Higher Food Standards

Its been a while...

I now have time to think about all the things I did while I was on maternity leave. Although short in time, it was long in hours.
One of the greatest things that maternity leave did for me was the abundant amount of time I had to watch t.v as I was nursing. Trying to still learn something for the first little bit I watched all the movies we had in our house...some three or four times. How else are you going to keep awake at UN-godly hours of the day and night? Then at the advice of my dear hubby who was being supportive during the whole process I turned to HULU.com the coolest website! You can watch any show as many episodes as they have!!! Some had a few, others had whole seasons! Well I got really into a show called "Kitchen Nightmares" its with Chef Gordon Ramsey. He goes from restaurant to restaurant trying to help them out. He tastes the food then shows whats going on in the kitchen and advices the owners as to what to do, how to run their business what to clean, etc.

I can now appreciate food at a higher level. Honestly!

I grew up a Russian Jew. Meaning=we LOVE FOOD! Everything we do is with food. We are happy with food, we are sad with food, we are mad with food, etc.
I am also by nature (or my mom's side of the family gene pool) am not picky about food. I will eat almost anything and like it. I really do mean anything from expensive restaurant Steak to cheap fast food (in my previous life I loved McDonald's!). Yet, now I have a higher standard for food quality! I still love hot dogs, but its a matter of how long they have been around and when the expiration date is! I no longer look at food loving and think that one day we will eat it! NO, we won't!!! If its in the fridge longer than three, okay four days...its garbage. I now have higher standards of what goes into the freezer...because lets face it ladies and gentlemen if you put Challah in the freezer and you take it out a week or more later it will taste like its been frozen. Instead of saving time shopping for fresh food, I save time and money in not having old food and too much food in the fridge and freezer. Yes, I know its easier to make something for the whole week, but how much harder is it to cook twice in the week then it is to cook once and throw food out? Yes I must admit it takes more time to think of a menu and think of what we would like to eat and what is on sale for the week but in the end the reward is fresh good food that will be eaten in three or four days tops!
I can now see the shelves of my fridge because its not overwhelmed with mounds of food that will eventually get tossed out because too much was made and then not eaten in time. Or we got sick of eating it so we left it and I made even more food, and then that goes in the fridge and of course doesn't all get eaten.
So, my solution (at least for now) is to plan in advance, shop once a week for fresh fruits and vegetables and once a week for poultry and eat what we buy...or toss it out. Since I can't stand to throw food out, we eat what we buy!

Oh, and did I mention that cuts down on going out for food. Yes, because you think to yourself..."if I go out then the food that is already made and waiting to be eaten in the fridge will be thrown out". Also, after watching Kitchen nightmares and the standards of kitchen cleanliness that most restaurants seem to have...I DON'T WANT TO GO OUT! I have higher standards for picking my nose then most restaurants have for their kitchens!

My conclusion: yes it takes longer to be organized and on top of your kitchen, but its very worth it in the long run. Like everything else, once you get used to it and in the swing of things, it will take much shorter time.

Its a total coincidence that I was thinking of this post at 4am and when I was reading blogs I found that ProfK had posted the coolest food link for her viewers! I've attached the link and I highly recommend it!

LOVE IT!

Hat tip to ProfK THANK YOU!

Saving money on Grocery Shopping

Is it possible that I like to save money, but that I like to do it with dignity!!!
Today I was in a produce store which everyone in our community claims is just so much cheaper than any other produce store. Well today I offer proof that it is not! Not only that, I feel that I have gone to a third world country and had to fight for food and then returned back to America.
It was truly an awful experience. I saw a man (one of the employees) with a razor blade cutting his nails by the bananas. Needles to say, we are not eating bananas this week! WHAT IS THAT! ARE YOU KIDDING ME! I was a little sick, thank g-d my friend was there and distracted me and told me its okay just keep going!
The service was less than expected of any store, let alone one located in North America. I had a box of chocolates that I bought thrown accidentally to the floor by the check out clerk. WHAT IS THAT! I was not so pleased.
Also, the quality of the produce is by far much worse than the 'other' produce store that people say is more expensive. In fact you really have to dig for what you want to buy.
In the end this store doesn't save you money at all.
You waste time trying to find something worth buying. You waste time trying to get anywhere because it is packed with people, with small aisles that are jammed packed.
In the end I saved no money at all. I spent exactly the amount that I usually spend in my favorite produce store. In my favorite produce store, it is always a positive experience. I can find good quality produce for decent prices. Not only that, but the workers are polite and diligent at their jobs, and none play with razor blades in public view!
Can you all guess where I'm not going to any time soon???

