The newly married couple texted me after their first grocery store run....

[Ann.without.an.e]

(Insert SIL's name) and I have decided that we're eating with y'all most nights. 

Me: Why is that? 

DD: We went to the grocery store and somehow spent $120 on two meals, some sandwich stuff, and snacks lol. The solid solution here is to eat with y'all to save money. 

Bless them, y'all 🤣  

To be fair, they are trying to pay down debt and I guess this would help but they crack me up. 

Edited June 10, 2022 by Ann.without.an.e

[TheReader]

Ooh, if coming to eat with you is an option, can we come, too? Groceries are getting expensive.... 🤣

[EmilyGF]

I remember when I moved out and realized that I needed to use my salary for rent and food, not just fun stuff. Ouch. That hurt at first!

Emily

[Ann.without.an.e]

8 minutes ago, TheReader said:

Ooh, if coming to eat with you is an option, can we come, too? Groceries are getting expensive.... 🤣

 

4 minutes ago, EmilyGF said:

I remember when I moved out and realized that I needed to use my salary for rent and food, not just fun stuff. Ouch. That hurt at first!

Emily

 

Food is crazy expensive. You would think that SIL would get it since he owns his own home but he has eaten dinner with me (or sometimes his grandmother) almost every night since he had his own place. They are having an eye opening experience lol. 

Edited June 10, 2022 by Ann.without.an.e

[freesia]

This is when they realize WHY we didn't buy or limited the expensive snacks and have whatever we wanted for dinner or have deli meat for everyone every day of the week.

[Ann.without.an.e]

1 minute ago, freesia said:

This is when they realize WHY we didn't buy or limited the expensive snacks and have whatever we wanted for dinner or have deli meat for everyone every day of the week.

Yes, exactly 😂

[vonfirmath]

If they are stocking a new house, it is also possible that SOME of that cost was more front-loaded cost for stuff that will last longer than 2 meals. However, yes groceries are more expensive. Even quick runs into the grocery store are taking more money before I can leave.

[Ann.without.an.e]

Just now, vonfirmath said:

If they are stocking a new house, it is also possible that SOME of that cost was more front-loaded cost for stuff that will last longer than 2 meals. However, yes groceries are more expensive. Even quick runs into the grocery store are taking more money before I can leave.

That is somewhat true, yes. They are actually on their honeymoon and decided to eat in some at their airbnb to save money so not truly stocking yet but I pointed out to dd that some things like condiments, etc will stretch multiple meals and the normal runs shouldn't be that high per meal. 

[HomeAgain]

1 minute ago, vonfirmath said:

If they are stocking a new house, it is also possible that SOME of that cost was more front-loaded cost for stuff that will last longer than 2 meals. However, yes groceries are more expensive. Even quick runs into the grocery store are taking more money before I can leave.

This.  Every move we made was agonizing over the amount of waste we'd have in needing to get rid of all staples in one country and buy them again in another.  Sooooo hard the first few months!

 

[vonfirmath]

11 minutes ago, HomeAgain said:

This.  Every move we made was agonizing over the amount of waste we'd have in needing to get rid of all staples in one country and buy them again in another.  Sooooo hard the first few months!

 

This is one reason our church had a "pounding" (except they requested gift cards instead of actual items.) For our new pastor. They were only moving 2 hours -- but there are still costs with stocking a new house we were trying to defray.

[vonfirmath]

13 minutes ago, Ann.without.an.e said:

That is somewhat true, yes. They are actually on their honeymoon and decided to eat in some at their airbnb to save money so not truly stocking yet but I pointed out to dd that some things like condiments, etc will stretch multiple meals and the normal runs shouldn't be that high per meal. 

Hopefully they'll take the condiments home and not have to purchase them AGAIN.

[vonfirmath]

40 minutes ago, Ann.without.an.e said:

That is somewhat true, yes. They are actually on their honeymoon and decided to eat in some at their airbnb to save money so not truly stocking yet but I pointed out to dd that some things like condiments, etc will stretch multiple meals and the normal runs shouldn't be that high per meal. 

That was wise

We ran out of money on our honeymoon and ended up spending the last few hours just walking around deciding whether or not we really needed to eat lunch. (We were in Canada and it was not easy to access the little bit of money left in the bank account)

 

[Ann.without.an.e]

5 minutes ago, vonfirmath said:

That was wise

We ran out of money on our honeymoon and ended up spending the last few hours just walking around deciding whether or not we really needed to eat lunch. (We were in Canada and it was not easy to access the little bit of money left in the bank account)

 

Hey, it gives you a story lol Also, way to start off problem solving together right from the beginning 😉 

[Jaybee]

1 hour ago, EmilyGF said:

I remember when I moved out and realized that I needed to use my salary for rent and food, not just fun stuff. Ouch. That hurt at first!

