# My observation at the grocery store today



## tambo (Mar 28, 2003)

Some of our grocery stores offer a pick 5 for $19.99. Different kinds of meat and other stuff. A young girl was in front of me at the checkout had 5 pick 5 items.A bag of chicken nuggets,a box of corn dogs, some kinda dip,a bag of onion rings and something else I can't remember, that was her 5 for $19.99 items. She also had Sunny D and a few packs of Kool Aid. Her total was $34.59 or something like that. The store also had whole chickens .69 cents a lb. She could've bought at least 8 whole chickens for that. I was screaming on the inside they have whole chickens for .69 a lb. LOL Not judging but she was young early to mid twenties I would guess and used a government card. I wondered to myself if she was never taught how to shop to save money or never taught how to cook from scratch or it's not money she earned so she don't care how much things cost? I feel sorry for her if it's because she has never been taught but if it's because she is to lazy then that's a whole other story. That was my observation for today.


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

.69 cents.....i would have bought at least 20 whole birds....drunking chicken on the grill is to die for.


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## beaglady (Oct 7, 2002)

One of our local stores does that same offer, and we often think it must be designed for folks who aren't careful shoppers. Theirs features meat. Often the price per pound is more in those packs than it is for the exact same product a few feet away in a different area of the same refrigerated case.


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## Pam6 (Apr 9, 2009)

Yep, I have noticed that too with the 10/$10 items. I have seen .89 items 10/$10 on 'sale'. People like to 'think' they are getting a good deal!


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## tambo (Mar 28, 2003)

That's the way it is here too. Cheaper buying the stuff separate.


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## homefire2007 (Sep 21, 2007)

Our local grocery does this. It is worth the gas to go to the next town over to shop at the grocery where no courtesy cards are needed. Prices are lower overall and selection better.


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## MJsLady (Aug 16, 2006)

You have to wonder sometimes don't ya?
I remember way back when I had to use food stamps for a bit (they were actual paper stamps back then.)
I clipped coupons and stretched those things as far as possible. 
So far that when we moved from CA to TX I still enough to feed us on the trip and had about 6 weeks worth to use while we got settled here. 

I used to get some really stupid comments. Such as: 

Why are you using coupons, that isn't your money you are saving... (My Beloved was working and paying taxes at the time so in a way yeah it was!)

How come you are buying meat and veggies? You know you can get (fill in what ever junk meals ) and that is easier to fix... (Yes but this tastes way better and will fill us up better!)


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## Ann-NWIowa (Sep 28, 2002)

When I was first married there were often 4 for $1 or 3 for $1 specials. I quickly learned that sometimes that worked out to more than the non-sale price. Some people can't work out that 3 for $1 equals 33Â¢ plus 33Â¢ plus 34Â¢! If the item costs 39Â¢ regularly then you've got a bargain. If its usually 30Â¢ you just got taken!


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## zant (Dec 1, 2005)

Different story here-I buy the 5 for 17.99 meat packs every week--on Friday because local store offers 6 at same price-My last week deal was 5 steaks that weighed between 1.25-1.75lbs each and a 2lb roast.We eat steak 4 nights a week because it's cheaper than hamburg.Yes,they offer the corn dogs,already made burgers,etc-but you have to be smart and pick through to find the deals..


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## katydidagain (Jun 11, 2004)

zant said:


> Different story here-I buy the 5 for 17.99 meat packs every week--on Friday because local store offers 6 at same price-My last week deal was 5 steaks that weighed between 1.25-1.75lbs each and a 2lb roast.We eat steak 4 nights a week because it's cheaper than hamburg.Yes,they offer the corn dogs,already made burgers,etc-but you have to be smart and pick through to find the deals..


I have a few times done the 5 (only when they were 6 on special days) bargains. I did fine for where I live; food is very expensive here. But you really do have to know your prices to not get taken.


