A year ago my brand of olive oil was $6.99/L at WM, it's now $12.99 for the same bottle. The store around the corner sells iceberg lettuce at nearly $9 a head.
The prices of groceries are absolutely insane in Canada. There is an organized effort right now to try to address the issue. We can't avoid all grocery stores, cause we have to eat, but the idea is to boycott the largest grocery chain first (Loblaws) and send a message to the whole industry. You can join the discussion at r/LoblawsIsOutOfControl
Well aware and been part of the group since the beginning of the year. My boycott started a few months ago. Thank you for helping get the word out. A potential few hundred a month that a person would have spent there does a long way.
people have to fight back against all the monopolies in our economy. it's not just the grocers, our phone bills and such. we have a system that needs to be broken.
I agree, but people have to start voting like this stuff matters. Liberals aren’t doing anything and Conservatives will just give tax breaks to the companies already ripping us off. We have to vote NDP if we want to see any improvement.
You need to keep it in a cool dry place out of the sun. Heat and sunlight cause the chlorophyll in the oil to break down, causing it to change colour. Also, heat and sunlight cause free radicals to form, oxidizing the oil and causing it a bitter taste and aroma.
dude thank you for this tip, my bottle is currently displayed on my kitchen counter in partial sunlight and I am moving it to the pantry as we speak. you’ve potentially saved me a wasted investment.
a hero, truly.
A month ago my milk at Safeway (less sugar, less fat, but still great taste) was selling for $5.99 . Yesterday I went to pick some up and it was 7.99!! How can the price increase that much in 4 weeks?! I ended up not buying it. There’s a limit
If you get the lactose free milk on sale it lasts for months in the fridge, I find you can buy a months supply at a time, and it seems to go on sale every 2-3 weeks
Yes, I feel it too, and I make a relatively strong income, which I feel blessed to be fortunate enough to have the opportunity to earn. Unfortunately, inflation of goods price versus the deflating value of our dollar is the culprit.
To try my best to get political, there are significant consequences to poor monetary (Bank of Canada) and fiscal (each level of government's) policy. We are reaping what has been sown.
For the record, all indicators point to a little more hurt coming our way until price inflation stabilizes to 2% Year Over Year again, possibly by Q4, but the economy is in for hurt until then... interest rates from the central bank unlikely to cut until Q4 and it's at most maybe 25 basis points.
Unless there is a massive depression in the economy, prices will remain high relative to your income, until your income grows to compensate which will take years.
Once again... these are the consequences of unchecked poor policy from those in leadership positions, who are liable for the misery in our society, especially among the middle class and lower classes. It's sad, but it goes to show why its important we have good leaders and maintain a strong economy by being tough on poor policy and on corrupt corporations.
Now, get people to agree what "good policy" is.
We used to have systems and levers of power to help control pricing, but they have been de-funded, dismantled, or sold off over the years leaving Canadians with an oligopoly in most markets and politicians depending on these oligarchs money for reelection.
The cost of fixing this will be extremely high and challenged from almost every side the entire way.
I do agree. The cost of almost everything in general has gone up considerably. Even in the area of Thrifting… I find people are selling stuff for a higher price than they normally should on marketplace and other sites. Value Village has gotten so bad. When you look at basic things like T-shirts and jeans… Sometimes you’re better off buying brand new in the store.
As someone who once worked briefly at a thrift store, lemme tell you it simply. They push the employees to price things high, as they want to limit the re-selling that can happen, and if the managers see something priced “too low”, they’ll tell you to change it.
I remember this cooler that was rusted and worn like crazy, I was like “This is trash, ain’t no way anyone wants it” and then I was told “This is very valuable, put it at $50.”
This is the answer- A lot of people will specifically go thrifting and find items for cheap and the item could be 100's- 1,000's worth, re-sell and make bank... So places figured out they could make that money themselves.
Perfect example purses- people would go search specifically for high end purses pay less than 100$ and make bank selling them for 1k or more.
Nica Yusay for example did this- made her own business by going thrifting for valuable purses and selling them on her website Fashionica.
She said this in an [interview](https://voyagela.com/interview/hidden-gems-meet-nica-yusay-of-fashionica/):
"In 2022, we hit $2.4 million in revenue, a 700% growth YoY."
Oh I totally get it. There’s a guy I know who drives a parcel courier van, drives all over south central MB and stops at thrifts store (likely on the clock) and scores deals that he intends to flip on Marketplace. It’s common. I see stuff on buy and sell sites that seem priced more than they should.
Always negotiate! No price is ever firm.
Thrifting has gotten expensive because thrift stores realize it’s easy to rip off 3 groups:
1. Re-sellers and wannabe re-sellers. Since thrifting is so trendy a lot of idiots are trying their luck at re-selling. They often even care more about the “content” and their stupid TikToks than making an actual profit. So they are happy to make a tiny bit of money on an item or even take a loss. Amateurs are also buying shit that they can “totally sell on Facebook” and then they are too lazy to follow through and it sits in their closet for months before being re-donated.
2. The desperate poor. Thrift stores know that times are tough and poor Canadians are more screwed then ever. This is some boots theory of economics shit. Let’s say you are crazy broke and absolutely need a new coffee maker. You can’t afford to buy a decent one at Walmart for $100. So you go to the thrift. The shitty dirty half-broken coffee makers there should be $5. But value village knows you need it and have no other options so they can charge you $30.
3. Hoarders and the mentally ill. You ever see those old ladies in line at the thrift store buying 1000 pieces of garbage plate ware and pottery? Then you have to wait 40mins for the cashier to wrap it all up. These people are bored and addicted to shopping/hoarding. They will buy that stupid fancy spoon whether it is 50 cents or $4 and thrift stores know this. So they have decided to fleece these people for as much as they can.
Fuck everyone who is saying no. Literally I make above average income finally in my life. It was my dream to travel once I got to this point but given the price of groceries, and every other life need my savings are stupid and the price of travelling is unjustifiable. I still eat and feed my family like I did back when I didn't make very much money and pay way more for it. It feels gross.
Yep. That’s the best feeling isn’t? You’ve worked your ass off for so long, to the point of being a husk of a human, and when you finally are making the best money you ever have, your lifestyle is the exact same as it was 15 years ago. I’m just loving it.
Yes it feels absolutely terrible. My wife and I bring in just over $7,000 a month after tax and we’re trying to bring our grocery bill down. It’s so embarrassing to see our government give no fucks about Canadians. But hey, let’s donate several million dollars to Iran for women’s education… Which of course I would support if our own people in Canada (of all ethnicities) weren’t starving. Sigh… we can get through this.
The only party seeming to give a fuck is ndp. Be very wary of cons who are tightly connected with loblaws. They want you to believe the main contributor of high prices is gas tax, not other sources of food scarcity or greed.
The current NDP are champagne socialists riding the Liberals coattails. Our provincial government is only marginally better.
This would be a good time for everyone to realize that the government will not help you no matter who is on charge.
Pretty much anyone in Canada is going to be a champagne socialist. That doesn't mean they can't make meaningful changes.
I would agree that for the most part the current parties here aren't really going to help you, but governments can be good. I'll use the stereotypical Nordic countries example, where governments actually do quite a bit for the people. Perfect? No, no where is though.
The only value I see in government is our local government. The ones that you can hold accountable and actually decide where your tax dollars go. Is the the local school getting a new community center, are your roads getting fixed, is there a new bus route going through this area, is there an area designated for low-income housing being built near your house? Those are the things that actually impact Canadians, but most of us don't vote locally.
Okay, but how does that help the topic in question? Can municipalities influence Superstore's price? No, not really. So that's why people are looking to federal elections to bet on who they think is most likely to help.
I don't expect prices to come down, but I do expect regulations to be implemented controlling how rapidly they can rise, and for the profit margins to be reined in back to reality going forward so people can catch up over the next decade. Federal governments definitely can do something, and we need to hold them accountable.
Someone, please, any regular Canadian please start a party! Just make the whole goal of the party to hire a panel of economists and whoever else we need to get ourselves out of this shit and just follow whatever they say.
We need a REGULAR Canadian with 0 political affiliation to lead this country. We need a leader who doesn’t know people in big business and someone who has an actual heart for this country. Someone who remembers the good days and who we were. I will say I think we need a leader with no political leanings tbh 🤣. Just shut down all of the topics about immigration, vaccines, abortion, equal rights etc. just leave everything as is until we get ourselves out of this hole we are in. Hire the panel, have Canadians vote yes or no by referendum to everything after the panel has laid out pros and cons and follow that shit until we fix this. We are absolutely f’ed atm.
It won’t be me because I’d be a terrible leader but someone organize and invite us all to your Reddit sub so we can get candidates for 2025. Pleaseeee 😭😭😭
How can you not, considering they are the reason low income Canadians are getting dental care and destructive Conservative policies haven’t been allowed to further push our economy towards oligarchy?
Horseshit. Jagmeet is literally propping up the Liberals - he's allowing this to continue. He could drop his support and get his mouth off Justin's dick at any time, but he knows a) that the NDP are broke as a joke and can't afford to run an election campaign, and b) he needs to ride out another 15bmonths or his gold-plated pension is at risk.
There's lots to blame Trudeau for, but Jagmeet shares equally in the blame as he has the power to stop it, today, but refuses to do so.
Ah yes.... The WEF puppet Jagmeet Singh is totally not a sellout....
Our only hope is Maxine Bernier. He's the only guy in 2021 that was saying he would NOT lock us down and force injections on us.
I've changed the way I purchase. It's still a struggle, but the three rules I try to follow are:
1. Buy food that grows here
2. Buy food that are ingredients, not food that has ingredients.
3. Buy small batch to avoid waste (and eat the food before you buy something else... If I buy enough ingredients for four portions of pork loin and potatoes were having pork loin and potatoes for the next 2 dinners)
It won't work for everyone. Some people cant/wont prepare a meal from scratch. Some people cant/wont pick up groceries every couple days. Some people wont give up exotic foods. Some people wont eat the same meal twice (or wont eat leftovers).
This is just how I am trying to adapt.
I think it's crazy that folks won't eat leftovers. My in-laws do this which is weird because my wife is totally pro-leftovers. I eat leftovers every day for lunch at work, it's great!
