The Incredible, Ridiculous Cost of Food. And How They're Getting Away With It.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: tinker9917

You have to be smart with your money in order to stretch your dollar. It's what we do.

We can't make it very well on just $100 like we used to for three of us, but we still manage for about $120/week.

We don't eat much beef - more chicken, pork and fish.

Its almost funny salmon is 1/2 the cost of rib eye.

a reply to: Xtrozero

Crazy isn't it?

And even not so long ago, fish was a lot cheaper. I always take my old calculator in to shop with us so I can add up what we get, rounding up to account for tax. It keeps us on budget. So, on the things we are prone to always buy or buy regularly, we can attest to the price inflation. That's why I laugh cynically when someone from the admin comes out and says "No inflation ..." They simply aren't factoring in food. It's shot through the roof!

Mekong Swai used to be roughly $2.99/lb, but it's rare to find it under $4.99/lb these days.

It used to not be a rarity to find a fruit sale of $0.99/lb. These days, a good sale on fruit is $1.99/lb.

Don't get me started on butter, but suffice it to say that when you are seriously doing the math and discovering that there is only about $0.25/lb difference in the cost of the imported Irish butter and the store brand cheap butter, you are starting to wonder why you don't just go ahead and buy the expensive imported stuff from grass fed cows. At least the price of butter has backed off.

Oh, and then there is a price of eggs ...

originally posted by: ketsuko

Oh, and then there is a price of eggs ...

I make good money but my eating habits have still changed a lot over the last 7 years, I just do not know how families that once just got by can do it now.


The good news is stuff that I once saw as too expensive is not so bad now...lol

a reply to: ketsuko

The price of eggs in the grocery store SHOCKED the spit out of me!
During the summer I rely on a neighbor for fresh, organic, free-range eggs when his supply exceeds his demands. We trade out veggies or fresh bread for eggs. If he doesn't have a surplus I get them at the Farmers' Market, same thing, fresh, organic, free-range for $3/doz. So you can imagine my shock when I decided to pick up a dozen at the store rather than making the drive to the farmer's place to pick some up. $5.99/doz with my discount card for the same eggs! Except they're not nearly as fresh!
I get my butter from the Amish grocery store. Went there today to stock up for the Christmas cookie making. Today the 2# rolls were $15.99 because they have a new supplier. Last month when I bought a couple of rolls they were $17.99 each. Because I bought six rolls the owner gave me a price break. He said, "Sometimes when I see these prices I feel ashamed that I must charge this much. My grandmother is spinning in her grave if she knows we're paying such a price for butter!"

originally posted by: Chansi3
a reply to: MRuss You are absolutely correct. When 10 companies, I believe I am right, have control over all the food in the USA, something is really ,really wrong. The amount of control these companies have acquired is astonishing. Every bite we eat and buy is already controlled by these mega companies. I very much doubt if anything can be done to reverse this now.

These mega companies are masters of manipulation, and are really good at ripping off the consumer on everything they sell. I go to the store and get 5 plastic bags of grocery, costing over $100 and I really did not get anything substantial. Maybe 1 or 2 meals, that's it. The real power people have over these mega companies is to boycott, but seems there is not enough coordination to actually make that happen. Switching between Walmart and Kroger does nothing since both companies are in the top 10, and the smaller companies just get bought out, or go bankrupt. I complain about this topic often because it cost more to buy groceries than it does to eat out every night.

originally posted by: Xtrozero
I make good money but my eating habits have still changed a lot over the last 7 years, I just do not know how families that once just got by can do it now.

My grocery budget is roughly $80/month. I waste about $20 of that on flavored water and teabags. The remaining $60 goes towards other foods, so about $2/day as a meal budget. Soups, stews, and so on that you can make in a crock pot are cheap and easy. It only costs about $6 to make a huge pot of chicken noodle soup and that's a good 5 days of meals which makes it come in below budget. Other days rice with varying spices is also rather inexpensive. Then every now and then I can have a salad which comes in at around $4-$5.

my grocery bill for the wife amd I is roughly 150 per month, we don't buy any pre-packaged foods we buy some things like eggs from a local farmer, and hand make everything, It's the only way we get by. We buy meat in bulk when on sale from a local butcher (they offer freezer packs varying from 50 to 100 dollars that lasts us several months). We also get some meat from hunting and we raise rabbits for meat.
Fruits and veg are only bought when in season and the cheapest, then we freeze and can for the winter.

