What’s your grocery bill nowadays?

[shh]

Everyone I know shops at Aldi's - I keep saying I will, but honestly, I'm too lazy. Walmart's curbside grocery pickup is excellent and free and it seems like they're within a few cents of Aldi's on most items. Their produce is a bit higher, I think. But I'll gladly pay that to shop from home, skip crowded aisles, screaming kids and checkout lines. It's one of the ONLY bright spots from this horrible pandemic.

 

[ronandannette]

Sweet Mother of Pearl, I think I’m in for a shock. We’ve had a long-term houseguest that has purchased most of the groceries here for the past 10 months. That’s insulated me from the reality of how much things have gone up. I bought a pound of coffee yesterday for the first time in quite a while. Our usual brand ran about $9.99 but could sometimes be had for $7.99 on sale. Yesterday it was $12-and-change. Houseguest departs at the end of the month - perhaps we’ll go on a diet?

We have also been using a meal subscription service periodically, which actually turns out to be a pretty good value. 4 meals of 4 servings each can be had for about $150. I couldn’t put those meals together for that price, having to purchase the ingredients and since 4 nights a week is about as often as I want to actually cook, we may be using the service much more regularly.

 

[firefly_ris]

I'm feeling it, and we are already overly aware/frugal shoppers to start with. Once the kids are home for the summer it's going to sting a bit more.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

Yes, it's gone UP.
My stategy:
I am eliminating more "junk food" and there are some items I will not buy if they aren't on sale. Other sale items will be bought in a larger quantity ( 2,3 or 4)

 

[RangerPooh]

I need to check out Aldi. Prices keep going up and it's crazy. We are a household of 8, this includes 2 grandparents, so our bill is never cheap. My mouth did drop the other day when I went to pick up a bag of my favorite salad mix and it was $4.30 for a bag. Nope.

 

[firefly_ris]

Everyone I know shops at Aldi's - I keep saying I will, but honestly, I'm too lazy. Walmart's curbside grocery pickup is excellent and free and it seems like they're within a few cents of Aldi's on most items. Their produce is a bit higher, I think. But I'll gladly pay that to shop from home, skip crowded aisles, screaming kids and checkout lines. It's one of the ONLY bright spots from this horrible pandemic.

If you ever want to try it sometime, they are on Instacart. I don't use that often but I'll usually wait until I get a free delivery promo. I live about 20 minutes away from Aldi (also 20min from really any store except Tops which is in the village) so with gas prices and a free delivery promo doing an Instacart order saves me some extra bucks in fuel even with the Instacart tip. I cannot get 100% of my grocery list from Aldi but it does take a huge dent out of what I have to get from Tops or Wegmans.

 

[DCLMP]

I guess it depends on what you define as “price gouging”… I think retailers are raising prices little by little until they determine what the market will no longer bear. Then they can lower prices by a bit, and we’ll all be grateful prices are falling.
It’s not just a pure function of supply & demand.
For example, the day after it was on the news that water shares from the Colorado River to Central AZ would be reduced, bottled water prices began to increase. Including water that isn’t even bottled anywhere near AZ. I believe retailers realized that people were gonna panic buy so they could charge more and the nervous buyers would pay it… not to mention all the people buying extra because “it’s only gonna go up…” Never mind that in all the drought restrictions to date, no one has gone thirsty — even in CA where the restrictions have typically been much more stringent.
So I would definitely call it price gouging when prices triple overnight, long before any water shortage came to bear.

I wish things were just that simple. LOL.

 

[AndreaDM]

We could also save a LOT if we cut out wine, but things are not yet that dire. I do pay attention to sales, we buy the produce that's on sale that week. I'm picky on meats and stock up at local meat shops, so it's hard to know what we spend in a week. I can check my cc statements and do a ytd, but not sure if I want to lol. It's just 2 adults here with a college student who's rarely home.

 

[firefly_ris]

Another thing that helps us for meat is splitting a whole animal with someone. We just split a pig that our friend raised with my SIL and that will last a while in the upright freezer. In September we are looking at splitting a cow again.

 

[Ms.Minnie]

Our costs have gone up just like everyone else, but we do shop the store sales and manage to do ok. Eggs (18) now cost $3.99, used to cost under $2. Bread is close to $4 per loaf depending on what you buy but you can get the store brand for under $2. We no longer buy bacon, I'm not paying $8+ for 12 ozs of bacon, just not doing it. I can live without bacon. When chicken, pork or beef go on sale that's when we buy unless we have an immediate need.

Last week I paid $5.49 for a jar of Hellman's Mayo, that really killed me. This week it was on sale for $3.99 with a digital coupon...AHHHH!!! I'm happy for those that benefited, sure wish I had known. I guess you win some and you lose some.

The other issue I don't like is the smaller size of thing, I guess the manufacturers think we won't notice. I guess they don't give us very much credit.

 

[leahgoogle]

We spend approx $400/week for a family of five with two teenagers. We do buy mostly organic produce/products and grass-fed beef so that contributes to the increased cost.

 

[NotUrsula]

I'd say it's up about 30%, due to inflation combined with eating at home more often. Also, I've developed a medical problem that has restricted my diet somewhat, and some of my old standby cheap meals are out of bounds for me (though I still make them for the rest of the family.)

