Food Costs, They Are A Risin'

Sigh.

I went to Aldi yesterday.  Regular readers here know how much I love Aldi.  It seems they have raised their prices in the last couple weeks.  Milk was up $0.30.  Lettuce was up $0.20.  Other items were up $0.10.  It doesn't seem like a lot, but it all adds up.  

I was talking to a friend at work about this.  I said that I already eat very frugally.  Now how am I supposed to cut back from frugal?  It is so frustrating.  

Anyway, I ended up spending $23.63.  Here is what I bought:

• loaf of wheat bread
• 2 lbs bananas
• 1 bag frozen California Medley
• 1 box fish sticks

• 2 cans tomato soup

• 1 can green beans

• 1 can peas

• 2 lbs squash

• 1 lb tomaotes

• mustard

• 1 box of four CADBURY CREME EGGS (score!)

• 1 gallon skim milk

• 1 lb broccoli

• 1 head of lettuce

• 5 lbs navel oranges

• 1 box of spaghetti

• 1 lb of kiwi fruit

I know that is still a lot of food for a small amount of money, but I sure did feel the rise in prices.  For the first time in a long time I felt really limited while I was shopping.  For instance, I wanted some grapes but they were $3 for a package.  I ended up getting the oranges instead, even though I really would have preferred the grapes, because I knew they were a much better deal for the money and were on sale for a great price.  I also noticed that the cans of tomato soup seemed suspiciously smaller.  Most packaging seems smaller anymore.  Why must they do that?  I'd rather they kept the sizes the same and just raised the prices if they really needed to.  Instead, I feel like they are trying to trick us.  Sigh.

Today we went out to lunch for a coworker's birthday.  I spent $5 (cheap Mexican + coupon = half off lunch!) on lunch for myself and pitched in $2.50 towards her meal (classified under gift expenses).

That means so far this month I have spend $28.63 on food for myself and have $21.37 left to spend (plus any of my surplus from the previous three months should it come to that).