It's a lot of extra work, but worth it.

we also don't eat huge portions, for example, when I make chicken finger and fries for dinner, I use one breast for the both of us (a good size breast makes about 8 fingers) and two potatoes make enough fries for both of us. I actually calculated it out once the chicken breast cost us $2 the potatoes roughly 50c and factoring in the egg, flour and panko, the entire meal for the two of us cost about $2.90 (yes for the TWO of us)

Like I said it's a lot of work and not everone's cup of tea, but it works for us.

I haul a lot of food products, from produce to meat, to chocolate candy. One of the big things that has hurt prices, and continues to hurt prices is transportation costs. Between fuel prices that haven't come down to where they should be, and an incredibly soft freight market in recent months, that means that food prices are staying higher than they should.

I don't think I've seen the freight market as bad as it has been this year. This is supposed to be our busy time, and there are trucks sitting for days in some areas, because there are no loads heading out of there for trucks to carry. We went from long loads, to medium length loads, with short loads thrown in to make expenses every week.

originally posted by: Aazadan

My grocery budget is roughly $80/month. I waste about $20 of that on flavored water and teabags. The remaining $60 goes towards other foods, so about $2/day as a meal budget. Soups, stews, and so on that you can make in a crock pot are cheap and easy. It only costs about $6 to make a huge pot of chicken noodle soup and that's a good 5 days of meals which makes it come in below budget. Other days rice with varying spices is also rather inexpensive. Then every now and then I can have a salad which comes in at around $4-$5.

Chicken and rice goes a long way. My wife is Asian so I get all the Asian dishes, and they typically are not that expensive. 80 bucks is tough to work with I hope things get better for you.

originally posted by: Xtrozero
Chicken and rice goes a long way. My wife is Asian so I get all the Asian dishes, and they typically are not that expensive. 80 bucks is tough to work with I hope things get better for you.

It does, but I try not to eat too much of it. Too much rice isn't very good for you, the same goes for pasta and bread. Which on that front, I do try to find a nice whole grain rustic style loaf of bread every couple weeks That's why I mainly eat soups (atleast in this time of year). I used to supplement by going to church dinners but I got out of that for awhile. I may start doing that again because it frees some budget up to begin eating breakfast.

The food prices really are outrageous though. Around here it's $12/pound for turkey, $10/pound for cheese, a steak can cost you $20. I honestly wonder how they're selling at these prices, but they are. The deli line always has 5-6 people waiting in it to spend $35 on the fillings or maybe 6 sandwiches.

And things will probably get better for me eventually. I have 1.5 more semesters to finish and then I'm finally done with my final college degree. At which point I'll atleast be qualified for something that pays better, assuming the jobs exist.

I did the math one day and I think Subway is cheaper than the grocery store for sandwiches now.

a reply to: diggindirt

Ours aren't that bad yet, but it's a combination of the poultry flu that wiped out a lot of layers and the new laws in California on how hens have to be housed.

Because California is such a large market, a lot of domestic producers either have to not sell to Cali or they have to spend the money to update their facilities.

So basically one vote of the state of California has screwed the price of eggs for everyone else.

a reply to: diggindirt

We've looked into a local milk man service offered by a local dairy company.

They have a "breakfast basket" that for a set price would deliver a local made loaf of whole grain bread, half gallon of their whole milk, dozen local farm fresh eggs and a pound of local produced bacon every week. I factored up the cost of buying those things at the grocery and there is about a $5 difference.

I think at this point the only thing holding us back is the question of whether or not we'd use a dozen eggs and pound of bacon every week.

a reply to: sprtpilot

You do realize that out of those 50 million people most still have to pay for their food? Most of the time SNAP does not pay nearly enough to feed a family for a week let alone a month.

People that have never had to use SNAP act like food stamps are some kind of steak and lobster every day thing.

A lot of it is just greed, I remember a big chain store that sold this macaroni and cheese called "M" brand for .39 cents a box, far cheaper than the ones around it, everybody bought it up. one day I went there and it was gone, I asked the guy why they weren't selling it anymore and he said, "because everybody kept buying it." In other words, the 1.00+ boxes of the same thing/different label weren't moving so they took it off the shelf. Point is, if somebody can make it that cheap, anybody can. I don't see why a can of green beans can be half as much at one store and not another, a bean is a bean no matter who's names on the label, if they tasted bad they'd be out of business. I think a lot of it is just about mark up.

originally posted by: Aazadan

The food prices really are outrageous though. Around here it's $12/pound for turkey, $10/pound for cheese, a steak can cost you $20. I honestly wonder how they're selling at these prices, but they are. The deli line always has 5-6 people waiting in it to spend $35 on the fillings or maybe 6 sandwiches.

