Grocery Prices and a Protein Pinch?
 

Anyone else feeling this? I've always been pretty frugal with groceries, but yikes.

What's gone way up in price in your area? For DH and I, the main things I notice are some of the fresh meats, deli meats, eggs, hard cheese, and buns (for hubs). Beef is ridiculous. :thdown: I splurged on $10 worth of marked down striploin steaks a few weeks ago and they were awful. I would have been happier with $10 worth of ground beef for burgers.

Prices of some of my staples have stayed about the same: the cottage cheese and Greek yogurt I buy, canned corned beef, tuna, whey protein powder, and ground poultry. Needless to say, we're eating more of that.

I've doubled down on making sure I plan based on buying loss leaders at various stores. I've also figured out my stores' best times for getting the markdowns. Yes, I WILL buy that tub of cottage cheese for 50% off a few days before it expires - because it'll disappear in 3 days.

I'm also really gaming loyalty plans, namely PC Optimum points and offers. I don't like the privacy sacrifice, but I really don't care that they see I buy mostly meats, veggies, toilet paper, detergent and what not. They have occasional promotions where your points are worth more, so we wait until then to spend them.

Gas is an obvious cost increase for a lot of folks, but luckily, that hasn't hit us directly. I don't drive and DH works from home. I bet a lot of other folks here in the GTA are hit hard by higher interest rates on their mortgages. :( Housing prices here are absurd now, we likewise lucked out buying back when we did.

If you're interested, I started another thread a couple of years ago on this topic: Protein Prioritization for Po' People. I still apply my rule-of-thumb of aiming for a about a dollar or so per serving of 20 g protein.

Robert Reich addresses the gouging of big business, from oil companies, to meat Packers.

Biggest profits in 70 years .

Most meats go thru only 4 meat packing plants. Producers get a lower percentage, and packing plants are taking a bigger portion.

I'm learning to raise chickens for meat. I realize not everyone can do this but it makes me feel like it's a step toward independence.

Otherwise, it's time to break up monopolies using the existing laws, or put regulations in place with limitations , like milk prices.

( Not that long ago , there was 6 meat packing plants. With so few,.when a plant was closed due to covid, prices shot up. More meat plants has many benefits to the consumers . Better pricing, more consistent supply.)

https://youtu.be/NuvKoe9Ilvo
https://youtu.be/nE3AEt77Fdw


Personally, I've moved to OMAD as it works with higher vegetables and some grains and keeping meats moderate, rather than the primary food source.

We rarely talk about timing of foods, combinations, use of acids, etc. Acids like vinegar and lemon help with digestion of proteins , esp as we age. A small salad with evoo and Bragg's ACV has more benefits than the obvious.

I generally don't buy meat or yogurt that's not in the bargain bins, although I think more and more people are noticing those bins as I find less stuff in them now.

$1 per 20 gm of protein is not always possible from my perception but then I don't always figure it out. Bargain bin yogurt is usually low. I said something to a cashier one time about getting 15gm protein for 50 cents and she looked at me like I was nuts. :lol:

We have been struggling with higher prices. I always use a lot ground beef which has become quite expensive and is around 3.99/lb (about 9/kg) (1 dollar for 18 g I think). if you buy in bulk.

I like to make crackslaw and spaghetti sauce, meatloaf and meatballs and of course burgers. I don’t like many cheaper cuts of Beef, I can’t figure out how to cook them to be tender and not dried out and tough. Maybe I have to dig out my crock pot. I do like stewed meat in cooler weather. I like cheap pork and around here fish is expensive but reasonable.

A nice steak or roast was maybe once a week treat. Now we splurge for a tenderloin from Costco 2 times a year and freeze them to get about 4 meals out of each . So essentially once a month.

We are lucky to be able to buy a bit in bulk and do a bit of meal prepping and are able to absorb some increases.

