Thanks for your encouragement, Tuxedocat!

Decent grapes have finally fallen to an affordable price, $1.49 per pound. They were that cheap a few weeks ago, but didn't taste great, then they went back up in price again. But I found some good-tasting ones for the lower price in Shop Rite yesterday.

So we've just come back from a week at Mount Desert Island in Maine, mostly around Bar Harbor and as it was a time share, did a round of groceries and was a bit interesting.

Down there, 50c more got us a half gallon of milk, where it was a full gallon at home.

10c more for a half dozen eggs where it was a dozen at home at $1.60

Though a bag of mussles at our local Wegmans was $6, from Prince Edward Island in Canada. Up in Maine, they were local and $1.50.

Locally sourced cod for both places, $6 a pound up there compared to $15 a pound at home.

Lobster, well you can get a decent sized lobster from the fisherman at the wharf or by the side of the road for about $10 or about $6 a pound at the grocery store or get a lobster dinner for around $15-20. Down our way, 2 tiny tails go for $25 at Wegmans.

Able to get a 3 pound bottle of honey that was local up there for $14 but down our way, we can get local honey for $25 or the grocery store stuff from Argentina is $15 for 5 pound bottle but it's fairly meh tasting in comparison.

Grapefruit, at home we're able to get 5 pound bag for $4 and down there it was $8. Oranges at home are $5 for a 8 pound bag, it was $8 for a 4 pound bag down there and the grapes are $2 a pound at home compared to $3.50 down there.

Petrol was also a bit out of whack...weird having such a premium, when there's a main road going to the island. It's not like there's a special air drop required like with some islands.

Interesting, the range of differences, some things half the price, others double....

I wonder if some of those prices on the Island have to do with the fact that it's a tourist magnet (in the summer only, I assume), and I wonder if any of those prices will go up as the 'real' tourist season opens...next month?

We live on the coast, and have noticed that a few local convenience-type shops will sometimes raise the price of basic food staples (bread, milk, eggs, etc.) in July & Aug. I try to avoid those places at all times, but when we first moved here we bought a few items for what we later learned were ridiculous prices.

I've been going to Fairways lately. At first I thought that they were expensive but it depends on what you get. Grapes are$1.99 a pound. A big bag of apples is $5.00. They have delicious home baked bread and rolls. The rolls are 60 cents are are baked fresh daily. They have a wonderful bakery as well and a fabulous deli. I believe that they are only in NYC.

It is a big tourist place in summer and things do go up in prices, but the groceries stay pretty level, except the seasonal stuff, supposedly because of the cost of delivering it, but there's a direct road, so don't know about that excuse.

It's pretty big winter place too, but only for people who cross country ski or snowmobile as there are a lot of decent mountains, Beech, Dorr, Cadillac etc, mostly on Acadia National Park land, which whilst not "open", does have the roads open and people are allowed to use the main pathways.

But saying that, nothing else is open during the winter except a couple of the local bars.

Oh why oh why haven't I participated in this thread yet?! Lots of tidbits of info. We just found a place called Grocery Outlet near us here in Seattle. It reminded hubby and I of an Aldi's/Lidl or a Big Lots, complete with some produce. We found a 5lb of oranges for $3.99, 2.5lb frozen chicken thighs for $4.99 (good for 4meals), and some Weight Watchers chicken burgers for $5.99 (good for 4meals), and got some other fairly good prices on produce compared to local Fred Meyer's (aka Kroger).

Right now our goal is to get our grocery spend down to $100/wk for 2 people. We've succeeded fairly well the last 2 weeks. As we are currently trying to lose weight, we are making green smoothies and eating one healthy meal a day, so we are buying about 70% produce. Sadly though, we've had to give up on buying organic for most of it...just can't afford it.

Was just on the phone to my family in Scotland today comparing price of food. When I was back in the UK last year I noticed the produce was so much cheaper than here in the US. I am in MS. You could buy a bag of apples in the UK for 1 pound. Anyway, my husband and I are on a very tight budget and we usually spend about $65 per week. That includes the occasional bottle of vitamins. I am mostly eating tuna for protein! and having a protein shake. I bought a protein powder mix at sams club and drink a shake for breakfast. It works out about 50 cents per shake and its good for you!

