Peter Flynn wrote:

On 25/06/2025 20:45, Lenona wrote:

These prices are the lowest in my neighborhood (Boston area) on a
weekly basis, mostly from Market Basket. They do not include sale
prices or any marked-down goods I might find on the discount rack.

Very interesting, thank you. Are these all "lowest cost regardless of quality" or "lowest cost you'd want to go and still taste OK"?

Peter

Hi Peter, recently we've had to buy bread for the first time in ages.
Reason is I'm mid-way through cataract surgery. Left eye done 18Jul,
righteye this morning.

If you are very near and far sighted (coke bottle glasses), the
adjustment is more radical. Equilibrium thown off and all that.
Distance judging messed up. Bakingwent by the wayside as the Doctor
doesn't want to chance a yeast infection in the eyes until well healed. Sensible sounding to me.

I hadn't really looked close at the cost of a loaf in years except my
random jewish rye.

I find it 4$ a loaf for anything reasonably decent. Cheapest is 2.78
last trip. Compare this to making your own and that has gone up, but
only by about 4% in the last 2 years.

Labor and transport seem the main drivers of store bought going up so
much. Your markup now is officially 4X the cost to make it at home.
It was twice the cost for ages though.

--- MBSE BBS v1.1.2 (Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (3:633/280.2@fidonet)

Lenona wrote:

These prices are the lowest in my neighborhood (Boston area) on a weekly basis, mostly from Market Basket. They do not include sale prices or any marked-down goods I might find on the discount rack. Of course, I
believe in stocking up when there IS a sale, but not everyone wants to
have large amounts of butter, yeast or soy flour taking up space in the freezer. (Butter goes on sale maybe 3 times a year, where I live.)

The Tightwad Gazette chart (created by Amy Dacyczyn) had: price per
pound, weight per cup, price per cup, price per tablespoon, and price
per teaspoon. To save time, I'm only listing the price per cup or
tablespoon (sometimes rounded up or down). If it doesn't say "Tb," then
it means the price per cup. The main purpose is to allow you to compare made-from-scratch foods with each other.

If you use soy flour/powder and powdered milk in a pancake mix, you can
add water instead of milk. (Soy powder and water can be used instead of
eggs - but NOT in cookies or in many cakes!)

Baking powder 12 cents (Tb)
Baking soda 2.4 (Tb)
Brown sugar 59
Butter $1.99
Cocoa powder 8 (Tb)
Coconut 35.5
Cornmeal 47
Cornstarch 37 (Tb)
Honey $3
Imitation vanilla 7 (Tb)
Liquid milk 16
Margarine 62.5
Molasses $1.75
Oats 38
Powdered milk 9 (Tb)
Powdered sugar 34
Raisins 90
Salt 2 (Tb)
Soy flour 11 (Tb)
Vanilla 94 (Tb)
Vegetable oil: 59
Wheat flour 33
White flour 22.5
White sugar 43.5
Yeast 19.5 (Tb)

And here are the weights per cup.

In ounces:

Baking powder 8
Baking soda 8
Brown sugar 7
Butter 8
Cocoa 4
Coconut 2
Cornmeal 6
Cornstarch 5
Cream of tartar 8
Honey 12
Imitation vanilla 8
Liquid skim milk 8
Margarine 8
Molasses 12
Oatmeal 4
Powdered milk 4.5
Powdered sugar 4
Raisins 4
Salt 10
Soy flour 4
Vanilla 6.75
Vegetable oil: 8
Wheat flour 4.5
White flour 6
White sugar 8
Yeast 5

Btw, when I posted this at rec.food.cooking in April, I made a few
errors - but I've straightened them out.

That goes without saying. Posting to rec.food.cooking is in itself an error.

--
Pharaoh was so pleased with Hadad that he gave him a
sister of his own wife, Queen Tahpenes, in marriage.
The sister of Tahpenes bore him a son named Genubath,
whom Tahpenes brought up in the royal palace. There
Genubath lived with Pharaoh?s own children.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Lenona wrote:

Actually, I was simply referring to the fact that when it comes to
baking ingredients, Market Basket (aka DeMoula's) is the cheapest
supermarket around here.

I CAN say that I've never seen any difference in quality when it comes
to their products vs Star (Shaw's).

This is pretty nice but doesn't have much bearing on my shopping. We
don't have any of those. We have Trader Joe's, Harmon's, Whole Foods, Kroeger's, and Sprouts. My point is that those brands are very regional
and I don't think you even mentioned what region you are from.

Not to be critical. Around here I'm more about quality than price, and I
have these rankings

Whole Foods = Sprouts and both > Kroeger's
Harmon's > Kroeger's

On the other hand I don't think you can beat Kroeger's prices once you
obtain one of their rewards cards.

For example, a jar of Kroeger's lightly salted peanuts is more than a
meal and costs under three dollars. For those of us who still have our
teeth.

--
Pharaoh was so pleased with Hadad that he gave him a
sister of his own wife, Queen Tahpenes, in marriage.
The sister of Tahpenes bore him a son named Genubath,
whom Tahpenes brought up in the royal palace. There
Genubath lived with Pharaoh?s own children.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)