If This Keeps Up, They Will Have To Start Putting Armed Guards On Food Trucks

The basic necessities in life just keep getting more expensive. On Tuesday, Hershey announced that the price of all of their chocolate bars is going to go up by about 8 percent. That is particularly distressing to me, because I am known to love chocolate. But if it was just chocolate that was becoming significantly more expensive perhaps that would be okay. Last month, it was coffee. J.M. Smucker, one of the largest coffee producers in the United States, announced that it planned to raise coffee prices by about 9 percent. And Starbucks has announced a bunch of price increases across the board on their coffee products. Of course we could all survive without chocolate and coffee, but as you will see below just about every food category is becoming more expensive. If this keeps up, could we eventually see armed guards in grocery stores and on food trucks?

On Wednesday, Robert Wenzel of the Economic Policy Journal shared some new data that has just been released by the federal government about food inflation over the past year. Without a doubt, these numbers are quite startling...

According to the latest data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, year-over-year gains in some food products at the producer level have been truly spectacular.

Unfortunately, paychecks for most American families are not going up at similar rates.

So when the market crashed in 2008, and oil prices shot up, I knew from past experience that inflation would soon start hitting the food in grocery stores.

I started stocking up on all the favorites and all the stuff that stores for a long time. Every time there was a good sale I loaded up.

I currently have a 3 year supply of mostly Maxwell House Coffee the large 34 oz kind which cost $3.25 per can.

Since chocolate doesn’t store well, long term, I stocked up on powdered cocoa, and other supplies to make things like fudge, chocolate cake, and other chocolate treats.

Peanut Butter was another item we were using a little more than a 16 oz jar per month - mostly the kids liked it. I stocked up on a years supply at $.99. Same amount soon cost $2.25. Now it’s down to $1.69 regular price, so I am restocking several jars at a time as it goes on sale.

I am also gardening and home canning or dehydrating our homegrown produce, and meats that I get on sale. So far, the strategy has allowed me to keep my food budget level with what it was in 2008. It is getting harder to do though.

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