The cost of food--still grateful

 Sometimes I need to remind myself that we in the U.S. still have plentiful, and inexpensive food, despite what Joe Biden is trying to do to the economy in the name of climate change.  I just spent $25.05 at Aldi's.  I buy a lot of fresh things there (and a few bakery items), and it's only a mile from my home. Ohio doesn't tax food, and recently removed tax on disposable diapers. 

Dozen mini muffins blueberry         3.45

10 gourmet choc chunk cookies      2.19

Cantaloupe chunks 16 oz                 3.29

Pineapple spears 16 oz                     3.49

Butternut squash 2.03 lb                   1.81

Sweet onions 2 lb.                            1.89

Yellow potatoes, small                      3.49

Bananas,  1.55 lb   .41/lb                    .64 

1/2 gal. whole milk                            1.61

Orange juice  1.6 qt                          3.19

According to move.org (a moving company) "The average cost of groceries in America in 2023 is $415.53 a month per person1. [Ohio is $392.59 per person a month.] However, this number can vary greatly depending on factors like age and personal eating habits. Location is another important—though potentially surprising—factor in determining food costs. Groceries cost more in some US cities and states than others." How Much Does Food Cost in the US? | Move.org

Nerd Wallet says:  "Have food prices been rising? Absolutely. Thanks to a combination of inflation, pandemic-related supply-chain disruptions and tariffs on certain foreign imports, food prices have steadily risen since 2020.

But inflation has been slowing in the past year and the latest data shows the cost of groceries aren’t rising as fast as they once were.

Food prices rose 3.7% between September 2022 and September 2023, according to the most recent consumer price index (CPI) report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By comparison, at the same time in 2022 prices rose 11.2% over a one-year period." The Cost of Groceries: Are Food Prices Going Up? - NerdWallet

Money saving for Seniors

Have you seen those PennySaver USA sponsored ads? The last one I saw was "irresponsible spending seniors do." They are click bait--they are hawking spending, not saving. But money saving really depends on your quintile. Until Covid, we had a regular Friday night date to eat out. We got out of that habit, and now it's more like 2 or 3 times a month, and we don't really miss it. We never were big spenders, enjoying the time with friends or each other. But let's say with tip the bill was $60, so cut that out of your monthly expenses x2 and it adds up. Going back to the house for dessert with friends after dinner, really saves you some cash. Someone in the 5% group might give up a vacation to Europe to save money. Joe has been a disaster for our grocery and gas bills--what have you done to cut back, if anything?

What's in your kitchen? Fresh, frozen or processed, April 21

 Refrigerator

• Yellow pepper
• Red pepper
• Red leaf lettuce
• Baby spinach
• Green beans
• Carrots
• Cauliflower
• Peas, frozen
• Olives
• Broccoli
• Cantaloupe
• Pineapple
• Blue berries
• Strawberries
• Red grapes
• Grape Tomatoes
• Oranges
• Cheese, cheddar, American, Parmesan, Cream
• Whole Milk
• Half and Half creamer
• Eggs, fresh and hard cooked
• Butter
• Orange juice
• Apple cider
• Pork loin
• Ham
• Hamburger
• Bacon
• Sausage
• Salmon
• Condiments
• Frozen tater tots
• Ice cream cups, vanilla
• Frozen biscuits
• Homemade sandwiches, meat and cheese on buns
• Chocolate cookies, bakery

Cupboards

• Bananas
• Sweet Potatoes
• Russet Potatoes
• Pretzels
• Soda crackers
• Walnuts
• Rice brown, pasta
• Canned soups, various
• Canned beans, corn, peas
• Canned fruit pieces, various
• Fruit juices, single serving
• Cake mixes, various
• Cheerios
• Oatmeal
• Oat Bran
• Raisins
• Tea bags
• Tea, herbal
• Coffee, decaf
• baking supplies, spices, condiments
• Olive oil
• Coconut oil
• Vinegar
• Cocoa, dark 100% Cacao
• Honey, local

First world problems.

Rude. Today I put my groceries on the conveyer belt at the grocery store. The clerk moved them forward. The woman in front of me was still getting things ready to pay and set her heavy purse (size of a small suitcase) on top of my groceries (to her left) rather than on the small shelf next to the credit card machine (to her right) or in her cart or on the bagging area. Maybe it was just too big and heavy to lift.

