The rise in energy costs all through last year have noticeably caused costs to increase almost everywhere. A quick glance at most isles in your local grocery store will confirm that prices have been steadily growing all year.
Internet users are sharing the items they have started to cut from their shopping lists due to inflation. Items like meat and seafood were predictable, but some have even started cutting fresh produce. And eggs, can’t forget eggs! With prices increasing by a third, people are considering ways to limit eggs in their diets.
So, dear Panda’s, feel free to share how you have adapted your cooking to these new food prices and upvote the examples that you’ve encountered.
This post may include affiliate links.
I wouldn't say I'm cutting back, but I'm making more things from scratch and started growing my own lettuce and herbs. I now have a large grow tent in my living room. I know neighbors assume it is weed, but it's the start of a salsa garden and hopefully potatoes.
Here in the US, the cheapest generic brand butter is $5 a pound. Not long ago, that used to be what you paid for the GOOD stuff.
Lettuce. Went from $1.99 to $7, there's no way I'm paying $10 for a salad.
Wow what country is this in 🤯 everything healthy went up in price in Ireland so now you can buy 8 choc bars, 6 bags crisps, 4 ice pops and a tv for the price of a bag of avacados
Forbes Magazine estimates that most household expenses have increased by around 8.6% since last year. Unfortunately, this hasn’t affected all expenses equally. Food in general and staples in particular have been hit the hardest. The increase in food prices since October is close to 10% and economists predict they won’t go down anytime soon. The silver lining? They might not increase either. As inflation continues, income may catch up.
That being said, certain items are likely to remain pricey in the near future. Eggs, meat and other more perishable and energy intensive items are set to remain costly. It doesn’t help that food manufacturers often rely on consumers becoming accustomed to price increases. They hope that we will just accept the new price. So props to the good folks documenting the effects of inflation, since it can help all of us keep food costs in perspective.
It's now over $9 for 18 eggs where I am. I looked today, but didn't even end up buying them.
I used to really like those little potatoes but now I only get them once every few months. For some things like bread and butter I just buy brands that are on sale now. I have a toddler and fruit is killing me.
I paid $7.99 USD for a dozen eggs last week. I'm literally counting every one and basing my meal planning around whether or not something is "worth the eggs".
Inflation can’t take all the blame when it comes to the ludicrous rise in egg prices. Avian influenza has spread its way across chicken populations, in a record outbreak. Typically, the holiday season also causes a spike in egg prices, as people cook and bake more than usual. This year, that spike has yet to decrease. Since poultry farms have to cull their populations to limit the virus, supply remains significantly lower than demand. You can probably see where this is going.
Fresh berries. Sometimes I’ll find a good sale, other times it’s *$8 for a thing of strawberries*
Fruit is so prohibitively expensive now! A single apple is about $2.00, oranges are about the same. Strawberries are $8.99 here right now. Only bananas are still available at reasonable prices. I understand fruits and vegetables go up in prices throughout the winter but for the most part they are too expensive for regular purchase. A peach, nectarine or a grapefruit is a special treat these days.
I have not eaten a peach this year. They're my favorite fruit. Ironically, mangoes and pomelos are more affordable now- I guess because so few people buy them here.
Seafood. It's absurd because I live on an island. Fish used to be a staple food, a less expensive protein source. Now it's more expensive than a Wagyu.
It doesn’t help that eggs are truly a staple. Most people aren’t eating Wagyu beef every meal, but eggs are a baking and breakfast mainstay for a reason. On the bright side, in places hit particularly hard by egg shortages people might be willing to try vegan alternatives. In California, plant-based egg substitutes have seen sales rise by around a quarter.
Lunch meat! $15 a pound! That is double what lean ground sirloin costs! I call BS - since when is a turkey sandwich a luxury meal
Maybe stop buying your meat at the deli counter and buy ye olde Oscar Meyer like us not-rich have to do.
Meat, primarily
Or meat alternatives - two veggieburgers (250 gr total) are now 4.5 euros. They used to be 2.5 - 3.
