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Have you stopped buying certain things because of price?

Our locally and family-owned regional grocery store chain’s house brand of ice cream is still a half gallon, and contains four ingredients: cream, milk, vanilla, and sugar. It’s a house brand, so it is usually the cheapest as well. :)


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It is true of Haagen Dazs ice cream as well, hence I buy their brand.
 
So I stopped buying high priced grocery items.
I have started shopping at Aldi again as I'm nearing retirement. I shopped there all the time when hubby and I first married and started having kids. Between Aldi & Trader Joe's, my grocery budget now has money left at the end of every month...so this is a win for me.

I also stopped going to Starbucks to get coffee and now make it at home.

We no longer purchase pop / soda, as we have found that we love water much more + it's better for you.

If we go out to eat we split a meal and try to buy a GC from Costco to reduce the price further.
 
Safeway wanted $6.79 for a bag Late July chips, I returned them and bought the store brand, $3.49. I have never explored more store brands since inflation hit and some are quite good. Just goes to show you don't know till you try it.
 
We are fortunate to have three great local ice cream options: United Dairy Farmer, Graeter's, and Aglamesis. All three are better than most others and each have their own styles and flavors. Aglamesis is my favorite overall but I enjoy UDF Homestyle Vanilla Bean more for a lighter treat.
Road trip!! Thanks for the reminder! I've shipped Aglamesis Bros ice cream to family members. I like their chocolate better than Grater's, who opened a location in Indy after I left.

For a short time, I lived near Oakley and loved taking my visitors to Aglamesis. Would love to know if Zipps is still nearby? Quatmans in Norwood? So many great burger joints! :)
 
Road trip!! Thanks for the reminder! I've shipped Aglamesis Bros ice cream to family members. I like their chocolate better than Grater's, who opened a location in Indy after I left.

For a short time, I lived near Oakley and loved taking my visitors to Aglamesis. Would love to know if Zipps is still nearby? Quatmans in Norwood? So many great burger joints! :)
Zipp's is still there, but I'm not sure about Quatman's. I group of my high school alumni used to meet for lunch once a month there, but now go somewhere else. I think Arnold's is the oldest bar/restaurant in the metro area and it has appeared in several recent movies filmed here. "Bikeriders' was filmed in Cincinnati and a few of my friends appeared as 'extras'.

I saw a recent article regarding why ice cream prices haven't come down even though most dairy prices have decreased somewhat. The heavy cream and butterfat ingredients continue to increased in cost, so ice cream will continue to be high, Graeter's, Aglamesis, and UDF continue to offer their sodas and malts, which are outstanding and not available in most other places we have lived. I enjoy a vanilla soda occasionally.
 
I get sticker shock at the beef butcher. Along with health concerns, we are eating more chicken/pork/salmon. When I feel like a splurge, a nice seared tuna chunk will find its way into my menu plan.

A lot of really good beef is grown hereabouts, but nearly $50/lb for American Wagyu makes me break out in a sweat.
 
So I stopped buying high priced grocery items.
I have started shopping at Aldi again as I'm nearing retirement. I shopped there all the time when hubby and I first married and started having kids. Between Aldi & Trader Joe's, my grocery budget now has money left at the end of every month...so this is a win for me..........
We don't have either of those at home. We did go to a Aldi in Mason City IA yesterday and it was packed with people!! Love Trader Joes and go when I get to where there is one.
 
I get sticker shock at the beef butcher. Along with health concerns, we are eating more chicken/pork/salmon. When I feel like a splurge, a nice seared tuna chunk will find its way into my menu plan.

A lot of really good beef is grown hereabouts, but nearly $50/lb for American Wagyu makes me break out in a sweat.
Yeah I just stick to the NY Strips at Costco for $11.99 lb.
 
Has anyone recently glanced at the account terms on your credit cards? I only open this sort of mail because I am looking for pages that are blank on the back to use in my printer for our daily sudoku puzzles. I go to throw one page away and 34.99% catches my eye. What??!! OMG please tell me people aren’t making partial payments on purchases made at TJMax and Home Goods! This interest rate takes my breath away! Except for the every 18 months or so when a bill doesn’t come in the mail and it doesn’t penetrate my brain as “missing”, or I post a bill to my budget and accidentally put it in my paid bin without actually processing a payment, we always pay our credit cards in full monthly.

