Where's the Beef?

[k9ophile]

Okay, so DH takes the dogs for a walk every day at a local park. Then he runs his errands, which includes most of the grocery shopping. He brought a three-pound pot roast home with a price tag of $30 and some change. I had noticed increased prices and shortages for some time. With all our retirement income combined, we're doing well. (No luxuries, but we're not the type to indulge in much anyway.) Our house and vehicles are paid for. We pay our credit card balances in full when we get our statements.

More to the point of my question: how do people without adequate financial resources survive?

 

[Spiky Bugger]

Okay, so DH takes the dogs for a walk every day at a local park. Then he runs his errands, which includes most of the grocery shopping. He brought a three-pound pot roast home with a price tag of $30 and some change. I had noticed increased prices and shortages for some time. With all our retirement income combined, we're doing well. (No luxuries, but we're not the type to indulge in much anyway.) Our house and vehicles are paid for. We pay our credit card balances in full when we get our statements.

More to the point of my question: how do people without adequate financial resources survive?

They eat a lot of cheap carbs.

My High Rent District daughter and her guy went to the meat market and dropped +/-$450 for a 15# prime rib.

They split the cost with the couple with whom they shared Xmas dinner. She did the cooking. They halved it and then each couple served itself from “their” half.

I, on the other hand, spent $28 on about 7-8# pork butt. We HAD carnitas. I have a small roast-sized chunk (3.5#) in the freezer. Something is happening in the crock pot that will probably look like tacos.

 

[southernlady]

Okay, so DH takes the dogs for a walk every day at a local park. Then he runs his errands, which includes most of the grocery shopping. He brought a three-pound pot roast home with a price tag of $30 and some change. I had noticed increased prices and shortages for some time. With all our retirement income combined, we're doing well. (No luxuries, but we're not the type to indulge in much anyway.) Our house and vehicles are paid for. We pay our credit card balances in full when we get our statements.

More to the point of my question: how do people without adequate financial resources survive?

I shop the mark down meats, unless I have a hankering, like I did for a pork roast early this week. Most if it after two meals went in the freezer for later. I’ll get one more current meal out of the prime rib, then cut a slice for NYD, freeze it separately. The rest will be frozen for later. I do my damndest to not waste meat.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

Okay, here we go…15# of prime rib (“prime,” not ”choice,” of course) at $30/lb:

 

[Spiky Bugger]

Hacked up…no idea why those “slices” are so huge, except…all diners were either obese, morbidly obese and one was super morbidly obese. So there’s that.

 

[southernlady]

That’s a beautiful roast but OMG, the price, too pricey for me.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

That’s a beautiful roast but OMG, the price, too pricey for me.

Me, too.

It was from the same pricey meat market, in a corner of a small, pricey, family-owned grocery store, where I got my filet mignon…which I haven’t purchased—in a restaurant or at home, for maybe two or three DECADES—a few weeks back. I could have eaten that cut of meat the afternoon of morning oral surgery!!! So tender, I think it chewed itself. The customer service is FANTASTIC. Even the youngest guy behind the counter knows every detail about what they are selling and options for preparing it.

On summer weekends, they barbecue tri-tip in front of the store. When I told the guy I couldn't buy one because I can’t eat onion and garlic, he said, “Maybe we didn’t explain this well enough, but if you tell us a day or so ahead of time, we’ll season it, or not season it, however you want it, no extra charge.” From their advertising:
We offer only the highest quality prime graded meats. Less than 1 1/2% of the beef raised in the United States falls under the Prime label. We buy carcass beef and dry age it in our coolers for 3 weeks. Prime, Antibiotic and hormone free beef, Dry aged in our cooler at least 21 days.

So, MAYBE every other week, we go there. Last week, we got two pork chops that did not dry out during cooking, but no beef. Part of my justification is that they have a tall, skinny, bookshelf thing in the produce area where stuff that is getting old or lacks perfection goes. That’s where I got my 59¢ head of lettuce and my huge bag of green beans for 99¢…which I used to try a recipe I thought MrSue would reject because he has no spirit of adventure re food and I wouldn't waste too much money trying it. He loved it.

 

[k9ophile]

They eat a lot of cheap carbs.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I figured. I haven't priced fresh fruit or vegetables yet figure they're probably like meat. When I'm out running errands and get a bit peckish, I'll stop at a fast food place just to keep from passing out. I am appalled at the prices. And yet, I think the same people who eat crap carbs also eat a lot of fast food. Which still begs the question: how can they afford it?

 

[Munchkin]

Fast food is also cheaper than healthy food. One of our cheat meals over Christmas was a planned excursion to Burger King. Whenever we do fast food, we always get something for the dogs off the dollar or kids menu. After all, they miss out on lots of treats too. They had something called a Rodeo Burger for a buck. There wasn’t a lot of stuff on it so we got 4 for the dogs. I tasted one and it was good. Something most kids would eat. And it was instant. I didn’t have to invest hours in prep/cooking/cleanup time.

Lots of people won’t eat cheap healthy food. Not JUST kids. A plate of beans or lentils is a hard sell for just about everyone. Plus they take a lot of time and you have to know how to prepare and season them or they just taste awful. And that bag of dry beans I have been buying for a dollar at the 99centsOnlyStore for the past 10 years or so is now $2.99. Since I had a hambone saved I went ahead and made a big pot of the sauce for pasta y fagiole. BUT, most people who really need these skills don’t have them. For under $10 I have about 15 meals worth of food. I didn’t count the ham bone because most people would think it was trash.

If you are dead tired after working 2 low pay jobs and your feet are killing you, you are going to buy the Rodeo Burgers. Because you know you still have laundry, baths, and homework to do. On my shopping trip when I picked up the ham, there was a mom and 2 kids in the store. One of the kids was having a total meltdown because he was hungry. He was crying and screaming the whole time we were in the store. You could hear him store wide. And the mom just ignored him and went about her business. Acted completely oblivious. Me, I would have bought him a Rodeo Burger.

$450 for a roast. Nope. Not happening. But it did look good.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

They eat a lot of cheap carbs.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I figured. I haven't priced fresh fruit or vegetables yet figure they're probably like meat. When I'm out running errands and get a bit peckish, I'll stop at a fast food place just to keep from passing out. I am appalled at the prices. And yet, I think the same people who eat crap carbs also eat a lot of fast food. Which still begs the question: how can they afford it?

Well, if you live in one of the Commie states…Arizona, California, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, and Rhode Island…your state legislators have figured out that your kids probably get free breakfast and lunch at school, but have essentially NOTHING to eat from Friday lunch to Monday breakfast. And, since the whole family is living in a car or a rented room w/friends or a motel room, there is no stove or refrigerator. SO, those states allow people to buy fast food with EBT cards, aka food stamps. Otherwise, it’s Cheetos and DingDongs.

(And given how HORRID most school lunches are, both the fast food and the Cheetos taste better and MAY be healthier.)

 

[southernlady]

And yet, most of us are of the age where fast food wasn’t an option growing up. I grew up on cheap food, lots of rice, potatoes, etc. Thats partly why I’m obese.