Cyberpunkd
Member
Make your shopping online - most of the time the prices there are lower than in-store.
Groceries WTF
- Thread starter Sardaukarama
- Start date
Dirk Benedict
Member
YOURE GONNA DIEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~~~~~~~~~~~~~!!!!
TheUnicornGuy
Gold Member
Of malnourishment.
p_xavier
Authorized Fister
Yup. Especially with online stores showing reduced items directly. I've been shopping online since 2005 and it costs me about 300$ in groceries monthly.
falconhoof
Member
Not in my experience. Lots of stuff I buy has doubled in price.
My groceries never used to top $100 a trip, I could sometimes spend $60 for a fair haul. Now I find I'm pushing $200 and come away feeling like I bought fuck all.
Before Covid the yogurt I'd buy was $8.99 a tub, it's now $16. Fucking baked beans were about $1.29, now they're $3.29 a tin.
Bags of salad went from about $3 to $6.
I've found I have to be much more on the ball to spot deals
falconhoof
Member
I tried that and found it to be incredibly expensive. The quality is amazing, sure, but price is double.
My dog eats turkey breast as his main protein. I found that Costco was about ~$22 a kilo, Safeway ~$19 and the local turkey farm direct ~$46 (which was about 4 years back when I last checked so could be higher now).
lachesis
Member
No kidding. I am a regular and now I try to get most from cheaper stuff, and only get the specific Korean/Chinese/Japanese ones that I can't get in local groceries...
Some of the stuff is just way overpriced though. Especially at "H mart Fresh" place - smaller H mart locations.
Also these days - H mart or ordinary groceries or whatnot - I tend to get just the items on sales. I have decent sized pantry and storage/freezer - so I buy them bulk on sale and store.
StreetsofBeige
Member
Ya, fair enough. Depends what each person buys. I dont buy a lot of fancy stuff. A lot of the basics I buy like fruits, chicken, pork chops, bread etc.... have prices no different IMO. Heck, in tomorrow's new set of weekly deals (as per Flipp) chicken and pork chops are $1.99/lb again at No Frills. No different than before or after covid when inflation propped up. Just about every week, one of the main stores will sells apples or oranges for 99 cent/lb and bananas never changed. Still 59 cents/lb for like 15 years. Food Basics has apples for 68 cents/lb starting tomorrow.
Just use Flipp if it applies to your area (online or on app) and skim the prices. Then just do a main run or two to a couple different stores near each other, stock up on the deals and call it a day. I never buy stuff at regular price unless desperate for something, it's a product that never seems to go on deal, or it's something that costs small. So waiting to save 50 cents on something isnt worth the hassle to just buy it now.
Not sure what kind of yogurt you buy, but must be some fancy high end kind. I always buy one of two kinds. The Liberte Greek 500g tubs which are always on sale for $3 somewhere (or 3/$9 at Walmart), or Costco where there's good chance one of their giant 24 packs of various branded yogurt is on sale that week for $7. At 100g per cup, that's 2.4L worth of yogurt (the same qty as buying 4 600g tubs or about 3 750g tubs). Prices seem the same for years. I've never paid more than $7-8 for yogurt ever and that's when it's a giant Costco pack.
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p_xavier
Authorized Fister
I live in rural Ontario and prices are half of what you'd pay in Toronto. I used to spend 500$ a month pre-pandemic in Montréal and now it's 300$ a month and some months I don't even buy any due to leftovers.
StreetsofBeige
Member
Just curious, in rural areas what are utility bills and ISP/cellphone plan prices like? Are they cheaper too? I always thought it's a bit cheaper by $10-20/mth.
I assume that because when I'd check sub plan prices on sites, you see the default promo price. But then you type in your address or postal code to get your actual area price and suddenly it jumps. But those cheaper promoted examples are for places in smaller towns.
p_xavier
Authorized Fister
I pay 60$ a month for natural gas mostly for heating and BBQ and 72$ a month for electricity. That has been the case for the 6 years I've been here, no increase so far with equal payment plan.