Food Prices vs. Dieting vs. Working out vs. Coupons

I have now been unemployed for one week and three days. During this time I have found that food prices are just ridiculous. What is more ridiculous is everything else that is introduced into our daily diet.
My trip to the local grocery store proved very entertaining today. The prices of Kosher meat and poultry are now even more expensive than they were three months ago. Yet, when I lean over to the non kosher meet section I see that their prices have increased marginally compared to ours. Of course this has something to do with Mr. Rubashkin’s plant closing down just a few months ago. Now that there is no competitive pricing it seems to be perfectly fine to charge $5.99/lb for Chollent meat that was just a few months ago $3.99/lb. Chollent meat is typically the worst cut of meat possible, next to the roast beef that is $6.99/lb seems absurd to even buy. So, let us move onto the chicken that was $1.99/lb and is now $2.99/lb. See where I am going here?
Let’s move down the “Kosher Aisle” which is always my favorite aisle in the store. There is approximately 75% candy in this aisle, 10% sauces, 15% actual food. Now, it ALWAYS bothers me that the largest part of the aisle is dedicated to things which should be COMPLETELY ELIMINATED from every day diet. That being said I do buy sweets. Not sure how much longer I will continue to buy them. A favorite snack costs $2.59 for 150 grams. Putting that in perspective, for one pound of candy it would cost $7.80. Now, why is it that there are two choices of chicken each being $2.99/lb which is a BARGAIN compared to the mass amount of variety that we have of candy which costs $7.80/lb. Is anybody working this out? These are not even the expensive candies, they are actually moderately priced!
My husband and I have had many disagreements on how much money we spend on food. I have tried to cut back but obviously I am not doing a good enough job, since we can’t seem to get our food bill down. Now, I am determined. I am determined to cut our food bill down in half. I think we can do it. The delicacies that we used to buy will now be eliminated. No more $6.99/250g for cheese, no more $2.59/150g for candy. It will all be focused on the essentials needed, and of course me cooking the food and baking the desserts. I am tired of watching my hard earned money get literally eaten away. I’m DONE!
Now, comes the bit about dieting. With all these new resolves you knew this one was coming. We are now dieting. Our diet is of course for our health. We are fat. We need to be slimmer and now that I am determined and driven by food prices I believe diet fits in perfect. No, it does not mean that we will be eating tofu for substitutions, because that cost $9.0/lb, that is no substitution. We will eat what is in budget, and good for our health.
Working out is a mandatory part of the saving money process. You may ask how? Well, a Jewish community center membership which entitles you to separate men’s and women’s work out rooms, a wonderful pool with separate swimming is $300/year which is $25/month for a family of two. So if you eliminate 5 bags of candy (150grams in each bag), you have paid for your membership and of course your health benefits.
One last little trick to saving money, just because you have a coupon does not mean that you need to use it. There are times when coupons are cut with the best of intentions. Yet, if you do not need the product which you are about to buy with a coupon, you have wasted not only your time in cutting out the coupon but your money in buying a useless product.
Think before you buy.

Interesting Idea!

Can this be true? Can a family of four really survive on $100 a week?

As this articles goes to prove, a family of four can truly be fed on a budget of $100 a week. What about a family of four that keeps kosher? I for one am ready for the challenge. Since a budget for a family of four is $100 I think for my modest family of two it should be $50 a week. My experiment would be a little more lax then the one in the article, just because if there is a supper sale I will stock up, but I will make room for that in my $50 a week budget! Starting on Monday July 28th going to Sunday August 3rd I will try not to spend more than $50 for our dining needs and I will report back to you all on Monday August 4th how that worked.

Being eaten out of house and home.

Money saving? What saving!? How can you possibly save money when prices for produce are at all time high? Food in the United States of America historically was not a big ticket item. If you were to go to the store and buy absolutely everything you wanted, it was still pretty impossible to spend your entire wage on feeding your family. In other parts of the world it is not so. For instance in the former Soviet Union it was very possible to spend your entire weekly salary on feeding your family.

