Living Secluded Makes Buying Online A Good Option!
Are you the type of person who is loyal to shopping at a certain store? Or do you comparison shop? Some people will drive all over for the best deals. I, on the other hand, like to shop at local stores that I know. I have been trying to get into the routine of ordering online. I know, I know, I should keep my money in my community. But my community does not shop for guitar strings in my online stores. So I like to shop online to help other online sellers. I admit that I like to shop online for convenience. Sometimes the price is higher, sometimes not. And especially not if I have to pay for the gas, and the time it takes me away from my business. Besides I hate to leave home!
For the eleven years that I have lived here, I have bought gas and pizzas and last minute items at the convenience store in our little town of Oxford, NY. There are only two convenience stores in Oxford, a drug store (not a chain, privately owned), a Dollar General and our hardware store which also sells feed for our horses, as well as other animals. There are a sprinkling of other small businesses and a couple of bars and restaurants.
I am one of those people who like to shop at the same store over and over. I don't really pay attention to the prices that often, as many times it is only a few cents in either direction. I have always liked to go into a store and know the clerks, the managers and even recognize some of the other customers when I go in. That friendly town atmosphere that even prevails in our super Walmart.
With the price of things going up and up though, I am changing some of my habits. Our convenience store has also raised their prices. Two bags of ice there last week went to $4.78! Wow, I can buy it at Walmart or Dollar General for only $1.40 a bag! That is an excessive mark up! Their pizza also went way up. And it always depends on who is working as to how much you pay. The last time we bought a chicken wing pizza that consists of only chicken in a wing sauce on the pizza and they charged us $8.98 extra for toppings. So no more pizzas which we used to order at least once a week, ordering three every time so we could have leftovers for breakfast. I used to always make our own and now I am back to that. Going to make our own chicken wing pizzas, and maybe I will post the recipe after I get it worked out.
Convenience to me means buying in bulk so I can make as much food as possible from scratch. When I post on this blog about making bread or anything else from scratch it seems to get more comments. I think more people want to do these things than I knew. You don't have to be a homesteader to make your own foods. You can spend a whole week-end baking bread and making your meals for the whole month from scratch and freeze them if you have that option. There are many websites that have recipes for you to make and freeze, but you can just use your own recipes and do it yourself.
If you already do this, post in the comment section and let me know. I'd like to do this more when I get my solar refrigeration and freezer. But I will always can foods instead of freezing them. I like them better canned and they are more convenient in the long run. And available for a very quick meal. What about you? What do you do for meals? Especially for people working an outside job and have children. That is a tough job. How do you handle all that and make meals too?
Copyright © 2010 Kathleen G. Lupole
All Photographs Copyright © 2010 Kathleen G. Lupole
7 comments:
I am making almost everything from scratch these days. We're on a tight budget while hubby goes to school, so we've stocked up on the basics and we're living off of that for the year. I've been blogging about it a bit.
Katlupe, for years I make my own bread. Mostly sourdough and add seeds, herbs, fruits, nuts, crispy bacon etc according to my liking. However I make bread fresh weekly as well as milk rolls for Sunday morning. For day excursions I often fill thin pieces of dough with spiced tuna, or chicken mango, or all I would eat on a pizza. Easy to bake, easy to take and yummy!
Katlupe I am so sorry to hear about your knee. I know that my cartilage is very much abused due to professional dancing which I had to stop 20 years ago, By now I ahve had roughly 12 time surgery on my knees. But now with the stemcell therapy it shall come to an end. If there is anything I can get you from Germany or if you want to dig in my experience in how to deal with the knee - please feel free to ask. Sometimes a small change makes all the difference. Hugs to you.
I make our own tomato soup, salsa, and sauces from our tomato plants. I also make our own breads (regular and Focaccia) and hot dog/hamburger buns. I also make our own taco pizzas (a favorite), breakfast pizzas (eggs,bacon,sausage), and regular pizzas. I'm usually too lazy to make a regular pizza dough, so I slice some focaccia bread in half and use that...it works great.
I make bread and other baked goods from scratch as well as almost all of our meals. We still buy spaghetti noodles at the store, but some day I'd like to make my own. As a treat we try to go out to eat once per month at a local Mexican or Thai restaurant.
I've always been a shopper who buys in bulk, especially when there is a sale, even if I don't need the product just then. I also try (not always) to cook in large quantities so I can freeze for another meal. I make most everything from scratch and I even make my own peanut butter, it's so much healthier and you just can't beat the taste of home made peanut butter.
I'm like you in that I don't usually do much comparison shopping. However, if prices were to jump as much as your convenience store prices did then yes, I'd start making the extra effort to go to the different stores. As far as making things from scratch, I don't do that much now although my diet is about to radically change and I'll be cooking a lot more meals at home where I know exactly what goes into the the foods I'm eating.
Regarding shopping online, I do it but I feel somewhat guilty about all the extra packaging. Other than that I love the convenience and the ability to get exactly what I want. I sell online too and try to watch how much packaging I use but it can be challenging for sure.
Thanks for the comments and visiting my blog! As for the packaging, I dislike the packaging or containers that so many products are sold in. Like plastic bottles or those clam plastic containers. I hate plastic. The packaging from securing products in a box to be shipped is different as I can re-use them most of the time myself since I sell online.
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