I live, write, and garden in the PNW with my husband of 27 years, disabled daughter, college-aged son, and my 84-year-old mother. We have paid off $250,000.00 worth of debt (if you include the interest) in the last fifteen years and as of 6/12/2020 are 100% DEBT FREE!!!!I really, really hate to do it, but I am going to have to raise my grocery budget. I spent so much time getting it down from $800 a month to $500 a month, so to raise it just feels like I'm taking a step backward. I know that I'm not. I know that it is that prices on real food are rising and that real food seldom has coupons. But it just annoys me so much.
It's like the year I spent getting my electric bill down by doing things like line and rack drying my clothes, cooking more than one thing in the oven at a time, replacing all the light bulbs in the house with CF ones and making sure lights weren't left on all night or radios, TVs, and fans weren't left on all day. I got my bill down to $90 and then a few months later they raised the rates and it was right back up to $109 again. It was so frustrating.
I know it's not me or my shopping habits. It's simply that the cost of food is going up and there just isn't really any other option (for now) but to pay higher prices or go back to eating manufactured foods. Well, I won't do the latter. We have too many allergies.
I've been keeping track of prices the last few months just to make sure that what I've been seeing is real, and I haven't just been hitting a high price week at the stores. But it is. Milk has gone up 50 cents a gallon. Chicken has gone up 30 cents a pound. Beef has gone up $2 a pound (except hamburger which has gone up $1 a pound). The all beef hotdogs I buy at TJ's have gone up 50 cents. Pork has gone up 20 cents a pound. Turkey is up 50 cents a pound (not counting the on sale for the holidays whole ones). I'm assuming eggs are up, too, but we have chickens so I don't pay attention to that much. Butter is up by $1 a pound. So are most of the cheeses (though they do still go on sale). Yogurt is up from $1 to $1.25. Ice cream is about $1 more per container. The fish counter scares me. It's not worth buying fish anymore unless you buy the whole fish and have it filleted in the store (much cheaper and they let you take the backbone, head and tail for making chowder since you've paid for the whole fish).
It's not just meat and dairy prices, either. Canned goods have risen anywhere from 20 cents to $1 more per can. Frozen foods are up about $1 a box or bag. Fresh produce, well, you can still get cheap bananas, oranges, onions and cabbage, but forget cheap potatoes or apples. They don't exist anymore, not even in this prime apple growing state. Most apples are $1.29 a pound and the specialty apples are closer to $1.79. I can still remember when you could get a couple kinds of apples for 29 cents a pound. And it wasn't my childhood. It was only ten years ago.
Even broccoli and cauliflower, which should be low right now are over $1.50 a pound. Although the $2 lettuce seems to be a thing of the past (mostly because people wouldn't pay it) I am keeping a sharp eye on it. I am eyeing unfamiliar vegetables like mustard greens, kale, and chard simply because the prices are lower. I will be looking up recipes to see if there is anything I might like with these veggies. I am making sweet potatoes more often because regular potatoes have gotten so high.
But even so, I have decided I will have to raise my grocery budget from $500 a month to $600 a month. Hopefully that will be enough to make up for the rising prices. And hopefully the prices will hold steady for a while. Because I'm tired of the only beef we ever eat anymore being hamburger or pot roast.
Next fall I hope to order half a beef and maybe a lamb. At least I'll be able to get some decent prices then. For now, meal planning will get more strict, I'll have to make more stews, chilis and stir-fries and less of the traditional big chunks of protein with two sides meals. Hopefully I can keep it to $600.
I Hate to Do It
December 17th, 2011 at 07:10 pm
December 17th, 2011 at 07:20 pm 1324149629
Anyway, I think $600 is a hell of a lot better than $800!
December 17th, 2011 at 08:11 pm 1324152698
December 17th, 2011 at 08:20 pm 1324153214
December 17th, 2011 at 08:57 pm 1324155432
By way of comparison, I live alone and am hard-pressed to keep my monthly grocery bill to $200. It can often be around $225 or so.
