This evening I had to drop TeenGirl off in town for Youth Group. Our cozy, little Church is located right next door to our town market. (Hey, when you live in a town of 600 everything is close!)
On my way out the door, Oregon Dad says “Why don’t you pick up some ice cream?”. He LOVES all things ice cream.
My selections were limited, our market carries Tillamook (which is a local brand) and some off brand (ie CRAPOLA). I called Oregon Dad and read off our options, “Huckleberry, Oregon Strawberry, Chocolate, Vanilla, Blackberry Pie, Coffee Almond Fudge or Udderly Chocolate”. The decision was made and I headed for the register with a half gallon of Udderly Chocolate ice cream.
I was SHOCKED that the price was $5.99. At Winco I could have purchased two cartons of ice cream (if it is on special) for $6.00, and at Safeway, the same carton would be $4.49.
Then I started crunching numbers. It is 20 miles each way to Winco. In our Prius (calculating for country driving vs. city driving) we get between 40 and 45mph. So, that round trip run for ice cream would have consumed a gallon of gas. At $4.25 a gallon, my carton of ice cream would have been $7.24 (assuming best price scenario at the grocery). Safeway is a bit closer, about 12 miles each way so that ice cream would have been about $6.99.
When I look at these numbers, our little market doesn’t appear so expensive after all. The better option of course, is to only buy ice cream when we are doing our regular grocery runs, then our gallon of gas is a fraction of the 30-40% total price savings found at the larger grocers.
Tonight we had to suck it up, there was no way Oregon Dad was surviving until Saturday grocery shopping without ice cream.
Today’s Green Tip- Plan your shopping trips to best conserve gas. It makes good financial sense and its better for the environment.
Tags: icecream, price of gas, gas and food prices, cost of groceries, calculating gas into food cost, rising prices, Tillamook Ice Cream, Winco, Safeway,
June 19, 2008 at 7:55 am
I had the pleasure of having some Tillamook ice cream while driving through Oregon on our vacation. YUM! I got the cherry and it was to die for!
June 19, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Does CRAPOLA come with in chocolate chip? If so, you may avoid it…that brand name would make me suspicious!?!?!
We got the 1996 Sentra (no power steering, no AC and a manual transmission) on the road for the reason of cutting gas costs…it has really worked, we have put 50 miles on that thing and the gauge hasn’t budged from “F”.
June 19, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Jenefur- Tillamook Ice Cream Rocks! It’s not a visit to the Cheese Factory without several samples of cheese and a double scoop of some fabulous flavor! Oregon Dad’s favorite is Bubble Gum. I laugh everytime watching this big guy eating a double scoop of pink ice cream on a sugar cone.
MTAE- Kudos for driving the Sentra… the no AC sucks. We have been leaving ours off A LOT. Especially in the gas guzzling truck. Not sure how much it helps gas mileage but at these prices anything helps! Until last September, I drove a 1993 Ford Escort Wagon… no AC, barely working radio, etc… Talk about HOT when parked in the sun. Bleh. I don’t miss that car! We bought the truck and I got the Prius Oregon Dad had been driving. (Interesting, opposite of the vehicles in your house!)
August 15, 2008 at 9:28 am
From where I live, and driving a nissan pathfinder, it would cost about $150 to obtain Tillamook Black Walnut ice cream…..and worth every penny.