Dare we discuss the price of groceries lately?? Have you been cutting corners?

[NMDemDist2]

giving up beloved specialty items because of the cost? How is the rise in food costs affecting your buying habits and menus?

So far, I've just been watching the sales and absorbing the increases, but wow!

[eleny]

1. Yes

My budget is not the tightest. But one change I've made is to consistently go to the Oroweat bread store and refrigerate the breads. I can get 3 loaves for the price of one at the supermarket and keep them refrigerated. Also, I'm saving bones for soup religiously. My market marks down milk products way early, so I don't hesitate to buy a gallon of organic milk for 2 bucks or a tub of lowfat cottage chesse for $1.50. And I'm quitting sliced cold cuts and buying lean roasts on sale to make our own. They taste better anyway. I'm avoiding convenience foods.

We're going to plant a small garden - just tomatoes and green beans. But I have to wait till end of May. Can you believe that it's snowing here today? Not much but it's the white stuff.

[NMDemDist2]

2. I planted a garden too

and I'm making everything from scratch

oh and BTW I can't go to Las Cruces to run for delegate, my step mom in Shreveport is having surgery so I'm heading east not west this week

:cry:

She'll be fine, but it's foot surgery and she'll be laid up for a few days and lives alone, so I get to drive across Texas tomorrow

[eleny]

4. You always have your heart in the right place

One thing I know, with your being there, she'll mend faster.

[NMDemDist2]

5. Family is more important than the Democrats

but not much LOL

and I' don't know how fast she'll heal with me sitting on her head trying to keep her off that foot

:evilgrin:

[stellanoir]

8. It's not nice to sit on your mom's head silly.

Hope she heals up quickly though.

I just haven't been going to the store. My kid keeps stealing my car. I keep saying that but it's not fair as he asks for permission every single time. I always say "yes."

Before he got his license I had already cut back though. I used to go out for one singular thing. Now I wait and try to be more organized because of the excessive cost of gas and groceries.

They are like 35 to 50 bucks a bag now.

Aren't we pleased as punch to have supposedly elected these oily ones and to have invaded Iraq?

/sarcasm

Hope your mom is well. Just lay off her head please.

:hug:

[NMDemDist2]

9. you don't know her

:rofl:

but she promised to not be stubborn

but I'm not holding my breath

:evilgrin:

[Warpy]

10. Don't sit on her!

Let her get off her butt and do whatever she can tolerate. If she wants to sit there like King Farouk while you wait on her hand and foot, make sure everything is just out of reach so she'll have to get up.

Letting her sit there leads to pneumonia and blood clots.

[NMDemDist2]

13. she's a nurse and it's a fairly mild procedure thankfully

they are fixing her hammer toes and a wire is involved over the top somehow

she'll push until it hurts I'm sure, I'm just there to cook for her and make sure she doesn't feel like she has to overdo

[stellanoir]

11. My dad has gout and has been suffering with it.

A dear friend has been a body worker since the 70's, and has helped people by advising them to take apple cider vinegar every morning.

I kept recommending foot baths with Epsom's Salts and baking soda and he resisted for about a month.

Finally he succumbed and said they actually helped. He's taking the apple cider vinegar now too.

It's amazing.

He's really got to talk to my friend.

She's more experienced in this matter than I.

[Tektonik]

3. I've cut back on dairy

Also when I eat out, I always use coupons or shop whatever special the place has.

[NMDemDist2]

16. unfortunately that's one I can't cut back on much

but I notice I'm buying less cheese and when I do buy it it's the sale and not exotic stuff

[Stinky The Clown]

6. Food is our only indulgence

We don't take vacations.

We don't eat out very much (we actually prefer our own cooking to what we can get in restaurants).

Apart from wine, we don't drink.

We don't smoke .... anything.

We eat pretty healthy.

We don't eat an overabundance of protein ($$$).

So quality ingredients and nice meals are our pleasure.

[eleny]

12. You two sound like us

I'm really looking forward to eating out at our favorite al fresco restaurant - our yard. :D

[Stinky The Clown]

18. Hahaha

We were JUST talking about that a few minutes ago ......