 

[barkley]

The other issue I don't like is the smaller size of thing, I guess the manufacturers think we won't notice. I guess they don't give us very much credit.

i for sure take notice. been noticing it for a couple of years but noticed it most recently this week when ordering paper goods-

last summer costco sold smaller than previous year's charmin ultra soft 30 packs with 214 sheets per roll for $27.99 per pack, this week it is selling the packs (look identical in packaging until you look at the per unit small print at the bottom) but w/ 205 sheets per roll for $31.49. smaller amount/significant price increase. i ended up taking advantage of a sale at target where they are still selling the 244 sheet rolls in 30 packs for $31.19 BUT discount it 20% if you do delivery or store pickup. $24.96 vs. $31.49 for a product with a 20% difference in content? yup-i'm taking notice and making my purchasing decisions accordingly.

4 of the stores i shop at do a great job at keeping online records of my in store and online purchases so it's been illuminating (and gut wrenching) to compare how much items have decreased in size yet increased significantly in price over the past year (you don't even want to page back to summer '20 purchases b/c the unit size/price difference is staggering).

 

[NotUrsula]

I recently ran across a small inner-pack of TP rolls in my basement that were from the before-time; they had fallen behind a filing cabinet. When I put them back with the rest of the newer supply, I confirmed something that I had noticed but had been unable to measure: the width of TP rolls has gone WAY down in many cases. These were both Northern, from a SamsClub case pack. The old rolls were 1/2" wider than the same-labeled product today.

 

[DCLMP]

I would suggest stocking up on food it’s only going to get worse.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Inflation costing Americans an extra $460 per month (which translates to $5,520 per year).

This is up just since April of this year, i.e. two months ago, when the estimate was $327 extra per month ($3,924 per year):

U.S households are spending an extra $327 a month due to inflation

This makes me so sad for people and families who are on a limited income. It takes a huge bite into any extras they might’ve been able to eek out, just to meet basic demands.

Was in WalMart today for some supplies and was discouraged at how even there, costs have really gone up. I do like Aldi’s for certain things: milk, eggs, butter, even yogurt are still reasonable. I tease DS with the Millville brand cereal, but he can take it or leave it.

I have definitely adjusted how I shop and what I buy. If I can get a roast on sale and make a bunch of vegetables to go with it, we can get several meals from it. (First meal, leftovers second night, and lunches for work.) I also watch where I shop - high priced supermarkets are out. (I don’t even walk in the door anymore.) We eat out less, too. Quality has gone down at some of the places we frequent, which annoys me, so we’ve been doing more simple meals at home which are cheaper and better quality. I’ve been getting a lot of meal ideas from Instagram where creative people share how to make things that are easy and cost effective.

I also note where gas is cheapest and try to fill up if I’m nearby. Some of the places discount the price if you get the car wash, which I like to get anyway. One place even gives a free water with fill up, too! Which isn’t a huge deal, but somehow it feels better, lol. I keep them in the car for the dogs.

Don’t get me started on Disney. I’m not working hard trying to save in daily life only to blow all the savings there due to their inflated prices! I never really minded spending what I spent there, because I felt we were getting a good value. But now, with their nickel and dimming us to death, I’m just done with that. Last June we were there and I bought a hydro flask. (Well, two actually, one for myself and one for a friend.) When I got home and was taking the price tags off, I noticed the top price tag was neatly stacked over a previous one. Price had been $22.99 but they put a new price tag over that one and raised it to $27.99! (See pic below.) Something about that just really ticked me off! So ten bucks out of my pocket just like that. It adds up when you think about all the things you buy there, including meals (which have gotten more sparse despite ridiculous prices).

 

[AprilsZoo]

I wish things were just that simple. LOL.

I get that inflation is a real thing and is happening as we speak… but inflation has always been with us, just sometimes it’s worse… And true, increased fuel costs to get the things to the store also plays into pricing, of course.

However, there are real instances of retailers increasing prices on a product because they know it people will panic-buy, and increasing the price will feed into that. Water flying off the shelves in AZ, even though the price doubled or in some cases tripled literally overnight. It would make some sense for the price to increase eventually on water bottled locally from a municipal source since the cost of municipal water is going to increase…. But for retailers to double prices on water that was already sitting in the stockroom, previously sold to them at lower cost— to me, that is price gouging.

Back to the original topic however… yes my grocery bill has gone up. I can’t give you exact dollar difference, but I can say that where I used to be able to get out of the store for around $100-120 or so each week, now it’s pushing $160, usually even more…
It’s definitely tough to go into the store and see how much some things have gone up— basics like meat, cheese, bread, butter, produce, etc. That’s not even counting luxury items that seem like necessities like soda, chips & snacks, ice cream, and such.

 

[DCLMP]

I get that inflation is a real thing and is happening as we speak… but inflation has always been with us, just sometimes it’s worse… And true, increased fuel costs to get the things to the store also plays into pricing, of course.

You're joking right. This is the worst inflation we've had in 40 years. Gas is at an all-time high, credit card debt is off to the moon, savings is at the lowest it's been in 13 years. People's 401k's are on their way to becoming 101k's and this party is just getting started. To answer the original question. Of course, my food bill along with every other bill has gone up. Whose hasn't?

 

[Luv Bunnies]

We do a weekly curbside grocery pickup at Walmart, which runs about $175 a week. It's only been for 3 adults in the past month since DS23 went out of state to perform in a summer show. We do 2-3 quick trips to Safeway during the week, mostly to get the bunny's greens and other produce. Walmart's produce can be sketchy, especially if I don't pick it out myself.

 

[shh]

We could also save a LOT if we cut out wine, but things are not yet that dire.

Agreed - things would have to go waaay further south than even 2009 Great Recession before I ever cut the wine. Although we did downgrade to cheaper table wine vs better bottles.