LOW price of RAW

[rawpriestess]

I was at Costco yesterday, picking up a few things, and I made a note of some of the prices, as it was being talked about so recently.

5 pound bag of huge limes $3.97
5 pound bag of gorgeous lemons $3.97
5 pound bag of juicy oranges with seeds $5.97
5 pound bag of white sweet onions $5.97
3 pound bag of almonds $15.87
3 pound bag of walnuts $8.97
2 pound bag of pinenuts $9.99
4 pounds bananas $1.29
1 huge fantastic pineapple (really big)$3.67
6 hearts of romaine lettuce $2.67
6 huge red peppers (huge, each was the size of two regulars)$5.97

Also, we don't use our stove or oven, so electric bill for single story 2400 square foot home is $80 per month (and we are using two small heaters 24 hours a day, plus hot tub and sauna, and hot water tank, fridge, and freezer.)

No dishsoap to wash greesy pots and pans, no scrubbers to wash greesy pots and pans, no scrapers, etc.

No doctors, emergency rooms, insurance co-pays, no doc in the box, no medications, no flu symptom relief medication, over or under the counter LOL, no kleenex, no cough syrup, no sore throat lozenges, no headache cures, no tooth paste, no shampoo, no deoderant, no soaps, cosmetics, creams, lotions or salves, no shavers, or after shave, no hairsprays or bleach, or dyes, or creams or conditioners, or dandruff stuff, no make up removers, no makeup, no downy, no fabric softener sheets, no laundry soap, no bleach, no chemicals, no mop and glo, no mop HAHA, no floor wax, no furniture wax, no widow cleaner, no flu shots, no nothing.

no trivets, no pot holders, no burnt fingers, no burn salve, no bandaids, no neo-sporin, no searching endless aisle upon endless aisle of medications to cure some detox symptom, thought to be a "cold".

When I was at Costco, I walked through the aisles, and I saw, litterally thousands of products I have never seen, badaids with medicine in them? Not only so unnecessary but how lazy, some kind of "swiffer" which is a paper/fabric mop piece that has some kind of cleaner in it? again, how unnecessary and how lazy, I just get on my knees with a rag, and wipe the floor. sheesh

I saw diaper wipes, hand wipes, furnitue wipes, like how hard is it to pour some cleaner on a cloth and wipe? But then I don't even use cleaners, I use vinegar and hydrogen peroxide, I used to use bleach and amonion, (not together though LOL).

Wow, our society is insane.

I saw people with crackers and cheese in little packages all ready cut, and I saw apples in packages allready cut into slices, I'm telling you, this is so foreign, I feel like I am from another planet.

I saw pudding in little plastic cups, and little lunchables, a piece of cheese, a piece of meat and a couple of crackers, I mean again, how hard is it to cut this stuff up? Although I would never eat that stuff, you think if someone really had no time to cut this stuff up, they would just eat an apple.

Anyway, it was very interesting going to the store, and actually looking at what was for sale.

I was amazed at how little Dragggon and I actually buy, compared to the rest of the world.

[Kris]

RP,

I have the same feeling when I go into a conventional grocery store. Although we don't grow our own food (we try, but we suck at it!!), we do shop either at outdoor farmers' markets or at a tiny, mostly organic market downtown near our place. The only areas of the store we ever even enter are bulk (for nuts, grains, dried fruits), produce (and in this store, very often they ONLY have organics), and the freezer section (for frozen fruits).

Not too long ago, my hubby and I tried to shop in a regular supermarket, and found the whole experience so overwhelming that we had to ditch our basket and leave. Seriously! All the perfect (scary) looking, waxed fruits arranged in pyramids, all the millions and billions of processed foods that hide what's in them so you buy based on what the package looks like, not the food itself...it all seemed very weird and foreign. It just freaked us out that every single apple looked identical, and that half the food in the store you couldn't even SEE because it was covered in advertising and ridiculous amounts of packaging.

