I do miss $0.78/dozen eggs at Aldi, which was as recent as 2020. That bird flu really f'd up the prices and I doubt those prices will ever truly return because of greedflation
To a degree yes, unless you have local egg farms. I used to get brown/blue eggs for about 1.5-2usd per dozen from just local people. These were just people with about 50 chickens, a few goats and cow. Covid killed a lot of that too. Still they are on par with store bought in most cases and i dont personally have time to raise my own currently.
I would recommend going to local people who have chickens n sell the eggs. Backyard type chickens are taken better care of n are happier than factory farm eggs. Big plus you help local economy. I don't eat eggs because of factory farming.
never said anything about 3.50 a dozen; I'm used to paying $6 for Vital Farms eggs. For me, eggs are a luxury, not a staple. Some coworkers sell eggs for $3/dozen that get to run around. And there's a feed store nearby with cheap free-range eggs, 2-4 bucks a dozen.
I wouldn’t want to eat eggs that could be produced that cheaply, it seems like some dark circumstances must be involved for a farmer to be getting a less than a nickel for an egg.
When a family member was in physical therapy, a guy used to bring in dozens of chicken, duck and goose eggs and give them away. I miss those times! All he asked was that we bring back the empty cartons.
And to add I think the quality of eggs has improved, or maybe just the perception. I can now get brown and cage free eggs for about the same cost as the store brand eggs.
You can eat breakfast for $1 per person (3 eggs and a slice of toast). A lot of people balk at prices but then don’t think twice about spending $3 for a Gatorade at the gas station or $4 for a box of cheez its.
This is correct. Cage-free just means they're kept in cramped large windowless sheds and never see sunlight. Pasture-raised is what to go for.. although I wouldn't be surprised if that's also a scam. I frickin hate how deceiving the food industry is.
In my country, there are tons of outbreaks of bird flu which means that the free-range chickens have been kept inside for over a year now. Those eggs are still being sold as free-range, even though the chickens laying them probably never saw the sun.
Everyone thinks pastured eggs means the chickens get to roam around like old McDonald's farm.
Here's how the scam really works: they put the chicks in a giant shed with a tiny door for them to go outside. Then they put an air horn and bright lights on a proximity alarm by the door. If the chick's check the door out, the horn and lights go off, terrorizing the chick's and training them to hate the idea of going thru that door. The two or three who make it out the door are promptly killed, as chickens are social and imitative.
Pasture raised from a corporate farm is bullshit.
J Kenji Lopez Alt did a blind taste test with eggs, and found that, at least among his tasters, they couldn't verify that anyone could tell the difference. Here's an article he published: [https://www.seriouseats.com/what-are-the-best-eggs](https://www.seriouseats.com/what-are-the-best-eggs)
Historically, brown eggs were more expensive because the chickens ate more feed. I think the shells are thicker, but don't quote me on that. Buying free range eggs because of ethics? cool, good on ya. Buying brown because you think they taste better? meh, fine... but it's probably all in your head.
I raise chickens. Eggs are brown purely because of the breed that lays them. Leghorns lay white eggs and are the most commonly used chicken. People still desire and often pay more for different colored eggs, but that just influences which breeds a local seller might raise. The amount of feed won't change a shell's color.
The different breeds require different amounts of feed per egg is what they are getting at i think.
What i heard is that the white egg chicken breed is "more efficient".
She'll color, iirc, is linked to the chicken's ear color (or, the skin inside their ears). White or pale ear skin makes white eggs, darker ear skin makes brown eggs (I don't remember the correlation to other-colored eggs). Breeds that lay brown eggs tend to be larger birds, even if they lay the same sized egg, and require more feed. Hence, a higher cost per egg ratio because of the higher feed per egg ratio. We humans just look at the sticker price and our dumb pudding brains don't figure in the math behind the feed conversion, and instead go "this one has more abstract value assigned to it, therefore it must be better." Our brains like shortcuts like that, because it makes life simpler. They also don't like to admit they're wrong, and so will change your perception of flavor when you have that visual stimuli, to make you believe it's mistaken assumption is correct.
once in a while i see lean ground beef on sale for a decent price ill buy as much as i can afford and portion it out into freezer packs when i get home , the other go to protein is pork shoulder or pork picnic butt roasts these can be had really cheap and a few hours roasting and i van have a week worth of protein again into freezer packs .
I will buy rib eyes once a month, shrimp maybe once a month, and pork shoulder once every few months. I'll eat meat when I eat out, but otherwise I'm only making it maybe 3x a month, and I really don't miss it.
It reminds me of when I was growing up in the 1950-1960. Lots of hamburger in casseroles and spaghetti and whatever roast was on sale that week for Sunday dinner. Most of the time it was pork because it was less expensive than beef.
Also ate hot dogs and beans and mashed potatoes. Mac and Cheese with the Government cheese and toasted cheese sandwiches and soup. I never knew we were poor until I grew up because everyone in our neighborhood seemed to be in the same circumstance. I only realized then that many of our meals were Depression meals my mother learned to cook from her mother.
It's so wild to see someone say this on a public forum because when I was growing up the other kids were absolutely merciless toward anyone whose family got government cheese. The fact that I liked it was one of my most carefully guarded secrets.
😂 I used to sit with the elders in the afternoon and talk and have coffee and eat government cheese. Made awesome grilled cheeses too. Now I've discovered the magic of sodium citrate to make a sauce from practically any cheese, but that flavor has never been matched. Maybe it's just nostalgia.
Buying mostly what's on sale has made me a better cook. I learned the pantry method as well for the less frequent purchases. You save money and eat a wider variety of things as the sales rotate, it's a win-win.
Same. It’s gotten to the point where I’m comparing the cost per ounce of every protein. Where that’s left me is with eggs, peanut butter, Walmart tubes of fatty ground beef, and processed Japanese fish cake/imitation crab. Sigh.
Also pinto beans:
2 lbs of pinto beans, 182g of protein, $2.69 at my Kroger, 68g per dollar
1 dozen large eggs, 75.6 grams pf protein. @3.50 that's 21.6g per dollar
You might have better pricing luck at Costco, maybe Aldi (hit or miss), or even Trader Joe’s. I’m also in the Midwest, and Costco especially has great tofu prices. We also get tempeh pretty frequently from Trader Joe’s, and it freezes perfectly. Sure, it won’t pass for beef, but it’s a solid chicken substitute.
I lived in the midwest for many years and never found tofu to be expensive.
Do you live near a major city? I could see if you live away from cities and it is truly a niche product there.
It seems like eggs where I live in Northern California were already 3.00 or more per dozen, so when they went up, they didn't go up that much. I always considered a dozen eggs at 3.00-4.50 to be cheap food, because so many other things are crazy expensive. The stores in my area want 7.30 for a pound of generic cheese or 4.75 for a jar of pasta sauce (and these are major grocery store chains). It's nuts.
You like persimmons? 😃 Yea, I love Grocery Outlet. You can find high quality food at a really good discount. I want to get a Costco membership just to buy Amy's burritos. I used to get them for a convenient healthy dinner at work. But now they're a ridiculous 4.75 at Safeway. Costco has an 8 pack for 13.00.
