There’s no getting around this simple and unpalatable fact: It’s pretty stressful to go grocery shopping these days.

Thanks to the skyrocketing cost of inflation — which climbed to a 40-year record high of 9.1% in June compared to last year — food has never been more expensive.

The price of pantry staples such as bread and cereal has jumped nearly 14%, according to the Consumer Price Index, and dairy products are not far behind, costing an average of 13.5% more than a year ago. The price of meat, poultry, fish and eggs will also leave a shopper reeling from sticker shock, and don’t even get me started on what a bag of Lay’s potato chips will set you back these days. (A 13-ounce bag costs $5.49 at Target. Target!)

As the PG’s food editor, my job is to cook — a lot. And while I try (really) hard to choose recipes that are as easy for the average cook as they are inspirational and great tasting, it’s gotten considerably tougher in recent months to also make them 100% affordable. Having raised five kids, including three always-hungry sons, I know firsthand how expensive three meals a day can be for a family in good economic times. I can’t imagine doing it today, especially when the cost of everything else we need on a daily basis is rising, too.

The challenge

Yet I’m also a problem-solver who has penny-pinched at meal time for decades. So I decided to make myself this challenge: Prepare a week’s worth of meals for a family of four, completely from scratch, for around $200.

Why that number? The USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program currently allots $215.10 a week to a four-person household to cover the cost of groceries necessary to provide a “healthy, budget-conscious diet” under its official Thrifty Food Plan. I wanted to know what that would buy you in Pittsburgh and whether you could make three squares a day taste good on a budget.

To accomplish that goal, I set some parameters. I’d do one marathon shopping session to save on both time and the crazy cost of gas. And I’d do so at a discount grocery to assure I was getting the most bang for the buck: Aldi, a deep-discount chain famous for having rock-bottom food prices.

Aldi is able to keep prices low in part because it avoids expensive brand names that rely heavily on advertising and marketing. The German chain, which counts some 2,200 stores across 38 states, including more than 30 in southwestern Pennsylvania, also is dedicated to creating cost savings that it can pass on to its customers, like making shoppers pay to use carts (which incentivizes their return) and provide their own bags.

“Other retailers may lure people with deals on several items each week,” said Aldi Saxonburg division vice president J.R. Perry in an email, “but our customers can count on Aldi savings on their shopping trip in every aisle, every day, no coupons or gimmicks needed.”

Still …

I’m not going to lie. Even with all my experience and excess storage (I have two refrigerators and a huge walk-in pantry), coming up with a grocery list and nutritious recipes to feed a family of four for an entire week wasn’t easy. It certainly took time, along with some math skills to break it all down and figure out what ingredients were as affordable as they were easy to prepare for the average cook — and what had to be left off the list.

I started by sleuthing my local Aldi to see what things cost in general and also what was on sale that week. After noting prices for staples, including milk, meat, cheese and produce, I came up with a menu for each day of the week, wrote out the recipes, and then made a detailed ingredient list for each of the 20 dishes (Sunday only had two because it involved brunch.) Then it was back to the store to shop, with me adding up every single item as it went in my cart on my phone’s calculator to make sure everything totaled $215 or less.

To my surprise — and delight — my bill was $198.14. And that included a brownie mix, a fresh pineapple, English muffins, green chile salsa, a box of (real) Corn Flakes and some chocolate-covered almonds I tossed in the cart on a whim because they were so cheap. I had so much, I had to supplement the four reusable bags I’d brought with three 12-cent paper bags sold at checkout — and still ended up under budget.

Menu planning

For advice on how to devise a healthful menu before that marathon shopping trip, I turned to cookbook author and registered dietitian and nutritionist Ellie Krieger. Kelsey Hutter, a registered dietitian with Allegheny Health Network, also weighed in.

Meat, even at Aldi, can stretch the budget, so both suggested building at least a few recipes around plant-based proteins such as tofu, peanut butter, lentils, or canned or dried beans, which are nutrient-rich and full of heart-healthy fiber and antioxidants.

“I would look at all different varieties and go with what’s on sale, and then substitute them in a dish” like chili or burgers, Krieger says.

Eggs are another good budget item — especially for breakfast — along with frozen vegetables, which, because they’re flash-frozen at harvest, are just as healthful as fresh cooked (although the texture may be different), says Hutter.

Frozen fruit, which makes superior smoothies and is wonderful on top of yogurt, is another smart buy. Not only is it much less expensive than fresh, but also it reduces waste because it’s not going to rot when you forget about it in your refrigerator.

Something as simple as brown rice is perfectly nutritious as are oats and canned fish. Krieger, for instance, likes to use canned tuna in water for sandwiches and tuna in oil for salads “because I can use the oil in the can as my dressing.”

Pasta is another great choice that’s shelf stable. Pair it with a homemade sauce made from canned tomatoes or toss it with frozen veggies for a quick and low-cost stir-fry. Also, grains like rice can help stretch out a meal.

“You have to change your mindset that ‘healthy’ is expensive, so why bother,” says Krieger. “You just have to be strategic about it.”

Shopping tips

Take an inventory of your pantry and fridge before shopping so you don’t end up buying what you already have.

Make a grocery list — and stick to it. You’ll be less likely to waste money on something that looks good in the store but you’ll never use, says Hutter.
Choose store brands over name brands, which are almost always priced higher. And always check price per ounce when comparing prices.

If you insist on fresh, choose vegetables and fruits that are in season. They’re typically cheaper and often come from local farms. Minimize waste by buying root vegetables such as sweet potatoes and carrots and leafy veggies such as cabbage, which have a long shelf life.

Study the store circular before making your list and take advantage of what’s on sale. The week I shopped at Aldi, for instance, a pint of blueberries cost just $1.69, so I added pancakes to the menu.

Plan some meals by creatively cooking once and serving the leftovers in another dish. I served a big pot of beef and bean chili in bowls one night for supper and inside flour tortillas with cheese the next day for lunch.

Never shop when you’re hungry (it leads to impulse buying) and, above all, know your budget and shop appropriately; fail to plan and you’re really planning to fail, says Krieger. “You have to know what you can [afford to] spend.”

As for me? I was lucky to have both easy transportation and enough storage space to do all my shopping in one fell swoop. But even if you have to break the week’s grocery shopping up into two or three trips, discount grocery stores like Aldi still make it worth it. The most expensive thing on my list was 2½ pounds of hamburger for $9.70.

Admittedly, many of the meals we offer below are pretty pedestrian. A few, like one morning’s bowl of yogurt with fresh fruit and another’s banana smoothie, aren’t so much recipes as helpful suggestions for starting the day right. And I had to make a couple last-minute substitutions when I couldn’t find certain ingredients. A planned lasagna, for instance, turned into a rigatoni bake because Aldi doesn’t carry lasagna noodles; I also had to sub saltine cracker crumbs for panko.

But they are homemade using scratch ingredients, which is always a good thing, and a few are actually tasty enough to want to share. It’s hard to turn down a slice of a fresh-baked Dutch baby pancake and the same with a sheet pan full of Sichuan-glazed meatballs with charred, roasted broccolini.

Yes, it’s tougher than ever to eat well while stretching those mealtime dollars. But with planning and persistence, it’s not impossible.

Gretchen McKay: gmckay@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1419 or on Twitter @gtmckay or IG @pittsburghpgfood.

Design and development: Tyler Pecyna/Post-Gazette