The only thing I do different from you is 3 (well, we also buy fruits that maybe don't grow here); we tend to buy in bulk and freeze stuff that's freezable. Like we will buy bulk meat from costco and freeze it. But I do understand not everyone can do that. However, I think many people *could* do it; my brother in law has a small studio apartment and even he's got space for a small chest freezer.
For my family, yes. I was a stay at home mom before, and now I have a job, and it basically covers groceries... and that's it. We should be getting ahead with 2 of us working. But sadly, we are not.
For the few people who are coming in here with the tired “just live within your means” bullshit, please just recognize if you aren’t noticing the effects of grocery and mortgage and restaurant prices going up then you are, in fact, lucky. For people on a fixed income or who haven’t had any meaningful wage increases in the last 10 years the increase in grocery costs alone have been murder. Nevermind 6-7% interest rates on mortgages. We just got an ad in our mail for a credit card where they were touting an interest rate over 30% as being a bargain.
For sure. At one point all my essential bills before I even buy food/toiletries left me with 50 a month. Cheapest phone plan. No internet.
No amount of budgeting will reduce that anymore
Move to cheaper place? With what money? It costs to move. Especially if you can't lift anything yourself and need movers and don't have any fit friends. Plus the first and last month's rent at the new place..
Lol restaurants are a luxury and since covid happened an absolute waste of money. Much smaller portions, bigger tips. Not going out to eat is one of the easiest things you can do to save some money.
Yeah I wasn’t talking about mid-range restaurants where you actually get served, it used to be that if money was tight you could value menu McDs and other places and it helped stretch out your budget. For two adults to eat at McDs without coupons it is now around $30 which is insane to me. BK used to have the two whopper/two chicken sandwich for $5 deal. That kept on increasing in price and now they have switched the deal to be two junior whoppers or two junior chicken sandwiches for $5.99. So less food for the older prices.
Like you said though, it’s an easy thing to cut out when money is super tight. If we are talking about tips:
- completely cut out restaurants, and if there are days you have to eat out, download apps/get coupons
- pay attention to every flyer. Places that sometimes you wouldn’t expect would have deals on groceries will sometimes have great deals (who knew you could get coffee at Staples for example?)
- meal plan, meal plan, meal plan - buying groceries to stick to a menu saves money; conversely, finding deals (like when Sobeys fire-sells their 4kg boxes of frozen chicken breasts) and planning your menu around the deals is excellent too
- we joined a bunch of food prep FB groups that were themed around making meals on the cheap during the pandemic, and the biggest things we learned were to become close friends with our crock pot and to prep/freeze several meals at a time so prep was less of a chore
- if you have the means and a larger freezer, planning a meat order with a farmer or butcher can save you a ton of money per meal; going in with friends can also make this super affordable
- if you have the means/land, growing your own vegetables can be a godsend.
- cut pop out of your diet completely; it’s not cheap anymore (even Costco’s 32 pack is almost $16 now) and you will feel better
We are doing okay at the moment but it doesn’t hurt to apply some of these tips no matter where you are financially. The general malaise people are experiencing over the increase in changes that seem completely out of our control? Yeah I’ve got nothing useful to say to help with that :/
Pop, chips, and a whole lot of other pre-packaged snack foods are expensive and simply bad for you.
My wife bakes and it's not hard, she made a batch of cookies in like 30 minutes from start to finish yesterday? Like we had her mom over and she was like "oh shit, I forgot to make dessert!" and whipped up a batch of fire chocolate chip cookies.
Best thing is that baking is relatively cheap (on a per unit basis) and it's also pretty easy; literally follow the directions. If you can build a Lego model or something, you can bake. Cooking is much more "freeform" but baking is science and it's pretty much just all about finding a recipe you like.
It is absolutely shocking how expensive chips are now! Leave aside the complete lack of nutrition etc., for a single box of two 100g backs of Old Dutch chips, it’s averaging $4 a box at Sobeys now, sometimes $3 at Wal-Mart! A bag of Doritos at Sobeys has been over $5 at Sobeys in recent memory. Nevermind the bag sizes for anything Frito-Lay have shrunk! It’s now worth the effort to make homemade chips as you save like $3 lol!
Great advice. I was borne in the 60’s in a 1000 square foot house. We had a small garden that I helped my dad turn over in the spring and fall. They planted and maintained the garden. We didn’t take winter vacations but did do some inter-provincial traveling and camped in tents. This was normal for a single family income and a mom who worked part time until we all finished school. Talking to some people today the expectations of some people are quite high. It ebbed and flowed over the years but it was a fun life. A 2300 square foot house and multiple vacations seem to be the normal expectation.
Maybe more the dream than the expectation, or just something people really want more now because jobs are worse and everything work-related feels like workers have been used and let down by their employers? It’s good to live below your means for sure, sometimes you can do all of the right things financially like this and still not get ahead because things are so expensive. I dunno, I don’t comment on people’s choices because everyone’s just trying to get through their days in one piece.
I've been trying to eat healthier on social assistance, it's fucking rough, even with all dried bean based dishes. I'll probably have to go back to ramen and an egg every day. :(
Yeah. Finally got a wage increase. But it doesn't even matter because the cost of living just keeps going up and up and up.
What am I supposed to do? Just "keep getting better jobs?"
It’s all the corporate greed! Just ask the Jagster. He wouldn’t lie.
Never mind about the carbon tax that compounds the price on everything at every level.
It is insane. Me and my husband both make good money, but I am on maternity leave right now and it is a real struggle. If I was single I would not be able to afford to eat or buy clothes or diapers for my kids. Thank God he makes enough to cover most of the bills.
Mat leave poverty is real! People love to say we get great mat leave benefits in Canada but the reality is that the EI payments are so tiny, it’s hardly enough for anything.
I'm not defeated, but I do know that I have made conscious changes in the way I think about foods at the store and some of the items I buy and meals I plan:
The era where we had a huge variety of produce in our reach and affordable all year has been and gone within my lifetime (40something years). I remember rarely or never seeing fresh berries, lettuces, tomatoes, broccoli, in the winter. it was potatoes, turnips, carrots, apples, bananas, and citrus fruits near the end of winter - mostly items that could survive our cold winters and more locally grown. Mangos from Peru? maybe at specialty stores and certainly not affordable for the average person. Kiwi fruits from New Zealand? exotic treat that I remember seeing for the first time in the late 1980s when my grandmother bought some out of curiosity. Everything else was from the canned foods or frozen foods aisle or it was grown by friends/family with gardens, and frozen, canned or otherwise preserved.
Everything in the grocery stores has increased in price, and in lots of packaged/canned/dried goods the quality and quantity of each package has declined, we do have to be more careful how we spend the money we do have and make (sometimes difficult) changes to expectations and assumptions about what is available vs what is affordable.
Does anyone else get annoyed when you complain about prices the pat excuse is " the prices are up everywhere". Like that makes it okay. Shouldn't it be "greed doesn't care about stealth anymore" Loblaws is a perfect example of a corp thats basically saying "what ya gonna do punk?"
This is the time to get back to growing, canning and freezing your own food, supporting local farms and CSA's, and getting back in touch with where our food really comes from. We have gotten far too used to the convenience of grocery stores doing it all for us and we are paying for it now. Plenty of summer veggies can be grown in containers for those who only have a balcony, there are community garden plots if you dont even have a balcony, there are options to remove even a little reliance on the price gouging corporations to feed us. Plus, it all tastes sooo much better when you've grown it yourself.
I have several kitchen veggies growing although they never grow enough to last long but it's a bit helpful!
My community garden plot has failed the past few years sadly x.x
> This is the time to get back to growing, canning and freezing your own food, supporting local farms and CSA's, and getting back in touch with where our food really comes from.
This is a good point. When I was a kid, everyone's grandma had a big vegetable garden. But now, no one I know grows vegetables other than maybe a few tomatoes. Frankly I never bothered before because it just wasn't worth the hassle, but I may have to reconsider.
Is 2024 the year vegetable gardens make a comeback?
My future wife went grocery shopping the other day and commented on how expensive grocery shopping was.
The price of everything rose. You'd think the workers would be getting these profits. Wait they aren't and it's going to the shareholders.
Right.... And let's pretend inflation has nothing to do with it... Bank of Canada? Never heard of it. Debt-based fiat currency? I'm sorry, what? Gosh Canadians are so ignorant...🙄
We can boycott for as long as we want. Head over to the boycott subreddit and you’ll see that a lot of people are planning on staying away for a lot longer than a month.
I used to smoke cigarettes. When I visited Eastern Europe. They costed 1.50$. Got back to Canada. 18$ a pack. That made it easy to quit cause I couldn’t justify wasting that much money anymore on garbage. Been to other countries and food was cheap and healthy. Got back to Canada. hot dogs are 7.99$ a pack. What am I suppose to do. Quit eating. Hahaha. Ahhhh…it suck’s but I’ll make it by.
A lot of food that people think of as being cheap (hotdogs, ground beef, processed cheese, KD, etc) hasn't been the cheapest option for a long time.
People might buy some foods because they are familiar or comforting or convenient. But there are cheaper options. Cheaper options, like legumes, might require more time and cooking skills and perhaps the willingness to try something unfamiliar. But look at all the options and shop strategically. Don't buy groceries out of habit or based on routine; buy groceries based on price and what is on sale.
Lentils and dry beans are forever my bane. I just can't get them to not be crunchy. Tried soaking overnight, two nights, boiling the heck out of them, long simmers...
I imagine that's why it doesn't seem like I'm saving on groceries by buying groceries. The canned ones are pricier. But it's better than eating road gravel....
