Last week I wrote about my internal price book (highly specific to my region, to be sure) but some readers may have noticed that certain categories are missing. There are some sorts of foods that aren't in my price book because I don't often buy them, and here they are.
Things I Just Don’t Buy (preference)
Bread and bread products: Since I don’t usually buy bread products, I don’t have a good idea of what they should cost. I would say that I wouldn’t buy things like tortillas or English muffins unless there were a number of different varieties that I could compare to get a price spectrum.
Cereal: I’m just not particularly attached to it.
Fish: I buy fish so rarely that I don’t have set patterns for it. I’m not good at cleaning whole fish (I was picking tiny bones out of my hands for days the time I tried). I love fish, though, and I try to buy it when it's on sale, if only to soothe my affronted wallet. Canned salmon can be quite good, as an alternative to fresh.
Frozen prepared foods: All I know is that Trader Joe’s frozen foods always fill me with shame, because they are so much better than what I make, and they aren’t supposed to be. There may well be a place for frozen prepared food even in a frugal budget, but they're not something that I've incorporated into my routine so I have no useful advice.
Things I Just Don’t Buy (principle)
Anything in single-serving packets (CHEESE I AM LOOKING AT YOU)
Any adulterated product trying to pass itself off as something else (oil blends, cheese products, spreadable butters, etc.)
Shrink-wrapped cucumbers: Go away. I hate you.
Sweetened things: I’m not going to PAY YOU to put sugar in something. If I want sugar in it, I know where we keep the sugar bowl.
Light things: I'm also not going to pay you to water something down. If I want fewer calories, I'll eat less of the product.
Come to think of it, anything designed to do something that I could easily do myself. I know, that’s not only a highly personal rule, but a moving target. Right now I don’t buy cookie or cake mixes because that’s just way too easy to make myself. One day maybe I won’t buy orange juice because that’s way too easy to make myself? We'll see.
Those are my rules of thumb. What are yours?
No or minimal processing is my rule of thumb or if I really can't make it myself (tortilla are hard for me, for example). Totally with you on the cereal-- who needs it. And, I think the cucumbers are wrapped to distinguish them as English cucumbers. Martin only buys those kind. I buy the American ones. :)
ReplyDeletereally there are shrink wrapped cucumbers?
ReplyDeleteIf they are at all common I must have a mental block about them or something.