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Erin
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Having a comprehension struggle here. Does this mean then that farmers(growers and meat raisers) HAVE TO sell to the supermarkets? This would mean the supermarkets have a monopoly!
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Erin
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Mimip
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For the most part Erin, yes all fruits and veggies and all meats are bought in the grocery store. You can order grass fed or Organic directly from the farm but then there is usually an additional cost for butchering and shipping costs.
I don't have much time to post but shopping at Aldi's has literally saved our budget. My husband and I leave the house at 8:45 and arrive just in time for the store to open. We buy the same things every week pretty much but groceries have skyrocketed here and our food budget was never enough. Our costco and sam's are super far and I have a tendency to over buy in those places.
Also Amazon Subsrcibe and Save has been our other helper. We now buy toilet paper, paper towels, diapers and all cleaning products other than laundry detergent from Amazon. We also buy toothpaste, feminine products, razors and shaving cream.
Honestly, I've struggled with shopping for the best price verses my time so that means Aldi's once a week, Publix for their Buy one get ones but I don't go! Hubby stops by on his way home and picks those up
For me. As you can tell I'm not good with impulse buys;)
Everything else is from Amazon. I even cut down my target trips to once a month.
The biggest thing: if we run out, we run out. No mid week trips, no trips between times. That takes planning but I always have an extra meal if need be.
Good Luck!!!!
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Mimi
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SeaStar
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MarilynW wrote:
Melinda - I feel your pain. I am trying to figure out my grocery shopping too. I shop at 2 places weekly right now - Trader Joe's for the bulk of my shopping, and Costco for some things. This year I am trying to really avoid any distractions during school hours - but I hate driving and shopping at night, especially when it is cold. Saturday shopping here is just crazy and I don't shop on Sundays. In addition, I do not want to take my little ones with me - too many germs around, and I am quicker on my own. But now my teens are very busy out of the house, I suddenly don't have an older kid to leave the younger ones with.
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Marilyn-
We are on the same shopping page 
I feel like I really have to guard my school time zealously... it just works better for my kids to have a solid routine in place. I might be able to swing a once a month later start to the day like Erin does, though.
We have an Aldi in town, and I agree with Stef 100% about the pricing... often it is less than half price for fruits and vegs at Aldi compared to other stores.
The downside for me is that it only opens at 9:00 and is on the same crazy busy road here that Costco, WF and TJ's is on. Getting in and out of the parking lot is extremely difficult and can take a frustrating amount of time. Plus, the store is always crowded- there is no early morning down time there.
I am slowly beginning to adopt that same attitude of "if we run out, we have to improvise or do without". That works well for most things except milk.
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CrunchyMom
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Erin wrote:
| Having a comprehension struggle here. Does this mean then that farmers(growers and meat raisers) HAVE TO sell to the supermarkets? This would mean the supermarkets have a monopoly! |
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Most Americans do not buy locally grown foods, though, when things are in season, there will be signs in the grocery that these are New Jersey blueberries or Pennsylvania corn, etc...
I have a local tiny local food exchange who sells produce and meats from local farmers, and there are a couple of small groceries/health food stores who sell a lot of local things, but they are stocked like a super market with meat, veg, and dry goods, albeit on a much smaller scale. There are dedicated butchers here and there, but most people buy from a supermarket unless they want something highly specialized, and most of the butchers are ethnic here on the East Coast. The only butcher I knew of growing up in the South was some distance away in a town that was settled by Germans. Likely there were butchers and smaller groceries I didn't know about in Birmingham, the largest city in my state.
I also have local farmers who sell from stands at their farms.
But for the most part, the availabilty for alternatives to large chain super markets is limited and highly regional. Americans are used to one stop shopping on a rather large scale.
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CrunchyMom
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Also, I buy meat from a local farm, but it is a hike to get there, and it is cheaper to buy a whole half a hog or quarter of beef.
The challenge here is not the monopoly supermarkets have but rather the monopoly the processors have and they way they control the regulations in the industry. Most farmers sell to a few major brands of meat, and it can be very hard for those who want to use alternative farming practices to break into the conventional market, so those wanting to buy that way buy in unconventional ways, like Jenn's farm pick up.
