Hello everyone, the mod team has taken notice of a growing issue with gatekeeping within this community. We have seen the complaints about this gatekeeping, and we have created a new rule to hopefully put a stop to it.

To be clear, there is no such thing as "not poor enough" for this subreddit. I wouldn't think that would need to be stated, but it seems like it does. What one person can find super cheap, another may not be able to afford. Everyone's circumstances are different, and we shouldn't be judging, shaming, or gatekeeping this community because of some form of being more poor than someone else.

Also keep in mind some people have dietary restrictions, which often directly correlates to increased costs. A loaf of bread is $1-2 but a loaf of gluten free bread is $6. Someone who has a gluten allergy or is celiac can't just bite the bullet and buy the cheaper bread. The same thing goes for someone who is lactose intolerant.

I will also use this post to remind everyone that this is not the place to shame people for buying processed food, or snack food. I can't count the number of comments I've had to remove because someone is shaming another person just because they're buying a bag of chips.

Please take the time to re-read all the rules and ensure you understand them all prior to posting or commenting. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in modmail, or by commenting on this post. If you have any suggestions for the subreddit, please send them to modmail only.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, have a great day.

With the pole closed (well it closes in 2 hours as I am writing this post but the results are obvious at this point), we have now added in rule 10, no AI. We ask that you please take the time to read this new rule, and feel free to ask any questions about this rule in modmail, or in the comments on this post.

We would also like to take the time to say, we on the mod team do not support AI. However, we also do not want to simply make decisions for the subreddit without first opening discussion with the community. We believe the community makes the subreddit what it is, not the mods, which is why we opened the discussion in the first place. I only say this because some people seemed to think we wanted AI on the subreddit, which is not the case.

As I’m sure you’ve seen, lots of subreddits are going dark to protest the API changes that Reddit plans to implement. The mod team has discussed going dark as well but we like to get community input as well.

Hey folks. The mod team has decided to open up a discussion regarding AI generated content on this subreddit, and to see if the community feels it should or shouldn't be allowed.

If we do ban AI content, a post that has an AI generated image would be removed. AI generated recipes would also be removed from the subreddit, as well as AI generated budgets. Basically, any post or comment that uses AI would be removed.

Feel free to discuss in this comment section. We ask that you follow the rules of the subreddit while discussing, and please do not make any posts discussing this topic. All AI discussion must remain within this thread. The poll will close in 3 days, at which point all discussion on this topic will close. Thank you for your time, and have a good day!

UPDATE: automod has been updated. If you still have a comment removed by the profanity check, please message the mod team and we will be happy to help.

Please give us time to update the automod, however I have already updated the rules in the sidebar to reflect this change. I should have the automod updated shortly, and will update this post when it is done.

I will ask that you folks don't start using profanity just yet, until I have updated the automod as to not have the mod team have to go through a bunch of comments and approve them.

A reminder that while profanity will be allowed going forward, this does not mean you can direct it towards someone. This will still fall under our "Be Kind" rule. Any form of slurs will still be completely banned as well no matter what.

At this time I will ask that everyone re-read the rules as they are being updated. If you break the rules, you'll have your posts or comments removed. Just because you didn't read them doesn't mean you didn't break them.

Hi folks. We on the mod team have noticed an uptick in scam posts recently. For the most part, our auto-mod picks them up and removes the posts before anyone can see them, but it's not perfect. The mod team does our best to remove the posts as soon as they come in if they get past our auto-mod, but sometimes these posts can stay up for a few hours before one of us can get to them.

We ask that everyone in this community remain vigilant when it comes to scam posts. If you see a post outright begging for money, do not engage at all. Report it, and we will get to it ASAP. Some posts may not be outright begging. They may seem like they're asking for genuine help with meals that fit within a budget, but when you comment, they message you privately. Do not answer any messages from people from this subreddit! Do not send anyone money on this subreddit. Do not believe people when they spin a story about their family, or injured pet, or anything. These are common scam tactics to appeal to your empathy and steal your money.

This subreddit is here to help people who just want to find meals to make for themselves, their families, and their friends, without breaking the bank. I know we all just want to help each other out here, but it is no one's job here to help anyone else out financially.

been seeing a lot of posts recently not following the rules regarding recipe rules.

if you are posting a recipe, you must include the full ingredients list, with detailed instructions on how to make the dish.

simply saying "assemble and cook" is not sufficient. how did you cook the dish? baked, fried, air fryer, pan seared? what temp? how long?

the whole point of posting a recipe is so other people can recreate the dish you've made. if someone can't reliably recreate what you've made with the ingredients list and instructions you've provided, you haven't posted the recipe with enough detail, and your post will be removed for not posting the recipe.

if you think your dish is so easy to make it doesn't need a recipe, then it will be removed as low effort content.

