Is The Price of Food Killing You?

I know food prices are rediculous. I shop at Walmart and it is expensive there too. I end up buying hamburger which I do not like buying, but it is the only way to help save money. I do go to the frugal cooking web sites and get recipes that do not use that many ingredients. It is only my husband and I as well. We eat only one meal a day because that is all we can afford. It does not seem like that you are buying unnecessary food. Your husband eating two sandwiches for lunch is not unrealistic. With the economy being bad one would think that food prices would be lower not higher.

I also have a family of two, and we eat on about $200 per month. It takes a lot of research and planning to get down to this amount though, and it leaves little to no room for splurging. It starts with making a meal plan every week. We plan seven dinners and seven lunches (which usually revolve around planned leftovers from the dinners) and make sure that we have enough breakfast items on hand for a week. Then we make a list of the ingredients that we need for those meals, plus any staples we might have run out of like milk. We check the sale flyers for all the grocery stores in the area to find out if any of the items we need are on sale. We usually end up going to two stores, one that almost always has the best prices on produce and one that has the best regular prices on just about everything else. The only time we ever buy a name brand product is if it is cheaper than the store brand or not available in store brand. And we only buy meat that is on sale. When there is a good sale on meat, we buy enough for a few weeks and freeze it. We rarely pay more than $2 per lb. for meat (we stick mostly to chicken and ground turkey- beef only makes its way in occasionally, and we don't really like pork except in Asian dishes). We also eat a lot of tofu, because it is cheaper than meat and really quite tasty and versatile. So it is still possible to eat cheap- but it keeps getting harder and harder. The sales on meat are fewer and further between, so we often find ourselves going for a couple of weeks on mostly vegetarian meals. The price of bread is so ridiculous that we only buy bread occasionally from the day-old discount rack. And every time the prices of milk and butter go up, I cringe. Even pasta costs twice as much as it did a few years ago. I can't even imagine how people with kids manage to feed their families these days, especially with how picky kids tend to be.

in my area of Ohio, it seems like that prices just all of a sudden jumped to double or more over night, I went to the store one day to find eggs at over $2.00 a dozen, and oleo, not real butter at like $4 bucks. That is when I started to notice each time that it was getting higher and higher. I also get the sale papers and go through them and look for the things we use. I use coupons if I have them, we eat same thing every month, hamburger, chicken and pork chops. Now you talk about chicken, one chicken here, just a plain old chicken is about $5.bucks, sorry I can buy a steak for that price. There is just 2 of us. But I found a god send, it is called Aldi's grocery. If you have one in your area and haven't been in it, try it, you will be surprised. Eggs are like 78 cents there where they are way over a buck at the regular stores, milk like $1.49 a gallon, milk in the regular stores are $3.00 a gallon. Many of their products are better than the store brands else where. They have polish and smoked sausage in a package of like 3 pound and it is only $3.99, there are like 12- to 15 links in the package, we get it and the hot dogs which has 14 to the pack and divide them up in separate packages. And they taste great, especially the polish sausage. Canned goods like 39 cents a can, don't know about you but to me a can of corn is a can of corn, going to open it and add butter to it. Their real butter is like 1.99 a pound too Potatoes are 1.49 for 20 pounds so by shopping there I do save a lot of money I can use for other items. Only thing got to sack your own groceries. Bag boys must be getting rich if the store has to sell something that cost 78 cents at Aldi's for any where from 1.99 to $2.29 at a regular store.

I know I have a family of four and every month we seem to run out of food. I think food costs so much and we have been eating a lot of foods that are not really good for you. That is the thing that makes me sad we need to eat and want to eat right but cannot because funds are so low. Something has to give I feel. I know it cannot keep going on like this either I feel bad for us and many others that are struggling to make it every month:) Take care friend I hope for the best:)

It is like that here in the UK too. Hubby and I retired and have a reduced income but I've been lucky enough to get some writing work from home and sell articles online to supplement our pensions. I do worry about the future if my work dries up. We moved house last year and now have a big garden project ahead, so we hope to eventually be able to grow our own veg. I do remember chicken making a nice cheap meal. Nowadays it seems the cheapest meat here is pork. The cost of lamb has gone through the roof. And beef steaks are a no no.

Yes it does. It is really hard going to the grocery or supermarket with a limited budget because you have to think twice whether to pick an item or not. The quantity of food I was able to squeeze on my budget last year are almost twice of what I can this year. I think it is high time that we grow our own food huh?

I'm feeling the squeeze as well. We are a family of two as well, and our grocery budget is about 300 a month - but our food is pretty basic. We don't use very many spices and quite often our menu is entirely based on what is on sale.

