The
other day I posted on my facebook page an article I had read on MSNBC.com about
ten items, actually there were eleven, that were going to dramatically increase
in price this year either due to weather or production constraints. All of these items are ones I purchase on a
regular basis so needless to say I was less than impressed.
So what
am I going to do to combat this problem and still manage to stay on my meager
grocery budget? Well lets go through the
list.
Pork - recently bacon has gone up
considerably and now it looks like all the other pork products are due to
follow suit. I'll comb the sales ads and
markdown bins and stock up when the prices are good.
Beef - as with pork I will plan to comb
the sales ads and markdown bins to purchase beef as well and make my purchases
at that time. I had already planned to
lower our meat consumption this year too and incorporate more meat less or meat
free meals into our diet.
Salmon - when I find it on sale I'll buy
it. Healthy and nutritious but also very
tasty. I have no plans to give up
salmon. I find the individually packaged
portions sold from the freezer section to be a good value as well as a good
product. There is also other tasty fish
out there to enjoy as well.
Lettuce - this is the mainstay of my
diet. We eat a ton of salads. I was planning to plant my own lettuce garden
this year so I will definitely keep my plans to do this. I am also researching how to grow indoors
during the cold months.
Tomatoes - this price increase will
effect everything from ketchup and tomato sauce products all the way to every
product that contains tomatoes. I think
this year I'll be planting some tomatoes to can as well as to eat fresh.
Grapes - grapes, raisins, juice and wine
will feel the hit here. I'll just
purchase in moderation and when on sale.
I'm most concerned about the wine.
LOL
Peppers - again I was planning to plant
peppers and although I've never been all that successful at it I'll just have
to try harder this year. Freezing and
canning them will be a good thing to do with them I think.
Milk - fortunately we don't spend a ton
of money here and since we drink our whole milk diluted with water we get far
more mileage out of it than most as a result.
I'll continue to do this.
Cheese - this is another item that is a
mainstay of our diet. I buy a lot of
cheese. I'll continue to buy when it is
on sale but more than likely we'll be cutting back on our consumption of
cheese.
Bread - I'm not too terribly worried
about this because I can bake my own.
However, I'm sure flour will increase in price too so I'll have to watch
that. Day old bread stores will also be
a source for us to consider as well.
Nuts - Nuts! That's all I can say about that. I love them but they are already expensive
and I don't buy a lot of them now.
Hopefully peanut butter won't be priced out of existence in my
pantry. We'll just have to wait and see.
So what
will you do, or are already doing, to combat the rising price of groceries?
I eat a lot of lettuce, too. My tip for buying lettuce is to buy it by the head rather than in bags and to weigh it first. Not all heads of lettuce are created equal so you might as well get the most for your money. For example, iceburg lettuce can be small with loosely packed leaves weighing about a pound, or large with densely packed leaves weighing about 2 pounds. You can get twice as much food for the same price is you select the heavy ones. Weighing it also shows just how much extra we pay to have someone cut it up and stick it in a bag for us. I can do that at home.
ReplyDeleteWhere I live the bags are actually less. By the time I clean a head and toss out the leaves and core, albeit that becomes chicken food, I can't help but feel like I'm throwing money away. Our heads run about $1.29 to $1.79 each and a bag is .78 to .99 for a 12 oz. bag. Sometimes its hard to say what the best deal is.
DeleteWow, regional differences can be big! It's the reverse here. A head of lettuce is 95-98 cents, and 89 cents on sale. Bags are over $2.
DeleteIt really does make a difference doesn't it.
DeleteLettuce is very easy to grow, as are bean sprouts, parsley and kale. If I can grow them, anyone can! We eat a lot of dried (soaked, cooked in crockpot, frozen and ready for use) beans and lentils (they make great burgers), so pork and beef are already something we don't eat much of. When we do have them, we really really enjoy a good steak or a pork chop, far more than we would if they were a common meal. I've not had much luck growing peppers, sadly; nor with tomatoes so far but I grew them easily when I lived in Salt Lake City - they need sun! Wine can be made with a lot of other things besides grapes; not sure how it tastes but I'm hoping to try making elderberry or strawberry wine some time. Otherwise grapes and raisins are quite sugary so maybe not a bad thing to have less of them. It sounds strange, I know, but another strategy that comes to my mind is to eat less food (I could still use losing another 5-7 pounds to get to my mid-BMI point).
ReplyDeleteI went today and picked up a few things so I can start some lettuce growing. I have quite the black thumb but I am hopeful I can change that. We eat a lot less meat too and I agree eating less food in general wouldn't hurt me either.
DeleteWhen certain foods get too much I will stop buying them. We use way less ground beef as it is ridiculously expensive. If I can get it on a really good sale I will buy it. If not we eat more chicken, or whatever other meat is on sale. Same goes for most other things. Milk is still fairly cheap here. Cheese is always on a good sale somewhere. Bread has sky rocketed, but I have never actually made a loaf, and would hate to waste money trying and finding out I can't do it :)
ReplyDeleteI'm the same way. When it is priced out of reason I refuse to buy. Simple as that. I found the easiest way for me to bake bread is too use my bread machine on its dough cycle. Then I shape the bread and let it rise in a bread pan and let it rise before baking it in the oven. Took me awhile to figure it all out.
DeleteDo you have a price point that you try to stick with on beef? I try to do under three dollars a pound, mostly I can only find ground beef at that price. Things like roast and such are going to be a rare treat at our house. And we may be switching back to margarine from real butter. I hate to do that but butter is 3.38 per pound. Back at Thanksgiving and Christmas time, Aldi's had it at 1.69 per pound. Now I wish I would have bought a case every week.
ReplyDeleteI try to stay under $3 a pound on beef. I've started using a lot more ground turkey in place of beef. I stock up when I hit a good sale. I'd hate to give up butter too. I stock up when it is on sale and we use less which really isn't a bad thing. ;)
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