I would be so screwed now if I hadn't went all whole foods/homemade over the last

[brewens]

couple years. I'm still a novice cooker and baker, but I eat like a king compared to what I used to, for about seven bucks a day. It was six not too long ago. If it goes up to ten I'd still be okay.

When the pandemic and hoards came, looking around the store, I realized how lucky I was. Most of the canned and frozen stuff I lived on before was still wiped out. Produce was okay, and I headed for the meat department. I had stocked up as much as I could a couple weeks before. I hadn't anticipated the hoarders, but figured Costco might be a place to stay away from before long. My newfound cooking prowess allowed me to look over the meat and be perfectly happy with what I was able to get; a ham and a whole chicken.

My life would be totally different if I hadn't changed my eating habits.

[niyad]

1. When the economy tanked in 2008, a friend and I talked about how lucky we were.

Being at the bottom, we knew how to cook, how to manage. I often talked with the meatcutters at my supermarket, and they would tell me about people who would look at packages of meat, chicken, fish, and have NO Clue what to do with them.

[Jilly_in_VA]

3. I'm really lucky

that my mom was a Depression kid. Her parents were never really well off and lived in a succession of small towns in southwest Missouri where they usually had a cow and some chickens and a garden. My grandfather was by turns a country lawyer and a US Marshal, neither of which paid real well. Being a lawyer down there sometimes got you paid "in kind" and a US Marshal's salary wasn't high. Mom knew how to cook, bake, and can before she was out of high school. All those things came in handy when she was a GI Bill wife with three small kids. I'm not kidding when I tell you she knew at least 300 things to do with hamburger. I thought "steak" meant cube steak or Sunday "swiss steak" until I was in high school.

I absorbed her teachings and they came in really handy when I got married and we were not at all well off. I learned about buying marked-down meat and about farmer's markets and all sorts of things. When my kids were little we lived near the day-old bread store so I had a freezer full of some kinds of bread. I baked other kinds. I also had a friend who knew the meatcutter at one grocery; he'd save marked down meat for her and she and I would go look it over and buy what we wanted. She also took me to a warehouse store she knew (she called it the "bent can" store) for canned goods. We were lucky to have a friend who'd gotten in the habit of raising a big garden, and he brought us stuff which I canned and froze. (I'd give him back jars of jam, which he loved.) I called that my "earth mother" phase. Then I went back to school and didn't have as much time, but I still kept an eye out for bargains, and I do to this day. Mom's teachings stick with me.

[drexelkathy]

2. Yeah, we missed that "crunch" also

I split a cow with friends every year. My freezer is always well stocked because of that.

I have either been a SAHM or worked from home for the past 6 years, so I cook most things from scratch. There was a bit of a problem finding yeast there for a little bit, but that was easy enough to navigate.

And I'm lucky that I live surrounded by farms...so fresh produce has never been an issue.

[Cracklin Charlie]

4. Cooking your own food means better food for less money.

I started learning to cook many years ago, when my husband took a job with lots of travel.

Now, we sit around dreaming up new recipes for fancy meals we have on any given Tuesday. We eat like royalty for 12 bucks, or less, every day.

I haven’t eaten out, even take out, for almost two years. Hubs and I made a cross country road trip in September, and ate all those meals from local grocery stores.

[TygrBright]

5. It's always meant that. But it's also always meant...

...that you have the luxury of time (not working >40 hrs/week, with or without complications from managing the schedules of others such as children in school, elderly parents needing care, your own health issues, etc.) to shop and prepare, and space plus tools (not living on the street, in your car, in shelters or temporary housing with no or minimal food storage and cooking facilities.)

Suddenly you realize how lucky you are to have a few cupboards, a refrigerator, some cooking tools... and the time and capacity to use them!

This was brought home to me once as a child when my Mom (a divorced working single mom with three kids) blew up at my Grandmother who criticized her for feeding us "canned junk".

Of course, even back then, a lot of canned items like Spam, tuna, etc., were WAY cheaper than fresh meat from the butcher counter, and frozen peas, orange juice concentrate, etc., were considerably cheaper than fresh vegetables other than (occasionally) a very narrow seasonal window - and then you had to be lucky enough to have the time to shop where and while they were available.

She could barely manage a "big grocery shop" once a week back then, and unlike neighbors who could afford 2-3x a week dairy delivery (those were the days when every house had a "milk box" by the door) we had a once-a-week delivery, so yep, we always had powdered milk on hand in case we ran out between deliveries.

Fresh ingredients, prepared in a well-stocked home kitchen, are still a great luxury beyond the reach of many of my neighbors who have 3-4 jobs between two parents who juggle work and family schedules, health (and mental health) issues, and little access to the kinds of stores and farmers' markets that make fresh ingredients readily available.

reminiscently,
Bright

[mitch96]

6. "Costco might be a place to stay away from before long"... I'm fortunate to have a few

Latin food stores near me. When everything was flying off the shelves.... they had what I needed. Fresh veggies, dairy, dried beans and rice. Granted the veggies were not top shelf grade A number 1 but they were OK in my book. Shoot they always had toilet paper!! I don't eat much meat but they had what you needed. I would see them bring in whole ½'s and ¼'s of cow and pig. I think the butchers in the back were breaking down the big parts to little parts. LIke I said I'm lucky.. Never had a problem
m

[Mr.Bill]

7. I live in a Senior mobile home park.

There are single men in their 70s living here that can barely make coffee, much less cook. They rely on meals on wheels for their food. Not so much because they are poor, but because they simply can't cook.

[brewens]

8. My cooking and food prep, along with exercise, give me something to do. The therapist I recently

started seeing likes that. I get bored and think is there something I should be making to stay ahead of things. Nope. But hey, I can bake some cookies, and I get on it. It's almost fun.

[Mr.Bill]

9. I come from a family of three boys.

All three of us are pretty good cooks. So were both of our parents.