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Vent: I tried the $5 meal prep challenge and my grocery bill went up $40
Last month I saw a bunch of posts about that $5 meal prep thing where you supposedly eat all week for five bucks a day, so I figured easy win, I'll try it. I made my list for one person, seven days, and headed to the Kroger on Elm Street with a $35 budget in my head. Turns out buying all the separate ingredients, the beans, the rice, the frozen veg, the spices I did not already own, ran me $71 at the register. I stood there in the parking lot doing the math and realized I had just spent double my normal week of groceries trying to save money. The meals were fine but I ate the same lentil thing four days straight and wanted to cry by Thursday. Lesson I actually learned is those challenges assume you own ten spices and a full pantry already, which I did not. Anyone else get burned by a budget challenge that only works if you are already stocked up, or is it just me?
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the_elizabeth19d ago
Seventy-one dollars at the register when you walked in with thirty-five in your head is a special kind of pain. The spice thing gets me every time too, because yeah, every one of these challenges acts like you've got a fully stocked rack sitting there when most of us are working with salt, pepper, and whatever taco packet survived the last move. Four days of the same lentil situation sounds brutal, I don't blame you for almost losing it by Thursday. The real trick nobody mentions is that these plans only pay off once you're already deep in the game, so the first run basically costs you double.
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