Recession Diet Just One Way to Tighten Belt - (How are you coping?)

[Breeze54]

Recession Diet Just One Way to Tighten Belt

By MICHAEL BARBARO and ERIC DASH
Published: April 27, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/business/27spend.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1209308652-d/0m9FOyzfYS1apCoaXIkQ

Stung by rising gasoline and food prices, Americans are finding creative ways to cut costs on routine items like groceries and clothing, forcing retailers, restaurants and manufacturers to decode the tastes of a suddenly thrifty public.

Spending data and interviews around the country show that middle- and working-class consumers are starting to switch from name brands to cheaper alternatives, to eat in instead of dining out and to fly at unusual hours to shave dollars off airfares.

Though seemingly small, the daily trade-offs they are making — more pasta and less red meat, more video rentals and fewer movie tickets — amount to an important shift in consumer behavior.

In Ohio, Holly Levitsky is replacing the Lucky Charms cereal in her kitchen with Millville Marshmallows and Stars, a less expensive store brand. In New Hampshire, George Goulet is no longer booking hotel rooms at the Hilton, favoring the lower-cost Hampton Inn. And in Michigan, Jennifer Olden is buying Gain laundry detergent instead of the full-price Tide.

Behind the belt-tightening — and brand-swapping — is the collision of several economic forces that are pinching people’s budgets or, at least, leaving them in little mood to splurge.

The price of household necessities has surged, with milk topping $4 a gallon in many stores and regular gasoline closing in on $3.60 a gallon nationwide. Home prices are sliding, wages are stagnant, job losses are growing and the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, a broad measure of stock performance, is down 6 percent in the last year. So consumers are going on a recession diet.

Burt Flickinger, a longtime retail consultant, said the last time he saw such significant changes in consumer buying patterns was the late 1970s, when runaway inflation prompted Americans to “switch from red meat to pork to poultry to pasta — then to peanut butter and jelly.”

“It hasn’t gotten to human food mixed with pet food yet,” he said, “but it is certainly headed in that direction.”

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Such trade-offs were on vivid display last week in Ohio, where layoffs have been rampant. At Save-A-Lot, a discount grocery store in Cleveland, Teresa Rutherford, 51, chided her sister-in-law, Donna Dunaway, 44, for picking up a package of Sara Lee honey ham (eight ounces for $2.49).

“We can’t afford that!” she said. “Get the cheap stuff.” They settled on a 16-ounce package of Deli Pleasures ham for $3.29, or 34 percent less an ounce.

The women said that soaring prices for food and fuel had changed what they buy and where they buy it. “We used to eat out at Bob Evans or Denny’s once a month,” said Ms. Rutherford, who works in an auto-parts factory. “Now we don’t go out at all. We eat in all the time.”

Ms. Dunaway, a homemaker, used to splurge on the ingredients for homemade lasagna, her husband’s favorite, before food prices began to surge this year.

“Now he’s lucky to get a 99-cent lasagna TV dinner, or maybe some Manwich out of a can,” she said. “I just can’t afford to be buying all that good meat and cheese like I used to.”

more...

So, have you changed what you buy at the grocery store too? I know I have!

I'm officially on the "Recession Diet"... and it sucks!

[soothsayer]

1. People will get fatter on the recession diet. Cheap food is usually bad food.

[Breeze54]

2. But they'll walk it off without any gas to drive!

maybe....

[Lorien]

5. Fatter and sicker. You have to eat large amounts of many cheap processed

foods to get any nutrition out of them, and you'll likely also be getting a lot of stuff you DON'T want to be putting into your body in the process. High fructose corn syrup, MSG, trans fats-these ingredients can cause diabetes, fibromyalgia -like symptoms and heart disease if consumed in large enough quantities.If you've got to go cheap it's best to pick up unprocessed foods like brown rice, beans, bananas, oatmeal, whole wheat pasta, eggs etc. My mother manages to live on only $350 a month, and I think the only processed foods that she regularly eats are cheeses and yogurts. Losing your health can be one of the most expensive things that can ever happen to a person in this country, so sometimes "cheap" is anything but.

[Breeze54]

6. Processed foods are more expensive though.

I think people who are struggling to feed a family will turn to pasta and vegetables,
like large bags of potato's and peanut butter and oatmeal, rice, soup and beans anyway.

The processed foods seem to be more expensive afaics.

[Lorien]

10. Peanut butter, bread, pasta, chips, tomato sauce, hot dogs, mac and cheese

ramen noodles, soup...all are processed, and I remember eating a lot of that stuff when I was very poor (mostly the Ramen noodles and Mac and cheese, both of which contain MSG). Now I've paid for it with severe hypoglycemia and fibromyalgia. Poor families often reach for processed foods because they take a lot less time to prepare, and if you are trying to deal with kids and two part time jobs...

I don't know if they still have home economics classes in public schools, but one thing that should be taught, imho, is how to make nutritional meals on a shoestring budget. Many,many children are now being raised by parents who never learned to cook themselves!

[Breeze54]

15. I agree but peanut butter is a good protein source, replacing meat

and it's cheaper. Whole grain pasta is good and about the same price as white pasta but everyone eats bread! I make my own tomato sauce with canned tomato's but not very often, as I don't like tomato sauce that much anyway or pasta for that matter. I like rice and I can eat beans but I don't like to very often and I can do without Mac & Cheese and chips. I'm eating a lot more vegetables though... more of the frozen kind which are actually more nutritious then fresh, unless bought locally.