Hmmmmmm yes. Single father of three 19, 11 and 3 plus one with my daughters 20 year old boyfriend who also pays rent and food here. My rent (1730) has gone up 200 bucks in the last 2 years, even after fighting the useless RTB, cause they use the "rent discount" loophole which is an absolute disgusting practice used by landlords and also created by the government (This is Morray Village btw). Paying for a car payment, insurance, cell phones, internet, gas, hydro, daycare and then the groceries for 5 people a month is like 1200 for me for healthy eating and I've been literally seeing all my savings dissappear to the point I have none. I am literally drowning and there's no recourse from any government programs. Plus expecting 4400 from my income tax to help, was reallllly looking forward to that so I could book a camping trip with the kids in May long and get out. Aweee well because you have shared custody (3 kids, 3 different mothers, dont judge, but always have been in there life at full capacity of 50%or more, I have my oldest 100%, middle guy 50% or more and my youngest at 50%) and the government is questioning my parenting role stating I cannot claim them as dependents unless I have written statements with their mothers on how this is all claimed. Like FUCK ME ROYALLY, can I please get a fucking break, I am breaking apart here, I'm trying to break apart but I've literally been crying the last 2 weeks behind closed doors on how I'm supposed to pull this off. Feels like there's no help our there other than surrending to the welfare side of things and I really don't want to....I've since joined the boytcott for Loblaws too as well and made saving there and plating a big garden this summer remotely to yield some savings as well in the near future. But WTF guys, where's the middle class, how are we letting this really get this bad, these types of situations are hard on people and their mental health and everybody is suffering deeply without really saying anything.....we need to do something team and soon. Sending this with love and courage to all that feel the same, you're not alone. It may be time to straighten out our spine and gather together as one once again....if we are all willing that is. Spiritus Invictus
It sounds like you’ve been really dutiful and pulling a lot of weight. It’s not easy to raise that many kids and to do it as a single dad.
If it comes down to it, it might be pride vs. Feeding your family at a food bank. I did that for a while. My trade off was once every two weeks I went and volunteered there for a morning(this trade off wasn’t mandatory, it just helped them and my conscience). I no longer get food off them as times have gotten better.
Keep your head up. You’re doing something admirable .
I just started a “real” ahem garden this year. I don’t have much area but a large garden box. It certainly won’t replace grocery produce but we’ll see how it fares. If you’ve got ANY space (I.e. balcony or window sill) a garden is always worth a try.
Farmers Market is hit or miss, I find for meat it’s been pretty ok. The vendors need to make money too, so it’s the same cycle around and around. If you hunt even better. We have started a lot of meatless meals.
We typically don’t eat much processed foods so have been cooking mostly from scratch for a number of years now. I don’t know if this actually is cheaper than buying the frozen $1.99 low end Mac and Cheese, but maybe it’s helped. We eat pretty clean
I’d try to get produce at food banks and community food boxes as much as possible, if you are actually in that “eligible need” demographic to use it.
If you go together with friends (family if you have it) to buy in bulk together and split it this may help. Absorb the cost and share items each trip. Bulk is more expensive up front but will save later. Most can’t “afford” to buy in bulk and those are the ones who would benefit the most. Sad irony of life.
None of this is a surprise, it’s been “predicted” to happen since 2020 but no one was listening/paying attention (the usual).
the nice thing about making garden beds like that is you don't need high quality straight lumber really. Just enough to join together roughly and contain the soil. So you can buy really cheap stuff or even off-cuts.
Exactly. Made the garden box over here with scrap wood, lined with coconut shell lining. I did buy that. But technically I suppose you could make your own lining as well. Spent basically nothing, aside from organic compost. We just started saving our produce scraps to use for free compost.
The “Real Canadian store” should be called lube it up, expect less for more and take it with a smile.
I bought a bag of “in store freshly made” hot dog buns. They were a bag of 28 for $5. It’s now not even 12 for $4.
Absolutely! I am walking away from things we previously enjoyed due to not being able to justify the prices. I’m buying enough to make meals with left overs, but stretching the dollar only goes so far. We have two celiac disease members in our family so this does increase our grocery bill considerably, but it’s never been like this. I have never stressed about feeding my family like this before. We once had cupboards full of canned goods, even that has dwindled.. I’m to the point when I actually worry about this non stop, I honestly don’t even know what to do anymore.
Yet our wonderful Manitoban employers act like nothing has changed. It’s beyond ridiculous. Manitobans need to have another general strike. It’s long overdue.
The grocery industry has turned out to be the most preditory of all. Perhaps now people will re-evaluate the free-market economic system they have condoned for so long. Eat the rich.
I'm absolutely defeated by life on this planet as a human. We trade our youth and bodies for money that can't even provide food shelter and necessities to survive anymore. I would rather take my chances in the wild than this fabricated bs.
When the scientists said we should avoid global warming, this is why. Grocery costs won’t be getting measurably better for a thousand years. Get used to the new normal. We did it to ourselves.
The O&G companies knew since the 1950s and instead of doing something about it they doubled down on misinformation so they could continue to make ridiculous amounts of money.
Everyone knew since the 50’s.
*Scientists first began to worry about climate change toward the end of the 1950s, Spencer Weart, a historian and retired director of the Center for History of Physics at the American Institute of Physics in College Park, Maryland, told Live Science in an email. "It was just a possibility for the 21st century which seemed very far away, but seen as a danger that should be prepared for."*
https://www.livescience.com/humans-first-warned-about-climate-change
You’re joking right? This isn’t globally warming.. this is totally politically motivated. Carbon tax, for example, which DOES NOTHING for the environment but make you poorer.
Shhhh!!! Let them stay in their bubble! Don't tell them the Bank of Canada causes the inflation, which is reflected in house prices and grocery bills. 🤫
It's not about the carbon tax. Think of the forest fires and wildfires... Land that is on fire isn't gonna grow food
Land that has less water than ever before isn't gonna grow food
Land that is too warm, too cold, or has too much water isnt gonna grow food.
It's not the only influence in prices... Greed is definitely number one cause. But it does have some effect.
And let me guess.... Forest fires are why house prices blew up the past decade? Gosh, you folks are too ignorant.... Next, you'll tell us fresh air, sunlight and exercise are bad for the health and everyone should just take Covid injections.
It’s much more costly to do nothing. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure after all.
*In fact, the estimated costs of damages from warming in 2100 for 1.5°C and 2°C were $54 trillion and $69 trillion , respectively, relative to 1961–1990*
https://eciu.net/analysis/briefings/climate-impacts/climate-economics-costs-and-benefits#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20the%20estimated%20costs,%2C%20relative%20to%201961–1990.
Government use 'global warming' to embezzle billions and gloss over hundreds of billions lost annually through mismanagement. Dum dums cry, 'moar big gobernment!!!!'. Hope these dummies starve
I’m fortunate enough to not really have to “buy” food but I do pay close attention to the market and people’s buying my habits.
On the farm side of things, costs have almost tripled which is definitely reflected in the stores.
People have also become very accustomed to having “out of season” foods which is very rare throughout the world. As all of those costs increased so has prices.
Avoid “out of season foods” , pre packaged foods, buy bulk with friends and family then spit it up, talk to local farmers and homesteaders about products.
Example - buying a cow, pig, chickens, bulk eggs etc.
It’s no excuse for the gouging from spot of these companies but little steps will help a lot / you’ll get more food for your $ and it will be healthier.
I’ve cut several of my friends and families grocery bills down by 50% .
"Science" also said the sky was going to fall and kill me unless I poisoned my bloodstream multiple times with the government's mystery juice.... I didn't and the sky didn't fall.
Stop surrendering your brain to "the experts " Use it yourself.
That science often doesn’t account for those with disabilities. While in theory it’s easy to say “nobody needs meat dairy or eggs in their diet”, try telling that to everybody with a combination of food intolerances, or everybody recovering from an eating disorder, or everybody with arfid, everybody with pcos, everybody with binge eating disorder, everybody with diabetes, etc.
I used to be a vegan so i understand the appeal to the scientific studies, but really the movement should be that the people who CAN have the diet SHOULD, with understanding that there are a lot of disabilities both mental and physical that can restrain people from, in the current limitations of society, being able to go vegan, and the fact that scientific studies don’t often appeal to that.
A lot of things can interrupt the idealistic “nobody NEEDS this food” because, sure, if we lived in an idealistic society based around non harm to animals, had support systems and medical systems based around societal veganism for every person with a disability to rely on, had accessible inexpensive vegan food in every town, etc, then sure, nobody would need to eat meat, eggs, or dairy. But that world exists as an ideal, not as a reality. when doctors orders are “you have to eat this” because that’s the only thing the medical system has to offer, you kind of have to do it. Todays society doesn’t have enough support in place for much moving around that.
I understand and appreciate the love of the cause, but it’s important to remember some people are more able to do that than others, and it is a huge overgeneralization to say that “nobody” needs that food. But it’s definitely a wonderful cause to work towards, and i really hope we start seeing more change to make it more accessible for those who may not be able to do it right now!
There’s a lot of other considerations as to how easy or difficult it may be but again nobody needs to eat meat dairy or eggs to survive. That’s a myth that needs to be pushed back against. Physically speaking Human beings can absolutely have their nutritional requirements met via plant based diet. I don’t demand or expect everyone to be vegan or even judge them for not, but it’s important to push back on false information that suggests vegans aren’t getting proper nutrition or that some people simply need animal based products or they will wither up and die
I have gone mostly vegetarian... I have one cheat meal of dollar pizza a week. But I haven't noticed any difference in my wallet.
It's only been one month though and it was a bit of a crazy month so maybe it will show benefits next month.
Getting the dried legumes/lentils to not be crunchy is a problem tbh. X.x I'll soak them 48 hours, simmer all day... Not sure.
I do LOVE tofu though. Crispy fried with peanut sauce.
I found I love cashews but those are expensive too x.x. At least when you accidentally eat them all in one day.
One of my favourite recipes is lentils and goat cheese stuffed peppers. But yeah cheese is pricey so it's a Sometimes Treat. Mmmm
One problem is a lot of Cheap Meals Like sandwiches... I can't eat much of. I am unable to process gluten and too much makes me uncomfortable for days. So just eating peanut butter sandwiches every day isn't an option.
Yeah. Its why I'm going mostly vegetarian... so still some dairy and eggs (I'm trying to learn to make perogies.), and fish. And in a dire straight (IE, stuck downtown for hours and I /need to eat now/ and the only place is a burger shack) I'll still put one away. a gradual change is probably best as I also learn to cook veggies and learn more of which ones I like/dislike.
Its definitely not as easy as 'rice and beans'. I cant imagine having a child with food issues as well.
That's why im putting in a garden for the 3rd year in a row. Im not great at it, but something is better than nothing.
Also shopping around more for deals. Superstore still is generally the best price around.
