You get what you pay for when grocery shopping
I had one of those "a-ha!" moments yesterday when I read this comment from the organization blog Unclutterer:
"... If you weigh the banana unpeeled and then weigh the peel, it’s always about 50% of the weight, hence 50% of the cost."
Obviously nobody is going to buy or sell unpeeled bananas, freed from one of the best forms of packaging nature has to offer. But it made me consider what exactly I am paying for when I pick up my groceries.
You could make the same argument to justify the higher price of boneless, skinless chicken parts, for example ...
... in that you're not paying for the parts of the chicken you don't eat: skin, bones, feet. (Not that I don't or won't eat some of these parts ... just saying some people and recipes call for specific anatomical regions of the bird).
Blogger Jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity tested this theory, whether you would save money by butchering your own chicken. He took apart a prepackaged roaster (already dead and procured from a supermarket) and estimated that he saved $3.61 on just the meatiest parts alone.
Of course, you have to know how to handle a pair of kitchen shears, and take the time to do it, but if you're playing with raw poultry to begin with, it may be worth the savings.
Plus, as he points out, you can use the organ meat and bones to make a tasty healthy chicken stock afterward.
Hmm ... now I'm wondering if I buy a whole fish, do they weigh it before or after the monger chops it into tasty steaks or fillets?
(photo: Andre Chung/Baltimore Sun)
Comments
Generally, they weigh the fish before they chop it up. But it's still a great deal!!!
Posted by: HowChow | October 28, 2008 9:13 PM