Cellphone I have Fizz for 26$ a month for 4GB data CAN/US. Internet is lots more expensive though with Eastlink at 96$ a month for 1Gb/s unlimited though Bell put Fibe service here last year. Property taxes here are 1475$ a year for my house and I have one of the most expensive places in town. It costs me less to live here in 2025 dollars than my condo in Ottawa in 2000 dollars, crazy.
StreetsofBeige
Member
I'm on Bell's cheapest plan and it's about $40 including monthly bonus credit for 10 months. I could probably find cheaper. My internet is $60/mth through Start.ca (now called something else as the monthly bill name is different). $1,500 prop taxes? wtf? But makes sense as I dont think rates are that much different from area to area (unless yours does have a low rate), but the assessed value of your home will be low. I pay like $7,000 taxes/year and I got a small one car driveway house. lol. When I lived in a 1000 sq ft condo over 10 years ago, I was still paying about $3,000 I think. Fuck.
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p_xavier
Authorized Fister
Thing with Bell is that I don't have any telephone wiring so that's why I'm not really enticed to go with them even if it would be cheaper. Yeah property taxes are extremly cheap and we have sooo many services from the township here it's crazy. Like there's even a curling only rink. When I had water pressure issues I called the township and the guy was at my house knocking up on the door a minute later, he said it was easier than to continue talking on the phone. I'm so not used to this kind of service. I have absolutely nothing to complain about. Though demographics changes are happening like in most of Ontario. At least I got to live again what was old Canada for a few years.
falconhoof
Member
Never heard of Fizz before. How long have they been around?
I've had Freedom for years, which costs me about the same but without US and only 400mb of data. Might just have to switch.
p_xavier
Authorized Fister
It's a Vidéotron service. In Ontario for over a year, I used to be with them in Québec. You get perks, data can be transferred one month to another. I really like them. They also offer Internet for cheap but not yet in Ontario.
Mobile and Internet plans | Fizz
Expect a fresh take on mobile services with customizable cell phone plans and discover truly all-inclusive Home Internet plans. Add game-changing benefizz and boom, you know you’re in the right place.
fizz.ca
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StreetsofBeige
Member
Yup.
And dont be too proud unless it's a crime ridden sketchy place. Who cares if you shop at a bargain chain or dollar store. I do, and I got good money. Who cares. I'll save the $20. Dont give a shit if a friend or coworker sees me shopping there. But, some people make it a big deal not to shop at lower tier stores because it looks bad and they are afraid someone they know will see them and think they are a cheapskate dumbass.
Tip for all, you know how some companies have different banner tiers? Like they run a low end tier, middle tier and a premium chain? Unless they are totally run separately somehow in terms of ordering product, the parent head office controls buying from suppliers, they get the product and they ship it out to stores themselves how they feel like it. Same product. Same cost price. It's not like the higher end chain gets the better boxes of cookies then the lower chain. Its the same wholesale cases.
It's different if it's a liquidator or special deal to clear crap out and there's agreement to dump it at the lower end chain. But for normal product, it's the same shit dispersed at all their stores.
Then again, I get it. Some people dont want to shop at the cheaper stores because they are grubbier, the people shopping there are grubbier, and these stores wont have the full selection of higher end products or departments. But if youre buying standard stuff sold anywhere, it'll be cheaper there. Just comes down to if you care a lot about the non-price shopping experience.
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nush
Member
Shop in more than one supermarket and see what items are cheaper in each one. Also take advantage of all the deals in each supermarket.
If you have an outdoor market you'll often find fruit and veg are cheaper there.
p_xavier
Authorized Fister
I remember a lady that put her Giant Tiger bags inside Holt Renfrew's ones just to not look like a poorer person. Ridiculous.
StreetsofBeige
Member
I only got into using big reusable nylon bags exclusively for carrying every day shit for maybe 10 years tops. I used them for longer for grocery shopping because they are strong, but if I needed to bring something to work and it couldnt be jammed into my laptop bag, I'd just grab whatever plastic bag I got jammed in a kitchen drawer.
There are numerous times the bag I'd drag out of the drawer to use was a Dollarama bag.
