Why Buying Groceries Feels More Expensive Than Eating Out in 2026

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]Today I went to Walmart and spent $200 on groceries. I live in California.

[00:00:04]Walmart is one of the least expensive places to find groceries. WCO would be another one. I'm just not a fan of the WCO in our area. After spending my $200 yesterday, I thought, you know, groceries are really costing me a lot.

[00:00:15]Go and look at my budget tracking software. So, let me show you my software. This year so far, $763. Paying a little under $800 a month on groceries. And to me, I feel like that is a lot of money. I consider myself having a large family. consist of me, my husband, kids who are here half of the time. Now, my kids are teenagers. Now that I know that it's like $800 a month, I want to get that number down if I can do it at all in this economy in California. Stay tuned.

[00:00:46]>> So, I'm at the grocery store right now and couple observations. Everything is insanely expensive. It's been expensive, but it's getting to the point where it's like unsustainable to just keep shopping for food. As crazy as that sounds, the second thing is, why are we still using coupons? What is the deal with coupons?

[00:01:04]Why doesn't the grocery store just knock down the price to what it should be with the coupon? Why do I have to like pull this little ticket here? Or why do I have to go on the store's app to get the lowest price? Just give me the lowest price.

[00:01:16]>> I keep hearing people say that groceries are more expensive than eating out these days. And that might be true.

[00:01:23]If you can't grocery shop, worth a damn.

[00:01:25]Oh, a McDonald's burger is $7, but all the ingredients for a burger at the grocery store is 17. Yeah, but you can have burgers all week. It might not be what you want, but eight out of 10 times groceries are always going to be cheaper. Now, do I want to cook? That's a different story.

[00:01:44]There have been times when all I had was two nickels to rub together. I would go to the store and buy a rotisserie chicken, a sack of potatoes, and vegetables for like 30 bucks, and that would last me all week. You try to go out there and eat out on 30 bucks all week and try to get decent protein and nutrition. And especially if you're trying to lose weight, you try to go out there, eat healthy, eating out on a budget, and see if you'll need to sell a kidney. Another example is pre-cut fruit. I love me some precut watermelon from Publix. The best. But if my funds were low, I got to cut the damn watermelon myself. I could buy a watermelon for $6 and three slices of Publix watermelon is like $650. So yes, grocery shopping is more expensive than eating out if you can't grocery shop correctly.

[00:02:32]>> In this video, we're going to be taking a look at how people are trying to survive in 2026 with these high grocery prices. And in some cases, people are thinking they're getting a better deal and better quality by eating out at restaurants instead of buying groceries because grocery prices are just way too expensive. Meat, beef, uh everything has gone up tremendously. And there's a lot of people who have been saving money, utilizing the rewards, the discounts. Uh and it's actually in a time where some sitdown restaurants makes sense. You can go to Chili's, get a nice $10 meal. They have a three for me deal. And we're seeing a lot of other chains, sitown chains having affordable options for people. And with the high prices of groceries in 2026, a lot of people are just stuck on where to spend their money. Do you buy groceries and cook at home? Because if you're spending the same amount on groceries as a sit-down restaurant, you might as well go to the restaurant because when you're cooking at home, you are going to be taking up time out of your day to get the ingredients to go and cook back at home and then washing the dishes. It's very time consuming. So, you're actually going to be saving a lot of time going out to eat if it makes sense in the budget. Let me know in the comments below what you think. Take a look at the rest of these videos. It is now more expensive to buy groceries than it is to eat out every day. I've been contemplating on this for a minute now, and just hear me out. As long as you're not eating rice, beans, and chicken every day, you will save money by just going out to eat all the time. For someone like me, I don't eat breakfast, so the only two meals I have to worry about every day is lunch and dinner.

