22nd Apr 2008
Let Them Use Coupons
I suppose it’s news that, when the country is in a recession, people find ways to scale back their spending. Even families with only one income!
This CNN Money article provides some examples of stay-at-home-moms who’ve taken to making their own detergent, planting herb gardens, and concocting their own baby food - all in the name of saving more of their shrinking household monies.
Some concrete statistics would have been nice, otherwise it’s just another “trend” article. I find it a little hard to believe that too many women who weren’t breast-feeding before are doing so now because it’s cheaper than buying formula. And the reference to spending $4.50 for 20 eggs (as though this were inexpensive) is also a little puzzling.
For my part, I’ve become a patron of WinCo, a large employee-owned grocery chain. Some years ago, upon first walking into a WinCo, my Whole Foods sensibilities were seriously injured. Women with rollers in their hair, dingy floors, and Hostess desserts in the bakery section were not my idea of a fun food shopping experience. But when I revisited two months ago on an errand with my grandmother, I was won over by their $2.00 Morningstar (vegetarian brand) frozen food products. The same items cost twice as much at my usual store. The lower prices extended across the board, for all food items. They don’t sell free range, hormone-free meat, but are open 24 hours a day, and sell toilet paper as well as non-China organic vegetables. That’s me, doing my part to be a little less snobby.
I’ve never found any of the tips in the article to help me save that much money (e.g., coupons, herb garden). It does reek of a manufactured piece. Now eating less….that helps!
WinCo looks awesome.
Indeed. Breastfeeding is not a casual decision for most new moms. And it’s not something you can easily start doing whenever you decide the formula budget has gotten too big.
Perhaps they are fancy eggs. Ours are $2/doz for basic store brand, but then go up for cage-free, organic, enhanced with extra nutrients, etc. to $4/doz.
Overall I’m impressed with those grocery budgets, though… or shocked at ours. Of course I include some “household” items under groceries, e.g. diapers. Still, my husband is very sensitive to the ambience of grocery stores, and he is the primary shopper and cook, and is very much a believer (sometimes to excess, in my opinion) in “you never regret paying for quality” (more expensive doesn’t always mean better quality!). The grocery budget is a major point of contention in our (mostly one income) home.
Well, I do make my own laundry powder (who needs essential oils?) and take legumes for lunch. (Split peas with rice and vegetable soup tomorrow.) Of course, I’ve done that for years. What you’re used to I suppose.
Whole Foods costs 3x as much as other stores. I only go there for their olive oil selection, and then only for my Dad’s Xmas gift.
We’ve definitely noticed the cost of groceries skyrocketing. It sort of crept up on us, then one day we looked at our cart, and then at our receipt, and it was about $50+ more than the same groceries just a few months ago. Insane.
GG - I only go to Whole Foods once or twice a month - generally for the meat, or their delicious bakery items. Normally I shop at a Kroger’s (aka Fred Meyer’s), because there is one within walking distance of my house, and they have a decent healthy food and organic selection. The problem is that I’ve talked to former employees who’ve said they treat their workers like crap as part of policy, lying to them about f/t opportunities, and and not giving them regular hours, etc. So I always feel a little twinge of guilt when I patronize them. (The workers are super nice, despite this). The prices are far less than Whole Foods (and you can buy ALL of your groceries there; like the caffeinated colas my husband needs to survive), but WinCo Foods is 25-50% less than them!
I find Whole Foods works well, if you limit the sorts of things you buy. I use the salad bar pretty regularly, and it’s not that expensive if you stay away from jicama and heavy items.
I’m also one of those people who looks at the grocery costs and is sort of appalled that we eat this much.