I'd be willing to bet that the farmers won't see any of that increase in prices. Or, if they do, it will more then be made up for by an increase in expenses.

I'm shocked to hear the price of food isn't included in the consumer price index.

Yeah I doubt the farmers will see any of it. I've also heard that many farmers are paid by the government to not grow food.

Another big problem is the huge consumption of meat in the country. Most of the farmland is going to support and feed cattle, who eat MUCH more than they produce in meat. It's a highly inefficient use of land and food but I don't see it changing anytime soon, unfortunately. Not enough people care.

I paid over $3 for a single cucumber over the weekend. Ridiculous. Luckily, other than fresh produce, a vegan diet is inexpensive with a focus on whole grains and beans.

I anticipate this will cause the standard American diet to become even worse.

We did groceries yesterday - eye opener AGAIN. Yesterday morning DH asked how we were spending so much the last month on food. Like where was our money going? We seriously looked at prices yesterday.

Take frozen chicken wings. We thought change to a package of wings from the poultry section and make our own - more affordable - right? WRONG. The frozen wings worked out cheaper. That's this weeks prices.

We are now going to take a clipboard and calculator with us. Sounds extreme but hey, it's our money. We are also going to note where which stores carry the best prices on our staples too. We can't afford Loblaws anymore in Ontario Canada. Yesterday was our last trip there.

Having said that - I am a gardener. This summer we will be investing in building wire with wooden frames cages (built to last) to cover vulnerable vegetable crops from animals. I will be starting to grow more and process it for storage. I did turn my backyard into 50% vegetable gardens in the city over the years. I had carrots growing in the flower beds, garlic, turnips etc in the front gardens. I had them tucked all over. We did enjoy the fresh produce. Even had tomatoes growing behind my coneflowers. I put my taller perennials in the middle of the garden bed. From the street you saw flowers. From my front window I saw vegetables. Even had stuff growing in containers on the patio and talked my friend in an apartment to container gardening on her balcony.

If we are going to start experiencing extremes, I'm going to start thinking outside the box, spend a little more time comparison shopping. Is a sale really a sale? What is the price of the item per pound/kilogram? Sometimes a deal is no deal.

We don't buy junk food like we did. But it was never big in our diets anyway.

Cooking in larger quantities to freeze ahead is going to replace convenience frozen foods.

Do you have any strategies in your area that works?

Tough times.

I can't watch the video - some bandwidth issues on my end.

I can give you the farmer/stockman's perspective.

Grain and cattle prices are up. That does make a difference as far as profits go. Right now, things are good for us, market wise. The government report on grains last week caused the grain market to go up. up. up.

Inputs are also up. Fuel is very expensive, and it takes A LOT of fuel to get through a year. I booked and paid for my 2011 fuel in December. If prices stay up - I did good, prices go down, well, that's how it goes.

I have also paid for all my seed, fertilizer, and chemicals for the 2011 crop season. If you are able to do this before the end of the year, there are significant discounts. I had most of the seed bought before we even had the 2010 crop out of the field.

Cattle prices are amazing at the moment. The feed price is also amazing at the moment, lol! We do feed our own grain to our cattle, so we do not pay the current market price to buy it.

We have our own cow herd. The calves from this herd are what we raise for beef. We also buy "replacement" calves. These are calves that others sell at a certain weight (usually 500-800 pounds) that we feed out and sell for beef. Replacements are extremely expensive now.

You have to factor in how much it is going to cost to feed these animals to market weight, what that market might be (about a year down the road), if you loose any due to death, etc. If you are lucky - the market stays good and you profit. You can also just break even, or take a loss. Calves that were born in spring 2010 will be market ready in winter of 2012 - so we have plenty of time for the market to tank, lol.

Chi83 - we do have acres that are "set a side" and not planted. We do get a payment for these acres. We cannot use these acres for anything - no grazing, nothing. We have to plant certain grasses and even some corn "plots" for the wildlife to graze on. These acres have to be "set aside" for a certain number of years.