[00:04:18]There are so many places that I can go to and spend less than $15, $10 and get a full meal. I can go to Subway and get a foot long combo for less than 15 bucks. I can go to McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, and get a combo, if not two, for less than 15 bucks. I can go to this pizza parlor down the street and get two big slices of pizza and a drink for less than five bucks. I can go to Chili's, Chick-fil-A, Applebee's, you name it, and I will get a meal for less than 15 bucks. Heck, if I wanted to, I can go to Little Caesars and get me a full pizza, which would last me all day for less than 10 bucks. The least I can spend a day is $10 on a full Little Caesar pizza and a gallon drink. The most I can spend is $30. $15 on lunch, $15 on dinner without literally having to eat like a pit bull. I mean, rice, dried beans, and chicken for the rest of your life. You could not take $15 to the grocery store and buy yourself lunch or dinner. The moment you try to buy ground beef, shrimp, fish, heck, even pork is expensive right now. You're done. Try it for yourself. Take $10, $15 right now to Walmart and try to buy yourself lunch and dinner. You won't be able to do it.

[00:05:20]And I know there's going to be somebody, "Oh, that's easy. I can do that. Show me the meal and I guarantee you it's going to be something that you wouldn't eat twice in a row. I guarantee you it's going to be a meal that's so high in carbs you're going to be hungry 30 minutes after eating it. It is not like how we grew up where groceries were better priced. It is legitimately cheaper to eat out than it is to buy your own groceries. But y'all let me know what y'all think. I'll see you on the next one. Peace.

[00:05:42]>> Friends in Texas and DFW specifically, where are we shopping for our groceries?

[00:05:46]cuz I went to HB this week and spent I kid you not almost $300 on groceries and it's maybe enough to feed my family for the week. Used to I could go and buy groceries and it would last me at least 2 weeks. It was breakfast, lunch, dinner. We make our dinner at home. We don't go eat out a lot because you know who has money for that anymore. Explain to me how $300 worth of groceries gets you basically nothing now. And I'm talking like basic stuff. We don't even get like a ton of packaged snacks and all that kind of stuff. It is simple things. Nothing is affordable anymore, though.

[00:06:22]>> My boyfriend and I just went to the grocery store. We went to like a discount grocery store. We are always trying to find a bargain where we can.

[00:06:30]It still was so expensive in comparison to like a couple of years ago when we would go grocery shopping there. And it's just frustrating. Buying food, a necessity to survive, should not be as expensive as it is. And this is coming from somebody who is a registered nurse.

[00:06:45]My boyfriend works in HVAC. If you're going to school, you don't know what to go to school for. One of the top things someone always says is nursing. If you want to go into a trade, one of the top things that someone recommends to you is HVAC. For job stability, for making a decent living wage, dual income, no kids currently with two good paying, stable, good jobs. We are still struggling buying groceries at a discount grocery store. If you're out here struggling, I am too. And it's a universal experience, especially if you're trying to prioritize eating well or healthy or more organic, whatever the case may be, food that's actually good for you is also more expensive. So, if you're out here struggling, I just want to remind you, you're not the only one. And it's the world and the country's fault and problem, not yours. We just got to keep trying. Something has to give at some point, dude. [snorts] >> $80 worth of [ __ ] your groceries. And I didn't even get meat. Okay, I'm about to show you what I got. And I don't care about y'all seeing my house, dirty [ __ ] I live in this mother. Bread.

[00:07:44]Bread is like $5 and this [ __ ] should be like $2. You know what I mean? Oranges, two [snorts] yogurts, crescent rolls, sausage for breakfast. And this is not to me. I don't consider this really like meat like that. I'm talking like chicken breast, ground beef, like dinner meat is what I mean. This is like a side. I would probably eat this much right here at breakfast and that's it. So to me, this is not considered a meat. This is just like a side for breakfast. Cereal, paper towels, one can of ravioli. That's for my baby. This is the expensive bag.

[00:08:18]Okay, this right here is the expensive bag, right? These right here is probably a good like $43 on their own for bananas. I did get milk and juice. This juice was probably $30. Popsicles for my baby. Tuna, mashed potatoes. She likes that. These right here are $2 a piece.

