With gas prices being so high, I was fully expecting for things to cost more, but this is ridiculous

foolish perhaps, shop at Kroger. Cincinnati headquarters, liberal bias?

And I work there

$4.99 for 8 oz of blueberries and they are in season. Last year I got the same size for $1.99!

I buy this Trader Joe’s Pinot Grigio sparkling wine that is Italian. I suspect the price will be going up soon.

Last year used to buy them in season for $4 for 2 boxes. Now they are $3 a box and that is the sale price.

Ground turkey - the good hormone-free kind, has gone up .50/ lb since last year. I buy ground beef maybe 4 times a year. It's gotten almost as expensive as steak

Store- made salmon burgers are over $4 apiece in the deli, they were $3 apiece last summer.

We also have a veggie garden, lettuces, tomatoes, green beans, cukes, snap peas, peppers, and herbs.

Bound to drive the price up when the farmers can't harvest their produce because their slave labor is being rounded up and put in camps.

My uncle grew blackberries on his farm in Michigan. My grandma said if you pick the blueberries I’ll make a pie for you. It took me 2 hours picking those berries in hot weather. I was and am a city girl. It was hard to pick the berries and they are prickly. A machine can’t harvest blueberries.

prices continue to rise and wages remain stagnant. That is NOT a strong economy.

Except for the highly skilled services that require extensive training, new people can be hired easily, so no one push for higher pay.

incomes too. Too, too sad for future generations.

They keep working not because they need the money to live, but want the additional money to live BIG. So you are right, it is sad for young people.

For instance, I wanted a serving of plain old potato salad. It is nothing but potatoes and dressing. Nothing else. The other choices have raw onion and I don't care for that. I bring it home and add a hard boiled egg, relishes and a little seasoning. I got a very small container, which ended up under 1 pound, but was $5.71. The price/lb. was $6.99, so I asked why they had it priced so high...I can buy steak for that. He said it was the name. Bull. Last week, I picked up a quick meal/takeout of beef bits and ends of brisket. Nothing fancy at all. When I got to check-out, I saw it was $12.99. I went back to the deli on the way out of the store and stopped to talk with the deli manager. I told him he was pricing his items as if it was a restaurant. The only thing I saved by buying it at the deli was the tip...no tip.

I always buy green top carrots. For a long time, they were 99 cents/5 nice long carrots. Overnight, they jumped to $1.50/5. They had just built a new gas station/convenience store/car wash. I guess we're going to pay for it this year.

The bakery doubled the price of their breakfast rolls/donuts and the people rebelled. They couldn't give away those donuts and they finally dropped the price back to normal. That was nearly a year ago and they obviously have lost their old customers. They never empty those shelves anymore.

Meat is out of sight. I just picked up a small pork roast (quit eating beef because of the price...I'm buying a beef roast, not the cow) and it was $10.77. For PORK~ I could hold it in the palm of one hand. What's going to happen when countries stop buying pork due to the tariffs? They'll beg us to buy it. By then, I may be a vegetarian.

Diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, joint & back problems are all going up because Americans are fatter than ever.

Food needs to go much higher, to reduce healthcare costs. Like it is in Europe. No wonder Obesity is lower there.

and usually loaded with sugar or salt.

I eat a lot of lentils, garbanzo beans & basmati rice. Very cheap compared to beef steak & chicken breast. And keeps my cholesterol in control.

and bologna/hot dogs. Very little fruit or veggies. I make a lot of soup, which takes a variety of veggies. You just don't see things like celery, carrots or even potatoes in carts. No salad makings. I don't even notice people buying frozen veggies or fruit. I bought one orange for the orioles, today, and it was just under $2. That answers my question about fruit. It is outrageous here in the Midwest since most has to be shipped in.

I also notice a ton of pop going out the door.

People are a lot less active. They are watching TV, on the computer or cells, etc. We ride to mow...ride to golf...drive from one place to another instead of walking.