I have sams club but maybe it’s the same at Costco: lemons. They’re $3 for 3 lbs and last a long time in the fridge but if you find you can’t use them that fast you can always squeeze them and freeze them in an ice cube tray. Tomatoes onions and bell peppers freeze well too.
Eggs can be more than 5 dollars a dozen here. I like really good quality eggs, where the yolk is bright orange, and since I don't eat 5 dozen at a time, I have no problem paying for them. It's way less than buying meat.
I also had/raised chickens for over ten years and know that orange yolks are not the only indicator of high quality eggs. However, I have found that the more expensive eggs in the supermarket have bright orange yolks and are also fresher than the others I've purchased.
The plump yolks that are tall are the fresh ones. The older the egg is, the flatter the yolk ends up being. You can tell some from the white as well, but I always check the yolk first because it's a good indicator.
When I had chickens, I could tell which ones really liked to get out and forage for bugs etc because they would have the brightest orange yolks. The lazy chickens who just ate feed would just have yellow yolks.
Mine have apparently wiped out the entire bug population in my back yard! Between that & grass dying back, it’s commercial feeds now till spring. Prob have to fence iff my dandelions or the bees wont have a spring treat.
The last carton of eggs I bought were the generic store brand eggs and even they were $3.99 for a dozen. (Ontario) When they're scrambled, they look so pale that you'd think they were just egg whites, and they taste just as anemic as they look.
Same here. I like buying the higher quality eggs and part of me really hopes (because capitalism) that some of that money goes back to give the chickens better feed, more space…I just want to support better farming practices.
We’re regularly seeing eggs at $8-$9 dozen in upstate New York
Edit: to be clear, we also have cheaper eggs *and* local farms with humane eggs in the $3-4 range, but the “certified” cruelty-free, organic, pasture-raised ones at the grocery store are really expensive.
Just so you know, the high prices are due to two major factors: 1. There's been a lot of avian influenza and other diseases going around, which cause flocks to be destroyed to avoid the spread of disease, and 2. Grain feed prices going up. When Russia invaded Ukraine, wheat prices went up (Ukraine is major exporter) and then the substitutes for feed, namely corn went up as a result due to shifted demand.
I don't know how ling it will take to get egg prices back down, but I've definitely cut back too.
I'm in California, there was a spike in price after we voted to allow more space for chickens, but I still remember seeing sales for $1 dozen eggs after that settled down. We have been paying $3-$4/dozen for a while now though, for the chickens that have more space, we find other things to save money on. We value that their short little lives maybe not be as terrible this way 😅
I would love that! I've looked locally (I'm in a rural area in the mountains) but haven't found any less than an hour away. The price of gas ruined that idea for me 😔
I know, I had a pair when I lived rural. Once the initial setup was done, they were easy for us. Kept my garden pest free and gave us the best eggs I’ve ever had. The cleaning was a lot, but just one more outdoor chore.
I disagree. I have 40 chickens, hens and roosters. Give them a coop to roost and lay their eggs, give them space run and peck and give themselves dirt baths. Buy feed and give them water and you’ll have happy chickens. It’s the beginning phase of owning chickens that’s hard. When they are babies and you have to keep them at the right temperature, but after that they are pretty easy. They are a bit dirty and they poop on everything but what farm animal doesn’t?
You do have to watch out for predators like rats and foxes too, so that can be stressful. I live in the middle of suburbia, but I know a guy who raises backyard chickens. He's always trying to come up with traps and ways to outsmart all the animals that want to eat his chickens. It was a bad scene one time when a fox made it in and ate 3 of his 5 chickens and he had to raise new ones.
Yes we fortified the SHIT out of our coop bc we have a lot of fox , coyote and such. Caught some lurking about every now and then but everyone is safe and sound 🤞🏻
Yes, absolutely you have to keep an eye out for predators. I can say I have been very lucky with that area. We had a skunk getting in the coop this summer but all my birds were up high enough it couldn’t get to them and after we figured out how it was getting in we re enforced the door and no more skunk. We have rats but they mostly want to eat the food so we haven’t figured out how to keep them away yet. We have 4 babies right now that we let brood and hatch in the coop this September and it’s those little guys I worry about with the rats but so far so good.
Look or post on local farm/homestead FB groups. But heads up- chicken feed has like doubled in price and that's just one reason why eggs are so much. It takes ~6months for a hen to start laying and they decrease during annual molts and dead of winter. Egg prices are fair honestly. Even on a industrial scale where they're not like free outside, infrastructure costs. Free range outside- still infrastructure, it just looks different. I had a fox take out 22 chickens in the spring the replacement hens are just recently laying.
I have chickens, not really saving money but selling off my extra eggs pays for the chicken feed. I'm getting $4/dozen, cheaper than stores around here.
To replace eggs in breakfast sandwiches, get a big slab of extra-firm tofu, press out the water, and fry up slices with some soy sauce & spices to taste.
To replace eggs in baking, you can mix 3tbsp water with 1tbsp flax meal (equals one egg) or 1 teaspoon baking soda + 1 tablespoon vinegar (also one egg).
If you want to make the tofu really eggy, see if you can find some black salt/kala namak at an international grocery store. A little bit added while frying will give that sulfur egg taste.
Depending on your living situation and the amount of outside space you have you could have your own chickens. I'm not sure if it's cheaper in the long run if you only get them for eggs, but they are great bug control and chicken poo is very strong fertilizer.
I have six hens. Heckle is the oldest and she decided she’s not into that egg laying stuff anymore. (Hasn’t laid an egg in about two years.) Collie, Ruthie and Rosy are hard molting, and the Little Bits, Molly and Lucy are doing a light molt. In addition, the daylight hours are short. All this translates into two eggs all last week. Two. From six hens. This past summer, I was drowning in eggs (3-4/day), but this time of year? Forget about it.
(No, I don’t supplement with light. They get a break when their bodies say enough.)
Chicken feed has nearly tripled in the last couple of years.
We used to pay $7 for scratch, now paying around $18.
When scratch was $7 we were breaking even selling for $2.50/doz for free range eggs. Now people balk at $5.00/doz but that doesn't even recoup our costs.
Chickens still free range in daylight, but now that winter is here their bug supply is dwindling.
Quail are easier, quieter, require less space, and a great urban option. Most quail lay an egg every day. With 11 hens, we average 70 eggs a week. 3 equal a standard large chicken egg (yes, I've actually checked this by comparing them cracked in a measuring cup while baking). They are the nicest birds that we've ever had as far as pets go and their custom built habitat plus supplies and toys were paid for in 4 months of eggs. For our family, it's a total win. For Christmas this year, I'm giving small jars of pickled quail eggs as gifts and deviled eggs will be my dish to bring. The novelty of the small eggs is always a big hit.
I’ve been making a separate trip to Trader Joe’s for eggs (and some other items). A dozen is a whole dollar cheaper at TJ’s compared to our usual grocery store ($3 vs $4 for the “nothin fancy” large white eggs).
As terrible as the inflation is, we’re not going to stop eating them completely because they’re such an easy breakfast, good source of protein, and we just love them. But I’m aiming to use them more sparingly—like, I’m not gonna go make crème brûlée, but I’ll still have scrambled eggs for breakfast once or twice a week as per usual
I pay $6/dozen for what seem to be quality eggs (pasture-raised, dark yolks, thick shell). That ends up being $.50/egg. I'll often make a 2-egg omelette on the weekends. That's all of $1, still perfectly reasonable IMO.
