Avoiding grocery stores again....

[Aspychata]

So many stores are raising prices. When l leave the cashier, it's 100 dollars minimum and l think what did l buy? Eggs, some carbs, some vegetables, and faux dairy products.

Now have started to try protein powders, protein crumbles and introduce more lentils and beans into my diet. Sometimes beans just mean l feel bloated and l am not sure l like that.

With meat and dairy and vegetable prices soaring, is anyone rethinking their food choices? Have you tried bulk co-op stores? When l lived on the reservation, we had a co-op deliver to us by truck in AZ.

I hate trying to find parking. I dislike rude people. And perhaps l am becoming more reclusive. I do actually cope better in stores after the pandemic which really surprised me.

Do you find yourself cutting back on grocery trips? I find myself searching for empty stores for those off the wall items instead of going to box stores. Walmart is reporting raising prices due to a 50% increase in shoplifting. Target has the same issue.

 

[Forest Cat]

That happened to me on monday, I had a short shopping list and I was pleased because I thought it wouldn't be especially expensive, I really didn't buy much. 97 dollars! Everything is expensive now. I usually shop for one week at a time and there's not much I can do to get lower prices.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

I think the best thing to do is to stock up on meat. Maybe buy a whole turkey and cook it, even though it's not a holiday. Butcher it up, and freeze or can the meat.

If you eat ham, same thing.

 

[Aspychata]

For me, l am buying protein crumbles in bulk online which is organic and averages about 6 dollars for one pound of high quality vegetable protein which is great in tacos, soups, etc. Plant Boss has Taco Time, which is the same brand l am using. It averages $6.33 a pound. Doesn't go bad, is made from peas, and is a clean protein for those who don't want sugar or other byproducts in their protein.

Meat eaters definitely have to buy in bulk to get any relief from prices. My family won a drawing for a butchered cow when l was in kindergarten. She had to give most of it away because it wouldn't fit in the freezer.

So this post is to ask also if anybody is using other protein sources due to costs?

 

[Neonatal RRT]

For me, l am buying protein crumbles in bulk online which is organic and averages about 6 dollars for one pound of high quality vegetable protein which is great in tacos, soups, etc. Plant Boss has Taco Time, which is the same brand l am using. It averages $6.33 a pound. Doesn't go bad, is made from peas, and is a clean protein for those who don't want sugar or other byproducts in their protein.

Meat eaters definitely have to buy in bulk to get any relief from prices. My family won a drawing for a butchered cow when l was in kindergarten. She had to give most of it away because it wouldn't fit in the freezer.

So this post is to ask also if anybody is using other protein sources due to costs?

Have you looked at the pricing on some of the bodybuilding/fitness warehouses? Bodybuilding.com historically has had the lowest prices on the net,...or will price match. Their search engine has filters, so you can choose vegan, low sugar, etc. They carry hundreds of brands, so you usually have more than one choice of whatever you want.

 

[Aspychata]

Have you looked at the pricing on some of the bodybuilding/fitness warehouses? Bodybuilding.com historically has had the lowest prices on the net,...or will price match. Their search engine has filters, so you can choose vegan, low sugar, etc. They carry hundreds of brands, so you usually have more than one choice of whatever you want.

Will check out their website then. Thanks for the advice. I cook for someone who has diabetes so l am exploring ways to incorporate protein in a cleaner manner. They really enjoy tacos so this is a win win using protein crumbles.

 

[Outdated]

I avoid going to the shops and I get groceries delivered simply because I don't enjoy shopping.

I'm curious about the price increases though. Here we are getting a lot of media hype about inflation and people not being able to stretch their budgets far enough, but I'm not seeing that myself. Prices of most things I buy have only gone up by a tiny amount. 2% or 3%.

It would be interesting if we could identify a product that all of us use and list what we pay for that item in our part of the world.

 

[Forest Cat]

I avoid going to the shops and I get groceries delivered simply because I don't enjoy shopping.

