Lawmakers Find $21 a Week Doesn't Buy a Lot of Groceries

[AGDee]

I dunno where you're buying milk, but you're getting royally ripped off if you're paying $3.49 for a half gallon. I never pay more than $1 for a half gallon of milk because Kroger has it on sale every other week with their 10/$10 sales. I buy a couple chocolate and a couple skim and freeze one of each so I have some for the week it's not on sale.

I disagree that healthy food is more expensive than unhealthy food. Frozen pizzas are $4 a piece (unhealthy) but you can get 4 packages of frozen veggies for that when they're on sale. If you watch for the sales, you can get ground turkey for the same price as ground beef. Lite/Wheat bread costs the same thing as White bread. Not counting "staples" like sugar, flour, spices, etc, I think I could easily eat for $21 a week when I really think about it. Bananas are really cheap. A bag of oranges are $2.99. It wouldn't be super fun but it's doable. Concentrate lemonade and orange juice of the store brand also go on sale at 10/$10. I have to say, I love Kroger for their sales. Also, they don't require you to buy 10 to get the savings. So, 10/$10 also means 1/$1. Not all stores do that.

Family packs of pork chops, chicken and ground beef generally go on sale on opposite weeks from eachother. I buy one family pack of meat each pay period. One pay, I get pork chops, the next I get chicken, the next I get beef. I freeze a lot of stuff. In fact, my biggest cost saving feature is a large freezer in the basement.

I buy turkey lunch meat and freeze it in individual servings as soon as I get home. If I put it on a kids sandwich frozen, it thaws by the time they eat lunch. I can also grab a slice and toss it in with an egg for scrambled eggs and ham (add green food coloring to make it fun for the kids.. green eggs and ham). Before I started doing that, the lunch meat would go bad before we ate it all and I was throwing a lot of food away. Now I use every slice. It's little things that take a little effort but save you a ton of money.

Anyway, those are some of my grocery savings tips. I use them along with my time saving tips. For example, when I get that large package of ground beef or turkey, I immediately make a couple dinners worth of meatballs, a meatloaf, some hamburgers and then brown a bunch and make taco meat or sloppy joes. They all get frozen so when we have to eat fast because the kids have activities to get to, it's just a matter of warming things up. Super easy to make some nachos if you've pre-grated the cheese, chopped the tomatoes and just have to nuke the meat. Make it from turkey meat and you have a pretty cheap and easy meal. I spend about 2 hours every Sunday doing "pre-cooking" like this. I also wash/cut up all the fruit and put it in baggies for individual serving sizes. I used to end up throwing fruit out too, but when it's ready to eat, it gets eaten first.

[AKA_Monet]

Originally Posted by AGDee

I dunno where you're buying milk, but you're getting royally ripped off if you're paying $3.49 for a half gallon. I never pay more than $1 for a half gallon of milk because Kroger has it on sale every other week with their 10/$10 sales. I buy a couple chocolate and a couple skim and freeze one of each so I have some for the week it's not on sale.

I disagree that healthy food is more expensive than unhealthy food. Frozen pizzas are $4 a piece (unhealthy) but you can get 4 packages of frozen veggies for that when they're on sale. If you watch for the sales, you can get ground turkey for the same price as ground beef. Lite/Wheat bread costs the same thing as White bread. Not counting "staples" like sugar, flour, spices, etc, I think I could easily eat for $21 a week when I really think about it. Bananas are really cheap. A bag of oranges are $2.99. It wouldn't be super fun but it's doable. Concentrate lemonade and orange juice of the store brand also go on sale at 10/$10. I have to say, I love Kroger for their sales. Also, they don't require you to buy 10 to get the savings. So, 10/$10 also means 1/$1. Not all stores do that.

Family packs of pork chops, chicken and ground beef generally go on sale on opposite weeks from eachother. I buy one family pack of meat each pay period. One pay, I get pork chops, the next I get chicken, the next I get beef. I freeze a lot of stuff. In fact, my biggest cost saving feature is a large freezer in the basement.

I buy turkey lunch meat and freeze it in individual servings as soon as I get home. If I put it on a kids sandwich frozen, it thaws by the time they eat lunch. I can also grab a slice and toss it in with an egg for scrambled eggs and ham (add green food coloring to make it fun for the kids.. green eggs and ham). Before I started doing that, the lunch meat would go bad before we ate it all and I was throwing a lot of food away. Now I use every slice. It's little things that take a little effort but save you a ton of money.

Anyway, those are some of my grocery savings tips. I use them along with my time saving tips. For example, when I get that large package of ground beef or turkey, I immediately make a couple dinners worth of meatballs, a meatloaf, some hamburgers and then brown a bunch and make taco meat or sloppy joes. They all get frozen so when we have to eat fast because the kids have activities to get to, it's just a matter of warming things up. Super easy to make some nachos if you've pre-grated the cheese, chopped the tomatoes and just have to nuke the meat. Make it from turkey meat and you have a pretty cheap and easy meal. I spend about 2 hours every Sunday doing "pre-cooking" like this. I also wash/cut up all the fruit and put it in baggies for individual serving sizes. I used to end up throwing fruit out too, but when it's ready to eat, it gets eaten first.

