Grrr...High Grocery Prices

[ronandannette]

I don't pay a ton of attention to the price of things I buy day to day; we're very fortunate to not have to scrimp on food costs and I've only got a 3-person household to feed. But from time to time I'll get to the checkout and almost have my breath taken away by the tally on my basket. Anybody else feeling the same way? Here are some prices on common, national brand products from this week's flyer specials at my neighbourhood location of a national-chain grocery store:

• Top sirloin oven roast - $7.99/lb
• Lean ground beef - $3.97/lb (extra-lean $6.99)
• NY Strip steak - $9.99/lb
• Boneless chicken breast - $6.99/lb
• Pork loin chops - $4.99/lb
• Bacon - $5.99/lb
• 3lb. Butterball Frozen Turkey breast roll - $19.99
• Organic Milk - $4.99/half-gallon
• Kraft Cheddar Cheese - $8.99/1.3lb
• Broccoli - $2.99/lb
• Avocados - $1.79/each
• Jazz Apples (like honeycrisp) - $1.69/lb
• Texas Pink Grapefruit $.89/each
• Wonderbread - $3.99/loaf
• Minutemaid Frozen Orange Juice - $1.99/can
• Eggo Waffles & PopTarts - $2.99/box
• MiracleWhip - $4.29/32oz
• Canned Tomatoes - $1.89/20oz
• Betty Crocker Cake Mix - $1.99/box
• Unbleached Flour - $7.99/10lbs
• Cheerios & Lucky Charms - $4.99/20oz
• Lays Chips - $2.79/8oz
• Purex Laundry Detergent - $5.99/half-gallon

 

[kimblebee]

Food prices are definitely on the rise. The one that makes me the most mad is the price of chicken..I constantly see on the boards people paying $1.99/lb for boneless skinless and it makes me so jealous. I wonder why the HUGE price difference.

 

[ronandannette]

Food prices are definitely on the rise. The one that makes me the most mad is the price of chicken..I constantly see on the boards people paying $1.99/lb for boneless skinless and it makes me so jealous. I wonder why the HUGE price difference.

I don't know, but I have literally not bought a whole fresh chicken in years...the price is usually double what the pre-roasted deli ones are. This list is from the Soby's flyer, BTW. It's in our neighbourhood and I run in there 4 or 5 times a week. I do my major shops at SuperStore now, but never WalMart (can't get into buying spaghetti sauce and underpants at the same place - LOL) and Costco is a joke for a small family.

 

[Meriweather]

eggs!!

flour and sugar are on sale everywhere now......holiday baking time

I buy chicken breasts at Costco.....$20 for 10 pounds. Always the same price.

There are only 2 of us and I can afford it, but I am old enough that I won't pay some of the prices!!

 

[Tiffylv]

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[ronandannette]

To be honest I have no clue what things cost individually...but I have noticed my totals going up. Last night I stopped at the store because I needed deodorant, something for dinner, and a few random items...I was planning on doing my big shop later today. I ended up forgetting the deodorant (grr) but I bought: a loaf of bread, a bag of lemon, 1 block of cream cheese, 1 onion, 2 small cans of tomatoes, a half gallon of milk, a bulb of garlic, a pint of ice cream, and a bag of laundry pods (medium size...not the great big one) and I somehow spend $42. Sheesh.

Oh, I know...and from the other thread I glean you used most of it to make a single meal's worth of soup. That happens to me alot. When I stop to add up the price of putting on a decent meal, especially for a small household where a ton of stuff ends up going to waste, it's truly mind-boggling.

 

[mom2rtk]

We try to stop every week when we hit our budgeted amount. So I don't notice individual amounts so much. We grocery shop at a Wal-Mart Neighborhood market and prices are still high. The regular grocery store just scares me any more. I stopped for some tomatoes and zucchini the other day (Wal-mart's produce is very hit or miss) and when the total was $15 I about had a cow.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

I try to just buy stuff when it's on sale and get a few extra of non-perishable items, it saves some money in the long run.