As I recall, you eat pretty healthy...a lot of organics, right? I long ago decided to take a realistic middle course when it comes to buying organic fruits and veggies. Going by the ranked list of the Environmental Defense Fund's, I only buy those that rank in the top 15 or so for most heavily sprayed, meaning, off the top of my head, things like strawberries, peaches, Chilean green grapes, potatoes and red peppers, to name a few of the worst. But for the others, especially things with a thick skin like bananas, cantaloupe or oranges, I think it's largely unnecessary. It's a personal decision, of course.
I also NEVER buy produce that's out of season. And when it's in season, I buy it week after week.
The other thing I do to keep food prices under control is I don't buy a lot of meat. I rarely buy beef or chicken for that matter. If I do, the meat is an accent in a dish, not the main course. One of my favorite ways to use meat this time of year is in a stew or soup. A pound of beef can really go a long way that way.
I rely more on cheap protein like eggs and tuna, and I happen to like chicken livers on occasion. I also love nuts, though they're not that cheap.
I'll be able to tell you more precisely what my monthly food average was when I do my 2011 tally of expenses in another week or so.
December 17th, 2011 at 09:15 pm 1324156501
Yes, this is very true. Safeway prices did go through the roof and we used to shop there more (many grocers do not buy food locally). But, our local *high end* grocer mostly buys local, so they have had the edge to keep costs down.
Beyond the fact that I live walking distance from several farms that sell direct to public, I don't need to pay for a lot of produce - friends and family grow a lot of it for free. I've got bags of free mandarins and lemons, right now. Which is also why I am probably generally confused why eating better (less processed foods) would cost more.
I've noticed a food cost uptick in my house, but I haven't analyzed the *why* yet. Since my dh does all the shopping, I don't really have a clue on prices. It's just no one seems to be particularly eating more and we haven't been buying extra luxury food items. I also lump all household goods with groceries, so could reflect an increased price in soap, cat food, or stuff like that. IT could just be time to rein it in a bit or re-evaluate our shopping habits. May be better deals out there.
December 17th, 2011 at 10:25 pm 1324160743
We don't do well in this family without animal protein. We've tried. Everyone starts putting on weight if we eat vegetarian. Everyone complains. Everyone feels hungry and cranky all the time. No one really likes beans (except, unhealthy refried beans ). We hate most soy products. I get very light-headed myself if I don't eat animal protein. At least 4 ounces of protein per person per meal is necessary. DH has to have double that or he is a bear.
We do eat a lot of eggs, since we keep chickens. Tuna is often canned with hydrolized vegetable protein, an allergen for three of us. The kind that is not is really expensive ($3 to $4 a can) and the Japan earthquake wiped out a lot of the tuna fishing industry or contaminated the fish so that, too, has risen even more. There's no easy answer, unfortunately, but I guess we do pretty well as it translates to $130 per person per month with an additional $80 per month for what Mom consumes.
December 18th, 2011 at 01:27 am 1324171629
December 18th, 2011 at 01:30 am 1324171841
December 18th, 2011 at 01:47 am 1324172825
December 18th, 2011 at 04:39 am 1324183176
There is a lot I could do to cut down my food costs though ... and that is something I will definitely be doing!! But food prices have definitely risen.
December 18th, 2011 at 05:33 am 1324186399
here are some recipes:
http://simplyrecipes.com/tag/Kale
My DH made the one with nuts recently, and it was great!
December 18th, 2011 at 06:33 am 1324190013
We're vegan, vegetarian and pesco-vegetarian, and we don't have a car so can't get to the cheapest grocery stores on a regular basis. This is a small price to pay for avoiding all car expenses, but I guess it adds up.
We've been charging our groceries on an Amex card that earns 6% on groceries. Even with a $75 annual fee that should be more than 5% back. I'm going to start rolling that into groceries rather than using it for other things; hopefully that way we can scramble back to breaking even.
But even if we don't, it's a relief to hear that others are struggling too. I don't do most of the shopping, so I couldn't tell if we were just straying from our list too much or if prices were on the rise.
December 18th, 2011 at 04:35 pm 1324226142
December 18th, 2011 at 04:40 pm 1324226421