[00:08:38]This was only 89. Thank goodness.

[00:08:40]Something to make a cake with. Sugar cuz it's for my oatmeal. Got nectarines and two pink lady apples. $37. That is the extent OF THE GROCERIES. $80 WORTH OF groceries right here.

[00:08:53]>> Mama. Mama.

[00:08:55]>> Okay. I'm just I I can't. And then what kills me is like the most expensive things are fruit. I basically just paid $80 for a net subscription service. So when I tell y'all I'm starting my garden and if ow caterpillar, raccoon or bird think they f to come eat my fruits and vegetables out of my garden, I promise you. I promise you. I promise you the block is going to be hot. I'm not playing.

[00:09:20]>> Everything you know about the cost of food is a lie. If your grocery bill has gone up, there's an extra zero on the end of it. Let this be your sign to start choosing local farmers and producers if you have access to it.

[00:09:30]We've all gotten used to the idea of food being cheap, but food shouldn't be cheap. It is one of the most labor intensive things on the planet to create. You have to till the soil, plant the seeds, protect those from wind and rain and insects, and then harvest it, prepare it, get it to your destination.

[00:09:48]That is not cheap and it shouldn't be.

[00:09:51]If your food is cheap, you're paying somewhere else. Whether that is in the welfare of the animals because cheap food is only possible when we shove animals into tight cages and mass-produce them. Or you're paying in the labor rights of the people who are producing it because they're not getting really paid enough to do what they do.

[00:10:07]Or you're paying in the environment and ruining the soil and we are continuously harvesting and pulling stuff out of the earth without replenishing it. And or the ultimate kicker, you're paying in your health. If you are eating mass-roduced industrial food, you are going to pay with inflammation in your body, with disease, with cancer, with diabetes, with obesity. Those are not cheap diseases to solve. And the reason that food bills have gone up and the grocery store is seeming so expensive now is because most food in there isn't really food at all. It is products that are connected to the entire global supply chain. It is raised in one place, shipped by plane or by boat or by train to one one part of the country, packaged in another, and then sold in another.

[00:10:52]And that means when the fuel prices go up because we're at war or the economy is down, that means the price of your food is going to go up and you are beholdened to whatever is happening in the system. Whereas if you choose local farmers, local producers, the only thing that they are kind of beholden to or responding to is the local climate, local temperature changes, conditions, whatever it is there. How much are y'all spending on groceries? Because $492 on groceries without food stamps is crazy work. Let's go grocery shopping for me and my six kids. I hope I can stay under budget.

[00:11:28]I go soft about $5.

[00:11:31]Do y'all remember these? This is all I ate growing up.

[00:11:37]$598.

[00:11:39]Ridiculous.

[00:11:41]>> What do you do when you done all you've $500 on a grocery?

[00:11:53]I'm not even going to lie. I'm a little confused on what my mom and daddy used to mean when they said we don't have McDonald's money because in this type of economy, the groceries are grocerying and they're expensive.

[00:12:08]You can get milk, but you can't afford the cereal. We want to make spaghetti, but you can only afford the noodles. So, us tea because the McDonald's $5 meal, that happy meal is sounding a little bit more reasonable these days.

[00:12:25]I just want to say that these grocery prices are so ridiculous and it's really starting to piss me off because it feels like all of our extra income is going straight to groceries. I mean, we were spending before like 150 a week on a family of four for groceries. Now we're pushing 400 400 plus a week for groceries. The cost of meat is absolutely insane. I We used to be able to get a pack of ground beef for like six bucks or something like that. Now, I went to Walmart today.

[00:13:00]It was $17 for a pack of ground beef to make some tacos.

[00:13:07]Like, what? I've been walking around this house confused as hell since I've been back from the grocery store. I just spent7839 and nothing can go in my mouth or my belly. [ __ ] I'm f to take this [ __ ] back.

