The price of food is outrageous!! I've noticed a big jump lately. I usually only buy food when it is on sale except if it's something I desperately need. We are not big eaters and we're not that picky so I can get away with doing that.

Like Casey, we only buy food on sale, and shop the fliers.

This week I noticed that pork loin roast was on sale for $4.99/lb.
I've never paid that much for a pork roast.

Everything is expensive......even vegetables in season are expensive, IMO. Broccoli and green peppers are expensive. Cauliflower is cheap this week, $1/head. I bought a 10-lb of onions for $3, for many years it was $1.88 for 10 lb.

My small backyard garden is coming in handy with fresh tomatoes and peppers and a few eggplants. I still have a bag of frozen blackberries left.
Besides saving $, there is nothing quite like a bowl of sweet fresh picked cherry tomatoes.

This a topic often talked about among my relatives and friends. Sometimes the price is increased as well as package decreased in size. It used to be prices were increased by a nickel or a dime, etc. Now it's by anywhere from a quarter to fifty cents. This is one example: Birdseye Asian blend was $2pkg, the very next week it was $2.50. If it were only one product, you can absorb that increase, but it's on many, many products. It's frustrating to have less foods going down that grocery belt, but the total is either the same or even more.

Shirley

Our store stocks bacon and wieners. The rep for Maple Leaf was in last April and told me that the size of bacon packs will go down from 500g to 375g, but the price would not increase. I told her, "excuse me, but when you take 30% of the bacon away and still charge me for 500g, you've increased the price by 30%!" She didn't get it. Then when the hotdogs came in 10 to a pack instead of 12, customers were yelling at us because all the packs were missing 2 weiners! Yet the packs of buns from the bakery still come in packs of 12. "What are we supposed to do with 2 extra buns?" Really? That's my problem? LOL

I buy my bacon at Costco. 4 packs for a decent price. Each one is 500g, and the slices are thicker and tastier.

Who would ever think we'd see more than $4 for a loaf of bread???

My answer to that one is make your own bread, easiest thing in the world to make and cheap cheap cheap..You can still buy a loaf of french bread at walmart for $1

"Pre-package hamburgs (4 to a package) $6.99, hotdogs $5.99 for 10. These items used to be on a poor families shopping list."

If a family truly has little money to spend on food, they are wasting their money buying pre-formed/pre-packaged hamburger patties. They are paying extra for the labor involved in forming those patties. They'd be much better off buying a one-pound package of ground beef and forming their own patties at home. They're not difficult to form.

Prices are up, but look for them sales. Hamburger $2.99/lb (=4 1/4 lb burgers), Wienies $1, Bread 75â, Pork Roast $2.89/lb, Milk $2.89/gal., Pasta .89â/box. Coupons might help. Cooking at home is still cheaper than eating out.

Producing our food has become much more expensive because of the weather we have had. With the drought in the west and the late winter and flooding in the Midwest, food production has become more costly and so the customer is paying more. As Lindsey says, we also pay labor and facilities costs when we buy food that has been conveniently processed. A cut up chicken can cost more than one that is not. A package of all breasts costs more too. Shaped meat into patties or on skewers costs more.

Then you add in the cost of fuel for farmers, transporters and processors and it means higher prices at the grocery store as well.

I can't speak for Canada, where things have always seemed more expensive to me anyway, but in the US, food cost as a percentage of income has declined pretty steadily through the years. Try to Google it, you'll find the same information from multiple sources.

Food prices have gone up, yes, but income has gone up by significantly more. That may be no consolation as you leave the grocery store, because yes, prices are higher. But it's a smaller percentage of consumer spending than ever before. For all except for those in the low income strata, for whom the percentage has been unchanged.

I know it varies from place to place but in my area, incomes have been booming. That's driven up housing costs, automobile costs, and many other "necessities" for which most people spend a lot more than on food.

Here is a link that might be useful: Food costs decline

I shop at our farmer's market, at Costco/Sam's, and use the sales flyers to try to keep our food costs as low as possible. I also make as much as I can from scratch and try to avoid buying packaged/convenience foods.