Emily

Dh and I recently prepared a list of all the expenses we could think of that most adults are responsible for. Then we printed it off and gave it to our youngest two who are still at home. They can both be free spenders, but in different areas, and will soon be responsible for their own bills. I told them that they don't have to start immediately paying for all those things, because one is still a student, and one is just starting out. But those are the goals to be working toward for independence. The list didn't have the numbers on there, so it will probably still be a shock, but we wanted them to have an idea of what all true "independence" includes. And tbh, we are ready and moving toward their taking over more of their serious stuff, not just the fun stuff.

[EmilyGF]

28 minutes ago, Jaybee said:

Dh and I recently prepared a list of all the expenses we could think of that most adults are responsible for. Then we printed it off and gave it to our youngest two who are still at home. They can both be free spenders, but in different areas, and will soon be responsible for their own bills. I told them that they don't have to start immediately paying for all those things, because one is still a student, and one is just starting out. But those are the goals to be working toward for independence. The list didn't have the numbers on there, so it will probably still be a shock, but we wanted them to have an idea of what all true "independence" includes. And tbh, we are ready and moving toward their taking over more of their serious stuff, not just the fun stuff.

Yeah, I'm not sure why it was such a shock! I'd already paid for rent and food in college (my parents covered tuition and books, I covered housing and food), but it was just so much HIGHER when I had a full-time, well-paying job. I guess I had always had ALL my money go to rent and food in college, and assumed I'd have so much left over when I had a real job. But then we moved to a HCOL state and I no longer worked at a restaurant and was trying to make real food instead of surviving on quesadillas and ice cream. 

Emily

[freesia]

When ds moved out in April, I sent him with gallon ziplocs with things like flour, sugar, salt and taco seasoning.  That way he could space out the staple purchases over time.

[Ann.without.an.e]

9 minutes ago, freesia said:

When ds moved out in April, I sent him with gallon ziplocs with things like flour, sugar, salt and taco seasoning.  That way he could space out the staple purchases over time.

I did the same thing for both my dd’s. I even got them a 20 pound bag of rice lol. She just didn’t have any of these staples on her honeymoon. 

[shawthorne44]

24 minutes ago, EmilyGF said:

Yeah, I'm not sure why it was such a shock! I'd already paid for rent and food in college (my parents covered tuition and books, I covered housing and food), but it was just so much HIGHER when I had a full-time, well-paying job. I guess I had always had ALL my money go to rent and food in college, and assumed I'd have so much left over when I had a real job. But then we moved to a HCOL state and I no longer worked at a restaurant and was trying to make real food instead of surviving on quesadillas and ice cream. 

Emily

 

People discount the value of the free food you get working at a restaurant.    There was a little over a year where .my main real food came from dates, free food at the restaurant where I worked and the one lunch a week with my mother.   

 

[Slache]

Intermittent fasting. I tried it to lose weight, did not lose weight, but saved a ton of money!

[Jaybee]

2 hours ago, EmilyGF said:

Yeah, I'm not sure why it was such a shock! I'd already paid for rent and food in college (my parents covered tuition and books, I covered housing and food), but it was just so much HIGHER when I had a full-time, well-paying job. I guess I had always had ALL my money go to rent and food in college, and assumed I'd have so much left over when I had a real job. But then we moved to a HCOL state and I no longer worked at a restaurant and was trying to make real food instead of surviving on quesadillas and ice cream. 

Emily

It's still a shock sometimes!😪 And I'm in my 60s.

[Ottakee]

One night I got a call from my SIL asking where I was. I said I was gone hiking with a friend.  He responded “oh we came to surprise you for supper “ (meaning eating my food) and the surprise was on them as I wasn’t home. They did eat left overs at my house

[Soror]

Lol. Sounds about right! Dh and I both moved straight from our FOO when we got married so we had no clue on a lot of things. 

Fwiw we usually cook at least 2 meals a day on vacation. It's always more expensive for groceries on vaca, even if the food prices aren't. Less time and energy to cook so easier things. Less methods to cook in a limited kitchen. More convenience food than usual. No staples. 

[Ausmumof3]

They probably picked the worst time in about twenty years to discover the reality of food prices! Ouch.

[Guest]

18 hours ago, vonfirmath said:

If they are stocking a new house, it is also possible that SOME of that cost was more front-loaded cost for stuff that will last longer than 2 meals. However, yes groceries are more expensive. Even quick runs into the grocery store are taking more money before I can leave.

Yes. This. I just popped into the local grocery store, which is never where I do my main shopping, but still rang up well over a hundred dollars. I felt like saying, “Are you kidding me?” to the clerk, but I know it’s not her fault. 

[happypamama]

Cooking for two is expensive!  They sound smart to me, LOL!  

 

I naturally have to spend more to feed eight people, but the price per person is less than it was when it was two or three or four of us.  And I can justify better unit pricing now too because food doesn't get wasted.  We will eat that extra large package of eggs or the big container of cream before they go bad, but when it was just two of us, we might not have.

 

But also, food is expensive now.  Even at Aldi, even cheap stuff.

[Garga]

I remember buying my first stash of cleaning supplies when I got married: broom, dustpan, toilet cleanser. I just about fell over at the checkout counter!  $$$$!