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## DryHeat (Nov 11, 2010)

I HATE it that most of the ads for sales here that work it as "mix and match 10 items and get $5 off at the register" now do the math for customers. Sale price $.99, mix and match $.49 each for 10" etc. A few years ago they didn't do the calculations for you and I think the deals were sometimes a bit better. Maybe 5 years ago, Safeway had S&W canned beans included in a mix&match buy 25 items get $20 coupon for later purchase. The beans were slightly on sale, I think, at 89c a can. Let's see, that's 80c an item off, so any of 8 or 9 recipes of a basic prep sort of item came to 9c each. For a week, I went from one SW to another, going back in two or three times to each, plopping a $20 coupon plus $2.25 cash down for 25 cans. The next week, I walked past DW talking with a friend on the phone, saying something like, "Gee now a pantry is filled with these cans of BEANS, he must have bought 75 cans!" I stopped and stared at her and said "You haven't seen the other three storage spots. I bought some 450 total!" I've used a few lately and they're still fine, too.

My theory is that at first nobody in management at some of these store chains did the math, either. The other amazing thing to me was that it took pretty much to the end of the week's sale term before I started seeing those areas of the shelves getting emptied out by customers. People just seemed oblivious to the math, mostly, and left me a full selection most of the time.


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## puddlejumper007 (Jan 12, 2008)

rite aide has a sale on the big cans of coffee, buy one get one free.. lol the first one cost twice the price i could get at the grocery store.. no sale there...


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## Rockytopsis (Dec 29, 2007)

tambo said:


> I think you hit the nail on the head with this one.
> Nancy


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## Trixters_muse (Jan 29, 2008)

I work in the community with many young single moms who have no idea how to cook a chicken and buy those 5/$20 deals all the time. My friend and I have taught many of them how to clip coupons, shop wisely and cook from scratch. Some of them love to learn and like feeding their young children well on a small budget while others resist and complain and eventually never show back up again. Some of these girls are just lazy and even tell me as they text multiple friends on their phone that they don't have time to cook, then they rush home to watch one of those silly reality shows. Seriously, one girl left in the middle of a class so she wouldn't miss the season finale of Keeping Up With The Kardashians!

Depending on how many people you have to feed and the appetite size some of those items can stretch a long way but they are not the healthiest stuff to eat. It is not my intention to start a debate like we had in a previous thread about poisoning our bodies but for my family we have to be real careful about food allergies and for us, those bagged prepared are a no go. I actually bought a 5 /$20 deal once thinking I could keep them in the freezer for quick meals over a period of time and I ended up giving away 3 of the bags due to food allergies. At least cooking from scratch I know I won't make my kids ill.


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## wmsff (Jun 10, 2010)

Many people really don't know about shopping and cooking/storage basics. 

Many years ago I went to the store because they had ground beef on sale really cheap. I picked up about 30 pounds along with the freezer bags (also on sale). The woman in front of me looked at my cart for the longest time and finally asked what I was planning to do with that much beef and bags? I glanced at her cart, filled to the brim with the typical convince foods and obligatory 1/2 gallon milk and juice and several 8 oz packages cheese (indications of the food stamp purchase, because they required specific smaller sizes and quantities).

I said to her that the beef was on sale at a fantastic price and I was going to freeze it. Her eyes got huge and she said "you can freeze meat?"


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## cvk (Oct 30, 2006)

Anybody see that story on Weather Channel today saying that the average family of 4 wastes $2,200 per year on groceries!!!! Spoilage etc. Unbelievable! One of the fixes they mentioned was buying less and making more trips for groceries and we wonder why people don't have food in the house for emergencies!!!


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## thesedays (Feb 25, 2011)

cvk said:


> Anybody see that story on Weather Channel today saying that the average family of 4 wastes $2,200 per year on groceries!!!! Spoilage etc. Unbelievable! One of the fixes they mentioned was buying less and making more trips for groceries and we wonder why people don't have food in the house for emergencies!!!


