And In the “More ‘Good’ Economic News” Department . . . .
New Record: Pound of Ground Beef Tops $4 for First Time
It’s up 16.2% in the past year.
Five years ago, ground beef averaged $2.134 per pound. That’s an increase in 5 years of 88.1% – or an annual increase of more than 12.6% a year for five consecutive years. And of course, we all know that salaries have kept pace.
Yeah, that economic recovery is just plugging along – ain’t it?
Category: Economy
Hamburger Helper? It don’t need no help! Tastes just fine without the hamburger!
Coming soon to a table near you.
I remember when hamburger was 4 lbs. for a dollar. Sheesh.
Sparky,
For a package of HH, I found out you can add an additional 2-3 cups of macaroni or penne, adjust the water/milk accordingly, toss in onions, carrots, celery, peas, corn, and only a eighth of a pound of ground beef….and well, tastes pretty darn fine for the money & makes a big meal (3 qt pot was just barely big enough).
Not to mention the increase costs of income, property and sales taxes, electricity, gasoline, fuel oil, pork, vegetables, medical care, vehicles and everything else !!!!! And we are feeding, housing and caring for 10’s of millions of illegal aliens(and more are coming).
And of course, we all know that salaries and benefits have kept pace (not even close).
“Yeah, that economic recovery is just plugging along – ain’t it?”
Who will be bailed out next? It won’t be working families and taxpayers !
obama’s plans, assisted by the media, are going as he expected, fundamentally transforming the US to a third world country.
We used to buy cold cuts because they were dirt cheap when I was a kid….Wunderbar bologna is still relatively inexpensive, but a pound of apple honey ham and a pound of blue seal beef loaf and a pound of land of lakes american cheese will run you close to $30 for just 3 items, throw in a 12 pack of water rolls and you’re sitting near $33-$35 just for lunch for a couple of people, if you want some beef and chicken for making other meals during the week….well it can get pretty damn pricey pretty quick.
We only have 3 left in the house as my stepdaughter at 22 is still at home as she wraps up college, and depending what I want to buy for the week I can easily spend for a week’s worth of food more than I paid for an apartment for a month back in the early 80s….I don’t mind some chicken and hamburger, but every once in a while it’s nice to have some porterhouse or ribeye steaks and a little grilled salmon along with some sauteed asparagus or corn on the cob…fortunately I’m okay with my money at this point in my life and none of that breaks the bank, but I wonder how those on a tight budget with children or fixed incomes are making out with this “recovery” of ours…I suspect not nearly as well as they could be if it were a true recovery.
Dude – “apple honey” ham? Seriously?
Why ruin perfectly good pork like that?
We all make some concessions for the women in our lives, I still get the Wunderbar bologna for myself and some spicy brown mustard…
When the women in my house tell me we have nothing to eat I usually take a look in the pantry and discover I could live for at least another 4-6 weeks on the nothing to eat we have left…
Even the “cheap” store deli stuff runs anywhere from $6-10 per pound. Bacon? Good luck finding any under $5-6. Sausage? The cheap ground stuff I use for sausage gravy is over $4, compared to $2.50 a year ago.
Way to go, MomJeans!
VOV…If I took one bologna sandwich to school for lunch I took hundreds. Bologna, mayo, mustard and say thank you. Now bologna is considered a premium cold cut. Go figure. My mother bought the big long tubes and sliced it herself. Treats? An apple if we were lucky. Now I see SNAP card folks buying stuff, premium stuff, steaks, seafood, potato chips by the dozens of bags and I think wow, must be nice to spend like a millionaire and not worry where the money comes from. I still love fried bologna sandwiches. One slice, center to edge so it doesn’t curl up and with a slice of sharp cheese, (also a $3 premium over mild) it is a great lunch.
I am on a very fixed income right now.
It’s just me and my 16 year old daughter, but we still have to carefully budget to make it to the end of the month.
What’s really sad is that although I live in Maine, I can’t afford to buy fresh fish for our meals. I buy tuna when it’s on sale, and I also get several tins of kippers each month. I like those for breakfast every now and then.
Vegetables are also increasing in cost. It’s certainly helping me lose weight because I HAVE to reduce my portion size in order to meet our budget.
I haven’t bought fresh chicken, pork or beef since July. The last time I had a steak was a small one at Applebees for my birthday, back in February.
So yeah, I have a special sort of loathing for president mom-jeans and his clown car posse administration. Their interference with every frikkin’ part of our economy is hurting me and especially my daughter.
So fuck him and every rat bastard that voted for him.
In the meantime, B. Hussein 0bama NEVER misses a round of golf or another lavish vacation on our dollar!!
Can someone remind me why we Vets allegedly deserve cuts in benefits and the leeches in Congress supposedly deserve every perk and raise they can give themselves?