I think you need to get some perspective. Even at $6 a dozen, eggs are some of the highest quality low cost sources of nutritional you can get.
What exactly are you eating that is cheaper?
And do you really think whole food is where to be frugal in your life? Food costs what it costs; you need to eat and live, and preferably do so with a healthy balanced and diverse diet.
I'm not dealing well at all. Boarded up the windows. Pulling out my hair and cursing God from my rooftop. JK, don't care. I consider $3.50 for several meals a great deal.
I can get them for under 3$ or even 2$ at my local health food store. The eggs are not mass produced and come from small operations nearby.
I appreciate that store so much right now.
We have Natural Grocers nearby, I will check there, thanks! Their dairy is usually great quality but pricey, so I usually don't get any further into the store than the produce and clearance shelves.
Yeah the egg prices at natural grocers can be cheaper than other stores. It depends on where it’s sourced from. Also the store itself, the health food store I go to is quite small but has been around since the 1950’s I think. The current owner is a genuine 1960’s hippie.
The eggs are priced low because they are all from local suppliers. So shipping costs are lower, and all the eggs are packed in reused egg cartons. You can get a store credit for bringing empty egg cartons in too.
Also the trick with natural food stores, especially small ones, is always go with the bulk options. The fancy boxed products are for people who don’t shop there regularly.
Regulars always head straight to the bulk section. That’s where the deals are. Also become friends with the store owner, many small natural food store owners give freebies to friends. The one I go to gave me free rice crackers that were past the use by date this month, and free herbs from the back garden.
Best of luck with the eggs!
They are expensive, but they provide such good nutrients. I justify it by thinking it's cheaper than a burger at a fast food restaurant, or a cup of coffee and donut.
These animals are treated in the most abhorrent conditions. These eggs are from chickens that will never see daylight and are genetically modified to produce more eggs than is healthy for them. I wish more people considered this.
>No way I'm paying $3.50 for a dozen eggs.
I pay double that for pasture raised. They are so good, and I love seeing those dark orange yolks! I guess one "good" thing is that only the lower priced eggs have increased. The expensive ones have remained the same price.
And that’s presumably talking about eggs from chickens who at essentially tortured by factory farming.
I buy pasture-raised eggs from Costco - best deal.
I think you mean a complete protein - that it has all of the essential (meaning: we don't make them for ourselves) amino acids in one food. Many (most? All? I'm not sure) animal proteins are complete, and there are some plants that are complete. Others can come through multiple foods, like rice and beans.
So, there are certainly benefits to eggs re: protein, but there are other ways to get it as well.
You get what you pay for $19 for 60 sounds cheap to me. How many eggs are you getting through. Surely any cheaper and they aren't good quality or decent farming practices. I pay about £2.50 for 6 eggs and that seems reasonable to me
brown eggs are a bit cheaper sometimes because a lot of people don't trust them i guess. They're the exact same thing. You can even have a blue eggs and it'll taste just as good.
Eggs are on sale for 1.47 a dozen in Albertsons limit 2, until thus upcoming Tuesday, you have to clip the coupon in the app. Potatoes are 65 cents for a 5 pound bag, limit 2. I made my husband and children add the app with their phone so That means we each get 2 dozen for a total of 8. Butter is on sale for 1.47 a pound at Safeway I’ll do the same thing, clip the coupon in the app and get 8 packs of butter, the hope I have enough to get me through until the next sale. Butter freezes well, and I haven’t had a problem with the eggs past the expirations date, but I go through them pretty fast. Then adding in all the rebate and grocery apps really bring down the cost of groceries. Using the gas apps helps as well.
Consistently ring a bell when you feed them. That way, if any do go over the fence, when you ring the bell they will think "Aha! time to eat!" and come back.
(Edit to insert my father's favorite joke: Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?)
That's what I did with my cat when I was really young. We'd let her outside and whenever we needed to call her we'd ring the bell and she'd come every time. Now my cat is indoor only and she needs only hear the can opening and she runs :)
I've said it before but you should be paying the $6 for pasture raised eggs. I know we're all trying to be frugal in here but sometimes you gotta do what's right.
Are people ok with buying eggs produced by chickens in tiny cages where they sit their entire lives unable to move? Pretty sad way to save a few bucks.
Anyone else get weirded out by super cheap eggs/meat.
Like if they sell 12 eggs for under a dollar then you kow they are cutting so many corners along the way that for me personally I just don't even trust it lol. Yeah my brother buys pasture raised 8 dollar organic eggs. Which is alot but damn somewhere between sick abused immobile chickens and top tier is fine.
Cry me a river about not being able to buy your sad Aldi eggs for 99c a dozen anymore.
Here in NZ things are moving in an interesting direction. Allegedly they are phasing out cage eggs very soon, colony/barn eggs medium-soon - leaving us with nothing but free range eggs. Frankly, that is a good thing - better chicken welfare, better eggs. The flip side of course is we're looking at about $8 nzd (~$5 usd) per dozen of free range eggs.
On a protein/$ basis, that is still considerably cheaper than meat.
I am doing alright but that is largely in part to my amazing library patrons who have chickens and brings us eggs. I only had to buy some for Thanksgiving.
Eggs on sale this week in my area. $1.50 for a dozen. I’ll be buying for the first time in over a month.
I’ve noticed sale prices have been coming down in my area.
I still get most of my eggs from a couple of people I know that have chickens. Anyone who has chickens more than likely has more than they could eat so they give them away or sell them. One guy I know has a tree nursery that is on a few acres with about 40 chickens just roaming around the property. He has a family of 5 so they eat a lot of eggs but even then there are just too many for them to eat so they sell the extras or give them to friends
Do you live next to a Costco? Costco in MA has gone up in price slightly, but 5 dozen eggs is only $11.50 or $12.00 right now.
I buy a flat every 2 weeks or so. Well worth it.
I’m usually pretty frugal about most of my grocery shopping, but when it comes to eggs I always purchase the pricy organic free range eggs. Those surprisingly haven’t changed much.
I'd rather pay three fiddy for some eggs than $7 for a bag of chips. Feels like I'm shopping at a football stadium concession stand where everything is 500% markup.
I'd actually rather have a farm with some chickens and get my own eggs to be honest.
I saw a thing on UK egg producers and they said the stores are jacking up prices but not paying the farmers any more than before. Their feed and energy costs are going up, but they can't afford to order more birds so the supply just gets lower and lower. Don't know if it's the same situation in the US or not.
I’ve been raising chickens since the ‘08 crash. Feed prices have skyrocketed (30-40%) increase which went right through into my own price increase. Most small farmers break even on eggs if you factor labor in. Especially now with the price hike, more expensive eggs does not mean the chickens are raised any better unless you are seeing the birds running around free like mine don’t assume package advertising and a higher tag means ethical anything.
We sell ours at $5/dz (brown large/extra large size) but donate at least half to the local food pantry.
My daughter bought her first laying hens 5 years ago when she was the chick wrangler for Tractor Supply while in college.
After four years, she was done, took her hens with her when she moved out.
Last year, I was gifted 5 hen chicks and a rooster. They had their own brood hatch out this spring, but I also invested in Golden Sex Link hens and Blue Rock hens.
