My husband came across this and e-mailed it to me.
I had expressed to him over the past few months how our grocery costs seemed to be climbing at an incredible rate over the past year and how our budget, although stretching, just didn't seem to be stretching 'as far' as what it was.
And so he sent me this and I said, "AHA"!
Diets in review dot com had this map of the U.S. showing how far $15 now stretches towards groceries on a state by state diagram. You will note that we in Virginia have to spend three times what a family in Idaho would spend for a meal.
Find your state on the map and see if you agree with their cost numbers.
The link didn't link up to the article, but I know that our grocery money isn't going as far as it did a year ago. Dairy is up, beef and pork are sky-high. I hardly buy beef at the grocery store anymore. We buy ground beef from a local grass-fed farm each November, and that's still holding steady at $5/pound, for now. I don't know how people who rely on food stamps afford to feed their families at all. I don't think it will get any better either. Of course, we have been paying artificially low prices for food for decades, so I'm not surprised that it's finally catching up with us. The good news is that lower gas prices are offsetting a little of the increase in food prices. Wonder how long that will last?
ReplyDeleteApparently, I'm living in the Pacific time zone now, because it has my comment published at 3:28 a.m. :)
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