A few weeks ago, I was wandering down a grocery store aisle when I encountered the most expensive eggs I’d ever seen. The price for a dozen eggs was very nearly in the double-digits.

Sure, I was in New York City, one of the most expensive cities in the country. But still! Did that mean I would never be able to afford an omelet ever again?

I’m not the only one experiencing sticker shock. Across the country, food prices have skyrocketed. The US Department of Agriculture reports that between 2019 and 2023, food prices increased a whopping 25 percent — and rose faster than all other major expenses including transportation, medical costs, and even housing. Even as overall inflation has cooled, grocery prices have remained stubbornly high, rising another 1.8 percent year over year as of December 2024, with President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs threatening to spike them even further. Some staple food items, like a carton of eggs, have fluctuated wildly due to the ongoing avian flu outbreak. Meanwhile, thanks to the corporate practice referred to as “shrinkflation,” many consumers have noticed that their packaged foods are getting tinier, even if the price tag stays the same.

There were a few key factors that contributed to more expensive groceries in recent years, ranging from supply chain issues brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic to higher labor and production costs to the war in Ukraine. Climate change, too, is pushing food prices up along with the temperature. Taken together, these challenges can be a recipe for disaster, forcing some Americans to go into debt for their groceries.

But unlike cutting out your morning coffee runs (which, for the record, is bad financial advice anyway), most people can’t stop going to the grocery store. And ideally, the experience shouldn’t revolve around deprivation. Finding the right balance for both your wallet and your plate takes organization, patience, and a little math — but it can be done.

How to come up with a grocery budget

The average person........

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