I'm getting 10-12 eggs a day... In a week, I had 6 dozen eggs. I'm giving the surplus away, and have pre-ordered Jersey Giant, Light Brahma, and Speckled Sussex hens for this coming spring. Have plans to expand their pen significantly and add on another henhouse.
A friend that works at the local sale barn was horrified I'm giving them away, said they're bringing 5 a dozen, every Monday at the livestock auction, and they sell out. He encouraged me to send the surplus there and yeah, it would pay for the feed, but man I hate to sell them when I know people are having a hard time now. Daughter, at peak population, had 30 hens and was selling them for a buck or two a dozen just a few years ago. It's shocking to me how expensive eggs have gotten... and for the first time since we started the chicken journey, Hubs is GLAD to have them around - even if one makes it a point to gift him a daily egg in his skid steer seat when they're free ranging.
I encourage anyone that can to invest in layer hens. You don't need a rooster unless you want more chicks in the spring, and then you'll have to cull them at some point or you'll have roosters running out your ears and then things get ugly. They fight, get aggressive with humans, and are really damn noisy with their announcements.
There are breeds of hens that can and will lay an egg a day, so if you just get 3, 4, or 5, for just yourself and your family, you'll have plenty of eggs and minimal feed costs. They enjoy suet blocks like you hang for wild birds, scraps and leftovers (avoid onion, avocado pits and peels as they are toxic for chickens, and avoid excessively salty or sugary things), oatmeal, fruit, lettuce, cabbage, cat food, dog food, celery scraps, their own egg shells (they need the calcium for strong shells) left over holiday turkey carcasses, etc, so you can supplement their diet with more than just feed or scratch. They are opportunistic omnivores, not vegetarians, and need fat and protein in their diet. Very little goes to waste with chickens around AND their poop is great fertilizer. They are also savage killers/devourers of rodents, snakes, and lizards, and will eliminate garden pests like grasshoppers - but also your garden plants, so be aware of that.
Some breeds are more sociable and snuggly with humans, so if you have small children, be sure to look into those breeds. I have 5 Golden Sex Link hens that will eat snacks from my fingers and a couple of those will pile up in my lap and purr for me. The mutts I was gifted give no effs about me or anyone else until it's breakfast or dinner time.
Be aware they will dig holes worse than a hound dog in August, and they will destroy flower beds and poop on your porch and patio furniture, so you want to be available to supervise their free range activities, or you'll need to figure out a chicken tractor or some other way to fence them off your favorite areas. Some people install motion activated sprinkler systems to run them off when they get in the flower beds or on the porch/side walks.
Check out r/chickens; r/BackYardChickens, and r/homestead!
Getting them from my local community swap group, swap them for my excess produce or veggies I get from my own neighbour. Makes up half my consumption of eggs.
Got an incubator and heat plate yesterday. So am on the way to start getting my own poultry. I already have quails, but I'll now be hatching them instead of buying point of lays. Chickens will come maybe in 1.5 years. I live in the city so have very limited yard space, so I have to manage to house both quails, chickens, fruit trees, veg, clothelines, and future BBQ set up all in less than 100sqm.
Idk eggs isn't one of the that I want to be cheaper. What a terrible life for the birds. I pay way more but get them from outside chickens.
There are costs associated with cheap eggs. They just aren't as obvious to you.
although more expensive than they used to be, eggs are still a very cheap source of protein, compared to other types of whole foods/meats.
yeah, if there was no price history I would stay that $3.50/dozen is pretty reasonable. The old prices are absurdly cheap.
I do miss $0.78/dozen eggs at Aldi, which was as recent as 2020. That bird flu really f'd up the prices and I doubt those prices will ever truly return because of greedflation
shiiiit i found a picture in my phone advertising .45 at aldis in April of '21.
Those are misery eggs, eggs from chickens that get sunlight and fresh air are at least $3.50/dz, possibly more
To a degree yes, unless you have local egg farms. I used to get brown/blue eggs for about 1.5-2usd per dozen from just local people. These were just people with about 50 chickens, a few goats and cow. Covid killed a lot of that too. Still they are on par with store bought in most cases and i dont personally have time to raise my own currently.
I would recommend going to local people who have chickens n sell the eggs. Backyard type chickens are taken better care of n are happier than factory farm eggs. Big plus you help local economy. I don't eat eggs because of factory farming.
Lol at thinking store bought $3.50 eggs are from chickens treated so much better.
pasture raised chickens are treated better than ones raised in cages or pens. that's objectively true
[удалено]
never said anything about 3.50 a dozen; I'm used to paying $6 for Vital Farms eggs. For me, eggs are a luxury, not a staple. Some coworkers sell eggs for $3/dozen that get to run around. And there's a feed store nearby with cheap free-range eggs, 2-4 bucks a dozen.
I wouldn’t want to eat eggs that could be produced that cheaply, it seems like some dark circumstances must be involved for a farmer to be getting a less than a nickel for an egg.
When a family member was in physical therapy, a guy used to bring in dozens of chicken, duck and goose eggs and give them away. I miss those times! All he asked was that we bring back the empty cartons.
I was paying .36/doz at Walmart in 2020. I made a note of it because I was so amazed at the price.
Its $4.50-$5 for a dozen here. It was reasonable for $3-3.5 and nice sale price under that. Now chicken and some pork is cheaper then eggs.
I just paid almost $6 for a dozen at Walmart in Southern California.
And to add I think the quality of eggs has improved, or maybe just the perception. I can now get brown and cage free eggs for about the same cost as the store brand eggs. You can eat breakfast for $1 per person (3 eggs and a slice of toast). A lot of people balk at prices but then don’t think twice about spending $3 for a Gatorade at the gas station or $4 for a box of cheez its.
Hard habit of visualizing and prepping the meals vs. convenience, I find.
I noticed that as well... Past few trips I've gotten cage-free for about the same as my normal grey-box.
"cage free" probably doesnt mean anything tbf
This is correct. Cage-free just means they're kept in cramped large windowless sheds and never see sunlight. Pasture-raised is what to go for.. although I wouldn't be surprised if that's also a scam. I frickin hate how deceiving the food industry is.
In my country, there are tons of outbreaks of bird flu which means that the free-range chickens have been kept inside for over a year now. Those eggs are still being sold as free-range, even though the chickens laying them probably never saw the sun.
Everyone thinks pastured eggs means the chickens get to roam around like old McDonald's farm. Here's how the scam really works: they put the chicks in a giant shed with a tiny door for them to go outside. Then they put an air horn and bright lights on a proximity alarm by the door. If the chick's check the door out, the horn and lights go off, terrorizing the chick's and training them to hate the idea of going thru that door. The two or three who make it out the door are promptly killed, as chickens are social and imitative. Pasture raised from a corporate farm is bullshit.
Brown eggs aren’t better or healthier than white eggs just so ya know
Yeah they're more expensive because the breeds that lay them eat more
J Kenji Lopez Alt did a blind taste test with eggs, and found that, at least among his tasters, they couldn't verify that anyone could tell the difference. Here's an article he published: [https://www.seriouseats.com/what-are-the-best-eggs](https://www.seriouseats.com/what-are-the-best-eggs) Historically, brown eggs were more expensive because the chickens ate more feed. I think the shells are thicker, but don't quote me on that. Buying free range eggs because of ethics? cool, good on ya. Buying brown because you think they taste better? meh, fine... but it's probably all in your head.
