Coping with high food prices

[Horse with no Name]

I have never been a great shopper, but with the high cost of food these days, I have been shopping sales and shopping more at my local store where the selection isn't as big, but the sales prices are pretty enticing.
Last week, I purchased 5 pork roasts that were on sale for .99/lb.
This week, I got 2 boxes of cereal, shredded cheese, Lipton Family size tea bags, 2 gallons of milk, bread, ice cream bars, 8 lbs. hamburger, 3 packages hot dogs, can of chili, and 2 12-packs of sodas for $34.
I thought I did pretty good, although I did buy some things that I don't normally buy.
I guess we will all have to sacrifice something to make ends meet.
I thought it was pretty telling that it cost me as much to fill my car up as it did to go to the grocery store.:wow:

[kestrel91316]

1. I've eaten cheaply for years by avoiding convenience foods.

I then, of course, spend my extra money on restaurant meals, lol. But at least I try to go to decent places. No McDonald's. Tonight I do believe I'll have dinner or maybe just dessert at Il Trammezzino, new little Italian cafe nearby.

There may come a day when I don't have that little occasional luxury. So I'll enjoy it while I can.

[TomInTib]

2. I am limiting my food intake to aged grape juice.

Out here, wine is still affordable.

[LSparkle]

4. OMG ... that's the saddest thing for me ... I've been drinking BOXED WINE

(No, this is NOT Stephanie Miller.)

I used to spend TONS of money on wine, but now I'll just buy a
box of pinot grigio and (thankfully) it lasts me for a while.

[TomInTib]

8. That's one of the advantages of living in Wine Country.

I do not believe that any of our stores sell boxed wine.

Heck, BevMo has a nickel sale on right now. Buy one bottle, get the next for a nickel.

I have been drinking like a damned fish.

[LSparkle]

12. Me too, ever since 2000 ... hence the necessity of the boxed wine

If I were still drinking the $20 bottles I used to indulge in
in the "good old days" I'd be really broke ... but I guess I
wouldn't be aware of it!

"Sure takes the sting out of being occupied" (Sam in 'Casablanca'
on the merits of champagne as the Nazis approached)

[LSparkle]

3. I'm sadly buying more frozen food ... not as much fresh meat

or vegetables. I used to pride myself on buying really good cheeses,
boutique bakery bread, good organic salad makings ... I enjoyed cooking
when I could afford good ingredients. Nowadays, it's just whatever's
on sale (maybe frozen chicken breasts in bulk or ... argh ... pizza).
My physical diet has gone right out the window in favor of my economic
diet.

[Horse with no Name]

7. When I was going to Nursing School

I was raising my two young children alone. I didn't have any assistance and subsisted on about $400 month--I rented a 2 brdm trailer (it wasn't even a mobile home,lol)that was $125 month and the rest was what I had to live on.
Everything we ate was generic...and I got a generic phobia that has persisted all these years, until recently.
I have had to start buying generics again to stretch the food dollar.
Amazing that it has come to this, but just about every single expense that I have has gone up...and my paycheck has stayed the same (or as of late, decreased because I missed a month of work due to illness).

[blonndee]

5. For many of us, the days of buying what we WANT to eat are over.

I didn't fully appreciate how good I had it not so long ago when I could pretty much buy everything I would probably WANT to eat for the next couple of weeks. Now when there are groceries, it's a matter of what's about to go bad (can't waste) and what will go further in terms of meals. And when I shop, it's about what can be frozen, what's cheapest, and what will fill the tummy.

Although I like the idea of being more frugal and less wasteful, though, each trip to the store is a painful reminder of how far we've fallen and how so many people right here must be struggling even more. I've actually developed a bit of "grocery phobia," where I sometimes actually can't go into the store because I'm afraid of spending money. Since this and everything else has become so expensive and takes almost every penny, I haven't figured out just how much I CAN spend. Every time I go in there and do shop, I get all anxious and frightened, wondering how much I have to cut from my list so I can pay my electricity, or my student loans, or my mortgage. Instead of being happy that now my fridge has food, and that I have some choices in meals, I get all scared and unsure. It sounds weird, I know. I wonder if anyone else is feeling this way.