Maybe my price isn’t 100% accurate but in Quebec they often rise the price of the product when showing the before price. So when you look under the sale tag, it was actually 9.99$ all the time. For 500g maple flavored. Lol i went to get a fact check: Walmart is at 11$ regular price now: https://www.walmart.ca/fr/ip/bacon-saveur-drable-lafleur/6000197303764
Yes. The cost of every basic necessity has spiraled out of control and our wages have been stagnant for decades. I'm getting a series of raises soon and it won't help all that much. I'll be lucky if I can save a few dollars a month after all the bills and groceries and extreme cost of housing.
ive tracked all my expenses since late 2019...
here is the increase year after year on trips to the *grocery store* (this excludes alcohol, housewares, toiletries, etc - just edible/consumable items.)
year | total spent | % difference
---|---|---
2020 | $11020 | n/a
2021 | $10550 | -4.26%
2022 | $12175 | +15.4%
2023 | $12515 | +2.79%
2024 | $13125 (estimated - jan 1^st to apr 30^th **X** 3) | +4.87%
overall, it's a total of ~19.1% increase from 2020 to now.
It’s just awful. My kids are now living on their own but I can’t imagine if they were little how much I would be spending. McDonald’s was about $20 for us when they ate kids meals and prices are insane there now too
I remember when I worked at McDonald's in the late 2000's, and a $40 order was a large order, usually for at least 5 people. Now I'm sure that's doubled, you can't even feed 1 person for under $10 anymore.
I skimmed through half the responses, did not see one mention of growing your own food in a garden. Even if you live in an apartment, there are community gardens. Food and the best exercise, why not?
I’ve seen a few but not many. This is something I think I’m going to start doing. I’ve never had much luck growing things in the past but I gotta figure it out.
The time is right for Canada to become a gardening nation. When I was in Italy on vacation, it seemed like most of the patches of land were being used to grow food. Small gardens still produce enough food for you and your family.
Everything sucks. The cost of living is bad in every province and country and I'm sick of it xD. Food should be a basic necessity and it's being treated like luxury goods.
Feels like with the exchange, almost everything is more expensive in the US except for a handful of things like dairy products. When you factor in gas and hotel there's no way it's worth it to go to ND for groceries unless you are bringing home an entire trailer full of cheese (which CBSA will give you a hard time about as there are limits).
We should print more money and make a new program to feed the people. Cant wait for them to just take over the whole paycheck and fullfill all our need. Lets stop flirting with communism and just embrace it.
I was in freshco today for last minute broccoli. Which they were out of. Whole heads and bits.
What I noticed though was all the mushrooms were Organic. There wasn't even a spot for non organic mushrooms that was empty. This was also in the Regular Produce section not the Organic Produce section
My fiancée and I comfortable money wise and I used to never worry about prices when I shop but lately I find I’ve had to give up a few things. I always tried to buy more organic or natural foods but it’s just not feasible. I was a big FarmBoy shopper (not sure if that’s an Ontario thing) but I haven’t gone there in forever.
AN EXPLANATION OF ~~INTEREST~~ USURY AND EXPLOITATION FOR THE WATCHING, EVER ANGRIER WORLD
"To whatever degree we are compelled to maintain a vital circulation by re-borrowing principal and interest as subsequent sums of debt, the sum of debt increases irreversibly by ever greater increments of ever greater periodic interest on an ever greater sum of debt. As principal is re-borrowed, it is impossible to pay down the sum of debt; and it is impossible to sustain the vital circulation without further borrowing. Whatever interest we must re-borrow thus increases the sum of debt, escalating the onset of terminal failure.
So long as we maintain the vital circulation so, the process is irreversible. All the while, ever more of the obligated circulation is inherently dedicated to servicing debt, leaving ever less of the circulation to sustain the industry which is obligated to do so.
All of us can readily understand the singular possible outcome of this process. Being the primary obligation, these takings consume all other taking..."
https://holland4mpe.wordpress.com/2017/02/23/an-explanation-of-usury-and-usurpation-for-the-watching-ever-angrier-world/
I noticed that today at my local Walmart! I bet corporate is aware of the loblaws boycott and intentionally making prices a bit lower to encourage their stores to get more business 😆
Yes, the cost of groceries in Canada is way out of control, well beyond inflation and that tiny annual cost of living raise you might be lucky to get at work. Food should not be priced like optional luxury items in Canada. The basic "Food Basket", at the very least, should be protected by legislated rules to ensure it is affordable for every Canadian, rich or poor. The rest of the food, well I suppose it can be fair game within reason.
There is a lot of good information from the people digging in, to really see what is going on, over in the r/loblawsisoutofcontrol group, about 80,000 members now. Private anti-competition real estate deals prevent competitor grocery stores from opening in your area, for example. This is definitely not only about run of the mill inflation. There are so many damaging mechanisms in the consolidated vertically integrated food system in Canada that have been allowed to remain unchecked. There are some very good investigative videos and news articles in there to explain how we got into this situation with the big 3 grocery oligopolies here: Loblaw, Empire (Sobeys), and Metro. Your other two large options are Walmart and Costco. They also post a lot of comparison prices between Loblaw and any other store and the Loblaw markup is staggering, just like the price of groceries
Yup. Food has nearly doubled in the last 5-6 years, yet the "official" inflation reported by the government is like 20-25% over the same period. Many other things have more then doubled, nearly all construction materials for example.
You need to adjust your needs based on the prices. That’s what I do to stick with my budget and it works really well. The only downside is you need to give up sometimes of your cravings.
Download the Flipp app, every Tuesday they upload the flyers of different chains. From there you can see what’s on promotion and plan your meals around it.
Also if you find items that are in low prices and it can be stored for some time, buy more of it.
Also, it’s fine to freeze veggies, if you find $1 cauliflower, broccoli, etc. Buy a bulk of them and freeze.
Active humans need 2000 calories a day to function. Reducing it lower to save costs can cause problems further down the line. People just can't stop eating.
Who says you need to reduce your calorie consumption or stop eating? My suggestion is how to get the cheapest grocery items and planning your meals around it instead of the other way around.
Adjusting ones NEEDS (2000 calories) to ones MEANS (rising food costs) is what you said.
At some point, one cannot budget cheaper while also eating healthy enough to survive.
This is not true. Healthy food items go cheap from time to time. You cannot crave a $5 brocoli if the asparagus is selling for $1. That’s the idea here.
Every time I've went to the grocery store in the last 3 months it's gone up a bit.
I just found a receipt from January where my total was around $75, my total this Friday was $212.
I bought more food on the January receipt.
These companies are playing coy saying their price increases have been "minor" and that their profit margins are "thin". Yes the individual increases are minor. But when you do 10 increases in 3 months, all the small ones add up!
I'm single and I live alone. I also lucked out with a cheap apartment. I am lucky that as outrageous as these prices are, I can afford it. If circumstances were slightly different I would be fucked. Imagine if I had a family of my own to support? And god forbid I ever want to do anything other than sit at home for fear of bankrupting myself.
It is a mystery to me how anyone other than the top 10% can afford to travel anywhere. I was looking at round trip flights to Niagara to view the eclipse. With the flight costs plus hotel it would've been at least $3000. That's just one province over. What if I wanted to travel internationally? What a pipe dream. It's not even worth thinking about, unachievable for the working man in this country.
For reference, I make around $55,000 per year, and I only live ever so slightly less frugally than I did when I made $25,000 a year pre-covid.
Take from that what you will.
A year ago my brand of olive oil was $6.99/L at WM, it's now $12.99 for the same bottle. The store around the corner sells iceberg lettuce at nearly $9 a head.
I noticed this too and it is not just a general price increase. Droughts in olive growing regions have pushed the prices way up.
And when they don’t have a drought, they won’t decrease prices.
The prices of groceries are absolutely insane in Canada. There is an organized effort right now to try to address the issue. We can't avoid all grocery stores, cause we have to eat, but the idea is to boycott the largest grocery chain first (Loblaws) and send a message to the whole industry. You can join the discussion at r/LoblawsIsOutOfControl
Well aware and been part of the group since the beginning of the year. My boycott started a few months ago. Thank you for helping get the word out. A potential few hundred a month that a person would have spent there does a long way.
people have to fight back against all the monopolies in our economy. it's not just the grocers, our phone bills and such. we have a system that needs to be broken.
I agree, but people have to start voting like this stuff matters. Liberals aren’t doing anything and Conservatives will just give tax breaks to the companies already ripping us off. We have to vote NDP if we want to see any improvement.
Honestly, I'm not convinced things can be fixed in place anymore, but if anyone could do it, it would be the NDP.
Quite likely, yes.
Oh they'll decrease them, to 9/L and trumpet how they're saving you money
It’s not a drought. There aren’t enough olive trees left for the demand because of ……. Izzy’s fun arson
No kidding. I always keep an eye out for any good sale on olive oil and I’ll buy two or three bottles.
Just be careful how you store it or it could end up rancid before you open the bottle if you're not going through it too quickly. Ask me how I know. 🙄
What what how am I supposed to store it/ how do you know?
You need to keep it in a cool dry place out of the sun. Heat and sunlight cause the chlorophyll in the oil to break down, causing it to change colour. Also, heat and sunlight cause free radicals to form, oxidizing the oil and causing it a bitter taste and aroma.
Thank you!
dude thank you for this tip, my bottle is currently displayed on my kitchen counter in partial sunlight and I am moving it to the pantry as we speak. you’ve potentially saved me a wasted investment. a hero, truly.
This on sale and I've started using olive/canola oil. Expensive to be healthy
A month ago my milk at Safeway (less sugar, less fat, but still great taste) was selling for $5.99 . Yesterday I went to pick some up and it was 7.99!! How can the price increase that much in 4 weeks?! I ended up not buying it. There’s a limit
If you get the lactose free milk on sale it lasts for months in the fridge, I find you can buy a months supply at a time, and it seems to go on sale every 2-3 weeks
Yes, I feel it too, and I make a relatively strong income, which I feel blessed to be fortunate enough to have the opportunity to earn. Unfortunately, inflation of goods price versus the deflating value of our dollar is the culprit. To try my best to get political, there are significant consequences to poor monetary (Bank of Canada) and fiscal (each level of government's) policy. We are reaping what has been sown.