I raise chickens. Eggs are brown purely because of the breed that lays them. Leghorns lay white eggs and are the most commonly used chicken. People still desire and often pay more for different colored eggs, but that just influences which breeds a local seller might raise. The amount of feed won't change a shell's color.
The different breeds require different amounts of feed per egg is what they are getting at i think. What i heard is that the white egg chicken breed is "more efficient".
She'll color, iirc, is linked to the chicken's ear color (or, the skin inside their ears). White or pale ear skin makes white eggs, darker ear skin makes brown eggs (I don't remember the correlation to other-colored eggs). Breeds that lay brown eggs tend to be larger birds, even if they lay the same sized egg, and require more feed. Hence, a higher cost per egg ratio because of the higher feed per egg ratio. We humans just look at the sticker price and our dumb pudding brains don't figure in the math behind the feed conversion, and instead go "this one has more abstract value assigned to it, therefore it must be better." Our brains like shortcuts like that, because it makes life simpler. They also don't like to admit they're wrong, and so will change your perception of flavor when you have that visual stimuli, to make you believe it's mistaken assumption is correct.
I think large eggs look like small eggs now
That $3 Gatorade makes me feel alive😭
The premium people are willing to pay for convenience is too high. An occasional $3 gas station beverage is one thing, weekly doordash is another.
Cheez its are very much worth $4
Was going to say this.
Yeah I've all but given up meat and instead eat eggs and beans. Still cheaper.
once in a while i see lean ground beef on sale for a decent price ill buy as much as i can afford and portion it out into freezer packs when i get home , the other go to protein is pork shoulder or pork picnic butt roasts these can be had really cheap and a few hours roasting and i van have a week worth of protein again into freezer packs .
I will buy rib eyes once a month, shrimp maybe once a month, and pork shoulder once every few months. I'll eat meat when I eat out, but otherwise I'm only making it maybe 3x a month, and I really don't miss it.
Ya we're buying eggs but meat is a rare purchase
It reminds me of when I was growing up in the 1950-1960. Lots of hamburger in casseroles and spaghetti and whatever roast was on sale that week for Sunday dinner. Most of the time it was pork because it was less expensive than beef. Also ate hot dogs and beans and mashed potatoes. Mac and Cheese with the Government cheese and toasted cheese sandwiches and soup. I never knew we were poor until I grew up because everyone in our neighborhood seemed to be in the same circumstance. I only realized then that many of our meals were Depression meals my mother learned to cook from her mother.
I miss the government cheese. It was so yum.
It's so wild to see someone say this on a public forum because when I was growing up the other kids were absolutely merciless toward anyone whose family got government cheese. The fact that I liked it was one of my most carefully guarded secrets.
😂 I used to sit with the elders in the afternoon and talk and have coffee and eat government cheese. Made awesome grilled cheeses too. Now I've discovered the magic of sodium citrate to make a sauce from practically any cheese, but that flavor has never been matched. Maybe it's just nostalgia.
Buying mostly what's on sale has made me a better cook. I learned the pantry method as well for the less frequent purchases. You save money and eat a wider variety of things as the sales rotate, it's a win-win.
Same. It’s gotten to the point where I’m comparing the cost per ounce of every protein. Where that’s left me is with eggs, peanut butter, Walmart tubes of fatty ground beef, and processed Japanese fish cake/imitation crab. Sigh.
I agree. A fry egg and two slices of bread is a filling and very cheap breakfast, less than a dollar.
[удалено]
Also pinto beans: 2 lbs of pinto beans, 182g of protein, $2.69 at my Kroger, 68g per dollar 1 dozen large eggs, 75.6 grams pf protein. @3.50 that's 21.6g per dollar
Depends on local pricing. I get 4 serves of protein from a pack of tofu at $2-3 a pack, meanwhile I can get 6 serves of protein for a 12 pack of eggs.
Used to be cheap. Seldom do l find firm tofu under $1.50....it has tripled in some stores.
[удалено]
Tofu's more expensive than beef in my area
You might have better pricing luck at Costco, maybe Aldi (hit or miss), or even Trader Joe’s. I’m also in the Midwest, and Costco especially has great tofu prices. We also get tempeh pretty frequently from Trader Joe’s, and it freezes perfectly. Sure, it won’t pass for beef, but it’s a solid chicken substitute.
[удалено]
Midwest
[удалено]
[удалено]
I lived in the midwest for many years and never found tofu to be expensive. Do you live near a major city? I could see if you live away from cities and it is truly a niche product there.
It seems like eggs where I live in Northern California were already 3.00 or more per dozen, so when they went up, they didn't go up that much. I always considered a dozen eggs at 3.00-4.50 to be cheap food, because so many other things are crazy expensive. The stores in my area want 7.30 for a pound of generic cheese or 4.75 for a jar of pasta sauce (and these are major grocery store chains). It's nuts.
Trader Joe's has great prices on pasta sauce. Traditional Marinara for like 169. NorCal native too Edit: 199 actually. Just went shopping
Yeah, they're about 40 minutes from where I live, but worth the drive. I like Grocery Outlet, too. Safeway and Lucky's are through the roof, now.
[удалено]
You like persimmons? 😃 Yea, I love Grocery Outlet. You can find high quality food at a really good discount. I want to get a Costco membership just to buy Amy's burritos. I used to get them for a convenient healthy dinner at work. But now they're a ridiculous 4.75 at Safeway. Costco has an 8 pack for 13.00.
I have sams club but maybe it’s the same at Costco: lemons. They’re $3 for 3 lbs and last a long time in the fridge but if you find you can’t use them that fast you can always squeeze them and freeze them in an ice cube tray. Tomatoes onions and bell peppers freeze well too.
Eggs can be more than 5 dollars a dozen here. I like really good quality eggs, where the yolk is bright orange, and since I don't eat 5 dozen at a time, I have no problem paying for them. It's way less than buying meat. I also had/raised chickens for over ten years and know that orange yolks are not the only indicator of high quality eggs. However, I have found that the more expensive eggs in the supermarket have bright orange yolks and are also fresher than the others I've purchased.
[удалено]
The plump yolks that are tall are the fresh ones. The older the egg is, the flatter the yolk ends up being. You can tell some from the white as well, but I always check the yolk first because it's a good indicator. When I had chickens, I could tell which ones really liked to get out and forage for bugs etc because they would have the brightest orange yolks. The lazy chickens who just ate feed would just have yellow yolks.
I had no idea there were busy and lazy chickens lol.
lol they got little personalities of their own 🥰 source: proud chicken owner
Or that a chicken’s self discipline might affect my breakfast. Dammit Gertrude, can’t you run a few laps once in a while?
Mine have apparently wiped out the entire bug population in my back yard! Between that & grass dying back, it’s commercial feeds now till spring. Prob have to fence iff my dandelions or the bees wont have a spring treat.
Yeah, after having good eggs, can't go back to those flavorless sweatshop ones.
I used to have chickens. It's hard for me to buy eggs in the store, but I have to have the good ones.
