Yes I have seen food prices up sharply compared to a year ago.

One thing to keep in mind.

Not only are the base prices for foodstuffs themselves going up, but in the case of prepared foods, most states have raised every tax and fees they can think of.

Prices at restaurants whether fast food or conventional dining have gone up as much or more. Meanwhile service quality drops because the cost of labor is dropping staffing levels.

Inflation is really about 5 1/2% if you use the old formula that includes wacky things like food and energy. You know...the things you can't live without? http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_dat...

One thing to keep in mind is that the Government depends on creeping inflation to manage the debt. So they plan for a "healthy" amount of inflation every year - between 1%-2%.

Now I can't find anywhere in my economic textbooks that inflation is a good thing on any measure - unless you're a debtor. Every creditor, however, gets hosed by inflation and as a result are forced to charge higher interest rates to compensate. Similarly, product and service costs have to go up to compensate, because the costs of inputs keep going up. And wages have to keep going up just to offset for inflation.

The whole thing is a vicious cycle of manipulation and adjustment. If the target for inflation was ZERO, we could eliminate all this nonsense. The problem is that that would mean that a dollar today would be the same as a dollar tomorrow. Consumption would likely drop slightly because there would be significantly more incentive to save. But as savings drive industry, it would also mean that credit would be more available than it is now, meaning that we would be encouraging entrepreneurship.

Of course it would also destroy the notion that we can continue to rack up trillions of dollars of debt and finance this debt with more (cheaper) future debt.

My wife just commented today about the increasing price of food at both the grocery store and the restaurants.

Steak is getting so expensive I'm thinking of having a pinkie ring made out of it.

I like to think so, and am glad you and your wife have what I and my husband have--commitment and love and patience! I have an idea for a home jewelry party setup, and my sister-in-law is working with me--she will do the parties and I will handle the inventory and bookwork. If it goes well, I can stay home and still bring a few extra dollars in.

Sorry about your husband. Thank you for loving him to go through the ordeal with him. I'm disabled enough to not be very good at anything physical, but my dear wife became an Avon lady 4 years ago and is very successful at it. She always liked makeup stuff so I guess that's why. You're a survivor and so are we.

I been buying little extra for years to be ready for the day the dollar falls. I am a small time prepper. Dry food as well as other supplies. Wont last long but with food cost raising it will help. Because I believe it will get lot worse. I buy what on sale. And store half. If you are just waiting for it to get better. I say your in for a long wait.

khalling, you are correct CPI does not reflect switching from steak to hamburger.
Have you noticed a new term, PCE, which the Fed are trying to use more often when they talk about inflation? PCE is weighted according to traded volume of each type of goods (taken from GDP stats). In this way PCE does not even follow prices of goods at all, it always lags behind when prices are increasing rapidly, exactly because of your steak to hamburger choice.
Why would the Fed prefer using PCE? Are they truly unaware it misrepresents inflation?
I will leave that to your imagination :)

Of course the government is hiding the reality. The government fudges the figures and subsidizes various industries to keep the figures lower.

All of this is financed by money stolen from the people.

The Fed note we call money is only a promise of value not backed by real money. The government changes this promise by printing 80 billion more of these notes every month.

When they print up twice as many notes as before the value in our Notes drops by half.
We then need twice as many to reap the same value as before. We call that inflation of prices but it is really theft of value.
It is stealth Theft, covered up by corruption and more theft.

There is only one way to restore our country.
It may start by the producers withdrawing but it must end with restoring a government OF the people not above the people.
Read http://www.TheSocietyProject.org and join us in fixing the future.

Milk, eggs, produce and meats across all varieties have become sooo expensive, my husband came to me the other day and asked why the grocery bill has gone up so much. After showing him cost per pound, coupled with the fact that we have a growing 16 year old son, (6'-2" at last count), he was shocked! I kept telling him how stunned I am every time I pay for my groceries. Example: organic chicken breasts, 2 of them in the package, cost $13.98!!!!! I just put them in the fridge. Now, add to that my son will eat two of them.... Then get something else an hour later! Staggering.

