How are retirees on fixed incomes coping with the surge in food and energy prices? (Philadelphia, retired)
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A Dairy Queen blizzard is now $6.99 here. It's also the small size, but is now being called a "medium."
I bought a half-gallon of Tillamook Ice Cream for $5.49 yesterday. That will make us several fine desserts over the next 2 weeks. Dairy Queen can take their air-whipped fluff and jump off.
BTW -- If you haven't tried Tillamook Ice Cream yet, you should make a point of picking it up soon.
Dunkin' Donuts Coffee is now over $11 for the small 12 oz bag. I'm switching to Harris Teeter's brand for $4.99 and Mr Duncan and Mr Donut can jump off too.
I bought a half-gallon of Tillamook Ice Cream for $5.49 yesterday. That will make us several fine desserts over the next 2 weeks. Dairy Queen can take their air-whipped fluff and jump off.
BTW -- If you haven't tried Tillamook Ice Cream yet, you should make a point of picking it up soon.
Dunkin' Donuts Coffee is now over $11 for the small 12 oz bag. I'm switching to Harris Teeter's brand for $4.99 and Mr Duncan and Mr Donut can jump off too.
Amen to that! As a native Oregonian I have visited the Tillamook Cheese Factory several times. We always stopped and got a triple scoop ice cream cone at the end after the tour. I haven't been there in years, to my regret.
Tillamook Ice Cream tried to make an inroad into the Phoenix market about 7 years ago, but there were a couple of other companies that already had a stronghold (Blue Bell, can't remember the other one) so they didn't make it.
I bought a half-gallon of Tillamook Ice Cream for $5.49 yesterday. That will make us several fine desserts over the next 2 weeks. Dairy Queen can take their air-whipped fluff and jump off.
BTW -- If you haven't tried Tillamook Ice Cream yet, you should make a point of picking it up soon.
Dunkin' Donuts Coffee is now over $11 for the small 12 oz bag. I'm switching to Harris Teeter's brand for $4.99 and Mr Duncan and Mr Donut can jump off too.
I thought Tillamook was a PNW thing. Didn't know it was in SC. Here you can often find it on sale for less than $3. I have no idea how places like Baskin Robbins and Cold Stone Creamery stay in business in this economy. I guess there are more people with money to burn than I thought there were.
If you've lived frugally most of your life, seeing ridiculous prices for food may be shocking, but we all know that we can eat a lot cheaper at home, and we can buy stuff that isn't priced at premium prices. I'm a bargain shopper even when I don't need to be. It's just 60 years of living below our means, and that is hard to shake. So when someone tells me that pasture-raised ground beef is 8.99/ lb, or that their special brand of coffee is over $8/ lb , or whatever, I just shrug and say that nobody's making you buy that. There are other grades of beef that cost less, there's always chicken at $1.99/ lb, or dozens of other protein options, and there are other perfectly fine brands of coffee. Or just eat less meat, and drink less coffee, or drink tea, or milk, or water. Of course I have preferred brands, but for many products the store brand, or a good quality cheaper brand, is just fine, especially if I were struggling. I wouldn't stick to a pricy brand if I couldn't afford it. Substitute, or do without. I've done it for most of my life.
Over the years I got into the habit of mentally adding up the cost of the main ingredients in my meals and was pretty surprised at how little each serving actually cost. Even with the cost of everything inflated, I can still produce a nice meal for under $5 per person. Like last night...I found some beautiful swai fillets (a delicate white fish) for 6.99/ lb. at Ingles. We got two good size fillets for $5.25, I served it basted with 2 tblsp of butter (about 16 cents) melted with some home grown fresh thyme, and one clove of garlic (10 cents), we also had one third of a huge bunch of kale (1.99/3 = 66 cents) sauteed in a couple teaspoons of olive oil (about 10 cents) and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar (25 cents), topped with a few cherry tomatoes from the pot on the deck, and sourdough bread (3 slices at 4.99 loaf = 1.50) and butter (another 16 cents), for a total of $8.18 for two nice, healthy dinners. Dinner is the only "organized" meal of our day, the rest of it is just easy snacks, fruit, cereal, oatmeal, soup, sandwiches, etc, during the day.
If you've lived frugally most of your life, seeing ridiculous prices for food may be shocking, but we all know that we can eat a lot cheaper at home, and we can buy stuff that isn't priced at premium prices. I'm a bargain shopper even when I don't need to be. It's just 60 years of living below our means, and that is hard to shake. So when someone tells me that pasture-raised ground beef is 8.99/ lb, or that their special brand of coffee is over $8/ lb , or whatever, I just shrug and say that nobody's making you buy that. There are other grades of beef that cost less, there's always chicken at $1.99/ lb, or dozens of other protein options, and there are other perfectly fine brands of coffee. Or just eat less meat, and drink less coffee, or drink tea, or milk, or water. Of course I have preferred brands, but for many products the store brand, or a good quality cheaper brand, is just fine, especially if I were struggling. I wouldn't stick to a pricy brand if I couldn't afford it. Substitute, or do without. I've done it for most of my life.
