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The cost of food is becoming an increasingly noticeable problem across the globe. Some places are hit heavier than others, although this issue is effecting every household.
Start keeping up with increasing food prices today. Everyone’s financial position is different. Many people are living paycheque to paycheque. Any rise in prices affects those in this position. With oil prices slowly creeping up again and rumours of another “mortal combat”, expect the food prices and everything else to go up with it.
Do I Need To Stock Up On Food?
Better Now Than Never
It will cost more to transport food to the grocery stores if the gas prices keep going up. The truckers convoy in early 2022 caused this issue to get a little more serious afterwards.
Although the prices are not that outrageous just yet, we are edging closer to that position. I am seeing it in the grocery stores today. The rise is exponentially more than the news media is leading on. It is evident that the income people are making is not matching the cost of each item of food you purchase at the grocery store.
For example a 300g of herb flavoured goat cheese is almost $10.00 in June 2023. This exact same cheese was $6.00 in 2021 and for a large portion of 2022. It is only one example of an item where the cost has gone up so high.
Expect prices to rise in the coming years. We may very well wake up one day and find out that everything has gone up in price by 20–30%.
At the time I wrote The Roaring 20’s Are Back!, I mentioned that talks of possible conflicts will occur in this decade. When it was published there was no news about one. Now, not even a year after I wrote that blog a war is discussed on the news daily. (This blog is now updated in June 2023).
Are we repeating generational cycles? It does look like it.
9 Ways To Keep Up With Increasing Food Prices
Buy Your Staples
Cook
Eat Simple
Full Pantry
Pack up on Nuts and Seeds
Grow Your Own Vegetable Garden
Avoid Fast Food
1. Intermittent Fasting
This one is free and is good for our overall health, although this suggestion is not recommended for everybody. Those with health concerns, on medication and who are unsure of this method should consult a doctor. You know your body the best and you know what is right for you.
Intermittent fasting from time to time will not only help our wallets, but our waist. I usually go between 16–20 hours of fasting and then break the fast minimum two times a week.
Giving a break to the body is good for the digestion of food to break down more efficiently. The best time to intermittent fast is after dinner. Dinner from 6pm-7pm.
Then wake up the next day and have breakfast from 10am-11am and you have 16 hours without eating. You slept through half of that time. If you can go a little longer than that and wait to eat a late lunch, around 1pm-2pm, then you have reached 19–20 hours on an empty stomach. It is a good time to break your fast. I prefer 16 hours because it allows two meals a day that are satiating and I can snack in between if I need to.
As we age, our bodies do not need to consume as much food as when we are younger. Be mindful of intermittent fasting. If you do not plan your meals ahead, you can easily overeat or eat all the wrong foods and regret it. Therefore, plan ahead.
2. Buy Your Staples
This is in reference to food only for now.
By this point you have your staple items in order. This includes 2 of each:
rice, pasta, flour, atta (Indian flour), beans, potatoes, peanut butter, canned fruits, beans & vegetables and oatmeal. This is your base. Everything tastes great next to these items. They are filling, have a long storage life (aside from the potatoes, use them on time), are cost effective and will last you a few months.
Based on how many people you have in your family, buy on average, two bags of each item to store away. Check the expiry date to make sure that it expires further than six months from the date you purchase it.
3. Cook
Some people can cook, but there are many who cannot or just do not because cooking requires time and effort. However, if you cook your own meals you are saving a lot of money. You save tons of money making your own food at home than you do going out to eat, even if the meal you purchase is a fast food side order. That fast food order is more expensive than a gourmet homemade meal you can make at home.
*Side Note** Please purchase my book an Authentic Homemade Vegetarian Cookbook available on Amazon. It is a long-term practical investment because this book gives you easy, step by step recipes to make meals at home that are high in value and low in cost. They are rich in nutrients, healthy, vegetarian dishes that include the most important staples to help beat inflation.
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Continued…
For example, a sack of potatoes are on average $6.00. One large order of french fries from a popular North American fast food franchise is about $8.00, not including tax. They only give you one potato, if that, out of that $6.00 sack of potatoes that may have 30 potatoes in the sack. This is a 4000% mark up in price.
It is so easy to make french fries and this is one item on almost every North American outside food dish that is incredibly cheap.
You can also add any kind of vegetables, sauce, cheese, sour cream and make it into gourmet fries and it will still cost less than what you will pay for outside. If you are living paycheque to paycheque, going out to buy french fries, for example, is a waste of money.