In some respects you are right. In others, if poor folks NEVER read any newspapers or if homeless do not have a mail stop location, then how will they ever see these sales?

And if one's told they are lactose intolerant, then yes, they are not drinking milk in any size. And still, where does one plan to put this perishable item when they don't have a refrigerator? So that means they are drinking the powdered crap. While hella healthy for you in the milk department, it tastes like chit. But some folks can acquire a taste for crap.

And like I said, most poor people do not know how to put food together from "old mother hubbard's cupboard". Like my mother can take a meatball and generate a 5 course meal. I am not as good as her in doing that. And my grandmother, she can make ox tails on a broken stove eye that only has 2settings: off and on high. And when I did eat meat, it was some of the best ox tails I ever ate in my life.

So, maybe a few of us could do $21.00 per week. But folks are not as inventive as they use to be. Should that be an excuse? No. But that is what is going on.

ETA: For everyone: So most of my food as a vegetarian remains frozen for my lifestyle. It is not hard to put things in the oven/microwave when I want to eat it. I season with things like "Italian Salad Dressing" because you have the right amount of salt without over doing it. Then, my husband and I use canned veggies and some kind of non-perishable starch. I have also found a wok can be your best friend to take frozen mixed veggies with some type of faux meat or real prepared meat and stir fry. And folks for gravy, you learn that corn starch, arrowroot and some flour is your best friend. Morover, Lipton tea goes a long way, iced or otherwise... Hayle if you are smart, you can get the tea bags for free at Hotels. And for sugar, think about where you are going. As long as you have functional appliances, you can make just about anything. Hayle, I could make some breads if I have to. It may not taste too good at first, but I can perfect it.

[OneTimeSBX]

aka_monet, that is true. people arent as inventive as before. hell, i can make 10 different dishes with a pack of ramen noodles lol!

i did a paper for an african-american studies class, and took trips to different Wal-marts in my area. the paper was on the differences in lifestyle/health habits between african americans and other cultures.

so in your "nicer" areas of town (the houses in the surrounding neighborhoods run around 300k+), the food selection was better. you know how they smack big displays in the middle of the aisles? there was wine, nice organic cereals, those chips made from sweet potatoes, etc.

travel about 35 minutes away to the "not so nice" part of town, where there are no houses, just section 8 apartment complexes. their center aisle was AWFUL...those little "hug" juices in the 24 packs, store brand chips, snack cakes...

my conclusion was that stores dont waste the time or money even supplying lower income areas with the same options as the higher class. i cant say i dont agree, who lives in the ghetto and buys organic cereal??

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by OneTimeSBX

aka_monet, that is true. people arent as inventive as before. hell, i can make 10 different dishes with a pack of ramen noodles lol!

i did a paper for an african-american studies class, and took trips to different Wal-marts in my area. the paper was on the differences in lifestyle/health habits between african americans and other cultures.

so in your "nicer" areas of town (the houses in the surrounding neighborhoods run around 300k+), the food selection was better. you know how they smack big displays in the middle of the aisles? there was wine, nice organic cereals, those chips made from sweet potatoes, etc.

travel about 35 minutes away to the "not so nice" part of town, where there are no houses, just section 8 apartment complexes. their center aisle was AWFUL...those little "hug" juices in the 24 packs, store brand chips, snack cakes...

my conclusion was that stores dont waste the time or money even supplying lower income areas with the same options as the higher class. i cant say i dont agree, who lives in the ghetto and buys organic cereal??

SBX....not sure if anyone knew this but I found out a few years ago...that most of those stores in low income areas generally get products that are items that couldn't be sold in the 'better' markets...

Like for instance, if you go to a dollar store and u see a 24oz bottle of Hawaiian Punch, it's because it didn't sell in the market in another neighborhood so when it came time for that store to restock they take the 'old' products off teh shelf and ship it to the lwo income areas....

Same goes for most of the produce...whatever doesn't make it 'up to snuff' or doesn't sell in time but still considered 'fresh' gets shipped elsewhere.

I also seem to remember hearing an incident a while back where some of these stores were changing the freshness dates on meats and chicken sold in low income earea in order to get rid of meat to unsuspecting buyers.

It made news when someone bought some already spoiled (yet frozen) meat and got food poisoning from it.

I need to see if I can find that article.

[OneTimeSBX]

the meat article was on dateline a few months ago...i saw that! i only get my meat from more reliable sources now...and yes i did know about shipping the less popular items to lower income areas. that was something i figured out myself actually!

[squirrely girl]

all of these comments regarding poor shopping/food conditions in inner cities is one of the reasons researchers are turning to geocoding as part of their research. it doesn't make sense to draw conclusions from research without it.

- m

[Rudey]

You all should use freshdirect. It's easier.

-Rudey