If you have a Dollar Tree near you they carry bread and it's all $1.00... for a loaf of bread, hot dog or hamburger buns, sandwich thins, English muffins and it's all fresh and dated ahead. I buy several and freeze them. They have several different brands also, Sunbeam, Nature's Own etc...

I shudder to think what our California drought is going to do to produce prices. Our citrus, grapes, avocados... Come on rain and lots of it !

With just me at home now my food costs have dropped. So much so that I didn't feel bad buying organic whole milk for $3.59 for a half gallon. I can't drink a whole gallon by myself and seems such a waste. This milk tastes wonderful too. Like milk used to taste. I guess it was off-set by my Kroger brand bread I usually buy, it was only $2.00 on sale. It's the Golden Flax and Grain bread, it's the only kind I buy anymore.

But, hamburger is so expensive. When we had no money, one meal I used to make a lot was hamburger, onions and potatoes. Filled you up, now it's so expensive. Even the onions and potatoes are outrageous and half rotten.

Oh, and thought the hamburger would be cheaper at Wal-Mart, it wasn't, took my chances and went to Kroger after not getting it at Wal-Mart and it was cheaper at Kroger, not much but a little bit. Over $5.00 a pound at Wal-Mart, $3.88 at Kroger.

Bought a whole chicken for .99 a pound too. Dirt cheap. The boneless skinless packages of chicken are too expensive and I really don't like the meat unless I'm making chicken soft tacos. Then I usually buy a already roasted chicken.

There were little wee birds on sale for $2.49 lb and the whole chicken was $10. There were the smallest little things with no meat. I felt so sorry for them, they couldn't have been older than 8 weeks old.

It's outrageous that a chicken costs $10 with little meat, barely enough to feed 2 people, and the cost of roasting it. No wonder the rotisserie cheater-chickens are so popular.

Cooking for one isn't always inspiring and my biggest self-imposed crusade is not to waste anything. Buy things to use up or complement what I have on hand. Though I don't have to be particularly attentive to prices, I do tend to notice the upward creep on items I normally buy and enjoy a bargain. The paper today has a coupon for a pound of bacon for $1.99. Ground beef is getting pretty dear and I'll buy it only when I'm making a big pot of chili, which I never tire of as leftovers.

Grapes of all types are $1.88 a pound. Honeycrisp apples are 50 cents a pound off. And I've been surfing the deli a bit more lately - if I'm in the mood for chicken, I'll get a couple of thighs and maybe some cole slaw or a prepared salad that looks interesting... this week it's 7-layer salad on special.

I do like Walmart's $1.00 French bread with sesame seeds; makes great toast or sandwiches.

Re: farmers markets. Around here, there is absolutely NO price competition between venders at the local Farmers Markets. In fact, most of the grocery stores also advertise and sell local produce... even naming the farming family and location. Guess what? Prices are usually far, far less than at the farmers market.

I don't know about most people, but I am all about saving MY $$$. .99/lb tomatoes is better than 2.50-3.00/lb. Cantaloupe for 1.25 or less each is better than 3.00-4.00. Zucchini at market is 2.00/lb and .99 at the grocer. And so on across the board for seasonal products. Supporting small venders is fine, chatting with the farmers is pleasant, but I have found no difference in quality for my money. Grocers are also having local/organic available.

I wonder where is the benefit?

I've been loading up on the Safeway Just For U promotions, They've been giving us $5 off a $30 purchase, so I loaded up on Pork shoulder roast and chops $1.99lb. So far I haven't paid over $3lb for hamburger, .99cents a lb for whole chickens. They had heads of iceberg lettuce for .79cents ea. for most of the Summer.

I'm not that upset about food prices...

Learning to cook for one after losing my husband last spring has been a real challenge for me. I've been trying to use up food from the freezer but it is in amounts too big for just me.
Also, since I no longer drive, I have to rely on giving lists to my daughter or ordering on line. Our van goes to the grocery twice a week but time for shopping is quite limited. I am constantly surprised at the high prices! Besides, I have been dealing with bursitis in my hip so can't carry much.

i've tried many of the frozen meals and can't say I like them. Seems most are pasta and/or chicken. Also, I hate the waste in packaging.