We do still buy things like shampoo and toothpaste, but our organic market only carries 1 brand of each, so the entire aisles of personal care products seemed outrageous to us. And we do buy our own version of "convenience" foods, like organic pre-washed spinach for our smoothies. But I find all the pre-cut things freaky as well. Did you know that you can now buy pre-cut, vacuum sealed avocado, covered in chemicals to keep it from turning brown in the package, and pay more for it than the real thing? Why???

The best part is, when I get in line with a basket full of bananas and a case of coconuts, the lady buying mock crab meat and fat free cheese sticks looks at me like I'm a nutcase. What a crazy world we live in. :o

Edited to add: I realize that RP was talking about the cost of food, not the scariness of grocery stores, but her long list of things she doesn't need got me going...

[nuttie]

fabulous post RP & Kris. I totally agree with you both. I am new to this way of eating and my family hasn't quite adapted to my new methods as I try to "take -out - the -old" and "bring - in - the - new" foodstuff to our pantry and kitchen. You totally hit the mark! I'm going to print out your remarks RP and leave it on the kitchen table for my crew to "find". Maybe it will inspire them :rolleyes:

[Autumn]

Rawpriestess,
Wow. I had to giggle a bit at your experience. Makes you feel like you were dropped onto another planet, huh? :D

I have been amazed for years at the extent of "convenience" foods in our grocery stores. I never understood it either. Probably because I was not raised on convenience foods. They were expensive and my parents wouldn't buy them. Plus, we didn't like the taste of fake, powdered "cheese" or or "special sauces" that you added water to. My mom cooked from scratch, so we really didn't get into that stuff (although we did eat SAD).

What is nice is not having to hunt all over the stores for your purchases. In and out, it's sooooooo simple now! We just hit 2 or 3 aisles and we're finished! We can shop for a week's worth of food in 20 minutes-not an hour or more.

One thing I want to add to your low cost of RAW, which I think is HUGE, is the amount of TIME that is saved when you are RAW. Sure some of the gourmet foods take a bit longer to prepare (but if you uncook gourmet raw, you were probably cooking gourmet "cooked"), but one can save a huge amount of time when one eats simply (how fast is it to grab an apple, make a smoothie, blend a pudding, toss a salad?), time in the market, unpacking groceries, defrosting food, eating in restaurants, scrubbing pots and pans, cleaning the kitchen, hauling out all the garbage and recycling the packaging. Time is money, too, especially when one has a home business and needs to spend their time billing hours. :D

[rawpriestess]

Dragggon usually does all our shopping in a store, as I simply can't handle all the "energy" just too much information.

So, the reason this is so foreign to me, is because I've never seen it before.

I mean I have gone into the store, and gone straight to the produce aisle, then straight to the checkout, but rarely and I just don't like to go shopping, it seems so useless, I never buy anything anyway.

We went to buy hydrogen peroxide, and baking soda for more un-skunking, so I was actually in the medicine aisle, oh my goodness, aisle after aisle, how could anyone really buy this stuff?

I do have to confess, (because Dragggon told me I had to) tell you all that I do have to read the gossip rags, I never buy them, but I do have to find out which alien nation is kidnapping Oprah this week.

Although, I haven't seen one in a while. I did see that Jen Anniston and Brad Pitt are getting a divorce, which was REALLY shocking because I didn't know they were married. LOL

So, the next time you see the portrait of the Bat boy, think of me, as I will be reading that rag in some line somewhere in a store in a galaxy far far away. LOL :)

*************
And just so everyone is clear on this, even 37 years ago, when my son was born, I never once used a paper diaper, or a wipe, I carried olive oil and washcloths with me in a little baggy, and I used all cloth diapers, and I didn't have a washer or a dryer, my bathtub was my washing machine, and my garage, with ropes from wall to wall was our dryer.

And life was good. :)

[shakalover]

your post made me laugh, rawpriestess, in a good way. it's amazing (and amusing) about all the unnatural products that are out there.

