Rising cost of food

Last week I bought groceries. It was about the same as I always buy, but not the price. I usually spend between $80 and $120. But,the bill came to $172! I was shocked! I didn't realize it would be so much more. And that doesn't include all the items you have to go back and buy like milk,eggs, tomatoes, bread,etc. I guess I've spent another $50 this week just buying those things. We have made many changes. One is, we hardly go out to eat anymore and we don't go shopping unless it's a necessity. And,when we do go out, we try and make several stops before coming home to save on the gas bill.

The prices are going up that is for sure and I think it is just going to get worse! I remember when I used to buy a dozen large eggs for .40 cents not they are $1.87! Milk is almost $4.00 a gallon and bread is almost $2 a loaf!

we are careful what we eat and we have been trying to have more meatless meals, plus during the winter, we eat a lot of homemade soup and bread (our friends gave us a bread maker for free) and i try to hit all the food sales (i go to one or 2 stores every other week - depends where the bargains are!)

Right now we are spending almost double that for three people and one week's worth of food! We live in a resort town and so prices are always higher. We shop dollar deals and buy one get one free offers when we can find them. But we all eat what we can and try to be healthy. We can't buy fast food anymore cause it has too much fat and salt. So we save where we can!

The cost is rising and it is getting ridiculous. A couple of years ago, I had 3 children at home and was struggling terribly to feed them. Now, I have just one. You would think my budget would have eased a bit. No..not at all. It is just me and my daughter and it is worse than ever. I haven't gotten a raise in years but I now spend more buying groceries and getting less than when I had all of them here. There are times when I'll get just enough for her and eat a sandwhich. I try to make casseroles and things that will last for a meal or 2. It isn't just the food...it is absolutely everything. She is 14 and growing...just trying to keep up with that is a challange. I can't even imagine how the elderly on fixed incomes are going to get by this winter. Times are hard everywhere right about now.

Yes, things are getting very expensive. i spent like seventy dollars today at a discount grocer. I am not really changing my buying habits that much but I know some people are not eting as many fruits and vegetables becasue they are expensive. I dont believe in sacrficing my health though. I'll do what I need to in order to keep buying them. What about you are? Are you coping with the high prices?

Oh yeah, it is going up, way up and after the floods killed so many crops it is going to get worse before it gets better. There are 6 people in our house and it really isn't hurting us right now because I'm pretty frugal and my husband actually has a well paying job (best he's had in over 20 years). But if he loses this job, we will be in a lot of trouble. We eat rice every night nearly and before the prices started going up really high I bought 3 40lb bags of rice. I'm into bag number 2 now. Cooking oil is something we have cut back on drastically. Most of our vegetables that we saute are done with water now instead of oil or butter. $12+ for a gallon of Crisco, what I got is going to last a very long time. I keep meaning to look into more high protein grains like quinoa to add into our diet but for whatever reason that keeps getting put on the back burner. Probably cause I'm scared to spend the money then everybody hates it and I've wasted my money.

Tell me about it.It is getting ridiculous .I think the reason why the food is raising is probably because of the having to deliver the food to stores and the cost of gas to deliver the food.Pretty soon I am going to have to start eating spaghetti O's and canned beans,and noodles,etc.LOL.Their is 4 in my family and the cost of food keeps raising.Especially when my kids dont like taco's so I have to fix them something else.But the taco seasonin is probably not good on thier stomach so that is why I do it for that.I hope the costs dont raise anymore.If the gas prices raise we will probably see the food cost rise.

We felt that too here, I remember when my husband and I will shop about 2 months ago, it will just cost us less than $100 for all the things that we need in the kitchen, but lately, we were surprised paying more than $100..I need to make some adjustment of our daily activities and tried to minimize going out too because of this, prices are going up yet salaries are the same!

Some things seem to get dearer everytime I have to buy them.And combine that with things getting smaller and staying the same price for less.It's just terrible.

Yes! It is rising and at an alarming rate. We are heading into a depression unless something happens fast to change things! I've always been frugal, but with today's economy, I've had to become even moreso. My husband and I love rice. I make a lot of "one pot wonders" as he calls them... mixing a little bit of chicken or turkey into vegetables and basically stir-frying them, then add that to rice. I used to use instant rice, because, well, I'm kinda lazy! LOL Nah, due to health conditions I really don't have a lot of energy, and the instant rice helped as a shortcut. But since everything is getting so pricey, I now buy large bags of rice, the kind that needs boiling. I've compensated by cooking two or three days worth of rice at one time. I suppose that would save on energy, too! I've never really thought about that until just now! When making a stew, I always add barley to it for bulk. Besides that, barley is good for you! I also cook a lot of pasta dishes (Italian) and, even though pasta isn't that expensive, I bought a pasta machine and now make my own. I also buy a cheaper brand of spaghetti sauce. I used to buy Texas Toast, a brand of garlic bread. Now, I make my own. Another way I've cut down on energy is to cook early in the morning, when it's coolest. It gets so hot in the late mornings and afternoon that it actually uses MORE energy to cook then because you spend more to cool down your home. I have two dogs who love their "snacks". I no longer buy them packaged snacks. I make them. There are many recipes on the internet for them. They love the peanut butter ones! I buy fruit when it is in season. It is cheaper that way. When it is not in season, it is cheaper to buy it frozen or in cans. It's also a good idea to check out any farmer's markets nearby. A lot of the time, they sell their produce much cheaper than grocery stores do. I'm also growing a lot of veggies this year... things that I normally do not grow, like celery, melons, etc. I'm growing pumpkins just for Halloween (these are the 100 +/- pounders) and plan to give most of them to relatives and friends to help them with the rising costs. One of my friends always makes pumpkin pies, cookies, cakes, etc. from fresh pumpkin, so she's thrilled! They can get expensive! Any little thing I can think of, I do. I plan to check out your other responses to see if there's something I could be doing that I'm not doing right now. This really is an excellent discussion! Thanks so much for posting it!

I can spend $60 and not by any food at all and this is only for two people. It just keeps getting worse. There are only going to be two classes of people in this country, the poor and the rich. You know which class we all fall in! I blame this government for letting this economy getting so bad and we are now all paying the price. There is absolutely nothing we can do about the rising cost, It's eventually going to kill us because we can afford health care.

I tend to buy a sizeable percentage of my food from local producers; therefore, my grocery bill hasn't been affected too much yet. However, as local producers continue to feel the pinch from rising fuel prices and such, even those who rely fairly heavily on a local diet will probably start seeing more of an increase.