FRC: I think I was living in the wrong decade (prices)

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dawnnys

Well-known member
I went shopping for my Italian Dinner basket yesterday with my crisp new $20 bill and came out of the store with a pitiful little bag of goodies. I don't live anywhere near New York City, so that doesn't account for the high prices. It was a specialty shop, but geees! I got the items that I couldn't get anywhere else like the homemade pasta, the package of biscotti, and the small Peruginnas.

$9.99/lb for vacummed-packed sweet Italian sausage

$4.99 for red pepper-eggplant spread

$7.99 for a package of locally made dried pasta

$1.99 for package of 2 small biscotti

$1.99 for 2 Peruginna candies

$5.99 for a jar of black peppercorns

$3.99 for a tiny bag of dried porcini mushrooms (they wanted $6.99 for the cremini ones)

$11-something for a small bottle of olive oil; even more for balsamic vinegar

and the ceramic bowls started at $28.99. Needless to say, I'm opting for the colander at Walmart. I liked the idea of the pasta cooker with removable colander inside, but a 6-qt one (store brand) was even $44.99 (I misquoted, before). I bought one a 3-qt one a couple of years ago and it was only about $8.

Maybe it's the recession and my not buying gourmet stuff for a while, but holy cow! Next time I'll volunteer for the penny candy basket (which is probably up to 50 cents by now ;o)).

 
Am I that off-base on this? Is this what you are used to paying?

Maybe in the bigger cities, but not here, not until lately!

 
Some of that sounds right -- olive oil is always waaaay too high (IMHO) - I get the peppercorns

and other spices at World Market -- less that half of what you'd normally pay. I think you just need another source for some of that.

 
It's sadly a sign of the times...

I'm finding where I used to be able to calculate $1 per item in my basket to achieve an estimate of my grocery bill (1982), these days I'd better multiply by $5. I'm in a rural community between urbanities, so even availability is an issue. I end up doing a LOT of shopping on line just to be able to GET things.

 
I remember when you could estimate that for each bag (a paper bag) you'd be spending abt $10. And

I'm not "that" old ;o)

 
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