I also want to note that we pay a large amount of tax, especially land (property) tax. I hear so often how the "farmer gets welfare from the government" - but I never hear them mention how many 10's of thousands of dollars I pay yearly in taxes - and our farm is considered a small family farm.

There are some savings to be had at the warehouse store. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts were $2.78 a pound there last week while they were $6.99 a pound at the grocery store. It does mean that I have to freeze part of them which I hate doing, but it's worth it for the savings. I need to get some of my neighbors to co-op with me so that we can capture the savings of bulk buying without wasting any food.

My last three trips to my local grocery store have left me speechless!!! All three times, I stepped aside and looked over my receipt, thinking there must be errors for the total to be so outrageous!!! But, unfortunately, there was no error. I've completely forgotten about trying to diet, as buying health food is not affordable. I'm just about to the point of reliving my college days and going on a ramen noodle diet...only now I can't have all the sodium.

For the past couple of years, we've been buying from a local co-op and farmers as much as possible. Buying direct helps keep small local farms in business. I have a source for 100% free-range chickens and eggs. The eggs are $3 a dozen, and the chickens $2.75 a pound. The chickens have the run of the farm, eat what they can catch, and get non-GMO, vegetarian feed to supplement.

We also buy grass-fed milk for $6 a gallon, which sounds expensive, but it lasts the 2 of us for 2 weeks (doesn't spoil like store-bought) and we skim the cream off for coffee, so no need to buy half&half or cream.

We buy grass-fed beef from a family farm. It works out to $4.50 a pound for all cuts, from tenderloin to ground beef. No chemicals, no hormones, no pesticides on the pastures, and the animals are treated well and not cooped up and abused like in factory farms.

March - November, for $20, we get enough veggies and fruit in season to last the 2 of us for a week. The farmer also has bee hives and sells the best raw honey. I've noticed some of the supermarket honey has CHINA as one of the sources!! I just don't see buying peaches and other produce from California from the supermarket when we can support our local farmers and (in our case) buy Texas peaches and produce, as well as milk and meats.

I have to agree, prices are outrageous. We too are starting to shop at local co-ops and farmer's markets instead of buying imported veggies. And we are putting in a raised bed garden come spring as well, should help the pocketbook and be healthier as well.

I don't think buying at the big Sam's and Costco's etc are necessarily the best buy. Keep an eye on your local markets (besides Wal-Mart) for their loss leaders. We have 3 stores here that have good prices when they use meat as their loss leaders. 99 cents a pound is the going rate. The breasts are skin and bone on/in and in need of trimming etc but worth every penny .huge beautiful breasts and pork chops....not necessarily the best/prime cut in the chop department but good chops and the price can't be beat. The usually come in 10 pound packages .....I buy and freeze...

I'm gladdened to hear that I'm not the only suffering sticker shock at the grocery store. I've read more "receipts" lately than ever before, trying to figure out where the big error is - but there's no big error!

In my case, it's just my husband and me, and we save a bit of our money from every paycheck, so we have some wiggle room with our grocery budget. But I wonder - what is the average family of five - already living paycheck to paycheck - going to do?

:(

Rose

Tom Thumb just raised the prices of its bakery goods by 18-20%. The manager said the price hikes went into effect in early January 2011. He said commodity prices for grains have skyrocketed and Tom Thumb had to finally pass the increases onto consumers.

Better stock up and start cooking from scratch. I hear it's only going to get worse.

Our dairy prices went up this weekend. Milk is now $4.49 for a 4-lire bag.

We love broccoli but I won't pay $1.79 for a little stick with a bit of a head. Trying to keep $100 aside for grocers and gas is a joke. It's so sad.

I heard on TV this week that beef prices are going to sky rocket. With very few exceptions the only beef we buy is hamburger, and that I stretch like mad. A neighbor told me that at Walmart, she bought a 10lb bag of chicken legs & thighs for $3.88. That is a darn good buy.
I find it hard to put the blame on the people growing or raising our food. They may get a little raise in what they get for their product, but the majority goes to the 'middleman'. I do object to the government paying them, not to grow crops. That just doesn't make sense. Where was the government when we had the motel. Why didn't they come along and pay us not to rent rooms?