I'm curious about the price increases though. Here we are getting a lot of media hype about inflation and people not being able to stretch their budgets far enough, but I'm not seeing that myself. Prices of most things I buy have only gone up by a tiny amount. 2% or 3%.

It would be interesting if we could identify a product that all of us use and list what we pay for that item in our part of the world.

Here it is a combination of prices that is the problem, some food items haven't gone up much but a lot of things have gone up. A full tank of gas costs $120 for example. It's just too much at once going up.

 

[Outdated]

Not owning a car has certainly saved me a lot of money, I forgot about that side of things. The price of petrol has more than doubled in the last 5 years. And we keep getting warnings that the price of electricity is going to go up but we haven't seen that yet. Winter lasted a few months longer than normal this year so everyone's heating bills extended longer than normal.

 

[Greatshield17]

So many stores are raising prices. When l leave the cashier, it's 100 dollars minimum and l think what did l buy? Eggs, some carbs, some vegetables, and faux dairy products.

Now have started to try protein powders, protein crumbles and introduce more lentils and beans into my diet. Sometimes beans just mean l feel bloated and l am not sure l like that.

With meat and dairy and vegetable prices soaring, is anyone rethinking their food choices? Have you tried bulk co-op stores? When l lived on the reservation, we had a co-op deliver to us by truck in AZ.

I hate trying to find parking. I dislike rude people. And perhaps l am becoming more reclusive. I do actually cope better in stores after the pandemic which really surprised me.

Do you find yourself cutting back on grocery trips? I find myself searching for empty stores for those off the wall items instead of going to box stores. Walmart is reporting raising prices due to a 50% increase in shoplifting. Target has the same issue.

One of the many reasons why I want to be a farmer.

 

[Magna]

I buy a lot of bulk food items at the co-op. Grains, legumes, etc.

Cabbage is nutritious, filling and fairly inexpensive. There are a lot of good cabbage recipes on Youtube.

On a related note talking about food, changing diets, meats vs. veg, etc. I learned something this week that I never thought was correct: It actually takes MORE ENERGY meaning it's LESS environmentally friendly to produce vegetables than it does meat. If I recall that's taking into account the costs of fertilizers, equipment, hours, energy consumed to name a few. I guess, put that in your vegan chili and...eat it?

I think @Yeshuasdaughter has a great idea with buying meat and portioning it out. This Thanksgiving there were fewer of us so I bought a 6.5 pound organic free range bone-in turkey breast. Crazy how many meals I got out of that alone. It lasted a week just incorporating the amount needed per meal.

Also, eggs are more expensive than ever, but...they're still a good source of inexpensive protein.

I started grinding my own chickpea and red lentil flours and I've used them to make flatbreads. Delicious and filling. Brown rice is a staple in my kitchen, but I'm going to switch to quinoa because it's more nutrient dense than brown rice.

 

[Billthecat]

I think I opened a similar topic days ago, right now the prices are raised also elsewhere

My only little advice:

If you want to raise your animals in order to increase proteins, be sure about having something economic to feed them before, the cereals doubled their prices in the last six months, at least in Italia

 

[Aspychata]

I buy a lot of bulk food items at the co-op. Grains, legumes, etc.

Cabbage is nutritious, filling and fairly inexpensive. There are a lot of good cabbage recipes on Youtube.

On a related note talking about food, changing diets, meats vs. veg, etc. I learned something this week that I never thought was correct: It actually takes MORE ENERGY meaning it's LESS environmentally friendly to produce vegetables than it does meat. If I recall that's taking into account the costs of fertilizers, equipment, hours, energy consumed to name a few. I guess, put that in your vegan chili and...eat it?

I think @Yeshuasdaughter has a great idea with buying meat and portioning it out. This Thanksgiving there were fewer of us so I bought a 6.5 pound organic free range bone-in turkey breast. Crazy how many meals I got out of that alone. It lasted a week just incorporating the amount needed per meal.

