cameron_owens49•15h agoProlific Poster

Found out my 'cheap' rice and beans meal costs more than I thought

I was adding up my grocery receipts from last month and got curious about my go-to budget meal. Turns out, the bag of dried beans I buy is $2.50, and the rice is $1.80, but I use about half a can of diced tomatoes at $1.20 each and spices that add up quick. I read a breakdown on a food blog that said the average cost per serving is closer to $1.75, not the 50 cents I always assumed. That surprised me because I thought I was saving way more. Has anyone else done the math on their staples and found it's not as cheap as they figured?

2 comments

2 Comments

alice24214h ago

Huh, that's interesting but honestly, $1.75 a serving still sounds pretty cheap to me for a full meal. I mean, you're not going broke over spices and a can of tomatoes. Feels like a lot of fuss over a couple of bucks.

kai_bennett14h ago

Multiply that by a family of four though and it adds up fast, especially if you're cooking from scratch every night. Most people aren't just buying one can of tomatoes, they're buying a whole pantry worth of stuff just for one recipe. A couple bucks here and there stops feeling like nothing when you look at the grocery total at the end of the week.