How are you handling higher food prices? page 2

[Paleobird]

Organic produce is getting less expensive here mostly due to increased competition. Whole Paycheck is not the only game in town anymore.

I also love my Asian supermarket. Great sashimi and they sell things like goat, goose, venison, offal.

[Mainer]

It sucks!

We invested in a side of grassfed beef and it's helping. Can't grow many veggies unfortunately as we live on blueberry land, might try to buy a farm share for veggies for the summer.

[ennasirk]

Not planning to change anything; I'll continue to seek out good values and sources for quality foods.

I'm pretty financially comfortable with room to move in my budget as prices increase. If it becomes an issue, I'll figure out ways to shave my budget in other ways to open up more money for food. There are a lot of other things I can chop in the budget before I would be at risk of needing to cut my food budget.

[Mud Flinger]

I'm with ennasirk - also, we don't take fancy vacations or spend money on a lot of stuff other find needed. We are debt free and not paying banks all that interest leaves money available for me to feel rich! I cook everything from scratch (but then so do most of you) and recycle many meals into other meals to keep the family from complaining too much. Growing my own food probably costs more than conventional but possibly less than organic. I drive as little as possible.

[ennasirk]

I drive as little as possible.

Yeah, I'm very fortunate that I'm able to limit my driving by telecommuting almost every day, so gas prices don't hit me as hard as others who have long daily commutes. I moved to take my current job and set myself up so that I was within a short (1 mile) walk from my office, which worked great for almost 2 years... then my office got moved to a new location 27 miles away (accessible by public transit but that would more than double my commute time). Fortunately, my boss is also supportive of telecommuting, so I do that the vast majority of the time. On the odd days that I do have to drive, I try to make the most of it by doing some of the "burbs" type of errands that I can only do out in strip-mall land.

[belinda]

I only have a backyard patio, but my friend just bought a house with a huge yard and she says if her husband tills a garden, that I can plant some veggies there.

My mom is also going to start bringing me free-range eggs from a friend of hers for $1.50 a dozen.

I'm also going to start cycling to work. I'll be spending my gas money on bacon!

[DianeThePurple]

Bargain-hunting. (We already have to go to 5 or 6 stores to get everything we need, so this isn't a hardship.)

We've cut WAAAAAAY back on the soda (my husband still drinks it) and other processed crap.

I've cruelly forced my husband to get a day job.

[DaisyEater]

Honestly I haven't noticed. But then I'm mostly buying local, organic, grassfed, etc. stuff from Whole Foods. That stuff is already pretty expensive but much of it seems a bit less subject to fluctuations in fuel and commodity prices. I've noticed the gas prices more since I have a long commute. At least my car is rather fuel efficient. I'm lucky to be fairly prosperous right now so I'm not really cutting back but it's a little less going into savings every month.

[stephenmarklay]

Fasting a bit more will offset it

[spakesneaker]

gas prices are ridiculous, glad to know that wasn't just in my head/me going crazy.... i'm going to try to take the bus more often. as for food, i buy at local farm markets so vegetables are pretty cheap. meat is expensive though b/c i signed up for this meat csa a few months ago and i'm stuck with it now haha. it is good quality though, and i get protein from cheaper sources (like eggs/gelatin/dairy/canned seafood) too so i don't run through it that quickly. i've cut back on the expensive 'snacky' things like nuts, nut butters, etc. .... it's hard to justify that kind of purchase when i know that i will probably go through it all in a day or two, heh. dark chocolate i only buy when it's on sale, but it also helps that i don't crave it as often now too. oh and i usually eat two meals a day, just because of scheduling convenience.