I'm not talking about "superfoods" or whatever, I'm talking about being able to buy something more expensive than a $5 meal from McDonalds for dinner.

You can save money by cooking yourself, but that requires you to have access to that stuff in the first place. Many people in the US live in "food deserts" and only have access to whatever they can get on their bimonthly trip to the supermarket on the edge of town. And with stores getting rid of generic versions of foods, prices are increasing dramatically on everyday basics. You can save money and get fresh vegetables by starting a garden, but that expects you to be able to afford to start one, whether you're talking about land or time or tools, even if that garden is just a pot in the window.

And price and quality have always been sort of detached from one another, that's nothing new, but we live in the age of planned obsolescence, and the price doesn't matter anyways if anything other than the cheapest is unaffordable to you.