Sunday, August 17, 2008

Saving Money On Food #5

Concerned about your rising food bill? So am I. As one way to save money I urge you to check your register tape.

I don't shop much at Whole Paycheck (Whole Foods) but I do go there for certain items. I bought a loaf of a certain bread clearly marked $3.29. When I looked at the register tape it said bread $3.79. I went to Customer Service where the pleasant young woman (quite a surprise since I've had plenty of awful customer service at WF) went with me for a price check. The bread was clearly marked $3.29 so I got my loaf of bread for nothing. The bad part is that the price has gone up to $3.79, but they haven't changed the price on the actual loaves yet. Do they hope that I'll be the only one to notice the difference?

So check that register tape to make sure that what you are being charged is the same as the price for the item. In New Jersey, where I live, if there is a difference you get the item for free. I have often found that what the item is marked and what it scans for are two different amounts.

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Thursday, August 14, 2008

Saving Money On Food #4

Yet another way to save money on food and household purchases is to join a warehouse club. You pay an annual membership fee to shop there and the prices are, mainly, much lower than a supermarket. The selection can be limited because they only carry a certain number of brands and the quantity that you must buy may be larger than a regular purchase. Huge mayonnaise jars, for instance.

The important thing to remember is not to make impulse buys. Buy only what you need and will use. No matter how tempting something is it is not worth it if you do not use it. I belong to Costco and only buy certain items, such as paper goods, bottled water, detergent, certain cuts of meat where I can freeze part of it, etc.

I am always amazed when I see people go past with chafing dishes in their shopping cart. Are they really going to use those? I doubt it.

You can save a lot with a warehouse club but you must be careful when you shop.

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Sunday, August 10, 2008

Saving Money On Food #3

Sometimes it seems as if prices on staples go up at the supermarket from one week to the next.

If you are comparing prices remember that a lot of companies are cutting the sizes of their packaged goods. Ice cream used to be a half gallon. Then the containers became 1.75 quarts and now many or 1.5 quarts. The same thing has happened with many other products where the amount that you are getting is actually less even if the price stays the same.

I also noticed that the Silver Palate line has shrunk their goods enormously. They have new packaging and in some cases the amount is one half what it used to be and the price is the same.

These are just two examples of the shrinkage that is going on with packaged goods.

So take a look at the actual amount that is in the package and see how that compares with other similar items. Also check the unit price, which is the price per pound or 100 units or whatever the measure is for that item. It can be a quick way to see which items are the most expensive and which are the same or similar in price.

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Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Going Green

Do you find yourself using the words green and sustainable more? Or maybe for the first time ever?

A few years ago or maybe even just last year these were words and ideas that were said or written or thought about only by people on the very fringes of modern-day American life. NOw they are everywhere.

There will be lots of posts about green and sustainable things we can all do. One of the easiest ways to go green is to take back bags to the supermarket to use for grocery packing. You can either buy the cloth bags at just about every supermarket around or bring your own bags that you've had for other uses. Keep a couple in the car and you'll always have bags to use.

It's not just the "saving the trees" thing with paper bags -- remember that plastic is made from petroleum products and we all know what's happening to the price of oil these days.

I see more and more people using cloth bags and recently in a local market did a very unscientific survey by asking a cashier what is the increase he's seeing in people bringing their own bags. After a pause he said he think it's about 50%.

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Sunday, August 03, 2008

Fancy Food Show

I recently attended the Fancy Food Show which is held once a year in New York and takes up the whole of the Javits Convention Center. It's just aisles and aisles of food from around the world with lots of samples. Lots of chocolate and cheese and dips and just about everything else.

For those itnerested in food trends i saw three big rends this year. The first is the move towards organic foods. Many, many items were organic. More by far than they have had before. The vendors told me that they expect that by next year there will be even more organic foods. Americans are becoming very concerned with what they are eating from a health standpoint.

Next is spicy. More and more spicy foods. Crackers, dips, rubs, chocolate, ice cream, cheese and anything else you can think of and things you would never think of as spicy. Obviously the American palate is looking for more fire and spice in their food.

Dark chocolate. This was evident last year and even more so this year. Lots and lots of dark chocolate. Dark chocolate with differing amounts of cocoa, dark chocolate from different places of origin, dark chocolate with spices, dark cholocate with fruit. It's obvious that Americans are eating a lot more dark choloate and while milk chocolate is still popular, dark chocolate is have a huge surge in popularity.

There will be more to come on the Fancy Food Show over the next few weeks.

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