Have your grocery prices gone up or down?

[Exterous]

Over the last month or so its seems like a lot of the grocery prices for things around here have gone down. For non-sale prices Milk has gone from around $1.99/gal to $1.39/gal, a dozen eggs are regularly $0.59 instead of $0.89 and bananas down to $0.45/lb instead of $0.70/lb. Lots of stuff on sale too. I'm not sure if its finally increased competition from the new grocery stores that opened up 8 months ago or maybe a broader trend but its made a nice reduction in the cost of our weekly trips.

 

[Thebobo]

In the last year up.

 

[lxskllr]

My cat food went up exponentially. I used to feed the girl dry, but due to the renal failure I've switched her over to wet, and she doesn't like all the ones I get. The rejects go to Fathead. Otherwise, I don't know. Every week is different. I do my ghetto shopping at biglots, aldi, and sav-a-lot, and my premium shopping at wegmans, alternating every couple weeks. Aldi has highly variable prices, so it's hard to say what things are in general. Wegmans, I have no idea. Biglots has been creeping up slightly, but not enough to matter.

 

[allisolm]

I want to live where Exterous does. Milk in Tallahassee is $3.28 per half gallon, eggs $1.88 doz and bananas .60 lb. And those are Walmart prices.

edit: sorry, I meant $3.28 per gallon rather than half gallon.

 

[Brainonska511]

I haven't noticed much of a change in prices, but I moved a few months ago out of the city, so it's a bit hard to tell. Instead of buying groceries more piecemeal since I could really only buy what I could carry, I now buy them all at once (and can stock up on stuff when its cheap). If I had to take a guess though, I'm still spending roughly the same amount per week that I was when I was in NYC - ~$30-$40/week, on average.

 

[ponyo]

Prices increased slightly. But we also changed our buying habit. We only buy organic whole milk and pasture raised eggs now. We don't drink lot of milk so $6 gallon milk isn't that bad. But we eat lot of eggs. So paying $6 for dozen eggs hurt. We probably spend more than $100 a month just on eggs. Kirkland thick bacon price increased from $9 to $11. I eat that every week so that's something I noticed.

 

[Brainonska511]

Prices increased slightly. But we also changed our buying habit. We only buy organic whole milk and pasture raised eggs now. We don't drink lot of milk so $6 gallon milk isn't that bad. But we eat lot of eggs. So paying $6 for dozen eggs hurt. We probably spend more than $100 a month just on eggs. Kirkland thick bacon price increased from $9 to $11. I eat that every week so that's something I noticed.

Jeez. I think the last set of eggs I got was $0.99. And I picked up a pound of bacon the other week at my grocery store for $1.99.

 

[lxskllr]

I pay ~$3/12 eggs from local farms. Might be a little high, but I think it's a fair price, and the eggs are quality.

 

[paperfist]

I want to live where Exterous does. Milk in Tallahassee is $3.28 per half gallon, eggs $1.88 doz and bananas .60 lb. And those are Walmart prices.

He could buy milk for you, package it, ship it, pay his labor and you'd still save.

@Exterous how much is almond milk?

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Over the last month or so its seems like a lot of the grocery prices for things around here have gone down. For non-sale prices Milk has gone from around $1.99/gal to $1.39/gal.

WTF is milk $1.39 gallon?

 

[ponyo]

Jeez. I think the last set of eggs I got was $0.99. And I picked up a pound of bacon the other week at my grocery store for $1.99.

Yeah, I'm not too happy with paying $6 for dozen eggs. But I can visually see the difference in the quality of the eggs and my wife insists we only buy pasture raised eggs. But not all pasture raised eggs are the same. We bought some brand claiming pasture raised and the egg yolk color showed otherwise. So we blacklisted that brand. You can instantly tell from the composition of the egg yolk and the color.

Can you tell which is pasture raised from the picture above? We can and that's why we pay $6 for a dozen.

$2 /lb bacon is crappy bacon. Pork belly cost more than $2 /lb wholesale so you can't regularly get good bacon for $2 unless it's loss leader sale.

 

[lxskllr]

WTF is milk $1.39 gallon?

Milk's been running $1.60/G here at aldi. They're always about half the cheapest local competition though.

 

[Brainonska511]

Yeah, I'm not too happy with paying $6 for dozen eggs. But I can visually see the difference in the quality of the eggs and my wife insists we only buy pasture raised eggs. But not all pasture raised eggs are the same. We bought some brand claiming pasture raised and the egg yolk color showed otherwise. So we blacklisted that brand. You can instantly tell from the composition of the egg yolk and the color.

Can you tell which is pasture raised from the picture above? We can and that's why we pay $6 for a dozen.

$2 /lb bacon is crappy bacon. Pork belly cost more than $2 /lb wholesale so you can't regularly get good bacon for $2 unless it's loss leader sale.

As far as I understand it, yolk color means relatively little for "healthiness" of the eggs and is just an indication of chicken diet. At the end of the day, it's just an aesthetic thing.

As far as the bacon - that's pretty much the only time I buy it: when it's on sale. Why pay full price for groceries?

 

[lxskllr]

As far as I understand it, yolk color means relatively little for "healthiness" of the eggs and is just an indication of chicken diet. At the end of the day, it's just an aesthetic thing.