It will be in the low to mid seventies for the rest of the week. Tomorrow I am going to power wash the deck and deck furniture and install the outdoor teevee.

[NMDemDist2]

14. ours too, unless you count the DishNetwork bill

since there's not a decent movie house in town.

but I still am in shock at how high staples have risen

[htuttle]

7. When times are tough, I reach for the potatoes more often...probably a genetic impulse

We don't each much red meat ever. I switched to using chicken thighs instead of breasts, and found we liked the taste better anyway. I can typically get three plates of food out of two chicken thighs (prepared with other stuff, like curry, kabobs, rice, etc...), so dinner usually costs around $4 or less for two, with enough left overs for lunch at work the next day..

I don't think I buy any prepared food anymore. I make almost everything from scratch nowadays.

[NMDemDist2]

17. I finally brought hubby around on dark meat chicken too

and I'm making lots of taters too

got a great deal on BIG bakers the other day 8 for a $1 from a local producer

:bounce:

[hippywife]

15. Not cutting too many corners yet but

I'm going to have to start going back to Aldi's for staples and bread. I spent $116 and change at the store last Friday. Granted I did get a few specialty items because we were having the MIL and SIL for lunch on Sunday, but still! And that is making everything from scratch, except for the jar of Melissa's Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto (I just can't make that myself yet.) I also have an order to pick up from the co-op tomorrow night.

We're like Stinky and Sparkly. We don't eat out but rarely and cooking is our only recreation, really. We do like our own meals better, too.

And there's only two of us, two dogs, and one cat! I have no idea how families with children are making it at all.

I really hope you have a good visit with your step-mom and she recovers well from her surgery. :hi: :hug:

[NMDemDist2]

19. I used to spent about $60 a week at the grocery store and another $15-20 at the butcher

now it's hard to get out of the grocery store for less than $100

thankfully the butcher store hasn't gone up.

[hippywife]

20. I am really going to have to cut down

at the grocery and start keeping it more simple. I hate to have to do that but I'd really rather spend my money at the co-op where at least I have a handle on the producers and most of it is organic.

Oh, and we just went out and looked at the garden! Stuff is coming up! :bounce: :woohoo:

[NMDemDist2]

21. yay! I don't think this round of broccoli is gonna make it

the wind keeps laying it down and it's not happy. I'll have to try it again in the fall

but everything else is doing good, hope they survive with hubby watching em for a week :rofl:

[grasswire]

22. no sliced deli turkey this week for lunches

I just can't justify $7 per pound anymore. I actually gave the teenagers peanut butter sandwiches in their lunch today. The girl was so horrified that she gave hers away to a friend. Tomorrow I'm going to send cheese and veggie sammiches. We'll see what happens then. I recall when I was a little girl and times were tight my mom sent me with just lettuce and mayo sandwiches, or even just that sandwich spread with the pickle relish in it.

Anyway, I'm trying to trim back simply because I know it's going to get worse soon. I've stockpiled about 30 pounds of flour in the freezer, but that really is an insignificant act. I need to lay in some lentils, beans, barley, rice, etc., and start thinking seriously about what to do.

My local newspaper's food section yesterday featured four families who took a challenge to cut their food budget by 25 percent. I was a little bit peeved at the fact that the four families were all white middle class people. I thought it might be more interesting to have an Asian immigrant family and a Russian immigrant family and some people of color.

[eleny]

23. Keep a lookout for good prices on whole turkey breast

I have one in the freezer and will thaw it out soon. It was less than 2 bucks a pound. We love turkey sandwiches. Home baked turkey breast is a better flavor in my book. And then there's dem bones for broth, at least, as a bonus.

Good luck with keeping the kids happy. Peanut butter really is delicious.

[grasswire]

24. I have a turkey in the freezer...

...and will be happy to pull it out in a few more weeks. I could afford to buy the deli turkey for now, but just don't want to do that any more because it really is an outrageous price. Why $7 per pound? And that's the store brand!

