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**Ladies Section** I'm pretty sure the price of meat butter, and eggs will go up soon

7K views 32 replies 15 participants last post by  Jennifers 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
The hay harvest has not been good, and so the cost of hay is up. And, the scuttlebut from many sources say that the Fall grain harvest will not be good, either.

That means the cost of animal feed will go up, and a high cost of animal feed means that the price of meat, eggs, and butter will eventually go up as well. Because farmers and feedlots will not sell at a loss f they can help it

So, every time I shop I buy some cans of meat. And, I went to a big Fall meat sale and froze the meat for this winter. Because, i would rather pay $4 a pound for roast right now than pay $7 a pound for roast later.

I like to eat well. And, I intend to eat well this winter,
 
#5 ·
Fewer sales at WF on meat, and now it's usually pork sausage.
No sales on bacon in the case for months.
Far fewer cuts of grass fed beef in the case, and they seem to run out sooner. A lot more pasture-raised and regular.
Haven't seen a sale anywhere on chicken for some time.
Haven't seen a sale anywhere on packaged grass-fed hamburger (organic or otherwise) in months.
Butter is $1 more this year than last year, and there hasn't been a sale (there's usually a couple during the summer).
Local eggs still go on sale from time-to-time, but none of the rest.
Cheese is higher. The dairy guy told me it's going to get worse, and the rest of dairy is going to go up eventually.
 
#7 ·
I have noticed the prices at most stores has gone up. If they haven't gone up they have cut the amount per container. Kleenex used to be $1 at the dollar tree and still is $1 but the content has gone down to 140 double sheets compared to what is was prior Used to be 160 double sheets.. Even Aldi has same size but what was a $1 is now $1.09. Beef has gone up as well as all other meats. Gotta really watch the sales.. If butter is on sale I usually buy 10 to 15 pounds and put in freezer. The other day Menards had the clumping Kitty Litter on sale reg was 11.99 for 40 lbs sale price was 6.99. I picked up 9 as my cats are indoor cats. I am being as careful as I can with sales and usually buy in bulk.
 
#9 ·
I have my own chickens so I'm hoping chicken food won't go up. I just bought a 1/4 of beef at $3.54/lb. That should last me quite awhile. Butter here is $2.99/lb and has been steady all summer. Most places run a sale on butter closer to the holidays. I'll stock up like I always do.
 
#11 ·
A farmer up north has said that he is losing about $100 on every head. That can't be good.

I have decided to use up a shelf of produce in my freezer and replace it with ground beef. At the moment I have 2 big bags of peaches in the dehydrator, and tomorrow I will see what else I can do

Americans are spoiled rotten. The thing is, I do not object to being spoiled, and so I will eat beef this winter without breaking the bank. And, I feel very sorry for the people in Northern California-who are mostly conservatives- who will have their power shut off for a solid week next week because it is going to be "windy". PG&E had to pay a huge fine last year because they did not keep the branches cut back from the tree limbs, and this caused a huge fire called the "campfire".

That means that the citizens must either get a generator or loose what is in their freezers
 
#13 ·
It's funny you mention using up things in the freezer. I actually just stuck half a loaf of bread and an almost full bag of hamburger buns IN the freezer. It's just the girls and I when Iyaayas is on the road and we go through it so slow. With prices going up, I'd rather freeze and eat as needed than have it go bad.

I saw the oddest thing at Kroger the other day. MASSIVE markdowns. I'm talking 12 carts packed with clearance stuff that was not out of date, near date, etc. I grabbed all the canned green beans they had out for $0.29 each, pasta sauces for $0.70 each, etc. Even picked up gluten free ancient grain waffles that are normally $5.68 each for $0.80.

I don't ever remember seeing them do something like that before. It just struck me as so odd with so many items jumping in price.
 
#15 ·
I haven't either which is why I was so shocked. It wasn't an actual sale though, just clearance but there was SO much of it.

I could understand if the items were close to date, damaged or if they had been changing product labels, but that doesn't appear to be the case. The green beans have over a year on their date, the labels are the same as the ones on the shelf and the cans aren't damaged.

None of it was.

The local mom and pop store has been crazily marking things down too. They always have (hello $2 big bags of produce) but this is just more. I picked up the big bottles of A&H Laundry detergent today for $5.49. They're normally $9.99.

On the other side of the store, eggs are up $1.24 for a 36 count package.

It just seems so odd to me and the only thing I can think of is that maybe they're trying to off-set consumer costs a bit since everything else is going up?

That same store has ground Angus $2.99# this week. Figure I'll be stocking up b/c that's a $2# savings on it from regular price.
 
#23 ·
I don't know about canning on a camp stove, we've never tried that. But, we use the propane base that comes with those big turkey frying pans. It holds a big canner perfectly and just uses a standard size propane bottle. We have used it outside and inside.

It doesn't heat the house up as much as having the kitchen stove on long term and since we just sit it right next to our wood stove we can sit at our table and watch it. No running back and forth to the kitchen to keep and eye on it or having to stay in there.

In the summer we have backed one of our wood hauling trailers up under our car port and set the base and canner on it. Then we just kick back in lawn chairs and relax while things are canning. A few years ago when we had a big garden we'd be canning one canner full of green beans while we were snapping the next ones to go in.
 
#24 ·
Thanks Mrs. Sardog and KokosMom.

The stove we have is one that I've done the research on and CAN be used for canning. I think it's more me being leery of it. I've always canned on an actual stove so I find it a bit daunting to use a small burner on a counter top for that long.

In any case, I'm dragging it out today. Hit apples on markdown and apple butter sounds amazing right about now, lol.

