When did bread get to be $4.50 a loaf?!?

[Ruthiegirl]

Has the price of everything skyrocketed lately?  

I stopped for a loaf of bread today and nearly chocked...$4.50 a loaf!  This was for a nicer, but not super fancy loaf of whole wheat bread.  Admittedly, I have not bought bread in a long time.  Maybe the price has been increasing and I wasn't paying attention 

I searched and found a mediocre loaf of whole wheat on sale for $2.24...it is soft and squishy and kind of blech - not something I want to eat all the time.  

I looked at the milk and it was $5.24 for a gallon of conventional.  $4.25 for a pound of generic butter.  Everything seemed to be pried much higher than I remember.  I have an old price book I used in 2008 and I bought milk for $2.39 a gallon, nice bread for $1.50 and butter was $2.00 a pound.   A 200% increase in basic food prices in less than five years...

And this was not Whole Foods, but a run down Food Lion.  

Has there been a super jump in prices in other areas?  

[eirual]

I think so. We used to easily feed our family of three for $100/week....split 50/50 between the market and the grocery store. We simply have NOT been able to make that work in the past year. We upped our budget to $135/week and still have to be super conscious about what we put in the cart.

I noticed I went to pick up peanut butter, and even at the "cheap" grocery store it was $6.77/jar !!

Prices are totally going up!

[iowaorganic]

Well it is all based on crude.  Crude goes up and then commodities go up and it is a trickling effect.  Well that and the cost of transportation has increased so much since 2008.  Have you seen the price of beef?  Holy smokes- so glad I am on the selling end instead of the buying end :)

[Ruthiegirl]

Originally Posted by iowaorganic 

Well it is all based on crude.  Crude goes up and then commodities go up and it is a trickling effect.  Well that and the cost of transportation has increased so much since 2008.  Have you seen the price of beef?  Holy smokes- so glad I am on the selling end instead of the buying end :)

Ha!  Maybe I need to get a few cows.

We stopped eating beef for this reason -- I like to buy better quality meat and those prices simply drove me away from the meat aisle.  Good chicken from the local Amish family is now $2.50 per pound for a whole roaster.  We eat a lot less meat.  

My fil brought over flank steaks last weekend and they were so good!   The kids flipped over them.  I guess it had been awhile since they had red meat.  

I think I need to up my food budget as well.  I just can't stretch the dollars like I used to....I need more dollars!

[nstewart]

Yes, I've definetly noticed an increase.  $100 per week used to be my grocery spend as well, and now it just doesn't seem to happen, especially since I am really now trying to buy organic as much as possible.  Even without treats, processed or prepackaged food it's so expensive.  Organic milk is $10 for 4 litres, "cheap" butter is $4, organic eggs are $5 a dozen (farmers market is way cheaper than the grocery store, where they are like $6.50 for organic, free run eggs! ) and a decent loaf of bread is $5.  I've started baking my own bread because I'm so cheap but just the flour for organic whole wheat no knead bread is $2 per loaf!

I have found I CAN save a fair bit by buying meat direct from the farmer and of course trying to eat seasonal and buying in bulk. 

[fruitfulmomma]

Yikes! I can get conventional butter for $2.69/lb. at Whole Foods, actually the cheapest place I've found. (There was a price increase sometime in the last year, it was $2.49 before that.) Whole Milk at Sprouts (small, natural foods store) has local milk for $3.59/gallon I think.

Bread... we are gluten-free so I am paying around $6.00 a loaf if it is not on sale.

Peanut Butter - Large jar at Whole Foods (I buy conventional because it is only peanuts and salt, organic has stuff added to it) was less than $6 but it I think it had gone up since the previous times I was there.

It seems that the bigger chain stores have great deals on all sorts of junk foods, but when it comes to whole, real foods not so much. Our Whole Foods runs some good deals sometimes, like their One-Day Only sale on Wednesdays, I got several 2lb. blocks of Tillamook cheese for $6. They also offer 10% off on case purchases if you have room for storing stuff.

[nstewart]

Originally Posted by fruitfulmomma 

Yikes! I can get conventional butter for $2.69/lb. at Whole Foods, actually the cheapest place I've found. (There was a price increase sometime in the last year, it was $2.49 before that.) Whole Milk at Sprouts (small, natural foods store) has local milk for $3.59/gallon I think.

Bread... we are gluten-free so I am paying around $6.00 a loaf if it is not on sale.

Peanut Butter - Large jar at Whole Foods (I buy conventional because it is only peanuts and salt, organic has stuff added to it) was less than $6 but it I think it had gone up since the previous times I was there.

