Rockit Apples (and other premium priced food)

Just in time for the school year, a new item caught my attention at the grocery store. My first thought was “Is that a plum or an apple?”

Rockit Apple between average sized Gala Apple and Lemon.

At nearly $5 per pound ($2.99 for a 9.7 ounce package) these apples don’t really fit into my cheapskate ways. As a single mom on a very tight budget, I have a tendency to hunt for bargains. But these were cute and I figured the tubes would protect them from those shoppers who think they have to pinch everything. So, I let curiosity take over and purchased a tube as a one-time treat.

My first apple wasn’t so great. But hey, it is fruit. Farmers cannot know which ones will be awesome and which will be “eh”. My daughter thought they were delicious. So I ate another.

WOW! Rockit apples really are:

• Deliciously Sweet
• Taste super-fresh
• An excellent size for snacking

All of those qualities add up to the very important fact that they are:

• A healthy snack that my daughter is HAPPY to grab after school. I don’t think she even noticed the chips or pudding cups sitting close by.

The more I thought about it, I realized the price isn’t so bad either. 60 cents for a healthy snack. What was I whining about? I hope these continue to be an item I can find in my area.

Other Delicious Foods

This is a lesson that I have to re-learn fairly often. Premium priced foods and other items can often be worth the extra expense. Even when you are a penny pincher like me. Quality is important. It can change how your whole body feels.

There is a farmer in our area that likes to pay in meat and eggs when I can help him out. There’s no way I would pay $10 per pound for porkchops from the super market. But his farm-raised, preservative free meats are more filling. Plus it is satisfying to know that the pig had a good life before being served up on our dinner plates.

Generic / Store Brands

That’s not to say that I always buy the expensive stuff. In fact, I like to give the store brands a try every few years. Corn flakes, ketchup, oatmeal, pain killers, and allergy medicines are among the list of items that I often purchase as an off-brand.