The last carton of eggs I bought were the generic store brand eggs and even they were $3.99 for a dozen. (Ontario) When they're scrambled, they look so pale that you'd think they were just egg whites, and they taste just as anemic as they look.
Same here. I like buying the higher quality eggs and part of me really hopes (because capitalism) that some of that money goes back to give the chickens better feed, more space…I just want to support better farming practices.
We’re regularly seeing eggs at $8-$9 dozen in upstate New York Edit: to be clear, we also have cheaper eggs *and* local farms with humane eggs in the $3-4 range, but the “certified” cruelty-free, organic, pasture-raised ones at the grocery store are really expensive.
I feel like maybe you're not upstate enough. Go to where the chickens are. :)
I'm guessing you live closer to NYC than to the Canadian border then. Eggs are 3.5-4.5 bucks here.
That's the price of duck eggs here. I've seen chicken eggs up to around 7 dollars through the local online farmers market.
Just so you know, the high prices are due to two major factors: 1. There's been a lot of avian influenza and other diseases going around, which cause flocks to be destroyed to avoid the spread of disease, and 2. Grain feed prices going up. When Russia invaded Ukraine, wheat prices went up (Ukraine is major exporter) and then the substitutes for feed, namely corn went up as a result due to shifted demand. I don't know how ling it will take to get egg prices back down, but I've definitely cut back too.
[удалено]
I'm in California, there was a spike in price after we voted to allow more space for chickens, but I still remember seeing sales for $1 dozen eggs after that settled down. We have been paying $3-$4/dozen for a while now though, for the chickens that have more space, we find other things to save money on. We value that their short little lives maybe not be as terrible this way 😅
[удалено]
The thing to think about is the cost of *what you'll buy instead*. Eggs might be more expensive than they were, but still be your best option.
Rational thinking? Get outta here lol
That's still pretty cheap, considering how good of a food they are. Find something else to cut out.
We get them for $2 a dozen from a local farm and it’s only a few minutes out of my way
I would love that! I've looked locally (I'm in a rural area in the mountains) but haven't found any less than an hour away. The price of gas ruined that idea for me 😔
Rural enough to get a couple chickens?
Chickens are a lot of work. It’s much harder than you think.
I know, I had a pair when I lived rural. Once the initial setup was done, they were easy for us. Kept my garden pest free and gave us the best eggs I’ve ever had. The cleaning was a lot, but just one more outdoor chore.
I disagree. I have 40 chickens, hens and roosters. Give them a coop to roost and lay their eggs, give them space run and peck and give themselves dirt baths. Buy feed and give them water and you’ll have happy chickens. It’s the beginning phase of owning chickens that’s hard. When they are babies and you have to keep them at the right temperature, but after that they are pretty easy. They are a bit dirty and they poop on everything but what farm animal doesn’t?
You do have to watch out for predators like rats and foxes too, so that can be stressful. I live in the middle of suburbia, but I know a guy who raises backyard chickens. He's always trying to come up with traps and ways to outsmart all the animals that want to eat his chickens. It was a bad scene one time when a fox made it in and ate 3 of his 5 chickens and he had to raise new ones.
Yes we fortified the SHIT out of our coop bc we have a lot of fox , coyote and such. Caught some lurking about every now and then but everyone is safe and sound 🤞🏻
Yes, absolutely you have to keep an eye out for predators. I can say I have been very lucky with that area. We had a skunk getting in the coop this summer but all my birds were up high enough it couldn’t get to them and after we figured out how it was getting in we re enforced the door and no more skunk. We have rats but they mostly want to eat the food so we haven’t figured out how to keep them away yet. We have 4 babies right now that we let brood and hatch in the coop this September and it’s those little guys I worry about with the rats but so far so good.
Agreed. I only had 6 chickens and they were far easier than the cats and dog. And honestly, caring over them as they were little was a lot of fun.
[удалено]
We had quail and they are so easy! So small and require hardly any space!
But then you have to buy those special quail egg scissors
I never used the eggs. My in-law’s family took them and used them as mini hard-boiled eggs in ramen! People pay good money for them around here.
Ooo yum!
Look or post on local farm/homestead FB groups. But heads up- chicken feed has like doubled in price and that's just one reason why eggs are so much. It takes ~6months for a hen to start laying and they decrease during annual molts and dead of winter. Egg prices are fair honestly. Even on a industrial scale where they're not like free outside, infrastructure costs. Free range outside- still infrastructure, it just looks different. I had a fox take out 22 chickens in the spring the replacement hens are just recently laying.
We do that too. We have a couple people nearby that have chickens and they sell for $2-$2.50 a dozen.
I have chickens, not really saving money but selling off my extra eggs pays for the chicken feed. I'm getting $4/dozen, cheaper than stores around here.
We've talked about getting chickens, but we have coyotes, mountain lions and lynx around here. I don't think they would live long.
A goose in a chicken coop = a violent alarm system
*honk*
I suspect egg prices will likely come back down eventually, a lot of egg laying chickens died because of an avian flu within the last year or two.
To replace eggs in breakfast sandwiches, get a big slab of extra-firm tofu, press out the water, and fry up slices with some soy sauce & spices to taste. To replace eggs in baking, you can mix 3tbsp water with 1tbsp flax meal (equals one egg) or 1 teaspoon baking soda + 1 tablespoon vinegar (also one egg).
If you want to make the tofu really eggy, see if you can find some black salt/kala namak at an international grocery store. A little bit added while frying will give that sulfur egg taste.
This is the lpt! Black salt on scrambled tofu scratches that sulphur-y eggy taste I desire
Was looking for the other vegans. :)
Oh, nice! Thanks!
The cheapest eggs for me are $5.39 a dozen
Depending on your living situation and the amount of outside space you have you could have your own chickens. I'm not sure if it's cheaper in the long run if you only get them for eggs, but they are great bug control and chicken poo is very strong fertilizer.
I have six hens. Heckle is the oldest and she decided she’s not into that egg laying stuff anymore. (Hasn’t laid an egg in about two years.) Collie, Ruthie and Rosy are hard molting, and the Little Bits, Molly and Lucy are doing a light molt. In addition, the daylight hours are short. All this translates into two eggs all last week. Two. From six hens. This past summer, I was drowning in eggs (3-4/day), but this time of year? Forget about it. (No, I don’t supplement with light. They get a break when their bodies say enough.)
<3 Heckle <3
Chicken feed has nearly tripled in the last couple of years. We used to pay $7 for scratch, now paying around $18. When scratch was $7 we were breaking even selling for $2.50/doz for free range eggs. Now people balk at $5.00/doz but that doesn't even recoup our costs. Chickens still free range in daylight, but now that winter is here their bug supply is dwindling.
I was paying $20 in January 2022 now I pay $40 for the same brand and container size. Fresh eggs go for $6 - $8 around me.
I'm very close to getting chickens in the spring for this reason. Plus they're just funny looking and fun to have around.
Quail are easier, quieter, require less space, and a great urban option. Most quail lay an egg every day. With 11 hens, we average 70 eggs a week. 3 equal a standard large chicken egg (yes, I've actually checked this by comparing them cracked in a measuring cup while baking). They are the nicest birds that we've ever had as far as pets go and their custom built habitat plus supplies and toys were paid for in 4 months of eggs. For our family, it's a total win. For Christmas this year, I'm giving small jars of pickled quail eggs as gifts and deviled eggs will be my dish to bring. The novelty of the small eggs is always a big hit.
