Food Price Thread

Homesteading & Country Living Forum

Help Support Homesteading & Country Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Magpie

Awesome Friend
Neighbor
HCL Supporter
Joined
Jul 3, 2022
Messages
1,659
Location
Not on any map
Thought it might be interesting to compare prices around the countries and States represented on here.

I'm just back from my local rural butchers. The meat is high quality, reared locally or in the next county, but dearer than the supermarkets. He does a range of flavoured meats also, and meatballs in sauces, stir fry chicken cut up in sauces with veg also. So I just spent €81 to top up the freezer - about 87 US$. Can't remember all the individual prices. Here's what I got -
25 large chicken breasts (I'll do up some different sauces and freeze them ready to go in slow cooker)
4 peppered chops (€6)
4lb plain pork sausages (quick snacks and sausage casserole)
1lb chorizo and pork sausages (to try a new flavour)
1lb beef and black pepper sausage (makes a great tomato-based casserole in the slow cooker with some macaroni) (Sausages are 3lbs worth for €10)
container of potato salad and coleslaw
6 beef burgers
2 packs of sausagemeat for sausage rolls and meatloaf @€4each
And free bones for the dogs!

Looking at this I actually don't think the supermarkets are that much cheaper after all anymore - over the past two years their prices have risen a lot while his only a bit. Curious to know how this tallies with your food prices?
 
Last edited:
It sounds like you got a pretty good deal. IMHO the easiest way to compare is to get the price per pound. To throw in some other staples here are some local prices:

Eggs: $1.30 - $1.40 per dozen
Milk $3.30/gallon
Bread $1.90/loaf
Ground Beef $6.00 - $7.50/lb.
 
Those prices are pretty good, Magpie. That's definitely a lot less than you would pay in a supermarket and maybe a little less than from a butcher or farm.
 
I'll give you some of our farmers market prices:
eggs $5
goat milk ( for donations only of course) $4 for a half gallon
goat and lamb various cuts from $9 a pound for ground to $15 a lb for kebab meat chunks
bread ( I bake different kinds) $5 -$7 ( coffee cake)

store prices:
eggs $2 approx don't buy any but saw that recently
milk $2-3
ground beef $5-6
bread: $2.5 for walmart multigrain bread only bread I buy usually when I don't feel like baking
 
I edited the first line to clarify I meant to compare prices across where people live on the forum. I'm surprised Texas is so expensive for beef and dairy.
I've never seen goats meat for sale here. A loaf of homemade bread here, could be between €3 and €5 depending on the supermarket or bakery. I only buy a cob or something at the end of the day when its half price :) used with soup or if its really cheap I make posh garlic bread with maybe sourdough loaf. If I go across the border into whats technically the UK, there is a supermarket that sells bread off at ten pence each and I try and stock up then.
 
about 87 US$. Can't remember all the individual prices. Here's what I got -
25 large chicken breasts
I couldn't get just the chicken here for 87 bucks.
 
Turkey sure went up in price. Over 2$ a pound. At Safeway had to buy 150$ worth of food for a free turkey. Or 50$ for a big turkey. Guess we will grow a few turkeys next year. Family wants so egg laying chickens too. And we will have our rabbitry up n running again. And I am going to help a friend that has a commercial set net for sockeye or red salmon so should be able to stock some sockeye up. And take time to get a bunch of silver salmon too. I'm also feeling a lot better these days so will be putting in more time at harvesting a moose. And beautiful wife wants the garden back up n running. I built 5ea 4x12 raised beds and will have a large ground garden for zucchini or potatoes.
Our son wants to get a root cellar built too and we have a nice hillside to use. Eventually we want a large wind tunnel greenhouse. We are blessed to have our family around us and they want to do this. One of the benefits of homeschooling our kids n now grandkids is they have been introduced into this type of small farm production
 
I made bread at our remote cabin so we have fresh bread. Chaga bread using chaga tea.
3 cups bread flour, 1-1/4 cups or so depending on weather 125 degree chaga tea. Touch of salt n package of yeast. Mix in bowl n cover. Place near woodstove for couple hours. Roll out on parchment paper with flour on it. Have oven preheated at 450, gather up the dough a bit n place on middle rack. If you want a loaf pick up the parchment paper n place in bread pan. Preheat the pan. Cook 45 minutes. First 30 without a foil cover then cover. If you like a thicker crust don't cover. I like the crunchy crust. Making toast at the cabin. One of my hunting buddies found an antler drop.
Nothing beats fresh bread except for maybe the great aroma
 

Attachments

  • IMG_2570.jpg
    IMG_2570.jpg
    2.4 MB · Views: 0
  • IMG_4663.jpg
    IMG_4663.jpg
    2.7 MB · Views: 0
  • 20230905_143915.jpg
    20230905_143915.jpg
    3 MB · Views: 0
Prices at local stores don’t seem to be coming down, but prices at the grocery auction sure are and have been for the last 3 weeks. This is generally higher quality but near or just past date stuff. Perfectly good, sometimes great food. These auctions have been going on for maybe 4 years now and are no secret. People do seem cautious and aren’t buying much at places in town like Walmart or Aldi, yet aren’t making use of grocery auctions. There are 3 different locations yet. Yes, quantity is involved, but if I can buy name brand saltines for 25 cents or cereal for 10, I can share or give away the extra and still be ahead. Drinks are a steal. 5 cents a bottle, and that can be recovered with the nickel deposit. If there is a grocery auction or discount place near you, you might want to check it out or take a gamble and make the trip to one.
There must be opportunity too to become the ’middle man’ in other areas to start a new business.
 
