Blink! Did food prices just leap higher?

[Goldielocks]

Has anyone else notices a sudden jump in food prices in the past 2-3 months?

I had a very busy 5 weeks recently at work (not paying attention at the stores), and before that had been eating a vegetable-heavy diet to get healthier after January...So my price book is out of date....But it seems like food prices have suddenly jumped up if you are not just cooking 50% with rice, oatmeal, flour and potatoes...   

Maybe this is just my stressed out after work shopping at the wrong stores, and for the wrong items, or a local impact...


What are you seeing in food price trends?


ETA:  I just checked Stats Can and Fruit and fresh veg are up 7% for the year, Bakery 2-3%, Dairy is neutral, and meats at 5%. fish at 8%.   
Seems a lot higher, though, if I try to buy items that my kids and DH ask for (prepared items)...

[tardis]

My parents near Ottawa noticed a sharp price increase in produce about a month after the dollar tanked.  $8 heads of cauliflower made the news in multiple sources.  It doesn't surprise me that dairy is pretty neutral as I believe most of it is produced nationally as opposed to being imported.

[Cranky]

Yes, maybe it's to do with the exchange rate?

Because I'm seeing falling prices on a lot of fresh things here - eggs are reasonably priced again, milk is down, even beef is moderately more reasonably priced...

[ender]

My parents near Ottawa noticed a sharp price increase in produce about a month after the dollar tanked.  $8 heads of cauliflower made the news in multiple sources.  It doesn't surprise me that dairy is pretty neutral as I believe most of it is produced nationally as opposed to being imported.

We had fairly expensive cauliflower recently in the USA too, though this seems to have gone back down.

[GuitarStv]

Food prices have been steadily increasing around here for the past five years.  We buy almost no prepared foods at all these days, so I'm mostly talking about basics . . .

[jim555]

Package sizes have been shrinking for many years now.  Price never shrinks with the package.

[Kitsune]

Higher as compared to when?

Based on my price book: slightly higher than last summer, but significantly cheaper than January/February.

[GuitarStv]

Package sizes have been shrinking for many years now.

That's what she said!

[wenchsenior]

In a weird way, I hope so, because we just had our highest monthly food bill in 6 years...~1200$ for two people. This was shocking because I only last year started even paying any attention to food costs (like tracking where certain products were cheapest, etc...) in an effort to slightly decrease our spending. We will NEVER approach the mustachian levels I see reported here, and I'm not even inclined to try, but I did see about a 15-20% average drop in our bill once I got to paying better attention.

The big area we haven't tackled is eating out, which I track separately, and it is mostly my husband's 5 days/week breakfast and lunches bought out. In April, he was also out on the road and eating dinner out for close to 3 weeks, so it ended up that ~700$ was food bought 'out'. Some of that we will be reimbursed for, but STILL...I wonder if prices for eating out have also gone up?

And our grocery bill was huge, too. Now I'm thinking I need to start tracking really closely again. :sigh:

[Zikoris]

Not in Vancouver, anyways - we've consistently spent our $230/month since May 2012 when we started tracking. Our grocery shopping has improved, but not by much - we went from not paying attention at all to paying some attention, but we still go to the same stores, eat the same types of meals, etc.

[seattlecyclone]

Package sizes have been shrinking for many years now.  Price never shrinks with the package.

And then a year or two later they introduce a "new, larger size!" (the same size as before) for a higher price. Isn't marketing great?

[Gin1984]

In the US the prices have dropped this month and last compared to a few months back.

[aprilchem]

I've not really noticed anything here.  In fact, I've gotten lower prices on fruit/veggies this month than I have in years - I've bought pineapples at 99 cents each, grapes are down to 99 cents a pound (a price I haven't seen in YEARS), and I've been able to get cauliflower for $1.99 a head for the last 6 weeks running.  I have noticed oranges creeping up in price, but that's normal because they're going out of season.

[simmias]

My local grocery store went from $1.19 to $1.59 overnight for their cans of chunky soup, so my cost for lunch most days just jumped 33%.  Eggs are a lot cheaper though, so breakfast sort of balances it out.