Once this painful hip is better I will try cooking and freezing things I like.

We do have 10 meals a month included in our rent but they have developed a sameness I don't care for. It seems that I still waste way too much.

The increasing prices astonish and annoy me

Kittykat, you are singing my song. Everybody preaches "buy local". We go to the market, and seldom buy anything. The last time we went, cauliflower was $3/head. A tiny little basket of new potatoes were $2.
Watermelon was $4. AND we could buy bananas and mangoes. Uhhhh, we don't grow mangoes and bananas in Ontario!!

We promptly left the market and went to our local grocery store and bought cauliflower for $1.50, a 10 LB bag of potatoes for $3, and a watermelon for $2.97. All grown in Ontario. Bananas are 57cents/lb. (no they aren't grown local, LOL)

Another beef has been Ontario garlic. Garlic is easy to grow yet none of the stores carry local garlic. The farmers market does at $3/head.
Even though the stores only carry Chinese garlic, and I don't like buying chinese garlic, I can buy a sleeve of 5 heads for 49 cents on sale.

When the money is coming out of my pocket, I like value. I will support the local economy where it's warranted, but I will not pay a premium.

Here is another pricing issue:
In the past (younger and larger garden area), I have grown many veggies. How can the stores change more for red/yellow/orange bell peppers, than for green? It takes the identical growing conditions and care to grow any peppers! Yet, charging more than twice the price.

Another problem: We have a large regional grocery warehouse (a co-op) that supplies several different store formats for independent member grocers, maybe 800 stores in 10 states. The supplier does over 7B in annual sales! An owner may have different stores operating under different names... BUT all merchandise comes from the same warehouse. The price of items at one store is totally different than another... owned by the same family, perhaps a mile away.

Go figure...

Even thou I am assisted living with meals, I still fix some for me when I don't like the selection. Yes prices have gone up and package sizes down. Margarine almost 5.00 for little milk and chemicals, and this year have been disappointed in the Farmer's Markets. Our problem is still related to the oil boom big wages, high rentals and food prices have really jumped. It does hit the middle and low income area. Our food banks have increased due to people coming here for jobs and lack of housing. I try to buy ND brand products --as they seem to be a little cheaper. Do have to watch out for the $$ stores and where the products come from.

kitykat, by your reasoning, all beef cuts should have the same price per pound because at some point you could say it all comes from the same animal from the same ranch. It's of course not how it works.

Grocery stores operate with very low profit margins. I'm sure that distributor charges different prices to its customers (by offering volume discounts to the larger operators) and then each store in turn prices products based on what it thinks customers will pay. If prices are set too high, customers go elsewhere.

There aren't many independent grocers left in my (suburban) area and I don't miss them. They weren't able to compete with the larger guys, who mostly offer newer and cleaner stores, better selection, and better prices .

wow. I realize Oscar Mayer may not be the preferred brand, but neither is it the cheap facsimilie here... but $1.99 for an ten dog package. Wonder why so different a price? And buns? Typically $1. So still a budget meal. If you have nothing else with it ;)

bacon here is $5.00 and up a pound. Crazy. Good thing I rarely eat it anymore. Last time I had a craving for it, it was on sale at Kroger for under $3.00, by the time I got to the store every last one was gone. ) :

I paid $14 for a bushel of Cubanelle peppers. My DH and I go every year to a farm and pick our own. We wait until they turn red, because that's the way we like them. I slice them up and freeze them. I grow one cherry tomato and one regular tomato plant for ourselves. When the cherry one's are red I pop them in a bag and in the freezer. They're great for my breakfast fratatta. My breakfast fratatta consist of sausage, peppers, broccoli, and asparagas and cherry tomatoes, sauted in a pan with a little olive oil. After it's done, I add a slice of provolone cheese.

I know why red peppers cost more. First, they have to ripen and thus they are watered for a longer time period than the green ones. But they also mold faster, and so the grocer must cull the bad ones regularly, and that adds to the cost of selling them.