I’ve had this sort of crazy idea.
You see, I’ve notice that prices sort of creep upwards on us-so slowly you don’t really notice it until one day you are standing at Aldi’s looking at the sugar and saying “What the heck-when did sugar get to be $2.69 for a 5lb bag!”.
So I thought I’d kind of keep an eye on it and once a month sort of take the temperature-check the prices on a set list of items so we can all watch and really NOTICE what is happening to the costs around us.
So here we go with the first Frugal Upstate Grocery Benchmark Report. All items were priced at my local Aldi’s.
August Benchmark
5lbs Sugar $2.69
5lbs White Flour $1.69
1 Gal 2% Milk $2.15
1 doz Large Eggs $1.25
1lb Butter $2.39
5oz Chunk Light Tuna in Water $.55
Lettuce $1.29
80/20 Ground Beef $2.79lb
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts $2.49lb
White Bread $.79
So what are the prices like in your neck of the woods? Feel free to play along!
where are you getting $2.39 butter?? I need to find a store like that.
That’s the price at our Aldi’s.
Jenn you are killing me, we have no Aldi’s and I miss it terribly! Is there Sprouts in your neck? Kroger’s? I have Walmart which we both have in common, Fry’s is owned by Kroger’s, I shop there for work frequently, so maybe I will do an average of the four stores in my area I frequently shop. One store they do have here is 99 cents only. They carrry a lot of fresh grocery and name brand canned goods. Selection changes frequently so it is one of those you have to do a walk through, but I always get Dole salad mix (many varieties) for 99cents, fresh and within good dates. I wrote to Aldi’s asking for an Arizona expansion, would be so nice!
Walmart Prices for the August Price List: Phoenix , AZ.
5 lbs Sugar GV Brand $2.86
5 lbs White Flour GV Brand $1.94
1 Gal 2% GV Brand Milk $2.62
1 dozen Large eggs GV Brand $1.88
1 lb GV butter $2.98
5 oz (didn’t they use to be 6 oz?) Tuna in water GV brand .60
1 head of iceberg Lettuce $1.18
Ground beef $2.98 in a 1 lb tube, $2.77 per lb in a 3 lb tube, and $2.59 per lb
in a 5 lb tube (Moran’s Beef Brand)
Boneless Skinless Fresh Chicken Breast (Pilgrim Pride Brand) $1.88 per lb
1 loaf GV white bread sandwich loaf $1.00
I rarely shop at WalMart anymore. I do not like the layout of the store near me, very disorganized and not a large selection, I think it is called a Food center. If I go to Walmart I drive about 25-30 minutes to a larger Supercenter, they carry the cat litter I like (Maroon Box Walmart Brand) and my correct size of air filters for my house. (Not a Lowes or Home Depot Nearby either grrr). Ojn the West side of town form me about a good 30-35 minutes is WalMart Neighborhood Store. it is mainly groceries, and some toiletries. I like that store very well. I have seen one in Bartlett, TN near Memphis when I lived out there. Nice prices and orderly layout.
How I wish there was an Aldi grocery store any where near me. I have heard so much about them, but I have never been into one. I do not know if there is an Aldi store in Texas.
I have not seen a 5 pound bag of sugar in a long time. We can only get a 4 pound bag now. I paid $2.39 for the last bag I brought at Walmart.
Milk here is $3.14 for store brand. Butter, $2.49 store brand. Bread, $1.19 for store brand. This past week with a sale price I got boneless skinless chicken for $1.00 a pound. (this was frozen) Ground beef here is $2.29 for the 90/10…..
Roxie,
I read about Aldi’s at least 15 years ago in a book called “Cheap Eating” How to budget you meals for forty dollars or less a week. The author lived in Ohio I believe and used their prices. Living in California at the time I must say i was exceedingly jealous of their low prices and how I worked a part time job on top of my fulltime job just to cover my grocery budget (single mom at the time!) I know Aldi’s is in Arkansas, Missouri, Tennesee, so you may have one nearby. I was fortunate enough to live in Tennesee and Maryland with several nearby. Even my parents in Missouri often choose to stock up at Aldi’s to keep their food costs lower. You can save substantially. My friend’s husband in Tennesee worked for the distributorship for twenty years. all of their products are actual name brands under the Aldi private label. Their peanutbutter is JIF, their fish is fresh frozen onsite. It is a good company and needs to expand. So check it out! It is worth a thirty minute drive or so, the savings can be quite substantial.
Ok…might not know the price of everything on this list…but I did buy a gallon of 2% milk at our Wal-mart today and commented that the price had gone down….$3.71. Man…that was greater value too.
I shopped today at local Winn Dixie food store,
Butter $3.99 (on sale for $3.)
gal 2%milk $3.65
doz large eggs $2.19
eggs had been $1.89, big jump in price today. All items were store brands. My family works there so I get a 5%discount off my total .
Amyrlin-We have Aldi, Save a Lot, Price Chopper, Weis, Walmart and Wegmans. . .