I do understand that in America prices are sill lower than the rest of the world. Yet, when people are used to a certain price for a certain food it is still a bit of a shock when that price doubles in what seems like over night.

I think I bring this up only because yesterday I did some grocery shopping, still pretty fresh with the frustration of stopping by a large kosher supper market and seeing all the inflated prices. Now I understand that people are going to start defending the kosher store that it is much smaller than the chain stores, the prices for them in bulk are larger and all the other fantastic explanations, and here is the kicker….I AGREE! I understand that the local kosher market cannot compete with Target when selling milhik whip cream at the price target has them beat by at least 30%. I understand that instant coffee costs more than it does in Costco and the same goes for Mayonnaise. BUT, why does Fake crab cost $7.59 for kosher and $2.99 for non Kosher….its the same fish! FISH!!!! Not meat, no shochet required!

I would love to know what the profit margin on food is in a chain store compared to a local supper market, compared to a kosher market. I would love to know why it is that cookies, chocolates, and other various kinds of unhealthy food can be sold for the same price as a large chain store but essentials like bread, eggs, milk are sold at such an upgrade!
I think in today’s market economy it is extremely prudent to be an educated consumer. Of course it would be in effective to drive around for the best deals thereby wasting both time and gas and car. Yet, most Americans have to drive to work…there are stores around your work place hitting them after work for a better price than the local rip off is becoming more and more essential. Buying less food, throwing out less food is always a topic but now its crucial. Most of all, I’d like you all to check out this site. Orthonomics has awesome ideas for how to save money wisely…I agree with her. Check it out, maybe you will too.

Hat tip to Orthonomics!

Meat or Fish?

With all of the economic concerns going on this world we have yet another concern. It seems that Rubashkin a leading meat distributor for the kosher meat has been caught with his pants down. Now, on top of rising prices we are also concerned with actually having meat to buy. What is this Russia year 1993? I agree that this is a problem. There seems to be more demand then supply at this point. Though, I am more concerned about people making continual blanket statements such as: “well we’ll just eat less meat”. That is fantastic in theory. In reality and in practicality, not so much. Chicken in my city costs $2.25 per pound. Ground beef costs $5.99 per pound. Chollent meat costs $4.99 per pound. These prices are not on sale this is regular store prices. If on sale most of the above items get a dollar reduction. Now let’s take fish, what appears to be everyone’s solution to the problem. Fish costs $8.99 per pound in the same store as above prices for meat are found. Of course we find it for cheaper, $4.99 per pound in another store where fish is sold. So, seeing these prices my question is: “Should we all just become vegans?” If we are so worried about the price then obviously the only solution is to not eat Meat or Fish and only fruits and vegetables and dairy products. Now, I’m not sure where people see SUCH a high price difference in order to stop eating meat. So in a way we are stuck between a rock and hard spot. So what are our solutions? I propose people eat healthy, don’t buy any junk food at all. With all the money saved on not buying any junk food at all people might be able to afford the price of meat. I know there are skeptics out there thinking but Oreo’s cost $5.00 for 2 packages (which by the way did not go up in price). So my answer is if you refrain from buying 4 packages of Oreo’s you can afford to buy two pounds of meat. It’s a trade off, whether you chose it or like it or not is your prerogative. In general is the economy kicking people where it hurts, yes! Is American economy much worse then any other economy in the world, no! People in America just need to make choices that they are not used to making; one of those is in regards to food. Americans are used to buying a food store out, not looking at prices and over filling their baskets. Now, they have to look at prices and decide if they will actually need the item, to some Americans that is just too much to ‘deal with’.

Just a quick blurb about finding sales and stocking up!

Savings!

