Just got back from the butcher. I get 5 pounds of free range chicken breast every week. $6 a pound. 3 pounds of tritip $10/pound, 2 pounds of prime filet, $50 a pound, 2 pounds bacon at $9 a pound, and 2 pounds of pork belly at $6 a pound. The chicken breast has been $6 a pound for the past 5 years. Before that it was $5.50 a pound. Thighs are $4 a pound. This is free range, never caged chicken... it's completely different than any chain grocery store chicken, hard to explain. But this butcher I go to has plenty of meat, always, and the line is often long. But they have plenty of tritip, filet, picanha, ribeye (bone in, tomohawk, or regular), chicken thighs, breast, wings, and whole bird roasters, sausages of all types, 4 kinds of bacon, and skin on or skin off pork belly. They have pork chops, both regular and smoked, and pork loin. In the freezer they have bear, deer, wild boar. They also have a small selection of tuna, swordfish, and salmon as well as oysters in the shells. Never has there been a shortage of anything there. But also, most people don't shop there. It's primarily regulars that go there every week and their suppliers aren't the same as with a Publix or chain grocery store. But I've always paid more for their quality, it's worth it.

While their prices haven't changed too much, the grocery stores are a completely different story. Our overall food cost each month has gone from $1200 to $1700. We're spending $500 more a month on foodstuffs. And while that's not a problem for us at all, it has to be hard for many others