Also, eggs are more expensive than ever, but...they're still a good source of inexpensive protein.

I started grinding my own chickpea and red lentil flours and I've used them to make flatbreads. Delicious and filling. Brown rice is a staple in my kitchen, but I'm going to switch to quinoa because it's more nutrient dense than brown rice.

Yes. I understand your point, well made. The real resources of meat production is surprisingly in the transportation of getting the meat from the packing plant to the stores, and packaging used to promote the products. The refrigerated trucks need to maintain a correct temperature and then this meat continues to use resources as it sits in refrigerator display unit. The other consideration are the resources used to inoculate and feed the livestock, which isn't always taken into account in the bigger picture. Many small livestock farmers have been forced to close down as the few meat packing giants have paid less and less to squeeze a profit out of them.

So l may politely agree to disagree with you. But your comments are important.

 

[Outdated]

I usually shop for one week at a time and there's not much I can do to get lower prices.

I normally only buy groceries every 3 or 4 weeks. This was forced on me when I was living in the bush but I learnt a valuable lesson from it. The same as @Yeshuasdaughter said, it changed my habits in the way I prepare food and I found I could live a lot more cheaply yet still eat the same foods.

And I thought of a product that we all use and could compare - electricity.

At the moment I'm paying 33.75 cents a kilowatt - regular day time usage, it's cheaper during the night. That's Australian cents, about 22 cents a kilowatt in US money.

 

[Billthecat]

And I thought of a product that we all use and could compare - electricity.

At the moment I'm paying 33.75 cents a kilowatt - regular day time usage, it's cheaper during the night. That's Australian cents, about 22 cents a kilowatt in US money.

3,68€/kwh last bill, taxes included

Just the electricity was 1,87€ kWh, my fault

 

[Forest Cat]

And I thought of a product that we all use and could compare - electricity.

At the moment I'm paying 33.75 cents a kilowatt - regular day time usage, it's cheaper during the night. That's Australian cents, about 22 cents a kilowatt in US money.

Right now one kilowatt hour is around 0,40 US cents here. + Some taxes. It quickly adds up.

 

[Forest Cat]

3,68€/kwh last bill, taxes included

Just the electricity was 1,87€ kWh, my fault

I really hope it wasn't 3,6 euros for one kilowatt hour, that would be crazy.

 

[Billthecat]

I really hope it wasn't 3,6 euros for one kilowatt hour, that would be crazy.

We don't have enough production of electricity, and the 50 percent come from eastern metangas.

And it looks like we will be out of 30 percent of fuel next year

 

[VictorR]

I've always been a "shop the sale" type of consumer - if there's something on sale I like, I buy it. And sometimes something might not be my favourite, but if the price is right, I'll buy it too. I never have a shopping list unless there's something I am specifically getting for an occasion. That means it's not unusual for me to walk out of a supermarket empty handed.

Over the course of a longer period like a year, I probably have an okay varied diet, but in any given short run, I may have some very repetitive meals because there was a good sale on a certain item, like eggs, or short-dated cheese.

Some things like meats or bread I'll toss in the freezer to carry them over.

As I don't drive or bicycle, whatever I buy is limited to what I can carry and walk with, but Ikea bags can come in useful.

 

[VictorR]

As for electricity, I live in a mountainous area where we have dammed many of our rivers for better or for worse.

For better, it has lead to electricity being one of the very few accessible things (as I've mentioned elsewhere, houses are >$1M...)

Anyways, local prices for residential electricity:
CAD 0.209 daily service charge
CAD 0.095 / kWh (first 1350 kWh per two months)
CAD 0.141 / kWh (penalty rate for any kWh in excess of above)

So 100 kWh =
CAD 9.50 / USD 6.99 / EUR 6.22 regular rate
CAD 14.10 / USD 10.37 / EUR 9.82 penalty rate