Lisanne

Please don't turn this into a political thread. I'd really like this thread to continue and not be wiped because a few people ranted and others got offended and ranted back.

IMO, prices are the way they are because we have a free-market society and Big Business charges us what the market will bear. Not because of who's in office.

You may disagree with me, but I started the thread more to share information and price trends around the country (and in other countries, since we're lucky enough to have members in Canada, France, Australia, and elsehwere), and to swap tips for coping with the prices. Okay, and to vent, too. But not to start a political debate.

Honey

DCH, I'm with you!!

butterflywing

what happened to eating what was in season? in the summer we ate summer fruit and veggies. in the winter we ate apples and bananas and oranges from florida. true, there wasn't as big a selection, but we didn't pay for transportation to get everything here from brazil or wherever. and we didn't get rickets. some americans are very spoiled and have high expectations and then gripe about the prices. we all know that asparagus will be expensive in february. school food services are right to serve fresh foods within reasonable price ranges. if parents can't understand that, they should pull their kids out and enroll them in private schools or pack a school lunch for their kids at home.

as for the sports equipment, if all the parents feel the same way, no one should let their kids play sports. let the coach eat it.

oksewglad

This is an interesting discussion. And it's interesting to see how we all cope. Making a loaf of good bread in my bread machine costs less than $.75 for me. My DIL has chickens, but hens eat chicken feed, too. Gardens are good, but they take work and time as well. I know as I've frozen and canned all my married life. I watch some little things like using a pump for the dishsoap and shampoo bottles-I use less of both than pouring it into your hand. I rewash ziploc type bags whether they are new from a box or used to sell nuts or brown sugar. Shop the perimeter of the grocery store--the more processed foods cost the most money and generally are the least nutritious.

lacikat

Having worked in the grocery business for 37 years this reminded me of probably 30 years ago a group of us cashiers were discussing the price of bread and saying "the way it's going it's going to be $1.00 a loaf one of these days". We should be so lucky!! I think I can make it cheaper in my bread machine but when that warm bread comes out I want to eat the whole loaf so I refrain from doing that.

Lisanne

lol, lacikat!

I tried a bread machine once, since I'm no good at working with dough. The bread was horrible, and I tried three times. Never figured out whether it was the machine or me. I took the machine back.

quilter68

To those that live alone or just two people,
An idea that I had a couple of years ago has paid-off well. For all fresh veggies for soup or other cooking, I go to the salad bar. Instead of spending ten dollars on celery, onions, carrots, peppers, etc.; I buy just what I need. It usually costs me less then two dollars and does not get to go bad in my fridge. So I may spend $8 a month and have fresh for all my cooking all the time. I was tired of throwing away soft veggies. A waste of my hard-earned money. I do buy the pre-packaged salads with dressings, croutons and stuff for the same reason. Everything I need and nothing goes bad.
Quilter68(aka Kathleen)

quilter68

Lisanne,

Thank you re: the politics -not for this thread.

About prices, I posted two items as I thought of them but ...yesterday 5lbs. of sugar was only 4 lbs., coffee is not a pound but only 11 or 12 ounces.

I live carefully except for my quilting!!!!
Quilter68 (AKA Kathleen)

fktsewing

heating, gasoline, food and just about everything else has gone up double in Ohio. Plus we seem to be one of the states that has the largest unemployment. I know this because my husband is one of them. Sure we get unemployment, but it is less than half of what he was making. Can't afford for him to retire because our funds went down just like everyone elses. I work full time, clean an office building and we are struggling to pay the house payment and bills. If something does not break soon, I am sure we will lose our house. Can't sell, no one is buying around here. The worst parts are that now we get to pay taxes on the unemployment, and forget about giving us food stamps--yet others are getting a "free ride" Sorry, guess I needed to vent a little.

Lisanne

Quilter68, I discovered the salad bar trick a few years back. I mean, you can get salad greens for a fractions of the price of those pre-packaged ones, and they're fresh that day.

For soups and other recipes using only a bit of celery, you can fit the chopped celery in one of those salad dressing containers and it rings up for pennies. (Some stores were giving them to me for free, telling me they were sample sized anyway. That's one thing when it's celery, but quite a savings when it's chopped bacon!)

I don't get all the salad bar items. Shredded carrots were not freshly shredded, and all that exposed surface area just makes them decay that much faster. Same with cheese. And it used to be, they set out freshly chopped fruit, but now they just set out the fruit from the catering platters that didn't sell, so you're getting 1 - 2 day old chopped fruit.

And I agree with you about smaller sizes. A pint of Haagen-Dazs is 14 ounces now, I think. I bought pita bread and whoa! Size cut by at least a third. Wal-mart is selling Kellogg's Corn Flakes boxes for $1.50, which sounds good until you notice it only has 7 servings in it. Used to be, a box of corn flakes lasted a month. And Dial soap has a narrow "waistline" now, which only makes you use it faster and get rid of it when the center breaks into two pieces.