Two people. Avg wk is about 85 bucks at aldi. So about 350/month. Sometimes as high as 500 a month when we have movie intensive weekends. Gotta stock up on snacks LOL

Aldi is awesome. Buy ingredients, not packaged foods. Meal plan for the week and like the top comment said, use that sale flyer to find good deals and work off of that.

k

Totally anecdotal, but I've talked to two people now who have moved from DC proper to my area of PG county in part because of the perception that crime is rising in the city. Never thought I'd see the day.

This is the second time you are being told that carjacking is not associated with Kia and Hyundai ignitions.

Carjacking is a violent crime where you are forced to give someone your car.

Your "nice" sentiment pretty much encapsulates it.

NYC without a doubt has more diversity and general 'stuff' on almost every block but......

DC streets don't smell like dog piss from April to October.

I love visiting NYC.... But I truly do love living here.

It's really easy to overspend. Also, convenience of deliveries can be very enticing. Grocery delivery, booze delivery, take out delivery, snacks delivery, same-day or 1 day prime. It can be easy to fall into those delivery traps. The charges add up fast.

That said, I do recommend once a week or every two weeks, you budget and try a new restaurant/cuisine. I've had amazing Thai, Afghani, Vietnamese, Ethiopian, Indian, and more, since moving to DC.

Personally, I enjoy the city and have slowly been making friends over the course of two years (granted I didn't have school. Only work when I first moved here).

Also, there's a lot of free activities, take advantage of that!

Despite the flood of threads decrying an unsafe city, for the average redditor, DC is extremely safe. That is, unless you’re on a bike, then watch out!

Second everything above. Go as early as possible. Be polite. Have every possible document you’ll need.

I had to wait about 30min when I went, but once I got to someone it was smooth sailing. Went on a non-Friday morning.

Delicious

That's only a 50% shooting per car jacking rate.

Most of those stores just relocated from Friendship Heights; they aren’t new to DC.

DC subreddit tings

It’s been really mild weather. Usually the colder temps keep the violence at bay a bit in the winter.

Definitely do not budget for $850/month in groceries. I can assure you OP is vastly overspending.

I found bulk buying meat at Costco saves me so much money. It lasts me 3 ish months. Mainly chicken and ground turkey. Just make sure you have enough freezer space lol.

EveryPlate delivers six meals a week for two people to your door for ~$80 a week. They provide all the ingredients so all you need is staple items. This has made our grocery store trips much less expensive.

DC is not nearly as large of a city as you think- it’s a mid-sized city ranking with Mid-West cities

People think it’s bigger than it is because of its portrayal in media- that’s why it’s New York, Los Angeles, DC when it should be Oklahoma City, Fresno, DC in terms of population

With that said- DC has a much bigger metro area than most mid-level cities and the DMV does compete in metro area size

So, two things when you move here:

1. Don’t insert your rural culture into DC and be a dick because things are different. Every urbanite hates that but it’s especially disliked in DC due to the transient population and the myth of “the city owned by the people”- no, this is a local city with its own long time/generational residents and culture.

2. Don’t fall into the overcompensating “DC purist” bullshit that new residents fall into- you will sound unhinged when you start lecturing people on your opinions about why your NW neighborhood is the only real DC and start shit talking people who live in other quadrants or the DMV. Gentrification and economics have pushed a lot of people into MD and NoVa to survive- not because they want to be white picket fence suburbanites. You can have friends in Arlington or Silver Spring.

Mmm, this entire post, per OP, is dealing with I82… You do understand that, yes?

Dealing with I82 from a consumer or a supplier standpoint, both entities should feel as if they are being treated fairly - true or not?

My asking if you understood the tip credit was to understand how well you understood it pre and post I82 having been passed. Now that we both know your depth: which pay structure [both with healthcare] would you care to be under – $114 (via wage increase) or $200 (via tip credit)

>What I'm arguing is very simple - it's not the customer's responsibility to ensure servers are paid as much as they can get anymore than it's the customer's responsibility to ensure owners profit as much as they can.

