Better Butter Prices!

Good news. It seems more competition is bringing lower prices!

Currently, Israeli butter is mostly sold in its price controlled version - 100g for 3.92 NIS.

But there's a new butter on the market for those who are looking for a better butter deal (and maybe even a better butter?)!

Shufersal has started marketing their private label Dutch butter for 6.84 for a 200g package, which works out to 1 shekel less than the price controlled version for 200g, or a savings of 12%. So it may be worthwhile to put butter on your "Buy At Shufersal" List. (Yes, I try to keep track of which stores in my area have the best prices on which products. It really helps!)

I am really looking forward to seeing more private labels come onto the market, more breaking up of the "monopolies" and more prices coming down for the average consumer. All of us here in Israel can really use this sort of help with our budgets! Lower prices will really help us all find that breathing room we need - and I know many people need it. I hear about the need to lower grocery spending from people in all income brackets. It just seems like we ALL feel we spend too much of our incomes on food.

Do you have any thoughts on this trend?

UPDATED PRICES: Price Controlled Foods

New prices for some breads went into effect recently (June, 2015). I decided to republish the entire list with the new bread prices for your convenience.

Here's a quick rundown of what you need to know about government price controls on food in Israel:

--- Retrieved from http://www.kosherfrugal.com/2014/09/updated-list-of-price-controlled-foods.html ---

--- Retrieved from http://www.kosherfrugal.com/2015/02/price-controlled-foods-price-update.html ---

The price listed is the MAXIMUM price for the specified item - in theory, a store can discount it further, if they want to.
If a store is selling price controlled items for a higher price, they are in violation of the law. You can (and should) report these violations to the regional supervisor.
Here are the items that are supervised, and the maximum price to consumers:

(The prices shown below are for the entire country, excluding Eilat. Eilat is exempt from Ma'am, so prices there will be lower.)
Lechem Achid (I believe this is about 65% whole grain) - 750g loaf, 5.11

White bread, 750g loaf, 5.11
 
Challah or yeast cake, 500g, 5.31 (was 5.58) (don't ask me what kind of yeast cake this is referring to, I have no idea!)
 
Lechem Achid, sliced and packaged, 750g, 7.30 (was 7.67)
 
White bread, sliced and packaged, 500g, 6.49 (was 6.82)
Regular Kitchen Salt, Fine Kitchen Salt, Fine Table Salt, and Coarse Table salt, 1 kg, 2.09
  3% milk, 1 liter, bag, 5.30 1% milk, 1 liter, bag, 4.95 3% milk, 1 liter, carton, 6.30 1% milk, 1 liter, carton, 5.90
  Eshel, 4.5% fat, 200ml, 1.65  Gil, 3% fat, 200ml,  1.52  Sour Cream, 15% fat, 200ml, 2.44 Sweet Cream, 38% fat, 250ml, 6.60   Butter, regular, 100g, 4.13 Emek Cheese (at the cheese counter),per kg, 45.45  Gilboa Cheese (at the cheese counter), per kg, 43.14 Gvinah Levana (white cheese), 5% fat, 250g 5.11 
  XL eggs, regular, 1 dozen, 13.20
L eggs, regular, 1 dozen, 12.10
M eggs, regular, 1 dozen, 11.20
  Do you ever see stores overcharging? Have you ever made a report to the supervisory board?
If you found this post informative/useful/important, etc, please find me on Facebook so you won't miss any updates!

Updated list of price controlled foods

Here's a quick rundown of what you need to know about government price controls on food in Israel:

The price listed is the MAXIMUM price for the specified item - in theory, a store can discount it further, if they want to.

If a store is selling price controlled items for a higher price, they are in violation of the law. You can (and should) report these violations to the regional supervisor.

And for those wondering, a while back the Ministry of Finance decided that Badatz milk products are also price regulated products, so stores cannot be charging more for the Badatz-supervised milk, leben, butter, sour cream, cheeses, etc!

Here are the items that are supervised, and the maximum price to consumers:

(I'm showing prices for the entire country, excluding Eilat, by the way. Eilat is exempt from Ma'am, so prices there will be lower.)

Lechem Achid (I believe this is about 65% whole grain) - 750g loaf, 5.11
White bread, 750g loaf, 5.11
Challah or yeast cake, 500g, 5.58 (don't ask me what kind of yeast cake this is referring to, I have no idea!)
Lechem Achid, sliced and packaged, 750g, 7.67
White bread, sliced and packaged, 500g, 6.82

Regular Kitchen Salt, Fine Kitchen Salt, Fine Table Salt, and Coarse Table salt, 1 kg, 2.09
 
3% milk, 1 liter, bag, 5.30
1% milk, 1 liter, bag, 4.95
3% milk, 1 liter, carton, 6.30
1% milk, 1 liter, carton, 5.90
 
Eshel, 4.5% fat, 200ml, 1.65 
Gil, 3% fat, 200ml,  1.52 
Sour Cream, 15% fat, 200ml, 2.44
Sweet Cream, 38% fat, 250ml, 6.60  
Butter, regular, 100g, 4.13
Emek Cheese (at the cheese counter),per kg, 45.45 
Gilboa Cheese (at the cheese counter), per kg, 43.14
Gvinah Levana (white cheese), 5% fat, 250g 5.11 
 
XL eggs, regular, 1 dozen, 13.60
L eggs, regular, 1 dozen, 12.50
M eggs, regular, 1 dozen, 11.50




 
Do you ever see stores overcharging? Have you ever made a report to the supervisory board?