 

[lynxstch]

that's why I make a list and price match every circular I get, plus online ones. Brings the cost of my bi monthly shopping trips down by at least $75 by combining specials, coupons and price matches
My biggest price gripe is the price of eggs at Walmart. Why are they charging more than any other store? "store brand ' eggs have been 2.97-3.49 a dozen for weeks, I keep price matching CVS for $1.99

 

[Tiffylv]

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[Tiffylv]

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[MickeySP]

I try to just buy stuff when it's on sale and get a few extra of non-perishable items, it saves some money in the long run.

that's why I make a list and price match every circular I get, plus online ones. Brings the cost of my bi monthly shopping trips down by at least $75 by combining specials, coupons and price matches
My biggest price gripe is the price of eggs at Walmart. Why are they charging more than any other store? "store brand ' eggs have been 2.97-3.49 a dozen for weeks, I keep price matching CVS for $1.99

I am lucky that between work & home there are 5 different markets. I do the same, get all the circulars & make my lists. I also use the stock up sales to do some bulk shopping. I love my freezer, when meats are on sale it is time to pack it.
Now that I have it down pat it only takes about an hour a week to d the circulars. The online coupons once you have your list takes only a few minutes.

 

[lvillotta1]

Those prices are high. We are lucky that we have Aldi's here. I can get 4-5 large recyclable bags full of quality food for $50-60. Fresh chx breasts at Kroger are $1.99. I can find g beef for $2.99/lb. Milk is $1.99 at Aldi. My 45 calorie whole wheat bread is $1.69. I also ad match at Walmart for my pantry stock ups. Butter will soon be $1.99 for 4 sticks and I will buy 20,same goes for frozen veggies,OJ,pasta,sauce etc. We are a family of 3 so I would say we spend about $250/mos on groceries. I live in the midwest if that makes any difference.

 

[mom2rtk]

Can I ask how long this takes you? I assume you get faster the more you practice it, but I'm a single mom and a nurse and the thought of doing all that makes me want to scream haha. May be more trouble than it's worth for myself.

I do like Wal-mart's Savings Catcher program. I've never had time to price-match and clip coupons but this takes no time at all. Just scan the receipt code box and they credit you with anything found on sale for a lower amount at another store. We save enough in a year to get a week's grocery shopping trip free.

 

[ronandannette]

Those prices are high. We are lucky that we have Aldi's here. I can get 4-5 large recyclable bags full of quality food for $50-60. Fresh chx breasts at Kroger are $1.99. I can find g beef for $2.99/lb. Milk is $1.99 at Aldi. My 45 calorie whole wheat bread is $1.69. I also ad match at Walmart for my pantry stock ups. Butter will soon be $1.99 for 4 sticks and I will buy 20,same goes for frozen veggies,OJ,pasta,sauce etc. We are a family of 3 so I would say we spend about $250/mos on groceries. I live in the midwest if that makes any difference.

There is a Canadian chain called SuperStore that seems very similar to your Aldi; I do my major monthly grocery run there. But even so, we still spend minimum $600/mo for 3 and likely quite a bit more if I added all the small purchases that both DH and I make over the course of a month. I realize we could certainly economize but it would take being much more purposeful about shopping than we've ever been before. It might be time to start moving in that direction though.

 

[lynxstch]

Can I ask how long this takes you? I assume you get faster the more you practice it, but I'm a single mom and a nurse and the thought of doing all that makes me want to scream haha. May be more trouble than it's worth for myself.

I only shop every 2 weeks. I go thru the circulars on Sunday and circle anything that I may need that is on sale at that store ( most come on Sunday, another store comes on Wed, and another on Thurs= so I do those when I get them), and I make my list on Thursday, using circulars first. When I make my list , I just put PM next to it, the store, and the price. I also highlight the item with a hiliter. Might take an hour between doing that and gathering coupons and looking for online ones (coupon.com). I also look up stores that we don't have around here like Walgreens, Target, K Mart, etc, and print out any items that are cheaper there than here, and I take them with me just in case (they haven't asked to see a circular in ages, but I still have them as proof). It takes a little longer at the register, its hard to keep all price matches together in a big cart, so I have to do them as I get them on the belt. I also use the Savings Catcher, but it usually doesn't catch much that I don't- last trip it found me an extra $.10 lol!

