Do you look?

It surprised me, when I started shopping for organic foods, that my weekly grocery bill decreased. I think it's because (taking an example) organic chicken is considerably more costly than normal chicken and I reassessed what I was buying and carefully selected exactly what was needed. And it shocked me how much less quantity I needed for a week's worth of food.

But I do slip back sometimes. Shopping organically, at least where I live, takes an effort. So when I'm time-crunched I find myself stopping at the regular grocery stores. It's amazing how quickly the chips and junk creep back in.

I think there's also a psychological angle here. A full grocery cart looks rich and abundant, and is therefore comforting. A couple of string bags with weird produce and paper-wrapped meats looks meager.

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exactly tico.

and whats funnier,

that pound of brown rice, when cooked, is enough to feed 4 people for a few days when mixed with that little piece of chicken , some broccoli or spinach, and topped with a baked apple.
yum

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We agree SheWolf. Most people just don't see the big picture. I'm not a big juice person because it's mostly liquid calories. When I was teaching, I told people instead of buying juice buy decaf. fruit teas like Celeste blueberry, raspberry, or mixed berry. No calories and most American kids get enough calories. You can make pitchers of iced fruity teas from one box. You can add some chopped fruit into the tea for extra interest and kids like to suck it out of the bottom of a cup. It's always better to buy whole fruit (frozen berries are fine) so you get fiber with your calories. If children are not brought up with a lot of sugar they don't miss it.

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I saw a study once that proved the bigger the grocery store the more you spend. People who shop at big box stores like Walmart end up buying more than they would have if they shopped at a smaller place. It's those impulse items that really add up.

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But to answer the original question -- yes, I do look at what other people are buying. Like material girl, it's not so much for judgement as a game of guessing details of their lives.

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Sometimes I see a saucy young guy in the queue and I look to see what he is buying.
If its a meal for one and a 6 pack of beer I assume he is single.

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I'm glad GW still loves me ... cant have enough witches loving me ;-)

Tico wrote:

I think there's also a psychological angle here. A full grocery cart looks rich and abundant, and is therefore comforting. A couple of string bags with weird produce and paper-wrapped meats looks meager.

True. If for whatever reason your life conditions are frustrating or harsh (more likely when you have to struggle to get by), you'll be looking for comfort. And they call it "comfort food" for a reason.

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shewolfnm wrote:

nimh wrote:

Well, lot of people cant afford perfectly aged cheeses and organic chickens.

$150 is a lotta dough, but I bet it bought a lotta food, too. If you're on basic means you gotta look at quantity before you can look at quality <shrugs>

very true.
But agree with GW on this one, mostly because I do it too.

I live on 100 .00 a week for food. And that has to feed 3 people including milk for Bean. Wich.. she only drinks soy..so double the cost of regular milk right there..

But.. being poor doesnt mean you have to survive on sugar cakes and cheap snacks alone.
I have seen many carts of .. ( forgive me for this statement.. im only making a point)
I have seen many carts of poor people filled with sugar, crap snacks, and 50 cent microwave dinners.

I do understand what it is to not have enough to feed everyone a good sized meal... but I will be damned if the little pennies I have to afford food buy little debbie cakes and sugar cereals.
You can buy bulk veggies, rice and beans .. get a GOOD amount and make that your basic staple diet.

In defence of " poor" people like me, there isnt alot of basic media coverage of healthy diets for everyone to KNOW what to shop for to keep themselves healthy.
Your basic 'healthy foods' advertisements usually include brands like Healthy choice wich is processed meats, bleached grains, and over boiled fruits and veggies wich give next to no nutrition and have the exact same chemicals that are known to cause cancer and obesity.

Im getting off my soap box now..

No, no shewolf, that's a grand soap box to be on.....

This may have been said already (haven't read the whole thread) but I generally think that idea of "I don't have enough money to eat well" is total crap.

Not having much money DOES NOT have to equate to eating badly.

Last night for dinner, it was kinda catch as catch can....We had an absolutely delecious black bean soup made from a wonderful dried mix I buy from the bulk bins at Central Market.....For 2 people that equaled $1.00 of soup plus the few pennies for the diced onion on top....and half a loaf of chibata bread, toasted with some olive oil drizzled on the top. Maybe another $1.00. Oh....and 2 avacados.....another buck. Dinner was prepared in the time it took to boil water.

Or, we could have taken that same $3.00 and got 2 jumbo jacks with cheese. Confused

My belief is it's the marketing people who make us believe eating well has to be expensive.

If you were to look in my cart when I'm buying meat, if you didn't have much money you might say..."I couldn't afford that"
But, what I buy has much less waste than the cheaper fatty cuts...and most importantly............it's cheaper than angioplasty.

eating well doesn't have to be fancy or complicated, or expensive.

quantity vs. quality?

quality will satisfy your hunger, and leave you feeling like a worthy person, as in you deserve to eat well....as far as nutrition and taste.

eating cheap quantity leaves you wanting more while at the same time feeling bloated and sick about yourself.

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I saw a sad story at the grocery store this morning.

A woman with two toddlers was checking out ahead of me. I diverted them from the magazines and candy while she unloaded her cart which seemed full of Dinner Party Ingredients: out-of-season fruit and berries, ring-for-the-butcher cuts of meat, exotic salad greens....you get the picture. $108 worth of goodies.

