Hello? Anyone still out there?

Twice in the past few weeks I mentioned I am a “former food blogger”. I thought I should check to see what’s what with this little blog of mine, and found I still own the domain name, and my stats show that there’s still steady traffic to the site, although I think the traffic is bots and AI creatures lurking in the depths of the net.

It’s been 4 years since my last post. It was November 2020, and we were in the throws of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are now post-pandemic and our world is different. I could easily dwell on the post apocalyptic vibe I feel every once in a while…. Trump elected and holding hands with Elon Musk, the war in Ukraine, the homelessness crisis, the drugs, the violence….. and the cost of butter.

Let’s dwell on the cost of butter. Pre-pandemic, we thought we were getting a deal if we found butter on sale for $2.99. The norm was under $4.00 a pound. Today, butter, and I’m talking butter-butter, not margarine, can be found ON SALE for $8.49 a pound! And that’s not even fancy butter one can get from cows that frolic in flowered meadows in New Zealand who have their teats squeezed by the slender fingers of a woodland fairy who is singing a vaporous melody in harmony with the earth’s vibration. No, we are talking mass produced, machine squeezed and processed butter.

Michael and I are not hoarders, and live a very simple, clutter free lifestyle. Mostly. There are a few exceptions. If we don’t have a Costco sized pallet of toilet paper in the storage room, we feel vulnerable. We were laughing like maniacs when the pandemic hit and people went nuts to get their hands on toilet paper. We had a storage room full of it! Bwah ha ha suckers!

The other is butter. We are Toast People. And what do you put on toast? Butter! The two of us go through an alarming amount of butter, and if our freezer isn’t full of butter, that feeling of free fall, destitution and panic starts to set in.

This morning, we were down to 4 lbs of butter in the freezer. The anxiety started to set in so did a check of the Flipp app to see if it was sale. Low and behold this week Walmart has it on sale for $4.88 a pound. Still ridiculously high in price, but the cheapest we’ve seen it in ages. We have seen other sales, but if you aren’t crashing down the door at store opening, the shelves are often bare.

Yes, this is a first world problem, but it’s my problem, and I am tired, as most are, with the increasing prices of our day-to-day living. Michael and I have turned it into a challenge, and simply refuse to pay full price for a pound of butter. We scour apps and flyers and stores for sales, and when we find butter on sale, as we did today, we get a little thrill.

In case think I’m kidding about our “freezer full of butter”, observe for yourself: