Food prices

JayJay, have you considered raised beds for growing? Maybe you could even get some cheap compost or soil from that nursery by bartering or something.

Oh, I'm sorry...shouldn't have called him a nursery..he is a farmer in a sense...he has his own pond...showed on my satellite pic...so he has no worries right now for water/rain...we have had only one rain in 3 months...so he has no compost/soil/mulch needs.

Raised beds--nope---too hard---costly. Railroad ties, top soil, fertilizer...too costly and if no rain for 3 months??? what have I accomplished??

I hope to leave it to the farmer and pray he needs what I have lots of if SHTF...laundry det., anyone??? Or coffee??? Or bandaids???? LOL

I did get plenty green peppers in the freezer from 3 plants very close to the porch I tended. And Aldi's here has 3/$1 which is a great price but I don't need now.

Hi Foxglove,
I am not sure if Northern BC qualifies for this or not, but in the NWT and Nunavut they are able to have food shipped in, usually twice yearly and people buy up bulk on essentials. Some employers offer this option for their employees if they are more remote. I would ask around and do a google search and see if there is anything offered for your locale... at those prices, there is a chance you might be remote enough to qualify for something...

For additional info, check out the Canadian government website under northern food initiatives , and the Northwest Company. If NWC are in your region via Northern Stores or Northmart, they tend to have some form of shipping available as well for bulk orders. There are several large chain grocery stores who will ship as well, shipping may end up the same as the cost of gas depending on what is being shipped... or form a small coop with someone who has a truck or van, maybe a utility trailer so you share the costs of fuel and do more frequent bulk runs? There are also some great northern blogs where food prices/shipping issues are discussed frequently... it might be worth a look. Hope this helps!

Hi Paintergirl

Thanks for the information but we're not quite as far north as NWT. I did google for the food initatives but it doesn't seem to apply to us. If I've calculated our food correctly I think I've got enough that we'll be eating the last of it right before we leave to go home again. I might have one more opportunity to go to the larger town and I'll pick up a turkey for Thanksgiving and maybe a couple of extra things. Having a prepper background is good training for knowing what and how much we eat in a month.

I did find one interesting thing while googling food iniatives and it was a report done in 2009 about cost of food per person in BC. I wonder how much it will jump in prices if they do a 2011 report. The 2009 report can be found here http://www.dietitians.ca/bccostofeating the download link is on the left hand side if anyone is interested.

Foxglove

We get the newspaper fryers and go through and make our shopping list. We get the butter from shoppers drug mart for $2.50 a lb. If they have a limit on how many we can buy, we bring the teens in with us and we all buy our limit and freeze it all at home. I stop buying bread, the cheep bread, well was just that, cheep. probably no food value in it. So now we buy our own flour and bake the bread our self's. Hubby cost it out per loaf, its around 95cent a loaf including hydro to bake it.

I've been watching for pasta to go on sale for the $.99 I usually stock up at. Finally this week I saw that price advertised...but wait, the package size has gone from 900g to 600g. What a rip!

I've been watching for pasta to go on sale for the $.99 I usually stock up at. Finally this week I saw that price advertised...but wait, the package size has gone from 900g to 600g. What a rip!

they have done that with almost all the stuff we buy. no deal, just smaller packs.

Well food prices are jumping big time.

In the last week I've watched Prices of Dehydrated and Freeze Dried Foods jump $3 - $10 per #10 Can.

Fortunately I watch multiple suppliers and often manage to grab the best price but sadly the price increase seems to be a blanket increase across almost all suppliers.

As food prices across the globe continue to climb its only going to harder for the average working class smuck on a limited budget to stock up and stay prepared. Keep watching your sales fliers and stock up when you see a decent sale because they are going to become fewer and further between.

There is something to be said for bulk goods, especially if you can find the bulk quantities on sale.

Locally at the nearest warehouse the pricing for rice was:

4 kg rice @ 7.99 = $.90 lb
8 kg rice @ $13.97 = $.79 lb
18.1 kg rice @ $25.00 = $.62 lb

A 50+ lb bag would have garnered even better savings but this size was not available. These items were at typical prices and not on sale.

Is it me or is there a lot of staples on sale this month? I have been noticing flour, rice, tinned goods, powdered milk, even Borax on sale lately.

Chinese New Year this month so lots of specials on rice/noodles/Chinese candies/Chinese sauces.
Peanut butter seems to be the favourite loss leader this year due to the increase in it's price.

People laughed when I said that I get more for my buck during economic down turns...that's when the loss leaders are truly of significant value to get you into the stores.
I've done my best stockpiling during lean times. During the "milk wars" in Ontario during the late 80s early 90s it was cheaper for me to buy fresh milk and freeze it rather than powdered milk.

You are right about the peanut butter being a loss leader, I bought my last 2 kg jars for $5 each!
And rice has been on sale everywhere! I noticed pork is the main meat on sale often these days, must be butchering season?