It seems that the bigger chain stores have great deals on all sorts of junk foods, but when it comes to whole, real foods not so much. Our Whole Foods runs some good deals sometimes, like their One-Day Only sale on Wednesdays, I got several 2lb. blocks of Tillamook cheese for $6. They also offer 10% off on case purchases if you have room for storing stuff.

In travelling, I've found grocery prices really vary by region.  In general, groceries are more in Canada (where I am) than the US.  But, in SOCAL, groceries are about the same price as where I live (Alberta, Canada) but some of the produce was quite a bit cheaper (organic red peppers were on sale for $2/lb and I'd pay about $5 or $6/lb for the same thing here at this time of year).  Groceries in other areas, like Atlanta, GA, were much less expensive than where I live.

I agree about buying large jars, etc.  Costco is actually pretty decent for organic/whole foods if you have room to store stuff and search around.  I buy these organic items in large quantities there: PB (just nuts and salt), coffee, peas, corn, quinoa, tomato sauce, soup (love the pacific organics tomato when they have it!), chicken stock (although I now try to make my own), and sometimes other things will come in.  I also buy my fish there (wild but frozen).  Still, groceries these days just seem to be so expensive!
 

[JudiAU]

Yes, prices are just generally higher. I usually shop at the farmer's market, TJs, and Whole Foods only but occasionally I'll run into a conventional grocery store and be horrified at the prices vs\. quality.

[AbbyGrant]

I've noticed a significant increase in grocery prices over the past few years too along with a lot of other things. It really didn't start having a big impact on our finances until a year or so ago. But now we're really feeling it. Given what my husband makes now, it seems almost inconceivable that we'd be worring about grocery prices. I haven't had to think about this kind of thing since we were young and broke and just starting out. I've gotten quite spoiled being able to buy whatever we wanted and needed including organic, pastured, local, grass-fed, free-frange, recycled, all natural, and so on, but we're having to make some serious adjustments. It saddens me to think what these increases might mean to those that make less money.    

[zebra15]

Groceries vary by region but tend to reflect the general COL of that area.  I live in Phoenix these are what I tend to buy every week: 'better' bread, store brand oat whole wheat $1.99-2.49, PB $2.49-3.49, Eggs non-organic dozen $1.00-2.29,  Milk regular $1.69-3.25, yogurt 3/$1.

Prices are up from a year ago and vary greatly based on the weeks sales.  My 11 yr old eats meat, I usually don't.  Ground beef is about $4/lb, Chicken is $1.88 on sale, Pork is all over the place but I try for $3.xx/lb.

Do not get me started on produce.  

Every week I need to buy: lettuce(3pack romaine), tomatoes, carrots, onion, bananas, 2-3 other types of fruit, 15 yogurts (See above)

[cristeen]

Crude isn't the only thing causing price increases.  Climate change is having it's effect felt also.  Here we're in growing country, and the last few years the whacko weather we've been having has adversely affected the crops.  And considering that we've been having 70 degree weather for weeks, and now it's raining, and set to rain for the next week, this year it's going to happen again.  Anything that grows on a tree is going to see another price jump.  The trees bloomed because they thought it was spring (in February), and then the rain comes along and knocks all the blossoms off.  The tree has already expended the energy for the year, and might be able to put out a few more flowers, but nothing like that first display.  And since flowers = fruit, crop size drops, prices jump. 

Problem is it's been doing it throughout the season - if tomatoes go into the ground in April, and we get rain late May, then it happens to the tomatoes.  Or anything else.  Wind storms have the same effect. 

[greenmamato2]

I read this post this morning as well, about how it is now illegal to grow your own wheat in the U.S., primarily for the purpose of increasing the value of commercial wheat products. :(  

[fruitfulmomma]

I read this post this morning as well, about how it is now illegal to grow your own wheat in the U.S., primarily for the purpose of increasing the value of commercial wheat products. :(

If you read through the comments, it appears that this law has been on the books for 80 years and is not an outright ban. Not great either way though.

Went to buy my butter yesterday and it had gone up another 10 cents a lb. Ugh... Wish I had the energy to get my garden in this spring. Gonna try really hard to get a bunch of fruit trees planted come fall though.

[JudiAU]

Originally Posted by AbbyGrant 

I've noticed a significant increase in grocery prices over the past few years too along with a lot of other things. It really didn't start having a big impact on our finances until a year or so ago. But now we're really feeling it. Given what my husband makes now, it seems almost inconceivable that we'd be worring about grocery prices. I haven't had to think about this kind of thing since we were young and broke and just starting out. I've gotten quite spoiled being able to buy whatever we wanted and needed including organic, pastured, local, grass-fed, free-frange, recycled, all natural, and so on, but we're having to make some serious adjustments. It saddens me to think what these increases might mean to those that make less money.    