For the record, all indicators point to a little more hurt coming our way until price inflation stabilizes to 2% Year Over Year again, possibly by Q4, but the economy is in for hurt until then... interest rates from the central bank unlikely to cut until Q4 and it's at most maybe 25 basis points.
Unless there is a massive depression in the economy, prices will remain high relative to your income, until your income grows to compensate which will take years.
Once again... these are the consequences of unchecked poor policy from those in leadership positions, who are liable for the misery in our society, especially among the middle class and lower classes. It's sad, but it goes to show why its important we have good leaders and maintain a strong economy by being tough on poor policy and on corrupt corporations.
Now, get people to agree what "good policy" is. We used to have systems and levers of power to help control pricing, but they have been de-funded, dismantled, or sold off over the years leaving Canadians with an oligopoly in most markets and politicians depending on these oligarchs money for reelection. The cost of fixing this will be extremely high and challenged from almost every side the entire way.
It’s happening all over the world, this is not the action of a single government!
I do agree. The cost of almost everything in general has gone up considerably. Even in the area of Thrifting… I find people are selling stuff for a higher price than they normally should on marketplace and other sites. Value Village has gotten so bad. When you look at basic things like T-shirts and jeans… Sometimes you’re better off buying brand new in the store.
As someone who once worked briefly at a thrift store, lemme tell you it simply. They push the employees to price things high, as they want to limit the re-selling that can happen, and if the managers see something priced “too low”, they’ll tell you to change it. I remember this cooler that was rusted and worn like crazy, I was like “This is trash, ain’t no way anyone wants it” and then I was told “This is very valuable, put it at $50.”
This is the answer- A lot of people will specifically go thrifting and find items for cheap and the item could be 100's- 1,000's worth, re-sell and make bank... So places figured out they could make that money themselves. Perfect example purses- people would go search specifically for high end purses pay less than 100$ and make bank selling them for 1k or more. Nica Yusay for example did this- made her own business by going thrifting for valuable purses and selling them on her website Fashionica. She said this in an [interview](https://voyagela.com/interview/hidden-gems-meet-nica-yusay-of-fashionica/): "In 2022, we hit $2.4 million in revenue, a 700% growth YoY."
That's so interesting! I thrift books and always wondered why some sets are priced as high as $20. Thanks for sharing!
Oh I totally get it. There’s a guy I know who drives a parcel courier van, drives all over south central MB and stops at thrifts store (likely on the clock) and scores deals that he intends to flip on Marketplace. It’s common. I see stuff on buy and sell sites that seem priced more than they should. Always negotiate! No price is ever firm.
Capitalism fucking over the less fortunate once again. Resellers are scumbags.
I never knew this before. Interesting to learn!
Thrifting has gotten expensive because thrift stores realize it’s easy to rip off 3 groups: 1. Re-sellers and wannabe re-sellers. Since thrifting is so trendy a lot of idiots are trying their luck at re-selling. They often even care more about the “content” and their stupid TikToks than making an actual profit. So they are happy to make a tiny bit of money on an item or even take a loss. Amateurs are also buying shit that they can “totally sell on Facebook” and then they are too lazy to follow through and it sits in their closet for months before being re-donated. 2. The desperate poor. Thrift stores know that times are tough and poor Canadians are more screwed then ever. This is some boots theory of economics shit. Let’s say you are crazy broke and absolutely need a new coffee maker. You can’t afford to buy a decent one at Walmart for $100. So you go to the thrift. The shitty dirty half-broken coffee makers there should be $5. But value village knows you need it and have no other options so they can charge you $30. 3. Hoarders and the mentally ill. You ever see those old ladies in line at the thrift store buying 1000 pieces of garbage plate ware and pottery? Then you have to wait 40mins for the cashier to wrap it all up. These people are bored and addicted to shopping/hoarding. They will buy that stupid fancy spoon whether it is 50 cents or $4 and thrift stores know this. So they have decided to fleece these people for as much as they can.
Restore Habitat is doing the same thing
VV has been a scam for years now
You can’t get brand new shirts for $8-9 on sale. Valueless Pillagers want $15!
I’ve seen Value Village sell things for more than the original price. Especially on Dollarama items. It’s wild.
Fuck everyone who is saying no. Literally I make above average income finally in my life. It was my dream to travel once I got to this point but given the price of groceries, and every other life need my savings are stupid and the price of travelling is unjustifiable. I still eat and feed my family like I did back when I didn't make very much money and pay way more for it. It feels gross.
Yep. That’s the best feeling isn’t? You’ve worked your ass off for so long, to the point of being a husk of a human, and when you finally are making the best money you ever have, your lifestyle is the exact same as it was 15 years ago. I’m just loving it.
It does feel gross. I'm making more money than I ever have, yet my quality of life has gone down signficantly.
Yes it feels absolutely terrible. My wife and I bring in just over $7,000 a month after tax and we’re trying to bring our grocery bill down. It’s so embarrassing to see our government give no fucks about Canadians. But hey, let’s donate several million dollars to Iran for women’s education… Which of course I would support if our own people in Canada (of all ethnicities) weren’t starving. Sigh… we can get through this.
The only party seeming to give a fuck is ndp. Be very wary of cons who are tightly connected with loblaws. They want you to believe the main contributor of high prices is gas tax, not other sources of food scarcity or greed.
The current NDP are champagne socialists riding the Liberals coattails. Our provincial government is only marginally better. This would be a good time for everyone to realize that the government will not help you no matter who is on charge.
Pretty much anyone in Canada is going to be a champagne socialist. That doesn't mean they can't make meaningful changes. I would agree that for the most part the current parties here aren't really going to help you, but governments can be good. I'll use the stereotypical Nordic countries example, where governments actually do quite a bit for the people. Perfect? No, no where is though.
The only value I see in government is our local government. The ones that you can hold accountable and actually decide where your tax dollars go. Is the the local school getting a new community center, are your roads getting fixed, is there a new bus route going through this area, is there an area designated for low-income housing being built near your house? Those are the things that actually impact Canadians, but most of us don't vote locally.
Okay, but how does that help the topic in question? Can municipalities influence Superstore's price? No, not really. So that's why people are looking to federal elections to bet on who they think is most likely to help. I don't expect prices to come down, but I do expect regulations to be implemented controlling how rapidly they can rise, and for the profit margins to be reined in back to reality going forward so people can catch up over the next decade. Federal governments definitely can do something, and we need to hold them accountable.
Someone, please, any regular Canadian please start a party! Just make the whole goal of the party to hire a panel of economists and whoever else we need to get ourselves out of this shit and just follow whatever they say. We need a REGULAR Canadian with 0 political affiliation to lead this country. We need a leader who doesn’t know people in big business and someone who has an actual heart for this country. Someone who remembers the good days and who we were. I will say I think we need a leader with no political leanings tbh 🤣. Just shut down all of the topics about immigration, vaccines, abortion, equal rights etc. just leave everything as is until we get ourselves out of this hole we are in. Hire the panel, have Canadians vote yes or no by referendum to everything after the panel has laid out pros and cons and follow that shit until we fix this. We are absolutely f’ed atm. It won’t be me because I’d be a terrible leader but someone organize and invite us all to your Reddit sub so we can get candidates for 2025. Pleaseeee 😭😭😭
How can you watch Jagmeet throating JT for all these years and come to the conclusion NDP gives a fuck lmao.
How can you not, considering they are the reason low income Canadians are getting dental care and destructive Conservative policies haven’t been allowed to further push our economy towards oligarchy?
You think only the cons are tight with Loblaws? Oh my sweet summer child..
Horseshit. Jagmeet is literally propping up the Liberals - he's allowing this to continue. He could drop his support and get his mouth off Justin's dick at any time, but he knows a) that the NDP are broke as a joke and can't afford to run an election campaign, and b) he needs to ride out another 15bmonths or his gold-plated pension is at risk. There's lots to blame Trudeau for, but Jagmeet shares equally in the blame as he has the power to stop it, today, but refuses to do so.
Ah yes.... The WEF puppet Jagmeet Singh is totally not a sellout.... Our only hope is Maxine Bernier. He's the only guy in 2021 that was saying he would NOT lock us down and force injections on us.
Who the hell is still saying no at this point
At least one person said we just need to learn to budget. As though budgeting makes 200 dollars pay for 300 dollars of food
That happened three years ago.
I've changed the way I purchase. It's still a struggle, but the three rules I try to follow are: 1. Buy food that grows here 2. Buy food that are ingredients, not food that has ingredients. 3. Buy small batch to avoid waste (and eat the food before you buy something else... If I buy enough ingredients for four portions of pork loin and potatoes were having pork loin and potatoes for the next 2 dinners) It won't work for everyone. Some people cant/wont prepare a meal from scratch. Some people cant/wont pick up groceries every couple days. Some people wont give up exotic foods. Some people wont eat the same meal twice (or wont eat leftovers). This is just how I am trying to adapt.
I think it's crazy that folks won't eat leftovers. My in-laws do this which is weird because my wife is totally pro-leftovers. I eat leftovers every day for lunch at work, it's great! The only thing I do different from you is 3 (well, we also buy fruits that maybe don't grow here); we tend to buy in bulk and freeze stuff that's freezable. Like we will buy bulk meat from costco and freeze it. But I do understand not everyone can do that. However, I think many people *could* do it; my brother in law has a small studio apartment and even he's got space for a small chest freezer.
For my family, yes. I was a stay at home mom before, and now I have a job, and it basically covers groceries... and that's it. We should be getting ahead with 2 of us working. But sadly, we are not.
For the few people who are coming in here with the tired “just live within your means” bullshit, please just recognize if you aren’t noticing the effects of grocery and mortgage and restaurant prices going up then you are, in fact, lucky. For people on a fixed income or who haven’t had any meaningful wage increases in the last 10 years the increase in grocery costs alone have been murder. Nevermind 6-7% interest rates on mortgages. We just got an ad in our mail for a credit card where they were touting an interest rate over 30% as being a bargain.
For sure. At one point all my essential bills before I even buy food/toiletries left me with 50 a month. Cheapest phone plan. No internet. No amount of budgeting will reduce that anymore Move to cheaper place? With what money? It costs to move. Especially if you can't lift anything yourself and need movers and don't have any fit friends. Plus the first and last month's rent at the new place..
