Yes, there have been some items that have gone through the roof. Until some time last year, I could get plain yellow onions for 79 cents a pound. I paid $1.99/lb earlier this week. I can’t use them fast enough for a bulk bag to be cost effective.
I can’t get a can of beans or tuna for less than 50 cents.
Luckily I don’t by the pre-made stuff often. Most of the stores around me have raised those a little more to offset lower prices on some of the basics.
I rarely buy onions in bulk, since I usually can find them cheaper by either buying loose onions or in 5 lb. bags. Once in a great while I might pick up a larger bag if it is a great price, but most of the time the smaller size bags or loose onions are cheaper.
If you do buy a larger size bag, sort through them right away, and use the ones that appear to be closest to spoiling first. Onions will also last longer if they are kept in a cool and dark place.
If it doesn’t look like you are going to be able to use them all up before they spoil, chop them up and freeze them in zip lock bags. I like to put about 1 cup of chopped onion in individual sandwich bags, and then throw all the small bags in a larger gallon size freezer bag. Then you can pull them out of the freezer as needed for your recipes.
The prices here for tuna and beans are about the same as in your area. We do have one store that has a coupon about once a month for either Star Kist or Bunble Bee tuna at 3 cans for $1 with a limit of 9 cans. I pick up the maximum I can whenever they are on sale at that price.
I buy dry beans most of the time and cook up a big batch on the weekends and we have half the batch for a dinner that week and I put the other batch in the freezer in a quart size freezer container to have another week. I rotate batches, so one week I might fix black eyed peas, another week navy beans, another black beans, etc., so we don’t get tired of eating the same thing all the time. Depending on the type of bean, the cost of dry beans is usually 20-50% cheaper to buy than prepared canned beans and they taste so much better!
Just about every weekend we are home I have something cooking on the stove. One weekend it might be a home made soup (also made in a double batch), another weekend a stew (again in a double batch), and another weekend beans. I freeze one batch and we eat the other. Then I have quick things to fix on nights I know I will be too tired to cook something from scratch.