We are a two person family, so it's not too bad for us when we shop. We always shop the bargains and get coupons as well. We also have a discount card since my husband is a manager at the grocery store we shop at. We get the good deals and only buy what is on our list so that we can stay on target and not get extras we don't need.

I am feeling it too for sure. Even the discount stores are not cheap any more. Today I went shopping at Aldis, the cart was only about half full, and my bill $92.00. Granted I did buy some meat, but I thought that was a lot, it like double that when I go to the regular grocery store, and it does not even seem like I have purchased that much. It is very stattering, I am starting to hate going to the grocery store. I did buy a nice honey ham though and that cost $13.29, so that made the bill higher, but I should be able to turn that in to two different meals and then make split pea or navy bean soup with the bone.

Yeah i feel that way too, the price are gone crazy. maybe it is caused by the weather, flood makes farmer failed to pick all their have been planted. i hope people get aware that the global warming is make a very large damage.

Yes, the food price is increasing day by day, especially the price of fruits. I don't know when the price will come down. I don't have least hopes about that. It is not easy for a family to face the food price even with two people in the family working. The fruits prices are really up even in the season of the particular fruit. Your discussion made me feel to have some oranges.

Hiiii there Yes its everywhere same unfortunately.I am from Asian country and we are also experiencing unbelievable rise in food prices here.Inflation is running high and government here is trying to control it hard.But it keep going up and up every month like evil. Irregular monsoon rain has killed production so there is lot of stress from production area as well. I have cut my other expenses like spending on cosmetics and entertainment to spend it on food.

Nowadays, I shop as if I've never gone to the store before in my life. That way, I'm not stuck with expectations about how much it should cost at checkout. Granted, I'm still left with the shock and horror, but not nearly as much as before. Those fast food commercials are beginning to look better by as the year continues. That five buck box at taco bell seems like a good deal. I always liked Barkley, and that song is pretty darn catchy. I'm not against going on an all Taco Bell diet. I mean, It would probably end any chance of me losing weight this year. My wallet would get fatter over time, but my body would maintain. Those Cinnamon sticks aren't really junk food when you stop and think about it. Cinnamon is very healthy...I think.

Yes the prices of food all over the country is skyhigh and ridiulous. I have to go to different stores to get the good buys that each store is having that week to maybe save some money. The best is when they have 10 for dollar deals.Try eating healthy organic stuff and you can't because its just to expensive. I can't imagine what we will be paying for food in 10 years. Its really scary if you think about it.

I have not kept track, perhaps, the way I should. I do not think groceries are that high here, though. Another thing to consider is that I buy in case lots frequently. That means I get really reasonable prices. I can also buy large packages of meat and make several meals from them. Fresh food that I buy is generally not too bad, but hubby runs to the store for all kinds of things and so I am not really sure about prices. Bananas are 49 cents per pound right now. I also got chicken leg quarters in a ten pound bag for 49 cents per pound, go figure. I will purchase what is on sale and freeze it. My grocery store issues coupons for things that our shopping card shows that we buy often. I print coupons online, too. I buy a lot of store brand things. We have not been buying cleaning products at the grocery and that makes a difference in the bill, too.

We have had to cut our budget to the bone just to survive, and I tend to shop late in the day when the fresh foods are being reduced for their sale date. I try to buy fresh fruit and vegetables, avoiding pre-packed or processed foods where possible. The costs seem to have spiraled and I dread getting the bill at the checkout now.

The price of food had certainly gone up. Chicken and fish had become so expensive. Fruits and vegetables as well. That is why we have learned to subsist on simple viands like sauteed carrots and cabbages or cheese omelet or scrambles eggs. Later on, we discovered that eating simple food could actually make us healthier. So we grab a banana or a ponkan orange for snack. We avoid the wax filled ready made noodles. So, the bill is not too much.

Growing up in a big family, I know just how expensive shopping can get. Even just limiting yourself to the basic essentials (which is no fun at all) still all adds up and results in one hefty shopping bill Living alone does have its perks, such as a cheaper shopping bill

I feel the same way too, well just sometimes. I just feel bad that the prices of goods have to rise all the time. I mean, prices are always rising and my salary isnt even increasing. Its just so unfair sometimes.

I am having a family of three and since the last couple of months it is becoming impossible to eek out a living.The moment I go to the market I find myself lost.Even 200 bucks per day is not enough to buy the bare necessities forget about the fish and meat.The green vegetables are as costly as anything.Same is the case with grocery articles.The prices of cereals and the pulses are skyrocketing.They are increasing everyday.What appeared to be a bit cheap yesterday turned out to be highly expensive today and the prices are not showing even the slightest tendency to come down in the near future infact it can only grow upwards from here.