[zazen]

13. grocery-phobia! yes, definitely--I thought it was just a personal neurosis

I'm so glad to hear someone else say this. I've got to go tonight. . . because I didn't go today, because I didn't go yesterday. I put it off as long as possible every single time. I know it's an act of privilege to even have a nearby, affordable grocery store about which I can procrastinate, but I really dread going. In addition to the rising costs, it brings up my fears of peak oil, not having enough energy/time/safety/money to grow my own food, not doing enough with what I have, trying to properly dispose of the packaging and knowing I'm only contributing to toxic waste and Co2 emissions about which I feel helpless, and on and on. I do find myself turning to the wine a little too much these days too, as someone else wrote.

It's eerily reminding me of having loved ones with cancer. You always knew it would get worse, but you're still surprised when it starts really going downhill, like somehow reading and worrying and commiserating about something is a talisman against it actually metastasizing What scares the bejeezus out of me is extrapolating from the predictions that have already come true (that my mainstream policy wonk friends all thought were paranoid and that they now agree are coming to pass), and knowing what those same "paranoid" peak oil/climate change/economic prognosticators are saying about where we'll be 5, 10 and 20 years from now.

Check out Carolyn Baker's web site about the psychological adjustments upon us if you haven't already. I think I need to revisit it again. I actually had a nightmare about rummaging through an orchard with my daughters the other night (apple tree metaphor--wow) and how thrilled we were to actually find food. Sadly, it's a reality for many in the world already.

Life at the end of empire. . . . but what the hell did I expect?

[blonndee]

17. I think we were just in simple denial. I know I was.

I kept thinking that it couldn't possibly get MUCH worse, and then all of a sudden it was. I'm sorry that you're experiencing the same thing. What you wrote about dreading going and putting it off is exactly what I do. I put it off until there are really no options left. I dread it and procrastinate until I'm out of toilet paper or ANYTHING that could pass for a meal.It is now indeed a privilege even now for us to buy a few of the "luxuries" we want, like oranges, or apples, or other "non-essential" items. Who would have thought that fruits and vegetables would have made our "luxury" list a few years ago, though? It does make me fear what is to come. Still, there is part of me that continues to think, "it can't possibly get MUCH worse, can it?"

I will check out that website.

[Adsos Letter]

20. "it can't possibly get MUCH worse, can it?"

Oh yeah...consider the rapidly rising population figures and the declining resources...it can get MUCH worse...I think many of us are starting to realize this on something other than the "intellectual" level, but we haven't quite gotten to the point of an organized effort to do something about it. I do believe that time is coming, though...either the nations of the earth will cooperate at some level for survival, or we will go into the dark. :(

[blonndee]

21. What really scares me is that soon we may not be able to communicate like we are right now.

I'm giving up "luxury" groceries and my cell phone to have my internet connection. I would give up TV entirely, scrimp on food, and default on my student loans to have internet access. I know it is much worse elsewhere. What will happen if we can't "talk" to each other online? Teevee has become something nearly like Pravda, so that doesn't count. I agree that we "know" the seriousness of the situation on some level, but, like I said, I really think many of us (including me) are in denial. Obviously, we don't WANT to think it could "get much worse."

[Adsos Letter]

22. I understand...

the internet has become indispensible for me, as I have given up on TV (plus, I read a bunch). I think most of us are in denial to some degree...becoming diabetic clued me in, personally, to a lot of life-issues and, as I said in response to your other post, it forced a lifestyle change that was both healthy and less expensive.

The daily standard of living of the western, post-industrial nations is so far removed from the greater population of the earth, that I think we quite naturally lose sight of how well we have it, and how much goes unseen to enable what we have.

Even if we didn't have the ecological/population issues to deal with (and that is a HUGE "if") the historical memory of most Americans is very short, indeed. Depressions, and economic instability are recurring events in economies ordered around capitalism (planned economies, like communism, haven't worked any better, just differently) We tend to bring up the Great Depression, but the nation has gone through a consistent wave of depression and recovery since immediately after its founding.

