11 Ways To Save Money At The Checkout

abcnews.com:

In the past year and a half, consumers across the country have seen the prices at grocery stores spike, said Ephraim Leibtag, an economist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service.

In the past two decades food prices have only increased by an average of 2.5 percent each year, Leibtag said. But from 2006 to 2007, prices spiked 4 percent. And this year they show no sign of easing. The Department of Agriculture is forecasting a 4-5 percent increase in retail prices this year.

The cost of white bread alone was 16.3 percent higher in March than at the same time last year, according to the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tracks inflation through the Consumer Price Index.

Tips to Save

Buy dried instead of canned grains and beans because they're generally cheaper. With cans, you're paying for water.

Eat seasonally. It's healthy, supports local growers and vegetables and fruits in season are far less expensive.

Supplement your fresh produce with inexpensive frozen vegetables.

Read the whole story: abcnews.com

Comments

[fcsakes]

05:01 PM on 04/24/2008

Don't eat. Save the food for the people who really deserve it - those would be the same ones who get the tax benefits from the bush administration, and oh yeah, the oil companies.

[bogananda666]

04:39 PM on 04/25/2008

Whoever reported that the cost of food rose 4% last year hasn't been shopping lately. Anyone who went grocery shopping last year knows food prices increase at least 10% and will be higher this years. This article is just repeating the government line and the person responsible is JUST ANOTHER MSM INFOMERCIAL JOURNALIST REPORTER, which we can see on TV. This article is nonsense.

[PeterM]

02:14 PM on 04/24/2008

1) Don't but cheap nutritionally devoid food which constitutes about 98% of all supermarket food.
2) Avoid as much of commercially prepared food which is laden with salt, bad oils, pesticides, fungicides and preservatives.
3) Buy bulk, long shelf life super high quality raw ingredients which are packed with unaltered nutrients and minerals which means Organic beans, brown rice, rye, wheat, lentils, oat groats and LEARN how to cook. Get veggies from farmers' markets.
4) You can cook up huge volume of food from these ingredients and freeze it in small portion sizes and you got many meals of the highest nutritional quality for pennies.
5) Get it into your head that in the long term, what you skimp on quality food, you will most likely pay for by giving money to the pharma industry thief for expensive drugs to treat the ravages of nutritional deficiency (obesity, heart disease, diabetes, asthma, low resistance and low immune system and the list goes on.....) You absolutely can reverse many chronic diseases with excellent nutrition.
6) Internalize the age old wisdom of Aristototle: "Let Food be thy Medicine and Medicine thy Food".
7) Quality food = the best and cheapest health insurance you can buy!

[fnygy]

06:34 PM on 04/24/2008

Amen! It's like the books says (In Defense of Food) Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. I always try to eat lots of colors, too - a pretty plate is healthy!

[brend]

01:10 PM on 04/24/2008

Also if everyone would cut back 10% on their driving every day for two years, take a vacation just stay home during, gas prices, and food prices would come down. What ever don't buy gas from Citgo, 'cause it all goes to the Dictator Chavez, and he'll be the next one to produce nukes, which I might add he can fire from his country and wipe-out the United States.

[brend]

01:01 PM on 04/24/2008

Best way don't go but once a month, and buy only what you need, save on food, and gas costs.

[bogananda666]

04:40 PM on 04/25/2008

Very good tips, thanks.