It’s a little ironic that after grumbling all the way home regarding the amount of strategery is required to stay within our food budget, I encounter this article in the Boston Globe:
After nearly two decades of low food inflation, prices for staples such as bread, milk, eggs, and flour are rising sharply, surging in the past year at double-digit rates, according to the Labor Department. Milk prices, for example, increased 26 percent over the year. Egg prices jumped 40 percent.
Escalating food costs could present a greater problem than soaring oil prices for the national economy because the average household spends three times as much for food as for gasoline. Food accounts for about 13 percent of household spending compared with about 4 percent for gas.
Rising food prices can be particularly corrosive to consumer confidence because people are so frequently exposed to the cost increases. “It’s the biggest risk we face economically, and it might be the thing that does us in,” said Rich Yamarone, director of economic research at Argus Research Corp. in New York. “There’s nothing really worse than having a job, making money, and forking most of it over just so you can have the same amount of food. You’re running in place, and it really weighs on you.”