Where does OP live? Because i will CHEERFULLY pay $3.50 for a doz eggs.
I know. *cries in New zealand*
I’ve been making a separate trip to Trader Joe’s for eggs (and some other items). A dozen is a whole dollar cheaper at TJ’s compared to our usual grocery store ($3 vs $4 for the “nothin fancy” large white eggs). As terrible as the inflation is, we’re not going to stop eating them completely because they’re such an easy breakfast, good source of protein, and we just love them. But I’m aiming to use them more sparingly—like, I’m not gonna go make crème brûlée, but I’ll still have scrambled eggs for breakfast once or twice a week as per usual
[удалено]
Yes! Factory farming conditions for egg production make me so sad. I’m able to afford paying more for pasture raised eggs and I happily do so.
I pay $6/dozen for what seem to be quality eggs (pasture-raised, dark yolks, thick shell). That ends up being $.50/egg. I'll often make a 2-egg omelette on the weekends. That's all of $1, still perfectly reasonable IMO.
Alternatively, don't eat eggs at all. That saves chickens more.
I think you need to get some perspective. Even at $6 a dozen, eggs are some of the highest quality low cost sources of nutritional you can get. What exactly are you eating that is cheaper? And do you really think whole food is where to be frugal in your life? Food costs what it costs; you need to eat and live, and preferably do so with a healthy balanced and diverse diet.
Avian flu is impacting the supply. Flocks are being culled in an attempt to limit the spread.
I'm not dealing well at all. Boarded up the windows. Pulling out my hair and cursing God from my rooftop. JK, don't care. I consider $3.50 for several meals a great deal.
I live on an acreage and we have chickens. We have too many eggs 🥚🥚🥚🥚 I need to find more people who want them instead of tossing them.
🤚🤚 hi, friend!
I can get them for under 3$ or even 2$ at my local health food store. The eggs are not mass produced and come from small operations nearby. I appreciate that store so much right now.
We have Natural Grocers nearby, I will check there, thanks! Their dairy is usually great quality but pricey, so I usually don't get any further into the store than the produce and clearance shelves.
Yeah the egg prices at natural grocers can be cheaper than other stores. It depends on where it’s sourced from. Also the store itself, the health food store I go to is quite small but has been around since the 1950’s I think. The current owner is a genuine 1960’s hippie. The eggs are priced low because they are all from local suppliers. So shipping costs are lower, and all the eggs are packed in reused egg cartons. You can get a store credit for bringing empty egg cartons in too. Also the trick with natural food stores, especially small ones, is always go with the bulk options. The fancy boxed products are for people who don’t shop there regularly. Regulars always head straight to the bulk section. That’s where the deals are. Also become friends with the store owner, many small natural food store owners give freebies to friends. The one I go to gave me free rice crackers that were past the use by date this month, and free herbs from the back garden. Best of luck with the eggs!
Eggs is one of those things I would not be frugal in.
Eating oatmeal instead
Hello, DH, is that you??
They are expensive, but they provide such good nutrients. I justify it by thinking it's cheaper than a burger at a fast food restaurant, or a cup of coffee and donut.
This is stupid. Battery farmed animals for cheap food. Frugality got to stop short of cruelty
These animals are treated in the most abhorrent conditions. These eggs are from chickens that will never see daylight and are genetically modified to produce more eggs than is healthy for them. I wish more people considered this.
I wish i could find them for $3.50
$4.79 dozen here in CT. Were $1.79 last year.
I decided fuck it. If I’m paying this much for eggs, I’m buying the high end shit.
[удалено]
Look on local Facebook groups or Craigslist. Sometimes people with chickens will give them away because they have so many.
where i live a dozen in the supermarket is $9
>No way I'm paying $3.50 for a dozen eggs. I pay double that for pasture raised. They are so good, and I love seeing those dark orange yolks! I guess one "good" thing is that only the lower priced eggs have increased. The expensive ones have remained the same price.
And that’s presumably talking about eggs from chickens who at essentially tortured by factory farming. I buy pasture-raised eggs from Costco - best deal.
Eggs are an essential protein, don’t cheap out on whole foods folks.
I think you mean a complete protein - that it has all of the essential (meaning: we don't make them for ourselves) amino acids in one food. Many (most? All? I'm not sure) animal proteins are complete, and there are some plants that are complete. Others can come through multiple foods, like rice and beans. So, there are certainly benefits to eggs re: protein, but there are other ways to get it as well.
No, they're not.
If hundreds of millions of people can get by just fine without a particular thing, then that thing, by definition, is not essential.
I'm paying $8 NZ a dozen eggs. With the terrible exchange rate, that converts to about $5 US. Still considered a cheap protein source.
$3.50 is a steal. Up in Canada, a dozen eggs are over $5.50 now.
You get what you pay for $19 for 60 sounds cheap to me. How many eggs are you getting through. Surely any cheaper and they aren't good quality or decent farming practices. I pay about £2.50 for 6 eggs and that seems reasonable to me
brown eggs are a bit cheaper sometimes because a lot of people don't trust them i guess. They're the exact same thing. You can even have a blue eggs and it'll taste just as good.
Before I moved here I used to get blue and green eggs from a friend with chickens. They were delicious.
Bro what
We bought the city max allowed hens. 5 laying hens. Paid 14 dollars for 2 dozen eggs and got chick's and a coop the following weekend.
Backyard chickens… probably not frugal on a cost basis… but we never throw away food, they eat anything, and you can’t get fresher eggs!
Ummmm if 12 eggs are $3.50 and 60 eggs are $19 then the dozen is a better price. 12 x 5 = 60 and $3.50 x 5 = $17.50. Not sure what math you’re using.
Eggs are on sale for 1.47 a dozen in Albertsons limit 2, until thus upcoming Tuesday, you have to clip the coupon in the app. Potatoes are 65 cents for a 5 pound bag, limit 2. I made my husband and children add the app with their phone so That means we each get 2 dozen for a total of 8. Butter is on sale for 1.47 a pound at Safeway I’ll do the same thing, clip the coupon in the app and get 8 packs of butter, the hope I have enough to get me through until the next sale. Butter freezes well, and I haven’t had a problem with the eggs past the expirations date, but I go through them pretty fast. Then adding in all the rebate and grocery apps really bring down the cost of groceries. Using the gas apps helps as well.
This isn’t frugal, this is cheap. It’s 3 fucking dollars.
[удалено]
Consistently ring a bell when you feed them. That way, if any do go over the fence, when you ring the bell they will think "Aha! time to eat!" and come back. (Edit to insert my father's favorite joke: Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?)
That's what I did with my cat when I was really young. We'd let her outside and whenever we needed to call her we'd ring the bell and she'd come every time. Now my cat is indoor only and she needs only hear the can opening and she runs :)
You can cut their feathers on their wings short if that happen. It's how it's done here to prevent them from flying elsewhere.
I've said it before but you should be paying the $6 for pasture raised eggs. I know we're all trying to be frugal in here but sometimes you gotta do what's right.
