Moms' new battle: The food price bulge

[HFWR]

But it makes Archie Bunker Midland happy...

[Wags]

Originally Posted by Notmuchlonger

Ok but it didn't answer my question if the cost of feed outweighs the cost of buying store bought eggs. Im not worried about violating chickens.

With the price of corn and grain having recently gone through the roof I guess having chickens just for the eggs would not be cost effective. However if your intentions are to ring a neck every now and then have some fresh chicken, that one would know had not been violated by hormones or human hands, then I would say keep the chickens.

Does this answer your question?

GOD BLESS US ALL

[Notmuchlonger]

Originally Posted by Wags

With the price of corn and grain having recently gone through the roof I guess having chickens just for the eggs would not be cost effective. However if your intentions are to ring a neck every now and then have some fresh chicken, that one would know had not been violated by hormones or human hands, then I would say keep the chickens.

Does this answer your question?

GOD BLESS US ALL

I think you have some hidden chicken agenda Wags.

YouTube - The Lawrence Welk Show: Chicken Dance

[Wags]

Originally Posted by Notmuchlonger

I think you have some hidden chicken agenda Wags.

No, I don't have a hidden chicken agenda. But thanks for asking.

Here we go with Mr. Rufus Thomas - The Funky Chicken

YouTube - Rufus Thomas - The Funky Chicken

GOD BLESS US ALL

[DblDoc]

Originally Posted by Sarah in SC

Hmmm, but then again, is there anything more expensive per pound than packaged cereal? Can't she find a way not to buy sugar-filled overpriced junk food for her kid?
And the eggs: at a national average of $2.17 a dozen, she's overpaying for those feed store eggs.
And the milk? Why not powdered milk if they are really interested in scrimping?

Bah!

I will do many things to LBYM but I draw the line at powdered milk. Had to drink it when finances were tight growing up. That stuff is just foul... and raises bad memories.

DD

[Sarah in SC]

DD, that is funny, as my memories of it are wonderful--we used it (and UHT milk) when we went cruising for the summer of 2003 in the Bahamas. I associate powdered milk with very happy times....

But, I drink "fancy" now--only drink pastured organic--the Organic Valley brand. Must drink milk from happy cows on pasture! I scrimp in a couple of other places...

[CuppaJoe]

Originally Posted by Jeremy

Wow, who would have thought that you can save money by keeping leftovers instead of throwing everything away for the sake of convenience. Maybe the higher prices are good in a sense that it will force people to use some common sense and stop being as wasteful.

Yeah, the article could be recycled, rewriten to say that people who are the "victims" of upscale marketing and convenience have a lot of leaway to cut back. The downscaling reminds me of how my grandma lived in the '50s. Still love the image of her wheeling the wringer washer out into the yard on a warm day, and taking a knife to slice her hand-made lye soap into the machine.

[Want2retire]

Originally Posted by DblDoc

I will do many things to LBYM but I draw the line at powdered milk. Had to drink it when finances were tight growing up. That stuff is just foul... and raises bad memories.

DD

I drink a lot of it, and like it almost as well as fresh skim milk. Besides, I don't have to run to the store to buy it fresh because it doesn't spoil.

I'm not saying that I do it to LBYM - - I'm saying that I drink powdered milk because it's convenient, fat free, and I have learned to like it. Each to his/her own....

[DblDoc]

Originally Posted by Wags

With the price of corn and grain having recently gone through the roof I guess having chickens just for the eggs would not be cost effective. However if your intentions are to ring a neck every now and then have some fresh chicken, that one would know had not been violated by hormones or human hands, then I would say keep the chickens.

Does this answer your question?

GOD BLESS US ALL

Feed has been going up. I don't think it is cost effective just for the eggs but we also feed them table scraps (they are ravenous omnivours) and weeds from the garden so the feed goes that much farther. There are more eggs then we can eat so we give them to friends. We also get straw mixed with chicke s*&t that goes into the compost which saves us from using much fertilizer. The biggest downside is it makes it a challenge to get away for more then a few days.

DD

[TromboneAl]

As far as corn ethanol goes, I don't know who came up with idea, but it's probably the most idiotic idea of the decade, no matter how you slice it. When I see the fundamentals behind corn ethanol production, I want to shoot myself. I can't even comprehend how anyone could see it as a the way to wean us off foreign oil. The math doesn't work. The chemistry doesn't work. Stupid, stupid, stupid...

It's right up there with hydrogen-powered cars -- another government favorite.

[REWahoo]

Originally Posted by DblDoc

Feed has been going up.

According to some, we're in the midst of a chicken crisis...

March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Pilgrim's Pride Corp., the world's biggest poultry processor, will close a U.S. chicken-processing plant and six distribution centers and cut 1,100 jobs, blaming U.S. ethanol policies for pushing the industry into ``crisis.''

The company is considering closing other production facilities, citing oversupply and a ``crisis facing the U.S. chicken industry'' because of rising feed costs. Costs have surged along with the price of corn, which reached a record $5.795 a bushel yesterday in Chicago. U.S. mandates promoting ethanol use led to record demand for fuel derived from crops.

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

Maybe the solution is to feed them powdered milk.

[Want2retire]

Originally Posted by REWahoo

Maybe the solution is to feed them powdered milk.

Sorry, there won't be enough available. Once I ER to Missouri next year, I'm planning to hoard it for the long, icy winters up there.

[Notmuchlonger]

Originally Posted by DblDoc

Feed has been going up. I don't think it is cost effective just for the eggs but we also feed them table scraps (they are ravenous omnivours) and weeds from the garden so the feed goes that much farther. There are more eggs then we can eat so we give them to friends. We also get straw mixed with chicke s*&t that goes into the compost which saves us from using much fertilizer. The biggest downside is it makes it a challenge to get away for more then a few days.

DD

Interesting. I didn't know you could feed them table scraps.

[FIREdreamer]

Originally Posted by Notmuchlonger

Interesting. I didn't know you could feed them table scraps.

My grandparents used to feed their chickens a mixture of vegetable peels and stale bread boiled in water. I don't know why they boiled these things in water before feeding them to the chicken. Otherwise the chicken would just feast on small amounts of chicken feed and whatever else they could dig up from the yard.

[Sarah in SC]

I buy frozen pastured poultry from a SC farmer that does not feed corn or other grain to his chickens, likewise we buy fresh eggs from a pastured poultry farm locally. It all tastes wonderful, as I'm sure Dbl Doc's chicken and eggs do!
I think they feed them a variety of field "spoils" left over after vegetable harvests.

[Johnphx]

Having grown up on welfare, eating puffed rice and drinking powdered milk are two things I am holding out on as far as cutting back on spending.

I fail to understand the idea that anyone wouldn't keep and eat leftovers (especially if you can take them into work and have it for lunches the next day).

[shoe]

I got so irritated with spending nearly 3 bucks on a loaf of crappy bread that I dug out the old bread machine 6 months ago and have made our own ever since. There is 55c worth of flour in a 2lb loaf and if you buy the yeast in 1lb packs it is dirt cheap. Fun too!!

[bssc]

Originally Posted by Wags

Many more moms are cooking at home, growing their own vegetables, breastfeeding instead of buying expensive formula, using leftovers to stretch the week's meals, and even hoarding discounted products.

I liked "hoarding discounted products" because it is such an emotionally charged phrase. I always called it buying in bulk when things are on sale.