I don't know if it's because of inflation, but heavy cream jumped in price a few months back and I stopped buying it. For years that's what I used in my coffee but I'm back to half and half bc it's, well, half the price.
Evaporated milk is nearly $2 a can for 12oz. That's generic price. If you go to the Family Dollar store you can get a 12oz can for $1. I bought 8, lol.
In Germany, Butter prices are through the roof. Canola and sunflower seed oil as well because they used to be imported from Ukraine.
Also M&Ms. Not an ingredient but man that price...
My husband saw a man stop dead in his tracks and scream out "$5 for butter?!" - guy didn't even have anyone with him, he was so shocked.
Oxtail. It was a tasty, inexpensive meal growing up, not so much anymore. Sucks, it was a comfort food for me.
fresh vegetables, mostly just use frozen now
onions, potatoes & carrots in huge bags when they are on sale. Used to just pick them up when I wanted them but now plan ahead & make lots of meals for the freezer
beef is another one because dammmmm
finding recipes that don't use eggs
The bulk-buying thing is very recognisable. I spend half my time comparing the per kg price of everything. It’s very weird to me that it varies so much. Like, why are these pine nuts suddenly twice as expensive just because they came from the baking aisle?
Crab. Any crab. Blue, snow, king, dungeness, canned crab. It's all priced like caviar.
Wild salmon, especially King Salmon.
Lunch meat, I mean seriously.
The US had to suspend the snow crab fishing season because of a drastic decline in crabs. Learn to make dishes using mussels. They're still cheap and it's a VERY sustainable resource.
Certain cheeses. They hopped up not too long ago, now I try to avoid dishes with a lot of cheese.
Lamb (Aus). It used to be peasant food :(
this so much. I remember when lamb cutlets used to be under $5 a kilo. Now they are up around $40 a kg at coles. Even the meat bones are $8 kilo now.
In addition to items that other posters have mentioned, celery. It’s now $2.99 a bunch. I use it for recipes like tuna salad, potato salad, etc and rarely use a whole bunch before it gets old. It’s gotten too expensive for me to want to buy it. (Location is in US, the Midwest).
I had the same issue as the poster, I only really use it for mirepoix and don't like the flavor raw- a good solution is to chop it up into small pieces, put it into a resealable freezer bag, and just toss it in the freezer. I now buy a bunch every couple months or so, break off what I know I'm gonna use at one time, and it keeps for as long as I need it to. :)
Salmon. My favourite fish :(
Interestingly, where I live, that's the only thing the price of which is stagnating. But it WAS by far the most expensive kind of protein anyway, so it's not like it makes much of a difference. It's always been 6-8000+ HUF, only now a pound of ground pork is not 700, but more like 1600.
Lemons. I used to keep them on hand but now just buy what I need.
Watermelon. Large seedless watermelon was “on sale” for $12.99 USD in the store this weekend
It's winter, if you're getting it it's coming from South America. Wait until June/July
Corn syrup. I use it for my small candy business. At the restaurant store, it used to be $7.99/gal and now it’s $21.50
Sunflower oil went from €0.90/L to €4.50/L due to the war so I'm using other oils as much as possible now.
Enoki Mushrooms. They used to be $1 for 2 packs at my local supermarket, now its about $6 for 1 pack. I'm not sure if this is due to inflation but the price increase is insane.
It's corporate greed taking advantage of inflation to camouflage their price hikes.
Eggs. I don't like egg-centered dishes that much to begin with such as omelets, eggs benedict, fried or scrambled eggs, etc. They're now more than double the price where I live so I mainly just use them for when I need them in baking.
And I love eggs and would go through at least 3 dozen every two weeks - no longer, I can't afford them. Jumped from $2.29 per dozen to over $7 a dozen. I can't have chickens, too many natural predators and my back yard isn't big enough to build a safe place for them.
$3.50 for 3 shallots? I can get a kilogram of chicken thighs for that. Shallots would be off my menu if they cost 30 cents each! I buy them when they are 35 cents for a pack as no one seems to buy them from my local place so they are always discounted.
