Well we’ve been in freezer mode for the past few weeks so this past week was a pretty boring one in the food department.
Since we’ve been using up meals I squirreled away in the freezer linner time has pretty much consisted of frozen lasagna, soups, a few chicken dishes and pickety bits here and there.
There is still so much in the freezer that we need to use up before it goes bad! Sometimes I think that’s the hardest part about having an extra freezer, you know, one one hand you want to fill it up… and on the other hand you need to use it all up!
So this week instead of showing you the same foods that we’ve been pretty much eating the past few weeks over and over again, I want to show you something else.
I want to share a few photos I found on an old SD card I found in my desk a few days ago. These photos were taken at Winco Foods about 10 years ago. {Oh how I miss Winco prices!!!}
I don’t know about you, but seeing these prices makes me feel old. And that I am seriously over paying for everything. Food prices these days are double, if not triple of what they used to be.
I feel like pretty soon we’ll be paying $5 for a single avocado or $20 for a rotisserie chicken. It’s nuts. But what’s even crazier, is that bananas are still THE SAME PRICE!
Someone explain that one to me.
How is it that the price of everything else can go up, but the price of bananas always stays the same? It’s nuts!
~Mavis
Total Spent This Past Week on Groceries $5.51
Total Spent in August for Groceries $13.04
- Total Spent on Groceries for July $376.89
- Total Spent on Groceries in June $41.56
- Total Spent on Groceries in May $288.51
- Total Spent on Groceries in April $35.36
- Total Spent on Groceries in March $82.28
- Total Spent on Groceries in February $101.14
- Total Spent on Groceries in January $167.33 {this includes buying groceries on Fair Isle}
- Total Spent on Groceries in 2023 $1,112.65 for our $100 a month grocery budget for 2
Jennifer says
At my WM in NC, avocados are 86¢, Roma tomatoes are 94¢# and cucumbers are 62¢#. Those are not too bad. For me, It’s meat. I think I have bought beef, including hamburger 3 times this year. I try to keep meat at less than $2# – y’all stop laughing, we’re on a fixed income – and it’s always chicken thighs 99¢#, Boston Butts 99¢# and occasionally chicken breasts $1.99#. I do buy a 22 oz container of Hillshire Farms honey ham for $9.47 and we have lots of sandwiches, but that pack will make 12 – 16 sandwiches and salads. Fwiw, that container was $6.77 pre-COVID.
Katelyn says
Bananas are a loss leader – for whatever reason, grocery stores think people will come in for cheap bananas so they’re willing to lose money on them.
People who labor to grow and pick our food are some of the most exploited and underpaid. I am hopeful that these higher prices are making their way to them. They deserve far better.
SB says
HI Katelyn, thank you for emphasizing those who process, harvest and otherwise provide produce and other grocery items. I like low prices as much as the next person, but food pricing is complex and influenced by erratic weather, wars, supply chain issues (such as a shrinking supply of cattle in the US), inflation, disease and (of course) corporate greed. Likewise, food prices were historically very low in the US for decades (I mean, how could a dozen eggs really have cost $.99 a few years ago?) because of huge subsidies and agribusiness. Again, I bemoan the cost of groceries as much as anyone, but fair wages, the impact of climate change/catastrophe and other complex factors are staring us down.
Mary Ann says
This is such an excellent post. There needs to be a like button! Thank you. I wish everyone in the country had the opportunity to read your post.
Julie says
Agreed. I don’t want higher prices at the grocery store either, but I would like those who produce our food to be paid fairly. What angers me is that products such as dish soap or laundry detergent have increased yet the cost of production has decreased. The companies and shareholders got bigger profits,
Marlene Schroeder says
I totally agree with you. I hate how much everything costs but am willing to pay more if the laborers and farmers are actually making money, instead of the middleman. I rarely stop at fast food places but when I do, I don’t bemoan the rising prices there either if the employees are making enough to actually live on.
olga merela says
I agree with you SB, it is a complicated issue and why would we expect to be paying the same pricing as we were 5-10 years ago? Everything has gone up a bit, as well as wages so we should expect to pay more. I’m just happy I don’t have to grow everything myself!
Rosemary says
Avocados at our Walmart are usually less than a dollar – I think they are .77 right now. In other stores, the prices are higher. We used to buy the 6 pack at Costco (when the price was lower) but would end up throwing some out because they got too ripe before we could eat them all. Now we only get 2 at a time. What is it about avocados – rock hard one day and then the next day they are rotten? Inquiring minds want to know . . .
Virginia says
Leave the avocados on your counter and check them daily until they give under soft pressure from your thumb. I took the avocados in several spots because sometimes they’re ripe in one area (generally the stem end) but not elsewhere. Once fully ripe, put them in the refrigerator and they will last a lot longer.
Virginia says
That should have said “I check the avocados in several spots”
Tonya says
Store them in fridge, it extends their shelf life considerably
Jennifer says
Bananas have definitely risen in price by 0.10-0.20 cents a pound where I live
Elle says
I generally pay $0.59 for bananas in the NorthWest. Shipping costs from HA have definitely risen in 10y. Still get limes for 20c.