 

[FayeW]

Extra Lean ground beef is on sale at Loblaws/Superstore this week for $3.99 lb. for club packs. I stocked up yesterday. I do most of my shopping at Sobeys too, it's really close to my house and I love to get my airmiles. I'm an east coast girl so I was really happy when Sobeys came to Ontario!

 

[lynxstch]

Those prices are high. We are lucky that we have Aldi's here. I can get 4-5 large recyclable bags full of quality food for $50-60. Fresh chx breasts at Kroger are $1.99. I can find g beef for $2.99/lb. Milk is $1.99 at Aldi. My 45 calorie whole wheat bread is $1.69. I also ad match at Walmart for my pantry stock ups. Butter will soon be $1.99 for 4 sticks and I will buy 20,same goes for frozen veggies,OJ,pasta,sauce etc. We are a family of 3 so I would say we spend about $250/mos on groceries. I live in the midwest if that makes any difference.

We just got an Aldi's here, it opened 2 weeks ago. It's been too crowded to get near on my usual shopping day, but it's on my list 'to try'. I noticed that walmart has already started 'rollback' on produce to match Aldi's prices!

 

[Meriweather]

Those prices are high. We are lucky that we have Aldi's here. I can get 4-5 large recyclable bags full of quality food for $50-60. Fresh chx breasts at Kroger are $1.99. I can find g beef for $2.99/lb. Milk is $1.99 at Aldi. My 45 calorie whole wheat bread is $1.69. I also ad match at Walmart for my pantry stock ups. Butter will soon be $1.99 for 4 sticks and I will buy 20,same goes for frozen veggies,OJ,pasta,sauce etc. We are a family of 3 so I would say we spend about $250/mos on groceries. I live in the midwest if that makes any difference.

Wow....I pay $3.98 for the 45 calarie bread.....and that is at WalMart!
No Aldi's here....never even heard of it

 

[tvguy]

I don't pay a ton of attention to the price of things I buy day to day; we're very fortunate to not have to scrimp on food costs and I've only got a 3-person household to feed. But from time to time I'll get to the checkout and almost have my breath taken away by the tally on my basket. Anybody else feeling the same way? Here are some prices on common, national brand products from this week's flyer specials at my neighbourhood location of a national-chain grocery store:

• Top sirloin oven roast - $7.99/lb
• Lean ground beef - $3.97/lb (extra-lean $6.99)
• NY Strip steak - $9.99/lb
• Boneless chicken breast - $6.99/lb
• Pork loin chops - $4.99/lb
• Bacon - $5.99/lb
• 3lb. Butterball Frozen Turkey breast roll - $19.99
• Organic Milk - $4.99/half-gallon
• Kraft Cheddar Cheese - $8.99/1.3lb
• Broccoli - $2.99/lb
• Avocados - $1.79/each
• Jazz Apples (like honeycrisp) - $1.69/lb
• Texas Pink Grapefruit $.89/each
• Wonderbread - $3.99/loaf
• Minutemaid Frozen Orange Juice - $1.99/can
• Eggo Waffles & PopTarts - $2.99/box
• MiracleWhip - $4.29/32oz
• Canned Tomatoes - $1.89/20oz
• Betty Crocker Cake Mix - $1.99/box
• Unbleached Flour - $7.99/10lbs
• Cheerios & Lucky Charms - $4.99/20oz
• Lays Chips - $2.79/8oz
• Purex Laundry Detergent - $5.99/1/2 gallon

Lord where do you live? Boneless chicken breasts are $1.99 a pound here. Avocados are $1 at the expensive local chain grocery store, and 50 cents at Walmart. I don't think there is a canned tomato product on the shelf over $1 here. I'll have to look at the rest when I go to the store today.