Comments on: Grocery Bill Doubled In 9 Months: We Have A Problem

By: budget chic

budget chic — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:48:44 +0000

I shop at Walmart and Target. Walmart carries some organic products. Their organic milk in my city is $3.65 a gallon. I also scan the grocery store sales flyers of other supermarkets every Tuesday and try to get in on the specials. Produce is very expensive. I could barely afford to eat Cherries this past summer since they were up to $4.99 a pound. I use to get my meat and produce from an organic grocer out here call Talley's, but unfortunately they went out of business. It is expensive to eat healthy but you are talking about your body and you should not cut corners when it comes to your health. I believe I can reduce my spending in other areas to make up for the increase in food prices.

By: Candace

Candace — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 02:51:15 +0000

I can totally relate to your entire post! But it was predicted that with the economy in the state it's in certain costs would drop( gas) but food costs would rise. You're right on track with your ideas. People in my house are looking at me crazy as I type because I REFUSE to go running to the store simply because we're out of the usual snack and fast ( microwave ) foods we usually have stocked around here.
I want to start healthier eating habits this year AND it will help with my grocery budget. Try this website and see if it helps you out. I thought it was GREAT! But it didn't really work out for me due to my location we only had one participating store. Though many ladies are saving tons of money here and they have a great forum as well.http://www.thegrocerygame.com/

By: Gingerlatte

Gingerlatte — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 04:10:42 +0000

Testing Intense Debate Tweet this comment feature

By: Gingerlatte

Gingerlatte — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 04:09:38 +0000

Testing 1 2 3

By: Halle Eavelyn

Halle Eavelyn — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 06:50:39 +0000

Happy to report PRICE DROPS!!! With gas having gone down, the groceries are going down, too. Ahhh… and (Im in LA) I filled my WHOLE gas tank for less than $30 again - wonderful!

By: ShortcutSleuth

ShortcutSleuth — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 03:00:42 +0000

Planning meals in advance goes a long way towards saving money on your grocery bill. If you know what products are on sale before heading out to the supermarket, you can plan your weekly meals around on sale items. Also, stock up on any non perishable items when they're on sale as well. And don't go shopping when hungry, because that sets you up for impulse buying which makes a big dent on the wallet!

By: Jayne

Jayne — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 07:52:11 +0000

A veggie garden is good but what I've found to work year round is an indoor herb garden. It takes up very little space, and you can keep it going through the winter monght

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:28:03 +0000

I feel pity for the vegans out there. It has been scientifically proven that a diet lacking meat will shrink the brain, so it is understandable that they jump from conclusion to conclusion and will do anything the media will hint at being extra healthy no matter the cost.
I am laughing all the way to the bank selling the organic stuff for HUGE profits.

By: Miss M

Miss M — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:08:11 +0000

I hear you, the grocery bill keeps creeping up even when you’re buying the same old stuff. I don’t know why many commenters are bagging on TJ’s and saying they are too expensive, where I live they are often cheaper for staple items compared to the regular grocery stores. One thing I’ve done, which won’t work for everyone, is to reduce the number of shopping trips. We’re just a household of 2 (plus 4 canines) and tended to buy too much food, wasting some of it. Now I shop every other week, we buy more than if we were shopping for a single week, but it’s not twice as much. We’re saving about $100 a month this way. I found we were no good at sticking to a list and would go for 1 item and leave with 20. I’ve found for me the best way to save is reduce the opportunities I have to spend money, if I never enter the store I won’t spend. We have a vegetable garden that supplies a lot of the fresh vegetables and don’t mind the frozen variety, and we don’t drink much milk so if we run out, who cares. Everything else lasts two weeks no problem.

Miss M’s last blog post..Got a Sharebuilder Account? Want 2 Free Trades?

By: AnnJo

AnnJo — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:38:49 +0000

Em, I think genetically modified and organic are two different things. Almost all modern fruits, vegetables and livestock are genetically modified, through breeding and hybridization.

As for taste, I grew up in Puerto Rico where we had oranges, bananas, grapefruit, lemons, guavas, mangos, breadfruit, and some stuff you wouldn’t recognize the names of, all growing in our 2 acre back yard in very rich totally untreated soil, and we never sprayed anything, so I guess they were organic. Some were delicious, some were so-so, one (jaguas) was totally gross. It depended on the variety and our tastes. Some tasted a lot better when we were really hot and thirsty than when we weren’t. The fourth grapefruit you eat in a day isn’t anywhere near as tasty as the first one. (It also does a number on your tooth enamel.)

I buy organic bananas and other organic produce when they are the only option and I really really want that item, and there’s no difference in taste, to my mind.

But if you believe organic foods are better for you, they will probably taste better to you, too. That’s how the human brain works, and that’s fine for you, as long as you can afford to pay premium prices for what is essentially a self-deception. A lot of people actually get well on placebos, due to the power of belief but that doesn’t make a sugar pill real medicine.

What concerns me is that there are a lot of people out there who can’t afford premium prices and as the organic foods fad sometimes drive the other foods out of the market, those people will reduce their consumption of fruits and vegetables to satisfy the whims of their richer neighbors. Even though I’m not poor, I sometimes find myself skipping a purchase of some fruit or vegetable altogether because I don’t want to spend .79 for a pound of vegetable and $2.00 for the “organic” sticker attached to it.

I believe that the explosive growth of organic foods in the markets, sometimes driving out the alternative product altogether, is a major component of the increase in grocery prices over the past year that this post was all about.

Last time I went to Costco, the canned diced tomatoes I used to buy for 48 cents a can were suddenly “organic” and 99 cents a can. The non-organic diced tomatoes were available in a #10 can (96 ounces), and were about the same price they’d always been.

When a credible scientific source conducts a well-designed test of the pesticide/herbicide content of organic versus non-organic products that have been treated the way I treat my produce, i.e., well washed and peeled where appropriate, and shows me that the non-organic product contains a biologically significant higher level of pesticide and/or herbicide residue, then I’m willing to listen. Strangely, there’s been no real effort to do anything like that, for all the hype about organic foods and the millions spent on marketing it. Even the Consumer Reports tests that showed only minor differences were done using unwashed produce. Who doesn’t wash their produce?