Why? Oh Why do I see this more than I want?


 
Timothy F. Lewis

Timothy F. Lewis

TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
I just spent a hundred bucks at the grocery store and I could not bring myself to buy any proteins? How many of us go to the store with more trepidation than the “OOh what will I find at the store this week!?” I actually chatted with a guy and THAT was the base of the chat!
I didn’t even get a package of ground beef or chicken for something “quick” for dinner.
Only bought a six pack of Hamms to boot!
Thank God I had some leftover chicken from the satay cook to make some white chili with. Not one package of anything between Costco and Meijer worth spending any money on! Maybe I’m just getting old and cranky but, this is just sad.
Maybe my standards are too high?
 
I was raised by my mothers parents for the most part, who both grew up in extreme poverty in late nineteenth century New York City.

Since I was the last grandchild and was really interested in anything they were willing to share, they unpacked amazing stories about how difficult life was for them growing up.

Most of us are currently living in a dream world.

Richer beyond our ancestors wildest imaginations.

God Bless America.
 
Agree with @John_NJ that a lot of what we have are 'first world problems'. But I've most definitely noticed the increases in meat prices over the last couple years and my buying habits reflect it. I couldn't tell you the last time I bought steak that wasn't from Costco (and I don't go to Costco often). I do most of the grocery shopping and most weeks, I'm only buying chicken and ground beef from the grocery (Wegman's in my case). 5 years ago, I'd cook steak for my family of 4 once a week. We are still very lucky, but some portion of that luck has been eroded by price increases. It's funny, I remember when boneless, skinless chicken breast was considered very expensive. Now, it's one of the cheaper proteins and Wegman's wants $17/lb for flank steak.
 
I grew up dirt poor lucky if I had enough food to not be hungry most of the time.

I feel blessed now my good friend in Montana is a hunting and fishing guide and he fills my freezer every winter.

I'm pretty cheap still due to my upbringing I guess but I still only splurge when my favorites are one sale or my wife has coupons that are worth it. Like these Ribeyes for $4.97 lb or wild caught sockeye salmon for $7.99 lb. I'm not complaining. I fell blessed and thankful for everything I have.
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Those are amazing prices Josh. Like I've not seen in well...................a bit over 3 years. I will not say more. I just bought a very nice and tasty top sirloin steak on Monday. That one steak, made my wife and I 2 VERY nice kebab dinners. So I do know how to "stretch" the $$ I did spend. Thankfully while we're not floating in the $$$ at least we don't have to wonder what our next meal will be.
Our dad and his brothers all grew up during depression years with immigrant parents. They bought seeds over from Italy and grandpa tended that garden growing their special peppers, tomatoes, radicchio (not like the fancy schmancy stuff they call radicchio now). This stuff was closer to eating lawn weeds than some high priced greens at the market.
Grandpa also learned to forage for stuff especially mushrooms. And also did something that was quite common in Italy. Trapping and eating local birds and squirrels. He made a big trap, and particularly liked to catch sparrows. Grandma cleaned them, rubbed them down with olive oil, herbs, garlic, salt and pepper, and would skewer them up on unbent coat hangars. Grandpa would roast them over the coal burner in the basement.
They did what they had to do to survive.
 
LMichaels said:
Those are amazing prices Josh. Like I've not seen in well...................a bit over 3 years. I will not say more. I just bought a very nice and tasty top sirloin steak on Monday. That one steak, made my wife and I 2 VERY nice kebab dinners. So I do know how to "stretch" the $$ I did spend. Thankfully while we're not floating in the $$$ at least we don't have to wonder what our next meal will be.
Our dad and his brothers all grew up during depression years with immigrant parents. They bought seeds over from Italy and grandpa tended that garden growing their special peppers, tomatoes, radicchio (not like the fancy schmancy stuff they call radicchio now). This stuff was closer to eating lawn weeds than some high priced greens at the market.
Grandpa also learned to forage for stuff especially mushrooms. And also did something that was quite common in Italy. Trapping and eating local birds and squirrels. He made a big trap, and particularly liked to catch sparrows. Grandma cleaned them, rubbed them down with olive oil, herbs, garlic, salt and pepper, and would skewer them up on unbent coat hangars. Grandpa would roast them over the coal burner in the basement.
They did what they had to do to survive.
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We have a lot to be thankful for
 
The hardest part for me is hitting protein targets and not spending a load of cash. I'm a bit of a fitness/workout nerd and tracked food for a long while. I was consistently hitting between 150-200g of protein daily. To do this economically I have a stand up freezer in the garage. When whole chicken is on sale for $.99/lb I'll grab 2 maybe 3 and throw them in the freezer. Same with anything like like, steak, pork chops, ground beef. If I end up getting a cheaper, lower quality cut of beef I simply tenderize it and marinate for 3 days so it ends up being quite decent. I'm also figure that eating well and lifting is easier and cheaper than needing healthcare in the end, so I use that as some justification as well
 
Eric-NH said:
The hardest part for me is hitting protein targets and not spending a load of cash. I'm a bit of a fitness/workout nerd and tracked food for a long while. I was consistently hitting between 150-200g of protein daily. To do this economically I have a stand up freezer in the garage. When whole chicken is on sale for $.99/lb I'll grab 2 maybe 3 and throw them in the freezer. Same with anything like like, steak, pork chops, ground beef. If I end up getting a cheaper, lower quality cut of beef I simply tenderize it and marinate for 3 days so it ends up being quite decent. I'm also figure that eating well and lifting is easier and cheaper than needing healthcare in the end, so I use that as some justification as well
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It definitely has its challenges. Sounds like you're on the right track though and have a very good mindset. I think leading by example and setting that good example for your family is very important. It's something that will have a positive impact on their life forever.
Meal prepping has always been an easy way for me to save money while maintaining a good level of nutrition. Plus we don't like to don't like to eat out and that's a huge savings. Also not wasting food. Growing up poor it's ingrained in me and I cannot throw away or waste any food.
I can see that for a bigger family the challenges would be much greater than what I have.
 