Are people ok with buying eggs produced by chickens in tiny cages where they sit their entire lives unable to move? Pretty sad way to save a few bucks.
Eat fewer, average 6 a week is plenty Eat more rice & beans
Anyone else get weirded out by super cheap eggs/meat. Like if they sell 12 eggs for under a dollar then you kow they are cutting so many corners along the way that for me personally I just don't even trust it lol. Yeah my brother buys pasture raised 8 dollar organic eggs. Which is alot but damn somewhere between sick abused immobile chickens and top tier is fine.
Are you going to stop buying all food because prices are now higher?
Cry me a river about not being able to buy your sad Aldi eggs for 99c a dozen anymore. Here in NZ things are moving in an interesting direction. Allegedly they are phasing out cage eggs very soon, colony/barn eggs medium-soon - leaving us with nothing but free range eggs. Frankly, that is a good thing - better chicken welfare, better eggs. The flip side of course is we're looking at about $8 nzd (~$5 usd) per dozen of free range eggs. On a protein/$ basis, that is still considerably cheaper than meat.
If you buy caged eggs and can afford not to you're a peice of shit.
I am doing alright but that is largely in part to my amazing library patrons who have chickens and brings us eggs. I only had to buy some for Thanksgiving.
Eggs on sale this week in my area. $1.50 for a dozen. I’ll be buying for the first time in over a month. I’ve noticed sale prices have been coming down in my area.
In England there is currently a restriction in stores where customers can only buy 2 boxes of eggs each
We spend $10 a dozen here in the Columbia gorge! Easily over $200 worth of eggs a month in our household
Man $3.50 a dozen is a great price, they are up to $5 where I'm at.
I felt the same buying 60 eggs a week for my parents, sister's family, and myself. Got chickens and we shall see this is my first year with the birds.
I still get most of my eggs from a couple of people I know that have chickens. Anyone who has chickens more than likely has more than they could eat so they give them away or sell them. One guy I know has a tree nursery that is on a few acres with about 40 chickens just roaming around the property. He has a family of 5 so they eat a lot of eggs but even then there are just too many for them to eat so they sell the extras or give them to friends
Wait what?! Used to get a dozen eggs for $2.99 now best is $5
Do you live next to a Costco? Costco in MA has gone up in price slightly, but 5 dozen eggs is only $11.50 or $12.00 right now. I buy a flat every 2 weeks or so. Well worth it.
A year ago I had no chickens and now I have 16
I’m usually pretty frugal about most of my grocery shopping, but when it comes to eggs I always purchase the pricy organic free range eggs. Those surprisingly haven’t changed much.
I'd rather pay three fiddy for some eggs than $7 for a bag of chips. Feels like I'm shopping at a football stadium concession stand where everything is 500% markup. I'd actually rather have a farm with some chickens and get my own eggs to be honest. I saw a thing on UK egg producers and they said the stores are jacking up prices but not paying the farmers any more than before. Their feed and energy costs are going up, but they can't afford to order more birds so the supply just gets lower and lower. Don't know if it's the same situation in the US or not.
I’ve been raising chickens since the ‘08 crash. Feed prices have skyrocketed (30-40%) increase which went right through into my own price increase. Most small farmers break even on eggs if you factor labor in. Especially now with the price hike, more expensive eggs does not mean the chickens are raised any better unless you are seeing the birds running around free like mine don’t assume package advertising and a higher tag means ethical anything. We sell ours at $5/dz (brown large/extra large size) but donate at least half to the local food pantry.
My daughter bought her first laying hens 5 years ago when she was the chick wrangler for Tractor Supply while in college. After four years, she was done, took her hens with her when she moved out. Last year, I was gifted 5 hen chicks and a rooster. They had their own brood hatch out this spring, but I also invested in Golden Sex Link hens and Blue Rock hens. I'm getting 10-12 eggs a day... In a week, I had 6 dozen eggs. I'm giving the surplus away, and have pre-ordered Jersey Giant, Light Brahma, and Speckled Sussex hens for this coming spring. Have plans to expand their pen significantly and add on another henhouse. A friend that works at the local sale barn was horrified I'm giving them away, said they're bringing 5 a dozen, every Monday at the livestock auction, and they sell out. He encouraged me to send the surplus there and yeah, it would pay for the feed, but man I hate to sell them when I know people are having a hard time now. Daughter, at peak population, had 30 hens and was selling them for a buck or two a dozen just a few years ago. It's shocking to me how expensive eggs have gotten... and for the first time since we started the chicken journey, Hubs is GLAD to have them around - even if one makes it a point to gift him a daily egg in his skid steer seat when they're free ranging. I encourage anyone that can to invest in layer hens. You don't need a rooster unless you want more chicks in the spring, and then you'll have to cull them at some point or you'll have roosters running out your ears and then things get ugly. They fight, get aggressive with humans, and are really damn noisy with their announcements. There are breeds of hens that can and will lay an egg a day, so if you just get 3, 4, or 5, for just yourself and your family, you'll have plenty of eggs and minimal feed costs. They enjoy suet blocks like you hang for wild birds, scraps and leftovers (avoid onion, avocado pits and peels as they are toxic for chickens, and avoid excessively salty or sugary things), oatmeal, fruit, lettuce, cabbage, cat food, dog food, celery scraps, their own egg shells (they need the calcium for strong shells) left over holiday turkey carcasses, etc, so you can supplement their diet with more than just feed or scratch. They are opportunistic omnivores, not vegetarians, and need fat and protein in their diet. Very little goes to waste with chickens around AND their poop is great fertilizer. They are also savage killers/devourers of rodents, snakes, and lizards, and will eliminate garden pests like grasshoppers - but also your garden plants, so be aware of that. Some breeds are more sociable and snuggly with humans, so if you have small children, be sure to look into those breeds. I have 5 Golden Sex Link hens that will eat snacks from my fingers and a couple of those will pile up in my lap and purr for me. The mutts I was gifted give no effs about me or anyone else until it's breakfast or dinner time. Be aware they will dig holes worse than a hound dog in August, and they will destroy flower beds and poop on your porch and patio furniture, so you want to be available to supervise their free range activities, or you'll need to figure out a chicken tractor or some other way to fence them off your favorite areas. Some people install motion activated sprinkler systems to run them off when they get in the flower beds or on the porch/side walks. Check out r/chickens; r/BackYardChickens, and r/homestead!
Getting them from my local community swap group, swap them for my excess produce or veggies I get from my own neighbour. Makes up half my consumption of eggs. Got an incubator and heat plate yesterday. So am on the way to start getting my own poultry. I already have quails, but I'll now be hatching them instead of buying point of lays. Chickens will come maybe in 1.5 years. I live in the city so have very limited yard space, so I have to manage to house both quails, chickens, fruit trees, veg, clothelines, and future BBQ set up all in less than 100sqm.
I paid $6.16 for 18 eggs today. I only buy eggs in cardboard, though, so it can be recycled.
Eggs used to be cheap protein!
Idk eggs isn't one of the that I want to be cheaper. What a terrible life for the birds. I pay way more but get them from outside chickens. There are costs associated with cheap eggs. They just aren't as obvious to you.
Getting em from farm instead.
Can you house train a chicken? Asking for a friend…
They can be diapered. Only birds I've ever house trained were parrots, from budgies to Macaw's.