That's probably how much I SPEND, although it's just me and the cats.

I could see that much waste if you have toddlers, because they have this slight tendency to throw their food on the floor or smear it all over themselves.


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## mpillow (Jan 24, 2003)

thesedays said:


> That's probably how much I SPEND, although it's just me and the cats.
> 
> I could see that much waste if you have toddlers, because they have this slight tendency to throw their food on the floor or smear it all over themselves.


That just saves on dog food! ( I always let our dogs wash my kids up before using a wash cloth on the baby face and hands....)


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## thesedays (Feb 25, 2011)

MJsLady said:


> You have to wonder sometimes don't ya?
> I remember way back when I had to use food stamps for a bit (they were actual paper stamps back then.)
> I clipped coupons and stretched those things as far as possible.


Many people have asked why food stamp/EBT card recipients don't use cents-off coupons. Someone on another board who had to go on them for a while after the sudden death of her husband said that using those coupons changes the tax status and therefore can't be used with those cards. They can be used with nonfood items, or food items for which she paid cash, usually after the card was used up (she had a teenage son - need I say more?  ).


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## mpillow (Jan 24, 2003)

thesedays said:


> Many people have asked why food stamp/EBT card recipients don't use cents-off coupons. Someone on another board who had to go on them for a while after the sudden death of her husband said that using those coupons changes the tax status and therefore can't be used with those cards. They can be used with nonfood items, or food items for which she paid cash, usually after the card was used up (she had a teenage son - need I say more?  ).


That doesn't sound right.

When I was a cashier at a major supermarket....cpns were used by FS folks and applied to the non-food items total (not booze or tobacco) and if the manQ's exceeded the taxable non food total, the balance could come off the food total OR (and this used to pee me off) they could get cash for the cpn balance that exceeded non food item total.


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## Trixters_muse (Jan 29, 2008)

mpillow said:


> That doesn't sound right.
> 
> When I was a cashier at a major supermarket....cpns were used by FS folks and applied to the non-food items total (not booze or tobacco) and if the manQ's exceeded the taxable non food total, the balance could come off the food total OR (and this used to pee me off) they could get cash for the cpn balance that exceeded non food item total.


Yep, that's rights right at least in Florida. I have four relatives that work at Walmart and other grocery stores and they say that is how it's done here. I have also been shopping with girls who used EBT (food stamps or SNAPS as they now call it) and they used coupons with no trouble.


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## giraffe_baby (Oct 15, 2005)

We have a store that does the Pick 5.. BUT I ALWAYS buy fresh meats ( steak, chicken, roast ) or lunch meats... (they have 1 lb pkg lunch meat in there sometimes) or Breakfast sausage..... BUT I ALSO do the sale vs/Pick 5 price... I watch to see that Im not getting ripped off... We are in a bad time right now. I work at the local school and hubby has been laid off 2 yrs, no more unemployment and still no work (construction)... and toooo many handyman around these parts (or ppl who just teach themselfs to do it.) So we finally had to get FS! I use coupons and go to 4 different stores on the day the money hits the card... We have a family of 4 and we stretch the $200 they allot us to ALL BUT the last week of the month... WE dont do junk foods, we try to eat healthy but HEALTHY is expensive!! We grow our garden, hunt most of our meat, and grow some of our meat on hoof/foot... BUT its getting tougher and tougher to make them ends meet.

I do agree ALOT of the younger generation DOES NOT KNOW how to cook from scratch... so there needs to be home ec taught again...there needs to be common sense reinstalled in to the younger generations!!! I have tried to teach people how to can, and they say "its cheaper to buy in the store" yeah... maybe.. but not as good and as healthy and HORMONE free! 
I figure if TSHTF, unfourtunatly... this would be a weeding out process !!!! SINK or swim!!! My 2 teenage girls know how to cook/can/butcher ect... so ive done my job at raising them to use COMMON senses!


