How are you coping with higher food prices?

Inflation is something we have grown accustomed to every year, but this time, inflation seems to be pretty severe, broad-based and worldwide in nature. Prices are significantly up even for essential commodities and it is not confined to just food, but clothing, household items, luxury goods and transportation as well. For us, what we try to do to mitigate this is to spend less on things which are not so necessary. We cut down on entertainment, eating out at fancy restaurants and spend less on clothing and luxury goods. We try and drive our cars less to save fuel, as petrol is so expensive these days. For essentials like cooking oil, detergents and even fruits and vegetables, we switch to house brands for some items, and buy cheaper brands. Some of these are almost as good as the more expensive brands. We can still live and eat well enough while trying to save money. The positive aspect about his inflation is that it teaches us how to be more prudent with the way we spend money.

Prices used to be quite stable where I live, but lately they have gone just crazy and they seem to be going up every week too! I guess good needs to be transported and the rising price of petrol is not helping matters much!

Hi peavey, I don't know or see enough about coupons to take advantage of them... But I have found that it's really helpful to wander around the shopping centers and supermarkets and eat as much free samples of whatever is being given out in those little demo stalls they set up... Also good to take a few different hats and sunglasses so you can go around a few times and they don't recognize you...

One thing I do is to go meatless once a week. It's cheaper and I was told by a doctor that I should be eating more fiber anyway. Its a small thing,but every little bit helps.

I am only a student.What I have to is to ask my parents for more money.

We buy raw ingredients and cook from scratch. Leftovers go for lunch the next day and/or to feed the chickens. I make homemade bread and we use very little convenience foods. We buy meat bundles and yes, the cheaper cuts can go right into the crock pot and be very tender. Last week I cooked a roast in the crock pot and saved the drippings in there...I added some broth (frozen at an earlier time from another roast) and some hominy, a little garlic, some turmeric, some salt and pepper, carrots, celery and onion and we had a wonderful stew the following night - I tossed the leftover beef roast in there as well. Coupons have been more than disappointing lately, although I was able to use some with a local store going out of business with deep discounts, plus the coupons (didn't feel bad for doing it either, they went out of business but are reopening soon so they don't have to pay union wages... I'm not necessarily a big fan of unions, but I disagreed with them pulling jobs out from under people only to know they are going to apparently offer them their jobs back for much less pay)...so I was able to get some nearly free stuff there with coupons, but generally, I buy raw ingredients at warehouse/bulk food stores (if you have an Amish community near you, it is well worth a trip a couple/few times a year to stock up). We have chickens who will start laying eggs later this summer/early fall. We have a garden. We have more than what we will use, so I will freeze things I can freeze, can some tomatoes and we will give some of our bounty to those in need as well...I purposely planted more than what we will use for this reason. I make almost everything from scratch. Noodles, breads, pizza dough...just use things as close to their natural state as possible. I use lots of frozen veggies, they are often more healthful than fresh because they are frozen immediately after they're picked...I don't know how long some of the genetically modified stuff has been hanging out in the produce section....a personal preference thing. I hope this helps.

I cook a lot of things from scratch. It's healthier and cheaper. It does take time, but you either spend time or you spend money.

I always use coupons when I can get my hands on them, and if there are leftovers, I eat those for a second meal, the day after. I also make some meals and freeze them, when something is on sale. That is a good idea, to just take out of the freezer and pop into the microwave.

I buy the storebrands, too, but I'll use coupons on other items, like mouthwash and the dog and cat food (I'll eat generic myself, but the babies get the good stuff!). I've gotten better at not wasting leftovers. We always ate them, but sometimes we would push stuff to the back of the fridge and forget it; trying not to do that anymore. Since we can only cut back a bit on food and gas, we are just watching our spending in other areas to make up for the cost. So, no impulse buys, we usually shop together, so one of us will always ask "But, do we really NEED it?" if we see someting we want. 80% of the time we end up putting it back on the shelf.

I use coupons and compare if it is cheaper with the coupons than getting store brands otherwise I get store brands. I am really cutting back on what I do buy at the grocery. We are also eating more leftovers and I am using the leftovers in other meals also. I am looking for all rebates or refund offers going around for food and paper products, in which there are not many right now. And starting tonight I will only start cooking enough for my husband and I and for his lunch tomorrow. I will not cook any extra so we won't be wasting any food at all and we both need to lose weight any way. God bless.

Same situation is here in my country India. Prices of commodities based items are rising like anything. But what I am observing is that income of people is also rising and rising like that due to rising economy. Also this is more happneing in metro cities and Delhi so people are able to cope up with their rising incomes. In country side still people are directly depending on agriculture and manage to do as their expenditures are also not too high.

Sometimes I just don't eat! That is a terrible thing to admit, I know. But personally, I think that not eating once in a while is OK. If I'm not hungry then I don't eat. Or maybe just get a glass of water and bread. I save the best food for my daughter and spouse. He doesn't like doing without. He works. So he should get some good food. Right now we are in a financial bind, so I have no room to complain or splurge!

I've just started making a food plan. My family life is too busy to do a day by day one, but I wrote a list called "30 Days of Dinner" for June and then went and bought everything I needed for those meals (except all the fresh food) all at once. We'll be eating a better variety of foods, I'll have an easy pick of what to make and the ingredients will already be there, and I'll only buy what's on the list at the store, because that really is all I need. I'll have to let you know next month how it's going, but my sister-in-law loves this approach and says it saves her tonnes. I like saving the multiple trips to the grocery store, that's for sure!

yeah, prices are getting higher and higher i don't know how to overcome this situation but what i did for myself is by looking not branded goods with cheaper prices " cheaper than the others" but you know it still high i don't know anymore a lot of people in our place are starving. that's true we are belong in asian countries and our salaries here can't compensate our basin needs. How poor we are but anyway thanks to mylot i can still earn a little income. Good luck and happy budgeting for all us.. =)

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