DH and I were just discussing this and thought, just perhaps, the price increases might be a positive in our life. The more we've learned about meat production and the more expensive it has become, the less we buy of it. We waste almost nothing now. We eat a lot more beans and lentils. I have a lot more respect for the simple egg, given what we pay for it.

That being said, I miss the feeling of buying whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted it. But that too has had positive benefits I suppose.

[Ruthiegirl]

Originally Posted by JudiAU 

DH and I were just discussing this and thought, just perhaps, the price increases might be a positive in our life. The more we've learned about meat production and the more expensive it has become, the less we buy of it. We waste almost nothing now. We eat a lot more beans and lentils. I have a lot more respect for the simple egg, given what we pay for it.

This is  a nice positive spin on the price increases.   We, too, have learned to waste nothing and appreciate every bit that I do buy.  We have enough, more than enough really, so while I don't like the higher prices I can pay them.  And man, do we eat a lot of good rice and beans.  

[Poddi]

I buy all my breads from a local bakery or make them myself.  The bakery ones are usually $2 each and they're very good artisan type.  I agree bread in those grocery stores are pricey and not very good tasting.  I'm not sure if I can get use to eating those after eating mine.  I freeze several loaves at a time and they still taste fine after thawing, as long as we eat them within a month or so.

Milk is over $5 for 4L here, and gas just went up, too.  I think our grocery budget has gone up about 15% last year, and we're not big eaters.  Food has never been very cheap here, though, so maybe we're not quite so surprised about the increased price.  i.e. Eggs are never under $2 a dozen so now $3 a dozen doesn't seem too bad either.

[AbbyGrant]

Originally Posted by Poddi 

The bakery ones are usually $2 each and they're very good artisan type. 

That is at least half of what a good loaf costs here.  I usually pay between $4 and $5.  I've thought about baking my own lately but for some reason I find it very intimidating.  

[nstewart]

Originally Posted by AbbyGrant 

That is at least half of what a good loaf costs here.  I usually pay between $4 and $5.  I've thought about baking my own lately but for some reason I find it very intimidating.  

If you go to http://www.thefreshloaf.com/ you can do their "lessons" to learn about baking bread.  They are a pretty good starting point.  I didn't really know how to knead bread either, so I just checked out some youtube videos to learn.  The first few loaves weren't steller, but still pretty tastey.  Once I figured out what the dough should feel like by expiramenting with how much liquid to add, they've been pretty consistant.  This is my go to recipe for sandwhich bread.  I substitute honey for the brown sugar and use 1/8 cup coconut oil and 1/8 cup vegtable or canola oil in place of the shortening.  You could also try a few no knead bread recipes, which you can make 100% whole wheat and which are super easy and yummy.  I was going to share a link to the recipe I use, but I can't find it!  I have it on paper somewhere at home and will try to remember to post it later.

[*LoveBugMama*]

Seems like the price of food has gone up all over the world... I`m in Norway, a country where food has been extremely expensive for years. But it has gotten worse here too the last years.

Milk: $8-10 a gallon.

Butter: $ 4-5 a pound.

Chicken: $ 10 for a tiny chicken. (not more than 2 lbs)

If I want an organic chicken, the price is atleast twice that. Atleast.

A loaf of bread: $6

A pound of cheese: $8-10

A pound of beef: $20.

Gas is wicked expensive here. Now it is $12 a gallon.

Yay.....

[AbbyGrant]

     Quote:

Originally Posted by nstewart 

If you go to http://www.thefreshloaf.com/ you can do their "lessons" to learn about baking bread.  They are a pretty good starting point.  I didn't really know how to knead bread either, so I just checked out some youtube videos to learn.  The first few loaves weren't steller, but still pretty tastey.  Once I figured out what the dough should feel like by expiramenting with how much liquid to add, they've been pretty consistant.  This is my go to recipe for sandwhich bread.  I substitute honey for the brown sugar and use 1/8 cup coconut oil and 1/8 cup vegtable or canola oil in place of the shortening.  You could also try a few no knead bread recipes, which you can make 100% whole wheat and which are super easy and yummy.  I was going to share a link to the recipe I use, but I can't find it!  I have it on paper somewhere at home and will try to remember to post it later.

Thanks for those links!  That looks a really good website.