Rising costs of fuel and food

If you haven't been to the grocery store in the past week, you are in for a rude surprise.  Prices are up.  Along with big jumps in fuel costs, the drought is also being blamed for this sudden rise.  Fuel costs jumped here on the West Coast the same day as the Bay Area refinery "problem."  Now that tropical storm Isaac is winding up, many of the refineries on the Gulf coast are shutting down.  Guess what, even before that oil could have made it to market, fuel prices have gone up again.

I fueled up on Sunday and here in Amador County, regular unleaded was going for anywhere from $4.09 to $4.19 a gallon.  I talked to my son last night -- he is a senior at Humboldt State on the far north coast of California.  Regular gas there is $4.50 a gallon.  Having made that drive many times, I can understand why fuel is so pricey there.  But here on the west slope of the Sierra, a stone's throw from the refineries, we frequently endure some of the highest fuel prices in central California.  Often, our gasoline prices will be 20 - 50 cents higher than nearby Stockton or Sacramento; while at the same time, we have a high unemployment rate (14.2% in May) and those that are employed are generally under-employed in the service sector -- store clerks, manual labor.

I can across an interesting online article on Grist this morning on nutritional values of food. The authors surveyed about 1200 common foods and ranked them for nutritional content and national average prices.  You can find the article here:  http://static.ewg.org/reports/2012/goodfood/pdf/methodology.pdf

What this all boils down to is if you want to save money on groceries, go back to whole foods and make your own convenience foods.  Ditch the mix and get out your own mixer.  While a cake mix may seem like a deal at two bucks and that can of frosting may be on sale for $3, you have just spent the equivalent amount on a sack of flour and sugar.  A decent loaf of whole grain bread without high fructose corn syrup rang in last week at almost $5 a loaf.  A sack of flour and some yeast will run you about the same and you can make about 6 loaves of bread.  Throw in some wheat flour and your cost will go up a bit, but your nutritional value will sky rocket.  Yes, bread making does take some time, but you can mix up a batch of refrigerator dough and grab off a wad of dough when you need a loaf of bread and it bakes up in no time.  Or spend an evening making up about half a dozen loaves of bread for the freezer.

Instead of a bag of frozen boneless chicken ($10 - 2.5 lbs), stockup on whole chickens when they go on sale. Generally, whole chickens have not been injected with sodium or other plumping fluids.  I can make that whole chicken last 4 meals for two or three people.  The first night, I roast the whole chicken and we slice off the breast meat.  Next night, thighs and legs.  Next night, I either cook down the remaining carcass/meat and make soup or a chicken pot pie (two more meals).

Future installments:  baking to save; produce; and grow your own veggies