Monday, July 1, 2013

What price should you pay for ___________?

As I'm teaching people to save money I often hear "But how much is a good price?" Not too many generations ago paying $.50 for a dozen eggs would have been sticker shock and heaven forbid that they pay more than a $1 per pound for ground beef.  Well, those times were good times but we can still find good deals in the here and now.

Another thing to consider is that today we buy all kinds of stuff that people in past generations would have not bought or either did not have the opportunity to buy.  We live in the first world and have "created" products to spend our hard earned dollars on to make other people have even more money to buy more products that they don't really need either.  People in the third world don't have our created problems of deciding which grocery store or which day to shop or how many of each "snack" to buy.  Laura Ingalls got candy in her Christmas stocking and no other day of the year.  Coca-cola first began as an afternoon drink during the summer in the hot south.  It was drank every day all year.  So even when these items are cheap and easy to obtain you don't have to buy them.  Use your dollars how you want for your family.  (As I type this, there are twenty 2 Liter drinks and fourteen 12 packs of soda in my garage, first world problems!)

Here's what I'm willing to spend on certain items:

ProduceLess than $1 per pound.  Which means I buy in season at peak ripeness when supply is high.  If you took economics you know companies lower their prices when supply is high to move products out before they spoil.

MeatLess than $3 per pound  I know that Harvey's almost every single Wednesday has ground beef for $1.99 per pound.  It's a Wednesday special only and not available other days.  So if I need ground beef for the week I know I have to get to Walmart to argue, intimidate, convince get a price match.  If I miss it then we don't eat ground beef for the rest of the week.  Another reason to stockpile! 

I recently got 20 pounds of antibiotic free chicken breast for $.50 per pound.  It was on clearance at Winn Dixie because they had ordered to much of the Springer Mountain chicken breasts for a previous week's sale.  They had to get rid of it before it went bad so they marked it all to $1.99 per pound (it had been $5.99 per pound!).  I also had $1.50 off coupons for each pack. I got every pack I could. 

Eggs:  $.99 per pound

Bread:  $1.oo per loaf

Sugar:  $.50 per pound

Canned veggies:  $.40 per can or less

Cereal:  $1.50 per box or less

Anything else I can add?  Leave a comment