A reader comment piqued my interest about how much the average family spends on groceries a month. I did ferret out this NY Times article that talked about how those who receive Food Stamps are being affected by the food crunch and in the body it does state that families need to spend $576 to eat nutritious meals. The long debated Farm Bill that passed a while ago will help families since it raises the amount of Food Stamp money families can receive and also changes some income guidelines for those whose families are less than four members.
I did have a family member that received Food Stamps for a while. She stretched her Food Stamps with coupons and rebates (rebate companies still fulfill even if you pay with Food Stamps) and shopping the sales. Various stores accept Food Stamps, including many chain pharmacies... and usually have a decal on their door. Why pay grocery store prices if the CVS down the street has a good deal? Take for instance this week there's a CVS deal buy $10 worth of Skippy, Hellman's, etc. and get $3 back in ECB. If you need those items and you have Food Stamp money, nothing is wrong with shopping at CVS. If you have coupons, even better!
Our food budget is high... probably close to $600 per month. Ouch! I do use coupons and rebates though and that helps bring down the total. I live in a town that has one chain grocery store and they do not double coupons at all. I really miss that! Grocery prices have definitely risen in the past several months. Cereal boxes are smaller (prompting me to get a dirty look from a Wal-Mart stocker as I declared that pretty soon those boxes would be pocket sized!) and milk, eggs, butter, meat and many other items just cost more. I buy generic when I can and refused to spend $3 for cookies at the grocery store when I knew I could bake them myself for less.
Don't think you are alone. In digging through Google results looking for information for this post, I saw British articles complaining about a 30 Pound a month increase in the average British grocery budget. One British Pound =1.79 USD, nearly $54. Australians are up $139 Australian Dollars. The whole world is feeling the crunch.
On the plus side, I have noticed products dropping wheat out of their recipes. Wheat used to be a cheap thickener in soups, chilis, pasta sauce... and now it isn't so cheap anymore. But for those who are allergic to wheat or celiacs, more mainstream food is available to us to buy and eat safely.
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