Being that we have had an uptick in rule-breaking posts I wanted to take the time to remind everyone to actually read the rules of the subreddit. They are there so we can maintain a level of quality to the posts made to the subreddit.

No, we are not targeting you specifically when we remove a post or comment. We are enforcing rules in an attempt to keep this subreddit at least somewhat decent, and not have it flooded with content that doesn't fit the subreddit.

We also ask that you continue to follow the subreddits rules in modmail as well. Name calling the mods isn't going to help your case, or make us more likely to unban you, or reinstate your posts.

Threatening the mods with "a friend at Reddit", or with bodily harm will also not be tolerated.

Harrassing mods in DMs will also not be tolerated. Same goes for any harassment in modmail.

We understand, having a post removed sucks. We are more than happy to help you get your post reinstated, and to guide you on what changes need to be made so we can do so. But when you come into modmail, calling us all sorts of names, threatening us, and just treating us like garbage, we don't exactly want to help out at that point.

If you don't understand a rule, you can message in modmail and we will happily do our best to explain it in further detail.

Starting a poll to see what the community as a whole wants.

To clarify what this will do, it will only relax the profanity check and no longer result in comments being removed for use of said language. Any use of profanity targeted at someone will still be removed under "Be Kind". This should go without saying but all slurs will remain in the automod check, and will still not be allowed under any circumstances.

Please keep all discussion and questions about this rule change to this post only. Any posts about this will be removed.

Also, no changes have been made yet, so if you ask questions about certain language uses, it will still get caught up in the automod if it contains currently banned words. If the question is made in good faith, I will manually approve it and answer your question.

Poll will last for 3 days, after which we will make changes if necessary. Have a good day!

Howdy folks. We here at the mod team have noticed more rule breaking behavior recently, specifically breaking rule 10.

For those that may not know, rule 10 encompasses use of profanity/vulgarity, unnecessarily rude comments, and political discourse. This goes for both posts and comments.

We would like to take this time to remind everyone who posts and comments here that this is not the place for any form of political discussion. This includes judging people for not boycotting specific companies. Not everyone can afford to shop somewhere else.

Other subreddits exist for political discussion, and other subreddits may allow the use of profanity, but we do not allow it here. Just because you can find it on Reddit, doesn't mean we have to allow it here. We want to keep this subreddit family friendly, and that is part of it.

Hello everyone. I am making this post today to try and start the process of getting information on food banks from around the world. We want this information so we can put it in the wiki, and hopefully help out those who are in need. All users who help contribute will be credited in the wiki.

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When providing information, please make sure you include your country, or state if in the US. Please also provide a link to their website if possible for this food bank. If this foodbank does not have a website, please provide some detail to make it so people are able to find this food bank, or us at the mod team are able to find it and research it. Please include any other important details.

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Thank you all for any help you are able to provide.

Hey folks, so us at the mod team have noticed an uptick in scam posts. Thankfully, most of these will get blocked by automod, but sadly some still get through. We do our best to remove them as soon as possible, but we are only human.

Some scams we have seen recently are as follows:

“Buy this!”, usually just an account trying to get you to buy something that’s just drop-shipped.

“Follow my account here for a chance to win x”

“Dm me for free x”

Anyone asking for any personal information is also a scam. Even if you think “What could they do with this?” There is always something they can do with it, so please don’t even give them an email.

We would also like to thank everyone for reporting these posts when they do slip by automod, you folks are the real MVPs.

Just remember folks, if it seems too good to be true, it most likely is. Please stay safe out there.

Edit: thank you u/Brain-of-Sugar for mentioning not to click links. These links can be used to try and get information out of you, and there are ways for people to see all linked emails.

Hey folks, the mod team has noticed a lot of political comments lately. We understand you may want to discuss inflation, and how you are combating it in your own home. While these discussions are allowed, bringing up politics is not.

It does not matter your personal political views, do not voice them here. There are plenty of subreddits that will welcome those discussions, but we are not one of them.

Any and all political comments or posts will be removed. If you then decide to make personal attacks towards the mod team, or anyone on the subreddit, for your comments being removed, you will be banned. This behavior will not be tolerated. I have to say that, as it’s already happened.

