SO has to work tonight - fixing steak or lasagna tomorrow (her favorites.)

We finally picked up a 14.8cf Energy Star deep freeze (354 kWh/yr) a few weeks ago on sale.

At first I was questioning whether or not the savings in food would offset the initial investment of the freezer itself an then for the additional monthly cost to the power bill. I will use a Kill-O-Watt meters to monitor it's power consumption and see what the damage really is.

We're going to plug it in this weekend and start filling it up from beef of a local mom'n'pop butcher shop where the meat is actually cheaper than Walmart and much, much better quality. I'm waiting to score a good deal on a local half side of beef. After this summer, we'll have it loaded with frozen veggies, fruits, home made ice cream - you name it.

Try this bacon substitute:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS6HB1UkS....

Ice cream is another one that has gone through the damn roof. Real Ice cream that is, not the processed crap that has next to no milk or cream in it.

Quote:

It's wise to join a food buying group. These groups work directly with food producers. Prices are excellent.

I just got notice today that the CSA(Community Supported Agriculture) we buy from has raised their price 25% from last year.

They have held their prices stable for the last 4 years.

I buy local (NC) bacon from my CSA for $18.50/5 lbs ($3.70/lb). Beautiful stuff - like meat candy.

The sausage is $2.70/lb which is a good price in general but I made my own at New year's. There were a bunch of stores selling pork butts for $1.39/lb for New Years. I bought a bunch and ground them up with my own spices. Cost was about $1.47/lb.

My grass-fed beef source went up $1/lb for all cuts last week.

BTW - grinder cost $25 at Northern Tool and we used to grind venison last year and now the pork. More than paid for itself already.

Splash, the freezer will give you a buffer to enable you to stock up when prices are good.

Good choice. Now you need a diesel genset and a good size tank to make sure you can keep it running

Is it that hard for some of you to just be real? We were talking about the price of bacon. And just because examples were shown that "your" price was inaccurate, you then started having qualifications on the bacon. Now, is that what the topic really was about? Is it so hard to simply accept the information? I simply don't get it.

Actually, I was going to use this as my first real exercise/experiment in solar power. We're talking apprx. 1kwh/day to operate the freezer according to the energy guide. I'll see what the actual load is with the kill-o-watt meter. I figure in a SHTF scenario, during the winter months, when the sunlight duration is minimal, I could always move it from my basement into the garage which would make a big difference in the power consumption. During the summer months, with an abundance of sunlight, it will go in my basement.

We'll see...solar panels prices have dropped like a rock and are getting pretty damn cheap, it's to the point where I wouldn't mind throwing together a 5 panel 1kw system with a few batteries just to tinker with.

That said, an old Lister would be cool tinker with too.

Rule,
I think the point was that bacon [does not equal] bacon.

Now go eat a couple of pieces of good bacon and relax.

Quote:

Marvinmartian:My conclusion on year over year food sales: people are eating lower on the food chain.

And those "expensive" *Deli* foods and such are being donated to the food banks..
I've been picking up Bacon, London Broils, ALL KINDS of "expensive" cheeses also..I mean from the food bank..
Picked up about 5 pounds od shreded & grated pacls of Pharmazon>sp< cheese, and Blue cheese the other day, with 1 London Broil, plus Potabello Mushrooms...And a few canned goods..

The regular price of bacon at Costco is 4 pounds for $12.99. It was $8.99 a few years ago, so it has gone up $1 a pound. Pork has always been volitile, but I can tell you that when I was surviving, $3 was a pretty good price for brand name bacon. It was generally around $5 or more if not marked down. You just go to the store that marks it down. Here, groceries are a competitive business, but one store is cheap in one type of good and high in another. Albertsons was the bacon store.

Beef was $4 a pound in 1973. I grew up with a father that checked prices for everything and I learned from him. I was in Krogers the other night and lo and behold, their bone in sirloin strips were $3.99.

When I was in FFA in 1972/73, I paid 62.5 cents a pound for a top grade 410 pound steer. Prices went higher. CPI adjusted, that is over $3 a pound on the hoof. Feed was high, as Nixon had sold all our grain to the Russians. The current cash price for feeder cattle is $1.42 a pound according to the link posted below. Live cattle are in the $1.25 a pound range. This is right in range with the CPI adjusted 20 cents or so a pound I recall in the late 1960's. Hogs are even cheaper on a relative basis and the supply/demand basis for hogs is much more volitile. I can recall lean hogs in the 40 cent or higher range during the high priced early 1970's.

http://futures.tradingcharts.com/marketq....

(the cash price I quoted has vanished from the chart posted)

I believe there is a bunch of wall street nonsense going on in food prices. I have been eating a sandwich or soup rather than go out late at night and pay for a meal. The grocery store, Safeway in this case, has had the hearty Campbell soups for around $1.60, but their normal soup is almost that much, the 11 ounce cans that you add a can of water, as they have been for decades. This includes basics like chicken noodle. There is all of 10 cents worth of food in one of these cans and I refuse to buy the crap. Last I checked, Costco had the same soup 6 cans for $3.