He said people bought soda pop like the world was going to end. Many folks would load up 2 carts with just pop. I have seen that myself. My late cousin drank a 12 pack of Diet Coke every DAY. Why are we so addicted to soda in this country? And Trump certainly doesn't set a very good example.
I guess pop, to some, is a cheap indulgence.

As I wrote in another post, basic food is very cheap compared to beef, fish & other meats.

I consume lots of Lentils & Garbanzo beans. Both can be made very tasty by adding onions and spices & tomato sauce. And I eat them with wonderful Basmati rice (add a bit of oil & salt before cooking). Not only it saves me on food bills, it keeps my cholesterol down and my blood sugar under control, not to mention weight control as well.

I just made sweet potato soup with onions, tomato sauce & peanut butter. It was delicious, better than any tomato soup, had plenty of fiber and vitamins.

of organic stuff, but still it's ridiculous. I don't buy everything organic, but for tomatoes, greens, mini-cukes, peppers and a few other items I do. It's very expensive to eat healthfully and I suspect that is why many people don't. Your money goes a lot further when you make unhealthy food choices.

I know that it takes some creativity. You could make good lentil/bean soups with veggies from the Haymarket here in Boston. Buy in bulk at cheap markets and freeze or can, etc., but not everyone has the skills/know how. I think that would be a great community service. Teaching people how to stretch their food dollar and do so in a healthful way.

Saying food prices should be higher is saying some people should starve.

Because I cook a lot from scratch, using lentils, pinto beans, garbanzos, Basmati rice, onions, spices, raw carrots, cabbage and canned tomatoes & chili's.

Not only it is cheap, it keeps my cholesterol & blood pressure low.

Especially people who work two/three jobs and have a family living in basically a studio or one-bedroom apartment with a dorm fridge that has very limited freezer space. Some people live out of their car or live couch surfing, which is even more limiting. In those situations, you buy what you can eat that day, and that's pretty much cheap junk food.

Some people just can't handle left-overs - or eating the same thing time after time. Some people don't do well on rice (causes constipation for some), can't handle beans, cabbage or chilis in such a way that doesn't make family life smell miserable. And some people really do have an allergic reaction to legumes.

And if your kids decides they don't want a beans and rice stew for the third day in a row - no matter how well you cook it, that's still wasted food.

Mind you, because of both cost and time, I do a Sunday cook-out meal plan for the week, but there have been a lot of times where a week's worth of meals has sat in the freezer for over a month because spouse is literally sick eating the same basic meal after four days - gag reflex sick. He can eat it, but mentally he doesn't like the taste any more, no matter how much adobo or sirracha sauce goes in, and he just needs to have a break before he can go back to it. Some fish, or a salad, or something that needs to be made that day, which can be difficult with a working family when you don't get home until 6 at night and have to be in bed by 9. And the meal above aggravates his type 1 diabetes. Too much starch.

As helpful as your suggestion is, not everyone has the time or ability to follow your suggestion.

Haele

And I have gone through all those exact experiences myself. When I and my spouse worked full time, we rarely cooked at home. Now retired, lack of time is never a good excuse.

But I got to tell you about my childhood, growing up in India in 1950's. Most people in those days could not afford any meat or fish or chicken. Even basic staples such as rice, beans & oil were too expensive for many. So, people were happy to eat the same "Daal" & rice or whatever they could get their hands on. My parents were middle class and yet we ate meat only one meal per week. Result was there were few obese people there in those days. Malnutrition kills much more slowly than eating too much.

cause you can find a LOT of pork for $1 to $2/lb. chicken the same. even beef has been going down. watch the sales and don't buy what isn't on sale. if you have even a small amount of freezer space you can still eat OK.

Once in a while, I get a strong urge to fix something different and that was today. The roast looked good, but I wasn't going to spend
that much. I'll let the urges ride.

Never go to the grocery while hungry.