4. Eat Simple
When you eat a simple diet, it is not expensive. My personal grocery list is less than my partners because we eat different foods. I can live off of eating beans and rice, or flat bread, with plain yogurt and a piece of fruit and be satisfied. The food is filling, delicious, healthy, tasty and low in cost.
keeping up with increasing food prices today
However, I do not eat like this because, like everyone else in this world, I like food. So then it gets a bit more pricey, with salads, smoothies, desserts, savoury snacks, all different vegetarian foods from other countries, the list goes on.
When the going gets tough and all there is left is beans and rice or flat bread though, I will survive. Bring yourselves to a position that if you have to eat less or simple, you have the will power to do so without stressing out.
5. Full Pantry
Build up your food pantry with snacks. Not all the items in the pantry are snacks to eat everyday, but to enjoy on occasion. Peanut butter and jam may be in your pantry along with chocolates, brownies, peanuts, pretzels etc. The snack items are there to enjoy once in a while. They are not an everyday food item to eat.
However, they are enjoyable to ration within reason. Therefore it is important to always have some snacks in your home. Dark chocolate is more expensive than regular milk chocolate and it is a healthier version to consume. So have these kinds of items around because they continue to go up in price.
What Should I Buy Before Food Shortage?
6. Pack Up On Nuts And Seeds
These items have gone up in price and they keep rising. You need to eat nuts and seeds though because of all the amazing health benefits. Be careful about the nuts you buy because they can start to go bad fast. Buy them within a reasonable quantity and do not over bulk buying on nuts because they can go stale.
Nevertheless, it is a good idea to have some available in your home. I have all kinds of nuts in my house. Peanuts, cashews, almonds, pistachios, pecans, walnuts, brazil nuts and then some seeds, like pumpkin and sunflower seeds.
These are healthy snacks and full of protein, healthy fats and heavy in calories. You do not need to eat a lot to feel satiated.
They are more expensive than buying chocolates and chips but they are more valuable for our overall health. Having nuts is a greater priority to own than junk like snacks. If you cannot afford nuts and seeds, do not buy chocolates and chips because they have no nutritional value and are a waste of money. Have nuts and seeds and dried fruits first before investing in pretzels, chips and chocolate.
7. 3-6 Months Of Food Supply First Then Barter Items Next
If you did not build up a little storage space for yourself for food for 3-6 months of food supply, it is good to do so. Whether something happens or not, it does not matter.
When 2020 arrived, no one expected the world to get locked down and for everything to close. This kind of shock should not be seen as a shock if all of a sudden things shut down again. It already happened in our lives now and the reason why it happened still exists in our reality.
Therefore we are still not out in the clear in 2023. We cannot assume that everything is okay when it is not. For those who can, do it make an effort to build 3-6 months of food per person in your household. It is a worthwhile investment.
The initial cost will be expensive but after you have your main staples, anything above that is not going to cost as much. It is best to have all the important foods first before buying things you like to enjoy or can barter.
If times get really tough and we need to trade items, we can trade stuff like dark chocolates and salty snacks. They become high value items then because most people like them. You can tell the prices of these products have gone up by a lot.
Ultimately stocking up on staple foods will help you hold between 3–6 months of food comfortably.
8. Grow Your Own Personal Vegetable Garden
There is no doubt about it, growing your own garden is an asset. You are doing yourself and those around you a favour by growing your own garden. In the past two years I have been amazed by the amount of food we have grown in our small backyard in the city. It is a very rewarding experience.
Not only have we learned so much, we got to grow food and eat it. We saved money doing this and I have shared several recipes on my website. Many of the items are based on the vegetables that grew in my backyard. You can read up on Gardening Blogs if you are interested to start one or have one yourself. Growing your own garden is helping you keep up with increasing food prices.
9. Avoid Fast Food
The last thing our body needs is fast food when we are stressed out that we have no money.
If you cannot cook, wish to learn how to cook vegetarian meals, want to make meals that are low in cost, healthy and abundant, then buy my book to get started. Thank you in advance.
It is very easy to gravitate to unhealthy fried fast food, but over time it does take a toll. As we get older we cannot make the same mistakes.
These are cost effective and easy to make for a reason, although the recipes do get a little more complicated as you continue forward. Nevertheless they are all high value.
The picture below is Be Low our health and wealth.
Keeping up with increasing food prices is something we all have to take into factor moving forward. With all the changes in the farming sector, loss of cows, millions of deaths of chickens, different kinds of flus, we need to pay more attention.
If farmers are affected, grocery stores are impacted then so are we. Now is a good time to consider growing a garden and ride with the waves of rising inflation.
April 4, 2022
**This blog has been updated in June 2023.**