I've definitely eaten less ribs and pork belly though.
Calamari, it used to be so so cheap. I could pick up tubes for $1 a piece, now it is $20 a kg.
Ok, this has always been pricey out here in the desert. Y'know, I remember when I was a kid and other kids would joke about how gross something like calimari was (and sushi, omg). Tried it the first chance I could! (Large Iranian wedding dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant around 11pm at night.) Loved it immediately. Sushi too. 😂
Do you all realize that the farmers who produce all these foods, are now being paid LESS for their products? The mark-up is going straight to the shareholders of the multinationals who own the supermarkets
It depends. Certainly the farmers are not the cause, I agree. But in this case, corporations aren't really the root cause. Where I am, the cost is being driven-up by the rise in fuel prices and the lack of key ingredients due to the war and (nessessary) changes in engery policy to reduce emissions. Flour has become insanely expensive (and so all flour-based things like bread as well) because we can't get wheat from the East for instance. The price of fresh produce has risen because fuel for farm machinery / greenhouse heating has risen. It is not so much corporate greed (although the supermarkets are not willing cutting profits to help - but what business does?!) as a direct result of supply-demand relationships. The fact that we are running out of resources like water on a global scale is a major factor too and will become increasingly relevant.
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There's a chef in the UK, Jack Monroe, and she's famous for producing meals on a low budget-she was a single mum on benefits when she started out. She had a twitter thread a while back showing that the cost of staples from supermarket economy ranges and own brands like pasta, rice, tinned veg etc had gone up disproportionately in comparison to the cost of their luxury ready meals-the "Finest" range, those "Eat in for 2 for £20' deals. The burden and main bulk of price rises fell on those who were more reliant on the economy brands to start with, so the least able to manage. And the fact the companies had these price differentials meant a lot of the rising costs was simply price gouging-they aren't paying suppliers or farmers more, but the companies are making more profit.
I usually do my grocery shopping for the entire month and then just have to pick up things like milk, bread, and produce later on in the month, y'know, the stuff you normally run out of. My monthly items are pretty much the same items with different items occuring seasonally. For my son and I plus 2 dogs and a cat it usually runs us about $300-$350 USD. Yesterday we bought less as some staple items are outrageously overpriced and I refused to buy them. Out total after sales items and coupons was over $430. I'm on disability, so a very fixed budget. I know there's lots of people that are in even worse financial shape and people with more mouths to feed and I can't imagine the amount of stress they're under considering how high my stress level is. I refuse to go to food banks because I don't want to take from some that needs it worse. We've all gotta eat, so what do you do?
I do monthly shopping too. At our store, the first Wednesday is 10% off the whole ticket if you're a senior, so I go with my mom and use her discount (plus she's really good at finding deals and clipping coupons). It's the only way to stay in our budget.
Load More Replies...
Corporate greed not inflation. Capitalism isn't is wonderful as most Americans think.
Isn't it crazy how this could all stop of the government just made it so the greedy corporations had to stop with the price gouging and instead focus on the employees that are making Pennie's to CEO's dollars and make it dollars for Pennie's! What are they doing with all this money??!! Definitely not helping the community they live in! Instead of saying we can raise the minimum wage and then we can raise the price of food why not just raise the minimum wage? People shouldn't be living this way!! We wouldn't have to if it was spread if 10 percent more evenly!!
I think it would be fairly safe to say that, worldwide, food prices have increased astronomically and many people who were once financially secure are now no longer able to afford the basic necessities of life. We now have so many charities in this country who provide food parcels because there has become such an enormous demand. A whole new wave of parents are struggling just to keep a roof over their children's heads that, hopefully, also has water and electricity. Nevermind the struggle to get them to school, with shoes on their feet and clothing to keep them warm. Many of them would barely eat of it weren't for the charities. And this is just the new wave, mind you. There were already so many living at or below the poverty line already.
yeah. i swear the same cart of groceries i used to get for $50-$60 a years or so ago is now about $90-$100
Basically, the companies are extorting higher profits from healthy food and raw ingredients, while making processed foods with lots of additives cheaper. I'm gluten intolerant and anaemic so I try to make a lot of food from scratch to ensure I get the right nutrients - I need to eat fish, meat, dairy, vegetables and legumes but they're all so expensive now!