I am in WA, and during yesterdays grocery run I paid $1.88 a pound for pork and $0.79 for a bag of carrots. We also bought potato salad and it was $3.29 a pound. This was at a Winco grocery store.

Squash
Potatoes
Tomatoes
Peppers
Herbs
Cabbage
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Kale
Onions
Garlic
Beets
Carrots
Parsnips
Yellow Eye Beans (baked beans)

Most of which should last me through the winter...

We only planted tomatoes, eggplants and peppers. I am so busy at work I find it hard to plough, plant, weed, water, etc... a big garden.

Everything that is up, is mulched - cuts way down on weeding and watering.

I also inherited a massive Troy-bilt rototiller from my Dad.

Makes fast work of tilling things up in the spring.

town in Chicago. San Fran didnt stand out when I went for groceries but that was limited . Higher and probably going higher nationwide and gas prices may add to costs esp if out of the metro areas or areas with high gas prices( over .50 -.75 more than at home +did not note diesel) Gas could be higher due to taxation which has other benefits so hard to compare

Eating prepared food out is outrageous now anywhere imo compared to a few years ago

of course Jack or TB, or MCD will give you filler food for a buck-1.39 anywhere it's at I guess

with pricier Harris-Teeter outlets (also owned by Kroger)

Grocery chains love those, they can bring in a lot of high margin stuff. I don't you can avoid that unless you have a Walmart that sells grocery near, but they generally don't come into affluent area. Grocery chains where I live don't put stores near enough to other chains to allow price shopping. You can maybe drive to other areas, but that comes with it's own set of problems, like the drive and keeping some things cold.

I wish grocery chains offered more singles packaging. I freeze a lot of stuff now because I am busy enough that leaving it fresh, especially meat, may have me coming home to a dead smelling refrigerator, because I can't use it up fast enough freezing allows me to partition things down to single sizes.

Then portion it in single servings. Lasagna, meatloaf, casseroles. I am single but always get a 10 lb bag of potatoes. I bake some then after cooling, cube them and freeze. I also shred some raw and freeze that also. I leave the remainder for the occasional baked potato or mashed or potato salad.

Just some examples.

Plus, I am relatively price insensitive, I notice price increases, but it is mostly academic to me, that won't stop me from buying.

It is great to see the discipline that you exercise around eating, that must both save you money and allow you to eat healthier.

And good for you, by the way. Also, I really appreciate your honesty to yourself, not really to me. That's a good thing!

I grew up "poor" and have returned to that status since 2008. Luckily I have the background for it. My very wise grandpa told me, among other things, "If you're looking in your wallet for your wealth you'll always be poor." , so it's not a big deal.

Peace!

BITD: You had Kroger, Food Lion, Harris Teeter, and Winn-Dixie.

Kroger sold to Bi-Lo, which bought out Winn-Dixie. Bi-Lo rebranded their markets as Harvey's, their 'value' brand. They have since left the market.

Food Lion is headquartered in Salisbury, 40 mi NE, so they flooded the area, despite being owned now by Ahold (Giant MD, Hannaford, etc.)

Harris Teeter is still headquartered here and has many stores (only 1 in a non-upscale neighborhood, the original on Central Ave) expanded to the Atlanta and Nashville markets and the DC area. The company that now owns them had a major hand in shooing them from both locals.

Wal-Mart and Aldi have the low end wrapped up; Whole Foods/Amazon, Publix, and Earth Fare have the high end covered; no room for the middle ground.

I despise abbreviations. That's why I spelled it out. Likewise, the term GOTV drives me nuts around here.

Chase Freedom card has been 5% on groceries this quarter. Combined with Aldi and Buy One Get One emphasis, my grocery bill has been fine.

For anyone who it not in tune with value and sloppily shows up without price awareness, they are going to screw themselves regardless of inflationary period or not.

Life here is miserable if you're poor.