[00:13:23]Let me show you guys what I got. I I've been trying to figure out if I've been got. Nothing here can go in my belly at all. While I was at the register, I kept looking to see if I was scanning things more than once. I stopped at my car. I said, "This can't be right. Now I'm home and I just carried in three bags that I could have brought in on my bad shoulder, my bad arm and and I said this is not lining up. What did I get? What the hell type [ __ ] is this? This is all I got. This all I got. What is this? Now I got one potting mix downstairs. I'm ready to put up the buggy. I see this hanging off at the side. So this one was free. Do you think I was going to walk back in there and say, "Hello, sir. I forgot to pay for this." I made it outside. Okay. So, this one was on the side. Didn't see it. I I just said, "I don't know. I feel like things are missing from my cart. I'm pulling off.

[00:14:21]About to go about my business. Why do I see my earthworm casting outside? Nobody ran over it. Nothing. I picked that [ __ ] up because this one was free, too.

[00:14:33]If you think I was going to go back inside and volunteer, my receipt is $7839 and I don't have anything to eat. And I bought a case of water for $3.

[00:14:45]You think I was going to go back inside and offer up my money? I [laughter] I got I got I got to take something back.

[00:14:51]I Why are groceries so damn expensive? I just stopped on my way home from work to get something for tonight and my god it was like over $40. It's insane. Like I think about my kids when they were growing up. We had four. So to feed a family of six, I would go to the grocery store. I might have spent $120 for the whole week and that would feed all six of us. Breakfast, lunch, and supper. And now I can't even get out just for supper for 40 over $40. It's insane to me. I was a stay-at-home mom and my husband worked at the time and we were good. I mean, the kids were fed. They had clothes on their backs. There's no way.

[00:15:36]I don't see how a family can make it now with just one of the parents working. I mean, there's there's just no way.

[00:15:43]Everything's expensive. And not only groceries, but housing and rent and gas.

[00:15:49]And I mean, it's just insane. and something needs to get done about it because I don't know how much longer people can go like this. Thank God I've got a pretty good job where I can afford groceries. But I know there are people struggling right now and it's awful and things need to get lower or this whole economy is just it's just going to be bad. And I wanted to add tonight's supper that's just feeding a family of three. So yeah, over $40. Crazy. How much money do you guys spend on your grocery bill? Because me, I feel like if I didn't care about what I'm eating and what I'm putting into my body and what the ingredients say on the back of labels, I could really get a whole lot of food for cheap. But I pay too much attention to the ingredient. Like the foods that I buy, it can't have any seed oils in it. It can't have any gums in it. It can't have um any preservatives in it. It can't have anything that I don't know how to pronounce. It just has to be like clean, real healthy ingredients. Nothing with added sugars.

[00:16:52]If it has if it's going to be a sugar, it got to be like um coconut sugar or honey in it, whatever I'm eating, something like that. As far as uh beef, I try to buy organic grass-fed beef. As far as salmon and shrimp, I try to buy like wild caught shrimp and wild caught sakai salmon, but most of my shrimp has been like regular. I know sometimes when you buy shrimp on the back of it, it say um the ingredient shrimp, some type of preservative and salt. Mine just got to strictly say shrimp. What else? And if I want some like snacks, this like for instance, if I want like some chips, it just got to say potatoes and extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil. No sunflower oil, no palm oil, none of that. Do you want to know why Americans are struggling?

[00:17:41]Probably because the price of groceries are insane. I just spent $73 on essentially one meal and a couple of extra things. I'll show you. Hold on.

[00:17:53]Okay, so for dinner night, I decided to make spaghetti because I don't know what to make and it's a crowd-pleaser.

[00:17:58]Everybody likes it. So, I got a salad kit, three jars of off-brand spaghetti sauce.

