Higher food prices are busting her budget
Posted
Mar 20 2008, 05:30 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Melissa at A Penny Closer used to be skeptical about all of the gloom-and-doom talk about the economy. No longer. Now she's having a very difficult time staying within her $75-a-week food budget, even though she's buying less meat.
"In the past I could shrug off the pessimism," she writes, "but now it's hit home in a new way and I'm a little nervous." Even pet food costs more. The sale price for the same can of cat food at her local store went from 33 cents to 44 cents in two weeks.
What is her plan to cope? No more monthly $50 donations to the "fun money" savings account, even fewer meat-based meals, and more soup-and-sandwich dinners are among her strategies.
Melissa links to a Boston Globe article that explains why food prices continue to rise, including record oil prices, higher prices for corn, wheat and soybeans, and higher costs to feed livestock. Paying $4 or more for a gallon of milk has become common. The Globe article notes that egg prices have gone up 40% in the last year. Food prices are expected to keep climbing.
"Escalating food costs could present a greater problem than soaring oil prices for the national economy because the average household spends three times as much for food as for gasoline," the article by Robert Gavin says.
Melissa intends to stay upbeat. She says she considers meatless meals as a way to explore ethnic cooking. Grilled-cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for dinner is "comfort food." Brown-bagging it five days a week is a good way to use leftovers and avoid waste. She also suggests eating the fresh food early in the week and then raiding the nonperishables in the pantry as the week goes on. "At these prices you simply can't afford to allow the food to go bad before you can use it," she writes.
