Prices of These 10 Foods Have Skyrocketed in the Past YearBy Daisy Luther Those of us who are strong believers in building a pantry tend to pay particular attention to the variations of the prices of specific foods since we strive to purchase items for our pantry when they are at their lowest points. (You can learn more about shopping to build a pantry here.) By purchasing food at the lowest price in the cycle, your family can enjoy items at yesterdays prices while everyone else is paying far more for the same item at todays prices. A great way to track the change in food costs is through the Bureau of Labor Statistics.Each month, the BLS tracks the price variations of commonly purchased food items. Lately, weve seen a pretty dramatic increase in the costs of 10 particular foods since this time last year. Heres the list of foods that, unless purchased wisely (or better yet, homegrown when possible) could blow your frugal grocery budget. (Hat tip to Money and Career Cheat Sheet) And if you are particular about where your food comes from, the organic versions of these foods cost even more. (Check out this years list of the most pesticide-laden foods at the store quite a few of them appear on the list of foods with rising prices!) For example, at my local grocery store, organic apples are more than double the price per pound of conventionally grown apples and I live where apples are grown! Well, when you look at the items one by one, it doesnt seem like a dramatic increase. However, if you look at them by the cart full, or, moreover, during the course of a year, it could really add up. Lets take apples, for example. A large apple has increased in price by about 20 cents. If you were to eat an apple a day, over the course of the year, youd pay an additional $73 over the course of the year for your apple. If all of the members of a family of 4 imbibed in the apple a day habit, that adds up to $292 for the lunchbox snack. Of course, Im not telling you that you must eschew apples for the entire year. For these (or any other foods) that you buy at the grocery store, its important to be aware that the prices will fluctuate. You need to pay attention to the price of food over the course of the year to really do this effectively, but starting a price book can help you immensely in your search to buy items when their prices are the lowest. (My book, The Pantry Primer, gives detailed instructions on tracking prices.) Lets go back to apples. If you buy them out of season, youre going to pay the highest price of the year. However, if you buy them in season, the price will go down. Better yet, if you buy them in season and store/preserve them to enjoy when the prices are at their peaks, then you will pay that lowest price all year long. You might store them in a root cellar, can some applesauce and apple pie filling, and dehydrate some slices for a crunchy snack. Our family spends at least two weeks processing apples to eat during the off-season. (Heres an article from last years apple season that explains exactly how we make the most of several bushels of apples.) With the current economic instability, your ability to thrive on less is a survival skill that is just as important as being able to start a fire in the middle of a rainstorm with two sticks and a pile of leaves. As prices go up and employment goes down, something has to give, and that is most likely going to be your budget. Learn now how to make the most of the money you have by using self-reliance skills and common sense to reduce your expenses. These books can help you to learn a new way of looking at thrift and your frugal grocery budget. What are your favorite grocery budgeting tips? Please share them in the comments below. Please feel free to share any information from this site in part or in full, leaving all links intact, giving credit to the author and including a link to this website and the following bio. Daisy Luther lives on a small organic homestead in Northern California. She is the author ofThe Organic Canner,The Pantry Primer: A Preppers Guide to Whole Food on a Half-Price Budget, and The Preppers Water Survival Guide: Harvest, Treat, and Store Your Most Vital Resource.On her website, The Organic Prepper, Daisy uses her background in alternative journalism to provide aunique perspective on health and preparedness, and offers a path of rational anarchy against a system that will leave us broke, unhealthy, and enslaved if we comply. Daisys articles are widely republished throughout alternative media.You can follow her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Up 3%, up 2.5% and 4.1% is considered SKYROCKETED prices? Boycott meat and watch the prices on real nutritious food fall. The human lengthy digestive system is designed for vegetative matter as oppose to the short carnivorous one. The intense rise in non-meat prices along with government subsides and surcharges keeps meat products prices low at the expense of the healthier fruit, nuts, seeds and vegetable choices; this is all by design in the world of the Agenda 21 mindset. The purpose of corporate controlled government is to keep you sick, poor and stupid. Protein is available in the vegetable choice categories and is a better way to keep the body free of radioactive pollution whereas meat and dairy products compound the problem of radioactive particulate absorption. That is a list of seasonal almost non-essential goods (other than maybe the rice.) I agree that prices are up, but this list is just weird.. Prices are up especially with the organics. 