Groceries (San Antonio, Paris, Mart: neighborhood, to buy, to live)

[imaterry78259]

Originally Posted by firstclassflyer

Wonder no more...it's the sting of property taxes!!

To quote Archie Bunker "What is this world coming too?"

[pobre]

Originally Posted by imaterry78259

The sting at the check out line and the gas pump, I wonder what is next?

A tax on wondering

[imaterry78259]

I guess no one mind the high prices. What type of recipes people are using to cut back.

[firstclassflyer]

Originally Posted by imaterry78259

I guess no one mind the high prices. What type of recipes people are using to cut back.

I'm not cutting back.

[majormadmax]

Same here, life is too short not to enjoy it! But just like everything else, moderation is key!

By the way, I noticed when getting gas at Wal-Mart the other day ($3.15/gal, about the lowest I have found it) that a carton of cigarettes is nearly $40! Makes me even more glad I don't smoke! Well, I do, I have a pipe; but I go through a bag of tobacco about once a year if even that much!

Cheers! M2

[Bo]

Originally Posted by firstclassflyer

I'm not cutting back.

I'm not either. I already shop as frugally as I feel I need to. If anything, I'm spending more on groceries than I did before because my family's consciously making an effort to eat out less often.

[did0c]

I've always been a coupon clipper but definately more so now. Too bad noone doubles around here.

[Chaka]

Originally Posted by Bowie

I'm not either. I already shop as frugally as I feel I need to. If anything, I'm spending more on groceries than I did before because my family's consciously making an effort to eat out less often.

Oddly enough, I went to Central Market yesterday (where I always try not to spend too much and end up spending a small fortune), and though I passed up the $15 Epoisse (yikes!), I got a lot of stuff and was sure it would be ridiculously expensive. It was about $25 less than I expected. I was sure the cashier had missed something.

In any case, I've always been fairly cost-conscious about what we buy, but that doesn't mean we forgo luxury items. We're just careful not to waste on stuff we don't really need/want - i.e., eating out - we'd rather go to La Frite once a month than Carl's Jr once a week, so we're careful to pack lunches. Don't buy a lot of processed foods that eat up the bank account and instead by items to make things from scratch.

I have a friend in France who stopped grocery shopping entirely for 2 months - they aimed to use up everything they had in their house, rely on their garden and barter for the rest. This wasn't the result of grocery price increases, however, but a desire to change their consumption-driven lifestyle (they also stopped all shopping for one year, with a few exceptions).

[tekka-maki]

Central Market... my pocket book cringes when I go there! And they didn't even have what I primarily went there for (a Japanese ginger). I do like the pemise of ethnic variety but not in stores like this though; they put things in colorful packaging and give it nice names, and then jack up the price so definitely not a fan of Whole Foods, World Market or the like... used to live close to this place with the largest variety of produce and and ethnic foods that I absolutely loved w/ cheap prices to boot! It was called Eurofresh... here's the link: Eurofresh Market. I'd buy a slew of produces, some french feta, calamata olives, great classy desserts, and fresh pig (to name a few) on the weekend and always spend a fraction of what I seem to spend at Walmart now, even for groceries so you can imagine the difference between it and the aforementioned.

I've never been a big fan of Trader Joe's either; I don't think San Antonio is missing much... little eccentric spot... not too cheap in my book, or that great, but worth an once in a while stop for their Frozen French Onion Soup or other Frozen foods assortment though Pot stickers are extremely over priced; no doubt catering to the crowd that is too finicky to stop at a small Asian grocer that doesn't carry eco-friendly bags or their fav eccentric wine, lol.

I like the idea of not food shopping entirely for a specificed duration... we do that sometimes but to a much lesser extent just to go through everything we have in the kitchen... it's fun because you get creative with the dishes/leftovers etc..

So how's that Belgian Bistro like?

For the economists of this thread to ponder on all these gas hike shenanigans our Gov't and big business like to play on the American consumers:
There Is No Gas Shortage - BusinessWeek (http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/apr2008/bw2008041_945564.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_ businessweek+exclusives#=rss - broken link) (also includes a bit from Bill Klesse of Valero in the article)

Gas prices should be doing down, not up. It's corporate greed and speculation combined with the Fed and an out of hand Executive office that's destroying the monetary worth of the USD at home and abroad.

Heck, even the video game currencies have a better exchange rate now!

7 Video Game Currencies Stronger Than the US Dollar (http://www.maxim.com/7VideoGameCurrenciesStrongerThantheUSDollar/articles/22332.aspx - broken link)

Edit:

INSULT TO INJURY:

Treasury says Bear Stearns deal 'necessary' to maintain financial stability (broken link)

[imaterry78259]

Valero execs are laughing all the way to the bank and shopping limitless at Central Market and Whole foods.