Southern California, Silicon Valley, New York City, the Boston Metro area, the Miami Metro area, likely other places in the country with vibrant economies. Politicians don't have the stomach for agressive rent control, or the foresight to build city and state owned reasonably priced housing. I worked briefly with a Ph.D. in California once about a decade ago. He and his wife, who was also a highly paid technologist, bought a small house that had a postage-stamp sized yard in a Silicon Valley city for $780,000. I swear, if one house in that development caught fire, all of them would have burned down, that was how close they were.

on groceries these days. I bought a little bag of fresh black cherries and it was more than $10. Even run-of-the-mill basics like tomato sauce or black beans have gone up about 25% from a year ago. And coffee . . . forget about it. It's gone up $2.00 a bag in the last couple of months.

All of our suppliers have told us the price increases were due to shipping issues. I tried to watch a video about it that our produce supplier posted, but I don’t have speakers on my work computer and when I saw “communist bang factory” in the auto generated subtitles I knew I wasn’t going to learn much.

As the tariff's increase, the crops rot in the fields, and inflation hits everything from what they've done.

Well, I guess I can't say that for all crops but I'm guessing you're referring to soybeans since they are on China's list for retaliation. If China buys all their soybeans from Brazil and Argentina (our major competitors), those countries will have precious few tons to sell elsewhere in the global market. Right now, Argentina is buying US soybeans because their last crop was poor. Even if China buys the bulk of the supplies of soybeans from South America, that just means other countries will have to buy ours. There are only so many places to shop.

The only reason our crops would "rot in the fields" would be because of excessive rain during harvest. That could always happen but it wouldn't be related to tariffs.

It’s coming.

You will think today’s prices are cheap.

I just go with Costco. I have the Safeway app on my phone, so I'll draw up a coupon list throughout the week and then go. It's super helpful. Trader Joe's has been the strangest to me. I used to go there often because it's relatively cheap, but more and more I just can't justify the place. Milk and eggs are the best thing I can say for them - and eggs are way up. Same with peanut butter for no reason.

But again. Costco. All our meat, dairy, eggs, and bulk fruits and veggies come from there. I use local markets to supplement whatever produce I need for a particular meal.

Fortunately, I cook. So the food budget for the two of us comes to about $150 a month for what we eat in. We're gay DINC people, so we eat or order out for dinner once or twice a week on average.

So, you are doing well as a couple. I don't eat out much, other than lunch.

That's honestly what makes the difference. If I bought the same things at a Safeway as I do at Costco, our food bill would be closer to yours if not more.

A sample monthly grocery list would be:

Staples:

2 ten lbs bags of frozen chicken - $48
2 bags of broccoli florets - $8
4 dozen eggs - $10
2 gallons of milk - $5.59 (I think)
3 lbs bag of spinach - $5
4 packages of tofu - $5.25 (get it from an asian grocery)
2 giant bags of shredded cheese - $8
4 boxes of butter - (I think this is $10 now)

So three quarters of the food budget consists of staple foods we eat daily or nearly daily. However, what I listed above oftentimes lasts a month and a half, especially with things like the butter or shredded cheese. The rest is on what other kind of produce or fruit we may feel like, or whatever strikes our fancy or is on sale. We're not above a $1 box of mac and cheese for a side. There are things like a 25 lbs bag of rice for $20 or big bags of beans for similar. But those things last us months.

But Costco is very close to us, and I own a car, so I know we're a bit privileged in that way.

The biggest issue is whether I can turn the food over fast, and I don't like eating the same thing more that twice a week. I even have to insure that I don't buy more than four bananas a week, because I tire of the taste fast, melon is better, I can eat a lot of that, as long as it is not cantaloupe (I can only eat a little of the ripest, most flavorful ones before I can't eat more). Screwed up, I know, but that is just me.

I just admire your discipline about shopping, I never had that.

My diet is deadly, deadly dull due to a work out regimen, so I'll seriously eat roughly the same meal several times a week, with breakfasts and lunches being incredibly similar. Meal Prep Sundays are a thing in my house. Much of the time just for time's sake, but it's also cost efficient.

