What food items do you avoid buying because of price?

[Thystle]

If you are unable to buy certain items for whatever reason that is.


And I think we can skip the "lobster/caviar/filet mignon" set.

[happyhats]

I don't buy as much organic as I'd like. I don't buy raw milk. I just can't justify it when we get WIC. I've switched to more organic/pastured meats but not for everything yet. I also don't get things like sprouted breads, kefir, etc. I stay away from higher priced produce most of the time, for example only buying blueberries frozen. And of course to justify the improvements we have made (higher quality foods, pastured meats) I've cut out a lot of processed junk like frozen foods, hamburger helper, boxed and canned meals, and the like. That's a good thing though, lol.

[makalani]

I sadly skip the bulk section ay my local food co-op It seems like the prices should be "better" because it's "bulk" but it's just not! I beleive it's because the quality is so much better. Organic beans in bulk would be AWESOME but I end up buying the cheap bag at the grocery store Just read an article too that described "stale beans" and realized it's what I have been preparing and eating my whole life Wonder what fancy un-stale beans taste like??!!

So if money fell from the sky, bulk beans, rice, fancy flour from the bulk section would be my splurge!!!!

[laohaire]

I have access to an excellent selection of local dairy products (raw milk, various cheeses, butter, yoghurt, etc.) plus meat. I actually do get the equivilent of a stick of butter a week, but it's my "special" butter - I get store butter to make up the rest.

And local meat is all we'll eat, but we don't get much.

I would love to buy the local milk and cheeses, but those are just rare "special occasion" treats for us.

[blueridgewoman]

Good cheeses and olives... We're really lucky to get raw, grassfed, Jersey milk for $5 a gallon so no worries there.

But yeah, good cuts of meat (we try to eat grassfed, local, etc, but we buy a lot of cheap cuts- ground beef, whole chickens, etc), cheese, olives, bacon....I'd love to get more gluten free products, but they're hugely expensive and I'd just be obese, so...

[Caneel]

I avoid nearly all snack food except for basic (and cheap) pretzels and potato chips from a local producer. I just can bring myself to buy a $4 bag of fancy pita chips (or whatever) knowing it will be gone in one, quick sitting.

Our grocery store as lots of very appealling natural(-ish) snacks calling out to me but I resist. I was staring at a $4.50 pack of organic herb-y, cheese-y cracker-y things the other day and then I realized the pack only contained 30 some crackers.

I also avoid ice cream. It is a waste in our house. After the second "session" DH turns up his nose because no matter what I do, it startes to get stale and crystal-y.

Fancier bread too. There are some at my store that I love but at $4 per loaf, that is too much when the back 1/3 goes to waste.

[choli]

Prepared food like the quinoi salad or cous cous salad at wholefoods. I can prepare similar salads myself for about 1/4 of the price.

[SubliminalDarkness]

Nicer meat cuts.
Kefir.
Anything prepared(but really, I'd rather make from scratch anyway).
Organic coffee(this is one place I can cut the grocery budget, and do).
Fruit that's not on sale. I try to avoid anything that's more than $2 a pound for organic. So it rules out a lot. We mostly eat bananas, apples, peaches(when at peak of season), pears, and grapes(when at peak of season). We do a bit of other stuff here and there, but not as much as I or the kids would like.

[laohaire]

Originally Posted by Caneel

Fancier bread too. There are some at my store that I love but at $4 per loaf, that is too much when the back 1/3 goes to waste.

A loaf of $4.50 fancy bread is, I'm embarrassed to say, a nearly weekly purchase in our family. USUALLY it gets all eaten up, but a couple of times (usually when counters are cluttered and the loaf gets "forgotten") it's gone stale.

There's lots of things to do with stale bread - bread pudding comes to mind for starters.

I also make a quiche that uses stale bread, I think it's nice.