Then over the microphone: "Ray come to the office, please."  So Ray who was bagging my groceries for me, said, "That's me," and started to leave! Wise to how things were moving along, I gave him that look--and he put the last two things into the cart.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s food stamp challenge

I think Gwyneth Paltrow has learned her lesson about food stamps (SNAP), but just in case, here's $29 of food purchased this morning, and even the government knows Paltrow's cupboard isn't bare and she probably has some flour, sugar, potatoes, carrots, some left over Easter ham in the freezer and coffee from last week. This grocery run includes 8# of oranges, $6; 6 bananas $.81; 1 lb. of strawberries, $1.50; 1/2 gal 2% milk, $2.39; bag of mixed salad greens with sunflower see...ds and dressing included, $2.50; 6 Lite yogurt with fruit, $3; and ground sirloin $6.50. I was not shopping to budget, and if I were, I wouldn't buy partially processed items. The rules are complicated and the household is expected to contribute its own money to the food budget. The S in SNAP is Supplemental; they changed it thinking people would understand it better--but they obviously don't. At least Gwyneth didn't.

Read this carefully and explain

"This parking space is for expectant mothers and fathers with new born children."

Think about this "gender neutral" message for a moment. . . Does the huge luxury store that caters to my every whim for cheese or wine or meat want to earn points and create a customer-friendly image with politically correct, nonsexist nonsense which sounds like it was translated from a foreign language?

Why does an expectant father need a special parking place? Is he bloating or having charley horse pains in his hip as his waist expands so far he can't see his feet? Or this. If a woman has a new born in the car and drives to the Giant Eagle, is she even aware that she might be expecting another wee one? Or is the sign missing a comma, and really means the space is only for expectant mothers, or for fathers driving around with a new born in the car?  But that would mean mothers with a new born can't park there.

Also, think of the insensitivities this communicates to radical feminists (aka feminazis) who believe pregnant women are not even mothers, but simply carriers of a clump of parasitic cells that can be removed because it isn't a human yet.
 
Think about this and the last time you went to the store with young children.  Is it really more difficult to schlep a new born into the store than two toddlers and a sullen teen-ager who would rather not be seen with you? Which one really needs to be nearer the door?

Believe me, forty plus years ago I never took young children or babies to the grocery store, or to church, or to day care.  Saturday morning at Kroger's or Tarpy's was MY time, and I wasn't about to share it.

Food insecurity is not hunger

"According to the USDA's annual poll, 17 million U.S. households reported some degree of food insecurity in 2008, up from 13 million households in 2007," writes Scott Kilman in yesterday's WSJ. I'm not sure when "food insecurity" became the term du jour, but it means at some point during 2008 someone in the family worried about not having enough food or their "normal eating patterns were disrupted." So that's what hunger has become to the USDA--worrying about food while HHS is wringing is bureaucratic hands over obesity. Even when unemployment was at 4.5%, journalists were writing food pantry and food insecurity stories, especially during the holiday season when many charities are making appeals. Now because of unemployment at 10.2%, people who used to contribute or volunteer at food pantries now are recipients, so the stories have expanded. In 2009 they are not directed at the president's policies, as they were four or five years ago. Even in food insecurity, Obama is untouchable.

And really, no modern day president can be blamed for hunger in the U.S., because it has been the policy of the government for the last 60 years to expand its largest welfare program to . . . farmers. And what used to be using up post-war surplus by giving it to the poor (blocks of cheese, butter, and boxes of dry milk back in the 60s and 70s) is now growing subsidized food to be given to the poor through schools (breakfast, lunch, afterschool and summertime snacks), churches (they usually run the summer programs), non-profits (they provide grants from donors and the government to buy the food), and federal and state "partnerships (redistribution of USDA money to many programs, rural and metropolitan)."

This at a time when there are entire households of adults and children where no one knows how to purchase or prepare food. I needed to buy 2 large containers of applesauce to donate to Faith Mission this week, so while I was going through the store, I jotted down some basic, non-prepared food items with prices.

