Guides

The USDA publishes what US grocers actually advertised each week. This explains what those reports contain, what they leave out, how we join them to a catalog of tracked items, and why an advertised price is not the same as the price on the shelf.

Weather, fuel, disease, holidays, and the promotional calendar all push retail food prices around, and they work on very different timescales. A guide to telling a real supply shift from a two-week promotion.

Bone, trim, and shrinkage mean the weight on the label is not the weight on the plate. Practical per-person quantities for meat, produce, and staples, with the yield figures behind them.

Price per pound is a poor guide to beef because cuts lose wildly different amounts to bone and rendering. A ranking of the cuts we track by cost per pound of cooked meat, and which ones are worth their price.

Seasonal eating is good advice that does not help in February. These vegetables are inexpensive in every month, keep for weeks, and carry a week of cooking on their own.

Most food waste at home is produce that was stored the way it was displayed. What actually shortens the life of fruit and vegetables — ethylene, moisture, and cold damage — and what to do about each.

Freezing is the cheapest way to make a produce sale last, but it ruins some things and improves others. The rule is water content and cell structure, and once you know it you can predict any item.

Grades, percentages, sell-by dates, "enhanced" and "previously frozen", and the difference between the cut name and what is actually in the package. What on a meat label is regulated and what is marketing.

A whole chicken is usually the cheapest chicken in the shop and the least convenient. This is the eight-cut breakdown and three meals plus stock from a single four-pound bird, with the arithmetic.

Eggs, dried beans, lentils, dairy, and grains, compared on cost per gram of protein against the meat we track. Where the plant options genuinely win, and where the convenient versions give the saving back.

Eggs, butter, beef, and limes all have a history of doubling in price over a few months. How to recognise a spike, how long they usually last, and what to substitute while you wait.

Cheap vegetables only save money if they become meals. A short list of shelf-stable things that turn whatever is on sale into dinner without a special trip, and why acid and fat matter more than recipes.

Produce and meat are packaged for families, and the per-unit savings assume you eat all of it. Practical ways to buy the cheaper large format and actually finish it, without eating the same meal five nights running.

Price per pound is the wrong number for comparing proteins. This ranks every cut we track by grams of protein per dollar, using this week’s USDA prices and FoodData Central macros — and explains why the ranking rarely changes.

What a supermarket circular is actually for, how loss leaders work, why the advertised price is not the shelf price, and how to plan a week of meals around the ad instead of against it.

A transparent walkthrough of how SeasonSort turns USDA retail price data into a per-serving cost for produce, meat, and recipes — including what's exact, what's estimated, and where we can be wrong.

A month-by-month US produce calendar built from the same seasonality data that powers SeasonSort — including why "in season" and "cheap" are not the same thing.

A practical method for putting protein, vegetables, and a carb on the plate without overspending — using in-season produce and the cheapest protein of the week.