The Exploding Costs Of Groceries
I thought I had an exorbitant grocery bill because of eating healthier, but after talking with many families I’ve now seen that the high cost of groceries is the norm even for those that eat processed garbage.
I am actually not doing too bad, comparatively.
It also helps that some actual data has been coming out about the new post-covid grocery costs, like this map:
The average then becomes roughly a thousand dollars a month. $12,000 a year, just for groceries.
I know many people only making around $50k. Taxes and insurance requirements take half of that. Rent takes another 12k a month, minimum. There is simply no money left. You have to earn six figures just to survive alone anymore.
These grocery costs are unbelievable, given incomes have barely budged up at all, while the grocery bill has doubled from what it once was.
I know the “experts” like to say costs are up “10….12…20%” here and there. But I personally have seen my food costs double from 2020. I am sure most of you have as well.
Most concerningly, these costs have gone up without a direct war, stock crash, or similar event. They are going up solely because our leaders keep printing and spending too much money. Unbelievable.
Where I am living, I don’t see how it would be possible for a family with even just one kid to eat under $200 a week. Not without inhaling solely soyrice, twinkies, and maybe the occasional pork chop. Real food costs money now.
It is worth the cost still, certainly. But that does not make the cost enjoyable.
We are also getting far less food for the price. For example, baby dried fruit bags are quite literally just bags of air with 5 pieces of strawberries in them. I am not convinced that they are even five full strawberries.
Obviously, I’ve realized it is far cheaper to just buy your own strawberries and dehydrate them at this point. But the point stands: We are getting far less even given the far higher cost.
We should not discredit changing consumer behavior, too.
For my weekly cost, I am barely hitting the average for my state, even though I:
- Stopped buying the good brands and just buy whatever brand is cheapest.
- Practically never eat out.
- Purchase only what is on sale for my main food items.
- Buy and eat in bulk.
- Cook only one or two main meals for the week and just supplement sides.
I am sure many others have done the above tactics, as well.
Which means the habits have changed. If I had kept buying how I did before, my prices would have probably tripled. So I bet prices are up even more than these graphs indicate, because they don’t take into consideration changes in consumer behavior to offset the price increases.
However we look at this data, the trend is concerning. It’s only going up with no end in sight.
The prices are not going down anytime soon.
As of now, most of us can still afford groceries, even though the cost has increased. There may come a day when that is no longer the case. Enjoy these times while you can, even if you have to bite your tongue a bit because you know how it was before.
Times are getting hard, and they are likely to get harder. So feel the resentment for the lost past, but then let it go. Work toward preparing for the uncertain future.
Everything is perspective. There may be a day coming when we don’t even have a grocery store to go to anymore. Then we’ll be wishing we had these prices once again.
I hope it does not come to that. But you never know.
Read Next: Mainstream Media: “Printing Trillions Of Dollars Might Not Cause Inflation”
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