Fresh items: 3 lb bananas, 8 lb. potatoes, 1 lb. carrots, 3 lb. apples, 8 lb oranges, 2 lb cabbage (total $11.18); main meal items: l lb pinto beans, l lb. black beans, 2 lb rice, 2 lb macaroni, 15 oz spaghetti, 26 oz spaghetti sauce (total $8.56); refrigerator case: 1 doz eggs, 1 gal milk, 1 lb butter, 2 lb cheddar cheese (total $7.45); beverage: 11.5 oz coffee to brew ($2.50). That came to $29.69, and for another $5.00 I could have had 2 loaves of bread and 16 oz. of natural peanut butter. For another $5.00 I could buy a 16 lb. turkey because they are on special right now. So for $40, that's a lot of food on the shelves, but someone has to buy it and someone has to prepare it who knows that beans with rice and potatoes combined with milk are almost nutritionally perfect.

But you can blow your way through $40 pretty fast buying soft drinks, potato chips, prepared individual meals at $3.00 each, crackers, cookies, etc. And it's not just poor people. On my afternoon walk yesterday I walked in a neighborhood that has a Tuesday trash pick up and at one home which I would estimate at $800,000, there were 6 plastic containers at the curb, all filled with flattened boxes and containers for processed food, many for the single server type. Her children probably don't qualify for school lunches, but they might be better off if they did.

See also my blog from April 2009 on What ever happened to food stamps.

This is a parody--I hope

You just never know--the faux wackos are being out-wacko’d by the real wackos. I don’t know about you but drippy meat blood in a canvas bag has little appeal to me. And I'd hate to start buying bags for the kitty litter, book returns, garbage, shoes in the suitcase, etc.--do you think this is all a battle between the name brands and the unbrands? I prefer paper bags, but 25 years ago we were told to save the trees. Now what are we saving? China’s canvas bag crop?

Spasiba--спасибо

While shopping at two grocery stores, I was reminded of why we need immigrants--to keep American workers on their toes! The woman had a thick Russian accent and was extremely careful in her job--even fretted a bit about where the other sack of Honey Crisps were which she was sure she'd rung up (I think she wanted to bag them together). I could understand her English--and especially her big smile and helpful demeanor. She told me she was from a tiny area between Poland and Germany. Poland was part of Russia in the 19th century and was only briefly a country in the 20th before Germany invaded in 1939, so I'm sure many Russian nationals lived there. There wasn't time to sort out world events. She wasn't eager for me to practice my Russian--had to move on to the next customer, but that's OK.

At the other store, which usually has very well trained, polite staff, I got a young man about 25 who either hadn't been to bed yet after a big week-end, had rolled out "on the wrong side of bed," as we say, or thinks clerking is beneath him. I had to ask him several times to repeat his question, and then couldn't understand him when he told me the amount (good thing I checked the little digital thingy because he'd morphed the subtotal and the taxable total). There was a 60s Beatles song on the loud speaker, so I said to him, "That song is older than you," and he replied (I think), "Everything they play here is older than me."

Cheating the poor with inaccurate information

Another alarmist article about how the poor can’t afford decent food--need to buy cheaper junk--in USAToday. Really? Tara Parker Pope even said so in NYT last December--comparing only the cost of calories! Nonsense. I just had a wonderful lunch. I had steamed beet tops (we’ll eat the beets for dinner tonight) and a delicious tomato salad of two garden tomatoes (farmer’s market), coarsely shredded carrots (from WalMart), a few sliced green olives (been around for awhile in the frig), and the left over salsa from last night’s restaurant doggie bag. No, it wasn’t “calorie dense” like donuts or cookies, but after I sneak a piece of real cheddar cheese for dessert, I’ll have a pretty good balance, for under $2.00, and it will hold until dinner. After all, how many calories do I need for blogging and napping?

The following article is from 2005, but things haven’t changed that much, unless you’ve been buying corn based products like pop (corn is being grown to burn in cars instead of feeding people and animals which in turn is raising the cost of rice and causing riots in 3rd world countries--thank you, Al Gore).

“In January of this year [2005] alternative health practitioner and self-style “health nut” Colleen Huber made an attempt to do just such a worked-out analysis of processed vs. whole organic food costs.

Colleen made two complete weekly menus, one using processed food and one using fresh foods. She did all her shopping at a single, standard supermarket, and chose mid-priced brands of processed foods (not generics). She followed some reasonable ground rules, and we couldn’t detect any particular bias in the menus she constructed. In addition to the menus, Colleen’s article lists detailed “register tapes” with prices and weights for all the foods she purchased for each set of menus.

At the end of the day, the processed food menu cost USD $123.64, while the fresh, organic menu cost USD $122.42.” Real food cheaper

I make no attempt to buy organic, but do buy a lot of fresh. So my food bill would probably be even lower. Don't let the economic scare mongers tell you what to eat.