Wow, what part of the world do you live in? Deli meats and cheese is always expensive. Cook a 20 pound turkey and cut it up and put the rest in a soup that would last you a month on all of it, well if you could eat turkey for a month...lol

People in your situation really need to get back to basic on everything which I assume you do a lot. Anything packaged with a name on it will cost you. Go to a good size Asian market and start experimenting with stuff that is actually very good for you and cheap to buy. Try baking some chicken and the last 15 minutes put some Bot Choy on top with a little oil on it, talk about good tasting. Rice is complex carbohydrates and that is good where white bread and pasta are not and so are bad, plus a 50 lbs bag of good Thailand rice goes for 25 bucks and that is about 400 servings, so 6 cents a serving isn't bad. Being somewhat an Asian house hold we have rice 24/7 ready and we eat it every day just about. None of us are fat too.

We treat our friends that hunt very well and in turn they always keep our freezer well stocked. One of them dropped off about 17 lbs. of venison the other night!
That will last us awhile and there are still a couple of weeks left of season.

We (me) cooked all but one pack of tenderloin the night after he brought it and it went as fast as I could get it out of the pan!
We don't fry often, if ever, so it was a special treat. Most people won't come off of their tenderloin...
There's an old saying that goes something like "Nature makes the backstrap and God makes the tenderloin". I have no idea where that comes from

Anyway, our friends help us out with the meat budget and the kids really enjoy it.
We use the ground for chilis, the tenderloin for standing over the stove eating until you are stuffed, and I am going to try jerky this year. I have been looking over old family recipes for a few months and found one for an old fashioned (pre 19th century) meat pie. It is nothing like what is being commercialized today.
Forgot the topic of the OP! Long thread!
Anyway, hunting (or friends that hunt) can help with the food budget if you are a carnivore...

I remember several years ago predicting when they merged the 2 exchanges in Chicago that this would be the result.
I'm pretty sure it was on of your threads too MRuss.
Well, here we are.)

Seems like years but it was only 6 months ago I posted about the above in this thread www.abovetopsecret.com...
Put down the pipe, ATA.
I think you've had enough....

originally posted by: Xtrozero
Wow, what part of the world do you live in? Deli meats and cheese is always expensive. Cook a 20 pound turkey and cut it up and put the rest in a soup that would last you a month on all of it, well if you could eat turkey for a month...lol

Small town Ohio.

People in your situation really need to get back to basic on everything which I assume you do a lot. Anything packaged with a name on it will cost you. Go to a good size Asian market and start experimenting with stuff that is actually very good for you and cheap to buy.

There's nothing like that within 100 miles of me. The only Asian market is the 1/4 of an aisle devoted to those foods at Krogers.

I'm actually not a very good cook though, nor do I really have time to cook because school keeps me extremely busy. I just throw things in my rice cooker or crock pot, or toss a salad together. Any of those things comes out to under 5 minutes of prep time.

plus a 50 lbs bag of good Thailand rice goes for 25 bucks and that is about 400 servings, so 6 cents a serving isn't bad. Being somewhat an Asian house hold we have rice 24/7 ready and we eat it every day just about. None of us are fat too.

I eat quite a bit of rice but I also need some variety, if I eat the same thing for too long I just can't stomach eating more of it for a long time and with rice that's a bad thing since it's such an economical meal.

Whomever posted that site MyFridgeFood..OMFG that site is awesome!!!! THANK YOU! I become brain dead when I know my fridge is kinda low..Im just not 'creative' in the making stuff from what I have. This site just might be a freaking lifesaver. Im just wondering how the hell I hadn't come across it until now Thank you again.

a reply to: MRuss

The problem rather lies in inflation, rather than some conspiracy.


Based on :
Inflation calculator taking 1975 as a base.

$1 in 1975 has the same purchasing power as $4.80996 in 2015.
The total inflation rate from 1975 to 2015 is 380.99640%

Based on that what was worth 100 dollars in 1975, should be 480 dollars now.



Another issue that makes the problem of high-cost food much worse id the fact that wages have not gone up how they should have. Globalisation, moving industry overseas, making majority of local economy based on service sector. All that has had strong influence on the markets. Agriculture sector still wants to earn the same and as there is always need for food, they just went according to the market needs.

Another problem I see, lies in corporate welfare (food stamps for example), which largely comes from minimum wage being extremely low (far below living wage). Companies deliberately pay their employees less in order to maximise profit knowing that even whether the salary is not livable at all, government assistance will cover that.