[00:18:06]I'm making spaghetti for nine people and so that's why I get three jars. I decided to get the loaf of garlic bread because it was like $2, so it was cheap.

[00:18:15]But I did get two of them because nine people.

[00:18:20]This hamburger alone cost like $20 for three pounds of hamburger. Who like to grate my own cheese? So, I got a pound of mozzarella and I got a wedge of parmesan angel hair off brandand spaghetti noodles. And for a sweet treat for my kids, I wanted to make no bake cookies for after dinner for dessert.

[00:18:44]So, I got some instant oats. We are low on sugar. So, I did go ahead and buy a thing of sugar. I did buy the big thing of peanut butter because the one I normally buy is $4.99 and this and it's 40 oz. This is 64 oz and it was on sale for 5.49. So, of course, I got the bigger one, but it seemed like the smart thing to do. I got some off-brand cocoa to make the cookies. Beyond what I got for dinner and what I got to make dessert, the only extras I bought, I bought these Lunchables for their lunches because they were four for $5.

[00:19:22]Oh, I did buy some sticks of butter because I do need those for the cookies also and we don't have any. And then we are also out of eggs. So, I bought an 18 pack of eggs. do this. This right here, $73.

[00:19:38]$7302.

[00:19:40]Most of it's store brand. I also had an employee discount and it was still $73.

[00:19:48]That's insane. No wonder everybody's struggling. Now, I'm a huge fan of eating out at some of these restaurants.

[00:19:55]Most of them are going to be chains where they have rewards programs. And if you're someone who likes to eat out, utilizing those rewards can actually save you some money because in a lot of cases, they're going to be giving you discounts every now and then to try to get you back in the door. And especially if you only eat out a few times uh a year, you can actually get some pretty nice freebies by having the rewards account and then waiting until your birthday. They may give you a free appetizer. They may give you a free dessert. They might even give you 10% off. And these are all things that are going to help you manage your expenses better when eating out.

[00:20:37]>> Man, these grocery prices are out this roof. Last night, I said to myself, I'm going to save some money. I'm not going to eat out tonight. So, I went to the grocery market because I was thinking cold sandwiches. So, that was that was my goal in my head for a family of four, including myself. So, I go to the grocery market. I gave me some bread, you know, the nice Italian bread that used to run 99 cents. It was $1.75. Have a family of four like I mentioned. So, I had to buy two of them. That's $4. Then I bought a cucumber cuz I wanted some cucumber in there. Those were a dollar.

[00:21:08]So, already what? $4. Then I bought a couple avocados. Amazingly, they're only 60 cents each. Bought two of them. Look, we're at like $6 now. Then my my kids love soda. So, I bought a soda. It was about $2.99. So already around $10.

[00:21:26]Then I go to the lunch meet. I bought a little a little package of turkey and it was like $6.99. So boom, I'm already like at 16 or $17.

[00:21:36]And oh, and before I forget, I like cheese on my sandwich. God forbid. So I get the slices of cheese and that's about two $2 to $3. So I'm already looking like at $22.

[00:21:51]Then what was it? I think we're out of mayonnaise. So, I paid about $3 for that.

[00:21:56]Oh, and I wanted some chips. And I wanted some flaming hots. Those run about $4 to $5. Boom. Spend about $33 to $34 easy. And that's 2026 grocery shopping to eat dinner for one night.

[00:22:14]And I'm thinking in my head, is going on to like a fast food restaurant cheaper or am I tripping? [clears throat] Because the last time I checked, McDonald's is doing like a family meal, $5 to $6 for a meal. And I think for a family of four, we end up spending about $26.

[00:22:35]I don't know. But I'm questioning, is eating out actually cheaper than making food at home? What do you guys think?

[00:22:41]Drop in the comments.

[00:22:44]>> So, y'all check this out. I went to Walmart. I went to Walmart and I just spent $500 and something dollars on [ __ ] groceries and look what I got y'all. One little buggy and a half of a buggy. And let me show y'all my receipts so y'all can know. I ain't lying. Get the other receipt. That's 410 right there. And get the other receipt >> right there.

