We are definitely paying too much for electric, then.

[conuly]

:(

On an utterly unrelated note, I want to see how badly I'm being ripped off on the butter front. How much is a pound of butter, not cultured, not organic where you are?

Comments

[randomdreams]

$2.50-$4.99 depending on brand and store.
Belatedly, we're paying about eight cents per kilowatt hour, once you sum all the surcharges.

[adafrog]

I don't pay attention where I usually shop.
Looks like Walmart here charges $5.30 ish for the exact same one. (Land O Lakes sweet cream, salted)

[the_siobhan]

Anywhere between $5 and $7 depending on brand.

I'm led to believe dairy used to be expensive in Canada because we have a marketing board that makes sure farmers actually get paid a decent amount for their labour. Not sure how true that is any more.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

Have you vacuumed the refrigerator coil?

(I buy butter when it's a loss leader.)

[conuly]

Coil in the back? Our fridge has a very flat back so...?

[malkingrey]

Usually about $4.99, or $3.99 on sale (and one brand or another is usually on sale.)

[tielan]

$5.15 AUD for 500g of butter (about a pound). That translates to $3.83 in USD.

That's the 'supermarket brand' one, which is usually cheapest in our major supermarket chains.

(Probably not what you were asking for, but now I'm going to look at the responses from the US and wonder how badly I'm being ripped off on the butter front...)

[conuly]

That's around what I consider average. Sometimes the prices at my store take weird swings, which is why I ask.

[buttonsbeadslace]

My mental idea of how much butter "should" cost (basd on when I was living in Minnesota) is about $3. I think the last time I bought store brand butter where I live currently (Maryland/DC area) was $3.50. But I can't actually find the receipt, so I might be misremembering that.

[brokenallbroken]

About $3.50 for Target brand, $4ish for Safeway brand, $5.50+ for brand name.

(California)

[marahmarie]

Depends: if it's not already on sale, it's $3.85 at Publix for their brand, was something like $4.09 for Winn-Dixie's own brand, is between $4.85-$6ish and up at the organic store depending on brand, is something like $2.54 at Walmart for their brand, and the same at Target (which just opened here).

[nightdog_barks]

Anywhere from $1.99 to $3.49, depending on the store and whether or not it's on sale.

[conuly]

$2? Lucky!

[zyzyly]

Store brand is about $3.50, national brand is about $5+. It seems to fluctuate quite a bit. I don't buy milk, so not sure if there are similar fluctuations in milk as well.

[conuly]

I don't think so? Because it's subsidized? I buy a lot of milk (and half and half) right now for my mother, and it seems pretty stable.

[musyc]

US$3-5 depending on brand. We're pretty loyal to Land O Lakes, so around US$5 most of the time.

[boxofdelights]

$4-$6. You certainly can pay more if you want to.

I live in Colorado, like randomdreams, so I don't understand how he's paying so much less. I should shop around.

[magnetic_pole]

Anywhere from $2.50 to $2.99 (on sale) to $4.99, DC area. M.

[bibliofile]

Here in America's Dairyland, the cheapest stuff at the cheapest store is under $3. Land O' Lakes starts around $4.

For context, milk is around $2/gallon, and pre-sliced packaged cheese (e.g. cheddar, not American) starts around $4/lb.

[wendelah1]

Store brand at Stater Bros. on sale is 2.99/lb. When I see it, I buy a good quantity and freeze it. I use that for cooking and baking. On the other end of the scale, Kerrygold at $4.69 on sale for just a half pound. I put it on toast, and vegetables, like corn on the cob. It is a fantastic tasting butter.

[conuly]

Mmm, I sometimes get cultured butter and then spend a great deal of time telling the girls ONLY A LITTLE.

[archersangel]

$2.36 for the wal-mart brand. salted & unsalted are the same price.
land o'lakes is $4.44, which is why i get the wal-mart brand.

[conuly]

Sometimes Land o'Lakes is the same price as storebrand, and then I buy it because I think their little half sticks are cute.

[pauamma]

Over here, about 3 euros for 500g, which would make a pound about 2.70 euros.

[delphi]

$5.99 CDN (currently about $4.59 US?). Where my grocery store gets me is that they've rarely got regular non-fancy butter available in a 1-lb size. Instead, they sell it in half-pounds at $3.99 CDN each.

[moem]

We pay 4 € and up for 500 grams.

[oloriel]

The non-brand kind around here costs 2 Euros for 500g (€ 2,59 and upwards for brand), but that's probably ripping off the dairy farmers badly. Not sure what the "fair" price would be.

[conuly]

Maybe they're subsidized too, like here.

[moxie_man]

$3 to $5 per pound. Usually can find store brand at the low end and name brand at the high end. When on sale, It can be as low as $2.50.

Electricity, which I didn't have time to respond to the other day. Here in Maine, Delivery is separate from power supplier. It's on one bill, but the delivery company and supplier are two separate companies thanks to "deregulation", which hasn't really worked as promised here.

Delivery base charge $10.68 and $0.070186 per kwh after the first 50.
Power charge is $0.079206 per kwh. That's the standard, default offer. I've shopped around and found that the "competition" is much like a cable company--great intro rate, but they lock you in for a year or two and after the first 6 months, the rate jacks up well past the standard offer. There's one power supply company up this way under investigation for their tactics.

This time of year, I use around 380 to 400 kwh per month for a total of around $65. It'll probably be 100 kwh higher when I get the August bill due to the swimming pool running 24/7 for a week while we were away on vacation.

In late winter/early spring we use around 250 kwh.

[8hyenas]

at least $5 for non-store brand

[killing_rose]

3.50, I think. We can get the margarine that won't kill me for about 4.40. As I recall, it ran about 6 when I was on the east coast.

[topaz_eyes]

$3.95 CAD (currently about $3.05 USD) for the cheapest supermarket store brand. Add another $1-3 CAD ($0.75-$2.30) for brand names. Dairy products in Canada are supply-managed. Honestly I thought I pay too much for butter, but it looks like my supermarket is right in line with US prices.

[conuly]

Supply-managed?