Food Prices and how your coping...

[brennasmom]

I was just thinking as I was washing up the dinner dishes about how I have changed a few things to help keep costs down.

* Cooking a bit less pasta. Last week I made 1/2 batch of spaghetti and now I have frozen sauce for the next time plus the other 1/2 box of pasta

* Cooking more from scratch (bread, rolls, and such)

* The other day I was scraping every speck out of the peanut butter jar...

* Scraps that Sadie can eat we give to her (meat, etc.)

So, I am curious if rising prices are changing anything in your kitchen?

[Starlight9803]

I've made a few changes as well. I have gotten more diligent in using up leftovers. I fix less at mealtimes so there aren't as many leftovers to begin with. We've cut out all snacky-type foods unless they are homemade (and cheap to make). We've basically just taken things that we already did around the house to save money and have gotten more intense and diligent with those things.

[frugalwarrior2]

Luckily,we have the .39-.59 bread store available
a huge processed food stockpile and Ds is at college so demands are down.
That said-yikes.
We didn't renew Sams or Costco
Kroger has raised their mark down prices radically
And my 2 new dogs are puppies on growth spurts so costs are still up
And going to the grocery even w/ coupons is very disheartening.

[brenda67]

I'm buying and stocking as much as I can now....I probably shocked some of you by my answer by saying this..but..it will save me money down the road as prices continue to rise..I'm buying as many canned veggies for a very cheap (I tend to serve veggies at every meal) price right now that should last me over a year or more and hoping my garden gives me better result's next year than my overwhelming let down this year..I'm also stocking all the meat I can fill my freezer with right now to be able to avoid the huge increases we all will be facing..I know I will have to pay the high prices sooner or later but since I'm in the position to stockup I'm going for it! This is how I feel I'm saving money for my family down the road..

I also bought insulation for our attic... (all Energy Star efficent)a new Entry door & new Storm door ..all will hopefully save us money on our heating bill..

[frugalfranny]

* The other day I was scraping every speck out of the peanut butter jar...

So, I am curious if rising prices are changing anything in your kitchen?

Yes, I have always done this. And with the mayo jars too.
Bought some plastic long handled ice tea spoons at $ store and use those..........don't have any metal ice tea spoons and thrift shops wanted over a buck a piece.....NOT!!!

I am buying more when there is a good........and I mean GOOD....sale.

IE: bought a '2 limit butter sale' today for $1.77.........and going back tomorrow for more. It hasn't even been down to $1.99 in a long time.......probably since last Xmas.

[Pianolady]

Thankfully I live close to a Target store, where they regularly mark down their meat items on "clearance" (I go almost every day to check out the clearance isles). They also slap $1, $2, and $3 coupons on packages that I can combine with manufacturer coupons at times. When they mark them down to a ridiculously low price, I buy it all and throw it in the freezer. We eat very well, spending very little. We're empty nest now, so it's much less money to buy food now.

[Joshin]

Luckily, I got our grocery shopping to such a science back in our 'poor' days that we're only slightly feeling the pain from rising prices.

- what fruits and vegetable we don't grow we purchase from the bountifulbaskets.org produce coop. If you haven't heard of it, it's available in several states and you get a huge fruit/veggie basket for $15, available weekly but you only buy-in when you want.

- We buy flour, sugar, and pasta in bulk at a restaurant supply store for a fraction of its cost elsewhere.

-Buy meat in bulk directly from a butcher and freeze it. We only purchase beef once a year this way. I also rarely make meat main dishes and instead use 1/4 to 1/2 lb. as an ingredient or topping in other types of meals.

-Dairy is our main budget buster. We are going to start raising laying hens in the backyard in the spring, but eggs aren't the killer. It's cheese! I buy it on sale and try to use it sparingly.

-We buy no junk food or prepackaged food (with the exception of dry pasta). I make desserts/snacks from scratch. We even brew our own beer and ginger ale. I have an awesome, easy ginger ale recipe if anyone is interested I'll post it in the recipe section.

I need to come up with some cost savers for peanut butter and milk. We're starting to feel the rising prices there and peanut butter, a family fave, is only going to get worse.

[ladytoysdream]

I'm not happy going into any grocery store anymore.
With our low income/tight budget, I feel like it's a constant juggling act. It's frustrating seeing the prices go up and up.

We had the garden this year and I was able to get some of it, into the freezer and canning jars. I still have some squash and some pumpkins to work with.

I was able to buy some produce at the market this summer while I was set up also. The vender next to me, is a baker and end of day, we been doing some swaps. She sends me home with cookies, etc, and she gets some of my produce. The most recent exchange, she got a dz eggs, and some little pumpkins from me.

Yesterday I was in a store that I am not usually in. I was able to buy some marked down meat for the freezer. I must have hit, the right day of the week for their markdowns.

When I see a GOOD sale, and if I have the money, I get extras.

EGGS. Please don't buy a few chickens to get cheap eggs. It costs a lot now for their feed. I have 60 birds currently, with about 27 that are old enough to lay. I do sell their eggs, but it's not keeping up with the grain costs. And if you have a animal that is in production, they have to be maintained correctly.

[Lora88]

It is getting more difficult each week Ds and Dh are big eaters both are skinny so I cant tell them to eat less for their health lol. I now have bread at every meal and make alot of potatoes I spend alot of time searching out bargains and I guess and upside of not finding a job is I have the time to do so.

[brennasmom]

Yes, I have always done this. And with the mayo jars too.
Bought some plastic long handled ice tea spoons at $ store and use those..........don't have any metal ice tea spoons and thrift shops wanted over a buck a piece.....NOT!!!