Financially we're good. I'm just very boring, lol.

Food turnover is real. I don't do leftovers. Outside of the food prep, I always tell my bf, "If it goes in that fridge, we both know it's never coming out."

and no, we never eat out. Sad when you are counting how much you spend on FOOD of all things. Never did that until very recently!

and fresh fruits/vegetables are outrageous. I guess I'm going to have to buy canned, which I don't really like at all, but ya' gots to have the fruits and veggies!

I don't shop at bulk stores, but that may be an option for some, it doesn't work for me due to me being single.

All the wonderful blueberries and peaches at the fruits stands in the Western New York wine country area when we used to vacation there! I loved picking blueberries at the pick-your-own farms. They were so good!

in the growing season yet. Blueberries should be coming very soon. Bumper crops of strawberries this year, so that's good!

But when I do quick math, prices have increased by around 15-20% for chicken.

I buy our meat at the local meat market..

veggies from veggie store[/link

We order paper goods from Amazon
catfood & litter from Chewy.com

and the rest from local store

It costs what it costs

Since January. ALL our bills went up. Every one of them. So, we already lost our "major" (haha) tax break. And yes now, groceries. Calculate into this the tariff war thangy.

Gas prices have been high though.

And for those who shop Kroger/Smiths/Fred Meyers,your are going to see a price increase again on July first if not earlier. Got this from one of the local Mangers.

The Freight Surcharges are coming through the system. And for those who liked his or her Tax cut,well,that was eaten up with the Gas Price increase.

Oh,BTW,we have not seen anything yet in the Produce Supply Chain,with the heat out break in the South West,it is going to get down right ugly. No field hands and fewer Trucks to move the picked Produce to market.

I do all of the shopping and cooking at my house and food prices have gone up considerably here in Denver.

I'm trying to rent a car for a trip and I can't find anything for a week that's less than $1,000. Shit, you could buy a car for that much!

Food prices go up and down, especially seasonal things.

I live alone, and do a fair amount of cooking from scratch, and I don't seem to be spending any more on groceries than I have in the past five years or so.

As single, you pay higher taxes. Add up your federal, state, city, property, sales, etc. Even your phone and cable and utility bills have taxes. I bet you are spending more than double on taxes than food.

ultimate tool for population control.

so I'm very conscious of the prices of everything and yes, I agree with you that not only are prices going up, but there is also another change. What you used to pay - and i'll just use an example - say, you paid $1.98 for 5 lbs of sugar, now you might still pay the same $1.98, but you are only getting 4 oz. And its everywhere.

I'm starting to very consciously stock and freeze - and prepare.

responding to another post that had an article about our booming economy, stating one of the reasons was no inflation. I deleted my post because it seemed argumentative, which is the last thing I want.


no inflation, my skinny ass there's no inflation, there is mega food inflation, and I have been seeing it for a while now

for pork, which I've never cared for, because it's relatively less expensive.

than usual...but it does seem like it is a LOT more than usual. Not seeing much good pricing in produce, haven't been to the produce stand yet. We went from a chilly spring to an already hot spring.

We had been doing a lot of shopping at Aldi, but we noticed it didn't seem as cheap as it had been. I do remember last year their potato chips were like $1.09 a bag, now they are $1.79 (so we aren't getting those!). And now that gas is higher it seems a better choice to just go to the closer Shop N Save and use the $15 off $75 coupon. Sometimes we would have to track that to make sure we made it to the $75, the past month we have easily gone over.

The costs is rising for many fresh goods, but also many prepared products as well.

The last thing Americans should complain is food & restaurant prices. Try buying food in Europe. Or eating in restaurants in Europe.

I see fat people everywhere, even in poor neighborhoods. If food prices go much higher, there will be a huge reduction in heart attacks, diabetes, knee joint pain, hip joint pain, backaches, strokes, high blood pressure, even cancer.

