An interesting sidebar in our “Is Your Milk Spoiling Faster?” discussion is why does most organic milk stay fresher longer? It’s not because the cows are free of bovine-growth-hormone and the commune-members sing them lullabies every night.
groceries
20 Ways To Make The Most Of Your Groceries Without Spending An Extra Cent
By 7.13.08
Americans throw away a quarter of our food uneaten, which translates into serious wasted cash over time. The Guardian compiled an excellent list of ways to shop smarter so you end up buying what you need, and eating what you buy.
Want To Know Where Your Food Comes From? Buy Part Of A Farm
By 7.10.08
The New York Times reports that more and more people are buying shares of small farms, mostly on the coasts and around the Great Lakes region, which guarantee them a percentage of the season’s harvest. This “community-supported agriculture” model has exploded from fewer than 100 farms in the early 90s to nearly 1,500 in recent years. Helping out is optional, although we’re not sure the real farmers would appreciate our constant bitching about being in the sun. (I worked summers hoeing cotton fields in Texas, which is partly why I moved to NYC.)
15 Easy Ways To Save Money At The Supermarket
By 7.5.08
Saving money at the supermarket has never been more important or difficult thanks to the tag team threat of inflation and the Grocery Shrink Ray. Get Rich Slowly published 15 money-saving tips to help you hold onto your hard-earned cash.
By 6.9.08
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Consumers are responding to higher priced goods buy buying more private label items, says a Citibank analyst. The increase in market share is small—private labels occupy less than 12%—but significant enough to note for investors. Are you buying more private labels at the grocery store? [Reuters]
As Food Costs Rise, People Are Buying More Ramen and…Spam?
By 5.29.08
The Associated Press is saying that rising food costs are driving people to buy more Spam, despite the fact that the Spam itself is more expensive. Are you really doing this?
Sam's Click 'n' Pull Is Lame 'n' Broken
By 5.29.08
Will in Georgia thought he’d try to take advantage of the Click ‘n’ Pull program offered by Sam’s Club—you make your shopping list ahead of time (the “click” part) and the store pulls it all for you and calls you when it’s ready to pick up. Based on Will’s experiences so far, the program isn’t quite ready for Georgians.
Burger King Investigating Email Shenanigans In Tomato Price War
By 5.6.08
Last week a Florida journalist busted Burger King VP Stephen Grover for using his tween-aged daughter’s email account to slam a farm workers group—but that wasn’t the only weird email event related to this story. Now Burger King is taking steps to officially distance itself from Grover’s actions and the other internal emails by announcing it’s launched an “internal investigation” into all three.
Burger King Exec Hides Behind Daughter's Email Account To Trash Talk Opponents
By 4.29.08
The next time Burger King VP Stephen Grover goes online to spread FUD about labor advocates, he should probably leave his daughter out of it. For one thing, she’s a horrible accomplice and will spill her guts to the first reporter who calls. For another thing, this forthrightness clearly makes her too ethical to smear a group that’s trying to bring pay for tomato pickers up to living wage levels.
Food Companies Threaten Higher Prices If FDA Increases Safety Oversight
By 4.28.08
Last week, the Grocery Manufacturers Association told lawmakers that if the FDA doubled its safety oversight budget by increasing fees from food companies, they’d have to raise prices to make up the cost. That’s right: affordable food or safe food. Choose one!
By 4.18.08
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This guy says he saves $500 a year on groceries by buying the whole cow from local farms. [Lifehacker]
Trends: Kroger Offers You A Bonus If You Put Your Stimulus Check On A Gift Card
By 4.17.08
Kroger is getting into the stimulus bonus action! Unwilling to be outdone by Sears, Kroger is offering a bonus if you put your stimulus check on a Kroger gift card. They have Kroger gift cards? My what a sexy gift. Honey, you shouldn’t have.
Walmart Shoppers Feeling The Pain When Buying Groceries
By 4.4.08
Reuters wandered around a few Walmarts in Illinois and California and asked shoppers how they were feeling about the groceries they were buying:
5 Helpful Grocery Shopping Tips From The Conglomerist
By 4.1.08
Here are 5 helpful grocery shopping tips from your friends at the Conglomerist!
Use A Price Book To Save Money On Groceries
By 3.21.08
For the ultimate in pricing transparency when shopping for groceries, use a price book. Frugal bloggers everywhere write about it like it’s the GTD of grocery shopping, and our own reader marsneedsrabbits suggested it in a thread earlier this week:
The solution to all this is a price book. It costs whatever a cheap notebook costs you, and saves a surprising amount of money and starts saving you money immediately.
If you’re detail oriented and ready to start cutting costs at the supermarket, here’s more info along with links to downloadable forms, spreadsheets (for those spreadsheet junkies), and advice.
Birds Live In Virginia Safeway Store
By 2.12.08
Jose writes, I thought that the long lines and the produce always being out of stock was bad enough, but then I noticed the small family of birds living at my local Safeway (Nutley St, Fairfax, VA).
Supermarket Trick: Wait One Month Before Using Coupons
By 1.24.08
Trent at the Simple Dollar describes the “one month coupon strategy”—a cool trick that lets you line up coupons with in-store sales for massive discounts. Set aside grocery coupons for a month, then go through and select the ones you’re interested in. Bring them to the store and you’ll find that many of them are for products that are now on sale. On Trent’s last visit to the supermarket, approximately 40% of the coupons matched on-sale products—in the most extreme example, he was able to purchase some ice cream for 19 cents.
