Monday, April 27, 2009

mother hubbard's cupboard


first night in my new house. September 14, 2004


Today I went to Calgary with one of my managers and another Advisor, and I really enjoyed it. A guy from Vancouver was speaking on Critical Illness and Long Term Care Insurance, and how to position the product.

If I could actually make money at it, I would really love to keep doing it. But alas, I am still looking for anything that'll pay.

I've been hearing quite a bit about people having trouble keeping food in the house - and not just in the little family of blogs we have here. I've heard it on the radio, read it in the paper, and have seen it on the news.

My own experience so far: most meats are too expensive for us to buy, save for ground beef, hot dogs, or any cut of pork. Sometimes we can find chicken for less than $5.00/kg so we can buy that, but there have been weeks when we couldn't. A 4 litre jug of milk runs me about $5.69 and it lasts about a day and a half. Cheap bread is about $2.39 a loaf, 436 grams of coffee is about $6.00, and a litre of coffee cream is $3.02! We just switched to coffee mate, but I don't really like it.

What is the price of food in your area?

12 comments:

  1. I think I spend about, $900 per month at the grocery store, more or less.

    Coffee, $8.00 per pound.
    Milk, $2.80 per gallon?
    Bread, $2.75 per loaf?

    Other than that, I buy mostly frozen/refrigerated stuff. Everybody eats at weird hours around here, so I rarely cook traditional meals.

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  2. Hmm, good question.
    Well given the currency different and me not having a clue about that I will just say I can feed my family of three on about $150 a week, including fruit, veges, milk, bread, and of course the coffee. But that is in Australian dollars so I don't know if that helps.

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  3. chicken breast runs between $12 & 14 a kg. Whole uncooked is about $5kg
    milk is $4.40 to $6.40 for 4l
    coffee beans $18-$30 a kg
    coke 2l $3.50
    bread is $4-$5 a loaf (at supermarket-bakers are cheaper)
    today the CAD to the AUD is $1CAD to $1.20AUD
    so the milk for $4.40AUD is $3.98CAD

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  4. My wife and I eat mostly non processed foods. We both cook from scratch. When I shop it is fresh vegies and such with almost no can goods. We also ship at farmers markets and are part of a CSA.

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  5. Australia is fairly cheap for food compared to European countries - I know that much! I guess it's because we're a primary industry based country. We export a lot of food and therefore meat, fruit and vegies are fairly cheap. I guess we're pretty lucky that way. If the Bloke and I budgeted, we could probably both eat for less than A$100 per week. The expensive things are food and litter for Kitty Smalls and groceries such as cleaning products etc.

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  6. Here in Middle TN: Maxwell House coffee was $7 at Walmart last week for the 33oz. Half and half runs around $2 for a quart. Butter is about $2 a pound at Aldi's. At the local Hills you can get five (5) select items for $20; i.e., certain cuts of meat, cheese, fish, fries, sausage, ham, and other assorted canned, fresh or frozen items.

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  7. I can get boneless chicken breasts for 1.69 a pound. Depending on where you shop produce is very inexpensive. Lettuce is .89 to 1.19 a head and tomatoes are starting to bloom just a little further south. Fresh Strawberries are 1.99 or less a pound presently.

    Fresh Fish is plentiful and free much of the time. The same holds true for deer meat. Heck, bacon is 2 bucks a pound. Ground beef and the like is close to 3 bucks a pound at the moment.

    In my mind we have some of the most reasonable food prices in the country Kate.

    I support the local food bank personally and through our foundation. My daughter volunteers there often.

    They are experiencing critical shortages across the country.

    There is no excuse. Heck, we make the most of everything we have as I can't bear to see food go to waste.

    Love,
    Bobby

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  8. Tim - that was my food budget a few years ago. $800 to $900 easily! Both kids and their friends would eat a lot here. I think it's closer to $550 today.

    DD - Meat is about $70 a week, and fruit, bread, milk, and cereal take up the rest. I recently found cereal at 2 for $8, instead of $5.69 a box.

    uamada - wow! I thought our chicken breasts were expensive at $6.59/kg! We haven't bought chicken breasts for over a year. We usually buy thighs and skin them, and make curry.
    We buy Pepsi for about $1.79 for 2 litres. $3.50 is very high!

    Pastor Larry - the Farmer's Market opens soon! I'd like to cook more from scratch, to cut down on sodium and additives.

    Kimmy - food for Lola and Tokyo is about $6 week. Thank goodness it's not expensive (although we give kitty tuna occasionally)

    Mamawkim - $2 for butter! That's so cheap. We buy both margerine ($1.50/pound) and butter ($4.00 /pound) but prefer to use butter.

    Bobby - I can't wait for produce season! We get all the fresh peaches, strawberries, apples etc. from BC, and they are so much better than the imported stuff we get all through the winter!

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  9. Everything seems to be going up at the moment and there is virtually nothing coming down in price, I guess we spend about £80 a week on shopping at the moment, which is about $120

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  10. when I look at the prices, some are so high, I wonder who will buy? then the stuff gets thrown away, so what's the point? better to lower the price and get the stuff sold, then have the prices high and sell nothing.

    "Luckily" I only have to buy for myself, and usually eat at the company's cafeteria, €5 for a complete meal.

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  11. Like Dorrie, I am only feeding myself. I have a couple of meals out during the week, and usually have sandwiches or ground beef or boneless chicken when I eat at home. Fortunately I like simple and cheap. I generally buy based on total price rather than price per unit of weight.

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  12. Wow that is expensive-

    you can get boneless skinless chicken breast here for about 5.00 per kilo on sale, pork tenderloins about 10.-- a kilo on sale,

    We pay about 3.00 for a gallon of milk

    fresh vegetables here are dirt, dirt cheap for the most part- 2.00 for a whole pineapple, cucumbers are about 30 cents each, leeks are about 50 cents a kilo when on sale and in season,

    Coffee = depends on what you buy. Illy (which is my favorite) is about 8.00 for 250 grams, but it's even pricer in the states. I also buy another brand, and it's about half that, but there are less expensive brands that are also good.

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