A new way to force us to eat utra processed food? Which is conveniently far cheaper than fresh and healthy food but it's the cause of the most of the illness of the modern people
Frozen fruit. Tack on 3-5 bucks and that's the new cost. Used to be a more affordable way to buy. Veggies too. So much has either shrunk or increased in cost, or both.
Geez, speaking of "it used to be peasant food," have you been to a BBQ restaurant lately?
It’s important to understand that millions of chickens have been lost due to avian flu and many citrus trees are affected by greening disease leading to huge losses. Plus the war means no more crops for animals.
You know what hasn't gone up? Dried beans, rice, tortillas, peanut butter. All the things that the working class has subsisited on forever. I hear people whining about avocados and sea food and all I can think is "how privileged was your life if that's your go to source of protein?"
No, rice used to be 50 cent a pound on sale. Now 1 dollar on sale. Beans same. Oil 48oz was 3dollars, now 5. Bread, peanut butter, jelly all up. Stay strong.
Load More Replies... I am so grateful for living in my little EU 🇪🇺 country. I had to think a little bit more about my shopping but nothing too difficult. My grant parents used to have a farm, land here is very fertile.
In the US, the economy has returned to the same levels as 1970s “stagflation.” What happened in between then and now? China opened up and the 1990s & 2000s were an era of cheap consumer goods as a result. But the benefit of a billion low-wage Chinese workers also brought the risk of a billion people living in high-density conditions ideal for the explosion of viruses. I’m reconciling myself to the fact that it was nice while it lasted, and while China is an aggressive authoritarian state, it’s not the madhouse it was during the Cultural Revolution.
This post kinda blows my mind, because I haven’t even thought about how much food cost has gone up. I’m aware food is costly, but this really opened my eyes to how f*****g wrong things have to be that food insecurity is now affecting the majority of people. Lately, I’ve noticed our household grocery shopping has been pretty high, but chalked it up to our choices, never realizing we were actually paying way more. This isn’t because I’m money bags, it’s because I live on an island where most things have to be brought in by boat. Now I need to go back and see what it is that’s costing so much more. Living wages need to be the battle we’re all willing to fight for.
We switched from shopping at Kroger, HEB, Giant, and Safeway to shopping at Aldi and Walmart. I prefer Aldi because the food is of better quality, but you cannot get everything at Aldi, so I get most of my non-food items at Walmart and any remaining food items on sale at Kroger.
Whoever said Lamb was inexpensive in Australia, before is a liar. It's always been expensive as long as I have been alive- I don't eat meat but my mother was constantly complaining it was expensive and this was the 1970/80s.And she would complain if we dared splurge on ANYTHING. Lamb was her least favourite expense.
Chicken offals ( liver, feet, chicken butt(some call it bishop's nose), neck, carcasses(bone with barely meat on it) ). They use to be so cheap . My family used to buy them rather than actual chicken because chicken used to be 4-5× their prices. Now their prices was about the same. Some of them were now more expensive than chicken per kilogram.
Skirt steak. The original fajita meat. Cheap and tough if you didn't marinate, cook, and slice it correctly. Was considered a junk piece, and there are only 2 per cow/steer. Now it's a high price specialty item. Same with flank steaks and many other cuts that require special or slow and low cooking methods.
I'm not trying to deny anyone's experience, but some of the prices people are paying in this list are nuts. $7 for a lettuce? $5 for the cheapest generic butter? Maybe they have to join the rest of us down here in the prole's grocery store with the ugly lighting and the cheap signs.
I wanted to get a frozen pizza yesterday, and the brand ones were 4.5 euros! They used to be somewhere between 2.8 and 3.5, depending on the toppings. The basic-brand ones are somehow still around 2 euros.