Proud…I wonder if Obama has ever eaten a plain bologna sandwich in his life?
Probably not – it’s pork. Spam, in spite of being a Hawaiian delicacy, would be another American food with which he likely has no experience.
Indonesian Omelette made with ground dog.
If it weren’t for Aldi, Walmart, some local non-chain stores, and coupons, I’d have a bare pantry and empty fridge.
It’s just me at my house, but I have two cats. One of the pet food chains put their fave canned food on sale, so I overspent on that, and with store discounts plus coupons I was able to buy enough of that, plus dry food and treats, to last through to mid-November.
When the sale papers come on Tuesday, I scour them, because two non-chain stores in this area offer fresh chicken and fish in bulk at low prices. My 10 cubic foot freezer chest paid for itself long ago. But chicken in bulk packs went from $1.97/lb to $2.02/lb at Walmart last month. That does’t sound like a lot, but it is. Ham went up $.50/lb in August, so now I’ll have to buy several and freeze them, against the possibility that they’ll go up again. Milk went from $1.87/gal at Aldi to $2.72/gal in less than 6 months. That’s a helluva rise.
If I want a chuck roast for the crock pot, the price this year is $6.99 to $7.49/lb. Last year, it was $4.99 to $5.79/lb, but I can get a better price by going to a different store not too far away where they offer bulk pack prices.
I keep my grocery receipts, and when I see a rise of up to 30% in the price of common things like butter, bacon, meats, milk, bread, flour, salt (yes, salt) and sugar in less than a year, I want to know who is fooling whom.
I’m just hoping this winter won’t be too rough.
Delilah T. Remember if REALLY hard times come, cats, skinned and cleaned are about like a rabbit which is about like low fat chicken. Just saying, keep them well fed. Then eat the cat food. 😀 😀 😀
Now to be serious, as a cat owner please pardon my small attempt at humor. I do feel you about the tight budget as well.
By the way, do you know the difference between a hamster and a gerbil? More dark meat on a hamster. 😀
There are a lot of fat little kids running loose around my neighborhood, too. Ever read Swift’s ‘A Modest Proposal’? It was satire, so don’t take it too seriously.
But a whole chicken costs less per pound than the chicken sections, even when bulk packed because you’re paying for labor, so I’m inclined now to go to the nearest store (there are three) that has a butcher shop and offers whole roasting chickens, which I can cut up, wrap and freeze myself.
And yeah, the gizzards, hearts and livers make great cat food, as well.
I kind of miss the days when we raised 150 chickens a year to feed all five of us, and all but 10 went into the freezer. We also had a 5-acre garden. Good times.
80/20 beef here has been pushing or over 5 dollars a pound for 2 1/2 months. Don’t even ask about bacon. Recently I saw one of my clients and her gift to me was a pound of bacon. Never thought I would be so happy over a gift of meat.
“So fuck [obama] and every rat bastard that voted for him.”
You see, I don’t have to say stuff like that as often as I used to say it. I can just wait a tad and one of you fine fellows will say it.
So, I bought a bag of Wise cheese somethings. I think they were waffies. Anyway, I never had them but the picture on the bag looked good. I look at the package to see if there’s a hole in it and I find a you’ll-like-it-or-else guarantee. So, I wrote a short note, mailed it off the same day with the receipt, and a few weeks later I receive a letter from Wise accompanied by three (!) coupons for any Wise product FREE. I don’t suggest anyone take advantage w/o cause but, hell, if you don’t love a product you bought, check out the fine print on the package.
I was just thinking that many a ratshit that voted for B. Hussein 0bama just doesn’t care because they get their handouts regardless as well as whatever they haul in from pimping, drug dealing,….
So I suspect these rising prices figure into the COLA that SNAP cards get, hmm…. You can blame the continued drought in some places, but from what I read, you can also blame the ethanol mandates they refuse to get rid of, which require a huge portion of our grain crops go into renewable energy. Can’t feed a pig on grain you are shipping off to a refinery. Meanwhile we allegedly have such a surplus we need to sell our oil to China instead of getting rid of the gasohol which screws up our cars and makes the refineries run boutique gas mixes at inefficient quantities.
Similar situation with dairy prices right now – there is such high demand in China for dairy from the US and New Zealand because of the tainted dairy scandals IN China, it’s driving our dairy prices up. I watched the price of milk and heavy cream go up by 50 cents a week for three weeks running. The best price for milk around here right now is $3/gallon at Costco; everywhere else it’s $4.89 on up.
Heck, even aside from China, the costs are insane. A food many people don’t like and would consider a last refuge of the desperate (although not me, I like ’em) is chicken liver. Well, chicken livers are over $2 a pound now…
I wonder how this will affect the food deserts…