The computer rejected her card--twice. She checked her bank balance with the ATM machine outside and then left without the groceries (although the order was "on hold" as opposed to "cancelled".

The clerk, the bagger and I agreed that sharing a debit card with someone else made it easy to be embarassingly short of cash--but we were all old enough to be innoculated against public humiliation.

Sad.

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I'm kind of like Green Witch and material girl. I don't ever remember looking at people I know shopping carts. But I frequently will look at what other people in line buy. Unconsciously, I determine whether they are single, married, have pets, kids, eat like sh*t, are way to healthy, etc.

I also enjoy watching people shopping - especially those that are shopping with another person. Some young couples I determine are either newly married or just started to live together depending on how they interact and decide what to buy. Sometimes adults bring their aging parent - really interesting as many seem very impatient with their mom. Also, do the parents let the kids pick whatever they want.

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The comfort food is a good point. Another is time -- if we're talking poor people, if they're not out of work they're often working a LOT just to get by. They might not have the energy for making something from scratch as opposed to popping something in the microwave.

Meanwhile, poor people very often live in poor neighborhoods, and a lot of research has been done at how slim the pickins are there. These are also people who often have to rely on public transportation or walking, and all kinds of scary stuff about what is actually available at their local stores.

Then there's the scary stuff going on at schools...

Alice Waters is doing some really good stuff in this arena.

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Linkat wrote:

I'm kind of like Green Witch and material girl. I don't ever remember looking at people I know shopping carts. But I frequently will look at what other people in line buy. Unconsciously, I determine whether they are single, married, have pets, kids, eat like sh*t, are way to healthy, etc.

I also enjoy watching people shopping - especially those that are shopping with another person. Some young couples I determine are either newly married or just started to live together depending on how they interact and decide what to buy.

A few weeks ago I saw one of those young couples....not married, just newly living together....he kept reaching for, well, bachelor stuff....she kept saying "no, we're not getting that"

She'll be doing all her shopping on her own soon....

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My favorite supermarket sideshow is the Just Retired Gentleman who is determined to show his wife how to shop efficiently and economically.

I've exchanged rueful glances and commiserating sighs with these unfortunate women.

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Noddy - you must be talking about my dad! My mother will tell me about these "bargains" my dad brags about - especially those items he buys that no one in the house likes - but he did get such a great price he had to buy it.

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well once i was in the supermakret buying the dogs some treats and there was this really old man (in his 80's I reckon) in worn suit looking through the dog food and reading all the ingriedients on the sides looking at the prices and counting his money and something told me he wasnt buying this for a dog (for himself most likely they do that the really poor old people here in SA) and I wanted to offer him something but he looked way too proud, the image still haunts me I wanted to cry.

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Don't feel bad TL he probably was not buying it for himself, although he might have been spending his last pennies on a four legged friend. Pet food is not any cheaper than some meat and not only that - humans can get very sick from eating dog and cat food (if they can get past the odor and taste). Most pet food has a heavy concentration of blood, ground bone, and meat by-products (you don't want to know). For humans it's like eating bad garbage and most people would literally vomit if they ate a decent amount of it. For years this myth of elderly eating pet food has existed, but I have worked for a number of hunger groups and food pantry's and it seem to be an urban myth. True many elderly go hungry and can be malnutritioned, but they just could not survive on pet food even if they wanted to.

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That's really good to know, Greenwitch. I always wondered about that. Have met and worked with a lot of poor people, have been hungry poor myself, and have not known one person who buys pet food for themself. If they are buying pet food, it is usually bc they have an animal friend. It speaks volumes to how special animals can be in our lives, when we are willing to go without in order to feed our babies.

Plus, around my parts, it is cheaper to buy human food than pet food, nutrition wise and belly-full wise. Under a buck for a can of tuna, over a buck for the pet food! Two bucks for a massive pack of spaghetti. You get the idea.

I agree with the general idea that has been said in this thread: Eating well is a choice whether poor or rich. Unfortunately, when you are poor, you can get to feeling deprived, and reach for fillers real easy. There has got to be a reason so many of the people I work with choose cigarettes over salad; even though they can't afford to barely eat.

There's poor. And then there's po'.

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Well maybe, but i have seen south afican documentries on this and I know what goes into pet food greenwitch, my dad's a GP and nutrition and all that is top of the list besides with 5 dogs 2 cats and koi I know.

Maybe third world countries things differ in price.

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We got things called pet mince and pet tuna all at least R2,00 cheaper then the human vairiety and consedering that tuna is R6 a can and pet tuna is normaly R3 -R4 it's cheaper. The stuff is tuna but it's life d grade and so on. Also I would say in a country like south afirca you don't have much choice about what you buy in the supermarket. Our free range chickens are normaly at least R15,00 more expensice then battery so on. We have got organic foods but at a very serious price. Now you don't have to but free range or organic to be healthy (all though we try to but we are in the upper middle class bracket) but life is hard when white bread is cheaper then wholewheat and so on also when you dealing with seriously uneduacted they do not understand things they purely see quanity (and not even weight) when it comes to buying for so called value. It's terrible but true.

I think it's matter of education here.

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Once long ago there was this really hot girl in the market I was shopping, and I decided to try and hit on her. In her basket she had a box of Kotex, some Ex-Lax, and a can of Raid.

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