Supermarket Shock

If you do much grocery shopping, there are some pretty shocking prices in supermarkets these days. Just remember that much of what we like to pay extra for is convenience. I was surprised that basic eggs had gone up again to $3.77 even at my little heartland supermarket. It’s time to roll up the sleeves and get busy adopting some new meal strategies.

There are some key concepts to follow

We must be regular shoppers: We need to have a grasp of normal prices overall and we need to know what our regular items usually sell for. If we don’t know what’s normal, we won’t know whether prices are better or worse in a given week. This is especially important for staples and regular menu items. If we do the shopping each week or a couple of times a week, then we’re in the store often enough to see markdowns before they’re gone. If different people trade shopping duties, it’s harder to find each week’s bargains.

When possible, only buy when what you want is on sale: Most supermarkets have a sale flyer available at the door. The sale prices begin on a particular day of the week. Shop on the first day of the new flyer and look at every item it lists. Mark the things you like that are on sale enough to make them bargains. Take time in the supermarket to look for markdowns and clearances. Sometimes these are hard to find. The grocery store people want you to buy the high-margin convenient stuff. They have markdowns, but don’t expect them to be highly visible front and center. One store I go to now and then marks down bread, but they hide those stickers they place over the UPCs. I’m always surprised at how I can go through the entire bread section seeing nothing, but when I start again and slow down, I find bargains.

We must be patient and vigilant: When we rush to a quickie mart or even the regular supermarket to ‘grab something’ we can eat an hour later, we are unlikely to save much money. That scenario is the definition of convenience taking precedence over economy. Smart shopping takes time. If you have kids or grandkids, take them with you and talk to them about shopping and food while you’re there. Never let a child stare at a phone or a video game while in a supermarket. Life is too short for that kind of wanton behavior. There is important educational information available in a grocery store and we all have to eat. Teach them every time you go. If treats are a must, they can choose one thing, but it must have adult approval. There is probably enough sugar in their diets already. Fruit is always good.

It really helps if we actually cook things: There are probably some bargains in frozen dinners now and then, but remember that those are a primary example of convenience foods. Slow down and cook on low heat or in the crock pot. If you’re cooking something in two minutes you aren’t really cooking, you’re just heating it. Real cooking takes more time. One advantage you get from slow cooking is enjoying the smell. Another is doing it just the way you like it. If you’re afraid of burning something, turn the heat down and sit in or very near the kitchen. Never walk away from a pan of gravy.

Substitutes are the key when prices get crazy: In the 1970s when coffee prices spiked one year, I switched to tea and came to love it when it was made from real tea leaves. Instant tea and mass market teabags lost their appeal when I began to experiment and make tea the way I wanted to drink it. Trying new things can take us to some good places. For most products there are multiple choices. I’m one of the country’s major consumers of breakfast cereal, so there have been changes over the years. At my local supermarket this past week, the least expensive cereal was store brand krispy rice at 2/$5. There were several choices at 2/$6, and even some at 2/$7. All the famous brands have been ridiculously high for years. My old favorite Grape Nuts Flakes soared past $4 during the covid madness and is now something like $5.37 a box. It’s good but not that good.

I may request a box when my birthday or Christmas rolls around. But in the meantime I laid in a big box of store brand old fashioned oats. With some heated water, a little brown sugar, some milk, and a handful of raisins it’s as good as anything out there. Malt-o-meal has some good buys on old favorites in big bags. If you have a country store nearby, they have great multi-grain mixes that stick to the ribs, too. When that new Dollar General opens up the main road, there will be more and more food opportunities there, just like at the Menard’s store. We’ll get by, and now and then we may find a bargain on an old favorite.

On a recent visit to the east coast I went to a Stop and Shop supermarket. I was in for a shock. The luncheon meats were uniformly about $16 per pound. Now that’s the price of convenience in a well-off area. I decided I didn’t have to have deli meat on a sandwich at lunch time. Just plain butter bread works fine. 100% whole wheat stays with you better and keeps the pipes shined, if you get my drift. Or make toast with butter and jam and have that for lunch. There are so many toast toppings! There’s every kind of jam in the world, there’s apple butter, there’s marmalade, there’s honey, there’s cinnamon sugar, there’s pie filling, and the list goes on.

Beat price spikes by doing the work yourself. Do you own a sharp knife? You don’t have to ever buy lunch meat again. How much are those pre-sliced packages of deli ham? Forget it. Get a pork shoulder roast, a small canned ham, or a small beef round roast and slice your own lunch meat for a Dagwood built at home. Stock up on fancy mustard, barbecue sauce, or Miracle Whip and design your own. Build it on an English muffin, a Kaiser roll, or Hawaiian slider buns.

Can you boil broth in your own pan on a stove? You don’t have to ever buy soup again. Using broth as a base almost anything can be added to make superior soup. Use a leftover rotisserie chicken to make your own broth and have chicken-vegetable soup. Soak those beans overnight and change the water several times, then simmer in broth several hours and add diced ham or crisp bacon. Then there’s potato soup, carrot soup, squash soup, and on and on.

Flour tortillas on sale? Make your own taco bar or use co-jack cheese to make terrific quesadillas. These are just grilled cheese made with tortillas. Try your favorite cheese and add some parmesan before folding it in half. In a non-stick pan turn them once and there’s no need for any oil or butter. When the cheese bubbles on the outer edge, it’s ready.

If you don’t bake, it’s time to learn: Most of the basic things are simple and really good fresh out of the oven. If you find breakfast sausage or chops or chicken on sale, get some and make gravy. As you make the gravy, get ready to pull those biscuits out of the oven. This warms up the next day, too, if there’s any left. Besides biscuits there are cookies, pies, cakes, little cheese cakes made in a muffin pan and, well, I’d better stop there.

The bottom line for food economy, even when many things are high, is to make it yourself. The best part of this kind of economy is that it will certainly cost less but most of the time it tastes better, too. If we all sharpen our shopping skills and take the time to do more prep at home, we can get through this. We’ve done it before.