The grocery bill at our house has doubled in the last five years.
Some adjustments have been made by the two of us, including fewer glares when Housemate buys a bunch of stuff on sale. My partner sees more value now in buying lots when the stuff is on sale.
Housemate keeps telling her the savings posted on the bill is just the amount the store overcharged in the first place.
And we have found a few things pretty well always cheaper at other stores. Housemate occasionally makes a trip to one store to allegedly walk inside but returns with some items that are less than at our regular place of shopping.
We eat out a lot less than we once did.
We are fortunate in that we don’t buy much meat, having luck every once in a while at the Elks and Legion meat draws. They are enjoyable and offer a possible way to cut the grocery bill.
(The Elks meat draw is 5:30 p.m. Friday in the Legion lounge with The Legion meat draw 3 p.m. Saturday in the lounge. You don’t have to be a member to come.)
The 2023 Canada Food Price Report led by Dalhousie University Agri-Food Analytics Lab is interesting.
The report notes last year’s estimated food price increases of mostly five to seven per cent were already at 10.3 per cent by the end of September.
Bakery goods went up almost 15 per cent; veggies were up almost 13 per cent and fruits by 11 per cent.
Estimated food price increases for 2023 range from five to seven per cent for bakery, dairy and meat to 3.5 per cent for fruit, six to eight per cent for seafood and veggies and 4.5 per cent for restaurants.
A family of four will spend an extra $1,065.60 for food next year — about $21 a week.
Our house has substituted from using some name brands for house brands; checks the expiry dates more closely to ensure we won’t have outdated food and we’re even more diligent about eating ALL the leftovers.
Still the grocery bill keeps climbing that inflation hill.
Saskatchewan, by the way, has the second lowest inflation in grocery prices this year at 10.3 per cent, beat only by B.C. at 9.3 per cent. Quebec, at 11 per cent, was highest. Guess they use too much maple syrup down there.
The report concludes there is no one item to blame for food price inflation from the many reasons laid out. Over time the price of fertilizer, grains and fossil fuel may come down as global conflicts in Europe are settled.
With the federal tax on carbon emissions increasing annually by $17 a tonne, the $170 per tonne tax will add $150,000 to costs for a farm of 5,00 acres by 2030.
It looks like we are stuck with ongoing food price inflation for a long time.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
