You might have wondered why I haven't posted pictures and summaries of my shopping trips lately. I've wondered that myself...
On Tuesday, I went to the grocery store, telling myself "This time I won't let my readers down. This time I will come home, lay out my groceries for a picture, share how much I spent and what I bought and why."
But I didn't.
You know why?
Because when I saw the bill, I was not pleased.
It wasn't low.
And it wasn't because I bought a ton of stuff.
Its just that the food prices were way too icky.
I used to shop at my grocery store on Tuesdays because they'd have loss leaders on Tuesday where I'd be able to get vegetables for 12 cents a pound.
Yea, none of that this week. The cheapest veggies were 25 cents a pound, and there weren't many for that price either. Only cabbage, carrots, onions, beets, and potatoes. And only a 5 pound limit of each of those veggies as it is.
Great. Everything else was much more expensive.
Now what...
So yea, that's what this post is about. How to manage when food prices are icky. What to do when you don't like the prices that currently are in the store.
The first thing I did was buy as much of those cheaper veggies as I could. Despite cabbage not treating my system too kindly.
I then looked around to see what the next cheapest veggies were after those. Turnips, radishes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and butternut squash.
So I bought a bunch of those as well.
Even though occasionally I splurge on a more expensive vegetable or fruit here and there, when the prices aren't making me thrilled, I cut that out. I skipped buying any fruit at my local store because none of the prices were even near the range I was willing to pay for produce.
What now?
We're not big turnip eaters. Or radish eaters. Or cabbage eaters.
But because they're what's cheap, that's what I got, and that's what I will be making. I'm challenging myself to make as many different types of yummy veggie dishes as I can even using these ingredients that I usually shy away from.
Snack the other day was slices radishes with salt instead of apples or oranges. It was tasty, and it was cheap.
Carrots will be on the menu a lot. Beets will appear in many forms.
And don't forget the foraged greens. You betcha I'll be foraging as many edibles as possible now to supplement the few cheaper veggies I was able to buy.
But expensive and icky prices also means I have to compromise a little bit.
I'd love to stick to our no sugar diet, but the price of honey has gone up tremendously. I can't afford to keep on buying honey to use as a sweetener in everything.
As much as it embarrasses me to say, I'll be using white sugar.
Ick.
Going to try to minimize the amount of sweet dishes I'll be making because of that.
The price of sunflower oil has also gone up tremendously. Gonna have to buy some oils in bulk so I don't keep on paying these ridiculous prices every time I need oil.
In the meantime, I managed to get some fat scraps from the butcher to render into shmaltz to use in cooking...
And we'll be eating from our stockpile. And eating more beans than we have been lately.
And hoping, hoping that food prices go down soon...
What do you do when you see only icky prices in the grocery store? How do you keep your grocery costs down then? Have your food prices also been gross lately?
Linking up to WFMW, Frugal Days Sustainable Ways, Simple Lives Thursday,
On Tuesday, I went to the grocery store, telling myself "This time I won't let my readers down. This time I will come home, lay out my groceries for a picture, share how much I spent and what I bought and why."
But I didn't.
You know why?
Because when I saw the bill, I was not pleased.
It wasn't low.
And it wasn't because I bought a ton of stuff.
Its just that the food prices were way too icky.
I used to shop at my grocery store on Tuesdays because they'd have loss leaders on Tuesday where I'd be able to get vegetables for 12 cents a pound.
Yea, none of that this week. The cheapest veggies were 25 cents a pound, and there weren't many for that price either. Only cabbage, carrots, onions, beets, and potatoes. And only a 5 pound limit of each of those veggies as it is.
Great. Everything else was much more expensive.
Now what...
So yea, that's what this post is about. How to manage when food prices are icky. What to do when you don't like the prices that currently are in the store.
The first thing I did was buy as much of those cheaper veggies as I could. Despite cabbage not treating my system too kindly.
I then looked around to see what the next cheapest veggies were after those. Turnips, radishes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and butternut squash.
So I bought a bunch of those as well.
Even though occasionally I splurge on a more expensive vegetable or fruit here and there, when the prices aren't making me thrilled, I cut that out. I skipped buying any fruit at my local store because none of the prices were even near the range I was willing to pay for produce.
What now?
We're not big turnip eaters. Or radish eaters. Or cabbage eaters.
But because they're what's cheap, that's what I got, and that's what I will be making. I'm challenging myself to make as many different types of yummy veggie dishes as I can even using these ingredients that I usually shy away from.
Snack the other day was slices radishes with salt instead of apples or oranges. It was tasty, and it was cheap.
Carrots will be on the menu a lot. Beets will appear in many forms.
And don't forget the foraged greens. You betcha I'll be foraging as many edibles as possible now to supplement the few cheaper veggies I was able to buy.
But expensive and icky prices also means I have to compromise a little bit.
I'd love to stick to our no sugar diet, but the price of honey has gone up tremendously. I can't afford to keep on buying honey to use as a sweetener in everything.
As much as it embarrasses me to say, I'll be using white sugar.
Ick.
Going to try to minimize the amount of sweet dishes I'll be making because of that.
The price of sunflower oil has also gone up tremendously. Gonna have to buy some oils in bulk so I don't keep on paying these ridiculous prices every time I need oil.
In the meantime, I managed to get some fat scraps from the butcher to render into shmaltz to use in cooking...
And we'll be eating from our stockpile. And eating more beans than we have been lately.
And hoping, hoping that food prices go down soon...
What do you do when you see only icky prices in the grocery store? How do you keep your grocery costs down then? Have your food prices also been gross lately?
Linking up to WFMW, Frugal Days Sustainable Ways, Simple Lives Thursday,
Tags
extreme frugality
foraging
frugal shopping
frugal strategies
legumes
personal
stockpiling
vegetables