Roxie-Yes, most places have gone to 4 lb bags-it’s a way to seemingly keep the price the same. . . but not really because you are getting less. Good deal on the chicken-I hope you were able to stock up!
Susan-Milk is an odd thing because it is by it’s nature something that has to be produced somewhat locally. We live in the middle of Dairy country (I have several friends/neighbors who are dairy farmers) so that probably contributes to a lower cost-plus milk is pretty inexpensive, comparatively, at Aldi’s.
Crystal-Wow, that is a big jump for eggs. I wonder what that is all about. . .
Luckily I live in a cattle state, “Five C’s” of AZ: Copper, Cattle, Citrus, Cotton, and CLimate (I am shocked I remembered from 6th grade!) So the cost of citrus, dairy, and beef in particular tends to be lower unless they are importing, as many larger corporate owned stores do. The Fleamarkets and Swapmeets sell tons of fresh citrus at very low prices. Usually you can find a neighbor with a tree to pick during the season and have tons of grapefruit, oranges, even fresh figs. Milk I frequently find for $1.50 a gallon on sale, it rotates every two weeks, including cottage cheese, yogurt, and other dairy products.
I’ve been thinking of doing something along these lines! Sometime during the year we were abroad the price of meat skyrocketed! Back in ’09 it was still possible for me to stock up on ground meat at $0.99/lb. I went away for a year, and when I came back $2.99/lb was a good deal! What happened?!
Prices are a bit higher here in Utah. Milk is $2.43 and butter is more like $2.99. Those are Smiths/Kroger prices. I’d love to have prices come down some. It’s hard to raise a big family even when the economy is good.
Sandy
I’m actually abroad right now but for fun I figured I’d add in my figures. We use metric here so I roughly converted to lbs/gal.
sugar – 1.99/2lb
flour – .99/2lb
butter – 1.60/lb
eggs – 2.70/dozen
bread – $1/white loaf – $1.50/wheat loaf
milk – $4/gal
ground beef – $3/lb (bought in bulk, otherwise $6/lb)
chicken breast – $4/lb (bought in bulk, otherwise $6/lb)
Our prices are higher
Sugar the cheapest $3.99 for four lbs
Flour $ 2.99 for four lbs
butter $3.09 for lb
dozen Eggs $1.65
Bread White $1.00 for a loaf Wheat $1.50
Milk is anywhere from $3.50 up to $7.00 for one gallon it depends on the brand
Mayfield is $6.99 per gallon
ground beef again depends on what you are buying Laura’s lean beef is $6.99 lb
The bulk stuff is $2.99 lb
Chicken breast again depends on what your buying you can find boneless skinless for about $1.89 lb
Tuna one can any type runs almost always $2.99lb
The things that get me are chips $3.99 to $4.99 a bag
and they have gone to 4 oz bags
Crackers are outrageous too at $3.99 a box and the box is smaller as well.
I don’t know how families are making it ours is not
I keep hoping that God will send more help.
Hi Jen- thanks for this post- I’ve started tracking prices, too…I did a “stock up” run to Wegmans yesterday and couldn’t believe the jumps in prices…20 or 30 cents here and there really adds up! I’ve been relying more and more on Aldis and have also been starting to get more into couponing. I’m thinking about starting a list of my rock bottom/stock up price points, and paying more attention to sale cycles.
P.S. What are your thoughts on Walmart prices?
Lisa,
I post the walmart deals and prices each week.
I totally agree with not getting meat there unless it is a prepackaged item.
I do the coupon match ups as well.
Come over and peak I am at glossymoney
Hi girls. I’m curious about the walmart thing too. I won’t buy meat there bc our walmarts meat isnt the best so I’m getting it at the grocery store- whoever has a good deal.
Anyone have a bi-lo?
Interestingly enough-as one of the Walmart Moms I’ve got an campaign coming up to sample some of their meats-mostly beef-apparently there have been some recent changes. Not sure about all the details but I’ll write about it after it happens of course.
We keep a low price page on the top 40 items we buy. It has been amazing to see just how noting which store does the lowest, we buy meats now at one store one week, dry goods at another the next week, then do the household items at the 3rd. Just knowing what is best from where (including low cost leaders) has helped out budget shrink by 14% or so. We found that consistently the prices that were lowest overall stayed at the same stores for those items. Fruit, dairy, bread, and pantry items at Aldis, meats and name brand cans at Kroger, household cleaners overall at Dollar General, and we finally learned that using a set number of clothing items per child, as in 8 outfits per season, helped us really really reduce how clothing was used and bought at our home. It also lowered our electric and water bills as less wash was required when less tossing occurred in the decisions. They like each outfit now and spend more time on the accessories.
Hi Jenn,
For the frugal nerds, take a look at the CPI tables of the Bureau of Labor Statistics at http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?ap
From this link, you can select various consumer goods to see the last few years’ data (by month) of inflation. The options include white bread, ground beef, eggs, milk, tomatoes, and bunch of other items. You can always expand the list, but this is a “top picks” link so if you want to see more items or narrow it to a geographic region, you have to play with the site somewhat.
Enjoy!
Trond