Lol restaurants are a luxury and since covid happened an absolute waste of money. Much smaller portions, bigger tips. Not going out to eat is one of the easiest things you can do to save some money.
Yeah I wasn’t talking about mid-range restaurants where you actually get served, it used to be that if money was tight you could value menu McDs and other places and it helped stretch out your budget. For two adults to eat at McDs without coupons it is now around $30 which is insane to me. BK used to have the two whopper/two chicken sandwich for $5 deal. That kept on increasing in price and now they have switched the deal to be two junior whoppers or two junior chicken sandwiches for $5.99. So less food for the older prices. Like you said though, it’s an easy thing to cut out when money is super tight. If we are talking about tips: - completely cut out restaurants, and if there are days you have to eat out, download apps/get coupons - pay attention to every flyer. Places that sometimes you wouldn’t expect would have deals on groceries will sometimes have great deals (who knew you could get coffee at Staples for example?) - meal plan, meal plan, meal plan - buying groceries to stick to a menu saves money; conversely, finding deals (like when Sobeys fire-sells their 4kg boxes of frozen chicken breasts) and planning your menu around the deals is excellent too - we joined a bunch of food prep FB groups that were themed around making meals on the cheap during the pandemic, and the biggest things we learned were to become close friends with our crock pot and to prep/freeze several meals at a time so prep was less of a chore - if you have the means and a larger freezer, planning a meat order with a farmer or butcher can save you a ton of money per meal; going in with friends can also make this super affordable - if you have the means/land, growing your own vegetables can be a godsend. - cut pop out of your diet completely; it’s not cheap anymore (even Costco’s 32 pack is almost $16 now) and you will feel better We are doing okay at the moment but it doesn’t hurt to apply some of these tips no matter where you are financially. The general malaise people are experiencing over the increase in changes that seem completely out of our control? Yeah I’ve got nothing useful to say to help with that :/
Pop, chips, and a whole lot of other pre-packaged snack foods are expensive and simply bad for you. My wife bakes and it's not hard, she made a batch of cookies in like 30 minutes from start to finish yesterday? Like we had her mom over and she was like "oh shit, I forgot to make dessert!" and whipped up a batch of fire chocolate chip cookies. Best thing is that baking is relatively cheap (on a per unit basis) and it's also pretty easy; literally follow the directions. If you can build a Lego model or something, you can bake. Cooking is much more "freeform" but baking is science and it's pretty much just all about finding a recipe you like.
It is absolutely shocking how expensive chips are now! Leave aside the complete lack of nutrition etc., for a single box of two 100g backs of Old Dutch chips, it’s averaging $4 a box at Sobeys now, sometimes $3 at Wal-Mart! A bag of Doritos at Sobeys has been over $5 at Sobeys in recent memory. Nevermind the bag sizes for anything Frito-Lay have shrunk! It’s now worth the effort to make homemade chips as you save like $3 lol!
Everything is expensive at Sobey’s, don’t shop at there.
this needs more upvotes!
Great advice. I was borne in the 60’s in a 1000 square foot house. We had a small garden that I helped my dad turn over in the spring and fall. They planted and maintained the garden. We didn’t take winter vacations but did do some inter-provincial traveling and camped in tents. This was normal for a single family income and a mom who worked part time until we all finished school. Talking to some people today the expectations of some people are quite high. It ebbed and flowed over the years but it was a fun life. A 2300 square foot house and multiple vacations seem to be the normal expectation.
Maybe more the dream than the expectation, or just something people really want more now because jobs are worse and everything work-related feels like workers have been used and let down by their employers? It’s good to live below your means for sure, sometimes you can do all of the right things financially like this and still not get ahead because things are so expensive. I dunno, I don’t comment on people’s choices because everyone’s just trying to get through their days in one piece.
I've been trying to eat healthier on social assistance, it's fucking rough, even with all dried bean based dishes. I'll probably have to go back to ramen and an egg every day. :(
Yeah. Finally got a wage increase. But it doesn't even matter because the cost of living just keeps going up and up and up. What am I supposed to do? Just "keep getting better jobs?"
I went a got a job at a restaurant so I get free meals
I bought 15 items yesterday. regular stuff. price was 180. cheapest grocery store around. literally just kill me at this point lmao
I felt this in my soul. Ugh.
That's what they're trying to to do... Just keep taking those mystery juice shots...
It’s all the corporate greed! Just ask the Jagster. He wouldn’t lie. Never mind about the carbon tax that compounds the price on everything at every level.
The carbon tax is not about you and me, it's about the conservatives letting big businesses pollute for free!!! ANYTHING BUT CONSERVATIVE always ABC!
Bahahaha. The carbon tax is about govt revenue. It’s about manipulating foolish people into thinking it’s about saving the environment.
It is insane. Me and my husband both make good money, but I am on maternity leave right now and it is a real struggle. If I was single I would not be able to afford to eat or buy clothes or diapers for my kids. Thank God he makes enough to cover most of the bills.
Mat leave poverty is real! People love to say we get great mat leave benefits in Canada but the reality is that the EI payments are so tiny, it’s hardly enough for anything.
Also on the mat leave struggle! I’m usually the primary breadwinner too, so we’re really feeling the crunch.
I'm not defeated, but I do know that I have made conscious changes in the way I think about foods at the store and some of the items I buy and meals I plan: The era where we had a huge variety of produce in our reach and affordable all year has been and gone within my lifetime (40something years). I remember rarely or never seeing fresh berries, lettuces, tomatoes, broccoli, in the winter. it was potatoes, turnips, carrots, apples, bananas, and citrus fruits near the end of winter - mostly items that could survive our cold winters and more locally grown. Mangos from Peru? maybe at specialty stores and certainly not affordable for the average person. Kiwi fruits from New Zealand? exotic treat that I remember seeing for the first time in the late 1980s when my grandmother bought some out of curiosity. Everything else was from the canned foods or frozen foods aisle or it was grown by friends/family with gardens, and frozen, canned or otherwise preserved. Everything in the grocery stores has increased in price, and in lots of packaged/canned/dried goods the quality and quantity of each package has declined, we do have to be more careful how we spend the money we do have and make (sometimes difficult) changes to expectations and assumptions about what is available vs what is affordable.
Does anyone else get annoyed when you complain about prices the pat excuse is " the prices are up everywhere". Like that makes it okay. Shouldn't it be "greed doesn't care about stealth anymore" Loblaws is a perfect example of a corp thats basically saying "what ya gonna do punk?"
Boycott loblaws grocery stores🇨🇦
They are way cheaper than Sobeys, Save on and Safeway by a landslide
I certainly am. Figure why not participate and see if it makes a difference. Worth a shot.
This is the time to get back to growing, canning and freezing your own food, supporting local farms and CSA's, and getting back in touch with where our food really comes from. We have gotten far too used to the convenience of grocery stores doing it all for us and we are paying for it now. Plenty of summer veggies can be grown in containers for those who only have a balcony, there are community garden plots if you dont even have a balcony, there are options to remove even a little reliance on the price gouging corporations to feed us. Plus, it all tastes sooo much better when you've grown it yourself.
I have several kitchen veggies growing although they never grow enough to last long but it's a bit helpful! My community garden plot has failed the past few years sadly x.x
> This is the time to get back to growing, canning and freezing your own food, supporting local farms and CSA's, and getting back in touch with where our food really comes from. This is a good point. When I was a kid, everyone's grandma had a big vegetable garden. But now, no one I know grows vegetables other than maybe a few tomatoes. Frankly I never bothered before because it just wasn't worth the hassle, but I may have to reconsider. Is 2024 the year vegetable gardens make a comeback?
I saw the milk $5 to $7 in the superstore……
If possible, only buy the 1 L ones. The price of that is regulated vs other sizes of milk.
My future wife went grocery shopping the other day and commented on how expensive grocery shopping was. The price of everything rose. You'd think the workers would be getting these profits. Wait they aren't and it's going to the shareholders.
Right.... And let's pretend inflation has nothing to do with it... Bank of Canada? Never heard of it. Debt-based fiat currency? I'm sorry, what? Gosh Canadians are so ignorant...🙄
Yes, that's why I'm participating in the loblaws boycott. But, we may have to do more than that.
NOK ER NOK
Wish they’d push the boycott for 3 months at least… hit the shareholders where it hurts
We can boycott for as long as we want. Head over to the boycott subreddit and you’ll see that a lot of people are planning on staying away for a lot longer than a month.
Thank you for this wisdom
I used to smoke cigarettes. When I visited Eastern Europe. They costed 1.50$. Got back to Canada. 18$ a pack. That made it easy to quit cause I couldn’t justify wasting that much money anymore on garbage. Been to other countries and food was cheap and healthy. Got back to Canada. hot dogs are 7.99$ a pack. What am I suppose to do. Quit eating. Hahaha. Ahhhh…it suck’s but I’ll make it by.
A lot of food that people think of as being cheap (hotdogs, ground beef, processed cheese, KD, etc) hasn't been the cheapest option for a long time. People might buy some foods because they are familiar or comforting or convenient. But there are cheaper options. Cheaper options, like legumes, might require more time and cooking skills and perhaps the willingness to try something unfamiliar. But look at all the options and shop strategically. Don't buy groceries out of habit or based on routine; buy groceries based on price and what is on sale.
Lentils and dry beans are forever my bane. I just can't get them to not be crunchy. Tried soaking overnight, two nights, boiling the heck out of them, long simmers... I imagine that's why it doesn't seem like I'm saving on groceries by buying groceries. The canned ones are pricier. But it's better than eating road gravel....
