I get what you’re saying, but the best KBBQ, phỡ, Indian food, taco, or other non-American cuisine is often hard to rank higher than what’s available out in the burbs.

We spend about $400-500 and been mixing it up between Aldi, Safeway and giant. We probably go out to 3-4 times a month too.

It’s always good to pay attention to what’s on sale and try to pick up what you need and store meats in the freezer when they go on sale and just thaw it when you want to eat it.

Inflation is out of control these days.

About $300 a month (I live alone), except for the months when I make a trip out to Hmart (maybe 3-4 times a year) and can spend $100 on a single trip stocking up on various things.

ETA: mostly shop at Trader Joe's with some Whole Foods and Wegmans for things I can't find at TJ's.

awesome, definitely going to use this - thanks!

Did you read your own OP

Go early and make sure you have every document you need.

I recommend Budget Bytes for recipe planning, especially for pasta, sheet pan, and one pot meals that yield leftovers. A lot of the recipes are a little simple/bland but are easy to dress up with extra herbs/spices/sauce.

You can also look at what you're buying pre-made frozen or from restaurants and try making that at home.

Are you really asking them to provide the average person’s budget lol

Correct

Cool to walk through but it’s nothing special

OP likes quality food, organic etc. of course it’ll be more expensive

Party gravy is what the guy I know from NO calls it.

I do have prime. WF is further away but I should check ads and go for a good deal. Good call.

I was buying a lot of expensive frozen lunches in the past but switched this month to TJs frozen or leftovers. Helped but clearly need to do more.

sounds about right - would def shop Costco if I had a car

But are you guys buying a ton of pre-made frozen meals? Because those end up being around 2-5x the price of a serving of food made from scratch, and you get more food for the same money. If you do buy a lot, Trader Joe's freezer section is usually cheaper than the premium meals at other grocery stores.

If neither of you are realistically going to meal prep, look into buying a pressure or slow cooker. There are countless recipes that are just throwing stuff into those things and setting a timer.

There were a lot more of that pre-covid ( https://www.embassyseries.org/ ) but they almost all shut down. Maybe the Diplomat newspaper.

Just go to embassies of interest's websites and see if they have a mailing list.

I don't even think they are pretty buidings and the open space is kinda average.

DC government and developers leave out benches because they don't want homeless sleeping on them.

Do you have prime? I find a lot of the produce is cheaper at Whole Foods than TJs when you get the prime deals and the quality of giant produce is always so disappointing.

It’s been over two decades, but I moved to a city-city right after hs graduation from a town of 6,000. It’s gonna be culture shock. Every city has its own energy.

Everyone here already posted some really great replies! One big thing for me is that if someone is dodgy, acting weird on public transit, move seats/train cars if possible. I used to feel like it was bad of me to do so, but now idgaf, life is too short to deal with shady weirdos.

Fake, expensive, vomit inducing place by Qatar.

To be frank, they stepped up to build that area when economy was cooling so there's that (might have been a parking lot till now).

No one is born with big city knowledge. They had to learn it somewhere.

I still need the wmata trip planner from time to time to figure out how to get somewhere.

fair. We rarely get takeout which may inflate our grocery budget a bit.

It’s possible I’m thinking of something else. Is city center not the area with the water fixtures and where the Christmas tree was?

My favorite rebound to canvassers when it’s around the first of the month, “I have rent to pay/just paid rent!” and zoom away.