What is your inflation “red line” at grocery stores?

[Anonymous]

I've always had red lines, which is why I buy only what is discounted or in season and try to stay away from most more expensive pre made foods, if I can. I buy when it is discounted and freeze what I can, and then don't buy again until it is discounted again.

[Anonymous]

My normal brown free-range eggs at Trader Joe's at Wisconsin Ave are still $2.99 for a dozen. The organics top out at $4.59, I think.

What the hell are these eggs for $8.99 and up? That's crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If something is unreasonable to me I simply don’t buy it and switch gears. If the cream cheese is too expensive then I don’t buy bagels and get English muffins instead. If the cereal is too expensive I just get something different for breakfast. I find the price of crackers has been outrageous lately so we’ve been eating cheaper pretzels and popcorn instead. I couldn’t find ground beef on sale last week so tacos can wait until another day and I’ll make something with the chicken I did buy.

This is what I do. I have a rough meal plan then adjust accordingly. I'm a huge red meat eater but have cut back pretty dramatically. Chicken is still pretty inexpensive, and I prefer legs anyway, which are the cheapest.

I've also cut way back on anything processed or packaged.

My one red line in the other direction-- what I won't stop buying-- are cage free eggs. The cruelty of cages is just too much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My normal brown free-range eggs at Trader Joe's at Wisconsin Ave are still $2.99 for a dozen. The organics top out at $4.59, I think.

What the hell are these eggs for $8.99 and up? That's crazy.

Vital Farms eggs are my favorite and they are now $8/dozen where I am. They have nice orange yolks with a thick white. I have a hard time buying cheaper eggs bc you can see they’re not very good quality. Eggs & meat are one thing I will pay more for. But hummus? Pita chips? Granola bars? No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was just going to write the $7.99 strawberries, and I see it is someone else’s sticking point too. Insanity.

This is mine too.

People, it's April. No one in DC should be buying strawberries. The price of strawberries from another part of the globe should always be high.

Are you serious?

I grew up in FL and it's strawberry season there! Well, it's ending now, but yeah. All of the strawberries I've been buying have been from FL.

The Strawberry Festival in March was always one of my favorite things to do as a kid!

PPs are using any excuse to justify high food prices as 'you should feel guilty for even eating XYZ because its bad for the environment'. Meanwhile its fruit season and the prices are still INSANE.

F them.

I live in Florida and we're actually just past strawberry season now. Strawberries were still sort of expensive this year, but boy were they good.

Now we're back to the yucky strawberries built for shelf life, not taste. (I still eat them.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I bake a lot of cookies and butter has gone up to $6-7/lb. The sale price has gone from $2.50 to $3.74.

I won’t be giving away as many cookies once I run through my sale butter stash in the freezer.

Land o lakes was $2.85 Just4u last week at Safeway. Strawberries $5/lb organic. -Price shop online.

[Anonymous]

A regular box of rice chex for $5.49

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I tend not to look at individual prices at the grocery store. I buy what I want, then I think the cumulative prices is too high, but I never know what made it that way. It’s not a good way to shop, but I can never remember what something “should” cost, even my frequent purchases, because I don’t buy them separately. I would have been terrible at the price is right.

I can’t understand this. You just grab whatever you want and don’t look at the price?

My DH never looks at the price of anything. Just buys stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My normal brown free-range eggs at Trader Joe's at Wisconsin Ave are still $2.99 for a dozen. The organics top out at $4.59, I think.

What the hell are these eggs for $8.99 and up? That's crazy.

Vital Farms eggs are my favorite and they are now $8/dozen where I am. They have nice orange yolks with a thick white. I have a hard time buying cheaper eggs bc you can see they’re not very good quality. Eggs & meat are one thing I will pay more for. But hummus? Pita chips? Granola bars? No.

We buy the Vital Farms eggs too and they are delicious! Can’t tolerate any other kind now.

[Anonymous]

Imported coffee is like $17 - so stick to Bustelo
Imported cheeses
Organic produce
Raspberries/Strawberries - too expensive, go bad too quickly.
Cashews/mixed nuts unless from Lidl
Smoked fish
Packaged snacks
Asparagus

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I tend not to look at individual prices at the grocery store. I buy what I want, then I think the cumulative prices is too high, but I never know what made it that way. It’s not a good way to shop, but I can never remember what something “should” cost, even my frequent purchases, because I don’t buy them separately. I would have been terrible at the price is right.

I can’t understand this. You just grab whatever you want and don’t look at the price?

My DH never looks at the price of anything. Just buys stuff.

NP, I'm kind of like this. I have the list of stuff I need, I buy the list of stuff I need. We have little kids and a set of staples I'm always getting - milk, eggs, bread, fruit, the specific type of yogurt/cheese sticks/chicken nuggets they will eat. I pick it up and don't really notice the individual prices (and I don't shop multiple stores because I don't have time). I do notice at checkout that the whole basket costs more. I'm not recommending this method, but it's what I do.

I also tend to try to plan some recipes and my shopping list for the week before I go to the store, and I'm generally not going to be throwing the plan out the window at the store because an ingredient is not on sale. I wish I was that flexible, but I'd probably end up frazzled and forgetting something if I called an audible on the dinner plan.

[Anonymous]

I buy nicer organic cafe free eggs, and eat less of them. Each week I have x dollars to spend so I meal plan and then adjust as I shop based on costs. Due to food allergies if I buy anything premade or dairy alternative it’s already high. So we might skip certain things to make others work. I don’t necessarily not buy expensive items, but I invest our budget in larger needs first. We get a meat and vegetable share so most of our groceries are picked ahead of a store trip.

[Anonymous]

$8 for the cheapest block of feta (I'm shaking my fist at you, tiktok).

[Anonymous]

$7.99/lb for chicken wings. Three years ago you could find them $0.99/lb

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One dozen egg was ~$3.50 at Safeway. Used to be 1/2.

is this a joke? $3.50 is a deal!

Ha, yea! Those eggs are so gross anyway. I've been paying well over 6$ for about 5 years for my eggs now.