-This tells me that you aren’t sincere in what you’re saying … you aren’t grasping your personal role in how this specific economic system works: you cannot argue for the server to go elsewhere for work without understanding your purpose in why sed establishment encouraged you to come in - and yes, that does place you in a position of providing profit for the establishment as you also pay the server’s salary ~ it’s no different than buying a car, or groceries, or getting a haircut .. your choice in doing business at sed establishment keeps the doors open, and people employed.

>My personal tolerance is a 20% obligatory add on fee on the bill. I don't care if it's in the form of a mandatory service charge or a cultural obligation of a tip, because the premise of the tip has long been disconnected from actual service quality.

-Your personal tolerance matters little in this discussion, and cultural norms are just that, cultural norms: when in Rome, do as the Romans do — admit it or not, the tip credit allows for people to help gauge worth/ value based on a rating systems of a food critic (or several), and the premise of a tip has been lost on customers that didn’t have a better grasp on what their meal truly should have been charged ~ without the tip credit, people are clutching their pearls based on a new understanding of the capitalist culture of restaurants and how they, the diner, actually figure in.

>Restaurants that do a 20% fee and guilt you into tipping on top of that are not places I will patronize.

-Most all businesses want to run on the cheapest possible labor that maximizes their earnings without sacrificing service.. if you feel guilty by knowing the truth, what else needs to be hidden from you?

Would you feel better if it was a 35% service fee and no line for a tip?

Would you be happier dining in a prix fixe environment ~ with or without the option of doing prorated ala carte menu items?

Fact is, your disdain by learning the reality of the economics of keeping a restaurant open is exactly what scares restauranteurs — the restaurant industry is difficult, and the ability to constantly trim costs is dwindling precipitously .. the last thing you or I want is for restaurants to take an approach of you being a one time customer, but if that scheme works because it shields you from being better aware of how your dining choice on the evening is keeping its doors open, then more shall follow.

Yeah. As someone who's at the oldest age group of generation z, I'll say the younger ones of this generation either are pretty entitled and seriously lack social skills/common courtesy...orrr they're pretty great. Either or but I'm noticing a lot more of entitlement with them.

The Prime credit card + membership gets you 5% off everything at their stores, Whole Foods, and the website, at all times. It's a pretty massive reward if you are relying on their ecosystem for anything.

I don't make frugal choices, however, the average $250 trip is now like $450 so that's a little nuts for the 3 of us for like <10 days.

The best way to save some cash when you like to buy premium/fresh stuff is Costco. The stuff I get at Costco (not everything) is at least HALF the price of Giant, if not better. Just the cheese, meats, and snacks for my kid make it well worth the membership and hassle. I get 4% of my purchases back, can count on one free trip per year basically, and cover the membership.

Bonus points if you want to buy a couch or something. Costco also offers instacart, if you're sick or lazy.

Next is Whole Foods/Amazon fresh. Obviously WF is the worst value anywhere, with huge markups for no obvious benefit. I mean they don't even sell regular stuff. BUTTTTT... I get 5% off with the Prime card at all times. I also get 5% or sometimes 10% at the amazon fresh, and all online orders. Combined with coupons, etc. I get fresh stuff I can't get from Costco for very nice prices. Bonus points I can get in and out of there in under 5 minutes on a bad day.

ALL my Amazon orders are also 5% off which really adds. I know they are the bad guys and all that, but Safeway wants $10 for bread and Prime is literally dropping this shit off at my door, without moving my kid around.

This combo is 1) always getting me a discount automatically, 2) quality stuff, 3) usually got a competitive or great unit price, and 4) it is very little work/research to maintain.

Well it would be a hell of a lot more than she does now. Wish I could make $250,000/yr and yet not be expected to produce results. She's the one in charge, whatever happened to "the buck stops here"?

We were spending about $800 a month with weekly Whole Foods deliveries. Couple, No meat, some vegan products, 1 meal a week out. Been trying like crazy to cut that down- food prepping, trying different stores. Finally managed to significantly cut that cost this month then completely undid all the hard work by inviting friends over one night, bought a bunch of nice cheese, apps, and a couple bottles of ~$20 wine. Sigh.

no.

I thought this was for theft, not for car jacking though