Not being familiar with that part of Texas, I had assumed she meant that she lived near the grocery store.
Bell peppers. Holy freaking crap, adding one bell pepper to a dish doubles the cost of the entire meal!
Throwaway beef parts and bones. They don’t exist anymore. I used to load up on knuckle and soup bones for pennies/pound, but I’m seeing soup bones going for 7.99/pound. 
I lived in Austin and never heard it. The only one of those towns I’ve ever heard of is Bufford.
I’m guessing anyone who isn’t familar with Texas would have no clue.
Well, the guy was talking about seeing a lot of water wasted in Texas on lawn care. I was pointing out that in my area, there ARE water restriction notices posted. Or at least there were. We’ve had a nice soaking rain for the past couple of days in my area, the sort that doesn’t run off. Of course, it’s not going to make up for the drought of the summer.
I’m just so used to saying HEB when I refer to this area that I do it without thinking, just like I say “the Metroplex” to refer to the sprawl of Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington.
Wow..my Aldi’s milk is $3.29..I’m surprised they’re that far apart.
The sign outside my local McDonald’s today says:
$1 McChicken All Day Every Day
Is it not the same sandwich you remember?
Has this been in the news lately or am I just really out of the loop? I haven’t seen it in any major publication that I can recall. I certainly don’t doubt you, I just wonder if it’s getting enough media attention.
Beer prices (for craft and microbrews) just shot up! Is there a hops shortage or something?
Once upon a time, everything cost a nickel. A bottle of pop, a hamburger, a car, a house. Everything used to cost a nickel. It was the only unit of currency.
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I usually don’t get into the tinfoil hat territory, but with all of these price increases, how does the government continue to say that inflation is next to zero and sometimes negative and worry about deflation?
Someone will ask for an example. I will say, okay, ten years ago gas was a buck a gallon and now its $3.50. I will get an explanation of the entire political history of the middle east and of the world economy for the last ten years as to why this increase is restricted to gas prices only. Then I might say, but here is my favorite pepperoni brand which cost $2/pound five years ago and now its $6. I will be told about a terrible “The Stand” type virus that wiped out 98% of the world’s pig, turkey, and spice plant population and they are gobsmacked that I didn’t hear about it. Okay, well, then I might say that the new refrigerator I bought this year was triple what I paid 8 years ago. You mean I didn’t hear about the worldwide earthquakes that wiped out the coolant producing factories across the globe? It was all over Drudge!
I guess I’m really unlucky in that only the specific products I buy are increasing in price because of unique catastrophes while everything else (according to the GAO) remains steady. Unless their “basket of goods” is in 14.5 ounce sizes as well. 
They have packs of mini candy bars at walmart that used to be $1, now they are $1.24. That sucked.
Another big thing that sucks is double cheeseburgers aren’t on dollar menus anymore (outside of McDoubles). Burger king had the buck double, now that is $1.50.
Also I notice with soda that companies are pushing 1.25 liter bottles and 20 packs of cans in an effort to push out the 2 liter and 24 pack of cans.
Aside from that most of the changes have been too subtle for me to remember how much I was paying per ounce of most of what I buy.
Also, the Aldi nearby only charges $1.79 for a gallon of milk.
I’ve heard aside from the other causes (drought, increased demand) that immigration laws are driving up produce prices because there are fewer people domestically to pick crops. However I don’t think that would have any effect on staple crops, it should only affect fruits and vegetables. And I don’t buy enough of those to know how much the price has changed.
I’m in College Station. We’re under no restrictions. H-E-B is a grocery store, right?
I can remember when you use to be able to get a dollar for just a nickel.
HEB = Hurst, Euless, Bedford - an area to the north of Fort Worth known as the “mid cities”. Interestingly enough, H-E-B grocery stores are not well represented up here in North Texas. If there’s any of them at all, I haven’t seen them. It seems like there’s one on every block in Austin, however.
We are under fairly strict water restrictions here in Saginaw, TX as well; lawn watering is permitted only two days per week, not during the daytime. The neighborhood lawns were looking very brown this summer, though recent rains have helped green things up a little lately.
Wow! How’s the job market in your area? 'Cause just the savings on milk would pay for our move! (Seriously, my family goes through about 8 gallons of milk per week. Typically, it costs $3.14 at the cheapest grocery store in town, although I can sometimes find it on sale for $2.50-3.00.) If cereal is cheap at Aldi’s (we don’t have those here,) I’ll be surfing the want ads tomorrow for jobs and housing! 
Milk was $2.39 today for the cheapest brand at the local major grocery chain here (Jewel).
What’s weird is that looking up historical beef prices, the reports say that beef is up 10% in Aug 2011 over Aug 2010. And most of the sources I read agree with that general number (as part of a “skyrocketing” beef prices story. This story, for instance.)
But my impression, and I really don’t think I’m going crazy and misremembering, is that beef prices are up around 50% in the stores I frequent, which are pretty cheap stores. Oxtails were $4.99/lb today. 4 freaking 99 a pound. Oxtails have been a little bit pricier in recent years due their popularity, but I swear they were in the $3.49 range this time last year. I’m a big pork shoulder buyer, so I definitely notice fluctuations in those prices. That article says 7.5% rise for pork prices. I’m seeing prices today of $2.29/lb/bone-in Boston butt vs. $1.29 for the same (not on sale) pork one year ago.
H-E-B is a grocery chain. HEB is a group of cities in the northeastern portion of Tarrant county, which is where Fort Worth is. I actually live in Richland Hills, which is a small (pop 8K) town just west of Hurst, but I run around from south of Forth Worth to Denton. And there are water restrictions all over the place. They’ve been publicized in newspapers, we’ve had a couple of mailings about them. In our area, we are also only permitted to water twice a week, for a couple of hours ONLY each day. When we bought this house last year, most of the lawns looked very nice and green. This year, I think that most lawns are at least half brown, and I think that we’ve personally lost about half of the rosebushes.
The real problem, though, is the fact that the people who run cattle have had to cull their herds pretty severely. Everyone who buys Texas beef is going to notice that the beef is not as plentiful in the coming years, which means that ALL beef prices will rise for everyone. And notice that I said “in the coming years”, it’s going to take years to build up the herd numbers again.
We, the Bodonis, plan to eat more pork and chicken and turkey in the future, even though we vastly prefer beef.
Unfortunately, I think you hit the nail right on the head here, Lynn. The drought conditions just won’t support the usual number of cattle, and beef prices are going to soar, accordingly, over the next few years.
It all boils down to the water supply. (pun intended)
Do you have quintuplet teenage boys or something - that sounds totally nuts!
Italian bread - a loaf has doubled in price, to $1.99.
Store brand cheez doodles used to be 99 cents forever, price went up 10 cents here, 20 cents there - currently $1.79. Same with Little Debbie snackcakes.
What IS it with peppers?? Especially red bell peppers? Price never went down all summer, when you think they’d be everywhere, cheap.
What is it with BACON? Why is it so costly? I don’t expect to buy it for $1 a pound, but $4 or more?
Cheese - well, half pound blocks of cheddar and muenster are still 2 for $5 more or less. Swiss is a lot more. And romano and parmesan in the little tubs - I have to ask the cheese shop employee to give me half a container, I can’t pay $8.
I thought being empty nesters we’d have a little more to spend on good stuff, but I guess I was wrong. Lucky, we don’t eat as much as we used to.