing well.

[Wanderista]

This is not really a comment about cost so much as a quality thing, but yeah, I am really envious of Continental European grocery stores. I remember going to a grocery store in Belgium in college and buying a microwave meal which had a little sticker on it saying "From our own kitchen." They would literally bake the frozen food in the back of the grocery store. Believe me, I'd way prefer to be eating the high quality produce over there to the Food, Inc stuff that is so prevalent in the US.

[Cheesecake]

The only thing for me that's more expensive here than in the US is soda, hard liquor and eating at restaurants.
I guess it probably does depend on where in the US and where in the rest of the world you are. Also, I do still want good quality stuff in the US as well, so I don't buy crappy plastic looking cheese, but I end up at the imported section (I'll however buy a LOT less than I would in NL). At the same time here in NL I still want Hellman's mayo and some other American brand things that are imported here, so logically that should cancel each other out. It doesn't though.

But even if I buy fairly regular stuff, the difference is insane. The last time I got groceries in CO my friend and made our own pizzas with different kinds of toppings (veg/cheese/meats, various kinds) for 4 adults and 2 kids. We also got some soft drinks (no alcohol) and used coupons.

We spent about 60 dollars (including tax) on all the ingredients and drinks.

In NL the same would've been about 20 to 25 (without coupons), depending on which store we'd go to. Oh, and that's including the 6% and a 19% VAT, depending on what it is you buy. Colorado's highest sales tax in the state is 4.75%. Most counties are a lot lower.

I will give you that it truly does depend which store you go to in NL. (One sly bookworm might very well be going to the most expensive one).
When we still got everything at the grocery store, instead of specialty stores, we used to spend about 100 a week at the only grocery store that was open on Sundays. When the other store opened on Sundays as well our bill went down to about 75 a week. Now that we go to all the different stores it varies between 60 and 75, and the quality is much better!

[allibally]

Tk you must of shopped around where we live. We go to Harvest time too.

If I just go to Harvest time (local mom&pop grocer) I can get my meat, fruits and vegetables for about $60 for 5 days and two people. Plus bread and lunch meat. But any panty items or frozen is too expensive there and I will go to a big box store like Dominicks or Jewel. Soda I will only buy on sale. If I only shop at Dominicks week to week I spend way to much since I end up buying junk.

Our grocery bill was about the same between Chicago and Zurich. The difference here is the availability of cheaper meat and meat options. I remember buying two chicken breast at the Coop for 10-12 francs. About equal or a little higher in dollars. That's just insane to me. I could knock it down to 6-8 francs if I bought the German chicken at the same store. Actual ground beef not the beef/pork mix was expensive too. And we only bought steak once. Ironically imported from the US and at the cost of 75 francs for a 400 gram T-bone and a small filet.

So while our bill is about the same I have way more variety here and we can actually afford to eat neat more often. Which my husband enjoys a lot.

[tktravels]

Jul 30, 2012 17:06:14 GMT -5 allibally said:

Tk you must of shopped around where we live. We go to Harvest time too.

I miss Harvest Time! I have lived all over the Albany Park/Lincoln Square/Uptown stretch of Chicagoland, and if not hitting up farmers' markets or begrudingly getting my fruit/veg from Jewel, I was at Harvest Time every few days..

And I agree that their pantry items (with rare exception) was too expensive for habitual purchase.

I so look forward to one day being in one spot and being able to source great prices and stock up on stuff.

DH & I used to do this to some degree while living in Uptown. We have a 386 sq ft condo there, so really.. you can only do so much stocking up when you have so little space. You can find some really great prices on certain things online too.. we used to get a giant box of toilet paper shipped to us every few months, and it worked out to about $0.40/roll, including tax and shipping.

Costco seems like a great way to stock up on stuff too. When I was still in the US, I "shared" a membership with a few different people.. meaning we just passed the card back and forth on a regular basis, or would ask around when someone was making a run and then put in an order for a 5lb sack of flour, etc.

[allibally]

Jul 30, 2012 18:54:17 GMT -5 tktravels said:

Jul 30, 2012 17:06:14 GMT -5 allibally said:

Tk you must of shopped around where we live. We go to Harvest time too.

I miss Harvest Time! I have lived all over the Albany Park/Lincoln Square/Uptown stretch of Chicagoland, and if not hitting up farmers' markets or begrudingly getting my fruit/veg from Jewel, I was at Harvest Time every few days..

And I agree that their pantry items (with rare exception) was too expensive for habitual purchase.

But they also have unique pantry items at Harvest Time too. Lots of Polish and other Eastern European imports. Which is really nice to find old favorites especially some similar stuff to Germany for my H.

Like publius we did some trips across the boarder when we were in Switzerland too. We even found a great boarder crossing that was normally not staffed on the Swiss side. We ditched the card for the last 8 months of our stay there so we lost out on cross boarder shopping.

[GilliC]

People around here frequently drive an hour to Sweden to buy groceries. Sweden isn't particularly cheap.

[clickerish]

Maybe I should have clarified that my prices were from my last period of buying in Den Haag and then also here in Lisbon--both places seem to have high quantities of fresh everything. My guess is there is a high demand, the Euro is the same in both places and so forth.

Michigan is also absurdly expensive for any type of produce for some reason--in fact, the products produced IN Michigan get shipped out of state and then we have to buy it back. It's different in California, for example. The US is a large country, so I'm sure you have a huge variety. Where I live, though, the cost of everything is jacked up through the roof because we are a captive market. We drive to another county just to buy toilet paper and fill up on gas. Ridiculous.