How are you going to deal with high food prices this winter?

[laurend1985]

I was at the store Sunday and I noticed a can of tomatoes was on sale for $1.79. I think I will be shopping at Save-A-Lot. My husband and I will be doing meatless Mondays and Wednesdays.

[bjl584]

I honestly don't pay a lot of attention to what groceries cost. I shop mostly at Aldi and SuperWalmart. Their prices are usually the cheapest, so I go there. I need to eat, so I just have to pony up and pay it.

One thing that I do is to stock up on items when they go on sale. Especially on non perisible items like canned goods. I also stock up on meat and freeze it.

[disneysteve]

I honestly don't pay a lot of attention to what groceries cost. I shop mostly at Aldi and SuperWalmart. Their prices are usually the cheapest, so I go there. I need to eat, so I just have to pony up and pay it.

I agree. We pay whatever we pay. We try to watch for sales and use some coupons but for the most part, we shop and buy what we need. That doesn't change based on food prices.

[NetSkyBlue]

I buy extra of what's on sale and can the bulk of it for cheap, home cooked meals. Recently, I've done roast beef, potatoes, shredded chicken leg/thigh quarters, ground beef, beef stew meat, chicken stock, beef stock, carrots, caramelized onions, and chili beans.

Hopefully chicken leg quarters go on sale again soon, I've already gone through 6 quarts of stock in the last month!

[JoeP]

We tend to buy meat when it is on sale and freeze it using one of those vacuum sealer machines. I think we have premium meat (steak, tenderloin) maybe once every 2 months.

For food, I like to make monster volumes of freezable food, and then take it out for dinners, and those subsequent leftovers go for lunch. For example, I'll make about 2.5 gallons of spaghetti sauce and meatballs (cost=$12), and then about the same volume of Italian lentils (cost=$7), and freeze them.

[marvholly]

Bjl
Even Aldi prices are already climbing.
Parmesan cheese 1.99 ->2.39
Fit n Active broth 32 oz 1.29->1.49
Can veg 0.59->0.65
milk 1.69->1.99

And that is JUST what I noticed in the last 2 weeks.

Prices went up 35% at one of my bread outlet stores a month ago. Other is still the same BUT they are always out of the 3 items I generally buy there.

[dawnwes]

We may change some other habits to accommodate the rise in cost. Stop eating out, stop buying things like salmon and steak, make my own of things (bread, muffins, etc...)

I have just cut out cell phone bill by about $130/mo and we cut cable about 18 months or so ago which saved $80/mo.

But honestly, if we have to raise grocery spending, we will be fine.

When we were getting out of debt we were spending WAY less on groceries. Once we finished paying off debt and getting our EF together, we upped our grocery budget. We can lower it again if necessary.

[bjl584]

Bjl
Even Aldi prices are already climbing.
Parmesan cheese 1.99 ->2.39
Fit n Active broth 32 oz 1.29->1.49
Can veg 0.59->0.65
milk 1.69->1.99

And that is JUST what I noticed in the last 2 weeks.

Prices went up 35% at one of my bread outlet stores a month ago. Other is still the same BUT they are always out of the 3 items I generally buy there.

There is really no way around it. The margins in the grocery business are next to nothing. Most grocery retailers sell their items just above cost. The only way to survive is by selling volume. This is especially true with commodities (dairy, meats, vegetables and fruits.) If you want to eat, you have to pay the prices. You can take advantage of sales and coupons, you can stock up when certain items go on sale, and you can shop around to a certain extent. But that's about it.