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As a major foodie, I definitely spend way too much money on food. But as it turns out, a bunch of the meals and snacks we deem as expensive nowadays were once considered "poor people food."
Recently on Reddit, users shared the foods that used to be extremely affordable, but have since surged in prices, and now have "absolutely no business being as expensive as they are." The responses are equal parts fascinating and brutally real...
1. "Oxtail, and it makes me so sad. It was one of my favorite foods my grandma cooked for me growing up. I can still taste it and even picture sitting at her dinner table. Now it’s on par with steak prices. Ugh."
"I remember eating it sooo much as a kid in soups and stews. I've never purchased it as an adult."
2. "Chicken wings. My mom says they used to be super cheap compared to other cuts of chicken because no one wanted them when she was younger. Then, eating wings got popular, and now they are pricey."
3. And similarly: "Buffalo wings. When I was in high school, every Friday my buddy and I would go to this place in town where wings were $0.05 each. He liked the drums, and I liked the flats, so we'd split an order of 100 wings and get a pitcher of root beer. Both of us would walk away completely stuffed for about $3 each."
4. "Sourdough bread. Once dried and compressed, it was used as a soldier's meal from ancient times up to the 1930s. Now, it's 14 bucks a loaf at the local farmers market, and $18 if you want avocado spread on it. Also, bluefin. There used to be way more bluefin tuna in the ocean. That was the ultimate poor man's food. It's not nearly as abundant as it was 500 years ago."
5. "Salads. I understand that restaurants have a particular pricing model where they try to keep most dishes in a specific range irrespective of their raw material cost. That makes some things somewhat cheap and low-margin, and they're balanced by things with massive margins that are basically too expensive for what they are. Salads are one of those things, but it somehow hits worse because they don't even require cooking."
6. "Brisket was always the cheap, tough-to-cook meat that needed time and experience to cook low and slow. Today we have lots of people who have learned how, lots of cooking shows and magazines that promote it, and influencers who will say anything. Brisket at a great joint is 30 bucks a pound. Brisket at an ego-inflated place is over 40 bucks a pound, and you have to wait in a long line."
"It was cheap throw-away meat back in the day. Now, it’s a delicacy and a fortune."
7. "Pizza. The ingredients cost pennies: flour, yeast, and water for the base, and tomatoes and cheese for the topping. Yet pizza delivery places still think it's normal to charge £20-plus for a single large pizza. I know staff, business rates, and utilities all cost money, but that kind of markup is absurd."
8. "I remember in college (circa 2010) when a professor said that ground beef is a poor people's food. Like, dude, what? We had SPAM growing up. Now it's pushing $8 per pound. I've been eating more pork and fish since beef went outrageous. When I do want beef, I just get a decent steak. It's almost the same price, so why not?"
9. "Buffet-style restaurants. It used to be seen as trashy to go to one, but now people praise the idea. It used to be around $20 for four people; now it's, like, $20 or $30 for one person! (In my opinion, it's still gross — sorry not sorry.)"
10. "Avocados. The cost of living has finally reached avocados. They were still low-priced until recently. Now the less expensive stores are even $2 each...and they're rock-hard, like pucks."
11. "Lobster. I have family members from the East Coast who refuse to eat lobster, because it was the only protein their parents could afford to feed them when they were kids. They literally get sick at the smell and sight of it. Beef was considered a rich person’s food."
12. "McDonald's. If I'm paying an arm and a leg to eat anyway, then I'm not settling for that shit. If the final total matches the price of a dish at my favorite restaurant, I'll just go there. If it's closed, then I'll go somewhere else. I never eat at McDonald's, because they're charging good food prices for bad food."
13. "The cost of fruit is way out of control. Grapefruits at $2–$3 per piece, just to get it home and find out it’s more rind than fruit, is just a straight rip-off."
14. "Fountain soda in convenience stores, fast-food places, and restaurants. This product is 95% water. It literally costs them pennies, but they charge $3–$5 for a glass of soda. Ridiculous!"
"Soda! It was 50 cents a can, chilled, from the vending machine at an amusement park when I was growing up. Now it's dang near that to get it at a grocery store on sale!"
15. "Whey protein. Big corporations have jumped on the protein trend, putting it in everything now, causing the prices to skyrocket. It used to be dirt cheap."
16. "Skirt steak and London broil. My mom used to buy them because they were super cheap cuts of beef that didn't take hours to cook, like a roast would. Now they're prohibitively expensive. I just looked at a local grocery store's website, and skirt steak is $25 per pound. Why?!"
17. "I'm still mad that I paid $16 for a footlong sub at Subway...didn't even get chips or a drink. I guess it's my fault for not paying attention to the price before I ordered."
18. "The burger was supposed to be a cheap sandwich. Fuck the chefs who think $20 for a burger and no sides is reasonable."
19. "All shellfish, like clams, scallops, and mussels, were considered peasant food back in the day. They were what fishermen ate. Cockroaches of the ocean."
20. "I paid over $4 for a large jar of Jif creamy peanut butter. Jif! And another $4 for a regular-size box of Premium saltine crackers. At Walmart, which is always the cheapest for staples."
21. "Grilled cheese sandwiches. I'm not paying $15 for one in a restaurant. Doesn't matter how many fancy cheeses you put on it. That's a nope for me."
22. "Tins of herring in tomato sauce often had at least one fish with roe. Now the roe is sold separately, and both are out of my price range."
