WestHoustonAg79 said:

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BenTheGoodAg said:

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Single income, 5 kids.

$1200 a month on food. We don't eat out. At all.

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Yall sound like a fun family…..

Joking aside. This thread is one of a few that make me feel I don't like any kind of normal suburban dad/fam life.

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LOL, OK...

I don't think we miss out on a lot food-wise, and since the wife stays at home, it's easy to work cooking meals into our lifestyle. And I think we get to eat pretty good. Ultimately, spending a huge bill at a restaurant for seven people takes away from other things we want to do. The OP or you or others on this thread don't have to follow our plan, it's just a data point for anyone who wants it.

Our lifestyle isn't the norm, but we own this decision and we're happy with that. We are blessed beyond belief in our experiences every day with a big family. We sacrifice in some things, and we make up for it in other ways. But it's all a choice we've made because it's what we want.

The counter to this though is lifestyle creep. My wife and I started budgeting over a year ago. We didn't need to necessarily. We were still well within are means, saving like 40% of our pay. But looking at our expenditures was crazy. Just seemed we were making more money so spending more money.

By many we'd be considered penny pinchers now. But, guess what, we don't have any less enjoyment in our lives now vs when we just bought whatever we wanted a couple years ago. Truth is those Amazon packages or expensive dinners on the regular didn't really bring any fulfillment to our life….

Update for everyone PM'ing about this: we ended up ditching the Keurig after we ditched the Nespresso. Use the Ninja 100% of the time. I have yet to quantify the savings.

Get to know your butcher. You can cut down on meat costs significantly if you can catch the sales.

We try and stick to grass fed ground beef and the Sprouts near us regularly runs buy 1 get 1 50% off sales. I regularly buy 9-12 months worth of 85/15 grass fed organic on these sales at an average price per lb of $6-6.25. The meat guy and I are on a first name basis and he will order cases for me as long as I give him a few days heads up on the front end of the sale.

I've priced this deal against quite a few DTC cattle folks and it's usually a wash or it beats what they can do after the processing fees.

Pepper Brooks said:

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Get to know your butcher. You can cut down on meat costs significantly if you can catch the sales.

We try and stick to grass fed ground beef and the Sprouts near us regularly runs buy 1 get 1 50% off sales. I regularly buy 9-12 months worth of 85/15 grass fed organic on these sales at an average price per lb of $6-6.25. The meat guy and I are on a first name basis and he will order cases for me as long as I give him a few days heads up on the front end of the sale.

I've priced this deal against quite a few DTC cattle folks and it's usually a wash or it beats what they can do after the processing fees.

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I don't have the means to store food like that but getting to know our local butcher is on our list of things to do. I've never really made use of one but would like to.

The freezer is a worthwhile investment if you have the space. These bulk buys will pay it back in 2-3 yrs vs doing it week to week.

The peace of mind from knowing we're covered if the wannabe tyrants in DC try and flex their power again is a cherry on top.

Quote:

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The limited-time promotional deal, in which guests picked two types of shrimp to enjoy nonstop for $20, landed a permanent spot on Red Lobster menus in June. Red Lobster's parent company, Thai Union Group, said in November 2023 that the chain was headed toward a $20 million loss for 2023. Now the endless shrimp deal costs $25.

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A business screws up this bad you gotta to wonder if it was intentional.

Nobody did the math on this? They let losses continue?

Turns out Red Lobster got raided and left to die a slow death. Makes sense now.

John Oliver gave a pretty good outline of what really happened at Red Lobster in the last half of his show tonight.