Start making your own, if you can afford flour for the crust and toppings and cheese...maybe just get the frozen.
Load More Replies...
Your "leaders" are trying to starve you out and kill you, I wish people would get that
Do you all realize that the farmers who produce all these foods, are now being paid LESS for their products? The mark-up is going straight to the shareholders of the multinationals who own the supermarkets
It depends. Certainly the farmers are not the cause, I agree. But in this case, corporations aren't really the root cause. Where I am, the cost is being driven-up by the rise in fuel prices and the lack of key ingredients due to the war and (nessessary) changes in engery policy to reduce emissions. Flour has become insanely expensive (and so all flour-based things like bread as well) because we can't get wheat from the East for instance. The price of fresh produce has risen because fuel for farm machinery / greenhouse heating has risen. It is not so much corporate greed (although the supermarkets are not willing cutting profits to help - but what business does?!) as a direct result of supply-demand relationships. The fact that we are running out of resources like water on a global scale is a major factor too and will become increasingly relevant.
Load More Replies... There's a chef in the UK, Jack Monroe, and she's famous for producing meals on a low budget-she was a single mum on benefits when she started out. She had a twitter thread a while back showing that the cost of staples from supermarket economy ranges and own brands like pasta, rice, tinned veg etc had gone up disproportionately in comparison to the cost of their luxury ready meals-the "Finest" range, those "Eat in for 2 for £20' deals. The burden and main bulk of price rises fell on those who were more reliant on the economy brands to start with, so the least able to manage. And the fact the companies had these price differentials meant a lot of the rising costs was simply price gouging-they aren't paying suppliers or farmers more, but the companies are making more profit.
I usually do my grocery shopping for the entire month and then just have to pick up things like milk, bread, and produce later on in the month, y'know, the stuff you normally run out of. My monthly items are pretty much the same items with different items occuring seasonally. For my son and I plus 2 dogs and a cat it usually runs us about $300-$350 USD. Yesterday we bought less as some staple items are outrageously overpriced and I refused to buy them. Out total after sales items and coupons was over $430. I'm on disability, so a very fixed budget. I know there's lots of people that are in even worse financial shape and people with more mouths to feed and I can't imagine the amount of stress they're under considering how high my stress level is. I refuse to go to food banks because I don't want to take from some that needs it worse. We've all gotta eat, so what do you do?
I do monthly shopping too. At our store, the first Wednesday is 10% off the whole ticket if you're a senior, so I go with my mom and use her discount (plus she's really good at finding deals and clipping coupons). It's the only way to stay in our budget.
Load More Replies... Corporate greed not inflation. Capitalism isn't is wonderful as most Americans think.
Isn't it crazy how this could all stop of the government just made it so the greedy corporations had to stop with the price gouging and instead focus on the employees that are making Pennie's to CEO's dollars and make it dollars for Pennie's! What are they doing with all this money??!! Definitely not helping the community they live in! Instead of saying we can raise the minimum wage and then we can raise the price of food why not just raise the minimum wage? People shouldn't be living this way!! We wouldn't have to if it was spread if 10 percent more evenly!!
I think it would be fairly safe to say that, worldwide, food prices have increased astronomically and many people who were once financially secure are now no longer able to afford the basic necessities of life. We now have so many charities in this country who provide food parcels because there has become such an enormous demand. A whole new wave of parents are struggling just to keep a roof over their children's heads that, hopefully, also has water and electricity. Nevermind the struggle to get them to school, with shoes on their feet and clothing to keep them warm. Many of them would barely eat of it weren't for the charities. And this is just the new wave, mind you. There were already so many living at or below the poverty line already.
yeah. i swear the same cart of groceries i used to get for $50-$60 a years or so ago is now about $90-$100
Basically, the companies are extorting higher profits from healthy food and raw ingredients, while making processed foods with lots of additives cheaper. I'm gluten intolerant and anaemic so I try to make a lot of food from scratch to ensure I get the right nutrients - I need to eat fish, meat, dairy, vegetables and legumes but they're all so expensive now!