[Sharon in Colorado]

I did see that Jen Anniston and Brad Pitt are getting a divorce, which was REALLY shocking because I didn't know they were married. LOL





Oh honey that is old news. Old I tell you! Brad hooked up with another starlet - Angie Jolie - on a set (what's new - they always meet on sets). Did you know that the Sitcom Friends has been over with for over a year now? LOL - it's crazy. I get the news from my mother's husband's son who is a papparazi.

Here's his latest:
http://paparazzihenry.blogspot.com/2005/11/paparazzi-henrys-star-encounters-11805.html

[ren]

I started noticing the same stuff too. I own a swiffer broom which comes in handy for cleaning the marble tile. I don't buy the refills though. I take old towels and reuse them. I'm sure the Swiffer corporation didn't intend for me to recycle :D

What do you use in place of toiletries? I've been brushing my teeth with peroxide till I get paid tomorrow and can buy my Edgar Cacye tooth powder.

I also don't magazines anymore. I love this thread because it's reminding me how I've begun looking at what I buy and what other people buy as well.

[RawFoodieMom]

RP, what a great post. I love it when you remind us how little being raw has to cost. It truly is amazing how much people will throw away for a tiny little box with like 6 crackers and a couple of squares of meat and cheese when they can buy whole packages of meat, cheese and crackers and have enough to make dozens of little packages to last the whole week. It's crazy. The MOST amazing thing to me is those little individual tubs of the prepared jello in the fridge section. Holy moly who on earth buys those? You pay several dollars for 4 or 6 little individual things of jello when you can buy the little package of powder for like 50 cents? And make like a huge bowl of it which would make at least a dozen little thingees? :eek: :rolleyes: I've never been a jello fan anyway. Water, sugar and food colouring? Gross.

I hope you don't mind if I ask, but I would love to know what you do use to wash your clothes? I would LOVE to stop using commercial laundry soap, since I developed an allergy to Tide while I was pregnant, so I really wonder what the heck is really in that stuff. :confused: Also what do you use in place of deodorant, if anything?

Debra

[mindelicious]

RP are the fruits and veggies you bought from Costco organic at that price? I have never been to a Costco so I am curious--the closest one is an hour away--I don't want to waste a trip.
Thanks

[rawpriestess]

mindelicious:
no they are not organic, if you are juicing this is a good thing as the toxins sit in the fibers of the foods. I usually grow our own, but we do buy some organic when need by, and even some from Costco, we didn't buy all of this stuff, I just checked out the prices for y'all.

Rawfoodiemom:

Hi, Jello is not just water, sugar and food coloring it is also animal hooves, that is what makes it jiggle (ICK)

Laundry soap, I don't use any, you can use just water, but I actually use a disc thingy, cost $50 to buy, and we only do about 2 loads a month, we are nudists, so do one load for sheets, and one load for colored clothes, mostly sox and a couple pair of jeans a couple shirts for Dragggon, I don't wear much at all.

For deoderant I use vinegar, works great, no odor no matter what I am doing, even working really hard outside in the summer in our gardens.
so easy too.

ren:
I don't use tooth paste, on occasion, (like when I remember) I use 35% food grade hydrogen peroxide to brush my teeth, honey to wash, face, body and hair, olive oil for skin lotion, nothing else. That is it.

I also use honey for dishes, the ONLY cleaners in my house are hydrogen peroxide and vinegar.

I don't use anything else.

Sharon in Colorado,
I have seen one episode of Friends, it looked pretty cute. I only get videos occasionally, and when I do, I mostly watch movies, although I did see some desperate housewives --very clever, and some Lost--I liked that, but wouldn't that have been a great thing to talk about coconut milk as blood plasma, and raw food to make everyone healthier etc. Oh well. But that is it.

And everyon, thanks for the kind words. Sometimes I realize how different my life is than so many others. I love my life, I just live it, but every once in a while, I think about the rest of the world, and wonder, because, I really think I'm going to move to a whole differenet world all together.

That island is looking better and better.