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SallyT
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I've fallen off the wagon at the moment, but my best MO is to go grocery shopping on payday, basically for the month, with most things going in the freezer. I plan how many meat meals I'm going to want each week -- I don't do super-detailed menu planning, but have a rough estimate of meat vs vegetarian meals --plus vegetables to go with all meals. I buy pasta, beans, and other dry goods as well. I buy a mix of fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables, with the obvious plan to rely on frozen for much of the month, though I do buy fresh stuff when I go in to buy milk periodically.
Like Mimi, I shop primarily at Aldi, then fill in with things I can't get there at other grocery stores: whole-wheat flour, cornmeal, quinoa, this certain salsa that I like, etc.
We have a friend who supplies us regularly with farm eggs for free, which is a huge blessing, because we eat LOTS of eggs. I wish we could buy better meat from a better source, but our budget just won't stretch that far right now -- we're doing well to eat meat at all. And our garden is still going: tomatoes, peppers, kale, beet greens, chard, and carrots. Pretty much everything we eat right now involves those ingredients. The squirrels keep tearing up my planters of lettuce and spinach -- grrrrr! I'd like to put squirrel on the menu!
And when we're out, we're out, too, though I do keep us supplied with milk. We don't have a deep-freeze, which is a huge disadvantage for my preferred shopping style -- I keep thinking I'm going to be able to get one, then some disaster strikes and eats up my deep-freeze budget. *When* we get one, however, I'll freeze milk as well!
Sally
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ekbell
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We only have one vehicle so either my hubby picks stuff up at our preferred store on the way home from work, I send a child to fetch it from the (Asian) supermarket within walking distance or we do without.
A good shopping list done in advance is important! As is keeping enough cash on hand for small purchases.
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SeaStar
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The whole meat issue is another thing that makes my life hard. We don't have dedicated butcher shops here, and trying to buy meat that is grass fed, hormone free is time consuming and/or expensive.
And I am lazy- plus not very good at cooking things like pot roast, pork tenderloin, etc. So by default, we eat a lot of vegetarian meals.
I am not a vegetarian and would feed my family meat more often if it were cheaper/easier to come by. My kids get really excited when meat is on the menu!
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Erin
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SeaStar wrote:
| I am not a vegetarian and would feed my family meat more often if it were cheaper/easier to come by. My kids get really excited when meat is on the menu! |
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Intrigued now, what is considered a good price for meat in America? I prefer to buy meat when it is $8/kg or less. Chicken is usually $5/kg, whole chicken that is, breasts are dearer which I why I buy the whole chicken. But always grab lamp or beef when under $8.
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JodieLyn
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Hmmm let's see that works out to being about $3.62/pound
(no idea how to work out the exchange rate.. $1 aus = .88 us)
I can get ground beef for about $3.50/pound, pork shoulder roasts and boneless skinless chicken breasts for $2.49/pound.. whole chickens for around $1/pound.
But that's been consistently going up without an increase in wages for the last 10 yrs or more. Ten years ago the beef would go on sale for $1/pound and chicken was the expensive meat at $1.49/pound.. and of course any solid cuts of beef are even higher. 4 years ago I could get good steaks on a good sale for $4.99/lb.. now.. maybe.. maybe I could find a sale for $6.99/lb.. and it's more likely to be $8.99/pound even on sale. 
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SallyT
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| Posted: Oct 09 2014 at 5:26pm | IP Logged
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Hm, I just bought a pack of 5 natural, hormone-free pork chops for $7.29 USD. These were something of a splurge, and I bought them mainly because my husband and 16yo won't be home for dinner, so it's just the 12yo, 10yo, and me. They're pretty nice, thick, boneless chops -- definitely a treat.
These were more expensive than "regular" pork chops. Depending on where I'm shopping, and on size, I would typically expect to pay . . . what? . . . $5-$6 for a whole chicken? I think I paid in the neighborhood of $9-$10 for a smallish pork roast at the weekend -- and I cooked it in the crockpot and then served it as pulled pork, in tacos.