Didnt give a shit.
Grildon Tundy
Member
A pound of ground beef is my bellwether. Went from $4 to $7 in the past couple years.
Spending about $300 per order where I used to spend $200. And I've been ordering online for years, so my new orders include dropping my previous order into cart with some adjustments. 50% increase inflation feels about right.
Spending about $300 per order where I used to spend $200. And I've been ordering online for years, so my new orders include dropping my previous order into cart with some adjustments. 50% increase inflation feels about right.
YCoCg
Member
What the actual fuck, I sometimes forget how railed without lube Americans get with mobile/internet costs. Converting these from UK prices but I pay $13.20 a month for 40GB 5G/Unlimited Texts/800 Minutes for mobile and $48 a month for 1Gig Fibre.
Liljagare
Member
Avoid supermarkets, I know it isn't always possible in big cities, but look around for farms that sell produce. A freezer box, and buying half a hog, or a quarter of a cow, can dramatically lower your food costs, alongside buying in season produce from local growers.
It is usually several grades over what you find in the supermarkets too, really free range chickens are like another breed compared to the battery chikkins. I guess alot of people are used to having a selection of everything available all year around too, if you buy locally, you have to adapt to what is in season, but the stuff is always going to be perfectly ripe.
Convenience will cost you a bungle over a life time, some don't mind, some don't think about it..
Dr.Morris79
Gold Member
ForAcademicPurposes
Member
I was thinking about the early days of Tony Hawk's career, back when he and his team were broke and touring. Their budget was so tight that they lived on Taco Bell, day in and day out. It makes me wonder, is fast food still the go-to for people in the US trying to save a buck?
StreetsofBeige
Member
Canada is always up there being pegged as the highest rip off prices. Here's my provider. And this is a small independent that got bought up by one of the big guys not long ago. The prices are going to be pretty good. Maybe not the best in the province, but way better than the big mainstream companies that monopolize ISP service.
If you pick Rogers (the big corp here), they have pretty similar bandwidth tiers (close enough) and you can jack up each one by about another $30 as their price.
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Days like these...
Have a Blessed Day
This is giving me $30 Italian meal vibes
YCoCg
Member
1 Gig DL but still only 50 Mb/s UL??? The one I'm on is considered "low" for Uploads but even that's 125 Mb/s.f you pick Rogers (the big corp here), they have pretty similar bandwidth tiers (close enough) and you can jack up each one by about another $30 as their price.
nush
Member
Not any more, it's neither fast or cheap if any of the YouTube videos I've seen on this topic are accurate.
p_xavier
Authorized Fister
Cause it covers more rhan chicken.
jshackles
Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Taco Bell here is $15-$20 for their combos (drink, "main item", smaller item (taco, soft taco, basic burrito), and side (fries, chips). Even their $7 "value box" that's advertised nationally is $12 here.
Only actual place to eat here that's still cheap is Costco. They still have the $1.50 hot dog combo, $2 slices of pizza, $2 ice cream sundaes, and $4 chicken bake. The problem is that everyone knows it's the only cheap place to eat, so it's always crowded - usually about a 10-minute wait to get to the kiosk and another 20–30 minutes to get your food. My local warehouse has now converted about 1/4 of their floor space just to having tables for the food court, and still it's nearly impossible to find a place to sit unless you go either first thing in the morning or 30 minutes before close. So, the food is cheap, but it's usually not worth the time and effort.
ForAcademicPurposes
Member
It would be interesting to see if inflation has led people to choose more leafy greens as a cheaper food alternative. Although sugary diets are often associated with older Americans, the younger generation seems to have different priorities. With a strong emphasis on wellness and appearance, young people may be more inclined to opt for healthier, cost-effective foods like greens, suggesting a potential shift in consumption patterns driven by both economics and social values. I'm talking shit as an outsider though. I could be wrong.
daffyduck
Member
As in copper?
Anyway, avoid Bell like the plague, even if you have to pay more to someone else.
p_xavier
Authorized Fister
There are no telephone outlets in tne house so that would mean opening walls or ugly wires hangin.