[Lorien]

19. There are a few peanut butter brands out there now that are made without

HFCS. They are usually the organic/ natural brands, which tend to be more expensive (except at Costco, but then you are stuck with two HUGE jars of peanut butter)! I agree that it can be one of the better protein sources. FYI to anyone interested; you can grind your own at whole foods (along with almond or hazelnut butters) which is an even cheaper way to go!

[Breeze54]

21. Speaking of grinding.... How can I grind coffee beans without a grinder?

I do not have a coffee grinder but I was given a huge bag of coffee beans.

Do you have any idea's on how I can grind them up? I do have a blender.

Or can I use them as is? :shrug:

[Lorien]

24. Here you go:

http://www.wikihow.com/Grind-Coffee-Beans-if-You-Don't-Own-a-Coffee-Grinder

[Breeze54]

25. Thanks! -- I guess I'll try the blender then!

:hi:

[Donkeykick]

3. I'm most definitely watching out...

how many times I turn the ignition key in my car. :eyes:

[Breeze54]

4. Me too but that's not to difficult to do, as

I'm almost out of gas right now! :P I ask my son, in his travels, to pick stuff up when he goes
to work. It saves gas and lately he's been walking to work. We plan on getting our bikes repaired
soon, so we can stop using the cars when they aren't needed. That'll work until winter.

[krabigirl]

7. I haven't skimped on food for my family, but try some store brands.

Fresh fruits and vegetables aren't cheap, but I'm not going to skimp on it. And with a French husband, we sure aren't going to downgrade from his favorite cheese to American slices.

I need to plant a garden one of these days. Unfortunately, I have a black thumb!

I have cut down on driving, though.

[Breeze54]

8. I hear you... I'll be planting

tomato's soon and anything else I can grow in a pot that I can eat! ;)

Maybe if you get plants that are already started you'll have better luck?

I'm cutting out cheese because of cholesterol. I'm sure mine is high.

[Lorien]

11. Have you tried square foot gardening?

http://timssquarefootgarden.com/

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1579548563/bookstorenow57-20

[Liberal_in_LA]

26. thanks for posting this!

:party:

[Liberal_in_LA]

27. Plant zuchini, you can't go wrong.

[azmouse]

9. I shop for what's on sale.

When I see a good deal I'll stock up on the items especially if they're the non-perishables like paper products and cleaners.

A tip that saves a lot of money: don't buy the drawstring garbage bags or zip-close food bags. They cost more than twice as much as any bag that uses a twist tie to close it. For the life of me I don't see why anyone would pay that much more for something that isn't any better.

[Breeze54]

13. I like the zip-close freezer bags. The tie-wraps are a pain to untie...

after they're frozen but any of them are expensive I think.
I use or rather reuse a lot of plastic grocery bags for trash
bags anyway. I have a bunch I saved before I started using my
canvas grocery bags. I also buy what's on sale that week and
stock up when I can and I do a lot of home cooking. That saves too!

[azmouse]

16. We don't eat out very often but when we do

we've really noticed how empty the restaurants are. It's a big difference from even one year ago when things were still busy. Now there is never a wait for a table even during the busiest times.
I can't help but think of how much cheaper I could make most meals than the restaurant but it's just nice sometimes to get out of the house and try something different.

I'm getting the canvas grocery bags this week. I just kept forgetting to get one so I wrote it on my shopping list so I wouldn't forget. The plastic bags are so flimsy I'm almost afraid to put more than a quart of milk in them.

[Breeze54]

18. I forget to take them (the canvas bags) too; so

I keep one in my car and two in the kitchen but I'm getting better at remembering them.
I paid .99 cents each for mine and i really like the one I got that has a hard bottom
and then folds up and has a snap closure. It's made of recycled plastic too!!

[AlCzervik]

12. i stopped eating about 4 months ago so that's saved me a lot.

i also always buy local produce and we have much of it here, and none of us are soda drinkers.

[Breeze54]

14. Hardy har har and you look 'mharvelous'!

:P

Yeah, soda is a killer and I only buy some now if it's on sale. I have to have my ginger ale. ;)

[AlCzervik]

20. thats how i am about coffee, it is the one i will not give up.

no way and the people in my world have a better quality of life because of it--me-coffee=teh terrible!

[kestrel91316]

17. Buying cheaper convenience foods is what we call (false economy).

These foods are NOT healthy, so the long-term consequences of consuming them on a regular basis can be quite high. These costs, like those of excess CO2 emissions, are generally borne by society as a whole.

Shop your local farmer's market. Cook from scratch in big batches and freeze stuff. And reassess how you are spending your time - cooking from scratch is a HUGE money-saver and should be a priority in one's time management.

Convenience foods are a luxury no one can afford.

[dixiegrrrrl]

22. We've been on the "recession diet" for decades..

but we called it being "frugal" so we could feed a savings account.

Always bought in bulk, on sale, 2nd hand, etc.
Never has been a problem, we were raised that way, seems normal.
I think our diet has more .."healthiness" because we buy very little processed food.
The teenagers hated it, but now they are grown, they do the same thing.

Problem will be what happens when we have to go below the "recession"
part of the diet. :shrug:

[Breeze54]

23. I have been and then I wasn't and then I was...

and on and on.... until my kids were grown. It really depended on funds available.