I judge by shell thickness. Thick shell means a healthy bird. Aldi eggs are like paper.

 

[BD231]

WTF are groceries ?

 

[purbeast0]

I really have no clue. I don't pay attention to my grocery bill really because I'm going to buy what I need regardless. I just put my credit card in before they have barely rang anything up and just sign after they are done.

 

[Exterous]

I want to live where Exterous does. Milk in Tallahassee is $3.28 per half gallon, eggs $1.88 doz and bananas .60 lb. And those are Walmart prices.

$3.28 a half gallon? For regular milk? I think $2.40/gal is the most expensive I've ever seen milk around here from 'regular grocery stores' (ie - not Whole Foods or convenience stores). But there's gotta be some benefit to cold winters and hot and humid summers right?

@Exterous how much is almond milk?

Uh...looks like $2.50 a half gallon for Silk Almond milk. There's also a coupon where you get $1 off when you buy two. I have no idea if thats a good price or not.

WTF is milk $1.39 gallon?

SE Michigan

 

[allisolm]

And I picked up a pound of bacon the other week at my grocery store for $1.99.

No one here has bacon for $1.99. $3.50 is a good deal. Our only saving grace, I guess, is that there isn't any sales tax on food (mostly).

And I corrected my original post . Milk is $3.28/gal, not /half gal. Sorry for the typo.

 

[mindless1]

It's now inhumane to have cows on farms so milk prices can only go up. We need new legislation that every solar panel installed must come with one free range cow.

 

[Brainonska511]

No one here has bacon for $1.99. $3.50 is a good deal. Our only saving grace, I guess, is that there isn't any sales tax on food (mostly).

And I corrected my original post . Milk is $3.28/gal, not /half gal. Sorry for the typo.

When I was in Astoria/NYC, the cheapest price I ever saw bacon was $4/pkg. In the 6+ years I loved in the city, I don't think I ever bought bacon to cook on my own because of the price. I think I was sticker shocked compared to what I was able to get in college in Chicago and when I worked in a suburban grocery store in HS in the first half of the '00s.

 

[ponyo]

No one here has bacon for $1.99. $3.50 is a good deal. Our only saving grace, I guess, is that there isn't any sales tax on food (mostly).

And I corrected my original post . Milk is $3.28/gal, not /half gal. Sorry for the typo.

$3.50 /lb for quality bacon is good deal. $1.99 /lb is loss leader. It's impossible to sell bacon at $1.99 /lb and make money. Untrimmed pork belly is around $1.80 /lb. That's if you're buying 40,000 lbs. And then you have to remove the skin and trim it. You'll probably lose around 25% of the yield doing that. Then you have the labor of slicing and cold smoking that pork belly into bacon. You'll lose another 10%. Then you have to package and distribute the finished bacon. Wholesale price for trimmed pork belly at Costco is $3 /lb. That's trimmed center cut pork belly. So I don't have a problem paying $3.66 /lb for thick center cut smoked Kirkland bacon. That's still a deal and cheaper than I can make at home.

 

[Brainonska511]

$3.50 /lb for quality bacon is good deal. $1.99 /lb is loss leader. It's impossible to sell bacon at $1.99 /lb and make money. Untrimmed pork belly is around $1.80 /lb. That's if you're buying 40,000 lbs. And then you have to remove the skin and trim it. You'll probably lose around 25% of the yield doing that. Then you have the labor of slicing and cold smoking that pork belly into bacon. You'll lose another 10%. Then you have to package and distribute the finished bacon. Wholesale price for trimmed pork belly at Costco is $3 /lb. That's trimmed center cut pork belly. So I don't have a problem paying $3.66 /lb for thick center cut smoked Kirkland bacon. That's still a deal and cheaper than I can make at home.

It seems like wholesale prices might be lower: closer to $1/lb as of mid-late 2017:
From September 2017:
"Wholesale U.S. pork belly prices hit their highest ever of $227.54 per cwt (or $2.28 per pound) on July 26, before sinking to the lowest for the year on Friday, to $101.63 per cwt, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data"

 

[ponyo]

It seems like wholesale prices might be lower: closer to $1/lb as of mid-late 2017:
From September 2017:
"Wholesale U.S. pork belly prices hit their highest ever of $227.54 per cwt (or $2.28 per pound) on July 26, before sinking to the lowest for the year on Friday, to $101.63 per cwt, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data"

That's Sept prices when prices were at the low. Lean hog prices have gone up almost 50% since then.

Looking at the 2/09/18 weekly pork report, the wholesale belly price seems to be around $1.50 /lb per 100 lbs. Little cheaper than what I thought but still impossible to make profit at $2 bacon.

 

[pete6032]

Once in a blue moon I will see milk on sale in Chicago for $2/gallon. It's usually $1.60 to $2.00 per half gallon, though.

 

[SKORPI0]

Not sure since I pretty much buy the same stuff every time about $45/week, mostly at Walmart, Aldi and Jewel. I haven't noticed any changes in Bananas, Milk and Eggs.
Chicken (Rotisserie) usually cheaper Mondays. It bothers me that TP and tissue rolls are expensive.