Yup, I still have 1 shelf of oldest on the top of our upright freezer and a lot of pesto cubes (1/2c each) in the door. Thank goodness for vacuum sealers!
Lana says
We shop the deals every week and are still getting great prices by doing that. A 20 bag of Mahatma rice was 10.49 a few weeks ago which 52.5 cents a pound. Avocados are often .49 in my area.
Mona R McGinnis says
The days of bananas @ .25c/lb & corn on the cob 12 for $1 are long gone.
Brianna says
The produce prices made me laugh! I come from a line of farmers and the increase in produce prices nowadays are not anything close to what the farmers in the US get paid for the crops they produce. There has been hardly any increase in the checks they receive for their crops. This is a primary reason why farmers have a huge amount of debt (have you seen the price of a combine?) and can barely make ends meet. Mostly famine and not feast. Sure the government might give a subsidy here or there or they might have to make an insurance claim for crop damage, but it is never enough. A family member has a 300acre wheat field and again they are going to harvest it as hay this year rather than sell the crop as wheat. I think it is terrible the prices of produce and grains in increasing significantly at the grocery store, but the farmer is getting paid only a tad more for the same product today as they were a decade ago. We have watched many of our farming neighbors over the years sell off their land and farms or worse because it is not really sustainable and it is a sad reality for many.
olga merela says
Thank you for this post as it helps to remember that food really comes from farmers, not the grocery store!
Margo says
We can get small avocados for about .50 apiece here, but stone fruit has been consistently high. Paying $2.50 -$4.00 a pound, depending on where you buy it. Albertsons was selling lemons for .75 each! We will be planting a lemon and lime tree later this year and grow our own. Wondering what folks are paying for bacon right now. I got it for the “low price” of $6.49 for 12 oz yesterday. Oscar Meyer bacon was 9.49 for the same price!
Laura says
Lemons in our area are 1.25-1.39 each!
Ashley Bananas says
I usually buy bacon in four lb packages at Costco for about $3 a lb. sometimes if there is a sale and coupon deal at Publix I can get it for $1.50-2.50 a lb. I don’t love doing the grocery shopping deals as much as I did ten years ago when they were plentiful, but I still look for deals on Youtube couponer sites and let them do the footwork and research and I cherry pick what works for my family.
Linda Sand says
I’m old enough to remember when Mom and I use to go shopping and fill a paper grocery bag for $10. Those days are long gone.
I tried to buy a Sara Lee Butter Pecan coffee cake the other day. Apparently they don’t make them anymore. I guess saving them for a special treat was a mistake.
Mimi says
Might be east coast vs. west coast for avocado prices? I paid .77 for avocados this week and rarely pay more than a dollar. I also picked up 5 dozen eggs @ .47 each. I found lots of other deals too which is good because I’ll head to Costco tomorrow for a major stock-up and Costco is always a budget buster in the short term.
Linda Harper says
I guess I need to consider our 16 tomato plants, which gave us 8 bushels of tomatoes, and our 12 pepper plants, which so far have given us 4 bushels, as money trees! I’m so glad that we can pretty much grow something in our garden year-round to help keep the cost of food down here in South Carolina.
Cindy says
Red vines 88 cents wow and brown rice… red vines are so yummy and the fresher the better.
Jenny Young says
That was 10 yrs ago. Things change quickly. But in my local store today mangoes are .98. Avocados are are .86 if you buy one & a bag of small avocados with 5 or 6 in a bag is only $2.97 so .49 to .59 each. Roma tomatoes are .99 a pound. And bananas are .58 a pound.
I do live in the south & you live in Maine where prices are quite a bit higher than here.
Wendy C. says
I can still get 6 mangoes for $5 here at BJs, which is similar to a Costco. We get them weekly. Yum.
Ashley Bananas says
I’ve been trying to do a combination of eating from our food storage – cans, and freezer food, dry goods, plus buying meat on clearance at Aldi, then looking for loss leaders. It’s tiring, but it does help keep grocery bills down. The prices have just risen so much, it make no sense for the average person’s budget.
lisa says
I got a rotisserie chicken for less than $5 at Market Basket today. Living in Maine, I expect most of my fruits and veggies will be more expensive due to shipping.
Also, I would pay more if I knew the money was going to the laborers. But I suspect it’s just going into some corporation’s profit margin. Another reminder I need to make more of an effort to shop local.
Terry McA says
I really wish we could go to the food prices of 10 years ago….. Maybe I wouldn’t feel as if I am going broke just trying to feed my family.
Anywho…..
The move is over! If it weren’t for my son, I would still be struggling. The drawback…. the last family did not clean in the 4 years they were there, so it’s been days of scrubbing and steam cleaning the filth away.
The freezer only has one lone tuna casserole left and two containers of chili my mother brought me. Thanks mom! This week for meals we have eaten out twice, had polish sausage with sauerkraut and potatoes at mom’s for my birthday, and sheet pan beef smoked sausage with roasted potatoes, onions, and beets. Looking forward to filling my freezer with meals to get us through the winter!