Someone mentioned cereal. Cereal has been high for years, but grocery stores put it on sale. Caution though. Sometimes the sale price isn't a sale price and if you pay attention to what prices are, you will know a sale when you see it. Pay attention to the box size, as the bastards have shrunk a lot of the boxes. You don't eat the box I hope. The stuff has a pretty long shelf life, so stock up when you see what you know to be a good sale. It is generally half price. A friend and I lived a few years ago on about $50 a week between us and that generally included a few top cut steaks a month.

The 2 items they have gone up in price that***** me off are candy bars and cokes. A Snickers that cost me a nickel when I was a kid is now $1 or more. In fact the tax is greater than the cost of the bar then. 20 OZ Cokes are $1.69 at the CVS and I am not a buyer at that price. The candy either, unless I am desperate or I can find some kind of sale. They are about 50 cents by the box at Costco, but it is a bad idea for me to have 40+ Snickers at my disposal. They were 20 cents or less when steak was $4 a pound in the 1970's.

We went the local beef farmer route this year, too, for 1/4 cow. Came out somewhere between $3-$4/lb after paying the farmer and slaughter/processing/packaging.

I don't consider bacon as meat. It's a treat, like candy, that we only buy occasionally. Sure, there is an abundance of calories, but it's not what I go for as a protein staple.

Ah yes, cereal.

Regular prices are a serious corn hole job. $5-6? Are you ****ing kidding me? My local store has occasional sales at 2 for $5. I stock up large when that happens. Right now I've got enough for at least two years, all of it cheap.

Even dry pinto beans are up 20% or so in the last 18 months. As are the castor beans that my wife uses to make her sarin in the basement.

Castor plants grow like weeds. Plant them anywhere and harvest pounds per plant.

[Edit: BTW, it's ricin, not sarin.]

Be with the bacon Rule10

I just checked the prices for bulk food at the LDS storehouse. Everything has increased 10 - 15 % since this time last year.

Oh yea! I am one with bacon. I wish I was born as a piece of bacon. No, that's not right. Bacon doesn't eat bacon. I wish I was born in a world where there was no other food besides bacon...........only good bacon of course.

Rule10,

Quote:

Food prices are up for the people who never adjust what they buy.

WTF is that supposed to mean?!?!?

I presume you also would state, 'Food prices are down for the people who are on a hunger strike'?

Not to mention your statement,

Quote:

And just because examples were shown that "your" price was inaccurate, . . .

No you didn’t SHOW anyone’s price to be inaccurate. All you did was call other posters liars – and then provided examples of some lower prices for bacon (possibly on sale) from different stores offering a different brand name in a different geographical area than those referenced. You didn’t refute the original premise that bacon is being sold in certain areas for around $6 per pound. Though Asi did double check and correct his original posting.

Not to mention, that even though there are plenty of places you can find bacon for less than $6 per pound, a number of stores regular prices – even for the ‘store brand’ - are at that $6 threshold, depending on where you are. A very quick search (https://shop.albertsons.com/eCommerceWeb.... finds the Albertsons store brand at $5.99 / lb – and Farmer John Brand going for $7.59 / lb (yes, the 16 oz packs, not just the $12 oz pack at the same price, which = $10.12 / lb.)

So whose premise is wrong here? You said, “Bacon is not $6 a pound. Delete your post.” Well, lots of info is out there that is easily found that bacon IS selling for $6 / lb – and above. Just because you aren’t buying it at that price point in your area, doesn’t mean that the general run-of-the-mill brands aren’t at that level in other places.

Though you were correct in one of the things you posted, “We have enough inaccurate information to deal with”? That said, you might want to consider action on your post.

I refuse to hold your hand and teach you how to read and think at the same time. Especially at your age. I could easily destroy your entire post if I wanted to devote the time. Think what you want. I couldn't care less.

So Mr. Numbers guy that I am track all kinds of **** so I went back and pulled my entire spend for 2010 and 2011 excluding only mortgage payments and compared the total and it was up 2.4% YOY. Reported rate of inflation was 3.2%. I would have guessed more and neither of these numbers were income limited.

• Utilities were lower by 8.5% (attributed to less total electric and gas usage in 2011 and lower Nat Gas Prices)
o KWH used went down from 23,458 to 21,248 or 9% (most of this is replacing a very old fridge in the garage with a new energy star one)
o Nat Gas Therms used went down 27% from 872 to 638 mostly due to a very cold 2010 winter and a very warm 2011 one.
o Nat gas price per therm went down 11% from .84 to .75 per therm.
• Food and everything bought for operating the home was up 1.2%
• Auto Gas – Flat on few miles driven
o Miles driven down 10% from 29,702 to 26,799
• Dining – flat
• Clothing – down 12% (could be some variability in this number)

Scrood wrote..

Hell, go to any fast food or sub sandwich shop and tell me that prices haven't gone way up.

Ummm, $5 footlongs at Subway?

And the push for Qe3 goes on and on....

Quote:

Mortgageguymn:
Even dry pinto beans are up 20% or so in the last 18 months. As are the castor beans that my wife uses to make her sarin in the basement.

Check the price on LIMA, (LARGE) beans.. that outta scare ya...

Quote:

Pjstaff:
Ummm, $5 footlongs at Subway?

How long ago it was 3.00 for a foot long?
a couple months ago?
(Note to self, start fishing "harder"..) Along with getting oyster/clams & crabs... AND My Garden.. Fixin to add,, chickens/rabbits...