You know I’ve been preaching about the rising food costs lately–that’s why I started my monthly “Grocery Benchmark Report”, to keep an eye on things!
Well I came across this article on MSNBC/Today Online: “Your Grocery Bill is Getting Higher, and Higher” While the entire article is interesting (although not exactly a shocker) this line really jumped out at me:
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 Agriculture Department.
Wow! They linked to the USDA site “USDA Food and Economic Research Service“, so I went over there to take a look at their Food CPI and Expenditures: CPI for Food Forecasts. The chart was last updated on Nov 25, 2011, so this is uber recent information.
To start with the historical data: in 2009 over the course of the entire year there was a 1.8% increase in the price of food. In 2010, the yearly increase was .08%–which to be fair was something like the smallest amount of food inflation since the 60’s.
This year? In 2011 as of Nov 25th there was a 3.5% to 4.5% increase, and projected for 2012 is another 2.5% to 3.5% on all food.
If you look at the project cost increase breakdown for specific categories for 2011 and 2012:
. 2011 2012
Beef and Veal: 8-9% 4.5-5.5%
Pork: 6.5-7.5% 3-4%
Poultry: 2.5-3.5% 3-4%
Eggs: 5-6% 2.5-3.5%
Dairy: 5-6% 3.5-4.5%
Fresh Fruit&Veg 3.5-4.5% 3-4%
Now I don’t bring all this up to scare you. Well, ok, maybe I do actually want to scare you just a little bit–because here’s the big question.
What are you going to do?
If everything costs more, well then you have two options-you either have to make more money or you have to spend less. Unfortunately for most of us earning more money on a regular basis isn’t really an option–so that leaves spending less.
Spending less money long term means changes–long term changes–in lifestyle. You can’t just push it off till next month, charge a bit more on your card or whatever delaying strategy you might have. Eventually it will be time to pay the piper.
So stop now and think. What will we have to change?
And even more importantly, to my mind, is how can we introduce those changes to our family in such a way that they accept them instead of rebelling against them?
Can you start with little changes like, oh, reducing the amount of meat in your meals by just a bit? Adding a meatless meal or a soup meal once a week to your rotation? Resisting the temptation to eat out? Using the library for books, cds and movies instead of buying or renting new?
What about other things? Will you start driving less? Lowering the kids expectations about lessons, camps, random trips into the mall? Date night at home instead of at the movies?
What about raising expectations? Slowly working your kids into the idea that they might have to help around the house more? Including them in cooking so that they are excited about meals at home? Getting everyone used to the idea that a garden is fun and tasty and-oh-might actually be necessary to help the family? Enjoying a night with friends at your own home for dinner instead of meeting them out? Really getting engaged in your neighborhood and community so that you can help other folks out and maybe, if needed, get some help in return. . .
This is a long haul folks, not a short slide. We all need to spend some time thinking about and digesting the changes that may need to happen. I know some of you out there might not agree, but I really don’t think things are going to turn around any time soon-and all these frugal “tips tricks and techniques” we’ve been talking about for so long might become more necessity than novelty.
It’s natural to avoid thinking about unpleasantness. We all do it sometimes. But today I’m asking you to think, really think about all those things you’ve been trying NOT to think about. Not because I want you to be upset or to feel bad, but because you can’t start to solve a problem, to make a plan, until you’ve really taken some time to think about it.
Great article Jenn. Everyone needs to think about this very serious issue. My husband has been unemployed for over a year and a half, he has done a little contract work here and there but no fulltime employment. Our income decreased by $60,000 last year. This included a cross country move (very expensive) and setting up a new household. I make a higher income than I did back East and it is enough to provide for my family as I do work outside the home and fulltime. The increasing costs of living rising are on my mind frequently, times are tough, your have to get tougher!
Our food has never been less nutritious and yet more expensive.
We have started buying 1/2 a beef at a time, which lowered the cost of beef tremendously for us. Grass fed, hormone free beef for $2 a pound after butchering. BUT it took me a long time to find this source.
We still spend so much money on food for a family of 3 it makes my head hurt. Only REAL foods, nothing processed, no pop or drinks other than coffee (Folgers), all home made and yet??? We STILL spend $1200 a month on average. We eat well and I’m thankful but I have to wonder at what point is it not worth the cost.
We started cutting back 18 months ago by cutting off our cable TV and went to watching HULU it has lots of free TV shows & movies. And we buy a couple new dvds a month. Have payed off all credit card and closed the accounts. We don’t eat out any more at all. Pack our lunch’s for work. Planted a vegetable garden and I can everything we don’t eat right away. We also eat a lot of wild game & I raise chickens for eggs & have meat birds for fresh chicken. A treat to us now is fresh beef for a meal. I go to the grocery store once a month and spend maybe 140. a month for 2 people.
I always amazed when I hear about people who still begin their meal planning with what ‘meat’ they will have, particularly when red meat has long been known to be bad for your health. I still know people who ‘love Mexican food’ but won’t go near a bean. We start our meal planning with what protein / or none we will serve and we got through a list. I’ve refined it now to have more beans, vegetarian and poultry, but we still aim to eat fish twice a week (and one of those is not in a tin, but the other may be tinned tuna or salmon); it helps that we live at the coast where there are deals going on fresh fish, but it also means we have to be a bit adventurous. I keep a price book that allows me to compare the price by weight (sometimes drained weight if packed in water) of foods at the grocery. We have a vegetable garden and what it doesn’t grow we buy at green markets, not the supermarket which is much more expensive. I go to an Asian shop about once a year and buy a bag of virtually every bean they sell, plus about 10 lbs of cornmeal and another 10 lbs of popping corn. We have a breadmaker and we make our own bread and pizza doughs. We treat cheese as the luxury item it is and we have a pork or beef product maybe once a month if that. Our next decision after what protein we will have (beans, poultry, fish, cheese, eggs, meat, none – in which I’ll do something special with a grain like rice or couscous) is to plan what green vegetable and what red vegetable we will have. We’ve been generally avoiding rice, potatoes and pasta, and we are still trying to lose some weight. If I were struggling with my food bill, I would just add those items more often and cut back on portion sizes. Tea is way cheaper than coffee, we could make our own wine, drink water (even hot water) more often. We are two retirees who walk most places we need to go, so fuel prices aren’t much of a problem. Then again, I’ve been living well within my means since the early 90s when I found the Tightwad Gazette Newsletters and started things like buying clothes second hand and learning to cook from scratch. I think the first thing I’d do if I had a family would be to get rid of the TV with all the adverts. I don’t think I have enough parenting experience to understand rebellion (I do hope we’re talking about children, not an adult spouse). My approach to meals when I had a small step-son was that he didn’t have to eat everything if he hated it, but that was all that was on offer – no snacks, and no special foods prepared. His father ate most anything and he emulated his dad, thankfully. I still try to serve good tasting food, but my theory continues to be that if we are hungry we will eat what is in front of us.