23. "Pork belly. I used to work at a private club, and the older ladies would laugh when I would tell them the special was pork belly. They remembered when it was 'only for the help.' And they did not mind telling me that."
24. "Oysters. They were very much regarded as poor-people food in Victorian times, but are considered very posh now. Also, when I was a child (in the UK), beef was relatively cheap compared to chicken. It's the other way around now."
25. "A freaking quesadilla. You used to be able to get a cheese quesadilla really cheap. Then they started putting chicken and steak in them, and all of a sudden, a simple cheese quesadilla is $7."
26. "Po' boy sandwiches. They were literally invented to feed poor workers originally, but now they seem so pricey whenever you see them sold at a street fair or something."
27. "Halibut cheeks is another one. Ages ago, I dated a fisherman, and he told me how they couldn't even sell halibut cheeks, so the fishermen would keep them for their own family; then it caught on that it was the best part of the halibut."
28. "Taco Bell. It used to be half the price of other fast-food places. Now, it's one of the highest-priced."
"It used to be my go-to in college. Went and got a couple of tacos and a burrito, and the bill was $30."
29. And in general: "Fast-food restaurants. They were supposed to be for low-income families. Now prices have gone up while wages have stayed the same, making it harder to feed your family."
30. "Cube steak in particular. These were never struggle meals, but my mom was super thrifty. I didn't have an 'actual' steak until I was in my teens. She made cube steak because it was inexpensive and tasty. It's not inexpensive anymore."
31. "Beef fajitas, since vaqueros in the old days were paid with it. It used to be a ‘butcher’s cut’ because folks wouldn’t buy it. I grew up eating them, and I enjoyed it. Now, restaurants charge a premium for them, and it’s an occasional treat for me now."
32. "Bone marrow. I was reading Trevor Noah's Born a Crime (great read, highly recommend), and he was reminiscing about how his mother couldn’t afford meat, so she’d pay the butcher for long bones to roast. He found it laughable that it’s all the rage at high-end restaurants now."
33. "Polenta. I had a friend who grew up very poor in Italy, and she hated polenta because it's what they ate most of the time. When it became trendy in the 1990s, she was aghast."
34. "All kinds of animal intestines and organs. We used to buy cheap AF cow tongue, and now it costs seven times what it cost 10 years ago."
35. "Charcuterie boards. A few slices of cheese and meat shouldn’t require a payment plan."
36. "Sour cream in a restaurant! How the hell are you gonna charge me two dollars for a couple of tablespoons when it’s not even an expensive ingredient in the grocery store?"
38. "Movie theater popcorn. It's over $20 for a large now. Popcorn is still, like, 50 cents a pound, so it's all markup. It's always been ridiculous, but they have taken it to another level."
39. "Tomatoes. I always see them listed as 'the easiest to grow' for gardening beginners, yet the heirloom ones are $3 per pound, and the cherry tomatoes are double that price for a pint. It's wild."
40. "They're selling ears of raw corn that you still have to peel yourself for three for $5. CORN. Nah, fam — that shit's supposed to be five for $1. I guess I won't be eating elote this year."
41. "Food trucks. They serve smaller portions but still at a restaurant price, with no service other than cooking the food and handing them out the window. And yet, they're still asking for 15–20% tips."
42. "Stew beef was supposed to be made with the cheap cuts, because it took so long to cook. There was too much connective tissue. Why the fuck is it so expensive? Why are there no cheap cuts anymore?"
43. "Potato chips or corn chip-based products. There's no way they cost that much to make, and I would guess they have an over 400% markup."
44. "A ribeye. I shouldn’t have to get a bank loan just to enjoy a great steak that I barbecue myself."
45. "Cereal. I was craving apple-cinnamon Cheerios last year and looked for them at Target. One box was $9! NINE DOLLARS! It's oats and some sugar. How is that $9?"
46. "Chocolate candy. It went up with tariffs. But the tariffs on cocoa beans, powder, and liquor are gone, so why the heck is it still outrageous?"
47. "Crab. Holy cow! It's the first year I didn't put crab legs in for my annual paella party. That dish is already really expensive to make, but when my partner returned from the market without it, I couldn’t fault him. It was over $60 per pound."
48. "A quart of heavy cream is between $6–9 at my grocery store, depending on the brand. It was, like, $3 prepandemic. I get mad all over again whenever I buy it now."
49. "Run-of-the-mill sushi. A standard roll for $18–28 is wild. Oh, and you added wasabi mayo to that spicy tuna roll, so now it's 28 bucks. Seriously, GTFO."
50. "I love a chai latte, but I exclusively make them at home because I'm not willing to shell out $5–8 for a barista to mix chai concentrate with milk over ice. So basically, coffee shop beverages is my answer."
51. "Appetizers. Sometimes I’m not that hungry, and most places forbid adults from eating from the kids' menu, so I look at the appetizers. Why are they just as expensive as the dang entrees? Also, it's not a lot of food for how expensive the entree is. I may as well get an entree at this point and box the rest up for later."
52. "Deli meats of every kind. They're pure trash with cancer-causing ingredients. They should be banned."
53. And lastly: "I'd say everything at this point. 'Influencers' pretend they discovered a new food, and people start buying it in bulk, which makes the prices go up, and poor people like me can't fucking afford it anymore. Thank god ramen and Arizona tea will always be affordable."
What's a food item that used to be affordable, but is now too expensive to justify? Share your response in this quick anonymous form, or in the comments below!
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
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