What I didn’t notice until I picked up the new terms again to quote it for this post was that the effers will start charging me $1.50 per paper statement starting August 20th. Nope! My Amazon Visa card works just fine at Home Goods. I will call to cancel my TJX/HG card (but let them give me the “old lady waived fee” if offered).
 
The biggest cost cutting we’ve done is go from two cars to one, wish we had done this ten years ago. We purchased a BMW X3 30E which uses electric for the first twenty miles then switched to gas automatically. We now fill our car up three times a year and 90 percent of our use is electric, we have solar so charging the car is free. We’ve always been frugal never ordered a drink at a restaurant in my life that wasn’t included with my meal. we currently go out to eat one time max per month.
 
One of the techs at the vet school posted on the community FB page that her hens are laying 2 dozen eggs per day and she’s selling them for $2/dozen. Yesterday I got a couple dozen.

Today I made two Quiches Lorraine (or should that be Quiche Lorraines?). Aldi half and half, bacon, gruyere-Swiss mix, and refrigerated pie crusts. Salt, pepper and nutmeg from my pantry. $13.69 all-in. At eight slices per quiche, that works out to 85 cents per slice. Home cooking for the budget win!

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One of the techs at the vet school posted on the community FB page that her hens are laying 2 dozen eggs per day and she’s selling them for $2/dozen. Yesterday I got a couple dozen.

Today I made two Quiches Lorraine (or should that be Quiche Lorraines?). Aldi half and half, bacon, gruyere-Swiss mix, and refrigerated pie crusts. Salt, pepper and nutmeg from my pantry. $13.69 all-in. At eight slices per quiche, that works out to 85 cents per slice. Home cooking for the budget win!
They should freeze well, too. Unless you want to invite friends and have a quiche banquet! :) Two full size ones would give us several meals.
 
Breyer's and Dreyer's are different. Dreyer's is the same as Edy's. They just market them differently in different parts of the country. Kind of like Carl's Jr and Hardee's or Checkers and Rally's
Oh please! Hardee's got rid of everything that involved onion rings, and also charbroiled chicken sandwiches. Carl's Jr. still has them. The closest Carl' Jr to Indiana is in New Mexico.
 
I make amazing strawberry chocolate chip ice cream with heavy cream, from a local dairy, fresh local strawberries, and semi or dark chocolate chips. It’s my favorite way to preserve that harvest, just above my homemade strawberry jam. :)

Our locally and family-owned regional grocery store chain’s house brand of ice cream is still a half gallon, and contains four ingredients: cream, milk, vanilla, and sugar. It’s a house brand, so it is usually the cheapest as well. :)


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Recipe?
 
I love Aldi and I love Greek yogurt but I do not like (let alone love) ALDIs Greek yogurt. And boy I hate the multi-store grocery trip.

I‘ve seen that “yogurt” button on my Instant Pot for quite some time now, so I decided to give it a whirl.

Another inflation buster: one half gallon whole milk + 1/2 c sweetened condensed milk + 1 teaspoon vanilla extract + 16 hours of mostly hands off time —> 1 quart very delicious greek yogurt + 4 1/4 cups whey —> 3 dozen whole wheat blueberry muffins.

Yogurt cost $2.50 less the value of the whey (which can be used as a buttermilk sub).

😎


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Anyone who is going to try making yogurt in your Instant Pot, be sure you use a NEW silicone ring or your yogurt will taste like your old silicone ring smells. You'll need one ring for sweet and one ring for savory.
 
I bought a yogurt maker. I need to get that thing out of the back of the cupboard and use it. I love yogurt. I read that using dry milk is better. I need to get out the recipes for yogurt and give it a whirl.
 
I've made yogurt many times in just a plain old crock pot. Super tasty.
 
I bought a yogurt maker. I need to get that thing out of the back of the cupboard and use it. I love yogurt. I read that using dry milk is better. I need to get out the recipes for yogurt and give it a whirl.

I followed this recipe/technique: https://www.thekitchn.com/instant-pot-yogurt-267450

Its very good, maybe you could adapt if for your yogurt maker. I used the sweetened condensed milk option + vanilla extract. After last weeks batch, I froze the extra sweetened condensed milk. I time the yogurt making such that it’s ready right before bed time, then I strain it overnight to turn it into Greek yogurt. You might not want the full fat version but I think when you use whole milk that you don’t need to add dry milk.
 
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