It’s time again for the Grocery Benchmark Report.
While prices either remained stable or dropped slightly this month I did notice a few interesting cost changes this month. The first was that Aldi changed their sugar to a 4lb bag. That makes the price look significantly less at the register (ie last month’s bag of sugar cost $2.75, this month’s bag of sugar cost $2.15–but the price per lb only dropped a penny). Milk, Butter and Eggs also had significant drops ($.10, $.40 and $.10 respectively). Living in farming country here in Upstate NY it occurs to me that those prices changes may be due to a natural uptick in production for the spring.
Of course the long term changes are what I’m most interested in-especially the beef prices. Those are predicted to rise up to 5% this year due to farmers selling off their herds in the drought last year and the high cost of the corn that is used to feed the cattle. Apparently the “better” cuts of meat show a more noticeable difference in price-but even the 80% lean ground beef at Aldi has gone up $.10 since I started recording prices, and $.30 since the beginning of 2012.
Here’s the full Grocery Benchmark Report for May
May Grocery Benchmark
So how does this “benchmark report” work?
Each month I record prices on a set basket of “staple” grocery items. I price all items at my local ALDI store to keep things simple.
The columns show the price when I first started recording (Aug 11), the price at the beginning of this year (Jan 12), the prices last month and the prices this month.
These price columns are followed by a “Change since Aug 11” “Change, Year to Date” column and a “Change since last month” column.
Note: If a price is shown in green, it’s gotten cheaper. If it’s in red, it’s more expensive.
Remember-prices can vary wildly by region. My desire here is to help us all notice and take action on price TRENDS so we can make decisions about how best to manage our budget for our own households.
Wondering why I’m so concerned about rising food costs? Because the the price of food at home is projected to rise by 4 to 5 percent this year, and another 2 to 3 percent next year, according to the US Agriculture Department.
Thanks to Malloreigh for the photo that I found on Flickr to create the graphic from.
What I wouldn’t give for $3/lb ground beef! You can’t get it below $4 here in central CA. The good news, though, is that a roast is usually less, which is logical, since a roast is less processed than ground meat.
Since there’s less demand for them, fish and lamb are often less expensive than beef here, too.
I would like to take your whole historical database and put it into a spreadsheet for manipulation. If you would be willing to share the data, I’d pass what I develop back to you. If it proves worthwhile, we might be able to put it up on Google Docs so that any of your readers can use it to answer their own questions.
Lance ==)——————-
-=[ Figures don’t lie, but liars sure can figure! ]=-
Lance-I’ve already got it in a spreadsheet, I’d be happy to share! I was hoping to create a sheet that others could use to fill in their local data-but I needed someone a bit better with the formulas than I am 😉
I shop at Aldi also and noticed the bags of sugar. I also keep track of prices there and wondered why the ground beef was getting so expensive. Thanks for putting this info up.
Tara-so glad you are finding the information useful! I think part of the reason our milk is so cheap is that I live smack dab in the middle of dairy country. As in I have 2 or 3 friends here in my town who are dairy farmers. (well, at least their husbands are!)
Hi again, just noticed your milk prices. Wow they are so cheap compared to ours. I pay 2.65/gal at BJ’s. I have found their cheese, milk, and butter to be cheaper there than anywhere else here in central NC.
Hi. I just found your blog and subscribed to your feed. Is there any chance you could help me start a grocery benchmark spreadsheet for my personal use? I have excel but I don’t know how to create the formulas for the last there columns.
Hi Sara! Glad you found us! Actually, I never did the July benchmark, and I’ve got the data for the August & Sept but haven’t entered them and published them. I had a great local gentleman fix the spreadsheet for me to automate the formulas a bit more–I’ll get that published here on the blog in the next couple of days. If I don’t, feel free to harass me via the comment form or on the Frugal Upstate FB page!