Will do water at first to be sure there aren't any adjustments I need to make. That's actually how I taught myself to can years ago, lol.
 
#25 ·
No worries. Just go into "frugal mode". Of course, you will have to get your hands dirty....

1. never pay full price. shop sales, buy in bulk at sale prices, then freeze/can surplus. A good "dent room" at a canning company is worth traveling to for $6 a case veggies in dented cans (inspected before sale). Check company stores at food manufacturers that sometimes sell cosmetically imperfect but still nutritious foods (spaghetti bends, crooks where sausage as hung over a rack, improperly trimmed produce, dented or mislabled cans, for example)

2. go back to my "the budget is in the crapper cookbook" for rock bottom cheap recipes from wartime rationing days, the great depression, or the food stamp challenge, for new ideas. Been saving those recipes for under $1 for years now, and many are comfort foods as well. Make that meat/eggs/cheese/milk stretch.

3. increase the garden and orchard, preserving surplus or swapping for eggs with the farmer down the road. Offer to glean (pick up unused) apples, or pick the corners of commercial veg fields where the mechanical pickers can't drive. Offer to take produce overloads at the local truck scale where they have to remove overloads before proceeding. I have found mountainous piles of corn, potatoes, and other produce in such places, free for the removal (if the food pantry does not have someone available to get to it first). They have had to beg folks to take the surplus at times!

4. hunt, trap, fish. lots of meat if you know what to do with it. those "evil" trappers have discovered than many fur bearers are also edible and delicious to boot - if you know someone, perhaps they will sell you some meat, or you can barter for some. If you find out what invasive species are edible you can harvest all you want without legal trouble (asian carp, garlic mustard, and the like). And many states do not regulate what you trap or shoot on your own property (if you have room to shoot, that is, otherwise live traps and a .22 are more practical).

5. Similarly learn what wild edibles grow in your area and utilize them. Many ladies canned weeds during the depression when the drought destroyed their gardens. Crab apples make superb jellies, many are sweet for sauce as well. Berries are free for the picking and worth the scratches. Jerusalem artichokes grow all over like, well, weeds, and are delicious AND perennial. Many greens, tubers, nuts and fruits can be had once you know what to look for (even in the city).

6. Most importantly, WASTE NOTHING. Save fats for cooking so you do not need to buy them; make bone broth; chop leftover meats for soups, casseroles, stir-fries, burritos, wraps, egg rolls....

(I am so glad my parents were depression children & taught me what they had learned...THANKS MOM & DAD)

oh, btw, frugal prepper, I have canned using a 2nd hand single electric burner aka hot-plate. Cheaper than a camp stove. A new one is $20 if you want to go top drawer.
 
#26 ·
Prices here have gone crazy in both directions, but mostly up.

Butter has doubled in price but the cheap, poorer quality chicken quarters in bags are $.39 this week.

A month ago, I found cheap fatty cuts of beef perfect for keto exceptionally cheap, as was the 10-pound bags of fatty ground beef for about $12.

Cheap cheese, both 8 oz. bar and grated bags are $1.77 and I think the usual price is $2.77.

I found a couple of medium-sized containers of sour cream for $.79 each and some of the produce, notably cauliflower, are so expensive that I decided to NOT make my keto cauliflower pizza. It's weird.

Sometimes it's expensive to eat keto and other times, it's ridiculously cheap.
 
#27 ·
My husband tell me if I don’t watch out I’m going to have a cardiac event in the dairy dept. Milk, eggs and butter prices are beyond ridiculous. I yelled across 2 aisles one day for him to come look at the price of butter and eggs. Looking back I’m embarrassed but I couldn’t stop myself. I don’t know how young couples with kids do it these days. It was hard enough back when milk was 79 cents a gallon and butter was 50 cents. I sound so old. :rolleyes:
 
#28 ·
Now that Christmas is over, butter at Aldi's has gone up by @75 cents a pound, and by $1 at the ordinary grocery stores. The fattiest hamburger has not gone up much but I think that it will keep going up. The leaner beef that I prefer has gone up by 50 cents a pound and cheese has gone up by about 50 cents to $1 a pound

On the good side, the cost of chicken feed has not gone up, and my backyard chickens are laying now that the days are getting longer

As long as the weather is odd the costs of food will be higher. And the weather *IS* odd, though I am inclined to blame the Grand Solar Minimum with its quieter sun than I am to blame global warming. Because the world no longer appears to be getting warmer, and the Midwest has been downright cool
 
#29 ·
Seeing the prices makes me glad that I have a goat in milk (a year after delivering her first set of twin doelings, she's STILL putting out a bit over a quart of milk a day) and I make cheese with it as well as sell some of the milk; plus chickens that keep me supplied with eggs, plus extras to sell, which helps cover feed costs. Extra bucklings get wethered, so they can become goatburger, stew meat, roasts, etc. and extra roosters and aged hens who are no longer laying become chicken dinner.
 
#30 ·
We are eating FAR less beef. Crappy hamburger is 5.99 lb I can get shrimp at the Hispanic butcher for 3.99. Hubby is even tasting my tofu dishes now. Due to health problems there is no hunting season for us this year. As soon as the ice and OK monsoon season is over, we concentrate on our fishing skills.
Anyone have any good links or book suggestions for drying fish?
 
#32 ·
It's all going up. I'm eating a lot less meat, and not only to lose weight. I do still buy things like canned tuna, eggs, and chicken when it goes on sale. But I have started eating a lot of beans and nuts for protein. Canned beans are inexpensive and work well with rice, as well as for chili recipes. Oh, don't forget peanut butter. In moderation, it's fine. Also, it goes well with toast.
 
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