Thanks to Janeen who's eating good for the wonderful tomatoes photo.

Buy real food

It's still a good deal. Today I had to stop at the grocery store, and you know how it goes--you buy a bit more than you thought. I just panic if I'm out of apples. I eat an apple every day. I spent $10.93. Large green bell pepper; 1 quart of milk; 6 Braeburn apples; 3 medium size bananas; 8 oz. cheese; large head of broccoli. Is it higher than last year? Oh, yes! But it's cheaper than a large bag of potato chips, a 6 pack of soft drinks, and a sack of cookies or do-nuts.

If I had $542 to spend at the grocery store

with or without food stamps ($542 a month for a family of 4 earning $26,856 per year), here's what I could get in Columbus, Ohio, shopping at a store within 2 miles of my home that doesn't require a loyalty card. Then I would have about $282 left over for the rest of the month. Everyone has something in the frig or cupboards, and I'm assuming catsup, mustard, margarine, and pickles are residing in mine. Indeed, I probably need to look at the expiration dates! I also seem to have an awful lot of rice and canned beans and miscellaneous canned fruits. And I've got frozen peas and corn in the freezer because I use them when I don't have fresh. But if I had to buy smart and buy cheap, I'd go for real food. And I wouldn't confuse shampoo and toilet paper with food--which is what many journalists do when they write about soaring food prices.

The quantity listed here is a bit unrealistic for my small condo kitchen, but it could be done in 2-3 trips to the store over 2 weeks, and without purchasing too many perishable items in quantity. Apples, cabbage, potatoes, carrots and onions last a long time--asparagus and bananas don't. And you'd need a decent size freezer compartment to hold the meat.

I often buy marked down meat on Monday, but didn't see any today, so these prices are from the flyer. This list also contains things I rarely buy like spare ribs and bacon--but they were on special this week, and bacon can go a long way in flavoring other items or as a garnish for salads. Also, I rarely bake anymore. I just put the flour and sugar down just in case Mom's watching from heaven.

Dairy
2 gallons milk (6.00)
3 (24 oz) real cheese (9.60)
3 doz eggs (6.00)

Fruits and Vegetables
16 lbs potatoes (5.00)
3 lbs cabbage (1.50)
3 lbs tomatoes (4.50)
10 lbs apples (Braeburn)(13.90)
10 lbs peaches (14.90)
4 cartons orange juice (10.00)
3 lb carrots (1.00)
2 cantaloupe (4.00)
8 corn on cob (2.00)
3 lbs asparagus (5.00)
bag of onions(3.00)
2 cukes, seedless (2.50)
5 lbs bananas (2.50)
seedless grapes (3.00)
asparagus 3 lb (5.40)
green salad mix (3.00)
broccoli (1.00)
cauliflower (1.00)

Meat
Brats (2 lbs) (6.00)
5 lb chicken breast boneless 2.29/lb (11.45)
bacon (2 lbs) (4.00)
ground chuck 5 lb (7.50)
3 lbs hot dogs (5.00)
10 lb boneless ham (11.90)
10 lb spare ribs (9.90)
8 lb hamburger (frozen patties)(11.90)
canned tuna 24 oz (3.00)
fresh fish 3 lb. (21.00)

baking, condiments, semi-processed
raisins 24 oz (2.50)
peanut butter 16 oz (2.00)
Miracle Whip 32 oz (2.50)
jam or jelly 32 oz (2.70)
broth for soup 2 cans (1.60)
pasta 5 lb (4.00)
salad dressing(1.50)
olive oil l lb (5.00)
shortening 3 lb. (2.50)
10 lb Flour (5.00)
10 lb sugar (4.00)
walnuts l lb. (6.00)
green olives, large jar, salad (3.00)
coffee 39 oz (6.90)
oatmeal, old fashioned, lg. (3.00)

Treats
Ice Cream (3.00)
Cool Whip (1.25)
popcorn (jar or bag, not mw) (2.00)
peanuts dry roasted, jar (3.00)

TIP: A potato combined with milk (or cheese) is nutritionally a near perfect food. And very cheap. 8 lbs of potatoes will cost you about the same as 10 oz. of potato chips which have no nutritional value at all.

My blog on the thrifty plan.

The Thrifty Plan and me in 1982.