It's instant coffee, not instant gold

I went to Associated to get some instant Cafe Bustelo coffee. I can find it for $4.99 when it's on sale or $5.49 when it's not. At Associated, it was $6.39! So I left and went to Key Food for it.

At Key Food, I bought eggs that were $1.69. They were $1.25 at Associated. So I still came out ahead.

Balsamic vinegar ketchup.

Heinz is going to make balsamic vinegar ketchup.

And they are going to sell it through their Facebook page first, which will cost $2 extra. I will buy it, but I'm going to wait to find it at C-Town. And I don't know why my font is weird (copying and pasting troubles) so this post is over.

P.S. I like the label. You can see it if you click the link.

Finally, Gorgonzola at a Reasonable Price

Today I went to Manhattan. I was at Chelsea Piers for the first time. Then I walked around for a while. I found a Western Beef I didn't know existed on West 16th St. It's much smaller than the one in Ridgewood, but the prices are the same, which means it's possible to live in Manhattan after all.

 How beautiful. I didn't buy anything though. I like my Western Beef better and I wanted to go to Trader Joe's.

I went to the one on 6th Avenue and 21st St. I had never been there either. What a pleasure. The store wasn't crowded at all. I guess I was hungry because I finally bought food. I got gorgonzola for $5.99/lb, which is a really good price. I got a 6 pack of some store brand of their beer that I had at Roxy's before for $3.99. I don't think it's bad. It's 6.2% alcohol, so it's strong regardless. I got frozen peas and frozen artichoke hearts for $1.29 and $2.99 respectively. I need the artichokes for pungent pasta (along with the gorgonzola) and C-Town quit having the ones I liked before.

I need the picture to remember what else I got. Frozen party (meaning small) meatballs are $3.99 now. They used to be cheaper. They're good for my spaghetti. Buttermilk is only $1.69 there. I had a glass after dinner. I got some peanut butter, which is cheaper than those national brands anyway. I guess that's my effort to stock up before the looming price increase. It was $1.79. I got a can of cannelini beans for $0.89. I ate them.

I considered getting some oregano for $1.99, but I got a brand at a dollar store for $1 yesterday. Maybe I should try using that up quick.

So now I need to make pungent pasta.

Everyday With Rachael Ray Magazine values its readers' time at about $2.40 an hour

Everyday with Rachael Ray features a "showdown" between two similar products in every issue. In this one, it's canned dinner rolls (e.g. Pillsbury) against the rolls you'd buy premade from the bakery. I can't find a link to this on their website, but the page looks like this.

The relevant info they provide is that the canned rolls are $0.23 each and the bakery ones are $0.29 each. Six cents is what you save! And prep times are 12 minutes and 5 seconds (essentially 0. If I'm going to count 5 seconds of prep time, I might as well count the extra second to put the roll in my mouth and the extra 15 to chew.)

You get 8 rolls in a can. They take 12 minutes to bake, so you could bake 5 batches and get 40 rolls in an hour. This would cost you $9.25. And you worked for an hour.

Using the price they provided for the bakery rolls, $3.49 for 12, you'd pay $11.67 for 40 rolls. So for your hour of work, you save $2.42. Which means that is how much your time is worth, all else (meaning quality of rolls) being equal.

When comparing the 8 to 12, they favor 8 because with the bakery rolls, "you're usually committed to to buying a bigger batch." I had to gloss over that to figure out how much your time is valued per hour to make the canned cheaper. But I'll still accept and address a quantity argument.

The bakery rolls are bigger. You don't need as many. And at all the grocery stores I go to, the rolls are loose. I can buy as many as I want. I usually do not want 8. 8 is either too many or too few if I'm feeding 5 people. The bakery buns and rolls let me have control.

In summary, the canned rolls are better if you have infinite time or don't value yours and if you have infinite oven space. Otherwise, they are a good example of being penny wise and pound foolish.

Texts from the Field: Sugar Water

Timmy had a job interview near Harrisburg. He sent along this picture with the commentary "Only a fool would buy this! People say pop is only sugar water. This actually is! And costs more!"

Here are some other pictures he sent.

Less Pretentious than Nutella - peanut butter and chocolate icing

This is what my peanut butter and chocolate icing on toast meal looks like. It's very good. It's less pretentious than Nutella and probably just as healthy, if not more. I might not feed this to my children, but I would feed it to my grandchildren.

Peanut Butter. Oh no!

Via (Lewis via) Lifehacker:

The time to buy peanut butter is now, friends. The Wall Street Journal reports that prices for Jif, Peter Pan, and other peanut butter jars will be going up as much as 40% starting in a couple of weeks.

Just when I invented a new food that is good for toast. It's a lot like peanut butter and jelly, only better. It is peanut butter and chocolate icing from a can. It also works on saltines. I bought a jar of Reese's brand for $2.99, which was already a bit cheaper than Jif or Skippy.

Good thing I don't have a job. I used to eat PB&J every day for lunch. Or let me take that back. It would be good if I had a job so I could afford peanut butter.  (By the way, this blog kinda sorta got me a job but it was only for a few weeks and it's over and it made me tired of adjectives.)

Key Food has some good sales right now. So does Jesus.

I haven't been that interested in eating or cooking lately, but that might be because there weren't any good deals. I had a good time at Key Food today though, and later I'm going to figure out how to cook things.

Key Food had mozzarella for $1.99/lb. I got that. Earlier I got 2 lbs of ricotta for $2.99, which is the best price I've seen in months. So I have cheeses again. I bought Hunt's barbecue sauce for $1.29, which I think is a good price. I don't buy it very often. Fresh mushrooms were $0.99 for an 8 oz package. I got some iodized salt for $0.69. It's usually $0.79, so don't make a special trip. I got iodized because I don't want a goiter.

I went to Jesus on the way home. They have avocados for $1, but I didn't get any. I bought fennel for the first time. I don't think I've ever even tasted it, but from what I learned in my studies, it looks like dill and tastes like absinthe.

Grocery Texts I Get

On Friday, I got a text from a number I didn't know: Hey mike, it's Anthony, where is good to food shop in Bushwick? I'm off montrose L.

I said to go to Food Bazaar if he's close. It's on Broadway and Manhattan, which is possibly like the Montrose L. He used to live off the Hewes stop and I hope he was shopping there then. Maybe my advice wasn't helpful.

On Monday, Ravi said in a text "you would be very disappointed to know how much I'm spending to make meatballs at home." I can only imagine! I saw the meat I would use to make meatballs for $2.99/lb at Key Food. I think you should use cheap meat for meat balls. You're going to season it heavily anyway.