[blindcooks] Re: Kind of a Rant - Shopping
- From: "Sharon" <mt281820@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <blindcooks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 08:26:46 -0500
So maybe we should launch a campaign to get volunteers to either take us
shopping or cut out and read coupons.
Sharon
-----Original Message-----
From: blindcooks-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blindcooks-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of M and L Dorn
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2015 12:49 AM
To: blindcooks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blindcooks] Re: Kind of a Rant - Shopping
Rob, sounds like you're doing a good job of managing things
already. Maybe you'll make a new friend who would be willing to help
you shop or pick up a few things for you someplace you don't get to
go. I know of a LasVegas Sam's that has personal shoppers to help my
blind friends, and me too when I've been with them. Maybe you can
work on your Sam's store, maybe even through a blind advocate group
like ACB or NFB or whatever you have available.
As for coupons, the only ones I use anymore are those that come in
the weekly ad. I have a reader who tells me about them and cuts them
out. My mother used to send me tons of them, but she's gone
now. Even when she did send them, it can cost as much to pay an
assistant to read and sort them as you'd save.
Best of luck with future shopping!
Marilyn
At 09:23 AM 1/12/2015, you wrote:
>I remember S&F from my time out in California. Basically a
>restaurant supply shop. Had some good deals on spices and cookware.
>
>I live a rather cut down lifestyle already. I have no phone of any
>kind (except skype), no television, no kind of credit card (although
>that sort of hurts my chances for getting a house), no outstanding
>debts. I don't eat out that often (although mostly due to lack of
>access.) Plus dealing with waitstaff, given my horrendous hearing,
>is very aggravating.
>
>My electric bill ranges from forty to 90 dollars in summer when the
>air conditioner always runs. I suppose the only real way I could cut
>even more out would be to downgrade my internet, but I have to admit
>I'm just too spoiled to do that.
>
>I have saved enormous amounts of money by purchasing spices and
>coffee online. For instance, two ounce container of ground coriander
>at the grocery store, seven dollars. Eight ounce bag at the spice
>shop, four dollars or less. Five pound bag of my favorite espresso
>beans, thirty-four dollars online. At the grocery store, eleven
>dollars for a single pound. Given the amount of spice and coffee I
>go through, those grocery store prices would kill me.
>
>Another way I'm thinking about cutting costs is to cut my own meat
>into steaks, chops and cutlets. I go through more pork and chicken
>than beef, and buying big pork roasts on sale and then slicing into
>chops would save quite a bit here and there, when you add it up.
>
>Chicken, not so much--at least for me. I tend to only eat the white
>meat, so buying a whole chicken just to slice off the breasts and
>ribs wouldn't make much economic sense. So for those, I wait for
>sales when boneless, skinless chicken is 50 cents a pound and buy
>several frozen bags. And on the rare occasions when I use chicken
>thighs--such as in soup--an occasional one or two pound package
>won't hurt me too much.
>
>I wasn't sure any helpful suggestions for things like couponing
>would come through, but I wanted to vent anyway. Thank you all for
>listening. I felt much better after getting all that off my chest.
>----- Original Message -----
>From: <mailto:twosocks76@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>Jon Rawlings
>To: <mailto:blindcooks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>blindcooks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Sent: Monday, January 12, 2015 10:04 AM
>Subject: [blindcooks] Re: Kind of a Rant - Shopping
>
>Robert:
> Trust me, most of us deel with these same frustrations all the
> time. The fact that you're in a rural area only complicates things
> for you. Were I in your place, I'd probably do most of my food
> shopping on line and get my pantry items and canned foods and
> things in bulk at places like Wal Mart or Sam's Club as much as
> possible. It's a shame that Sam's Club is unwilling to help you
> shop. You didn't mention any sighted friends that are able and
> willing to help even occasionally, so I assume there are none right now.
> When I was single, I
>'m a little ashamed to admit I didn't worry very much about saving
>money on my food bill. I lived on the same block as my grocery
>store, as well as a store kind of similar to Sam's Club called Smart
>and Final. I generally just bought what I wanted when I wanted it
>with little regard for cost. Then, along came Emily, and all that
>changed. Not only does she go through the ads in the mail with me,
>but our store also has a website where we can log in, enter the code
>on the back of our store card, and load electronic coupons onto the
>card that are applied automatically at checkout. Between all that
>and planning my menus in advance and trying to stretch what we do
>buy, our grocery store spending is really quite reasonable,
>especially given how well we eat. I made barbecue chicken in the
>slow cooker last week that went on sandwich buns, then took the
>leftovers and made awesome barbecue chicken pizzas for dinner
>yesterday. We were given a free turkey about a week and a half ago
>which I roasted last week. It has already made three meals for us,
>and there's enough left in the freezer for five more. But, I digress....