Make your own soup!  Cheaper and healthier.  http://www.budgetbytes.com/2014/01/chunky-lentil-vegetable-soup/

[slackmax]

At the cheapo places I go to, some prices are up, some are down. Eggs are down to $1.09 for large dozen. Milk is down to $1.79 half gallon.  Grapefruit up to 33 cents from 25 cents for small. Haas Avocados staying the same at 89 cents each. 

Some good sales on beef and pork. I only buy meat on sale anyway, usually. 

What gets me is the huge price difference among stores. Avocado at store A is 89 cents, at Store B same brand avocado is $1.50.

[Johnez]

Food prices still about the same, a bit cheaper, and a bit more expensive.

Whole wheat bread, $2.50 on sale (rotate brands that are on sale, won't pay more than this), but harder to get.
Eggs, waaaaayyyy cheaper.  I guess everyone has converted to CA law and are now competing.  About 30% price drop here.
Meat, the same.  Can still get boneless/skinless chicken breast for 2 bucks or less, beef seems more expensive though, especially ground.
Veggies, mixed, a lot of great sales though-asparagus $0.79 a pound?!
Fruit, same.

[Metric Mouse]

My parents near Ottawa noticed a sharp price increase in produce about a month after the dollar tanked.  $8 heads of cauliflower made the news in multiple sources.

Wow...I have neighbors that give them to me for free. I should get more of them; it'd be an insane profit margin.

[Goldielocks]

My local grocery store went from $1.19 to $1.59 overnight for their cans of chunky soup, so my cost for lunch most days just jumped 33%.  Eggs are a lot cheaper though, so breakfast sort of balances it out.

Bwahahaha

Chunky soup here is 2.69 per can, more at the "nicer" stores...on sale for under $2 and I buy,   once in a rare while it comes to $1.59 and I buy a lot.   It used to come on door crashers at Walmart for $1.  that stopped at least a year ago.
 
Zikoris -- I agree that on the budget shopping items and staples I used to get, rice, flour, beans, some fish, chinese veg, pasta, tomato sauce, PB, cheese and eggs have not increased all that much.   But everything else seems to have, or I just haven't paid attention over the past few months.  I used to buy the other items occasionally, and lately, with my workload, I am just happy to make dinner sometimes.  Teenage boy really, really likes premade things like granola bars and frozen items, too, which see to have jumped and I am not home enough to make from scratch.

ARGH, I really need to look into FIRE...   My worry is that escalating food costs may make it hard to do, but I am hoping that it is just my lack of focus on it.

[tardis]

My local grocery store went from $1.19 to $1.59 overnight for their cans of chunky soup, so my cost for lunch most days just jumped 33%.  Eggs are a lot cheaper though, so breakfast sort of balances it out.

Bwahahaha

Chunky soup here is 2.69 per can, more at the "nicer" stores...on sale for under $2 and I buy,   once in a rare while it comes to $1.59 and I buy a lot.   It used to come on door crashers at Walmart for $1.  that stopped at least a year ago.
 

The better brands of canned soup that go for $3-4 where I was so when I went through a soup for lunch phase and would make a big batch once a week, put it in mason jars and then freeze the majority of them.  Two or three weeks of this and you have a nice variety of soups ready to grab each morning.

[Kitsune]

My local grocery store went from $1.19 to $1.59 overnight for their cans of chunky soup, so my cost for lunch most days just jumped 33%.  Eggs are a lot cheaper though, so breakfast sort of balances it out.

Make your own soup!  Cheaper and healthier.  http://www.budgetbytes.com/2014/01/chunky-lentil-vegetable-soup/

I do sometimes.  Not a lentil fan, but I make lots of black bean chili.  But the canned stuff is a pantry staple for me because it eliminates eating out at lunchtime when I don't feel like cooking or don't have time in the morning to pack something.  I'd rather spend $1.59 than $10+ at a restaurant near the office.

I don't do canned soup (most of it uses broth that includes wheat or barley, and I can't do gluten). An alternative that works for me, though, is to make HUGE batches of soup and freeze them, flat, in individual-portion freezer ziplock bags. Lunch = grab a bag from the freezer, keep a bowl and a spoon in your desk drawer. Do a few batches and you've got choice of chilli, minestrone, squash creme, broccoli creme, lentil, etc... variety! If you wanna bring home-made, it's the easiest option I've found!

(Of course, 1.50$ ain't bad for a lunch!)