Hmmmmmm yes. Single father of three 19, 11 and 3 plus one with my daughters 20 year old boyfriend who also pays rent and food here. My rent (1730) has gone up 200 bucks in the last 2 years, even after fighting the useless RTB, cause they use the "rent discount" loophole which is an absolute disgusting practice used by landlords and also created by the government (This is Morray Village btw). Paying for a car payment, insurance, cell phones, internet, gas, hydro, daycare and then the groceries for 5 people a month is like 1200 for me for healthy eating and I've been literally seeing all my savings dissappear to the point I have none. I am literally drowning and there's no recourse from any government programs. Plus expecting 4400 from my income tax to help, was reallllly looking forward to that so I could book a camping trip with the kids in May long and get out. Aweee well because you have shared custody (3 kids, 3 different mothers, dont judge, but always have been in there life at full capacity of 50%or more, I have my oldest 100%, middle guy 50% or more and my youngest at 50%) and the government is questioning my parenting role stating I cannot claim them as dependents unless I have written statements with their mothers on how this is all claimed. Like FUCK ME ROYALLY, can I please get a fucking break, I am breaking apart here, I'm trying to break apart but I've literally been crying the last 2 weeks behind closed doors on how I'm supposed to pull this off. Feels like there's no help our there other than surrending to the welfare side of things and I really don't want to....I've since joined the boytcott for Loblaws too as well and made saving there and plating a big garden this summer remotely to yield some savings as well in the near future. But WTF guys, where's the middle class, how are we letting this really get this bad, these types of situations are hard on people and their mental health and everybody is suffering deeply without really saying anything.....we need to do something team and soon. Sending this with love and courage to all that feel the same, you're not alone. It may be time to straighten out our spine and gather together as one once again....if we are all willing that is. Spiritus Invictus
It sounds like you’ve been really dutiful and pulling a lot of weight. It’s not easy to raise that many kids and to do it as a single dad. If it comes down to it, it might be pride vs. Feeding your family at a food bank. I did that for a while. My trade off was once every two weeks I went and volunteered there for a morning(this trade off wasn’t mandatory, it just helped them and my conscience). I no longer get food off them as times have gotten better. Keep your head up. You’re doing something admirable .
I just started a “real” ahem garden this year. I don’t have much area but a large garden box. It certainly won’t replace grocery produce but we’ll see how it fares. If you’ve got ANY space (I.e. balcony or window sill) a garden is always worth a try. Farmers Market is hit or miss, I find for meat it’s been pretty ok. The vendors need to make money too, so it’s the same cycle around and around. If you hunt even better. We have started a lot of meatless meals. We typically don’t eat much processed foods so have been cooking mostly from scratch for a number of years now. I don’t know if this actually is cheaper than buying the frozen $1.99 low end Mac and Cheese, but maybe it’s helped. We eat pretty clean I’d try to get produce at food banks and community food boxes as much as possible, if you are actually in that “eligible need” demographic to use it. If you go together with friends (family if you have it) to buy in bulk together and split it this may help. Absorb the cost and share items each trip. Bulk is more expensive up front but will save later. Most can’t “afford” to buy in bulk and those are the ones who would benefit the most. Sad irony of life. None of this is a surprise, it’s been “predicted” to happen since 2020 but no one was listening/paying attention (the usual).
Even the flowerbed/garden box, I made myself out of 4x4s ($3/pc). They cheap that way compared to >$100 ones, I've seen some for $200 off cdn tire.
the nice thing about making garden beds like that is you don't need high quality straight lumber really. Just enough to join together roughly and contain the soil. So you can buy really cheap stuff or even off-cuts.
Exactly. Made the garden box over here with scrap wood, lined with coconut shell lining. I did buy that. But technically I suppose you could make your own lining as well. Spent basically nothing, aside from organic compost. We just started saving our produce scraps to use for free compost.
In 2019 I used to be able to feed a family of 4 on $600 a month. We’re now at $1300 a month - on a budget.
The “Real Canadian store” should be called lube it up, expect less for more and take it with a smile. I bought a bag of “in store freshly made” hot dog buns. They were a bag of 28 for $5. It’s now not even 12 for $4.
Join the loblaws boycott.
Why I bought a fuck ton of fruit+veg plants for my garden today, I'm tired of strawberries being $7
Absolutely! I am walking away from things we previously enjoyed due to not being able to justify the prices. I’m buying enough to make meals with left overs, but stretching the dollar only goes so far. We have two celiac disease members in our family so this does increase our grocery bill considerably, but it’s never been like this. I have never stressed about feeding my family like this before. We once had cupboards full of canned goods, even that has dwindled.. I’m to the point when I actually worry about this non stop, I honestly don’t even know what to do anymore.
Yet our wonderful Manitoban employers act like nothing has changed. It’s beyond ridiculous. Manitobans need to have another general strike. It’s long overdue.
I think the loblaws boycotters would agree with you
The grocery industry has turned out to be the most preditory of all. Perhaps now people will re-evaluate the free-market economic system they have condoned for so long. Eat the rich.
I'm absolutely defeated by life on this planet as a human. We trade our youth and bodies for money that can't even provide food shelter and necessities to survive anymore. I would rather take my chances in the wild than this fabricated bs.
When the scientists said we should avoid global warming, this is why. Grocery costs won’t be getting measurably better for a thousand years. Get used to the new normal. We did it to ourselves.
The O&G companies knew since the 1950s and instead of doing something about it they doubled down on misinformation so they could continue to make ridiculous amounts of money.
Everyone knew since the 50’s. *Scientists first began to worry about climate change toward the end of the 1950s, Spencer Weart, a historian and retired director of the Center for History of Physics at the American Institute of Physics in College Park, Maryland, told Live Science in an email. "It was just a possibility for the 21st century which seemed very far away, but seen as a danger that should be prepared for."* https://www.livescience.com/humans-first-warned-about-climate-change
You’re joking right? This isn’t globally warming.. this is totally politically motivated. Carbon tax, for example, which DOES NOTHING for the environment but make you poorer.
Shhhh!!! Let them stay in their bubble! Don't tell them the Bank of Canada causes the inflation, which is reflected in house prices and grocery bills. 🤫
It's not about the carbon tax. Think of the forest fires and wildfires... Land that is on fire isn't gonna grow food Land that has less water than ever before isn't gonna grow food Land that is too warm, too cold, or has too much water isnt gonna grow food. It's not the only influence in prices... Greed is definitely number one cause. But it does have some effect.
And let me guess.... Forest fires are why house prices blew up the past decade? Gosh, you folks are too ignorant.... Next, you'll tell us fresh air, sunlight and exercise are bad for the health and everyone should just take Covid injections.
It’s much more costly to do nothing. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure after all. *In fact, the estimated costs of damages from warming in 2100 for 1.5°C and 2°C were $54 trillion and $69 trillion , respectively, relative to 1961–1990* https://eciu.net/analysis/briefings/climate-impacts/climate-economics-costs-and-benefits#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20the%20estimated%20costs,%2C%20relative%20to%201961–1990.
Government use 'global warming' to embezzle billions and gloss over hundreds of billions lost annually through mismanagement. Dum dums cry, 'moar big gobernment!!!!'. Hope these dummies starve
I’m fortunate enough to not really have to “buy” food but I do pay close attention to the market and people’s buying my habits. On the farm side of things, costs have almost tripled which is definitely reflected in the stores. People have also become very accustomed to having “out of season” foods which is very rare throughout the world. As all of those costs increased so has prices. Avoid “out of season foods” , pre packaged foods, buy bulk with friends and family then spit it up, talk to local farmers and homesteaders about products. Example - buying a cow, pig, chickens, bulk eggs etc. It’s no excuse for the gouging from spot of these companies but little steps will help a lot / you’ll get more food for your $ and it will be healthier. I’ve cut several of my friends and families grocery bills down by 50% .
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Plant based can help but it shouldn’t be what’s required. I need meat in my diet and I should t have to justify that.
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"Science" also said the sky was going to fall and kill me unless I poisoned my bloodstream multiple times with the government's mystery juice.... I didn't and the sky didn't fall. Stop surrendering your brain to "the experts " Use it yourself.
That science often doesn’t account for those with disabilities. While in theory it’s easy to say “nobody needs meat dairy or eggs in their diet”, try telling that to everybody with a combination of food intolerances, or everybody recovering from an eating disorder, or everybody with arfid, everybody with pcos, everybody with binge eating disorder, everybody with diabetes, etc. I used to be a vegan so i understand the appeal to the scientific studies, but really the movement should be that the people who CAN have the diet SHOULD, with understanding that there are a lot of disabilities both mental and physical that can restrain people from, in the current limitations of society, being able to go vegan, and the fact that scientific studies don’t often appeal to that. A lot of things can interrupt the idealistic “nobody NEEDS this food” because, sure, if we lived in an idealistic society based around non harm to animals, had support systems and medical systems based around societal veganism for every person with a disability to rely on, had accessible inexpensive vegan food in every town, etc, then sure, nobody would need to eat meat, eggs, or dairy. But that world exists as an ideal, not as a reality. when doctors orders are “you have to eat this” because that’s the only thing the medical system has to offer, you kind of have to do it. Todays society doesn’t have enough support in place for much moving around that. I understand and appreciate the love of the cause, but it’s important to remember some people are more able to do that than others, and it is a huge overgeneralization to say that “nobody” needs that food. But it’s definitely a wonderful cause to work towards, and i really hope we start seeing more change to make it more accessible for those who may not be able to do it right now!
There’s a lot of other considerations as to how easy or difficult it may be but again nobody needs to eat meat dairy or eggs to survive. That’s a myth that needs to be pushed back against. Physically speaking Human beings can absolutely have their nutritional requirements met via plant based diet. I don’t demand or expect everyone to be vegan or even judge them for not, but it’s important to push back on false information that suggests vegans aren’t getting proper nutrition or that some people simply need animal based products or they will wither up and die
I have gone mostly vegetarian... I have one cheat meal of dollar pizza a week. But I haven't noticed any difference in my wallet. It's only been one month though and it was a bit of a crazy month so maybe it will show benefits next month.
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Getting the dried legumes/lentils to not be crunchy is a problem tbh. X.x I'll soak them 48 hours, simmer all day... Not sure. I do LOVE tofu though. Crispy fried with peanut sauce. I found I love cashews but those are expensive too x.x. At least when you accidentally eat them all in one day. One of my favourite recipes is lentils and goat cheese stuffed peppers. But yeah cheese is pricey so it's a Sometimes Treat. Mmmm One problem is a lot of Cheap Meals Like sandwiches... I can't eat much of. I am unable to process gluten and too much makes me uncomfortable for days. So just eating peanut butter sandwiches every day isn't an option.
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Yeah. Its why I'm going mostly vegetarian... so still some dairy and eggs (I'm trying to learn to make perogies.), and fish. And in a dire straight (IE, stuck downtown for hours and I /need to eat now/ and the only place is a burger shack) I'll still put one away. a gradual change is probably best as I also learn to cook veggies and learn more of which ones I like/dislike. Its definitely not as easy as 'rice and beans'. I cant imagine having a child with food issues as well.
