Posted on 07/07/2024 2:26:14 PM PDT by ChicagoConservative27
Pound of pasta...
Same here-many good memories of times with my 1st husband when our cub was little in hearing their songs-camping trips to the mountains in NM, and in Big Bend, etc. I’m a bit of a metalhead, but my tastes are eclectic in music...
Well, I wish I could say I still weighed 105 pounds. LOL.
You were blessed to have been raised on a ranch with lots of healthy living. My mother encouraged healthful eating habits, too, but I ate poorly at school in my teenage years. I drank soda and ate junk food. At home, my mother cooked a variety of meals, but our traditional meal was spaghetti and meatballs with a salad. We always had fresh fruit, too.
I didn’t start thinking about food ingredients until I had children. I was careful about what I fed them. When I became a single parent and went broke, I tried to stay the course. I even baked bread from scratch for a while. But, eventually, I had to start buying the cheap bread. We still ate fruit, veggies, and meat & poultry. Also, like you, I never used margarine - only butter.
However, I didn’t have six kids. If I did, I don’t know what I’d do, but I know I wouldn’t be spending $444 at Trader Joe’s. (lol)
That would be like me complaining that I spend all my $$$ in food at Publix! I don’t! We go to Publix, Winn-Dixie, Fresco y Mas (Sunglasses needed!), Trader Joe’s, WalMart and Spouts.
I found Trader Joe’s to be extremely expensive in Kansas, even before Bidenflation took a strong hold. I walked through the store and didn’t purchase anything! Then I went to Aldi’s and shopped.
My daughter spends close to $500/mo. to feed 7, but I’ve noticed the leftovers are greatly reduced as are the treats. There’s more chicken and poŕk, alot less beef.
When I was a single mom, I was in college during the day and worked as a cocktail waitress at night 4 days per week-my aunt who lived in SA provided daycare in return for me babysitting her 2 kids on the weekends when she worked. My pay and tips paid for books and tuition (you could not do that now), as well as a cheap, closet-sized apartment in a semi-rural neighborhood and food for me and the cub, if I was careful. Most of the people there were Hispanic-I am, too so I fit right in fortunately.
There were stores in the area where I lived that catered to the residents-working/lower class people, most with kids-those stores had day-old bread and pan dulce from local small bakeries, plain packaged generic rice, beans, lentils, fideo, etc, produce from surrounding farms that might be a few days old, bruised/not perfect fruit, bulk priced ground beef and chicken, etc.
Those places were a major benefit for single moms, and other hard-pressed working class folks in the early 70’s-I haven’t seen one in 30+ years, though-I wonder why? It appears that everyone just gets an EBT card now and goes to the big box stores. I even see big ol’ heifers waddling down the aisles in the nearest grocery store to me-a small-chain store in the nearest town-less than 900 people- 18 miles away. Their carts are full of loaves of white bread, pre-cooked dishes and sandwiches from the deli counter (at $6.35 and up each) frozen pizzas, boxes of sugary cereal, frozen, precooked meat, boxed mashed potatoes, hot dogs, bags of candy, chips, etc-and at least one case of soda. Not a veggie or piece of fresh meat in sight. And at the checkout, they swipe their Lonestar card. It pisses me off every time I see that...
If margarine had 2-3 more ingredients, it would be soft, flavored plastic-anything like that can’t be good for humans-Velveeta “cheese” is about the same-my 1st husband called it industrial strength cheese whiz, referring to the bottled stuff some people use for nachos or fondue...
If I had 6 kids, I don’t know what I’d do either in this economy-it is hard enough to make ends meet just for me-but the guy in the article could learn to cook-maybe ask a woman who has a bunch of kids for some recipes-and as you say-stop shopping at Trader Joes...
I was pointing out that if I was feeding many children again, I would not shop at Trader Joe’s. I understand that everything at the grocery store is way up. I can afford Whole Foods, but regularly shop at Aldi. How does this make me an idiot?
I leave the cart sit, for a worker to put back on the shelves. Not my job either. Don’t take cash, Same thing. Wait till Target finds out the same will happen with the new check policy. Seniors like to use them.
I don’t leave a lot of money in my checking account either. Not that I have much, my SS is below average.
Sam’s or Costco would be the better choice for that volume of food. Whereas for 2 seniors it’s not. The other issue is location. Both are a 2-hour round-trip drive. Chicken tenders are higher in price than making your own. Same with French Fries. A 10lb bag of spuds goes further.
I raised 3 boys with NO government aid. They never went hungry. But I COOK and BAKE. No store-bought cookies, no sodas. Lunches were homemade.
People have no concept of cooking, and what are necessities.
Kroger’s usually, max out the digital coupons, starting to see a few paper coupons on products, shopping the marked down, using the PowerPoints rewards, $3.00 off meat item. Gas points save $20, per tank, more in the summer as the yard needs to be mowed. Buy only sale items. Cut off Hubs M&M’s the party size, very 2 weeks $17.00 saved, his kiddie cereal only gets bought on sale. COFFEE IS A MUST. On sale of course. 2 small senior dogs, I order their high protein, no grain kibble from Chewy. I shake cans to see how much water has been added to the shrinkflated stuff.
My mom became a Costco member some years ago for hearing aids. Every once in awhile when I visit my parents there will be some monster sized desert in the refrigerator. The Costco cheese cake is about the size of a medium pizza and part of it gets sent home with me. LOL
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