#it probably takes you twice as long to dice and onion and way more brainpower

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Where do you live and where do you shop because spam's whole thing my whole life is that it's the poor people's meat.

Oregon and safeway. Looking online, I don't think it's marked up. I just wait out big sales on nicer meat and freeze that shit. A 12 pack of spam on amazon is 3.68 a pound. A two pack of spam at walmart is 4.77 a pound. Chicken breasts and thighs from safeway butcher block are on sale for 2 dollars a pound right now. Got bone in pork chops for 77 cents a pound for a saint patty's day sale. The cheapest I've seen spam on sale is 2.84 a pound. I figured I'd get some at that price. But that week, I bought 3 pounds of medium-quality bacon at 2.77 a pound instead. I cut most of it in half, then plastic wrapped and froze it in chunks of 10 half-pieces of bacon. Packing it took about 10 mins. Lasted me months. Safeway has a meat sale almost every week tbh. Something is on sale for cheaper than spam most of the time. Preparing those meats might take "more work", except... it doesn't. Rub a chicken breast with olive oil and slap paprika, salt, and pepper on that bad boy. Put it on tinfoil on a sheet pan. Bake it. 0 dishes. Takes about 25 mins. 3 mins of labor. You have to thaw it the night before, maybe. Making spam taste good means making rice and pan frying at the minimum(unless you know smth I don't) or some kinda sandwich, which uses more spoons than oven baked chicken. For me, at least. In conclusion, I have no idea why spam is the "poor people's meat". Maybe it used to be, but it isn't actually cheaper! Is it just coasting on its reputation? To me, the only benefit is that it's pre-cooked and lasts forever without freezing. Also, spam musubi is yummy. Spam, as far as I can tell, is something you buy because you like it. Not because it's cheap. Also, on a $2 a pound sale, one chicken breast with rice is about the same price as top ramen with an egg cracked in.

IMO, paying attention to sales is the best poor people's meat. I just browse the safeway app from my bed. And safeway isn't even a particularly cheap grocery store? I think their sales are just pretty good and easy to navigate. I hope someone out there gets some benefit from my budgeting essay haha. But frfr do your math and scope things out. You might be surprised what you'll find.