[Stinky The Clown]

27. We bought one of these Waring Pro slicers for less than a hundred bux .......

It may well be a good investment for everyone. With it, you can buy bulk cheese and roast meats and make your own cold cuts that would be cheaper *and* better quality than from the deli counter.

Cheeses of all sorts

Sliced ham

Sliced roast beef

Sliced turkey breast

Sliced fresh ham (pork roast)

Etc., etc., etc.

It also works for many vegetables ..... onions for onion soup, cabbage for slaw, tomatoes for pizza, etc., etc., etc.

Cleaning is actually pretty easy. And since it isn't very heavy, it is easy to store in an out of the way place.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

25. The last 3 times I went to the store for just a "couple of things"

You know, the fill-in-the-blanks shopping on the way home from work, it cost $27.00 each time. For essentially almost nothing.

I know that I have to be a better shopper, and that way of doing things is the most expensive and the least efficient.

[Longhorn]

26. We're trying to be more purposeful and less wasteful in our shopping.

We're also cutting back on convenience foods, more for our health than the cost. We actually planned two meals for this week: grilled salmon with brown rice and salad and roasted chicken with pasta and fresh green beans. A big change is to actually eat the leftovers before we have to throw them out!

Today is my day to cook the chicken, something I haven't done in literally years! But I think I can remember how. ;)

[Warpy]

28. I had cut back to nothing when I was poor

but I've been in fat city for the past couple of years thanks to what my dad left me so, no, I haven't been cutting back. My diet has improved while everybody else is starting to figure out they have to eat the way I did until 2 years ago: whole grains, beans, lots of root veggies and not a whole lot else. It was deadly boring but nutritious.

I still don't eat meat but I've been able to add my beloved Boca Burgers back in, along with the occasional Quorn products and fish now and again. I'm still eating low on the food chain because I lost what little appetite I ever had for meat.

[housewolf]

29. I tried this week to cut back on the coffee I usually buy

Instead of buying the $10+ specialty roast I love, I bought something I _thought_ would be similiar at Trader Joe's for $5 for 12 oz. Only problem is... the Trader Joe's coffee is undrinkable! I mean... it's harsh, bitter and just plain awful. I'd have probably done better to buy some stale bulk beans from Safeway... :-(

[grasswire]

30. I, too, hate TJ coffee

And I try whatever they have to sample when I'm in the store. It's all horrible. I've been buying the Green Mountain whole beans in the Turkish Roast lately, at my supermarket. I heard somewhere that Paul Newman bought that company. It's medium priced at $8 on sale. I could go up the street a couple of blocks where a family member owns a really cool espresso shop. I should. But I don't.

[hippywife]

31. Last week

I actually saw Folger's for $11.89 for the two pound (or so) can. I think it's time to switch to the fair trade organic full time. If big money's gonna be spent on coffee, might as well feel good about it.

[Warpy]

35. Good for you!

When I was living on my poverty diet, the rare piece of chicken (my birthday) would be a free range chicken breast from the food co-op. I justified the expense by wanting to support sustainable growers and by wanting to avoid hormones and antibiotics. Since the expense was such a rare one, it wasn't that bad. Besides, the chicken had real texture and didn't have that weird off flavor of regular factory farmed meat.

Now, for the truly desperate, Depression Coffee, something I discovered when my attention wandered while I was toasting beans for a snack:

Soak some chickpeas overnight. Drain and discard the soaking water (unless you want to add it to soup and enjoy the bean farts). Spread the beans in a single layer on a dry cookie sheet with ridged edges (so they won't roll off in the oven). Roast at 250, shaking the pan every few minutes(you might need to loosen the beans with a spatula the first couple of times) until the beans are dark brown, light and very dry. Grind and brew the way you would for regular coffee. You can also use this to extend regular coffee.

My ex was a coffee hound and liked this one better than any coffee substitute from the health food store. I only found a similar recipe online as Depression Coffee years later.