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## cast iron (Oct 4, 2004)

Pam6 said:


> Yep, I have noticed that too with the 10/$10 items. I have seen .89 items 10/$10 on 'sale'. People like to 'think' they are getting a good deal!


Yes, and our grocery store now has a whole aisle dedicated to the 10/$10 products, which are of course repackaged to a smaller packaging scheme with a higher per unit price. If you walk 2 aisles over to where the regular packaged product is you find the per unit price to be lower than the magical 10/$10 price. The other thing is for many of the items in this 10/$10 aisle the per unit price is missing from the shelf labels. Hmm


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## nostawmama (Dec 29, 2011)

Many times the grocery stores are using gimmicks to make it seem like a good deal or to hide the rising costs of products. And people that are unfamiliar with the regular prices of products (which is many of the people of my generation) trust those "sale" flyers. It says it is a good deal and they believe it because they don't know the regular price of things. I have had people tell me "I bought two of these because they were on sale- 2/$2!" I hate to burst their bubble and tell them that regular price is $.99


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## AR Transplant (Mar 20, 2004)

it's not just this generation, my father forbid my mother to grow a garden or can, by the time I got old enough to cook, it was open a box for the side dishes and throw a roast in the oven. Also, left overs were forbidden, all food had to be thrown out. I am not making this up.

Let me just say when I got married I had one steep learning curve.


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## am1too (Dec 30, 2009)

Wayne02 said:


> Yes, and our grocery store now has a whole aisle dedicated to the 10/$10 products, which are of course repackaged to a smaller packaging scheme with a higher per unit price. If you walk 2 aisles over to where the regular packaged product is you find the per unit price to be lower than the magical 10/$10 price. The other thing is for many of the items in this 10/$10 aisle the per unit price is missing from the shelf labels. Hmm


Calculators are wonderful items to have. I really need to use a price book on what I buy to see the difference easily. The discoveries are amazing.


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## thesedays (Feb 25, 2011)

AR Transplant said:


> it's not just this generation, my father forbid my mother to grow a garden or can, by the time I got old enough to cook, it was open a box for the side dishes and throw a roast in the oven. Also, left overs were forbidden, all food had to be thrown out. I am not making this up.
> 
> Let me just say when I got married I had one steep learning curve.


Um, why? I take it he was a control freak in other ways too?

I know a woman whose late husband demanded that all cooking be done from scratch (by her, of course, and he also forced her to continue working full time after having kids even though she didn't want or need to) and prohibited all prepared foods of any kind. If my husband made a demand like that, I would tell him that if he wanted it done that way, he could do it himself.


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## Usingmyrights (Jan 10, 2011)

Knowing prices makes a huge difference. My store had an anniversary sale with several items on sale at $.67. I stocked up on stuff. I wish I had bought more now. This week, chickenbrrast was on sale over a dollar off per lb. I bought about 20lbs worth


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## Chickensittin (Mar 26, 2012)

I have to share what I observed this morning. A woman with two young children (I think they called her grandma) was shopping next to me in the produce department. The little girl asked for bananas and the woman said "no". She then asked for grapes and the woman looked them over and said "no". My curiosity aroused, I had to walk around the end of the aisle to check out their cart. While it wasn't full, it did contain junk food, including candy. :huh: This really bothered me. Then when I was checking out, the cashier commented on the amount of peaches & pears I bought. "that's a lot" Really? I told her that I planned to can them. I really didn't buy that much. 5 lbs. each at 99 cents a lb. She didn't comment on the $5 pkg of almond M & M's I bought for my husband. :shrug:


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

cvk said:


> Anybody see that story on Weather Channel today saying that the average family of 4 wastes $2,200 per year on groceries!!!! Spoilage etc. Unbelievable! One of the fixes they mentioned was buying less and making more trips for groceries and we wonder why people don't have food in the house for emergencies!!!


That really *IS* remarkable!!!!!!!!

