Rising food costs

Does anyone else constantly get sticker shock when you go to the grocery store? I think it's getting rather ridiculous now. It seems that whenever I buy something, there's a nice fat increase added to the old price. I don't keep a price book. Mine is in my head. I know exactly how much the items we purchase regularly cost, so I immediately notice any change in price.

When I last picked up breakfast sausage at Walmart, I noticed that the price had increased from the regular $2.99 to $3.17. Today I figured I'd just pick up another package since I'm already at the store. I reach for the sausage and see the $3.48 price tag. What on earth?! You increased the price twice in one month!....grrrr. We only eat Johnsonville sausage. I'm a food snob and am extremely picky. Food is the one thing that I will never skimp on. So if my favorite brand costs more, I will still pay more. However, I knew that Meijer has Johnsonville breakfast sausage on sale for $3 this week. I didn't want to make a special stop at Meijer, but after seeing the Walmart price, I decided to just make a pit stop at Meijer. Meijer's shelf sticker said "Limited time price". So I bought 5 packages. The Meijer regular price is $4.29!!

When I got home, I cooked 2 packages with some onions & peppers. I also crumbled & cooked another package for when I next make breakfast burritos. All the sausage (both raw & cooked are now frozen). I also picked up more peaches at Meijer. It's on sale for 79c/lb this week. I already bought some on Sunday, which we are currently eating. The 2nd lot has been washed, diced and frozen for smoothies. 

Last year some of my friends thought I was nuts to stockpile 30 cans of baked beans. Again, I prefer the Bush's baked beans. I bought the 30 cans (not all in one trip) and still have about 20 cans left. That will be used fast during summer. Last week Meijer had those baked beans on sale for I think it was $4.20 or $4.50 WYB 2. You had to purchase 2 to get the sale price. Ha! I paid $1.99 for those beans at Walmart last year. In fact, the price is still the same at Walmart (not sure how long that's gonna last). 

Some products have small price increases like 20c+ but I've seen several that increased by a whole dollar. Sure, that doesn't sound like much, but let's do the math. Let's say you purchase at least 20 items at the grocery store per week (might be more, might be less. It all depends on the size of your family). Then lets say there's an average price increase of 40c per item.

20 Items x 40c = $8.00

Now your grocery budget has increased by at least $8 per week. See how much those little bits add up to? In one year your grocery budget would've increased by a whopping $416!! That's a little more than our current monthly budget.  I don't know about anyone else, but there's a lot I can do with $416. 

This my friends, is why I shop the way I do. I'm not cuckoo! I'm just being smart of spending my money. I know how hard I have to work for it, so I'm not just gonna throw it away to please other people. They don't work for my money, so they don't get to tell me how I should spend it either. 

Now I know that the numbers will vary from one person to the next. This is just an example of how much grocery prices have increase over the past year. Our incomes vary, so do our expenses and needs. I just try to save wherever I can, which allows us to splurge on other things that we like to enjoy. 

I'm basically done with grocery shopping for this month. I just noticed that I'm almost out of dryer sheets. Don't know how that happened. I thought I still had a box in the stockpile. I do have to hit up WAGS & CVS next week. I have $16 RRs to use and $3 CVS Beauty Buck that expires the 29th. CVS also gave me a $6/30 Q (I haven't seen this in ages), so you know I have to go shop....lol.

I also need to make a trip to Sams (boy I miss that place. Costco's not nearly as nice as Sams) and the produce market, but I'll wait until the 1st.