Look at the positive side of higher food prices...improved health and longevity and reduced healthcare costs.

One of my favorite guilty pleasures are Little Debbie Zebra cakes. They're $2 a box. Giant bags of potato chips are often on sale for $3. Pasta or rice a roni or mac and cheese? $1 a box.

Then there are the fast food places. McDonald's has its $1, $2, and $3 menus. Burger King does similar. Jack in the Box is weirdly cheap. Taco Bell won't set you back.

Go to an average grocery store and spend, say, $10 on produce. What you get is not nearly as fulfilling on a hunger level.

I've been to a lot of stores in poorer neighborhoods. The quality of the produce is just laughably bad. But the aisles are chock full of shitty, high sugar, high carb, low nutrition foods. If you're working poor, exhausted, and don't have time to cook, just throw that sack of discount fruit loops at the kids and be done with it.

It's how our food system and poverty intertwine. It is incredibly cheap to have a very poor diet in America.

(I've been to Europe quite a bit, and I agree about the prices. Just ouch. But then everything in Europe seems more expensive than the States).

And on another point, I do NOT see many people over age 50 exercising. I see people in gyms and jogging outside, but they are usually under age 40.

I have burned 78 candles, and do not need any medications, have no pain anywhere, no diabetes, never had a heart attack. I push myself to walk 30 minutes at a nice pace 5 times a week. And try to stay under 160 lbs on my 5'-8" frame.

Once you need a car to do anything, the impetus to move becomes lesser. People simply get used to being home and going anywhere means a car ride.

While not a perfect correlation, I'd bet the slimmer residents in various cities are ones where public transportation is plentiful.

One thing that really helps me is an apple watch that monitors everything. You can set your movement/distance goal, and it nudges you to stand, go be active, etc. I set my distance/calorie goals and make sure to meet them everyday.

I'm almost semi-joking when I say we should be giving out Fit Bits to school children.

But at least Pokemon Go became a thing. It does get the kids out there.

which monitors your activity/steps/whatever.

and you put it into words so well.

Some poorer neighborhoods, from what I have observed, have only a Dollar Store for buying groceries.

Only stores which thrive in poor neighborhoods are those selling junk foods. No one wants a store which loses money.

At least dollar stores have canned vegetables. It's better than nothing.

But yeah. There's a massive Dollar Tree I'll visit once in awhile for various bits and bats, but I don't think I've ever walked out of there with food.

Outside of Halloween candy. Dollar stores can be amazing for Halloween candy.

Well, okay, also some tomato-based things like El Pato sauce ... wish it didn't only come in a can, cause El Pato is a staple food-like thing in my esteem ... if you THINK you're out of salsa/taco sauce, guess what ... you're NOT ... cause you have El Pato in the pantry.

Now that ya mention it, though ... it used to be $.69/can for YEARS, and now it's $.99/can. That's quite some inflation.

I'm actually kinda amazed walking around a grocery store, given HOW MUCH STUFF there is, and how much I KNOW must go to waste ... that things are as cheap as they are, quite frankly. This is not to speak to people's budgets as I know groceries are expensive to some, relatively-speaking, but I can't help but feel when I'm at the store that we're living in an age of just incredible bounty. I find myself going, like ... ALL THIS STUFF ... is just brought to a spot like .5 miles from my house, from all over the world, and it only costs ... THAT? Really?

I can't help but think that grocery stores are hugely reliant on a small % of things in their inventory that are massively profitable to maintain their existence, much like restaurants depend on drinks and desserts and upselling the hell out of you ... "would like feta on that? It's only $2.99 extra?!?".

I think, overall, grocery stores make little on the food, and most of their dough on stuff like TP/Paper Towels/Care Products like Cosmetics and Tampax and Toothpaste and Pampers And Shampoo And ... /Briquettes/Kitty Litter/Greeting Cards/PHARMACIES, etc. Everything BUT the food, basically.

