How We Live Now

In yesterday's post about the WaPo's five day series on the Global Food Crisis, I promised to post the link to today's article when it was published. As I said yesterday, this piece, Clipping, Scrimping, Saving, is not about desperate mothers trying to feed children on watered down gruel, it's about you and me and most of the other shoppers in Albertson's or Giant Food or wherever we shop...it's about clipping coupons and thinking twice before buying that steak.

Since March 2007, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the price of eggs has jumped 35 percent. A gallon of milk is up 23 percent. A loaf of white bread has climbed 16 percent. And a pound of ground chuck is up 8 percent. Overall, U.S. food prices in 2008 are expected to rise 4 to 5 percent, about double the increases of recent years. And while the total rise is far less drastic than elsewhere around the world, the sharp hike for staples means everyone is feeling the pinch.

"We are in shocking new territory," said Todd Hale, senior vice president of consumer shopping and insights at Nielsen Consumer Panel Services. "With the exception of the very affluent, everyone is looking to save by altering where they shop, how they shop and the brands they buy." Clipping, Scrimping, Saving

This looks like both the present and theforeseeable future for all but the wealthiest among us. We can be thankful that for us the sky is not falling, as it is for so many others on the planet, for me the biggest change is in not driving to several different stores for my weekly shopping, planning a little more carefully and putting all my trips together to conserve the major expense of gasoline.

Technorati Tags: coupon clipping, food prices, global food crisis,groceries, hunger

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