Sorry for the ramblings lately--and no photos of cute kids. However, after working on budget and finances I was frustrated with the increasing cost of food. I know my children are growing and eating a bit more, but they aren't growing as fast as the cost of food. Just to be sure I wasn't imagining it, I looked at the USDA's Cost of Food at Home reports. According to this, if we were cooking all food at home and eating in the very thrifty category, we should be spending more than $700 on food each month for our family of six. (Which we aren't since I don't have a budget that allows that much right now.) I started to check back a few years and saw that in the past year or so, the cost of food has increased about $40 a month per person. In the past five years, the cost has gone up more than $100 per 4-person family, per month. So I'm not imagining the increasing prices (and decreasing sizes of containers). And I'm not suddenly becoming a terrible shopper who is throwing away money on expensive junk food. Food costs are rising.
P.S. Kirk blames the government for their policies on ethanol.
I was just remarking to Ryan on Saturday that even the cheap Kroger brand ice cream that used to be in a bigger package and used to cost $1.50 is now $4.00. And the price of milk has definitely doubled.
ReplyDeleteYes, this is something I've also noticed. Our food budget has definitely grown over the past while--and it's not just because of the bigger kids! The prices in the stores make me wince. I have my methods down (certain stores for certain foods, shopping the ads) that help me keep what I spend down. If I just bought everything at one store and whatever I wanted I can't imagine how much I could spend. I'm glad I have the time to spend shopping how I do!
ReplyDeleteThis makes me feel better. I've been lamenting how much I've been spending on groceries lately, so it's nice to know that rising prices are at least part of my problem. I've also been watching our fuel prices--they've been hovering at $3.97/3.99 per gallon--any day it will be $4/gallon. Ouch!
ReplyDeleteWe used to have a joke that I had to spend $50 to get out of Walmart and $100 to get out of Costco. I have noticed that my exit fee has doubled and it makes me want to avoid shopping even more!
ReplyDelete