Seems we have a ways to go to get our bill down somewhat further, compared to how good some of you are doing it. It just seems so difficult when we are both trying to lose weight by incorporating in the fresh fruit and veggie smoothies. I've lost about 5lb so far, and hubby has lost almost 12 in just the last 3 weeks. I wonder if it would even be possible for us to cut the budget even more, considering I think prices are higher here compared to other areas of the US.

I think it's a case of adjusting the menu for things that are on deal. At the moment for us, Wegmans is doing $4 for a 12 oz odd sized box of salad greens, so we're doing that.

When we get a coupon for the bulk bins, get a bunch of dried fruit and nuts and make some simple bars, basically just blend up some dates and nuts and roll them into balls and cover in sesame seeds, changing up the nuts for whatever might be going cheap, almonds, peanuts, that kind of thing and adding apricots or other dried fruit.

Plenty of decent ideas in that recipe thread too

I noticed today that the price of fruit on the fruit carts are down considerably. In my neighborhood there's a cart every few blocks or so. 6 bananas for $1.00. 2 pints of strawberries for$1.00 and $1.25 for a pound of grapes. I guess the crops must be good!

So what kind of budget are people putting towards snacks and junk food?

Our last grocery shop on Sunday, after using 3 $1 coupons from Wegmans, we spent $50 and that included $11 on those odour guard kitchen bin bags which should last a year and for snack food, a $2.50 bag of multi grain tortilla chips and stuff to make hummus which came to less than a buck to make enough equivalent to a $5 jar. A 60c can of chick peas, half a $1 jar of artichokes from Ocean State Job Lots, splash of lemon juice and a handful of sesame seeds as I got a massive jar for a few bucks months ago and use it for fruit snacks, salads, everything. Switch out the artichokes for a half red pepper, or some gloves of garlic or even a handful of olives or even some chillies for a range of quick and cheap dips....though I am running out of ideas and have run through my repertoire so might have to ask in the recipe thread for more ideas

Wow, I can't believe Manhattan's fruit cart prices are lower than our big grocery stores up here in CT! Maybe fiercer competition on the sidewalks/pavements of the big city?

Snacks & general nibblies are my budget's absolute downfall! Especially when you try to keep them somewhat on the healthy side.

Great ideas for making your own hummous-type dips, Bob! I'm going to have to try some of those variations. (Do you put any tahini in it?)

Actually my hubby--also known as Mr. Snack-all-day--doesn't really do dips. That's too organized/structured for him, because you have to sit or stand in one place & be careful not to spill/fling dip around. No, his specialty is open the cupboard and grab and handful of ...well anything grabbable. Sometimes he'll bother to use a little bowl or plate, sometimes not.

So I tend to do lots of trail mix combos--not the commercial trail mix, but my own...raisins, other dried fruit, nuts, sesame sticks, all bought in bulk depending on whatever's cheapest. Then mix them all together in a tupperware thingy. The elements are not as cheap as I'd like, though, even though I study the sales & buy in bulk at places like Ocean State or ethnic stores.

Oh, and I can't keep tortilla chips in the house, so I buy several at a time of those giant bags at WalMart for around $2 each and they disappear fast.

Tahini, I don't bother, it's to expensive. A handful of sesame seeds chucked into the blender does the same thing. Might not be as authentic, but don't notice the taste.

I just added a bunch of mint to the artichoke stuff and it was fab, nice and fresh.

Handy as we have loads of mint. $1.50 from the nearby farmstand that just opened up for the season is about the size of a toddlers head. Unfortunately they didn't have much else apart from herbs and their hothouse tomatoes and pickling cucumbers.

Hannafords, for the week was doing $6 a pound for lobster as the fish special, so that's a small but decent little lobster a person. Shame that it was from Canada rather than locally up in Maine, really do notice the difference, but not quite as huge a taste difference compared to warm water lobster, which is a bit minging in comparison.

So those with an Ocean State.

They have a sale on for spices and herbs for 77c a bottle, so that's us sorted for pickling spices for the summer, usually go for $3-4 a bottle at the local grocery store...and then some parsley for tabouli as we never seem to use it in anything else.

Yes! I really need to re-stock my spice supply. It broke my heart to have to give away all my wonderful spices before our move across the Pond. Spices are ridiculous prices here, except for a few I've found in ethnic markets....