Affording groceries during times of rapid price increases
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During the past two years alone, the price of some household staples such as bread, milk, and eggs have increased in price by as much as 69%*, while the median household income has only increased 1%*. In this video, I discuss these increases and offer tips to help your family cope with the rapidly increasing cost of groceries.
As I’ve found myself watching Youtube far more than I do television, I am going to start expanding my youtube channel, so please be sure and visit me on youtube by clicking here and be sure and click the red “subscribe” button!
References for this video:
- Soaring Food Prices: Compare Cost Increases
- Food Prices Soar as Incomes Stand Still
- Milk Prices Could Go up 60 Cents a Gallon
- Rice: The Ultimate Budget Extender
- Money Saving Tip: Rethink Bulk
- Come Home to Supper
“American families have always shown remarkable resiliency, or flexible adjustment to natural, economic, and social challenges. Their strengths resemble the elasticity of a spider web, a gull’s skillful flow with the wind, the regenerating power of perennial grasses, the cooperation of an ant colony, and the persistence of a stream carving canyon rocks. These are not the strengths of fixed monuments but living organisms. This resilience is not measured by wealth, muscle or efficiency but by creativity, unity, and hope. Cultivating these family strengths is critical to a thriving human community.”~Ben Silliman
Thank-you, Christy for taking the little spare time you have, to spread the word on how to save money on groceries. A problem for most of us.
My husband and I live in a condo so we have no area for growing our own vegetables, other than the deck in a pot as you mentioned as a possibility. We have no children so even though I am cooking for just the two of us, it’s a large expense. We’re not complaining, though.
We watched my father go from someone who loved a delicious meal to having a feeding tube. Anyone who has a family member going through the same situation can confirm, it’s a very difficult time. Do you realize how many family gatherings, holidays, sports events, etc., revolve around food? Even tv ads for fast food places. Very hard.
We know my father would have loved to go into a grocery store and had the pleasure of picking out food, knowing it would be made into a meal. My dad lived for almost 5 years with the tube. Since Mom never wanted to make food in front of my dad, her health suffered. Even though we took many meals over to her so all she had to do was warm them up, she didn’t want Daddy to smell any food. That’s what true love is. We miss both of them everyday. When does the time come everyone talks about, when it becomes easier? It’s been over 10 years.
Do you have any tips on how to keep food in the freezer more organized? I label everything but it still appears to be one big mess of freezer bags!
Also, thank-you for adopting a shelter dog. I love you even more!
That is true love Cindy!! And what a testament to the parents you had! I am not sure when it gets easier…and I am not sure that it actually does. I think we just learn to cope with the pain of loss as time goes on so that it doesn’t outwardly show as often. ~HUGS~
Thank-you for your words of comfort, Christy. I guess you could tell it’s just what I needed.
Cindy I freeze my food flat in zip bags with all the air squeezed out. Then after they freeze I stand the bags on their ends into plastic milk crate baskets purchased from the Dollar Tree. I have a basket for casseroles, one for vegetables, one for soup, one, for beef, one for chicken, one for pork, and one for misc. It really helps when you need to grab something quickly for a meal. I portion everything I freeze into 2 portions as that is all I need so that way there is no waste. I also keep a huge plastic container in the freezer and every time I have the least little bit of vegetables or meat left, even small amounts of pasta or rice I add them to the container and make a pot of delicious Hodge Podge soup for no added cost.
Marsha, thank-you so much for the great ideas for the freezer! I will definitely try them. You sound very organized!
Great job, Christy! Thank you for wearing the UNA cap. Sure would like to catch up.
Thank you Jane! We do need to catch up soon!
Hi Christy, from Mary in Massachusetts, Food bill is the lowest amount I spend monthly. Just had my oil tank filled 250 gal $ 1,000, this fill up will last maybe a month and a half! Water is expensive in New England we pay an extra thousand a year over and above our regular bill, to keep the Charles river clean. we live nowhere near the Charles river, go figure. We cancelled cable, saved a Hundred a month. Short growing season hear. We have woods behind our house, so we have too much shade to grow veggies, I tried growing tomatoes, but those naughty tree rats ate them even before they turned red! I try to clip coupons and shop Walmart and market basket new store that opened in my area last year but even those prices have gone up. We thought about moving but my husband has worked here all his life, and to move somewhere else and find a job just is a gamble. he wants to retire but we can not afford to. We have remortgage twice to put two children thought collage. I am very proud of them, but even they are having a hard time keeping up with inflation. So I guess we are all in the same boat, and it’s sinking fast. My Mom always said do your best, that’s all I ask and don’t give up, so when I start rolling my change at the end of the month I remember her doing the same. I think it could be worse. I could be eating Spam, that’s next, LOL
Doing the best we can is all we can really do Mary. Prices everywhere really are going higher and higher, it is very concerning isn’t it?
I meant to say we go food shopping every 10-12 days.
I grew up in a family of 8, so I learned frugal living during my childhood. My mother always canned, froze food, made jam, etc. so I learned those skills from her. We’re now retired, living on a fixed income and it has been a struggle for us as prices go up, packages get smaller, and Social Security does not keep up with price increases. One way we save money is go every 10-12 days instead of weekly. Staying out of the store one time a month reduces the impulse buying and we are forced to plan our meals so we don’t run out. My husband is gluten-intolerant so we buy some things by the case from Amazon as we save money that way.
We use our cellphones only for emergencies, so we switched to TracFone and it only costs us $18 a month for 2 phones and 90 minutes (the minutes roll over too & we’ve accumulated over 2,000 minutes between us.)
Great ideas BeckyJo!! Thank you so much for sharing!!
Thanks for the video. I had to turn my speakers all the way up and I still had to strain to hear when you were talking in normal voice. The excitement voice came out louder and so did the music at the end. I don’t know if others had trouble hearing it or not. Thanks!!
It may be that the volume on the youtube video is turned down. I find that is often the case with me. Turning the volume up on your computer helps but if the volume level on the video itself is down it will only do so much. There should be a volume adjustment in the bottom left of the video. I hope this helps Sandra! It is always a joy to see you!
This is an issue facing all families, young newlyweds to seniors like my husband and I (married 47 years now) It is not only about the price of food, it is also about the quality of food GMO’s and hormone feed meat. Consumers do have a say, but lots of us raising our voices are more likely to be heard. As for groceries I do shop Aldi but live in Mich small town where Wally World Rules, I coupon, takes a bit of time and a bit of planning but it does stretch the food budget. I am not brand specific and go with the brand on the coupon. There are several good coupon sites, several which do not use your e-mail to send spam. You can print the coupons at home and some have coupons you can download to a smart phone. My Wally World recently started a policy that a home printed coupon must scan, (before a clerk could key it if it did not scan they cannot do that anymore) so if it will not scan you cannot use it, So I am shopping more at another store (Meijers) that will key them in if they do not scan. We get the newspaper and the Sunday coupons pay for the cost of the paper, again you can check on the internet to find out how many coupon flyers will be included each Sunday some it is 1 and some times it can be as many as 4. I buy eggs and chicken from local farmers that do hormone free and range free, nice pink plump chickens not the dried out yellow stuff sold in most groceries. I have been a couponer for years since my girls were little, not the kind that buys 20 packs of paper towels but a couponer and I manage to save about 25-30% off most of my shopping trips. Well worth the time. Some things I never buy without a coupon, cereal, soup, for example. Bottom line pennies count up so couponing is worth the time, at least for me.
Vary good points Blanche!! Thank you for sharing!