> In short, I'm afraid I don't have any suggestions or advice I
> can offer to make things easier for you. I like Marilyn's
> suggestion to basically accept your limitations with regard to your
> food bill and try to cut expenses elsewhere that are easier to
> control and manage. Emily and I are trying to do much the same
> thing as I also have my eye on buying a house as soon as
> possible. Renting just sucks for so many reasons. Anyway, sorry I
> can't be of more help.
> Jon
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: <mailto:captinlogic@xxxxxxxxx>Rob Hudson
>To: <mailto:blindcooks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>blindcooks@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2015 6:38 AM
>Subject: [blindcooks] Kind of a Rant - Shopping
>
>What follows is more of a rant than anything else. It has been a
>rather frustrating little while, recently. Please bare with me.
>I have been looking at a lot of different ways to save money on
>grocery bills and over all budget cuts, due to the fact that I am
>thinking about trying to buy a house, or a mobile home. The lattter
>doesn't really belong on this list, so I'll stick to the former.
>One of the ways you can save money is by shopping at different
>stores. Some stores will have different sales on different items, on
>different days of the week. The only problem is, those kinds of
>sales are announced in print circulars that, last time I checked,
>did not scan very well on OCR programs. Or they are stupid graphics
>in the middle of web pages that we can't OCR either. Or there are
>big fliers tacked up in the store window that announce one specific
>item is on sale that day, and because you're blind, you miss out on
>the sale. How is that fair?
>
>Another problem with the multiple store approach is transportation.
>Something like a paratransit system requires that you schedule with
>them far in advance. This is even more of a problem for me since I
>live way out of town. My nearest big town is twenty-five miles away.
>So you miss out on the sales yet again.
>Then, once you do get to the store, you have to rely on sighted
>assistance, who have their own thing to do. So you end up feeling
>rushed, like you're intruding into their busy schedule. This means
>that you can't really comparison shop. For instance, maybe there is
>a block of cheese you want, but is it cheaper in the deli section
>that day, or in the dairy section? Is that bag of flour tortillas on
>your list cheaper in the dairy case or the ethnic aisle? Things like that.
>Or maybe the store with the best deals--such as that one store that
>requires you to bag your own groceries and that you pay a deposit
>for the shopping cart--doesn't even offer you sighted assistance.
>The low staff count means lower food prices, but is thoroughly
>aggravating for the blind shopper. So you once again miss out on
>some good food prices, and there goes your idea to budget.
>I ran into the latter problem at Sam's Club. The one I went to
>wouldn't offer shopping assistance, so I had to turn around and walk
>out again. What the heck did I pay the forty-five dollar fee for if
>you won't <insert unfamily friendly word here> help me?
>Then there's online grocery shopping. To be honest, this is the
>approach I most often end up using. This is great, because on top of
>making a customer service rep feel put-upon by taking time out of
>their busy, busy day to bother helping the blind dude out, I'm also
>so hard of hearing that conversation is an effort, especially in a
>loud, noisy store. Both the rep and I end up frustrated with my
>inability to follow along and it leads to a very unsatisfactory experience.
>Enter the wonderful world of online shopping. It's great. I can
>comparison shop to my heart's content, I don't have to get a
>headache trying to listen to people, and the eleven dollar delivery
>fee is much cheaper than a twenty-five mile taxi ride. Not that any
>cabs would come way out here, but that's beside the point.
>Except.
>There's always an except, isn't there?
>Except there is only one store in the area which does online
>shopping, and they are pretty expensive to compensate for that. So
>you are basically comparison shopping between something which is a
>little more or less expensive than the other thing. So the budget
>isn't really saved much at all, especially when you hear, for
>example, that the ground beef you bought online was two dollars less
>at the store you couldn't get to.
>And lastly, there's coupons. So far as I know, there is no way to
>use coupons online, and the coupon printing sites are java-based and
>not terribly accessible, so you can't really print them either. Or
>the coupons are just graphics that you click on. Or they are in the
>newspaper, which might be too big for your scanner. Or if you do
>manage to get it scanned,, as you are blind, you can't really tell
>if you are cutting out the correct bit of newsprint which contains
>the coupon. So there you go, missing out on even more deals.
>
>All in all, I'd have to say that trying to save money on grocery
>shopping hasn't really met with a great deal of success. If you guys
>have ideas to help alleviate some of these problems, I'm all ears.
>Thank you for listening to my little rant. I have seen lots of blogs
>about budget savings and things like that, but not one of them takes
>these kinds of things into consideration. Very frustrating, indeed.
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