Shopper buys a week’s worth of groceries from Dollar Tree

“I have a $35 budget to see if I can buy groceries for a week from Dollar Tree,” she says at the beginning of the video.

The TikToker walks into the store and scours the aisles looking for the best bang for her buck. “Last month I did a similar series of videos but this time I spent $27.50 and this time I’m spending $35. That way I have more wiggle room to include more snacks as I missed last time the most. Plus $35 is about $5 a day, and I still think that’s a relatively reasonable price to feed a single person,” she says.

She then explains the requirements she places on these cheap grocery shopping clips: All products must be purchased during the same trip at the same store, meaning there are no multiple stops throughout the week. “As is usual with all of my budget food videos, I only shop at one dollar tree on any given day, and the only things I can use from home are oil, salt and pepper. Another thing I do differently than other budget content creators is that I try to remember that not everyone on a budget necessarily has to spend hours at a time in the kitchen cooking food.” , she adds.

Towards the end of the video, she emphasizes how much she pays attention to the nomenclature she uses when creating these TikToks: “And a final note is that I don’t like labeling these videos as a challenge because someone out there only has $35 a week spending on food, and this is geared towards helping those people, so I feel like calling it a challenge sometimes makes a game out of someone’s lifestyle. With all that said, welcome to Budget Food Week #2,” she says.

At the end of the video, she shows all the groceries she was able to put away, and the grand total came to $36.61. The 16-ounce can of Diet Coke at the end of the clip was something of a treat she gives herself at the end of a shopping spree, and other than that it would have been right at the $35 mark for a solid 28 items that includes beef patties , mozzarella cheese, beans, mixed veggies, breakfast sausage rolls, black beans, corn tortillas, diced tomatoes, taco seasoning mix, soup stock cubes, hazelnut spread, pasta, light powdered lemonade mix, rice, and a bunch of other foods.

Many commenters applauded TikToker for reinforcing the idea that “accessible” food isn’t necessarily bad, and thanked it for trying to remove the stigma of grocery shopping at the Dollar Tree.

“These videos bring tears to my eyes. $35 is dinner at Chilis for some, while others may need to stretch it a week or more. thanks for that,” wrote one commenter. Another said: “You’re always so thoughtful the way you talk about people. I appreciate that very much.”

@dollartreedinners also said that after making videos about grocery shopping on a budget, it has become a lot harder to eat out in restaurants, especially when she sees how much more food she can buy at home than she can eat out, and wrote: “I’m now very seriously struggling with the concept of eating out. This channel has drastically changed the way I look at it.”

For other TikTokers, their content fits perfectly with the rising cost of inflation that has pushed up food prices.

The Daily Dot contacted Dollar Tree via email and @dollartreedinners via TikTok comment.

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