[GTX63]

I picked up a sheet of 1/2" plywood at the local hardware store yesterday. I figured I was paying for convenience. It was $35.

 

[ladytoysdream]

Gas is coming down here. Not where I would like to see it, but better than it was.

Eggs are about $ 3.50 in store for the cheapest.
I keep my own birds. I have a few standard size hens that lay the big eggs. The
bantams lay good but they really earn their keep by hatching in the good weather whatever
I stick under them Go to a grain farmer for some grain. Another farmer, get bulk whole
corn from and son grinds it with his grinder. Hard to justify TSC at $ 14 a bag versus 6 on corn.
TSC layer feed is 20 a bag. Another store is 15, so decided to get some there. 50 pound bags.
You have to shop around. A small set up, cannot compete with a commercial size one.
When people ask to buy eggs, I just say no , now. I would rather hard boil the extras and feed
back to my birds for the protein. You do what you got to do.

 

[Forcast]

Eggs won't drop much as long as chicken feed is high. The large eggs farms are far more efficient than us country folks. They grind their own feed and only use their layers for 1 year and replace them. Egg production from a hen drops after the first year and more every year after. The town west of us had a place that processed the year old hens that had been replaced. All I ever saw their were white leghorns. Always a few escaped as they were unloaded in those wooden crates and that end of town had chickens everywhere. The kids would catch them for you at night and sell them to you for 10 cents each the next day. Good way to get some decent layers back then. Not much meat on leghorns but Campbell's Soup bought what meat there was and the rest of the chicken was ground and mostly used in pet food.

Maryland has chicken flu so guess chicken and egg prices will get higher fast

 

[HDRider]

WSJ - Nov. 28, 2022 - Prices for chicken breasts in the U.S. have plunged about 70% since the first week of June, according to market-research firm Urner Barry.

Popeyes, Wingstop, Others Step Up Chicken Offerings as Poultry Prices Drop

Prices for chicken breasts have fallen about 70% since June, bringing relief to Popeyes, Applebee’s and other chains, which have struggled with escalating costs this year.

www.wsj.com

 

[GTX63]

 

[Orchardsmith]

Because eggs are often used as a loss leader in grocery stores, it's very misleading to use the retail price as a gauge of the market. As you'll see from the attached wholesale egg market report, your grocery store is taking a beating on those eggs, and taking a worse beating than they were a couple of months ago. It's why, if you're selling eggs at $3 a dozen now, it's hard to keep up with the demand. Have a look! https://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/pybshellegg.pdf

 

[Riverdale]

i try to keep in mind that at 2.00 a dozen, a chicken farmer cant make any money on his eggs. i know this, because i had chickens and sold eggs for 2.00 a dozen. it wasnt profitable at all and didnt pay me for my time. Same with the dairy farmers and milk and butter. So when i see the prices higher, it hurts the pocketbook, but i hope its helping the farmer....

Nope, helps the middle man

 

[nodak3]

Some grocery prices have dropped around us, and gas is higher than early in the pandemic but lower than it was.

We made some adjustments for inflation on food: more cooking from scratch and less easy convenience stuff. Mostly we cooked from scratch anyway before inflation, but a frozen pizza from wallyworld every two weeks, store bread, etc were handy. Just made 4 loaves and put them in the freezer this week, and have everything ready for my about half the cost meat lover's pizza I will make this weekend Lord willing. DH has for years made homemade biscuits, which he freezes on a cookie sheet. Then we bag, and when we want biscuits we take out how many we need and cook them. Simple, cheaper than canned, and so much tastier.

Meat is mostly whatever is cheap. Sometimes beef roasts and pork roasts are loss leader cheap meat. We use that for everything then. If you want it ground, we can use the meat grinder. Or for mexican food, just shred the cooked roast. By running a pantry and buying stuff when it is on sale, we haven't been hit too hard.

Early in covid we did not want to buy lettuce in the winter. Did not know who had coughed on it. Still don't with the tripledemic going. He bought a fairly cheap grow light and tent for it and set it up in the shop. All winter we get to enjoy fresh greens, and it is much cheaper to do that buy lettuce.

 

[barnbilder]

I haven't seen the value for anything change. Gallon of gas still burns the same as it did 40 years ago. Grade A large egg still has the same amount of calories. But I have seen considerable devaluation of our fiat currency. Sometimes incredibly simplistic people, like farmers, will get the idea that if eggs were bringing one monopoly money unit, and they suddenly become worth two monopoly money units, they can cash in by producing extra. This always puts them further in the hole.

 

[oregon woodsmok]

, it hurts the pocketbook, but i hope its helping the farmer....

I'd feel better about the higher grocery prices if I knew the additional money was going to the farmer. But I know it isn't. A lot of people are taking a little bite out of every grocery dollar you spend and the farmer seems to be the one who gets the least amount as his share.

