The score at half-time

[rolanni]

Braved the puddles and the rain-slicked ice to drive to the grocery store. Advertised gasoline price at Bob's Country Market, $3.58 for Regular -- and a bargain it is, compared to Libby's Store, selling Da Reg at $3.59.

At the grocery, the 2/$5 loaves are now 2/$6 loaves. I sense a trend. Obviously, we need to get back to making our own bread.

So anyway, back home now, the groceries stowed, and the checkbook wiped out. Steve says fish for dinner; I say, why not?

In the meantime, I'm for the couch, 30-ish pages of "Intelligent Design" and a red pen in hand. I expect the Coon Cat Editorial Team to offer their usual weighty assistance.

Oh! Today -- well, tonight -- is the First Day of the Sleep Diary. I'm thinking I'd better delegate that to Scrabble, or it won't get done.

Comments

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

indeed, i recently bought a bread machine, the better to make my own darn bread.

$4/loaf hmph.

Bread

[(Anonymous)]

A really really easy recipe for chewy on the inside, crunchy crust bread at http://www.stabenow.com/2010/03/05/random-friday-32610
Only hard part is you need a Dutch oven. Perhaps easy to find in Maine? I got mine at the Pickens flea market for $5, a little cleaning and re-seasoning and it was good to go.
It is great bread, if you try it once you'll be hooked!
Sue H in SC

[(Anonymous)]

I guess we are lucking out here. I just paid $ 3.17 for unleaded at Costco but it is more usually $3.25 in our little mountain town. Bread prices are interesting. Unless I buy a 50lb bag of flour, I can't make it to match the store prices. Bought Rudi's Gluten Free today at Costco for $2.50 a loaf. Gluten free flour from Red Mill will cost me 5 bucks a loaf. No way we can afford to make bread even if it tastes way better. Jenny from CO

[grassrose.livejournal.com]

How do these prices compare?
http://www.nutsonline.com/gluten-free/cookingbaking/flours/?gclid=CNm8-Ka-vKcCFaFk7Aodxwe3Bw
There are other bulk gluten-free flour sites, but we've ordered other things from these folks, and they're nice. Another site I saw (but haven't ordered from) is http://www.ener-g.com/

[(Anonymous)]

That is the great thing about the recipe I shared. You use regular plain flour, a tiny bit of yeast, salt, sugar, and water. That's it.
One loaf costs about $1 in ingredients, and takes less time (in aggregate) to prepare than stopping at the grocery store to buy bread.
Sue H in SC

[6-penny.livejournal.com]

If you are planning any slightly longer driving check the AAA web site - they not only list average gas prices for a town, but give a station by station breakdown for the stations surveyed. When I am going anywhere off of my habitual routes - I find that it can be rewarding to check and maybe hold off on filling up the tank at the start of the drive.

[doushkasmum.livejournal.com]

If it makes you feel better a quick conversion shows that petrol around these parts works out at $5.49 (assuming you are measuring in US liquid gallons. It is sold here by the litre, today at $1.45)

Price of Gasoline

[claire774.livejournal.com]

I heard piece on TV that reported the the price of gas in England is $9.00 a gallon. Same report said that a different more expensive kind of oil is refined there so gas ends up more expensive at the pump. Is that true.... anyone? Lots of electric car models coming out this year. But so far no electric light four wheel drive trucks even on the horizon. Woe is me.

The Naughty dog Gang really admires the hard work of the Coon Cat Editorial Team. Barks from them.
C.

Re: Price of Gasoline

[keristor.livejournal.com]

The UK average price of regular unleaded here is around GBP 1.31 per litre (as of last Thursday). At GBP 1.00 == USD 1.63 (xe.com) that's USD 2.13 per litre. That comes out at around USD 8.06 per US gallon.

However, this is an average for regular unleaded. Diesel is around 1.34, high octane unleaded higher and special diesel versions higher still. In some places in the UK it will indeed be exceeding USD 9 per US gallon.

Most of the price of our fuel is tax. We pay two taxes on petrol (and on diesel), the biggest being 'duty' which (on unleaded) is around 1.4 times the cost of the product. Then there's VAT (sales tax) on top of both (yes, a tax on a tax). So out of a litre of petrol only some 32% is actually the price of the product. (http://www.petrolprices.com/fuel-tax.html)

This is the big difference between UK and the rest of Europe, the tax rates differ. Not as much as they used to, but in general unleaded is about the same in Germany and France (possibly a little cheaper depending on the Euro/Pound rate) and diesel a fair bit cheaper (here diesel is typically 2-4p per litre more expensive than unleaded).

With respect to the oil -- the oil we produce locally is not the right type for our refineries, so we sell it and have to import the correct type (I don't know the details). This does mean that yes, we are at the mercy of Middle-Eastern oil pricing.

As far as electric vehicles go, we've used those for longer than I've been alive -- for local milk delivery trucks. As far as I can see that's still all it's useful for, as far as most people are concerned, because the distances cars will go on a charge are just too small and the recharge times are way too long. Filling stations aren't going to be interested in installing charging points, beacuse instead of each car staying there for 10 minutes or so they'd be staying for hours which would mean a lot of parking space and restaurant and other facilities. Possibly if someone comes up with a standard battery fitting so that the batteries could just be swapped out for charged ones (paying for the charge and the wear on the battery) it could be financially possible, but at the moment every make is different.

Flours for gluten-free bread

[(Anonymous)]

If you have an oriental food market near where you live, it might be worth your while to check it out and see if they sell rice flour and tapioca flour. I have been purchasing my rice flour and tapioca flour at local oriental food stores for years, and it is a lot less expensive than purchasing the same ingredients through Bob's Red Mill, although prices have gone up a bit in the last few months. Regular white rice flour is now $1.09/lb.; it used to be $0.99/lb. Tapioca flour is now $1.29/lb; it used to be $0.89/lb. If I have to purchase any expensive flours from Bob's Red Mill, I go for the ones I use in lesser quantities, such as the teff flour.

M.C. Thomson
Harrisburg, PA