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Friday, May 20, 2011

Are Rising Prices Changing Your Eating Habits?

Yesterday, Mr FS, who doesn't really worry himself with such things, said We eat oatmeal for breakfast and peanut butter sandwiches or a burrito for lunch. You can't spend much less than that.

We are lucky that way. We don't eat that stuff because it's cheap (though it is) or because it's healthy (well, maybe a little), but because we LIKE it.

Now that I have a little more time on my hands, I was noodling around the internet. There are many laments about rising prices. Most of the laments have to do with lunch meat and bacon. I find lunch meat (or cold cuts) yucky in general. Bacon is good, but a pound or two a year will suffice. I use it mainly for flavoring bean soup.

I AM addicted to coffee (now proved to be healthy! YAY!). I noticed that the sale price of coffee has risen 50 cents. That would be a $25.00 yearly increase. I can absorb that, even though we haven't had a raise in four years.

Have rising prices affected your shopping or eating habits?

5 comments:

Shelley said...

Not yet, as we are already pretty frugal what with eating an almost-vegetarian diet. We are currently spending just over £100/month on food. I fight a losing battle to keep it under £100, but I'm not worried about it, it's just the challenge I set myself. Salad vegetables are more expensive here than winter veg and though we can grow spinach like crazy, our climate hasn't allowed me to master tomatoes or bell peppers yet. Haven't given up altogether, though.

Darla said...

Prices haven't changed our food habits much although I find things like romain lettuce at nearly $3 a head pretty shocking. Our veggie garden will help out for awhile.

Darla

Funny about Money said...

Not what I buy, but when I buy. Recently discovered that I can stay on budget if I put off the big food shopping expedition to the end of the month, after the inevitable unplanned bills hit. Then I know exactly what's left in the budget, and that's all I spend on food.

It's a LOT less than I was spending when I would run to Costco and the grocery stores the minute I had some new money.

Connecticut Blogger said...

Aside from my vegetable garden, I'm not eating quite as much organic stuff anymore, just the top 10 most heavily pesticide sprayed fresh produce.

And I'm just not buying cereal unless it's generic. I've been making my own granola using old-fashioned oats.

Frugal Scholar said...

@Shelley--You spend less than we do! And the produce is much better where you are.

@Funny--Good idea. Loved your post on that topic.

@Connecticut--If you have a Big Lots, you can sometimes find granola for fairly reasonable prices--though not as good as homemade. New England gardens are so great!