Cash-strapped Tehranis are skipping meals, selling assets, and buying basic goods on credit as prices soar and jobs vanish.
The unchecked inflation and mass layoffs currently endured by ordinary Iranians are only the most obvious economic effects of the war with the US and Israel, which amplified the corrosion caused by years of governmental mismanagement. The most pressing second-order effect is that basic groceries are turning into luxuries for millions of Iranians. The urban consumer price index marked an increase in May of 77 percent year-on-year, close to the highest recorded in the Islamic Republic era, according to Central Bank data. The result is a sharp decline in household purchasing power and worsening food insecurity nationwide.
Just over a year ago, in the spring of 2025, one million tomans (then roughly $10 USD) could purchase a kilogram’s worth of veal shank, two kilos of chicken meat, one liter of cooking oil, one liter each of whole and low-fat milk, 400 grams of cheese, and a half kilo of sugar. As spring 2026 comes to a close, “you can barely buy anything,” Nasrin, a mother of two from Tehran, told Resanegar, Tehran Bureau’s economic unit. One million tomans is now just “enough for two cartons of milk and a pack of cheese.” (Iran’s monthly minimum base wage, as set in March, is 16.6 million tomans. With state-mandated housing, food, and other allowances, the minimum compensation package for private-sector workers is 21.8 million tomans per month—currently $140 at free-market currency exchanges, per Bonbast.com.)
The government has sought to contain public anger by distributing food vouchers while making assurances that, despite the cutoff of most imports due to the war, domestic supply chains remain intact. Regardless, the surge in prices is pushing nutritious foods beyond the reach of many households and amplifying concerns about hidden hunger.
Since internet access was restored after a regime-imposed blackout that lasted almost 90 days, social media has been filled with videos documenting the rapid rise in food prices and the growing strain on household budgets.
In 2019, a five-kilogram household tin of cooking oil cost about 36,000 tomans. Earlier this week, according to one instagram user, the same size tin cost 2.35 million tomans, more than 65 times higher than seven years ago. A commenter reported recently paying 2.7 million tomans for the same item.
Ten years ago, an eight-kilogram carton of oranges cost 10,000 tomans at wholesale. Today, a single kilo sells for between 95,000 and 148,000 tomans, putting the wholesale price of eight kilos at between 760,000 and 1.18 million tomans.
In a video posted on April 29, one Iranian user told his followers that instead of investing in foreign currency or gold, they should invest in food. He noted that the price of a can of tuna had risen from 200,000 tomans in Farvardin (March–April) to 235,000 tomans in Ordibehesht (April–May).
Ultraprocessed foods are hardly immune. A supermarket worker on the night shift, who has documented rising prices for months on Instagram, in a May 31 post expressed outrage that a Magnum ice cream bar, “not even as long as one of my fingers,” now cost 200,000 tomans.
On June 1, a shop owner reported on Instagram that the price of a liter of Pepsi had jumped from 65,000 tomans to 115,000 tomans in just two months. He said a company representative had warned him that prices would likely rise again with the next delivery.
“The war is over, but missiles are still targeting people’s dinner tables. People are being crushed under economic pressure. Whatever you buy today costs double tomorrow. You can’t blame this on other countries,” he said, gesturing toward rows of soda bottles. “This is your mismanagement.”
Iranians were suffering runaway grocery inflation even before the war. A typical tray of 30 eggs that cost 70,000 tomans last September reached 300,000 tomans in December and passed 500,000 tomans in January.
Soaring food prices are increasingly becoming a public health concern. Dairy consumption has fallen from approximately 55–60 kilograms per person per year to just 40 kilograms, around one-quarter of the global average, according to Ali Ehsan Nazari, head of the Dairy Cooperatives Union. He cites inflation as the unequivocal cause, with dairy products becoming roughly 90 percent more expensive over the past year after the government raised the price of raw milk from 46,000 tomans per kilogram to 61,000 tomans.
If prices continue to rise, Nazari warned, purchasing dairy products will “no longer make economic sense” for a large segment of the population. Beyond deepening the economic crisis and threatening small and medium-sized producers, there are concerns that the decline in dairy consumption could lead to increases in malnutrition, osteoporosis, and developmental problems.
Choosing what to cut out next
To contain growing economic discontent, the Islamic Republic has rolled out an electronic food voucher program targeting lower-income households and the families of military personnel. The scheme was first announced on January 5, one week after nationwide protests erupted over the cost of living and a day before security forces launched a deadly crackdown on demonstrators.
The Ministry of Welfare said four million tomans each had been deposited into the accounts of 80 million Iranians to cover the final three months of the Persian year 1404 and the first month of 1405 (which began on March 21). Rather than continuing subsidies for importers and producers of essential goods, the Pezeshkian administration and parliament agreed to provide direct monthly support of one million tomans per person, according to state news media.
Officials said the vouchers could be used to purchase staple foods including chicken, eggs, red meat, legumes, sugar, cooking oil, pasta, rice, milk, yogurt, and cheese from 260,000 participating stores. Alternatively, recipients could choose a fixed package of basic food items.
But as inflation accelerates, the value of the vouchers has rapidly eroded. Conflicting reports continue to circulate over whether the monthly allocation will be increased. On June 3, Welfare Minister Ahmad Meydari said June vouchers would be distributed “in the same manner as previous months,” indicating that there would be no immediate increase. Two days later, the government announced that the upcoming round of vouchers would include a 10 percent discount on dairy products from one leading producer. On June 8, government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani acknowledged that while “the government would like to increase the value of the vouchers,” doing so was “not currently feasible.”