[00:23:13]Receipt today. And I spent cash. Y'all see that?

[00:23:20]$4109.

[00:23:23]All that there. You see what the receipt said? Today card.

[00:23:33]Yeah, that's crazy. It's all I got. Literally, that's it. I just left the grocery and guess what I found out now? Nothing is less than $7. If you want to buy one apple, it's $7. Now, if you want to buy 15 apples, then it's like $6.99.

[00:23:56]It started to say $5, but I don't think one thing I bought today was less than $5. Meat, forget about it. I'm going vegetarian. What are my options for going to the grocery store and not paying $150 at least? Like we not having no dinner party. We not like this is like a couple of meats for the week.

[00:24:20]Like some produce for the week. And my husband's bougie and he likes Red Bulls.

[00:24:24]Red Bulls. He going to need to learn how to get some natural energy. He going to need to learn how to get energy from the sun cuz we can't afford Red Bulls no more. Why is nothing less than $7 at the grocery store? I'm sorry guys. I really try not to get political on my page, but when I seen these prices this morning, I was like, what in the war? What in the Trump are these prices right now? So, look, you see what that say?

[00:24:58]A125 for corn each. I have never eat ever ever seen one piece of corn cost 125 each. And then I was scanning some more Lemons 64 cents each for one lemon is actually 64 cents. That is very very expensive.

[00:25:24]Wait, I think I seen something else that kind of blew my mind. Oh, somebody who I was working with, who I work with, she was telling me about the price of bell peppers. I don't think we got them priced cuz we had to move them. But she was telling me that each bell pepper now is $1.25 and she was like, "Look how small they are." I mean, these prices are going through the roof. And wait, walk with me. She told me one more price that was expensive. Now with this, I can say this price do go up seasonal, but right now we going into the season where this price should not be this high on this product. But she can't stop talking about it. Look, watermelon $942 each. That's usually a winter time price. Um, but everything is truly going up up up. [clears throat] I hope you're ready for this. This going to be a long ride, y'all. Bye. Cooking at home used to be how we saved money, but not anymore. I just went to the grocery store for a few basic items like eggs, fruits, tortillas, and a few other things for dinner tonight. Somehow that quick grocery run ended up costing more than $100. Growing up, cooking at home used to be our budget friendly option.

[00:26:47]But now, even making a simple meal at home adds up fast. It's honestly so frustrating because so many families are working hard, doing everything right, and still end up feeling tight every week. Grocery prices keep rising, corporations keep making money, and we're the ones forced to adjust. And we keep hearing that costs are supposed to go down, but groceries are still going up. At the same time, corporations keep raising prices. And programs like SNAP that help hardworking families, veterans, and seniors afford groceries are being cut. It doesn't have to be this way. It shouldn't be this way. We honestly shouldn't have to stress this much just to put food on the table.

[00:27:30]What's gotten way too expensive for you lately? Let me know in the comments how raising prices are affecting you.

[00:27:36]Question to all of the people who don't live in a big city. Is Whole Foods still considered like the more high-end expensive place to get your groceries at? Because I remember growing up, I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. I thought Whole Foods was like the most expensive place to shop at. It was like high-end, everything organic, clean, whatever. So, there was obviously a premium to pay for that. Recently went to a different grocery store chain. And I ended up paying the exact same for everything I get at Whole Foods as I did at this grocery store. Not getting anything crazy. Like, I'm not getting crazy amounts of produce or anything like that. I'm just getting like yogurt, milk, eggs, all of that. But it was the exact same price. And I can't tell if it's because I'm living in a city, so things are just a little bit more expensive here, or if it's because grocery prices have just increased so much where it doesn't matter where you shop, it's going to be expensive regardless. My husband was just paid $810 for the last 2 weeks. He's on workman's comp. We are a family of nine and we need groceries.