- 6 eggs
- Couple ounces of cheese (any - cheddar is nice) shredded, grated or cut into bits
- A bunch of greens (chard, kale, spinach, whatever), chopped
- A small/medium onion, minced
- Some stale bread, crumbled or cut into crouton-sized bits. I've used varying amounts before, a little or a lot.
- 1 TBSP butter
- Bit of tamari/soy sauce
- Optional: fresh basil or other herbs

Preheat oven to 350F. Sautee onion in butter over medium. Then add greens and sautee until wilted (along with fresh herbs, if any). Turn off heat. In cooking pan or in a separate bowl, mix all ingredients. Pour into 8x8 baking dish. Cook at 350F for 25 minutes. Yum!

[texmati]

fresh bell peppers off season.

[hibana]

Prepared & frozen foods, local grass-fed meat, many fresh veggies, most snack items, berries out of season, better dairy products (un-homogenized milk, good cheese, etc) many items from the local Asian market...

[enkmom]

Fage yogurt. I love it, but it costs $6.99 for a tub. I make a poor substitute by draining the water out of store brand at $1.99. I just can't justify paying the extra $5.

I would love to buy more organics, but the price is high and the selection poor here.

I do give myself the freedom to buy the good ice cream, we just have it much less often than I would like.

[SuzyLee]

Cereal. Oats are soooooo much cheaper.

Ezekial Bread

Organic Cottage cheese (and I won't eat the cheap stuff bc I think it tastes bad so I go without)

[busymama77]

A lot of organic stuff, really. I try to buy organic veggies and fruits when I can, but organic milk, cheeses, etc., we normally cannot afford.

[LaLaLaLa]

We don't ever have snacky food in the house; it just disappears too quickly to justify the expense. No chips, cookies, fruit snacks, juice, drinks besides milk on our list. We also don't eat much beef, because I've started buying the local stuff from the farm stand, and it's fairly expensive.

[ChristyMarie]

Originally Posted by Thystle

And I think we can skip the "lobster/caviar/filet mignon" set.

But, domestic caviar is SO affordable these days.


When our income went bye-bye we stopped buying so much of the following:

-convenience foods (like already chopped produce, not processed crap)
-produce out of season
-higher end ingredients (fancy oils, great cheese for just one recipe)
-anything from the olive bar
-my $10/lb coffee
-higher priced seafood and meat
-I no longer have a fresh flower bouquet in the house at all times.

-my main thing though was to stop making the specialty grocier my normal grocery store. Now we go there maybe once a month for a special meal.

And now our splurges are different. For example, instead of buying a couple of filets, I'll buy the whole tenderloin from Costco, DH will butcher it and we'll have several steaks in the freezer.

[jessaroo]

I have just cut out cheese. We are also veg so we do not have the cost of meat in our budget.

[choli]

Originally Posted by Caneel

Fancier bread too. There are some at my store that I love but at $4 per loaf, that is too much when the back 1/3 goes to waste.

Cut the loaf when you buy it and freeze half or 1/3. That's how I deal with the problem.

[CherryBomb]

I think everyone's got the food part covered pretty well, so I'll go to something different! How about new clothes? I can't remember the last time we bought NEW clothes (other than dh, because for some reason it's difficult to find good used men's clothes- but he's a t shirt and jeans guy, so it's not too bad). But I buy all of the kids' clothes from once upon a child, and I buy maternity clothes from there, and my clothes from goodwill. I do usually buy new shoes though, because again, I have a hard time finding quality used shoes.

[laohaire]

I have a thread this summer where I totally broke down about how a new pair of shorts and the first bathing suit I ever bought in my adult life (I'm 33) strained our budget.

Needless to say, my clothing budget is usually $0 per year. The only new clothes I get are Christmas gifts (WalMart clothes from mom and MIL). My hair care budget is $7.50 a year - that is, I get a $15 (including tip) haircut every OTHER year. (My last one was November 2009 so I'm good for another year).

But I can't complain too much because we get fresh organic produce from our CSA, and a $4.50 loaf of bread a week. And fresh Jersey butter. So it's all choices, I guess.