If you found this post informative/useful/important, etc, please find me on Facebook so you won't miss any updates! 

Price Controlled Foods in Israel

Some readers wanted more information about government regulated prices for certain foods in Israel, a.k.a. price controls.

Here's a quick rundown of what you need to know:

The price listed is the MAXIMUM price for the specified item - of course a store can discount it further, if they want to!

If a store is selling price controlled items for a higher price, they are in violation of the law. You can (and should) report these violations.

I'm showing prices for the entire country, excluding Eilat, by the way. Eilat is exempt from Ma'am, so prices there will be lower.

Lechem Achid (I believe this is about 65% whole grain) - 750g loaf, 5.29

White bread, 750g loaf, 5.29

Challah or yeast cake, 500g, 5.77 (don't ask me what kind of yeast cake this is referring to, I have no idea!)

Lechem Achid, sliced and packaged, 750g, 7.93

White bread, sliced and packaged, 500g, 7.05

Regular Kitchen Salt, Fine Kitchen Salt, Fine Table Salt, and Coarse Table salt, 1 kg, 2.07

3% milk, 1 liter, bag, 5.04

1% milk, 1 liter, bag, 4.74

3% milk, 1 liter, carton, 6.27

1% milk, 1 liter, carton, 5.87

Eshel, 4.5% fat, 200ml, 1.59

Gil, 3% fat, 200ml,  1.45

Sour Cream, 15% fat, 200ml, 2.37

Butter, regular, 100g, 3.73

Emek Cheese (at the cheese counter),per kg, 44.52

Gilboa Cheese (at the cheese counter), per kg, 42.21

XL eggs, regular, 1 dozen, 13.90

L eggs, regular, 1 dozen, 12.80

M eggs, regular, 1 dozen, 11.80

If you see a store charging higher prices, you can report them to the regional supervisor.

Last year, the Ministry of Finance decided that Badatz milk products are also price regulated products, so stores cannot be charging more for the Badatz-supervised milk, leben, butter, sour cream, and Emek and Gilboa cheese, FYI.

Tuesday Night (Feb. 1, 2011)

I think I've been doing pretty well making sure our meals are balanced, nutritious, and frugal, and even a healthy mom deserves a really easy supper night sometimes!

So, it's Pasta Night!

Pita Crisps
Spaghetti with Rose Sauce
Spiral Pasta with Cheese (for those picky children)
Cut vegetables with "Ranch" dressing
Citrus Fruits for Dessert

Some notes about these foods:

If you have day-old pitot to use up, split them open, cut into wedges, brush with olive oil or melted butter, sprinkle with garlic, salt, and oregano (optional: parmesan cheese, but at approx 100 NIS/kilo, I decided not to buy the parmesan right now), and bake at 375 F (190 C) till crisp.

I use whole grain pastas. This makes me feel better about serving pasta, and my kids don't know about any other kind. Occasionally my husband says he misses white pasta, but I have convinced him that the health benefits of eating whole grains outweigh all of his complaints. Nitzat Haduvdevan has organic whole grain pastas on sale this month, the Teverya Mazon Organi store has them for just over 6 NIS, or I found (conventional) whole grain pasta at Yesh last week on sale for 3.99 NIS/bag.

Rose Sauce: I use shortcuts! I just simply combine crushed tomatoes with basil, garlic, salt, and pepper, and mix it with Gevinah Levanah (Israeli white cheese), and heat, but not to boiling. It makes a passable stand-in for Rose sauce.

Ranch Dressing - we really do miss Newman's Own Ranch Dressing. We haven't found anything like it. So I just mix up some yogurt and spices and pretend it's ranch dressing, and the kids eat it, but they do say there's something missing. Any ideas to improve it are appreciated! Just leave me a note in the comments!

A note about organics: I prefer organic over conventional in most cases, but having recently made Aliyah and still trying to figure out how to make our new budget work, I find that I have been forgoing some of my organic purchases for now. I have found that some things (bulk grains, legumes, sugar, etc) are about the same price at the health food store as the conventional version in most supermarkets - sometimes even less, so I'm sticking with affordable organic items for now, using lots of "Sterily" fruit and vegetable cleaner on my produce, looking for lab-path "pachot hadbara" certification, etc, and trying to buy items that are as natural as I can find. (Oils have been a challenge - you can find lots of cold pressed olive oil here, but it's very hard to find oils of any other kind that have not been chemically extracted. I've been splurging on organic sunflower oil and using it sparingly...)