Once a week I put all of the leftovers out and tell people to make their own dinner out of the leftovers. Anything left is then usually used for animal food. We don't waste much!!!!!!


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## Chris. (Jul 13, 2011)

Working at a first of the month grocery store I see what yall are talking about every first of the month. It gets really busy, and most people are buying processed crap. A few are really trying to get there food stamps to go farther, but not many. An interesting note, when there is people who appear to be from another country come through the line they buy lots of on sale produce, and raw cooking materials. Ie. they're planning on making thigns from scratch.


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## KnowOneSpecial (Sep 12, 2010)

I'll admit that I buy the 5/$20 deals about once a week. I have to be gone on Sunday nights and DH simply can not cook. He's tried and I have the burned pans to prove it! He's not used to watching all of the kids and cooking and it flusters him. So I get the 5/$20 stuff and I've taught my older kids how to cook them. It's simple and they don't need me around to make it. Everyone wins.he kids get 'junk food', the ones who like to cook get to do that and DH doesn't lose his mind.


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## thesedays (Feb 25, 2011)

thesedays said:


> Um, why? I take it he was a control freak in other ways too?
> 
> I know a woman whose late husband demanded that all cooking be done from scratch (by her, of course, and he also forced her to continue working full time after having kids even though she didn't want or need to) and prohibited all prepared foods of any kind. If my husband made a demand like that, I would tell him that if he wanted it done that way, he could do it himself.


p.s. She had a college degree in an era when very few women did. IDK if he was abusive in other areas, but it's a pretty safe bet that he was. It's possible that she may have grown up that way and didn't know anything different, and maybe she was indeed getting something out of that marriage that those of us who didn't live with them don't know about so that's why she stayed with him.


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## mommathea (May 27, 2009)

maybe she was getting supplies for a 13yr old's birthday party


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## cnichols (Jan 5, 2010)

Our local grocery store regularly seems to have 10/10 sales. Sometimes they're a deal, sometimes they're not. Another thing our local store does is ... the sale paper runs Wednesday thru Wednesday! So you can get deals from two weeks sales every Wednesday.

For instance, this week, there is a coupon on the back (limit 2 coupons) ... Buy 10 Knorr Rice or Pasta Sides for $10.00 .... get $5.00 OFF Fresh Chicken! The rice alone, not a deal, but add in $5.00 worth of chicken and you've gotten my attention!

Combine that with another coupon (limit 2 coupons) ... 2 - 30 oz jars of Helmann's Mayo (not my usual brand but hey ..) for $6.00. Not a super deal. However, using the coupon also gives you $2.00 OFF Chicken!

Needless to say I purchased 20 Knorr Rice Sides & 4 30 oz Jars of Hellmann's Mayo and ended up getting almost 18#'s of chicken for free! The "prior" weeks paper had whole fryer chickens on sale for $0.78 a pound!  So grand total ... 20 Rice Sides (20 meals) with 18 #'s of Chicken (which can be stretched to at least 20 meals!) AND 4 jars of Mayo (to use with leftover chicken to make even more meals) for a total of $40! I'd say $2.00 a meal for a family of 3 to 4 is pretty darn good!

Canning the chicken this weekend and put the mayo and the rice sides into our "food storage" rotation!


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## beaglebiz (Aug 5, 2008)

I saw a group of three young people (older high school or college age) looking at chicken in the supermarket. I couldnt help but overhear their conversation. They were considering buying the whole boneless skinless chicken breast (on sale) but two insisted on the breast that was already cut up for kabobs or stirfry (twice the price). No one, but the one young man, offered to cut up the chicken into chunks (no one wanted to touch it apparently). They would probably die at my house...coould you see them butchering and parting out a fryer??


