Kiki Ruff navigates the aisles of Aldi with the ease of a regular and the purpose of a professional. Today’s recipe is for pizza rolls — think cinnamon rolls, but with pepperoni and cheese as a filling and pizza sauce for dipping. She has a mission: give her more than half-a-million followers a recipe that they can make for less than $15 and bring to their holiday potlucks. 

“When you’re invited somewhere, you don’t wanna show up empty handed. But if you’re only working with $10 it becomes, ‘Can I go get the tiniest fruit plate in the world?’” she said. “Embarrassment and shame comes when you can’t meet the means of the other people.”

Ruff grabs cured pepperoni from an endcap advertising charcuterie supplies, but wrinkles her nose at the $9.89 price tag. She assures me we can do better and steers us toward the refrigerated section. Her instincts are correct: The fresh pepperoni is just $2.89, and lower in sodium to boot. Next on our list is pizza dough, then a jar of pasta sauce. 

Ruff has developed a following on TikTok and Instagram — she uses the handle @kikirough — for what she calls “recession recipes,” meals that can be made on a shoestring budget with minimal equipment. 

She was inspired to start the series after seeing a post on her LinkedIn feed. 

“There was someone who popped up on my feed who was talking about how he was in a transitionary period with his job and he couldn't buy granola bars or fruit snacks for his daughters anymore,” she said. “They had to cut the expense and how stressful it was for his daughters.”

Ruff put together a video sharing a recipe for cinnamon toast, and woke the next morning to 90,000 new followers. 

Her target audience is a group she calls “first-time poor” — people who are reckoning with their new economic reality and struggling to put food on the table. 

The latest USDA data shows 18 million Americans are food insecure, up by a million from the previous year. Grocery prices are up by almost 30% over the past few years. Layoffs are at record highs, with more Americans in long-term unemployment.

Ruff says that the first-time poor are eager for resources. “If they're going to a food bank for the first time and they're getting flour and lentils, they're like, ‘Well, I don't bake, and what is a lentil?”

After checking out at Aldi, Ruff returns to her home to record the recipe. Her husband helps her adjust the tripod and lighting as the oven preheats. Once the counter is wiped down and ingredients have been laid out, Ruff begins to record her tutorial. 

The lessons she teaches to her followers were hard earned. After dropping out of college, Ruff worked two minimum wage jobs and relied on food stamps, about $40 a month, to get by. It took a mental and physical toll, “ Not knowing if you're going to be able to eat through the month is super stressful. Having sleep for dinner does not set you up for a good day.” 

After Ruff got a 25-cent raise at her job, she lost her SNAP eligibility.

Then, a friend of Ruff’s bought her a four ingredient cookbook, which she used to make meals from scratch. After Ruff reenrolled in college, she was able to get consistent access to food. 

After a few minutes of prep, and a couple of retakes, Ruff places the pizza rolls onto a well oiled pan and into the oven. 

Today, she works in software technology and shares a home with her husband and their pets. For a little while things felt secure. “Two years ago … a career accomplishment for me was that I could walk in the grocery store and put whatever I wanted in the cart,” she said.

But as the cost of living has increased, Ruff said that’s no longer the case. “I live paycheck to paycheck,” she said.

Ruff estimates that she spends about 20 hours a week producing her recession recipes. She makes some money off of her videos, but the income is highly variable. “ The first month that I released the series, I made $3,000,” she said. “But then the month after that I made $175.” 

She spent that money on necessities like car repairs and fixing her home’s flooded basement. Ruff also financially supports some of her followers. There’s a group of young adults who recently aged out of the foster care system who she corresponds with. “They all cook together and watch my videos together,” she said. “I’m super grateful I was able to send them a gift card for groceries.” 

Twenty minutes later, the rolls are golden brown and cheese is sizzling on the pan. Ruff arranges them on a plate with a ramekin of sauce for dipping. She presents them to the camera, encouraging her viewers to attend their holiday potlucks with pride. After they cool, Ruff will share them with her husband and eat while she edits her next video.