 

[Orchardsmith]

Maybe this will be a comfort. Farmers are doing fine. That doesn't mean there aren't challenges. There are high costs involved. This is the cash bids report for today. It doesn't tell every part of the story, but it gives a good idea of what grain prices are like. Iowa Farm Bureau - USDA Daily Cash Bids
This chart gets into futures some, but if you look at the nearest date, that puts you close to cash today. There are all kinds of commodities on here, as well as currencies, etc. Iowa Farm Bureau - Market Overview

 

[Sassafras spgs ga]

Corporations are gouging us from the energy companies down to grocery stores. I'm retired from the petrochem industry and they get so many govt subsidies and pay their execs ridiculous amounts. Kroger and other grocery stores reduce sizes but still charge the same. More farms are corporate owned and there are even water issues in Arizona from saudi owned farms (and the draught).

Try to grow, trade, and buy local from farmers if possible; make list of sale items to limit your spending in town; plan trips to minimize fuel; adjust your thermostat; shop marketplace; share unneeded things rather than sending to a landfill; be a good citizen and steward of the land.

 

[ladytoysdream]

QUOTE....Try to grow, trade, and buy local from farmers if possible; make list of sale items to limit your spending in town; plan trips to minimize fuel; adjust your thermostat; shop marketplace; share unneeded things rather than sending to a landfill; be a good citizen and steward of the land. QUOTE....:^
Perfect.....thank you

 

[nellywilk]

I am very happy to see gas prices dropping down and staying there for a week or two already.
The groceries are more or less the same , but i also don't really pay much attention on that. I order most of the things from Kroger online and stay in touch with their customer service here when there is an issue with the delivery or something else.

 

[HermitJohn]

I know it's wasteful to some people but I buy a spring salad mix in a box instead of a head of lettuce. The store almost always has a few packages of the spring mix on clearance and I like the taste better than plain iceberg lettuce. I used a spring mix in taco salads last week end everybody loved it.

I occasionally buy a box in winter when nothing outside growing, though it doesnt keep very long. Iceberg lettuce is about most useless veggie ever for what it costs, IMHO, but each to their own. Cabbage is far more nutritious, cheaper, and keeps forever.

Last summer I tried growing "longevity spinach". Its not spinach, its some tropical plant with its own unique very mild flavor, but can be used like spinach in raw salads. It loves heat but you need to keep it watered. Not from seed, you need to propagate vegetatively. Roots fairly easy, suggest moist soil rather than water. Roots much faster in soil though you need to keep soil moist. Well its not frost hardy so one needs to keep starts for next year as houseplant over winter. So far its done well in old coffee cans in sunny window. Also have a five gallon bucket of it using a LED grow light.

Seems to do ok, so wondering if one could get it to be bit more productive in winter for use as a green. Right now its surviving, but only growing slowly, which works for me now, dont want lush growth in space I have. But if I set it up for production inside...... It does best with high heat and moist soil. Sure it might even become a pest in a true tropical area. In my summer garden this provides greens when Romaine lettuce and mustard greens give out. It survived days of triple digit temps without missing a beat, but it really prefers 75F to 95F. Grew fastest late August/September. Think it would do ok in late May/June but it was very small at that point. Know better in 2023 since hopefully be starting with more mature plants. No idea why small starts of it are so expensive if you dont have friend with some to share. Not like its hard to propagate.

 

[Farmerga]

The gas prices are going against what they should be doing. The administration is still hamstringing US production and production and distribution around the world is hamstringed by Putin and OPEC. This tells me that the economy is getting prepped for recession. Here it comes

 

[Sassafras spgs ga]

I occasionally buy a box in winter when nothing outside growing, though it doesnt keep very long. Iceberg lettuce is about most useless veggie ever for what it costs, IMHO, but each to their own. Cabbage is far more nutritious, cheaper, and keeps forever.

Last summer I tried growing "longevity spinach". Its not spinach, its some tropical plant with its own unique very mild flavor, but can be used like spinach in raw salads. It loves heat but you need to keep it watered. Not from seed, you need to propagate vegetatively. Roots fairly easy, suggest moist soil rather than water. Roots much faster in soil though you need to keep soil moist. Well its not frost hardy so one needs to keep starts for next year as houseplant over winter. So far its done well in old coffee cans in sunny window. Also have a five gallon bucket of it using a LED grow light.

Seems to do ok, so wondering if one could get it to be bit more productive in winter for use as a green. Right now its surviving, but only growing slowly, which works for me now, dont want lush growth in space I have. But if I set it up for production inside...... It does best with high heat and moist soil. Sure it might even become a pest in a true tropical area. In my summer garden this provides greens when Romaine lettuce and mustard greens give out. It survived days of triple digit temps without missing a beat, but it really prefers 75F to 95F. Grew fastest late August/September. Think it would do ok in late May/June but it was very small at that point. Know better in 2023 since hopefully be starting with more mature plants. No idea why small starts of it are so expensive if you dont have friend with some to share. Not like its hard to propagate.

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[flewism]

Gas is $2.89 9/10 here now at a few stations, my local butcher has beef short lions for $3.99 per Lb.

 

[Orchardsmith]

Where on earth is that? We're down to $3.53 here west of Indy a little ways.

 

[doozie]

Prices at the store chain I seldom use.
Crazy
I can get eggs for 2.99 right now, special “sale” at my gas station pantry.
I do believe gouging is going on.