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## beaglebiz (Aug 5, 2008)

Oh, this week our local grocery store had Muellers pasta on sale for .79 (elbows, and maybe three other varieties)...I thought Id buy a few, as pasta deals have been lean around here. Lo and behold the boxes are now 12 ounces..Grinds my gears (I also noticed the poster before me got 30 oz quarts of mayo. ). My goodness when will it end? is it all going to end up single serve?


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## DryHeat (Nov 11, 2010)

I thought I'd set enough pasta aside, well over 100 lbs I'm sure, but a week ago Fry's (Kroger) had American Beauty brand included in a buy-10-mix/match deal that put them down to 39c per 16 oz pack. So now there's yet another 25 lbs or so, plus some jars of Prego at 99c each, stuffed into some cubbyhole.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

I bought a cool pasta machine online that makes spaghetti and rigatoni. Already had one that makes flat noodles. So I'm good to go. Got lots of wheat to grind and lots of fresh eggs.


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## cnichols (Jan 5, 2010)

Cyngbaeld said:


> I bought a cool pasta machine online that makes spaghetti and rigatoni. Already had one that makes flat noodles. So I'm good to go. Got lots of wheat to grind and lots of fresh eggs.


That's one of the next items on my personal "want" list! Got a food mill and grain mill today for my B-Day. Pasta Machine is next!! Can probably talk DH into letting me buy it just cuz ... he has a hard time telling me no! :kiss:


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## Guest (Aug 29, 2012)

cnichols said:


> That's one of the next items on my personal "want" list! Got a food mill and grain mill today for my B-Day. Pasta Machine is next!! Can probably talk DH into letting me buy it just cuz ... he has a hard time telling me no! :kiss:




Happy Birthday....:sing:


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## julieq (Oct 12, 2008)

We just got our new pasta machine in a few days ago. We'll try it out this winter when we've got more free time.


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## julieq (Oct 12, 2008)

Terri said:


> That really *IS* remarkable!!!!!!!!
> 
> Once a week I put all of the leftovers out and tell people to make their own dinner out of the leftovers. Anything left is then usually used for animal food. We don't waste much!!!!!!


We don't waste anything. If it's not considered to be an edible leftover, our chickens love it!


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

beaglebiz said:


> I saw a group of three young people (older high school or college age) looking at chicken in the supermarket. I couldnt help but overhear their conversation. They were considering buying the whole boneless skinless chicken breast (on sale) but two insisted on the breast that was already cut up for kabobs or stirfry (twice the price). No one, but the one young man, offered to cut up the chicken into chunks (no one wanted to touch it apparently). They would probably die at my house...coould you see them butchering and parting out a fryer??


Oh my! My daughter, now 27, has been slaughtering and butchering our ducks with me for years! I don't so much enjoy it, but its a good reality check for us - we know our meat used to be a living animal. 

I keep thinking that I'm not cooking from scratch because I buy canned beans and often cook with them! I can't really remember the last time I bought a boxed side - we shop at a store with bulk food and I store bulk rice, pasta, etc. It doesn't take any longer to cook than a boxed side and I can always add my own cheese, milk, tomato sauce, spices, etc. 

I know my style of cooking has changed over the years, I hardly noticed it... sure, we have potato chips, corn chips and candy on hand, but I grind a lot of my own flour (buy the wheat at that bulk section), make most of our bread, make jams, jellies and pickles, bake the few baked goods we eat, raise our own eggs and occasional duckling and some of our fruit and veggies. I don't feel bad to eat prepackaged foods, we just don't so much do it. Some of that is my husband has been a type 1 insulin dependent diabetic for 30 years and his mother is gluten intolerant (and lives with us). If I make it, I know what's in it and that there is SOME nutrition going on here.  

I think it has to be saving us money, then I see the grocery bill and it seems awfully high. I know that, if times get tougher for us, I can cook, can, freeze, scrounge and feed us on less than I do now. At this time, its not necessary, but I do gather up skills, equipment and put things aside.