I understand that we live in a society of instant gratification. If it isn’t right now and cheap then we don’t want it. Yet, there are times when one must look around and smell the roses. Even though I’m not always good about this task I must admit that my husband and I had an awesome stocking up/shopping day. We are now stocking up for both Purim and Pesach of next year. There are some items that people can by that are just that much cheaper and I most happy to inform that I have found the said items and bought them…in bulk.
Again I understand space restraint for stocking up. Yet, I must say in America there is space for this. Most people have basements. Although we live in a high rise we too have basement space. If the basement space isn’t used to clutter ones life with silly things that one will never use again, its actually pretty useful space for stocking up on caned goods with no expiration dates. The truth is I understand people that tell me that it doesn’t make sense to stock up…I really do hear your point. Now here mine; I would rather put it in my basement and have it sit there for a year then have it sit in a store basement for a year and pay double if not triple the price next year. One tomato sauce was over $2 for this Pesach, if I can spare myself that kind of ridiculous price gouging for next year then why should I not take the opportunity? When grape juice for a small bottle is $0.33 rather than $0.79 (on sale) then you can disagree all you want, but my shaluchamanot just cost 2.4 times less than what I paid last year. So there you have it ladies and gentlemen money saving techniques for the future.
On the other hand I would like to slip in this little piece of advice; if you are saving $10 just make sure you know how much time you will spend on trying to save $10 then do the calculation of time vs. money and see what makes sense. $10x1 hr x2 people…doesn’t make tooo much sense. Yet again, $10 doesn’t exactly grow on a tree.

People, and the dream world.

This post is a long time coming.

People are crazy. That is my statement and I’m sticking to it. It seems as though this world has become one big luxuries cruise ship and everyone is on it. At this point you are wondering what the heck am I talking about it, I’m talking about luxuries that have come around to being misinterpreted as necessities. I see this in all different backgrounds of America. The one I am most associated to is of course the orthodox Jewish community. So I will speak on that mainly, drawing references from my other experience as well.
Through the years there has been a trend of luxuries turning to necessities one example is undergarments. It was not so long ago that they were considered the clothing of the noble and upper crust society. Now it’s almost un-heard of for someone not to wear undergarments. Same thing could be said for silverware, once upon a time your hands is what got you fed, not a fork and knife. Keeping these examples in mind I would like to go onto some interesting comparisons in the year 2008. I overheard people complaining about their budget and how kosher food is just so over priced. Well, I happened to take a peak into their grocery cart just to have an idea of what they were talking about. Then I had an audible laugh. ‘ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!’ is what I wanted to say. OF course I didn’t. She had half a cart of T.V dinners, the other with coke and chips, hummus, and sporadic veggies that were overly priced since it wasn’t a produce store and it was a large food chain store. Let’s analyze this further shall we.
T.V dinners= A lot of money for a little food. = Over priced dinner= silly decision= waste of money.
MAKE A POT OF NOODLES and you’ll feed the whole family for half the price if not more of a T.V Dinner. Give me a break.
Coke and Chips= both go into a category of useless food items. DO you really need to feed your children this junk?! Even though I personally love coke, I’ve started to cut back really because of the health concern rather than anything else. BUT chips that is non excusable.
Hummus….WHAT, ever heard of a chick pea. Really, chick pea smashed with garlic=hummus…not the $5 kind, the $0.99 kind. Nothing wrong with cheaper!
Veggies not in a produce store….what do you just like throwing your money away.

I really hate it when people complain about prices and yet do nothing about it. I understand that in order to get vegetables you might have to drive 2 miles away. Yet, if it’s on your way to work, from work or on the path to another errand why not take advantage of it! Yes I agree driving to three different stores spending gas at $4.00/gal doesn’t make sense, but when you break it down unless you are driving 35miles out of the way it really does make sense. Over paying for someone else to deliver to your local supermarket does not make sense. Also, what is necessity? Yes, vegetables are more expensive. Yes, milk is more expensive, same as for eggs, BUT, pre-packaged hummus….common. Another delight, the people that buy pre-cooked food from the deli and then have the audacity to complain about it. Are you kidding me? Someone is making it for you, putting it in a box and you’re going to give him attitude.
In other words, when you complain that prices are going up and oh dear this economy, maybe it is worth it to analyze how you are spending your money currently, and maybe making some changes in that department.
It seems to me that we live in a society where no matter how much money a person makes; they feel like they should live like millionaires. There is people living pay check to paycheck complaining about it and driving BMW’s. Here’s a thought: don’t do that and you won’t be broke. Then on a smaller scale there are people complaining about food prices that are eating caviar, here’s a thought: Don’t do that and you’ll save that money for something that is really worth it such as milk and eggs.
If I were a financial advisor I would love to just analyze people’s budgets and make recommendations and see what happens from there.

You know the saying: You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink!
Need I say more?

Yup, I’ll save that for another post.