[hippywife]

37. That's pretty wild!

I don't drink the stuff. I'm already to edgy as it is! Yikes! But the husband must have it! He's been making a smaller pot than usual to stretch it, tho. I'll have to run that by him, but I really seriously doubt that he will bite.

We do buy fair trade coffee on occasion as a special treat but it's not been in the budget.

I just got back from grocery shopping and spent $107. I'm not sure what's to be done about this. I buy as much organic produce as I can and that can get a tad pricey.

I was talking to the meat manager about his buffalo and trying to get info on this producer. He could tell me exactly who it was but not about how they're raised or finished. Then he was trying to tell me that buying organic only gets you no pesticides but can still have growth hormones. I told him that was not true unless government regs allow it but it's totally possible to get meat without it from the co-op and it was lots better. :eyes:

[Warpy]

38. Read those labels carefully

Co op chickens are free of hormones and antibiotics and are listed as free range, which means they have an hour a day minimum to go scratch for grubs. That doesn't sound like much but it's the regulation for being able to label a chicken as free range. I think they must get more than that because their muscles are developed to the point you can't cut the meat with the side of a fork like you can the mushy, undeveloped muscles of factory raised chickens.

I've noticed supermarket chickens labeled organic aren't labeled free range and often just say they're pesticide free, a silly claim.

As for the coffee trick, try roasting a few soaked chickpeas and grinding them first. The kitchen will smell heavenly when they get to that "coffee" stage. Try him on a three parts coffee to one part chickpea mixture at first, see if he notices a big difference.

THEN you can run it by him.

[hippywife]

39. I might give that a shot.

Maybe he'll try it if he does smell it. And he makes his own coffee. I don't make it as strong as he likes so he just does it himself. ;)

Have you read The Omnivore's Dilemma yet? In the chapter on Big Organic, Pollan relates his trip to Petaluma Poultry where the chickens are supposedly "free range." They don't have access to the out of doors for a very long time (can't remember how long right now.) They are housed in a very large building, altho not stacked in cages where they can't move like in the factory farms. Later they open one small door and let them go out if they want, but most don't because they never have from birth. They are processed like within two weeks from there.

We still don't want much meat in our diet anymore but I trust what I get from the co-op more than I do with even the stuff at Whole Foods after reading that book. I'm really not going to shop there anymore. It's too spendy and I tend to go overboard. The co-op is spendy, too, but like I said, I trust what I'm getting and feel good about supporting local small producers which Whole Foods seems to do less and less. One of my friends who was a fellow peace organizer and is really into building community gardens dove in their dumpster and found all kinds of fresh produce that they could have given to Second Harvest or one of the other food pantries but didn't. I really don't think they're as good a corporate citizen as they advertise they are.

Everything from the co-op has been exceptional so far. Between the co-op, the garden (when it comes in), and our own chickens (coming this weekend), I think we can really cut down on alot of the stuff from the grocery. That's the goal, anyway.

Thanx for the tip on the chickpeas. I'll have to pick up some dried ones. :hi:

[livetohike]

32. I've been dieting since January, so I don't buy potato chips

anymore. The cost of fresh fruit and veggies have really gone up. I can't find many of the things I like out here anyway (we're pretty rural). The nearest Trader Joe's is 100 miles away :-(.

[kestrel91316]

33. I'm being extra careful not to waste. And I had hoped that increased costs would

help with the plan to lose 10-15 lb but so far that's not working, lol.....

[NashVegas]

34. I've Been Careful to Buy Ahead of Time and Watch the Sales Fliers

Currently I'm buying my lunch foods one-two weeks' worth at a time, dinners a week.

Doing it this way give me less opportunity for impulse buys.

[Coyote_Bandit]

36. Well

I'm perpetually trying to eat better and drop a few pounds. And save a few pennies.

For whatever reason, I've discovered that I waste less by eating out of the freezer. During our December ice storm I lost almost everything in my freezers and pantry when my electricity was out for over a week. So I made an effort to restock a bit. Bought a bunch of frozen stuff in bulk over a period of time. Talapia, salmon, lots of chicken, some turkey, some pork, lots of veggies, some fruit. Went to an area canning factory and picked up a bunch of canned goods cheap.