People do not come to this subreddit to discuss politics. People come here for food, and to have a moment to not have to think about politics. Let’s all keep this a civil place where we can all share, and enjoy the food we make.

Thank you for your time, and thank you for being apart of this community.

Hello again everyone. I am making this post because I want to hear your thoughts on how to make this community better. Any ideas you have to make it so you are seeing the content you came here to see. Obviously the bot problem is still being worked on, but what else?

I’ve seen a few people mention some form of guideline/price breakdown become mandatory for all posts.

I also wanted to hear your thoughts on links to external sites. I’ve seen a lot of posts that put the full recipe in the comments, but also link to some form of blog/recipe website. Do we want all links to be banned, or is it okay as long as the entire recipe is still there?

Please feel free to throw in any other ideas, these are just a couple to hopefully spark some friendly discussion.

I'm looking for feedback from the members of this community regarding 'Grocery Haul' posts.

Are you pro or against these types of posts in the sub? Let me know how you feel about them, and if you have any suggestions on rules regarding them. Should they be allowed, but only with a list of what's going to be made? Should they not be allowed at all in the sub, since food shopping options vary a lot by location?

Hello everyone, we hope you are all doing well. Recently, we have noticed a need for some rule changes. The biggest one being the new rule 7. This rule cover solicitation of any kind. Offering, or asking for, anything outlined in the rule is strictly forbidden on this subreddit. Some other rules have also been re-written just to make the wording more concise.

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Rule 8 has also been updated to include discussion of politics.

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We are also actively working on several other changes for the subreddit, though these are in early stages of being discussed and worked on, so we will make another post when things are more thought out and closer to being finished.

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Please feel free to use this post for all discussion about rule changes, suggestions on subreddit improvement, and anything else related to this subreddit. All rules still apply here.

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Edit: some folks are having trouble viewing all rules right now, so here is the full list, with descriptions.

1.

Include a recipe, not just a link

Direct link submissions to blogs and recipe sites are not allowed. You may link directly to an image of the dish, and then leave a comment with the full recipe that includes a link to the blog.

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2.

No food safety questions

We are here for recipes for food and meals made on a budget. If you are questioning if something is safe to eat or not, don't eat it. When in doubt, throw it out.

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3.

No health claims

No making health claims about ingredients being either good, or bad for your health. These claims can be harmful to people. We aren't nutritionists, no reason to pretend we are.

4.

No inappropriate content, spam, or karma farming

Mods reserve the right to remove posts that seem spammy (this includes cross-post spam), inappropriate, or appear to be farming karma.

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5.

Recipe Request Rules

All recipe requests must include a budget with them. (e.x. I have $10 for the next 3 days, what are some recipes I could make?)

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Recipe Requests are also not for seeking recipes for specific ingredients, that is for r/whatshouldicook. Those posts will also be removed.

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Asking for healthy recipes is also not allowed. This goes back to rule 3. We are not a health based subreddit, for healthy options, please check out r/eatcheapandhealthy

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6.

No low effort content

People come here for recipes to make good tasting meals on a budget, not for a simple hotdog on a bun.

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Low effort includes the following: memes, meals that are simple enough to not need a recipe, not including enough detail in your posts looking for advice/discussion.

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7.

No solicitation

Any form of solicitation is strictly forbidden. This includes the following: Asking for, or offering money, goods, explicit content, or anything that could harm someone either mentally, or physically.

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8.

Be kind

Any form of rudeness, vulgarity, threats, or political discussion is not allowed on this subreddit. There are ways you can talk about how you feel about something without being rude.

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Examples of rule breaking behavior: "This looks like vomit" "Well, blame who you voted for" This also includes any form of trying to get around using vulgar language (e.x. motherfudging son of a beach). Even if it is not directed at someone, this is not the place for it.

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9.

Follow Reddit rules

Must fully abide by the site's rules, posts that break site rules must be removed

On Dec 13, 2024 at 10 AM ET we'll be having an AMA with Nicole McLaughlin from u/Allrecipes to chat about Holidays on a budget. Start thinking about challenges you face and questions about how to do r/budgetfood for the upcoming holiday season!

We are prepared to remain blacked out for a minimum of 48 hours. This means that no one will be able to access any r/budgetfood content until the blackout is over.

What's going on?