Over the years I got into the habit of mentally adding up the cost of the main ingredients in my meals and was pretty surprised at how little each serving actually cost. Even with the cost of everything inflated, I can still produce a nice meal for under $5 per person. Like last night...I found some beautiful swai fillets (a delicate white fish) for 6.99/ lb. at Ingles. We got two good size fillets for $5.25, I served it basted with 2 tblsp of butter (about 16 cents) melted with some home grown fresh thyme, and one clove of garlic (10 cents), we also had one third of a huge bunch of kale (1.99/3 = 66 cents) sauteed in a couple teaspoons of olive oil (about 10 cents) and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar (25 cents), topped with a few cherry tomatoes from the pot on the deck, and sourdough bread (3 slices at 4.99 loaf = 1.50) and butter (another 16 cents), for a total of $8.18 for two nice, healthy dinners. Dinner is the only "organized" meal of our day, the rest of it is just easy snacks, fruit, cereal, oatmeal, soup, sandwiches, etc, during the day.
Though my wife and I have done pretty well over the years in terms of income, we've always been the same way. We don't spend any more money than we have to. Maybe even frugal to a point about many of our purchases, but on the other hand, we don't need to be frugal. So what happens is not always a decision based on whether we can do without. Of course anyone can do without most things, and if necessary because of a tight budget, that's not hard for most people to realize or do. Not hard to eat chicken instead of filet mignon, for example. Cooked meals instead of prepared meals or eating out. The list of those kinds of options is endless.
Thing is though, sometimes the decision has more to do with the love or preference to consume some things that can be afforded, so why not? We like to have shrimp every now and then for example, so we buy frozen shrimp at Costco to put in some of the meals we like to cook at home. Kind of pricey, so we don't buy it as often as we might otherwise if it were cheaper, but we still buy it. My wife LOVES a good cup of coffee, and makes her own at home but sometimes just "has to have" a latte from Starbucks, which of course is pricey by comparison. Still, when it comes to some of these wants and desires, people will always indulge if they've got the extra money to do so.
I always get a kick out of how people will buy the more expensive supreme gasoline at the pump instead of regular. Very few cars actually require supreme, yet people will pay that extra for whatever their reasons. If there is an option to cut costs for supreme buyers, it's the option to buy regular instead. I also have a friend who doesn't even seem to pay attention to which gas stations are charging what. He just buys gas when he needs it, wherever he needs it. Regardless the difference in prices from one station to the next. And his family has far less discretionary income than we do. Still not retired though wanting to for the many years I have been retired. Still working for need of making money, yet pays no attention to what he pays for gas at the pump.
Funny how different people can be about how they spend their money, and how this in part can result in the need to be frugal in retirement or not...
If you've lived frugally most of your life, seeing ridiculous prices for food may be shocking, but we all know that we can eat a lot cheaper at home, and we can buy stuff that isn't priced at premium prices. I'm a bargain shopper even when I don't need to be.
Totally agree. I buy groceries items when they are on sale or in season. Unless one is fixated on buying certain kinds of groceries and certain brands, one can always find cheaper items.
The cheapest grocery store in our area is Winco. It is about 25 minutes from our house so we do our major stock-up shopping there about once a month. Last week, I bought a big roll of boneless pork loin for $1.79 and all kinds of fresh fruits (apples, pears, strawberries, grapes for 98c/lb or quart). The most expensive fruits that I bought were peaches at $1.49/lb.
I also stocked up on bulk foods like monk sugar, dried fruits, nuts at at least 1/3 lower prices than name brand bags/cans.
Since late May, I have getting all my greens (lettuce, endive, kale, radishes, peas, bok choy, swiss chard, beet tops, broccoli rabe and spinach) from my vegetable gardens. Beet roots are also ready and we had some delicious dark red and golden beets few days ago. Green beans should be ready in few weeks and ripe tomatoes in a month. I would have them by now if I did not my first batch of seedlings due to improper use of soil (did not add peat moss, perlite, vermiculite to top soil).
Our cherries are ready to pick and I will have to find room in the freezers for several dozens quarts. We also have a bumper crop of apples this year to harvest. I still have dried apples and apple sauce jars from 2 years ago. We only got few dozens peaches from one tree in our new orchard areas. The one day frost in early spring killed off plums and apricot blossoms. We will have to frost proof them next year. In few years we will have more variety of fruits (pears, figs, persimmons and pomegranate) to enjoy.
Bottom is that we have not really felt any effect of inflation on our food budget.
I settled for deviled crab cakes today at $2+ each.
Maryland crabs cakes more than doubled in price from $2+ to $5+.
None of the fish fillets were under $10/lb so I skipped them this week.
Gas, on the other hand has come down. Saw $4.35 at one station..cash though.
Last night two different customers put back the cellophane bag of cherries when they weighed out at $10.69. Not a big bag.
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