I live in Oklahoma, a state where $7.25 minimum wage is still common… heck some pizza delivery joints, cough Papa John’s, still pay employees only $4.25 per hour when delivering pizza, which I think should be outlawed. Adjusted for inflation, minimum wage should fairly be about $13.25 per hour now; there hasn’t been an increase in like 13 years.
Anyways, my gripe is that eggs used to be 99 cents per dozen 6 months ago, and are now $3 per dozen – going up in price $1 per dozen in a single day starting the other day. I see the news saying egg prices are up 11% but for us they are up 200%!
We eat 8 eggs per day since we eat a low carb diet which has dramatically improved the health of both of us. So this amounts to an increase in price of over $500 per year for us in eggs alone. I fill my gas tank up every 3 months and spend about $350 per year on auto fuel. So the price increase in the eggs, for us, affects us more adversley than the increase in gas prices, by a factor of FOUR; the increase in price in eggs handily beats what we spend in inflation adjusted auto fuel for the entire year… that’s nuts.
I have no idea why Oklahoma is charging so much for eggs when this is such a poor state. I am hearing other people in many other states get their eggs for $1.49 per dozen or see sales for 53 cents per dozen still. I just don’t get it.
End of gripe.
I mentioned this on another financial forum (saving & retirement) and people couldn’t relate and started outright ridiculing me. Especially people who are vegan or think eggs are bad for your health. On the contrary I have extremely good lipids and a CAC score of zero; (CAC = Coronary Artery Calcium). Also, my diabetes has reversed from 10% A1C to just under 6%. All from quitting grains and sugary fruit. My BF lost 60 lbs without trying since we ditched grains and went from 36 waist to 30 – he’s over 50 so not a bad waist size for over 50. Since we don’t eat grains or sugary fruit, we can’t substitute in oatmeal or sugary fruit like some have suggested on the other forum.
I wish I knew of some store here in Oklahoma which currently has a good deal on eggs. I just can’t find any. Don’t know if anyone else is from here on this forum.
Tripling the price of a staple food is rough! My partner went low carb last year and he and my son (age 2.5) go through 6 eggs most days. For us, even at 3, now often 3.50/dozen eggs are still one of the cheapest parts of his diet. But if they tripled in price (I’d say we were at 2.89 previously) it would really hurt.
My brother’s family and I are all veggie and get a ridiculous produce box weekly/biweekly at a set cost. We’ve noticed that we’re getting about 1/3 less produce at a time of year that we should be seeing it increase. Which means more grocery store supplementing. I’m definitely nervous about our food bill relative to income, and current income is still generous
We also eat zillions of eggs per month. We buy mid range fancy - not the cheapest ones, but not the free range organic chickens who get cuddles every day. Ours are up about a dollar too, which is definitely having an impact on grocery spending.
What I also didn’t like was going to the grocery store on Monday and finding the entire chicken section empty. Not one breast, or tenderloin, or drumstick, or nugget. Nothing. It was fine, I can pivot my menu, but overall that does not tell me great things about the supply chain. I have never seen that before, even deep in Covid times, except WRT toilet paper.
We definitely had this recently in our supermarkets. My local butcher was able to restock daily from local abattoirs but the supermarkets that relies on eastern states chicken (I assume) were.completely cleared out.
I had a day where the grocery store was almost out of vegetables. Like my options were: bagged coleslaw, carrots, onions, potatoes and eggplant. Maybe garlic?
I’ve been thinking about getting chickens, but I heard fertilizer prices are up quite a bit and wondering how much the grain will cost now to feed them.
Yeah we’re experiencing that too. We get the bag of frozen chicken thighs for like $2.25 per pound from Aldi or Walmart. They’ve been out of stock the last several times we’ve went. People are definitely buying up the chicken as an alternative to beef prices I guess. Pork prices are still really good though in bulk at Sam’s Club. Today we are buying a case of boneless whole pork loin for $1.87/lb. Pork Butt is like $1.58/lb by the case.
Bird flu. In my area that is the explanation for egg and chicken shortages and increased prices. Multiple farms destroyed their entire flock because of outbreaks.
Yeah that’s why I hear but a lot of people are saying they get eggs for less than a dollar per dozen still in other parts of the country. Why is there such disparity? One would think the Avian flu would affect egg prices everywhere in the USA? I am starting to wonder if they raised prices by $1 per dozen, just before easter because they know people would buy a lot for easter egg hunts.
It’s wild how this varies from place to place. I paid $1.89 for a dozen eggs (granted, the cheapest ones and likely from abused chickens ) last weekend.
Tempted to stock up on everything from what you all are saying about grocery shortages. But if I did that then I’d be like everyone else and cause more shortages and further increase inflation. Gah.
) last weekend.