[00:28:45]I am at WCO Foods, which is like our local cheap grocery store. Let's see how much I can get for about $125ish.

[00:28:55]>> Um, >> yeah, we have our daughter's 10th birthday and then we have one bill that has to be paid out of this.

[00:29:07]>> Okay, my total was 85 and some change.

[00:29:11]>> Not horrible. Definitely not great considering um I will have to come back and get some stuff. I realized that there's a few meals I wanted to make and I need to see what ingredients I actually need for them before I >> go grocery shopping. So, I'm going to go put all this away and head to Target.

[00:29:26]>> Welcome to [ __ ] that just don't make sense. Spending money on Walmart edition hardware. First thing up, these little ass cups of hamburger help. Why would I pay you 224 when I can go to the back and get a box for $125? Make it make sense. Next up is your favorite Uncrustables. You get a 10 pack and a $1046. Now, why would I pay that when I can buy a loaf of bread, peanut butter, and jelly and get twice as much of a sandwich? Cuz you know that [ __ ] halfway gone. Nope. Not going to happen. Now, somebody please explain to me when bleach, great value bleach, went up to damn near $6. Like, what the [ __ ] man?

[00:29:55]Y'all playing. Now, I can get the same thing for the same price with a smaller amount with the label. I cannot hesitate. So, I got to get the bleach.

[00:30:01]But, we ain't going to get the big one.

[00:30:02]We going to get the reasonable one. Now, I got to take a deep breath with this one cuz this really pisses me off. Since when? The orange juice. And look at this little bitty. This ain't even a [ __ ] gallon. $6, $7.64. But if you want a name brand, clearly it's half the size.

[00:30:18][ __ ] I'm going to Pro and get me some oranges. I squeeze some shits myself.

[00:30:21]Okay, so clearly these are the biggest scam ever. Now you know me back in the day. These used to be a dollar. Now you tell me I get half the price for a dollar. Well, half the can for $148.

[00:30:29]Make it make sense. Okay, so clearly somebody must have got the sign because I know you are not telling me that this little bitty bag of chips is on roll back. So $2.69 69 regular price $4.92 just cuz it tastes like some damn ramen noodles. The see Walmart going to piss me off and for the life of me can somebody explain to me why this little bitty ass bottle is almost $8 for some damn fresh breath. I mean god damn now you see compare ingredient same as the appreciate that let me get that great let me get the hell out of here before I spend more money than I plan to.

[00:30:59]Groceries have gotten so expensive. I now keep a list of all the things that I refuse to buy. Not can't buy. I just will not buy. Beef. Oh, that's that's off that's off the list. I I don't buy that at at all anymore. Unless the cow is going to personally come in here and pay my mortgage. I'm not buying that.

[00:31:21]Potato chips. Absolutely not. Half a bag of air and vibes for five, six, seven, eight dollar sometimes. Nope, that's not gonna happen. Fruit. Oh, only if it's on sale cuz blueberries be acting like luxury items now. You got a 401k or something? Candy? Oh, I don't buy that.

[00:31:42]I honestly you can make candy at home and I don't know about y'all. I like real chocolate. I don't like that fake chocolate. To be honest, in general, if snacks are not on sale, I'm not buying snacks cuz they just cost too much. Name brand. Oh, no. I don't need name brands.

[00:31:56]Generics are just fine. If if that says, you know, corn starch on the box, it does not have to be name brand cornstarch. It all does the same thing.

[00:32:07]And things like juice and orange juice.

[00:32:09]Oh, I only buy that on special occasions cuz a gallon of juice costs like what a utility bill does. See, at this point, I figure I'm not grocery shopping. I'm really negotiating. So, tell me, what if you stopped buying because the prices have just gotten way too disrespectful.

