$500ish per month for a single person working full time, mostly Safeway but some items from the farmer's market, Yes Organic, and Imperfect Foods delivery (can be much cheaper if I'm good about meal prepping). It's gotten harder to save money/plan since I started having to go back into the office and since I've been dating more again post-covid, TBH. I got by with like $200/month in 2019 in grad school. I'm also admittedly someone who is a bit of an ingredient snob and tries not to eat any highly preserved foods, so that increases my costs.

Also a side note - DC has some of the worst kitchens/tiniest dysfunctional fridges/freezers I've ever had! It's been hard to meal prep bc there's little storage room or space to freeze meals like in prior apartments, so that's made it much harder. That being said, I live in a tiny basement apartment to save on rent for now, so it's a trade off.

But - down with food shaming. Living in this city is hard and we all have different lifestyles.