A pot of soup.

[crikkett]

I'm sick and yesterday was in bed w/ fever.
My husband went to the SAFEWAY to get ingredients for a pot of soup that really helped out.

5.98...... 2 Qt Organic Chicken Broth @ 2.99/qt
.86...... .43 lb Roma Tomatoes (we live dangerously) @ 1.99/lb
1.61...... .54 lb Red Pepper @ 2.99/lb
.66...... .67 lb Carrot @2.99/lb
2.21...... .74 lb Leek @ 3.99/lb
1.48...... .37 lb Mushrooms crimini @3.99/lb
2.63...... 1.32 lb Summer Squash @ 1.99/lb

15.43 for the ingredients to a pot of vegetable soup.

On another note, every single vegetable on this list is at least twice as expensive as chicken (sale price .99/lb) which can't possibly cost half as much to produce.

Something stinks about this.

I for one am digging up a flower bed to plant vegetables as soon as I'm back on my feet.

[Speck Tater]

1. I'm also making a pot of soup.

Bean soup.
Dried beans (several kinds) from the garden.
Tomatoes from the garden.
Onions from the garden.
Garlic from the garden.
Some spices and a sliced up Polish sausage from the freezer. Don't recall what it cost.

Serves 8. Probably cost less than $2.00, or 25 cents per serving.

I am presently preparing the ground and borders to have double the garden bed space next spring.
Can't comment on current grocery prices since I haven't been to the grocery store since mid June.

Got dirt? Grow your own. (Sliced and froze about 15 pounds of assorted squash this morning)

[redqueen]

2. Nope. Not a homeowner. Can't even afford to lease a house. (nt)

[salin]

8. Container gardening!

I have onions in window boxes, potatoes in large pots, tomatoes in not quite as large pots, a pepper plant and some herbs. Not cheap - as I had to invest in potting soil, but if I rotate the soil (shouldn't repeat potatoes or tomatoes in the same dirt two years in a row) - I shouldn't have to get much next year. Just need a little patio space which gets sun.

[aspergris]

3. Which safeway is this

First of all, if yer buying chicken broth, it aint vegetable soup.

And buying chicken broth ORGANIC, you paid $6.00???

You can buy a pre-roasted CHICKEN for $6.00 get the benefit of all the protein of the chicken, all the nice fat from the skin, and the bone flavor!

and $2.99/lb for CARROTS?

where do you live?

[crikkett]

4. Northern California

We ate all the carrots from our spring garden already - and get this, loose onions and potatoes are up to $1/lb too.

Our garden tomatoes aren't quite ready yet.

1 qt of chx broth is $2.99, he got 2

And it is vegetable soup, even if it's not vegetarian vegetable soup.

PS organic chx is not sold in this safeway.

[aspergris]

5. well. prices WAY cheaper in my area. here they are

you are paying up big for organic. $6 for 2 qts of chicken broth is ridiculous. if I made 500k, I would still not pay that much. that's just ridiculous.

I am all for organics, to some extent, but the market has to come to me. I am not going to pay huge premiums to get organic produce. I grow a fair share of my own, fwiw (organically) but $2.99 for a lb of carrots is RIDICULOUS.

I am assuming those are organic

I just checked locally (using the safeway website) and organic carrots can be bought for .99/lb

a 1 lb bag of NOT organic carrots is.89

both "reasonable"

but I'd go for the 10lb bag (not organic) and get them for .58/lb

which is less than 20% of your cost/lb

iow, your safeway SUCKS!

[crikkett]

11. It really does suck! And btw none of this was organic but the broth.

[trof]

Our spuds come 2000 miles. All the way from California.

I live in a coastal Alabama rural community.
Our farmers grow SOD.
For all the new homes and beach condos being built.
Oh...WERE being built.
So maybe the sod sales will dry up?
And they'll start growing LOCAL FREAKING VEGETABLES that we can EAT?
And not truck stuff in from 2000 miles away?
I'm hoping.

[NanBo]

6. I quit buying organic broth

and starting making a whole organic, free range chicken every other week. It's about 13.00 for the chicken but we get 3 meals out of it and then I can (with a pressure canner!) 8 pints of chicken stock. We ALWAYS have stock available now :) Buying a good canner and learning the process has saved us a lot of money and we've had tomatoes and corn and green beans all year.

I agree--the organic veggies are just crazy right now at the store. We joined a CSA and eat whatever they have available and supplement with grocery store and farmer's market where necessary.

[alfredo]

7. Ham hocks and pinto beans with cornbread. Life is good.

[NanBo]

10. corn bread made in an old fashioned skillet

Folks--if you don't already know it--cast iron is the BEST thing to cook with and you can fine these heirlooms at garage sales or even new CHEAP. The best rated skillet is 27.00 new (american made, Lodge, all others except heirloom ones are foreign made, often in China). There are websites on how to re-season/condition older pans and they'll last another hundred years.

There are cheaper ways of doing things, but lots of them are things we all will need to 'relearn' and they take longer so we have to give up 'free time' which some people have in very short supply.

[cliffordu]

21. Yep - Cast iron all the way. Cornbread in an old skillet is the best.

[alfredo]

24. the one I'm using was designed to be used on the old wood stoves.