I am buying more when there is a good........and I mean GOOD....sale.

IE: bought a '2 limit butter sale' today for $1.77.........and going back tomorrow for more. It hasn't even been down to $1.99 in a long time.......probably since last Xmas.

Great price on the butter. Our Fred Meyer has it on sale for $2.00 this week. I have bought 4 so far and plan to go back once more

[auntie2many]

I shop more than one store. I go to ones that are close to me. I do on occasion go to Save-A-Lot which is in another town, but this week they have things like 39 cent chicken leg quarters and $1 bologna, so I will be shopping there this week as well. I only buy the cheapest meat in the ads for that week. I do have a pretty good stock of meat in our fridge/freezers, so I can go with buying only one thing a week. That is all that I have room for right now anyway because we do not have a stand alone freezer, but we do have more than one refrigerator.

I do not buy an item unless it is on sale or I have a coupon most of the time. Dh and I do not eat chips, sweets... and we have a soda stream machine which makes soda very affordable.

We have definitely made lots of changes.

A2M

[NicJean]

I get most milk from neighboring farms - raw (unpasturized), and has cream (which I pour off and use in recipes.) The price is cheaper than the grocery. I've been using our garden veggies, and only buy if I really need something that I don't have either frozen, home-canned, or dehydrated. Meat is tricky - I'm only buying when there's a great sale, and loading up to break into "our" size packages for freezer (usually 1/2 - 1 pound each, vaccuum bags). Did go through freezer yesterday morning, need fish!! and hamburg. Still have lots of steak and chicken breasts.
Due to my health (lack thereof) I am cooking with more grains, less meat. Vegetarian cookbook getting a workout lately. My chicken ladies supply us with eggs, but production has slowed - not a bad thing.
As sales occur, we take inventory of our freeze-dried and dehydrated things, and stock up. (Reminds me, I need to mylar about 150 pounds of beans!)

[Ramona]

I still shop the specials and markdowns at Market Basket. Picked up chicken quarters for 99 cents lb the other day, Barilla pasta at 89 cents per lb, butter was on sale so I bought two for the freezer. Artichokes were 50 cents each, so I stuffed them and we had them as an appetizer. Bought some marked down zucchinis for 25 cents total and made it with mint and a red wine vinegar and evoo. So far, so good.

[peanut]

I am on a restricted diet of sorts...no sugar, caffeine, soy, and little salt. That means we make a lot from scratch. Our prices have always been high here in Canada, but we're poised for them to go higher yet this winter. It's getting ridiculous.

I have a cold room that is mostly full, and a freezer that is mostly full. I just have to remember to use what's in them! Too many changes at once are hard to maintain. I simply forget what I've got and what for! I think I need a master list somewhere.

I'm finding it's cheaper to buy a frozen flat crust pizza for $2.50-3.00 than to make pizza at home. I buy the spinach and feta and add some tomato slices and green pepper and voila! Cheap, easy and quick.

Yes, we're eating more vegetarian...probably much to my dietitian's dismay as she's been advocating more protein in my diet. Frankly we can't afford more protein. I'll be checking out the local butcher though. He may have a deal on a Family Pack of meat or some such. Though it would have to be lean meat.

I'm not entirely sure where we'd put it. My freezer is almost full too...of vegetables and fruit for winter. Mostly fruit. Fruit gets very expensive here in winter and often is not available...unless you want oranges, bananas or apples!

I bought a new-to-us used KitchenAid yesterday in hopes it will enable me to do things like bake my own bread. My hands hurt so much these days (I'm assuming it's arthritis) that I haven't been kneading bread by hand as I normally do. I hear I can do all sorts of things with the right attachments too.

Other than that, I've been carefully shopping sales and stocking up.

[bent]

our store is the only one for 30+ miles so it pretty much can charge what it wants and the people pay. I am currently stocking up on peanut butter as it's a fam fav and I only purchase it when it's on sale, they had a decent price on pasta this past wk-so I grabbed enough to last us for a few months. I keep friendly with several staff at the store so they will give me a heads up sometimes when something is going on sale. we are also 'scrappers'. I make my own jelly/jams so always have some in supply. we do not eat meat very much so I buy maybe once over a six mths period when we get a 'craving' from the 'rotten meat' counter-that's what my grandmother called the marked down section of the meat counter..... my son gets a kick out of saying that to the meat manager at the store- 'hey mr. mike where's the rotten meat' the first time he said that he was 3 now Mike will just point-they now have a dedicated portion of the cooler for sale meat- personally I think Mike got tired of having to explain to other customers that comment.... still funny though.
we have a $10 a month snack budget-(ds has learned to leave some chocolate for his sister and myself if he wants to have a peaceful life lol) and in winter I bake a lot (not so much in the summer as I have a gas range), we do lots of homemade soups, bean dishes, rice dishes- I've been slowly building a stockpile of dry goods- I wait for frozen veggies to go on sale 5/$5 and I dehydrate them and keep them in mason jars that I seal with the foodsaver attachment.
I want to get back into coupon's but we have 'coupon thief's that steal them from the sunday paper I've been burned several times over the last few mths so have stopped trying.
I also try to go to sav-a-lot to buy flats of canned foods that we enjoy, their prices have also increased but it beats the local store.
much as I hate to admit I buy most of my veggies once a month from walmart as they are just to high at the local store. my mom has several people who give her things from their gardens and she shares (I think she thinks I don't feed her grandchildren) with me. i try to cultivate friendships with gardener's so I can buy their excess veggies to offset spending too much at the store.