End caps exist for a reason.

Yeah, I'm always baffled. My store runs are so limited. I'll look at entire aisles and think, "Does anyone buy this stuff?" Someone must, right? I don't know who these people are, and they certainly don't exist in my immediate family, but someone must, right?

I go to a local supermarket and get roughly the same six items every time. I'm not entirely sure who the aisles are for.

As a side note, I look forward to the day that fat bigotry gets treated like other forms of bigotry.

and that is if you even have good access to grocery stores. low income people are often heavy because they work all the time and don't have time/energy to cook. blaming poor people for being fat is ignorant. sure they may be "wealthier" than someone in a third world famine crises, but it isn't like life is easy when you are poor.

It's not how much you eat, it's WHAT you eat. It's cheaper and faster to heat up a pizza and have a donut and some sugary carbonated soda than it is to buy a decent cut of fish and some fresh vegetables for a healthy salad. It's an expense and outlay of time that many lower income people can't afford. Even here in Germany we are starting to see more and more of this.

Here, we have Turkish fast food places everywhere with one of the best, healthiest bargains in Europe. A döner kebap is a quarter of a huge round hollow bread, about the size of a quarter of a medium pizza. They have meat (choice of veal or chicken, usually) turning on a spit in front of a grill. You choose your meat, which they carve off in slices as it is cooked, and then your supplements, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber bits, sliced cabbage, onions, bits of feta, etc. Then yoghurt or tzatziki and chili powder if you want it. It costs less than $5 (less if you skip the meat) and can feed two people or one very hungry one. More and more, the older people order this while the teens and twenty-somethings come in and order double portions of fries with mayonnaise, washed down with a soft drink. They get their calories so they aren't hungry any more, but only the manufacturers of super-size clothing and future cardiologists and oncologists are really getting the better end of this bargain.

What really burns my butt is my latest heating oil delivery. Fucking $3.79/gallon. That’s higher than premium gas for my car in my area.
This is the highest it’s been in years! I remember crazy prices when oil was over $100/bbl. it’s nowhere near that now.

I am now a customer of ... The Grocery Outlet !! Good prices anyway! Lots of cheap food no doubt!

We are witnessing inflation and no one is sounding the bells.
What I used to buy for $50 at the grocery store is costing me $80.The rise has taken at least 9 mos.

NY steaks went from $7.99 a lb. to $9.99 a lb.

I raise beef and know those prices have been going back down (they were pretty outrageous the last few years - good for my income, not so much for eating steak LOL)

I mostly buy meat (on sale) and produce, very little processed crap so that may be why I haven't noticed as much.

Mostly because both of my sons opted to stay and work in their college towns this summer. Not having a 20 year old and a 19 year old eat every.single.thing in the house means I’m spending way less in groceries.

I tend to buy in bulk anyway. I probably have 3-5 years worth of rice, lentils, beans, oatmeal and pasta in the house. I keep a large pantry and root cellar.

I also have a good sized garden and backyard chickens. My food costs tend to go down a lot in the summer. I start my veggies from seed and am trying to grow only open pollinated plants so I can save the seed.

New menu, new prices.

but it is just the usual soulless corporate profiteering. the cost of food and other basic necessities has been going up faster than wages for decades.

We seem to have plenty of land for building ghastly megachurches with parking lots that I’m sure are big enough to see from outer space. I just saw a new one going up down the street from me - it is hideous-looking, gargantuan in size, and... empty. Apparently whatever “church” owns it, ran out of money.

But we have no parks or playgrounds or places to walk your dog. I dream of waking up one morning and finding all of the megachurches gone, and replaced by community vegetable plots and parks. We really do need places to grow our own food given the rising price of basic goods.

Also in my dream, Corey Stewart is not our County Supervisor. Yeah, that Corey Stewart. UGH!

Just last week I found quarter inch 'steaks' that would better pass for leather!