I do buy some fresh stuff. Milk, yogurt, cheese, lettuce, sale item fruits and veggies, english muffins.

I've restricted my intake of soda and flavored coffees in favor of iced tea and regular coffee. I don't buy bottled water or sports drinks or energy drinks. I limit my intake of fruit juices. I've really cut back on chips and sweets - but not completely omitted them. I try not to snack much - but I do eat three meals a day. I try to watch portion size. I eat a lot of soups. I limit my intake of meat and largely avoid red meat. It is a rare thing for me to eat fast food. I usually eat out only once a week with a group of folks I've known for decades that meet weekly - I could skip the food but I enjoy the social interaction.

I rarely buy bread but I've taken to buying specialty breads off the clearance rack - usually a buck a loaf or so. I'll use about half the loaf and then freeze the remainder which I typically turn into croutons later or bread crumbs. I've been making more cornbread (not the stuff from the box either). And I've taken to using the Pillsbury boxed perfect portions biscuits - with four packs of two biscuits, a box will last me a month.

I get free eggs fresh from the farm every two or three months and I will usually get about four to six dozen at a time. I've learned that you can crack them into a freezer container, pierce the yolks to break, stir lightly and then freeze them. Depending on their size I will freeze two or three together for use in scrambles and omelets and the occasional quiche. By doing this I only need to buy a half dozen eggs every couple of weeks or so between my trips to the farm - which I use for baking and the occasional egg salad.

I should have homegrown tomatoes later this summer. Fresh herbs too.

I prepare meals from scratch. No prepared frozen foods. No packages or boxes of stuff that only need water, milk, egg or oil added before cooking. I make my own spice mixes, dressings and sauces. I also make and freeze seasoning blends for use in various dishes - usually some combination of onion, celery, peppers, etc. I often use powdered milk when baking.

When I cook more than a single serving I usually plan on eating leftovers the next day - or freezing for future use. If the recipe doesn't freeze well then I scale it back to prepare only two servings.

I've become very good at planning ahead. I only go to the store once a week - sometimes less often. Planning helps with shopping obviously. It also helps me rotate foods for variety.

I also try to keep a food diary to monitor my eating habits. It's useful for changing eating habits to adhere to diet goals. It's also useful for figuring costs of foods consumed.

I've invested in smaller plates, pans and bakeware. It helps with portion control. It also helps restrict the amount of food that is prepared.

If I were to average my food costs they would probably work out to about $40 per week (excluding my one meal out each week). That's a gallon of milk, about a buck a meal for breakfast (toasted english muffin topped with honey, apple butter, peanut butter, jelly, jam, fruit, cheese, etc.) every day, and about another $4.30 per day for lunch and dinner. And one of those meals is usually pretty cost effective - beans, tuna salad, V8 veggie soup, the occasional leftovers, baked potato, yogurt or cottage cheese with fruit, fried rice, red beans and rice, salad, etc. I could probably further reduce my costs if I planted a larger garden. As a single person, a food co-op probably wouldn't serve me well unless I went in with someone else to split the produce.

My experience is that it is possible to eat reasonably well and to limit grocery cost. But it requires a lot of planning, some work and constant vigilance to keep costs under control.

[NMDemDist2]

40. I'm gonna have to get better at the planning stuff

especially now that I'm going back to work and have to feed my kitchen challenged hubby and I both work lunches and on often divergent schedules.

on the times he's working the night shift, he'll be eating and packing his lunch two hours before I get home and if left to his own devices he'd live on "Hungry Man" frozen dinners and PBJ sandwiches.

Luckily those days won't be too often each month, but I better have the crockpot full of something he can just throw on the plate, or he'll end up with his head in the freezer looking for the quick fix.....

and since there are no food facilities at either of our jobs, I'll be packing my lunches too and on the days he's on my schedule, I'll have to feed us after a 10 hour day pretty darn quick.

Planning is gonna be the key here, thanks for the encouragement!