[00:32:25]>> So, my second ever big girl job was at a grocery store. Um, and I will tell you myself that the issue is not that society cannot feed people. We have more than enough food. Um, it's that feeding people is not as profitable as selling food. Um, one of the darker things that I learned working at a grocery store is that the grocery store food waste, they have something called shrink. shrink is basically inventory loss. It's stuff that gets damaged, expires, gets stolen, can't be sold. Um, and when grocery stores throw that inventory away, they write off those losses on their taxes.

[00:32:57]Uh, and so a tax writeoff reduces the amount of income that a company gets taxed on. So if a grocery store loses, say, thousands of dollars in unsold food inventory, they can report that loss and lower their taxable profit. These corporations are more concerned with protecting profit margins than feeding hungry people. A lot of us are conditioned to believe that food is a privilege and not a right, but it should be our right to survive. Um, and remember, they're not only throwing away rotten food. I've seen it myself.

[00:33:28]Grocery stores throw away overstock, too. Entire shipments that can't fit in the freezer or won't sell fast enough.

[00:33:33]Um, they throw out stuff with damaged packaging where the food is completely fine inside. um produce that looks ugly like deformed fruit or vegetables. Um perfectly edible food. What's crazy is there's already systems proven to reduce this waste. Something called dynamic pricing is where they lower the price of food right before it expires. It statistically reduces food waste significantly, but less than 25% of grocery stores in the United States do that. Um because the companies would rather protect their profit margins than normalize cheaper food access. Okay, do you see where I'm going? And very few grocery stores consistently donate excess food to food banks either that overstock or like the stuff that gets thrown away. Like they they genuinely throw it away. Some stores intentionally lock dumpsters or destroy the food before throwing it away. Like think about how how insane that is. We have people digging through the trash while corporations are pouring bleach on the food so that nobody can take it for free when it's going in the trash anyway.

[00:34:27]Like, and the irony that these same corporations will ask you, you to donate money at the checkout screen for hunger relief while they're actively throwing away perfectly edible food that could have gone to shelters, food banks, struggling families. So, imagine a grocery store has a bunch of extra food that they can't sell in time. So, now they have multiple choices. Lower the prices, donate it, or throw it away and make money back. They're going to throw it away and make the money back. And under capitalism, businesses are structurally incentivized to prioritize profit first. Grocery stores are businesses before they are charities.

[00:35:03]Their goal is to make money. So if giving away food threatens pricing structures, future sales expectations, or profit margins, many of these corporations would rather waste the food than normalize free access to it. That is a part of why some stores would literally rather destroy the food than give it away to you. which sounds like cartoonishly evil until you realize that this is exactly what happens when basic human necessities are treated as primarily products instead of human needs. France, great example, France, they literally passed an anti-food waste law. Large supermarkets are not allowed to intentionally destroy usable food.

[00:35:38]They are required to donate edible food to charities instead. So the pro the problem is not production. We have more than enough food to feed everybody. The problem is distribution under a system that profit incentives matter more in than hunger.

[00:35:56]Manufactured scarcity is profitable.

[00:35:59]They are starving you on purpose. And don't even get me started on the fact that the grocery stores do not care that the food they are selling you is quite literally poison.

[00:36:08]>> Now, I have to ask you guys, do you guys prefer going grocery shopping and cooking at home where you know what you're going to be putting in your body?

[00:36:17]because you're going to be selecting the ingredients and there's going to be nothing that's going to be hidden and harmful. You know exactly what you're putting in your body and you know exactly what you're going to be using to make your meal. Or do you prefer going out to restaurants where you're going to be saving a lot of time? It's a lot more convenient and just an overall better environment. I've read your guys' comments and it seems like a lot of you are split on whether you go grocery shopping or you go and eat out at a restaurant where it's a lot cheaper for those three for me deals such as from Applebee's or Chili's. And I really understand why people are split. Do you value your convenience more or do you value quality more? But right now, I think we can all agree prices are very high, especially grocery prices where the cost to sit at some sitdown restaurants is the same price as going grocery shopping and cooking at