Groceries

[Wayne Goodwin]

Ir you buy groceries , what would your opinion be on how much they have gone up in past year ?

[Lifesighs]

I rarely shop down any isles at the grocery store and look for bargains or locally grown produce. You can really cut down on the food budget if you're careful.  I try to stock up and freeze things when prices are good like a turkey under a dollar per lb. which will feed us for a week and still have leftovers for soup. We like turkey so I make one about every three months or so. I try to stay away from red meat but I do like it in chili etc. I try to buy really good cuts when I do eat it.

Our Costco has a seafood section with mixed shrimp, muscles, scallops and calamari for about $14 which I divide into 4 freezer bags. I make a pasta with either white or red sauce and the seafood it is delicious and reasonable when it's only $3.50 per meal. They also have a small shrimp in a 2 lb package I can use for shrimp salads or other shrimp dishes for 10 bucks that makes several meals. I usually add asparagus or other veggie I have on hand again from Costco.

You have to be careful in today's market or you will be paying big bucks.

[blithe spirit]

I'm not buying groceries for a family so it's not such a big part of my budget but along with everything else it has gone up...my biggest monthly expense though is communications...cell phone...house phone...cable...internet etc. it frosts my butt every time I send em my money. That's more than my medical insurance for goodness sake...

I can eat out for about the same money I can go and buy the food to prepare most meals..a meaningful increase...not so health though..so I food shop.

[Wayne Goodwin]

Buy an Omma phone system and you can cut that bill out for local phone bill  .lots of people just use a cell phone for all their phone needs ..

[frenchy]

you hit the nail on the head there vickie about communications .. goin back to when i was just startin out on my own there was no cable tv .. no dsl or high speed internet or satelite dishes .. no cell phones .. now if you figure in your cell bill along with your internet isp and your cable or satelite tv not to even mention if you still have a landline or not cause a good portion of people don't anymore it could all run you over 200 dollars .. i don't have the dish anymore since i got the roku so that cut about 75 dollars a month and i don't miss it .. i never had a cell phone so that cuts about ..i dunno , about 50 bucks a month i'd figure .. i do have dsl and a landline tho , i can't get around that so i'm still on the hook for about 75 bucks a month .. but thats still way less than most other people pay .. i even had a magic jack for awhile but when they bumped up my internet speed they bundled it with free long distance so i don't use the magic jack anymore .. the thing did work tho but one of the things they don't tell you is it can and will just cut you off after an hour or so .. most phone calls don't last that long anyway but every now and then you do and it will cut you off everytime .. so if you're catchin up with an old friend you have to warn them ahead of time if i just disappear don't think i just hung up on you .. its this freakin magic jack .. and it won't let you call anyone else for awhile .. maybe 15 minutes or so .. so magic jack has a catch they don't or won't tell you about upfront .. anyway what i'm tryin to say is if you figure all your communications bills its more than what you pay for food for some people .. it can be over 2400 dollars a year .. the only thing that actually costs me more is insurance .. now there's a racket .. don't even get me started on insurance .. i just got my homeowners insurance bill .. yeeeooow ... its a license to steal .. and all they're doin is layin bets on your misfortune ..