Milk is almost 4.00 a gal here right now:eek: thats crazy, sometime 7/11 will have for 2 for 3.00 thats a good deal, if you have meijer near you they are having there meijer brand sale next week, it will last for 2 wks, thats when i stock up, we really like there brand stuff.

Milk here is 4.59...crazy! we go through a gallon in a day and a half!

OH my!!........ I haven't really been "grocery shopping" for awhile. We actually make a "Sam's Club" trip and spend about 4-$500 on frozen foods and also meats. I buy freezer bags by the case and load up the freezer.... and it really saves us some money. Then I will stop and get a few things (milk bread butter......) so I never have a big weekly grocery bill. The freezer is starting to get a little low, and I am due a trip to the store..... but I am trying to hold out until we can go to Sam's..... especially with the prices that you all have mentioned!!!:eek: :eek: :eek:

We are pretty limited as far as grocery stores go around here since one of the main chains closed. Now there is just one chain left, and that's Giant Eagle. Their prices used to be pretty good, but they are going up and up all the time. We have a store here called "Marc's" and I've been going there for most of my groceries. Shopping there is a huge savings!

Milk here is $4 a gallon too lately...

I try and make a list on Friday afternoon or Saturday mornings of the meals I'm going to cook that week for dinner. Then I add in the things we need for breakfast/snacks, and any entertaining we're doing that week. Then either on Saturday morning or Sunday morning, I make my run to the grocery store-usually SuperTarget or SuperWalmart, since I usually end up needing laundry detergent, bathroom/cleaning supplies, and other stuff too. Then, I go to the store, and STICK TO MY LIST!!! I take a pen and cross off as I put things in the cart. It's so hard, but in the end, I can make it :)

Another little trick I try is to add things up in my head as I shop. It keeps me focused on shopping, and not all the yummy or interesting things around me. If something is expensive, and isn't necessary, or I know it's cheaper elsewhere, I circle it and buy it later when it's cheaper.

Forgot to add that I had to start doing this because we're trying to stick to a budget...before I was married, and before we had our house and two dogs, I bought whatever whenever. It's amazing where money can go-and most of my spending was at Target or the grocery store!

Went to pick up some FF milk at the local store.... they had boneless skinless chicken breast for 1.99lb!!!!! WOOO HOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

:thumbup: ;) Gotta love Sams Club and Costco. (i get all the stuff there that we use more frequently, and freeze some of it also.. not to mention the quick/easy frozen meals/treats i get there too!! hehe) so i go to the grocery store, only for the stuff i am out of/needing at the time. (or for stuff i dont get at Sams/Costco)
i knew cost of living was expensive(house prices alone are crazyyyy!!) but i didnt know food/groceries/etc. were that much higher??-interesting!! can you give me some examples of what you found.. just curious-hehe.:p


oh and i too give a BIG:thumbdownthumbs down to milk prices!! haha.:rolleyes:

I've been doing around 85/week. I've found that I can get a few meals out of 4-5 chicken breasts and ground chicken/turkey/beef.

I'm trying to save so I am seriously shopping the sales :)

food outa site!!
 

I have been in the grocery business for 30 years. Some of the major causes for price increases are shoplifting, employee theft, operations expenses, and dwindling farms. On a dailey basis at just one grocery store, at least 500 dollars walks out the door without being paid for.Multiply that by thousands of grocery stores in the US. I have seen baskets of over a thousand dollars worth of merchandise go out the door at one time. Theft is a big racket. People are "paid" to shoplift high dollar items and deliver the goods to a broker, who then sells the items. Most stores have "beer" runs nightly also. One person puts liquor close to an exit door. A few minutes later, another person watches when nobody is looking and runs out the door with it. Customers that bouce checks are "stealing" as well. This is a common occurance around a thousand dollars per month, per store.(or more depending on the area) Employee theft is very common as well. Most are not easy to catch and its not only theft of merchandise, its company theft of time clockings as well. Its a common occurance for an employee to clock in for work and then leave. We had one gal just recentely going to the doctor and Christmas shopping all the while she was "clocked in" and should have been working. Operating expenses are huge!! Here in Arizona, a monthy electric bill is over ten thousand dollars per month. Then there is trashpick-up, gas bills, repairs, trucking and buying the product to sell. Wages and health insurance arent cheap either. Farming is a dieing business. In the ten years I have lived in this area, All the dairy farms, alfalfa, cotton, corn, orange groves, etc are gone.The Phoenix area was one of the major agriculture producers in the US. Now its 90% houses. I think its a crime. Once its farm land, it should stay farm land. It wont be long until all of our food will be imported from Mexico. Milk is expensive because cows are expensive to maintain. Dairy farmers have to get hay further and further away from home because the alfalfa fields are being turned into houses at 200 acres per week. The cost of gas to ship the hay to the farm is so expensive that I am surprised that milk isnt 8 dollar per gallon.
Please think about this as you shop. It will be easier to see why everything is so darned expensive.

i live in california also me and my fiance ae 18 soon to me 19 next month and 19 so we dont really care bout gettin the top of the line stuff and we useually shop at ralphs and walmart and spend les then $50 every week becasue we look for the $1 sales on food lol we go to diff markets if they having the $1 sale lol grocery shoping for us is fun lol if you dont ming me asking where in cali are you staying im in los angeles

Yes, it's just outrageous. I'm so proud of me when I can go and come out for less than $50! :p Same here. I know generics save; but, some of the veggies are just not good. And, life is too short to save pennies on food you either have to make yourself eat, or end up throwing away :rolleyes: Try over $5.00 for whole! And, my daughter won't drink anything but milk. :eek: We average about a gallon every two days.