Yes. A significant increase. To really get a feel for prices, ask a retiree on a fixed income. As prices climb, the value of their savings diminishes, and even good investments are stumbling in their attempt to keep up with rising prices. Add to that unexpected costs such as a car repair or house repair or illness and the "Golden Years" look more like lead. Wanna get an earful? Just ask a retiree. Oh wait, you just did.

By a rough estimation, my grocery bill has more than doubled since 2005. I'm a vegetarian, so that doesn't even include the price of meat.

I encourage those interested in the government provided stats to subscribe to John Williams' Shadow Government Statistics; plenty of free primers on his site so read them!

Another way to phrase the question.
"Has the value of your dollar decreased significantly?" Of course!
I believe that it will be possible to build Off-Grid communities that can survive when the Grid goes down. I have designed an Off-Grid solar energy system that can economically provide for all of the energy and water needs of a "Galt's Gulch" type of community. Unlike Galt's machine it does not violate the second law of thermodynamics.
www.offgridtexan.net

Govmt uses CPI indexing for many payment obligations. Thats why it keeps it lower than reality to reduce those payments in real terms.
Some real inflation charts are at
www.shadowstats.com
where they recreate CPI without the regular basket "adjustments" the official stats make.

That would be 400% inflation in less than 18 months, or 270% a year.

I would guess inflation has actually been somewhat less than that.

I agree. I earned a commercial driver's license with a hazmat endorsement to help bring a bit of extra cash at age 60. If my hubby wasn't getting a bit worse with his Alzheimer's each day, I'd still be driving to bring in a bit of cash. Now, I have no way to bring in any extra--he can't be left alone for me to go do something. He IS my job now.

Hell yes. I've noticed, just in the last couple of years, that it's virtually impossible for me to get out of a grocery store without dropping the better part of a Benjamin. Granted, it depends on what you're buying on a given trip, but this is the same general staple-type stuff for which I do *not* remember spending anything near that, prior to the Presidency of Barack Taqiyya Obama.

Government is cooking the books on just about all of the metrics we commonly refer to. In the CPI food and fuel are not in that basket of commodities. Gee, it seems to me food and fuel cuts across all demographic strata. We all have to eat, and most have to get to work. The reason they are not in there? All of the government entitlements are indexed to a cost of living increase, which is figured using the CPI. Using the real number would look bad, maybe panic old people, and for sure cost the government big increases in benefits.

How about unemployment? Yes, those numbers are cooked too. The have been so altered they are no longer comparable to prior recessions. My favorite thing to look at is participation rate. Right now about 63% of the available workforce is participating in the economy. That's on par with the Great Depression. In my opinion, history will look at this era as the 2nd Great Depression, because all of the real measurements indicate that it is. And just like the depression, those that are working or those with investments in the right place are doing very well.

The Federal Reserve and the White House have colluded to craft a monetary policy that keeps people from buying houses, even while interest is historically low. Without a housing boom, full employment cannot happen. Without full employment there is little demand pressure on everyday stuff people buy. Without demand, prices cannot go parabolic. So, they have crafted the perfect monetary policy...unless you want to buy a home or advance your life beyond a 30 hr part time job.

When the adults come back to Washington, they must be careful. Too much success, too quickly would release pent up demand for goods and services and drive prices up accordingly.

What a mess. Is anyone interested in the Gold standard and just keep money stable?

Um.. yes?

I thought everyone understood things were getting more expensive under obammy

I am totally confident that the gov't figures are spun
tighter than cotton candy!!! -- j

Yes, I have noticed significant increases. The prices of egg, dairy, and some other staples have doubled over the course of perhaps a year. Meat has tripled from some years ago. I cannot remember the last time I ate any meat which was not ground.

I have a low income, in large part by choice since I have built my own "virtual Gulch" more or less in plain sight. In recent months I have been unable to purchase sufficient food to put nutritious meals on the table. I have taken to volunteering at the local Salvation Army in exchange for meals and groceries. That's right--I work for food! And no one pays the slightest attention to me or has the faintest idea what I do when not "at work".

As an aside, in a hardcore blue collar town, when I was more or less open about my day to day activities, I was often told "you don't work". Now that I spend a few hours a week doing semi-skilled volunteer work, I am viewed as having a job and treated quite differently by the former gainsayers.

I highly recommend a volunteer position of some sort to Shruggers out there. It does help to keep you invisible.