I am the master of my groceries
- Melissa Herrera: Not Waiting for Friday
- April 13, 2025
- 667
I’m not an economist or an import/export expert. What I do know a lot about are groceries.
I know that right now I have a small amount of milk in a gallon jug with a half-gallon backup. There are approximately 20 eggs in the fridge and six sticks of butter. My half & half quart is nearly empty with a backup beside it. We go through one per week. I have five rolls of toilet paper under the bathroom sink plus an unopened package in the storage closet. I need more paper towels.
Most of my adult life has involved keeping track of groceries and the things that filled up my house. At any given moment I could tell one of my kids or husband where and how much they could find of any given thing. Anyone living in this country, rich or poor, should have a tactile relationship with groceries and what they entail.
I am an expert on the things I buy to sustain a household. I’m also a member of Costco, where I buy large packs of croissants, as well as a Dollar Tree shopper, where I buy my toothpaste and mouthwash and q-tips and cotton balls. It’s called Dollar Tree, but everything is $1.25 now, that extra .25 tacked on four years ago to offer the customer “more of a variety of products.” OK.
I’m an equal opportunity shopper.
My daughter was home for a short visit and, of course, we went thrifting. We discussed buying new versus thrifted clothing. I have slowly switched to mostly thrifted clothing over the past several years. She is mostly the same except for a purchase here and there as a treat. We’re both of the mind that buying secondhand is more sustainable with a huge selection to sort from. The bevy of jeans and coats and sweaters and tops (barely used) is so high we would never be able to wear them all.
When it comes to certain products we use for the home, that’s where the difference comes in. I buy toothpaste at the dollar store, and she buys the kind that whitens. More money, maybe a nicer product. I sat with myself after we chatted about me being unable to upgrade products because I’m content with the ones I use. Maybe it’s how I learned to shop when we had less that doesn’t allow me to upgrade now. I’m ok with crunching through it in my mind. I still won’t buy expensive toothpaste just for the luxury of it. I’m OK with that.
Last year, all I could hear was how bad the economy was. Eggs! Eggs! Eggs! And I wonder how anyone feels at this now precarious moment in time when our tied to the stock market savings are plunging into the abyss. I wonder if anyone wishes that booming economy — despite the perceived notion that it wasn’t booming — was back again.
Egg prices are fluctuating because the avian flu has decimated the birds, and they’ll rebound, or we will get used to paying a bit more. We eat a lot of eggs, and I’ll pay that price. Eggs are a staple in this household for lunch or supper. The economy is a much harder thing to make rebound once it’s tanked. It’ll take years and years.
I’m still a thrift and dollar store shopper. I may never change my habits. I’m OK with that. But very soon, many of the products I buy will begin to rise because of tariffs, even at the level of plastic Easter baskets I buy for my grandsons, and we will see what I have to reevaluate then. I can’t imagine how it will hit others. It’s going to touch everyone.
Melissa Herrera is a reflective writer who captures the beauty and sorrow of change. With a career spanning 14 years as an opinion columnist and the publication of two books, she resides in Stark County with her husband and four cats. She writes to preserve memories. You can reach her at junkbabe68@gmail.com.