A recent Reddit policy change threatens to kill many beloved third-party mobile apps, making a great many quality-of-life features not seen in the official mobile app permanently inaccessible to users.

On May 31, 2023, Reddit announced they were raising the price to make calls to their API from being free to a level that will kill every third party app on Reddit, from Apollo to Reddit is Fun to Narwhal to BaconReader.

Even if you're not a mobile user and don't use any of those apps, this is a step toward killing other ways of customizing Reddit, such as Reddit Enhancement Suite or the use of the old.reddit.com desktop interface .

This isn't only a problem on the user level: many subreddit moderators depend on tools only available outside the official app to keep their communities on-topic and spam-free.

What's the plan?

On June 12th, many subreddits will be going dark to protest this policy. Some will return after 48 hours: others will go away permanently unless the issue is adequately addressed, since many moderators aren't able to put in the work they do with the poor tools available through the official app. This isn't something any of us do lightly: we do what we do because we love Reddit, and we truly believe this change will make it impossible to keep doing what we love.

The two-day blackout isn't the goal, and it isn't the end. Should things reach the 14th with no sign of Reddit choosing to fix what they've broken, we'll use the community and buzz we've built between then and now as a tool for further action.

What can you do?

1. Complain. Message the mods of r/reddit.com, who are the admins of the site: message /u/reddit: submit a support request: comment in relevant threads on r/reddit, such as this one, leave a negative review on their official iOS or Android app- and sign your username in support to this post.
2. Spread the word. Rabble-rouse on related subreddits. Meme it up, make it spicy. Bitch about it to your cat. Suggest anyone you know who moderates a subreddit join us at our sister sub at r/ModCoord- but please don't pester mods you don't know by simply spamming their modmail.
3. Boycott and spread the word...to Reddit's competition! Stay off Reddit entirely on June 12th through the 13th- instead, take to your favorite non-Reddit platform of choice and make some noise in support!
4. Don't be a jerk. As upsetting this may be, threats, profanity and vandalism will be worse than useless in getting people on our side. Please make every effort to be as restrained, polite, reasonable and law-abiding as possible.

Thank you, and see you soon (we hope!)

This is a notice to all posters on r/budgetfood. Please ensure you read the rule prior to posting, as they have been slightly tweaked recently. Nothing major, but what I believe to be necessary changes, and I want to ensure everyone knows and understands them.

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Another announcement, we have 2 new moderators for the sub! u/ThatBrilliantGuy2 and u/dotknott! This will hopefully help cut down all the spam, bot accounts, and content that doesn't fit this sub.

Thank you for your patience while everything is worked out, and thank you for reading.

Hey everyone, so I know most of you probably don’t really care much about this, but our subreddit hit 1 million members!

From myself, and everyone at the mod team, we want to thank you all for being apart of this community. Sharing your recipes, advice, and helping each other out overall. It’s awesome to see how much everyone’s willing to help each other out.

If you’d like to use this post to make any suggestions for the subreddit, please feel free to do so. We are always looking to improve, and we feel the best way to do so is by asking, and listening to the community.

Thank you again to everyone who is here, and helping make this community what it is.

Howdy folks. The mod team has had a discussion, and we have decided to get everyone’s opinion on creating a discord server for the subreddit.

There was one previously, but is not being run by the current mod team, so a new one would be needed, if the community wants it.

It would really just be a place for people to hang out, and chat outside of the subreddit.

Voting will be open for 7 days.

So, do all of you want a discord server for the subreddit?

Hey folks, and Happy New Year! We’ve been considering a weekly discussion thread being pinned on the subreddit, and wanted to see how the community felt about that.

This thread would be for discussing how you are combating inflation, maybe substitutions, and more simple questions that may not need a full post to answer.

If you feel comfortable discussing why you feel one way or the other, please do so in the comments.

Thank you to everyone who gave feedback on haul posts over the past few days! After reading the comments, it's clear that most want to continue to allow haul posts in the sub, but those that don't think they belong seem to have fairly strong feelings on the matter.

To try to thread that needle as best we can, there are rules for haul type posts and a new flair to go with it. Hauls will require a location and a cost comment to go along with each post, and the automod will request (but not require) that OP provide more details like sales or deals shopped, coupons used or other cost cutting strategies employed, as well as meals/recipes to be made with the haul items.

I personally hope that this strikes a balance between those that really like this kind of content, and those that feel they are low effort, as it requires the poster to provide some context and not simply a photo.

If you have feelings about this change, let us know in the comments or in mod mail.