I keep waiting for salmon prices to go up. Still 9.99 a pound at TJ's and has been for years. My bagged salad greens went up. :( I used to buy frozen grilled chicken but once that hit 6.99 for a 1# bag I said forget it. Now they're not even carrying it any longer. But I can still get chicken breasts for 2.99 a pound. It is weird.

The only cheap meat we have been able to get is chicken breasts. All sorts of foods have gone up in price
My brother has been getting free Chick Fil-A sandwiches using the app, I think it's one of those "if.a sports team wins you get a free sandwich" things. Also we get the "fill out the Jack in the Box Survey Online" and get 2 for 1 jumbo jacks. My sisters wants organic beef hamburger, so they wait for a sale to get it at around 5 $ a pound. We all have restrictions in what we can eat so that makes it harder too.

In addition to the solutions above, I've made two meals a day in an 8-hr window my normal routine. Prioritizing protein, limiting net carbs to 10g at a meal (to prevent cravings, brain fog & exhaustion 2 hrs after eating, which in turn prevents mindless eating). Being satiated on less food is good for the pocketbook.

I focus on buying sales. Some of the sale prices match what they were pre-COVID (i.e., $7.99/lb for bone-in ribeye). But, yes. I'm seeing the price of my staples increase (beef, chicken, pork).

I've noticed the same. One kind of meat/poultry will be on sale one week, something else the next. So I've been able to buy a ~4-week supply of the meat that's on sale and freeze the extras & that gets me to the next time it is on sale. One of my 4 local stores will have tubs of greek yogurt on sale every couple of weeks, so I keep a 2-week supply to make it to the next sale somewhere.

Partner and I have the additional challenge of both of us struggling to bounce back from being wiped out by our chronic illnesses. From the stress of the pandemic. It's not that we're terribly sick, it's that our energy is not there, so we can't really cook meals. I prepare things, and we eat them as our erratic sleep schedules allow.

I only buy what we're going to eat in the next few days so we don't waste anything. We've given up the higher priced meats. Essentially right now. I am eating grass fed hamburger. Coconut wraps I cut in half to make them last longer. Cheese and Italian cold cuts. And my hot chocolate protein smoothies.

I don't try to get fancy with cooking or swapping around my meat sources. It gets out of hand when I don't have the energy to cook properly. All of these things are easy to do and easy to clean up after.

This is my compromise between all the work required to save money. And actually saving money.

Went to buy eggs at Aldi this morning and was shocked, they were $3.82 for the cheapest option. Used to get them for around a dollar a dozen, sheesh. From what I’ve read rising egg costs are due mostly because of the bird flu, so hopefully once that dies down prices will adjust.

I did get a fantastic price on 80/20 ground beef at Meijer today-$1.99lb! Haven’t seen it that low since pre-covid. I bought around 20lbs of it and will separate and freeze it.

I use a lot of eggs. I've found the best price is Trader Joe's ($2.79) or Costco. Costco works out to about the same per dozen as TJ's, but it's 2 dozen in the package. It's crazy how expensive they are. TJ's used to be $1 less.

I love TJs but it's over an hour away so I only go once every couple of years. I should look into renewing my Sam's Club membership, might be worth getting bulk eggs and such. I am going to go to a local butcher shop tomorrow, back in the day they had local eggs for around $2 a dozen, I'm guessing they'll be about double price now, but if I'm paying close to $4 a dozen I might as well get local ones vs Aldi.

I buy eggwhites in a carton when they are on sale so I always have some on hand to add to my whole eggs and boost the protein in meals. They can be frozen and defrosted in the fridge right in their cartons.

Big 'ouch' on eggs here, as well. I used to get an offer through my store's app to pay $1.99/doz, so I'd use that any chance I'd get. No deal at all lately, and they're over $3/doz now. I just bought a 30-pack of medium eggs for $6 - that's the best I've seen in a while.

I should do like Deirdra and get back in the habit of buying the cartons of whites to go with it, since that's a decent protein deal even when they're not on sale ($3.49 for 500 ml, and that's about 60 g protein).