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## beaglebiz (Aug 5, 2008)

Cyngbaeld said:


> I bought a cool pasta machine online that makes spaghetti and rigatoni. Already had one that makes flat noodles. So I'm good to go. Got lots of wheat to grind and lots of fresh eggs.


What kind did you get?? I have this Marcato Atlas Wellness 150 Pasta Maker,Stainless Steel: Amazon.com: Kitchen & Dining
and this Amazon.com: Cavatelli Maker with Wooden Rollers: Home & Kitchen

I love them both, but working on the road all day and coming home to 4 hungry men makes boxed pasta a nice item to have on hand. Im uber pleased with the cavatelli maker...I use those noodles in halushki and chicken soup. My MIL makes gnocci in hers...


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Norpro Meat Grinder,Mincer,and Pasta Maker: Amazon.com: Home & Kitchen

This is the one I bought recently. I already had the Atlas.

It grinds cooked meat very well, but not so good for raw meat. I grind home canned meat in it for my daughter. Does better than putting the meat in the blender for her.


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## old school (Aug 26, 2012)

Pam6 said:


> Yep, I have noticed that too with the 10/$10 items. I have seen .89 items 10/$10 on 'sale'. People like to 'think' they are getting a good deal!


Yes and they think the food tastes better to:umno:


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## AR Transplant (Mar 20, 2004)

my father was not a huge control freak, but he managed a grocery store and he felt that the garden was competition. He also wanted her to serve all the package foods to "set an example". I am not convinced that it worked that well, all my friends had gardens. It just seemed weird to me.

About the pasta machines, be sure that the machines can handle whole wheat flour, it is a lot harder to make whole wheat pasta than it is using white flour.

But, of course, the whole wheat is much more healthier.


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## elkhound (May 30, 2006)

this weeks food lion ad....2 giant granny smith apples/$5......you got to be kidding me !!!


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## lissapell (Mar 2, 2012)

LOL I picked up my case of chicken a few days ago and the women next to me got all excited over the price, until she found out they were WHOLE chickens! She asked me how I could stand to cut up an entire chicken, "It is just so gross." She was on the phone w/ her SO at the time and he was screaming at her to buy the case of chickens. they would cut them up. She was very adamant she was not cutting up chicken.
I have noticed a lot of people like this. If it looks like meat they wont fix it. SAD


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

DH will not touch raw chicken! He is my husband and not my child, and so I must live with it. 

On nights when he cooks, he fixes scratch hamburger helper (hamburger, noodles, peas, etc).


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## shannsmom (Jul 28, 2009)

A friend at my last job always said she would never be so poor that she would have to cut up chickens, she would eat sticks and berries first. Knowing how little she made, and how much more things cost now, I wish I could see her to ask how those sticks and berries were working out for her! She was one of those people who came from a farm family and felt that being more "citified' now was superior.
My parents never cut up chicken for some reason, they always bought pieces, but I have no problem with it. Raw meat is not my favorite thing to be up to my elbows in, but since I like to eat, I do it.


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## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

Do schools teach homemaking classes any more? When I was in school we learned cooking and sewing, we had a financial class where we were taught to balance a checkbook, we used newspapers to find "jobs", "homes", "used cars" etc. We were assigned our "job" with a set income and we had to make a budget so we could live within our "income" for the school year. 

Sadly, I don't think they teach those types of things today.


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## Usingmyrights (Jan 10, 2011)

I don't know about middle/high school, but I know my third graders math homework is like taking a reading comprehension test with some of the word problems.


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## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

thesedays said:


> That's probably how much I SPEND, although it's just me and the cats.
> 
> I could see that much waste if you have toddlers, because they have this slight tendency to throw their food on the floor or smear it all over themselves.


Thats not waste, thats a treat for my 4 legged hoover.


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## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

Cyngbaeld said:


> Norpro Meat Grinder,Mincer,and Pasta Maker: Amazon.com: Home & Kitchen
> 
> This is the one I bought recently. I already had the Atlas.
> 
> It grinds cooked meat very well, but not so good for raw meat. I grind home canned meat in it for my daughter. Does better than putting the meat in the blender for her.


