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I'm not at the point where I'm so financially strapped that it's beans and rice, but it's not like I'm buying king crab legs and live lobsters either.
Not sure why you should be strapped at all. You're 35ish, single, no kids, live in a low cost of living area and own a condo with a low mortgage payment, and pay no state income tax. Oh, and you earn over $100,000 per year!
You really should be putting tons of money away
Last edited by marino760; 05-26-2022 at 02:06 PM..
I received a new budget plan from my utility gas company today. This is for gas usage averaged for 12 months. It's $106 per month which includes heating my 1600 sq ft house. I think that's pretty reasonable. I like being on this plan because I know what my bill will be each month with no real surprises.
I have never seen a coupon for fresh produce.
Coupons seem to be only for processed;come in a box stuff that I would never have bought or eaten in the first place. I rarely buy frozen veggies/fruits;but for those I believe there are coupons.
All I know is that my food expenditures(just edibles) have gone up to over $500 a month..some months as much as $650.00!...just for myself.
I shop at Publix,which I know is not cheap...but at least they seem to treat their employees well...so the publicity says.
I bought this Saturday 5/21/22:
1 5lb bag of organic pink grapefrfuit...$7.99(No other one available,,about 6-7 fruits).
1 medium avocado.....$2.20
1 medium canteloupe.$3.99
1 lb Boarheads Blazing Buffalo Chicken Breast...$12.99
2 lbs. Fuji Apples..(4-5 fruits).........$7.03
5 Lb. bag Iberia brown rice...$3.99
1 Qt Lakewood Beet Juice.....$7.29
16Oz Santa Cruz organic PB $5.79
1 Bag Ole Mexican tortillas....$5.29
1 bag Voortman fudge sugar free cookies...$3.49
2 Qts Califia almond milk(on sale!)......$6.67
1 lb Driscoll's strawberries.............$3.34(on sale!)
1 pint raspberries(on sale!).......... $3.33
2 pints organic blackberries(BOGO) $4.99
That's $80 and by this Saturday,all the fresh fruit will be gone.
Also;I've noticed a general scarcity of the Publix brand products;which for most things; are just as good as the national brands. I would stock on these often,saving me a few bucks...but now there are a lot of empty shelves.. Could this be done on purpose to make one buy the brand-names m ore???
Publix is a high end supermarket and organic anything commands higher prices.
So there are choices here....stick with what you eat and pay more or start "shopping around" as they say.
There are about 5-6 stores I shop at but not all at once on the same day. When I run out of SunnyD then it's off to Dollar Tree for that. My main shopping is at Walmart and I do buy national brands and not organic except for strawberries. I do buy Walmart's milk...(a cow is a cow).
I've started to substitute where I can (for taste purposes). Today I bought the Walmart taco seasoning since it was so cheap.
I got strawberries today for a little under $3..organic and from the USA.
I have friends that used to shop exclusively at Publix and now they too are going to Walmart due to the higher prices.
I get coupons for fresh produce all the time-both digital and paper.
Like 40 cents for fresh avocado,40 cents for broccoli crown,sometime it is $5 if you buy $20 worth of fresh produce.
I get coffee coupons all the time $1,frozen corn on the cob,frozen pizza,eggs,ice cream etc.
Not sure why you should be strapped at all. You're 35ish, single, no kids, live in a low cost of living area and own a condo with a low mortgage payment, and pay no state income tax. Oh, and you earn over $100,000 per year!
Haha! This post reminded me of Matisse, who always had all the dirt on every poster. Whatever happened to her?
Haha! This post reminded me of Matisse, who always had all the dirt on every poster. Whatever happened to her?
There's no dirt. Serious always openly discusses his lifestyle and income on this forum, it's not anything most people here don't know.
I just don't understand how he can be hurting given the circumstances he's in despite inflation and paying more for some things. Most people would be envious.
The key to a healthy item is how many ingredients are listed. The fewer the better. I eat almond butter on a regular basis and buy it from Costco (Kirkland brand). There is only one (1) ingredient: Roasted Almonds. On nutrition facts: Sodium 0% and no added sugar. Now, I just looked up Jif ingredients: "Made from Roasted Almonds, Sugar, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils (Rapeseed, Cottonseed and Soybean), Sunflower Oil, contains 2% or less of: Salt."
I agree. I buy Crazy Richards Crunchy Peanut Butter and the only thing in it is peanuts. I don't think I could eat regular PB.
Not sure why you should be strapped at all. You're 35ish, single, no kids, live in a low cost of living area and own a condo with a low mortgage payment, and pay no state income tax. Oh, and you earn over $100,000 per year!
You really should be putting tons of money away
But that's kind of my point here.
If people in my income/cost of living situation are cutting back due to high costs, what is happening at the lower end of the wage/cine scale? For me, the difference may be between going out to eat two to four times a week vs. once or twice a week. It might be a trip to Florida or Hilton Head instead of Maine this summer.
I'm not hard up here. The people who ARE hard up are the locals making $15-$16/hr packing boxes and filling orders at Home Shopping Network's site. People answering phone calls for $12/hr. A widow bring it in a low amount of SS without much savings.
I'm cutting back some extras. These people are struggling to make it.
My wife and I are not good with the coupons for reasons I'm not too sure about, and if we were it would be my wife who tends to get into that sort of thing. She was into the Safeway Monopoly game for a few years, and I couldn't believe all the coupons and work she put into winning those prizes and collecting those discounts. Until finally she had had enough and doesn't do that anymore.
I know coupons is another way to get the better deals, but with the Monopoly game coupons, I often found they were out of the stuff the coupons were discounting, or the items were impossible to find, or the coupon price was still more expensive than the more generic Safeway brand products, so maybe that's also why I/we aren't coupon people. I'm so glad my wife doesn't still have me going to Safeway to spend that kind of time to find those damn coupon items. On the other hand, my wife always looks for the deals in the Costco brochure that advertises their specials. Go figure. I think that's a little easier...
I don't clip coupons, but with the Safeway app you just click on the sale items on the app (I do it before I go to the store) and then when you check out you get the coupon value deducted. The only time I've seen Safeway run out of a sale item is when they had top sirloin for $2.99 a pound. Another advantage is that even without the app if you get a customer account and enter your phone # when you check out you get 15 cents off each gallon of gas and another 10c off each gallon of gas if you spend $50, you can accumulate them and it's fairly common for them to offer the 10c off for only spending $30 or so. The monopoly thing is just too much work for me, I tried it once and gave up.
I don't doubt what they said. Cattle ranchers don't receive any more for their beef than they did 2 years ago but the slaughter/processing plants have managed to increase their prices so much that most good cuts of beef are unaffordable. https://www.reuters.com/business/mea...cs-2021-12-10/
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