Melinda, my kids get all big-eyed Oliver-Twisty when there's no meat. But really. It's so expensive I want to cry in the store. The crockpot makes me a champion at pot roast, pork loins, etc, but so often what I end up doing is buying tiny little packs of ground beef to flavor the pasta sauce . . . which does satisfy people, I have to say! It's the idea of the meat, not the meat itself . . .
Again, if I had this mythical deep freeze which I do not have, I would go in with someone on a cow, and put it all up in the freezer. Friends of ours do this yearly, and we just haven't had the freezer space -- which sounds so lame, but every time we have some money for another large appliance, the furnace dies or we have a flood in the kitchen and have to have the whole house replumbed. I did want to call my house "Friendly Gables," after the house in the Hilda van Stockum novel, but now I'm thinking its name is "Penance Cottage."
Sally
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SallyT
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Yes, things keep going up, but wages don't.
Sally
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SeaStar
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| Posted: Oct 09 2014 at 5:32pm | IP Logged
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Let's see... a kg is 2.2 lb, so you are buying meat when it is about $3.60 a pound here. (Paying $8 for 2.2 lb).
A really great sale price for ground beef that is grass-fed, hormone-free where I live is about $5 per pound. Average price is $6-9 per pound.
Regular ground beef that has growth hormone and steroids can be as low as $1.99 a pound on sale, but I'd rather not buy it. (Not saying it is wrong or bad to buy it; I just choose not to).
For a whole chicken (nonorganic) I pay around $6-9, which seems insane to me. I rarely can get a whole chicken for less than that- except at Costco, where a fully cooked, whole chicken costs $5-6. Chicken breasts can go on sale for as little as $1.99 a pound- but triple that if you want organic (no antibiotics).
These are grocery store prices. If I bought a side of beef I could get that price down.
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SeaStar
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ekbell wrote:
We only have one vehicle so either my hubby picks stuff up at our preferred store on the way home from work, I send a child to fetch it from the (Asian) supermarket within walking distance or we do without.
A good shopping list done in advance is important! As is keeping enough cash on hand for small purchases.
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I am seeing the truth about the good shopping list.
For the past couple of days I have kept a going list of what I buy at each store, adding items as I think of them.
I am very surprised to see how many items are on my Costco list, considering I shop there maybe once every two months ( not conveniently located for me). But I do try to stock up while there, and considering my small family size, everything lasts longer. But I have so many items on the list- no wonder I forget things!
This thread has inspired me to make a master list for each store and take it with me when I go. Then I will be able to glance through it before I go and then while in the store to make sure I have not forgotten anything.
That should help quite a bit.
I still can't do anything about items that aren't available in the store while I am there... ex. all the apples look bad or the lettuce is suspect and I have to pass on it for that trip.
But just having a list will help a lot! 
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Erin
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SeaStar wrote:
| I rarely can get a whole chicken for less than that- except at Costco, where a fully cooked, whole chicken costs $5-6. |
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Cooked already! that's awesome, a cooked chook in the supermarket here is $10-11
So fascinated by all this! still trying to figure the numbers lbs vs kgs, Aussie dollars to US. Trying to work out whether you're saying out meat is dearer or cheaper  Though I do know the quality is different 
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SeaStar
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If Australian dollars are roughly equivalent to US dollars (and I have no idea if that is the case), then you are getting a better deal
The fully cooked chickens at Costco are legendary- they even have their own Facebook page. The store freely admits they lose money on the chickens, but they are so wildly popular and draw so many people into the store that they are willing to use them as a loss leader.
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JodieLyn
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OK.. I think I have it.. If I was to take us money to get aus money.. I'd only have to give .88 for each dollar.. so that would mean that your price in us dollars is $3.20/pound ($7.04/kg)
And I'd say that $3.20/lb is good price for beef at the grocery store. You could likely get ground beef and maybe a cheaper cut on sale for that. Hmm and your whole chicken would be about $2/pound so more than we would pay here.
But they don't look that far apart.
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SeaStar
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Over the weekend, I found the Jungle Deals and Steals site, which keeps track of all kinds of food deals on Amazon daily.
There is also a section there for the Prime Pantry, which I had not heard of before. Prices look very good in that section. The shipping fee for a 40 lb box is $5.99, and a tracker will let you know how full your box is.
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: Grocery shopping strategy- help!