I think many people will get back to gardening and canning. I'm still in the learning phases but this year I am planning on doing more than ever and during harvest time I plan to eat more veggies/fruits than meats. I do want to get better at the canning and feel I need to really pull that information from my elderly relatives sooner rather than later. Bread baking as well, we rarely buy bread in the stores and even rolls and buns, I'm starting to get the hang of them.

Years ago, in high school, the home ec teacher was covering nutrition and cost of foods. . She told us some things I still think hold true. Frozen and fresh foods are equivalent in nutrition. (These days I buy only fresh organic if it's available.) Some prepared foods are cheaper than buying fresh and making from scratch-example making French fries by cutting potatoes and frying twice- it's easier, faster, cheaper, to buy frozen fries.

You might want to read up on what the CPI includes -

The CPI represents all goods and services purchased for consumption by the reference population (U or W) BLS has classified all expenditure items into more than 200 categories, arranged into eight major groups. Major groups and examples of categories in each are as follows:

FOOD AND BEVERAGES (breakfast cereal, milk, coffee, chicken, wine, full service meals, snacks)
HOUSING (rent of primary residence, owners' equivalent rent, fuel oil, bedroom furniture)
APPAREL (men's shirts and sweaters, women's dresses, jewelry)
TRANSPORTATION (new vehicles, airline fares, gasoline, motor vehicle insurance)
MEDICAL CARE (prescription drugs and medical supplies, physicians' services, eyeglasses and eye care, hospital services)
RECREATION (televisions, toys, pets and pet products, sports equipment, admissions);
EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION (college tuition, postage, telephone services, computer software and accessories);
OTHER GOODS AND SERVICES (tobacco and smoking products, haircuts and other personal services, funeral expenses).

Here is a link that might be useful: Consumer Price Index FAQ

It's amazing to see prices go up and the number of bags of items go down. I'm a creature of habit and tend to buy the same things so it's easy to track. Fruit and vegetables are all over the map, but I agree with ruthieg that the grocery store coupons, in store specials, and stock up bargains can very often beat Sam's or Costco.

Our Wal-mart does not have a true grocery, just aisles of canned, packaged goods, junk foods, and pop. Although Wal-mart was the best place this year for baking supplies. Blueberries tend to be cheap here in season and are often a come on sale item off season - can do a lot of things with a ready supply of blueberries.

I don't know how someone living paycheck to paycheck can do it. I shop and cook for one and my biggest bugaboo is avoiding waste - waste is expensive, too, so I can't buy some things in big quantities. I do scratch cook and bake and freeze, but it's unlikely I'll turn over garden space to vegetables or learn the art of canning, but I'd like to try my hand at bread baking.

Diversified acres has been around for many years. Grocery prices in this part of the world are pretty good, even though they keep going up. Milk any variety is anywhere from $2.00 a gallon to $2.49 a gallon. Look for the specials and buy extra. Sometimes it is not cheaper to make your own and sometimes it is. Just have to know what you are paying out and what things cost to make. I have done a lot of canning over the years and you have to take into consideration that you have to use electricity or gas to can and that adds to the cost. Nothing better than fresh veggies from a garden.

Sue

I don't gardening necessarily saves that much money although I do like the fresher taste of the produce. I planted something like 22 tomato plants and didn't get the yield I had expected. My cucumbers did really well and then the cantalope planted itself in my compost piles. The squash and pumpkins were a bust. It was either feast or famine.

I did a lot of dehydrating this summer when I found veggies at a good price. I've enjoyed throwing them into my meals this winter when I'm cooking. Everything has retained it's flavor pretty well.

I haven't been in the grocery stores a lot this year so i haven't noticed huge increases in food prices. I've noticed that eating out has gone up. I'm not a huge McDonald's fan, but went there back in December for girl scouts. Went back again a couple of weeks ago for a school fubdraiser. Food prices had gone up by a dollar or two on each of the meals.

I haven't noticed any increase in my grocery bill.