Josh Dekubber said:
It definitely has its challenges. Sounds like you're on the right track though and have a very good mindset. I think leading by example and setting that good example for your family is very important. It's something that will have a positive impact on their life forever.
Meal prepping has always been an easy way for me to save money while maintaining a good level of nutrition. Plus we don't like to don't like to eat out and that's a huge savings. Also not wasting food. Growing up poor it's ingrained in me and I cannot throw away or waste any food.
I can see that for a bigger family the challenges would be much greater than what I have.
Click to expand...
Yep, eating out, is a VERY rare occurrence for us anymore. When going to a fast food chain i.e. Culver's costs in excess of $40 for a couple sandwiches, and some fries...............................even that becomes a "luxury".
 
Like many of us, my parents grew up during the depression when meat was quite a luxury. My frugal Mom taught me arithmetic at the grocery store, making me the price per ounce calculator. I didn't know what food waste was until I went to college. Between the seemingly permanent pandemic pricing and restaurant price gouging, we rarely eat out any more, making it a special occasion when we do.

Thanks to a smoker, vacuum sealer and chest freezer, I take advantage of great deals and stock up. Pork, shrimp, chicken and turkey are the meats we eat most of the time. When I ran into ground chuck for $1.99/lb, it was formed into 5-6 oz burgers and vacuum sealed in pairs in the freezer. I do have a a couple T-bones and roasts in the freezer but they aren't part of our regular rotation.

When the pandemic broke out I went to the grocery store and all the meat was gone, except for a bunch of corned beef flats and points that came in for St Patricks Day.. I picked some up in desperation, then developed ways to prepare it. That led to watching for extreme post-holiday seasonal sales, much like turkey, and loading up.

One benefit adapting has given us is easy availability of tasty meat year round. Pulled pork and shredded chicken are in one pound packages that I flatten with a rolling pin before freezing to about 1/2 inch thickness, so they defrost in a couple minutes. Smoked turkey breasts hold up well and make a weeks worth of lunches when we defrost one.

These price increases led me to become a much better griller, smoker and meat hoarder lol. My wife prefers my ribs to any of the excellent local joints and at $1.99/lb our budget does too.
 
Steaks are off the weekly menu. No one seems to miss them… moved to kebobs which everyone likes

Dumb luck that hamburgers on the menu are now 4oz smash burgers by request rather than the 8oz fancy ones.

Chicken and pork chops are pretty reasonable.
 
The wife and I had it instilled in us (from our frugal parents) not to waste money or food.
These current food prices have me shopping 3-4 stores for sales to keep the price somewhat reasonable.

I’m not sure why some days a pork shoulder is $1.00 per pound and other days $3.50 per pound.
All the meat prices in regular grocery stores are like that where we live.

Our Safeway is probably our nicest store for hard to get items but their canned goods are 40% higher than other stores so I won’t buy your average packaged goods there, I mean not when I can save 30-40% elsewhere.
I’m glad I can still find ways to reduce the cost of groceries but it really shouldn’t have to be this way.

We are constantly driving or flying back and forth to California.
We pack our meals for this 13 hour drive and even bring snacks to the airport.
We also do a lot of travel vacations to see the country.
One thing I noticed is that a lot of strip malls still have vacancies.
Some more than others :(.
These last few years have been hard on a lot of people.
 
Well, I just ate my own words this afternoon at the store, just fell into some lovely CSRs and a nicely matched pair of whole chickens! There are good days and bad days I guess.
Went pretty simple for the cook! Simple indirect, Memphis dust, jasmine rice and buttered peas!
By the time they came off, I was too hungry to take pix. Sorry.
Simple methodology, easy concept! Delicious!
Good night all, I feel food coma approaching!
 
Josh Dekubber said:
It definitely has its challenges. Sounds like you're on the right track though and have a very good mindset. I think leading by example and setting that good example for your family is very important. It's something that will have a positive impact on their life forever.
Meal prepping has always been an easy way for me to save money while maintaining a good level of nutrition. Plus we don't like to don't like to eat out and that's a huge savings. Also not wasting food. Growing up poor it's ingrained in me and I cannot throw away or waste any food.
I can see that for a bigger family the challenges would be much greater than what I have.
Click to expand...
We are on the same page, 100%
Sunday is usually my meal prep day, cooking rice, chicken, marinating steak, etc. It's easy once you go for it, and getting strong in the gym feels amazing and totally transfers over to every day life for me. Blue collar work, manual labor and I get to be outdoors all day. Love it
 
Nicely done there, Josh! I don’t have space nor need as it’s just the two of us through the week and dinner for six on Saturday for the grandchildren. Expanded to the occasional eight for guests.
I get tired of eating the same thing several days in a row, so, I try to make things which can Morph into fun second usage. Roti chicken into chili, enchiladas, pot pie, same for pork, beef or anything.
The problem comes when I go and am uninspired. Sadly that happens most of the when I have failed to get anything from the freezer which would have been great. Oh well, I don’t miss many meals but, there are times when I simply don’t want anything!
 
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