Wish we had a grocery auction near us, but we don't. Sometimes at the fowl auction, there's also a bit of random stuff to auction. Maybe a box of tomatoes or jalapenos, but that's it. We do have an Amish Discount Grocery, our only store in our little town. Some prices are good, others are not. I was in there today, and non expired cans of corn were 89 cents. I can do better at Aldi. But some things are a great price. Cereal is a buck fifty or so a box, newly expired. They sell things up to a year of expiration.
 
Back when barry messed around with the LDS canneries they quit canning except at a very few. These canneries ship to all the LDS stores. The last I knew the only thing you can buy, not in a #10 can, is wheat. At one time you could buy dried food in boxes, buy the #10 cans, and borrow the canners.

My local cannery threw out the canners so as not to be in legal trouble with the feds. The weaklings that threw them away couldn't lift them into the dumpster so they were left next to those dumpsters, at a prearranged time, known only by a few church members.
 
Last edited:
There's not many wheat berries in a #10 can. I know it's good that it's sealed well, but gee, that wouldn't make much flour.
Stopped in at a Kroger Store in the bigger town this afternoon, and I normally don't go there. But it was close to the bin store I was going to, and I wanted to check their produce. Very disappointed in the selection, quality, and price. Came away with some apples, bananas, a cauliflower, and overpriced cherries. I restocked our Martinelli's apple cider stash that we cleared out during Christmas and New Years. About the only thing on sale at 2 bottles for $5.
 
LOL we are the only ones selling goat meat here, could sell more if we could get more processed
and LOL if the bread is from the supermarket or bakery it is NOT homemade :)
@sonya123 Supermarket no, sorry I should be clearer.they take in frozen and bake. We do have a few artisan organic bakeries in the county that do sourdough etc.
Frozen turkey crowns left from Christmas are about $15.30
Wow, butter is expensive over there! $7 something I think I read? I buy a supermarket brand, as butter here is of good quality, we go through a lot of it and it costs under 4 dollars a pound - the named brand is around 5 dollars. It came down recently by about 10- 20 cents.
 
@sonya123 Supermarket no, sorry I should be clearer.they take in frozen and bake. We do have a few artisan organic bakeries in the county that do sourdough etc.
Frozen turkey crowns left from Christmas are about $15.30
Wow, butter is expensive over there! $7 something I think I read? I buy a supermarket brand, as butter here is of good quality, we go through a lot of it and it costs under 4 dollars a pound - the named brand is around 5 dollars. It came down recently by about 10- 20 cents.
last butter I bought on sale at Aldi for under $3 a lb, not sure who pays $7 for butter. Must be organic
 
I pay that much for butter. It is not organic. In 2020, it was $4.00. I bought a hundred lbs. I was considered nuts but I was used to unlimited butter from my milk cow and didn't trust the system.

Then the roads and railway were destroyed by flooding and there were severe shortages for everything. Prices shot up and never went down again, even with the road repairs.

I replace what I use but it's painful. It's only going to get worse as the attacks on farming continue. Hamburger is $7.50 lb. A 3-4 lb roast is $45.00, a fillet of salmon is $26.00, a tiny chicken is $18.00, and they are now going after pork.

They aren't banning meat outright but they are making it too expensive for the average Joe to buy.

A 40 lb bag of chicken feed is $24.50. They declared bird flu a month before Thanksgiving and slaughtered all the turkeys so availability was next to zero for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Just some imported butterball and no one here will eat those nasty things. We are having a turkey because I managed to keep three safe from varmints last year.
 
Back when barry messed around with the LDS canneries they quit canning except at a very few. These canneries ship to all the LDS stores. The last I knew the only thing you can buy, not in a #10 can, is wheat. At one time you could buy dried food in boxes, buy the #10 cans, and borrow the canners.

My local cannery threw out the canners so as not to be in legal trouble with the feds. The weaklings that threw them away couldn't lift them into the dumpster so they were left next to those dumpsters, at a prearranged time, known only by a few church members.
They will be updating prices and what’s available in February. I mentioned the church’s home food storage facilities in another thread.
Most of the people “working” at any of the facilities are doing it on a voluntary basis, usually older couples serving missions in that capacity, and others who’ve been asked to help out. It’s not a paid position.
 
I did about 30 lbs of butter in the freezer when the price was at a bit lower than $3. Your meat sounds like double to what it is here, Clem. I am really not buying that much meat at a regular grocery store anymore. Beef, pork, I can get from neighbors and half a beef from my cousin. Chicken and turkey I can do my own. I did buy salmon and shrimp when our daughter was here, and there's some in the freezer. I don't like either of them.
 
I did about 30 lbs of butter in the freezer when the price was at a bit lower than $3. Your meat sounds like double to what it is here, Clem. I am really not buying that much meat at a regular grocery store anymore. Beef, pork, I can get from neighbors and half a beef from my cousin. Chicken and turkey I can do my own. I did buy salmon and shrimp when our daughter was here, and there's some in the freezer. I don't like either of them.

I did quote store prices but I bought 1 whole beef from the neighbor two years ago. It still cost $6.30 lb cut and wrapped. The small butchers have been driven out of business or retired now, so if I want beef now, I need to cut it myself. Farm beef is now also $7.50 a lb with a two year wait for the cutting. Due to drought the herds are being sold off and feed prices are hiking exponentially because of drought and the carbon tax.

Green houses are going out of business due to the carbon tax as well. Eventually, south of the border will feel what is happening here. Make hay while your sun is still shining.

We now have the upscale homeless. They don't live in tents but have sold their homes to save on home expenses and taxes but cannot find another affordable home. They are living in trailers and truck campers bumper to bumper in road side rest stops in the warmer areas for winter.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top