What does it do with the raw meat? I was told by a friend that grinds all of his own meat to put a saltine cracker in the grinder with the meat if it starts to gum up from the fat. I've also found that very cold meat grinds the best.


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## whiterock (Mar 26, 2003)

My EX wouldn't eat anything that her Momma didn't put on the table, so no game of any kind. She bought cut up chicken because she didn't know how to cut one up. As time went on I started doing the shopping and then the cooking.
At an inbetween stage she gave me a shopping list and i started marking things off. She asked why so it went something like...... you have 5 heads of lettuce in the fridge that you took a few leaves off to make a sandwich, use those. There are 4 jars of pickles in there, just because they were opened over a week ago doesn't make em bad. There are 20 tomato plants outside with fruit on them , why buy some, go pull some onions, not buying any.

she peeled potatoes so severely that I used the peelings to plant potatoes.
cleaned out fridge and told me to take things to the sheep, I took em to momma's, she would go through and put them in her fridge then feed em back to the ex when she cooked for us. always telling me ex was too extravagant.

Never did get through to her about waste, but not my problem now.
Ed


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## Tracy Rimmer (May 9, 2002)

Spinner said:


> Do schools teach homemaking classes any more? When I was in school we learned cooking and sewing, we had a financial class where we were taught to balance a checkbook, we used newspapers to find "jobs", "homes", "used cars" etc. We were assigned our "job" with a set income and we had to make a budget so we could live within our "income" for the school year.
> 
> Sadly, I don't think they teach those types of things today.


No, they don't. It's no longer considered "politically correct" to teach kids to avoid debt.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

At mt son's school they did teach all of that. I mentally thought of it as "Sophomore survival". Cooking and sewing were electives but budgeting and insurance and SS were not.

This year, alas, it all becomes an elective.


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## beaglebiz (Aug 5, 2008)

Tracy Rimmer said:


> No, they don't. It's no longer considered "politically correct" to teach kids to avoid debt.


We still have it in our public schools (PA)...its called family consumer science. all three of my boys can even use a sewing machine  (I make them thread mine all the time he he


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## NickyBlade (May 27, 2008)

I always wonder... how can you even tell someone is using a government card? Everyone here uses some kind of card to pay for their groceries... You'd really have to be paying close attention to see what kind of card it is... and who cares what other people buy? 

On another forum I read earlier... "I was at the grocery store and this chick was totally eye balling my chip dip! And then she had the nerve to try and see my pin number while I entered it! "

Ok, so I didn't really read that. But, I have to tell ya that every time I grocery shop now I wonder if there are creeps around me judging what I buy. Get a freaking real hobby! End rant.


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## unregistered65598 (Oct 4, 2010)

NickyBlade said:


> *I always wonder... how can you even tell someone is using a government card? Everyone here uses some kind of card to pay for their groceries... You'd really have to be paying close attention to see what kind of card it is... *and who cares what other people buy?
> 
> On another forum I read earlier... "I was at the grocery store and this chick was totally eye balling my chip dip! And then she had the nerve to try and see my pin number while I entered it! "
> 
> Ok, so I didn't really read that. But, I have to tell ya that every time I grocery shop now I wonder if there are creeps around me judging what I buy. Get a freaking real hobby! End rant.


If you are the checker you know because it shows up on the register screen.


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## NickyBlade (May 27, 2008)

Well of course if you were the cashier you would know the form of payment... but these threads are on here all the time about the "person in front of me in line."


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## NickyBlade (May 27, 2008)

tambo said:


> A young girl was in front of me at the checkout had 5 pick 5 items.


From the OP...


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

terri9630 said:


> Thats not waste, thats a treat for my 4 legged hoover.


I've noticed since our dog died last year our kitchen floor needs to be swept a lot more often.


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