Julie Peitz Nickell: Looking to comfort food to ease your inflation blues? Not at these prices.
For years, my mom, with me along, shopped for groceries on Thursdays and Saturdays, first in West Point, then two days later in Fort Madison, where we enjoyed coffee, Pepsi in a little daisy-patterned glass for me, laughs, and hopefully a Snackin' Cake at Grandma's before we headed over to the helpful smiles in every aisle.
But first, Mom sat at the kitchen table and pored over newspaper ads, perused each store's sales, recorded the best deals on her lists, and clipped coupons. "Crab balls" on sale always cracked her up.
Before heading over to the "big city" on Saturday, Mom would pull up her white with blue-vinyl-topped Chevelle to a full-service station and request "Five dollars worth of gas, please," and never have to get out of the car.
The last time I put gas in my car, it was a measly $20 worth and, a little embarrassed, joked to the cashier, "I'll be back very shortly." Very shortly, indeed.
Once at the store, Mom and I rolled our cart through the bright aisles, and she tolerated me riding on the bottom rack.
"Too expensive," Mom would whisper when I tried to sneak snacks into the cart, except for our weekly one bag of chocolate stars, Royals, M&Ms or, more likely, less-expensive Brach's Jots, which, when held for a bit, left colorful spots on my palm, like M&Ms, but weren't as good.
Or, surprised at checkout, she'd wonder aloud, "How'd this get in the cart?"
As an adult encountering ever increasing sticker shock, I am starting to understand mom's careful shopping, and inevitably, though perhaps not usefully, thoughts of what was going on during that decade seem to echo today, in that people are so very afraid of rising prices.
I know I am.
In the 1970s, Mom watched her wallet, like others, dealing with fallout from two oil shocks and double-digit inflation.
Gasoline prices soared. Meat prices spiked.
"Meat prices up again by 8%," complained Archie Bunker, reading a newspaper on All in the Family.
Dismayed at the thought of removing meat from his diet, he looked to the Bible.
"All them old Bible people, they was always eatin' meat. Soon as they found out eatin' apples was wrong," he pondered.
The inflationary spiral is back.
If prices are scaring you, you're not alone. I can tell you that I am very scared.
Fast forward, and I am an unorganized shopper who spends too much and doesn't often make out a list.
Mom used common sense — easy for her, difficult for me.
Grabbing whatever I am craving like packaged snack cakes, Chips Ahoy and Mountain Dew at the big box store more and more frequently adds to sticker shock at checkout, when the week's milk supply adds up to $20 or more.
We look hungrily at pre-packaged beef roasts before moving on to less-expensive chicken and pork.
I try to calculate how many meals I can get out of each chunk of meat. Steaks are out of the question.
Rib roasts are a very distant memory. Last shopping trip, we bypassed frozen convenience foods, and I even stopped buying Whitey's Moose Tracks ice cream packed with little peanut butter cups and chocolate swirls.
Recent steep price hikes, especially with stagnant wages, require more planning, and perhaps a budget overhaul.
Last weekend, using newspaper grocery ads, like Mom, I located the best deals at two stores and stocked up on meat that was on sale, including fresh-ground hamburger, at one store known for great meat selections and canned vegetables and produce at the cash-only store.
Dollar stores will provide cleaning supplies.
I won't give up costly Irish butter, which makes great buttered toast and tasty and creamy macaroni and cheese.
For inspiration, I listen to the radio to hear financial guru Dave Ramsey, who whoops and shouts about millionaires and curing debt, and doles out common-sense advice like spending less than you make.
"Eat rice and beans, beans and rice!" he shouts.
You know what sounds much better than rice and beans, Dave? Napoli's.
Basically, what I am trying to say is, if you are scared, I am too.
This article originally appeared on The Hawk Eye: Peitz Nickell: When rice and beans pale in comparison to Napoli's