It has the raised ring and No.7 10 1/4" written on the bottom opposite the handle. Don't remember if "inches" is spelled out. Near the handle is "Made in U.S.A."

[cliffordu]

19. Yep.

[crikkett]

9. pressure canner, wow. make no mistake -- the vegetables were conventional

only the broth was organic.

That's why I'm so astounded.

[NanBo]

12. I hope the soup helped you feel better at least!

And you get a number of meals out of it.

Seriously, I do hear ya and this is one of my main concerns these days--I'm trying to learn everything I can to teach my kids and stock up before the prices become beyond our means.

[crikkett]

14. It was pure magic.

I'm jealous of your pressure canner btw. We use a regular kettle w/ a ring in it to hold the jars.

Thanks and take care
:hi:

[noamnety]

13. It's never going to be a good deal fiscally

to pay $6 a gallon for essentially flavored water. You paid someone else to do the labor, and then paid to ship water (with a small amount of flavoring) to your store. That's how it goes with convenience products.

On top of that, you are buying luxury ingredients. Replace leeks with onions, replace red pepper with green. Make your own broth.

I have a whole chicken in my freezer that was less than 4 dollars, and is good for a meal of chicken, and a huge pot of soup afterwards, way more than a half gallon of broth.

Also, forget safeway if you have a small fruit and vegetable market around. I can pay a dollar for a cucumber at the local grocery store, maybe less if it's on sale. Or for 3 dollars I can buy an entire case of cucumbers from the little Iraqi market. I remember when I was in CA, I could get kiwis for 2 or 3 for a dollar at a chain store, or I could get a whole sack of them for a dollar at the little Korean market near me. I think the quality is better at the smaller markets, too - food seems to be less waxed, fresher, and OMG the shopping experience is so much nicer when you are dealing with the owners and family who have a stake in the store, and who have a different background. Where else would I be told I need to try their peanut butter and onion pizzas? :D

[NanBo]

15. I agree almost 100%

but there are a few things that it makes more sense (currently) to buy--tomato paste for example. It takes a lot of tomatoes to make paste and I hate wasting that many for paste when I can spend 59 cents for a can or 3 for a dollar if I'm lucky. So I stock up on canned tomato paste when it's on sale. Buying other things in bulk helps too. I also buy wheat berries and grind my own flour (especially rye which has gone through the roof in price)--wheat berries hold a LONG time if they're not ground and so I grind as I use it. Same with corn (yellow and blue) for corn meal (bread, polenta, lots of good stuff :)

Okay, I'll get off my soap box here :)

[noamnety]

16. I wouldn't have a clue where to get whole corn.

popcorn? hmmm. Where are you getting that from?

[NanBo]

18. You could use uncooked ears--pull the corn off

but I buy it bulk online for organic cuz I haven't grown it till this year and it's not ready yet. Lots of places. Purcell farms is one I use but there are others. It's very interesting when you start working through the process of where the hell our food comes from--then try and grow some corn or wheat, grind it, cook it, save some seeds to replant. It's rather mind-opening :) Hard to have a full time job and then imagine getting our own foods this way!

I also started doing the same thing with soap products--wow! What our grandparents (on the farms) did is amazing!

[noamnety]

23. I'm doing a little of that

But I only have about 12 ears of corn growing here.

Now if I could find a way to grind okra and turn it into grain, I'd have something. My first two attempts failed (old seed packs), so I got new seed and overplanted in a moment of frustration. 50 plants is too much for 2 people, it turns out. :)

I used to grind all my own flour and make all my own bread back in my dirt poor days, along with scavenging for food a lot for things I couldn't grow. But now around the corner there's that market I was talking about, and they have a bread oven in the middle of the store they use to make samoon (Iraqi bread) throughout the day, and that stuff is like crack.

First thing I did in both houses I've lived in is plant fruit trees, fruit bushes and a garden.

[knitter4democracy]

17. That's why I started making and freezing and canning my own broth.

If I have time, I can it (found a pressure canner on sale at Tuesday Morning last spring and love it!), and if I don't, I freeze it. I just put everything in the crockpot for the day, strain it all, fill the jars, and go. Much, much cheaper.

Soup shouldn't cost so much. Good thing it lasts awhile, but still. Prices are crazy.

[Lars39]

20. I would have never thought of canning broth.

Canning is next on my list of things to learn. :) I remember my parents(Depression kids) talking about how pork sausage was canned. Seems like we're going to have to start doing some of these things again.

[knitter4democracy]

22. The best book I've found is Stocking Up.

I found a used copy at Barnes and Noble's website for cheap. They have everything you need to know in there. For recipes, the Blue Ball canning book they sell at the hardware store is easy to understand and follow. I have a few other recipe books that I'm going to use this summer. I can more because we have started buying meat in bulk from the farmer and so don't have the freezer space.

[Lars39]

26. Thanks for the info!

Wanting more meat in the freezer and wanting canned tomatoes is one reason I want to learn. I filled my freezer in no time with vegetables and fruits. :)

[Liberal_in_LA]

25. The organic chicken broth is what did it.