I still want that Butterfinger bar, even as I write this... :)

[Adsos Letter]

19. The days of buying whatever I wanted to eat ended for me...

when I found out I was diabetic. The shift in diet has made trips to the grocery less expensive, and also improved my health tremendously.

However, I still crave Butterfinger bars... :D

[Andy823]

6. I too hit the sales

I live in a small town, so prices are not that great since we have only "one" grocery store. I do my major shopping once or twice a month in a town 30 miles away. Even though it is a 60 mile round trip, I can save money by buying at least a two week supply of the things we use the most. I have get over 30 miles to the gallon in my car and even at the current "high" prices, it only cost about $7.00 for the trip, which I can save just on buy milk and eggs! I do hit the local store when they have good sales, and in between trips for small amounts of things I need. I buy my meat from a farmer who is also a meat cutter. I buy a half beef that last around 6 months, for 5 people. That also saves in the long run. I stock my freezer with veggies we grow during the summer, and put thinga like carrots, onions, squash, and potatoes in a root cellar over the winter. It saves a lot.

I also fill my car on the trip to the other town since I can save about 10 cents per gallon there.

[notesdev]

9. Ironically, I'm eating better now

I used to eat out ALL the time. If it wasn't a restaurant, it was fast food. If it wasn't fast food, it was something pre-prepared from the supermarket.

About a year ago I went to a local fast food drive-through. I got handed my dinner by a woman with no teeth. It freaked the hell out of me.

In the time between then and now, I can count the number of meals I've eaten that were prepared for hire on my fingers. I learned to cook, and my food costs dropped tremendously. Even with the rise in food prices I'm still not spending anywhere near as much. I'm healthier, I have more energy, and I get sick a lot less often.

And even though I wasn't very good at it - and still am barely passable, in my own judgement - the food I make for myself tastes so much better. It's always cooked just how I like it, because it's me doing the cooking. I don't have to wait on anyone else, don't have to tip myself, and it doesn't take any more time than it did to go out and find somewhere to eat and wait to be served. There are never any ingredients I don't like - I simply substitute for those or don't include them (yeech olives, never could stand the taste).

If I was cooking for more than one person, it would be even more cost-effective.

[rzemanfl]

10. There was a study done of garbage (I'm series!!!) that concluded

that when food prices go up people buy cheaper cuts of meat that they end up wasting a lot of and actually spend more than they would have had they bought better cuts and paid the inflated price. If you buy something you don't like much because it's cheap, that is probably not a good idea.

That garbage study also concluded that poor people buy name brands in small packages and pay a lot, rich folks don't.

Shredding your own cheese would save you money and they put crap in the shredded stuff to keep from clumping that probably isn't good for you.

Good luck surviving in BushWorld, we all need it.

[Horse with no Name]

14. I HATE grating cheese

:blush:

[NickB79]

23. If someone's wasting cheap meat, they don't know how to cook it properly

Even the cheapest cuts of meat will fall off the bone after a few hours in a crockpot. Pulled pork and shredded beef don't stand a chance in my household :-)

[msongs]

11. you can live easily WITHOUT the meat. that will save gobs of cash nt

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

18. If we're not supposed to eat animals

why are they made out of meat?

No, in all seriousness, NOBODY should just drop meat from their diets without first educating him/herself on ways to ensure you can still get total nutrition on a meat-free diet: complimentary proteins, legumes, etc. Read up before taking that plunge.

I was a vegetarian for years, but I was ushered into the fold via a nutritionist friend who helped me learn how to round out my diet.

I dropped vegetarianism during a cross-country trip in '92. You can only eat so many iceberg-lettuce salads at truck stops, and when we got to Montana, the sign read: Welcome to Montana--Beef Country! Vegetarians, keep on drivin'!

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

15. You did a lot better than I did today with a fill-in shop.

5 yogurts, 1 cottage cheese, 1 lb. carrots, celery, bread, 2 small honey bears (sale), coffee, Qt.half and half, 1/2 Pt. heavy cream cream (to make scones), 3 Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix (sale), can of tuna $37.00. This is disgraceful.

[Stuart G]

16. I hate to say it but...........we are fucked.