Seriously, I don't even know how to handle this. It has become much cheaper to eat the dollar menu at some restaurants than to cook anything that has meat in it at home. This just does not feel right.
Our favorite pretzels went up 20 cents in one week. A head of lettuce went up from $1.99 to $2.29, a 30 cent increase, and chicken legs went from 99 cents a pound to $1.19 a pound. Even dried beans were higher. Individually these raises to don't seem alarming until I realized that these raises were in ONE WEEK. What if everything keeps going up 20 - 30 cents every week?!?
It seems like the more shelf stable items were regular price, it was meat and produce that seemed to shoot up overnight. I understand that produce does go up in winter since it has to be trucked farther, but this year the jumps seem bigger. There are so many factors playing in to these price hikes, everything from truck driver shortages to fires and droughts, so the idea that food is going up is not surprising, just another hurdle for people with low to no incomes and for those who depend on food stamps.
We will be overhauling our grocery budget again, trying to squeeze some money from somewhere. The toy shortages they are talking about may work in my favor as the gift category is the only place to squeeze money from since gas and heat are also going up and will be more than we budgeted for.
Seems like we are in for tough times ahead this winter, but we can do this! We are all in this together!
Here are some links to older blog posts that might come in handy, feel free to share your own!
Stretching Food Dollars and Snap Benefits
Meal Planning Monday and How to Keep Your Spirits Up When You Are Tired of Being Frugal
An Overview of the Envelope System
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