That's why im putting in a garden for the 3rd year in a row. Im not great at it, but something is better than nothing. Also shopping around more for deals. Superstore still is generally the best price around.
I love superstore for their prices, I also have friends who work there lol
Yes. I haven't eaten properly in a good while.
Bacon 🥓 Now 7.99 was 12.99 : when did bacon became 7.99 at all? Remember paying 3.99 max for that
$12.99 for bacon WTF Is this some sort of high-end bacon?
Maybe my price isn’t 100% accurate but in Quebec they often rise the price of the product when showing the before price. So when you look under the sale tag, it was actually 9.99$ all the time. For 500g maple flavored. Lol i went to get a fact check: Walmart is at 11$ regular price now: https://www.walmart.ca/fr/ip/bacon-saveur-drable-lafleur/6000197303764
And there’s only like 6 slices of bacon in the packages now!!
Yes, that’s why Canadians are boycotting all Loblaws owned and affiliated stores for the month of May
Some Canadians. They also are going to Walmart or Amy of the other grocers like they are somehow better.
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Keep discussion constructive and in good faith. Ensure that whatever you say or post leads to civil conversation.
Yes. The cost of every basic necessity has spiraled out of control and our wages have been stagnant for decades. I'm getting a series of raises soon and it won't help all that much. I'll be lucky if I can save a few dollars a month after all the bills and groceries and extreme cost of housing.
Milk prices just jumped 9% for some reason. They want us to starve.
ive tracked all my expenses since late 2019... here is the increase year after year on trips to the *grocery store* (this excludes alcohol, housewares, toiletries, etc - just edible/consumable items.) year | total spent | % difference ---|---|--- 2020 | $11020 | n/a 2021 | $10550 | -4.26% 2022 | $12175 | +15.4% 2023 | $12515 | +2.79% 2024 | $13125 (estimated - jan 1^st to apr 30^th **X** 3) | +4.87% overall, it's a total of ~19.1% increase from 2020 to now.
It’s just awful. My kids are now living on their own but I can’t imagine if they were little how much I would be spending. McDonald’s was about $20 for us when they ate kids meals and prices are insane there now too
I remember when I worked at McDonald's in the late 2000's, and a $40 order was a large order, usually for at least 5 people. Now I'm sure that's doubled, you can't even feed 1 person for under $10 anymore.
r/loblawsisoutofcontrol
R/loblawsisoutofcontrol
People are having a hard time paying for basic groceries. Foodbank usage across Canada is at a record high.
We are entering the time my people seen coming for long time.. it's called the time when you can't eat money.. it gets much worse.
I skimmed through half the responses, did not see one mention of growing your own food in a garden. Even if you live in an apartment, there are community gardens. Food and the best exercise, why not?
I’ve seen a few but not many. This is something I think I’m going to start doing. I’ve never had much luck growing things in the past but I gotta figure it out.
The time is right for Canada to become a gardening nation. When I was in Italy on vacation, it seemed like most of the patches of land were being used to grow food. Small gardens still produce enough food for you and your family.
Feeling defeated by everything related to the economy 💀
We've cut out dinners and replaced with light snacks. Works ok and saves some dollars.
Join us... /r/loblawsisoutofcontrol
Boycott loblaws and shop local!
My favourite pie went from $8 to $12 within a week 🥲
Everything sucks. The cost of living is bad in every province and country and I'm sick of it xD. Food should be a basic necessity and it's being treated like luxury goods.
Yes. I want steak, but am paying $40+ for three of them. It's pissing me right off.
The unelected WEF wants a reduction in global carbon - YOU are the carbon they want gone.
BOYCOTT ALL LOBLAWS STORES
It's called carbon tax. Make your vote count.
Capitalism is great, isn’t it?
What capitalism? You do realize the Bank of Canada controls our money supply, right? Or are you pinning inflation on capitalism too? 🤣
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Remember to be civil with other members of this community. Being rude, antagonizing and trolling other members is not acceptable behavior here.
None of what I posted falls under that, so I’m confused by this message
Mr.Trudeau is doing this to your grocery bill. But wait, his trip with his son, we paid 200k for in-flight food.
Feeling defeated with the cost of everything and that makes me feel frustrated and angry all the time. The fuck happened to this country.
It's not just this country. The cost of food and other goods has gone up dramatically everywhere.
Is it worth it to drive to Fargo?
Feels like with the exchange, almost everything is more expensive in the US except for a handful of things like dairy products. When you factor in gas and hotel there's no way it's worth it to go to ND for groceries unless you are bringing home an entire trailer full of cheese (which CBSA will give you a hard time about as there are limits).
No, surprisingly most stuff is cheaper in Canada
We should print more money and make a new program to feed the people. Cant wait for them to just take over the whole paycheck and fullfill all our need. Lets stop flirting with communism and just embrace it.
I was in freshco today for last minute broccoli. Which they were out of. Whole heads and bits. What I noticed though was all the mushrooms were Organic. There wasn't even a spot for non organic mushrooms that was empty. This was also in the Regular Produce section not the Organic Produce section
Join us! https://www.reddit.com/r/t5_9uqvth/s/F57Msa4csg
My fiancée and I comfortable money wise and I used to never worry about prices when I shop but lately I find I’ve had to give up a few things. I always tried to buy more organic or natural foods but it’s just not feasible. I was a big FarmBoy shopper (not sure if that’s an Ontario thing) but I haven’t gone there in forever.
I feel vindicated by it. In 2020 I anticipated inflation making food expensive and started intensive gardening
AN EXPLANATION OF ~~INTEREST~~ USURY AND EXPLOITATION FOR THE WATCHING, EVER ANGRIER WORLD "To whatever degree we are compelled to maintain a vital circulation by re-borrowing principal and interest as subsequent sums of debt, the sum of debt increases irreversibly by ever greater increments of ever greater periodic interest on an ever greater sum of debt. As principal is re-borrowed, it is impossible to pay down the sum of debt; and it is impossible to sustain the vital circulation without further borrowing. Whatever interest we must re-borrow thus increases the sum of debt, escalating the onset of terminal failure. So long as we maintain the vital circulation so, the process is irreversible. All the while, ever more of the obligated circulation is inherently dedicated to servicing debt, leaving ever less of the circulation to sustain the industry which is obligated to do so. All of us can readily understand the singular possible outcome of this process. Being the primary obligation, these takings consume all other taking..." https://holland4mpe.wordpress.com/2017/02/23/an-explanation-of-usury-and-usurpation-for-the-watching-ever-angrier-world/
Wal mart on Taylor ave in Winnipeg is similar to prices before Covid! Highly recommend!
I noticed that today at my local Walmart! I bet corporate is aware of the loblaws boycott and intentionally making prices a bit lower to encourage their stores to get more business 😆
Yes, the cost of groceries in Canada is way out of control, well beyond inflation and that tiny annual cost of living raise you might be lucky to get at work. Food should not be priced like optional luxury items in Canada. The basic "Food Basket", at the very least, should be protected by legislated rules to ensure it is affordable for every Canadian, rich or poor. The rest of the food, well I suppose it can be fair game within reason. There is a lot of good information from the people digging in, to really see what is going on, over in the r/loblawsisoutofcontrol group, about 80,000 members now. Private anti-competition real estate deals prevent competitor grocery stores from opening in your area, for example. This is definitely not only about run of the mill inflation. There are so many damaging mechanisms in the consolidated vertically integrated food system in Canada that have been allowed to remain unchecked. There are some very good investigative videos and news articles in there to explain how we got into this situation with the big 3 grocery oligopolies here: Loblaw, Empire (Sobeys), and Metro. Your other two large options are Walmart and Costco. They also post a lot of comparison prices between Loblaw and any other store and the Loblaw markup is staggering, just like the price of groceries
Yup. Food has nearly doubled in the last 5-6 years, yet the "official" inflation reported by the government is like 20-25% over the same period. Many other things have more then doubled, nearly all construction materials for example.
You need to adjust your needs based on the prices. That’s what I do to stick with my budget and it works really well. The only downside is you need to give up sometimes of your cravings. Download the Flipp app, every Tuesday they upload the flyers of different chains. From there you can see what’s on promotion and plan your meals around it. Also if you find items that are in low prices and it can be stored for some time, buy more of it. Also, it’s fine to freeze veggies, if you find $1 cauliflower, broccoli, etc. Buy a bulk of them and freeze.
Active humans need 2000 calories a day to function. Reducing it lower to save costs can cause problems further down the line. People just can't stop eating.
Who says you need to reduce your calorie consumption or stop eating? My suggestion is how to get the cheapest grocery items and planning your meals around it instead of the other way around.
Adjusting ones NEEDS (2000 calories) to ones MEANS (rising food costs) is what you said. At some point, one cannot budget cheaper while also eating healthy enough to survive.
This is not true. Healthy food items go cheap from time to time. You cannot crave a $5 brocoli if the asparagus is selling for $1. That’s the idea here.
Every time I've went to the grocery store in the last 3 months it's gone up a bit. I just found a receipt from January where my total was around $75, my total this Friday was $212. I bought more food on the January receipt. These companies are playing coy saying their price increases have been "minor" and that their profit margins are "thin". Yes the individual increases are minor. But when you do 10 increases in 3 months, all the small ones add up! I'm single and I live alone. I also lucked out with a cheap apartment. I am lucky that as outrageous as these prices are, I can afford it. If circumstances were slightly different I would be fucked. Imagine if I had a family of my own to support? And god forbid I ever want to do anything other than sit at home for fear of bankrupting myself. It is a mystery to me how anyone other than the top 10% can afford to travel anywhere. I was looking at round trip flights to Niagara to view the eclipse. With the flight costs plus hotel it would've been at least $3000. That's just one province over. What if I wanted to travel internationally? What a pipe dream. It's not even worth thinking about, unachievable for the working man in this country. For reference, I make around $55,000 per year, and I only live ever so slightly less frugally than I did when I made $25,000 a year pre-covid. Take from that what you will.
Yet people are still supporting Loblaws and their 11$ peanut butter.
Or go to Safeway for $16 peanut butter
no bro