A new way to force us to eat utra processed food? Which is conveniently far cheaper than fresh and healthy food but it's the cause of the most of the illness of the modern people
Frozen fruit. Tack on 3-5 bucks and that's the new cost. Used to be a more affordable way to buy. Veggies too. So much has either shrunk or increased in cost, or both.
Geez, speaking of "it used to be peasant food," have you been to a BBQ restaurant lately?
It’s important to understand that millions of chickens have been lost due to avian flu and many citrus trees are affected by greening disease leading to huge losses. Plus the war means no more crops for animals.
You know what hasn't gone up? Dried beans, rice, tortillas, peanut butter. All the things that the working class has subsisited on forever. I hear people whining about avocados and sea food and all I can think is "how privileged was your life if that's your go to source of protein?"
No, rice used to be 50 cent a pound on sale. Now 1 dollar on sale. Beans same. Oil 48oz was 3dollars, now 5. Bread, peanut butter, jelly all up. Stay strong.
Load More Replies... I am so grateful for living in my little EU 🇪🇺 country. I had to think a little bit more about my shopping but nothing too difficult. My grant parents used to have a farm, land here is very fertile.
In the US, the economy has returned to the same levels as 1970s “stagflation.” What happened in between then and now? China opened up and the 1990s & 2000s were an era of cheap consumer goods as a result. But the benefit of a billion low-wage Chinese workers also brought the risk of a billion people living in high-density conditions ideal for the explosion of viruses. I’m reconciling myself to the fact that it was nice while it lasted, and while China is an aggressive authoritarian state, it’s not the madhouse it was during the Cultural Revolution.
This post kinda blows my mind, because I haven’t even thought about how much food cost has gone up. I’m aware food is costly, but this really opened my eyes to how f*****g wrong things have to be that food insecurity is now affecting the majority of people. Lately, I’ve noticed our household grocery shopping has been pretty high, but chalked it up to our choices, never realizing we were actually paying way more. This isn’t because I’m money bags, it’s because I live on an island where most things have to be brought in by boat. Now I need to go back and see what it is that’s costing so much more. Living wages need to be the battle we’re all willing to fight for.
We switched from shopping at Kroger, HEB, Giant, and Safeway to shopping at Aldi and Walmart. I prefer Aldi because the food is of better quality, but you cannot get everything at Aldi, so I get most of my non-food items at Walmart and any remaining food items on sale at Kroger.
Whoever said Lamb was inexpensive in Australia, before is a liar. It's always been expensive as long as I have been alive- I don't eat meat but my mother was constantly complaining it was expensive and this was the 1970/80s.And she would complain if we dared splurge on ANYTHING. Lamb was her least favourite expense.
Chicken offals ( liver, feet, chicken butt(some call it bishop's nose), neck, carcasses(bone with barely meat on it) ). They use to be so cheap . My family used to buy them rather than actual chicken because chicken used to be 4-5× their prices. Now their prices was about the same. Some of them were now more expensive than chicken per kilogram.
Skirt steak. The original fajita meat. Cheap and tough if you didn't marinate, cook, and slice it correctly. Was considered a junk piece, and there are only 2 per cow/steer. Now it's a high price specialty item. Same with flank steaks and many other cuts that require special or slow and low cooking methods.
I'm not trying to deny anyone's experience, but some of the prices people are paying in this list are nuts. $7 for a lettuce? $5 for the cheapest generic butter? Maybe they have to join the rest of us down here in the prole's grocery store with the ugly lighting and the cheap signs.
I wanted to get a frozen pizza yesterday, and the brand ones were 4.5 euros! They used to be somewhere between 2.8 and 3.5, depending on the toppings. The basic-brand ones are somehow still around 2 euros.
Start making your own, if you can afford flour for the crust and toppings and cheese...maybe just get the frozen.
Load More Replies... Your "leaders" are trying to starve you out and kill you, I wish people would get that
