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Friday, April 18, 2008

Grocery $ are too high!

Everytime I hear about how high groceries are I cringe. I buy groceries for our family & I buy ingredients to bake for the market. And with gas up and medical expenses up we don't need anything else to go up.

Until now I haven't been very affected by price increases. My organic stone-ground flour has stayed about the same (at this point anyway). The dried fruits I use have always been fairly high, I buy unsulfured because sulfur present in most dried fruits inhibits the yeast. I use other higher end ingredients because they taste better, such as fresh ginger in my cookies and aged Asiago cheese in my Asiago bread. I figure if my customers want a run of the mill cookie they'll buy it at Sam's where it is cheaper.

But egg prices going up is starting to be problematic for me. Also milk prices have gone up 30- 40%. This is frustrating to me; I really want to offer the best prices I can to my customers but still bake quality healthy goods. My bread prices range from $4- $7. More expensive than the grocery perhaps but my bread is homemade, fresh, and delicious. And buying more expensive groceries is still cheaper than eating out!

So what are some tips for saving money on groceries:
  • be like my Granny & PopPop shop the sales , having a deep freezer would be helpful
  • buy in bulk: you can get healthy grains, fruits, sweeteners, ect at our local coop Rainbow for far cheaper than buying them individually packaged (the items are sold in bulk bins but you get as much as you want)
  • buy less packaged drinks: I love my new aluminum water bottle as soon as I drink the water from it I refill it and stick it in the fridge. I grab it on my way out the door if I'm going to be gone for awhile. Although it was $20, I'll save that and more since I'm not buying bottled drinks.
  • buy seasonal produce: La strawberries are in season and can be found for reasonable prices at farmers markets.



I pray that these grocery price increases do not continue. But our economy is strong and we are still far better off than many people in the world.

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