For many families, the support no longer covers even a fraction of their monthly food needs.
“With two million tomans, which is the subsidy for two people, you can buy maybe 750 grams of meat, and part of that is fat and scraps you have to throw away. That’s enough for maybe two meals,” Nasrin told Resanegar. “And food isn’t just meat. You still need herbs, vegetables, eggplants, and everything else.”
“We’re constantly thinking about what we can cut out next,” she added. “A lot of people have practically eliminated meat because they genuinely can’t afford it anymore. Even if they manage to buy one kilo with their subsidies, that has to last them the entire month. A tray of eggs costs 850,000 tomans. Yesterday I bought two cartons of milk for 400,000 tomans.”
The Great Depression Cookbook
As prices continue to rise and wages fail to keep pace, more households are being pushed into a permanent state of economic survival. Life under the Islamic Republic has become an endless cycle of adaptation, hardship, sacrifice, and decline. For many households, non-essential goods and services such as travel, restaurant meals, new clothes, and cultural activities are gradually disappearing from family budgets. Major life decisions, from buying a car or upgrading a home to getting married or having children, are being postponed indefinitely. As food, housing, and utility costs consume an ever-larger share of household income, little remains for discretionary spending.
On social media, the growing appetite for “depression-era” recipes is a sign of how strained household finances have become. Influencers and ordinary users share recipes that eliminate or drastically reduce costly ingredients such as oil, meat, eggs, and butter. Videos for oil-free cookies, “economic” eggless biscuits, “10,000-to-20,000”-toman homemade cheese puffs, kids’ snacks made with a few tablespoons of flour and a pea-sized amount of cooking oil, and meatless stews regularly attract large audiences. The trend reflects a society searching for ways to maintain daily routines while spending as little as possible on food.
To preserve a semblance of normalcy amid crushing postwar inflation, many people now share a single drink or snack at cafés as a cost-cutting measure so they can still afford to go out, Resanegar recently reported. Life goes on, but with great difficulty.
According to the latest data from the Statistical Center of Iran, lower-income households are bearing the brunt of economic pressure. The data show that year-on-year direct cost-of-living inflation for the second decile of income earners reached 96 percent in April–May (Ordibehesht), while it stood at 81.6 percent for the tenth decile, the highest-earning income bracket.
Many families were already struggling to keep up with expenses before the recent price hikes. A recent investigative report by Shargh newspaper found that even two-income households, who previously used one income for bills, rent, and loan repayments and the other for daily expenses, now use up their money within two weeks of the end-of-month payday.
“I’m constantly worried about running out of money,” Nasrin, the mother of two, told Resanegar. “I keep asking myself, ‘What if the money runs out before the end of the month?’ I’m genuinely terrified of not making it to the end of the month financially. God knows what people who have to pay rent are doing.”
More people are drawing down their savings or selling their gold coins and jewelry, assets they had counted on for a measure of financial security, simply to cover daily expenses. Many Iranians who, under normal circumstances, might have taken out loans to buy a house, pay for a child’s education, or invest in a business are now relying on loans to finance their day-to-day survival.
Ice cream on credit
As household buffers disappear, attention is turning to income. But with layoffs in almost every line of work across the country, many workers say they are afraid to ask for raises even as inflation steadily erodes the value of their wages.
“We have to constantly worry about what will become more expensive tomorrow. Our incomes are fixed, and we may not even be able to afford what we have today tomorrow,” Farideh, a bank teller, told Resanegar. Food that a year ago might have constituted a single meal, Tehranis now “stretch into two or three meals. The situation is really very difficult.”
The cost of some medications has also become prohibitively expensive, forcing people to go without them, Farideh added. “People are cutting costs everywhere they can.”
Arvand, an office worker from Tehran, said his two eczema creams have increased from 220,000 and 250,000 tomans before the war to 447,000 and 780,000 tomans, respectively. “One of my friends had a serious condition; he had to pay seven million tomans for his medication.” For context, in his peer group, he explained, monthly “salaries are generally around 30 million tomans.” For his family of three, ”basic food and everyday household expenses alone come to about 50 million tomans per month.”
Nasrin said that when she had guests over recently, she could buy only a half kilo each of cherries and apricots, “and it still came to 950,000 tomans. Even the transport to the market and back costs nearly 120,000 tomans. I have not yet turned to buying on credit, but I feel I may soon have no choice.”
Buying food on credit has become increasingly common, while reports of petty theft and the gradual disappearance of even basic items from household shopping lists point to a broader deterioration in living standards.
One young woman said she was forced, for the first time since moving to Tehran, to buy cooking oil on credit. She and her roommates now divide grocery purchases between them, each putting a different item on their tab to avoid drawing attention from the local shopkeeper.
“I understand people’s situation. When I see someone who is truly in need taking bread or canned food, I don’t react and let it go. But the number of these incidents increased so much that it was no longer financially viable for me either,” a shopkeeper in eastern Tehran told Shargh. “I had to collect all the canned tuna and move them behind the counter, out of customers’ reach. But I still keep bread outside the shop so that if someone is truly hungry and has no money, they can take it.”
A baker, meanwhile, said even some office workers have started asking for “half a bread” because they can no longer afford a whole sangak. A fruit vendor told the paper that customers increasingly ask for a single apple or orange instead of buying fruit by the kilo.
Arvand, the office worker, observed that “installment payments have become common across almost every business. Shoes, clothes, gold…even healthcare services. You can now buy ice cream on credit.”