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Tuesday, September 25, 2007

On Suburban Bliss today she's talking about the side door of possibility, and briefly mentioned having imagined sticker shock at the market. This ties into something my mom brought up the other week on one of her phone calls home. "You just wouldn't believe it! Some things are just so dirt cheap and some other things are so expensive."

Case in point: milk.

Now, I realize that milk prices are, to a certain extent, subsidized by the government and are relatively stable. I know that at a local market you can expect to pay $3.20 a gallon for whole milk of the local, WIC approved brand, and $3.60 for a "better" bigger dairy's product. Milk prices vary from store to store. Walmart is around that $3.20 mark. One large market with the ability to carry three different brands of milk has in fact broken that $4 ceiling. When and who can pay $4 for a gallon of milk? Maybe if that's not a staple of your pantry. We are currently going through about 2.5 gallons a week. We could push that way up if we tried.

Other things in the dirt cheap category include broccoli (48 cents a bunch last week) , and local-type produce. Grapes are usually cheap. For the past month it seemed they were giving away watermelons (whole, seedless, less than $2 per). I haven't been here long enough to really tune into the market fluctuations, and I no longer get paid to track the grocery prices obsessively -time was I could give you prices for all dairy products in a three state radius. Now? I still have the time, maybe, to do that. I don't get paid for it though, and I see no real need for that level of knowledge when I'm living as close to the smack-dab center of California as I care to come. According to the weather-lady's map, Fresno is the red dot in the middle of the state-shape. We're a hair or two south.

Centrally located. Does that mean that we're average? And if we're average, when can I expect to see gas prices coming down beyond $2.70 ever again in my lifetime? We just pushed past the 3-dollar mark again. Hence, my renewed commitment to those paid postings. No offense, people, but every little bit helps. Besides, I really do want and need to get a new diaper pail in the house. This week will pay for that, and a case of diapers, and possibly even a domain. Mama wants a new website. One that's hers. One she can shamelessly whore to the public while getting her nuttiness out into the open. Does then mean my kids will be less embarassed by me as tweens and teens? I'm not insane enough to think so.

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