Did anyone else see this article yesterday? (3/1/24)

[Goldengirl52]

I’m saving a lot of money since I went Keto, on my grocery bill. I live alone, but I heard from someone today that has a family and they also are saving money by shopping whole foods and as good of meats as you can find, organic, grass fed etc. There’s more nutrition in whole foods, whether you are keto or not, so you aren’t feeling horrible, getting sick from lack of nutrition.

Even if I have to buy a big chunk of good meat, put it in a pot, and use bone broth to cook it up, I can eat that for a week if I have to, and it’s way healthier than buying ultra-processed, or any processed foods.

[Garp94]

Dilution of the USD via the government printing money nonstop is the biggest problem to the devalued dollar.

too true

Someone once suggested, “If the government is going to print money, they should send it to the citizens to use first.” Why do THEY print it AND get the privilege to use it first?
Food for Thought. .

They did: the stimulus checks during covid, and we’re living with the results. The inflation rose faster than when they printed money and gave it to the banks in 2008 [ not saying I supported that either]

[Garp94]

The U.S. Treasury has an excellent article about the history of U.S. currency and monetary policy on its Web site. One of the surprising things I learned from it is that the U.S. dollar was always fiat money, right from the foundation of the country. Its value has always derived from its being “legal tender for all debts, public and private.

I think they’re stretching the definition of fiat money there. Early on the dollar was paper [ actually it did start as metal coins], but when they started printing paper it was redeemable for a fixed amount of gold or silver [ the bimetallic standard]. Later[1900?], it was changed and the dollar was " backed" by a set amount of gold. Our gov’t would occasionally ‘adjust’ the exchange rate, until 1971 when they announced they wouldn’t redeem any more dollars for gold. By most definitions that’s when it became fiat money.

[Just_Juju]

It all depends where you live. I know meat is a lot cheaper in neighboring states like Ohio and Iowa, but here near Chicago even the lower quality steaks from cheap grocery stores are still $14.99 lb to $19.99 lb. Better quality is even more. Two Ribeyes from Walmart that are only 12oz each cost $28. And they aren’t that good of quality. You can tell in the taste. Nothing like the butcher shop. So I pay a couple bucks more per pound to get better quality meat. When a sale happens it’s like $12 lb.lowest. So sad. Roasts can be as low as $9.99 lb but no lower. Good ones are much higher. My girlfriend in Ohio gets sales on premium quality steaks for $6.99 lb and less and her full price is $9.99 lb. Makes me cry. I can afford that! Why is it so much more expensive by me? For the same darn things? It’s really hard by us to afford meat and fish. Any kind. Chicken is even more expensive than ever before. And I tried to buy bulk, like a quarter cow etc, but that’s really expensive by me too, like $$1100-1400. But most of it is ground beef and low quality cuts with maybe at most 8-10 good steaks and one good roast. That’s just not worth it to me. So I look for bulk “steak packages”. They are usually $280-$400. May be more per pound but I’m getting everything I want and all steaks, at least 22 of them. (Ny strip, filets, and ribeyes)

However, the cost of premade, easy, unhealthy packaged foods is pretty expensive too these days when you look at cost per serving. Each box or bag is literally filled with next to nothing since they have lowered how many oz in a package so much over the years, so it’s really not cheap. We used to spend several hundred a month on all the boxed c**p. Now I put that several hundred towards meat, meat, meat. I could not afford all this meat if I was also still buying all the packaged foods. One can only afford one or the other. Lately prices rose across the board on meat and we struggle to keep enough in the house for me to eat daily. So it really matters where you live. We can barely make ends meet after grocery shopping this year. But we made the choice to choose whole healthy foods and meats and nothing else, and I will just take up frequent fasting before I will ever cave to the really low quality low cost choices (like Mac n cheese, ramen noodles, spaghetti, fast food fare, etc etc)

[Shinita]

Your prices are crazy… Even with better salaries (and I know there are poor people there too as in every country)… We have normal prices here in Hungary, similar to what I normally read from others.
$400 is a common (lower) monthly salary here so of course poor people here don’t eat beef It’s not even available in rural areas, at least where I live. We have chicken and pork instead. I buy chicken thighs (not good quality, that’s 4 times as much at least and it’s still just chicken, not a valuable thing to me but nice for variety here and then) for $2 per kilogram. And pork for more than twice as much but still, I can eat a pound of meat every day… That’s a perfect amount for me.
Vegs are super expensive though, at least most of them and in winter. We only buy cheaper vegs but I thankfully don’t need them anymore. That would be tough. Green peas (one of the most valuable veg for me as it has protein and actually satiates me. super tasty too) for as much money per kg as my meat in the local supermarket! (It’s much cheaper in the city.) And I can get satiated by meat, it’s way more nutritious etc…

I always cooked for myself, it just got easier, cooking meat takes about zero skill for the affordable meats I eat. I toss it into a pan or oven and it becomes near perfect (I may be not very choosy, that’s possible. I don’t think I ever ate steak as it’s expensive, I will try it one day but a pro will cook it, I suppose skills are needed there. not for some pork chuck roast and it is 10/10 food for me!), I wouldn’t want it better as I already feel too tempted to eat it sometimes, hunger or no hunger And anyway, it’s 10/10. 9/10 for green ham if I fancy it at the moment.

$9 per kg (it’s enough for me to convert between HUF and USD now, I won’t do the pound/kg one as well) is the cheapest ruminant meat here. Deer or beef shank on a good sale. If I am SUPER lucky, mouflon (it’s sheep but I can’t just go to the city and find mutton, it’s rare). It’s a great price for ruminant meat but most people just aren’t rich enough to eat beef regularly Beef consumption drops constantly, we eat chicken and pork here but I can imagine even turkey and duck are consumed more often than beef. No wonder looking at the prices. Turkey is tasty and barely pricier than the pretty tasteless cheapest chicken. If there is a good sale, I always buy some.

Well we must choose well, whatever our situation is. But @Just_Juju, I understand it must be super frustrating that you could have it so easy and affordable in other states compared to what you have Tons of money for not even good quality meat? Awful.
What about pork there? It doesn’t work for everyone I know but it can be very useful for many… I simply couldn’t do carnivore without pork. I don’t even know how I did vegetarian keto (I do have memories but whenever I just do keto now, I inevitably overeat due to the too fatty, not protein rich enough items. I mean oily seeds. I always loved them)… Meat is such a powerful “tool” Ans so flexible and has variety. If someone has no access to affordable meat, that is a huge disadvantage

[PaulL]

I think they’re stretching the definition of fiat money there.

I may have used the wrong word, but the point is that, except for silver certificates, the U.S. dollar has never been backed by any quantity of precious metal. I read that with great surprise, actually.