I went grocery shopping last night and it had jumped 30 cents a pound in the last couple weeks and about 60 cents in the last few months! I have been charging according to my cost, but it is going to be out of my customer's range pretty soon!!!

What is everyone else doing - or is it just an area thing?

butter, eggs, milk have all gone up...even powdered sugar is about 20 cents higher than it was a month ago.

I buy the walmart brand and it's usually $1.88 for a pound. I've tried land o lakes, but don't like the price and I think it all tastes the same for buttercream!

Yes...even butter here in canada is $3.99 a pound.Everything is rising!!

I'm in Wisconsin. I bought butter yesterday at the grocery store for $3.59/ lbs.Saw it at Super Target and it was $2.59/lbs. there. Yikes! Milk is up as well.

See this thread re: effects on why food prices are rising....

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopicp-4258233-.html#4258233

Thanks for the info Indydebi. I had been paying $1.88 a pound a month or so ago but then it went to $1.98 and last night it was $2.28. This is at Wally world. Maybe I should check elsewhere, but I had heard that alot of the stuff was going higher so I'm thinking it will be that way at the grocery stores also. I find the price hikes to be a little frustrating because sometimes I think the stores take advantage of the hype and instead of raising their prices to compensate for the actual difference they pay they just double the difference and take home the extra and no one questions it because of all the hype. I know that doesn't happen all the time, but sometimes I think does! I'll get off my soapbox now - sorry!

edible, I feel the same about gas prices!

But to defend us food people, when I set my pricing for the year, I have to take into consideration what increases might come along later. Sysco can change their prices every single day depending on the circumstances. My prices are published and contracted months in advance with brides. So I not only have to set the pricing for what I'm paying now .... I also have to set them for worst case scenario and what I might pay later.

I buy my butter wholesale in 55# pound blocks. In the summer, it lasts about 2 weeks, but in the winter, I bag it in gallon ziplocks and freeze what I don't need right away. The price fluctuates, but right now I think I am still at $115 (and thats the higher Alaska price).

I buy my butter wholesale in 55# pound blocks. In the summer, it lasts about 2 weeks, but in the winter, I bag it in gallon ziplocks and freeze what I don't need right away. The price fluctuates, but right now I think I am still at $115 (and thats the higher Alaska price).

At a local place called Linford's... but I'm pretty sure our Sysco and FSA carry it too. Check out your local phone book and just call a few places.

indydeb.......I could not the link to work, so I apologize if my post is the same info. My full time job is a purchasing agent, so I have to watch commodity prices and markets all the time, and I also grew up on a dairy farm, so know first hand the economic affect of the pricing fluctuations. For several years now, milk prices were at a "flat" rate, despite the rising cost of fuel, etc. Finally, earlier this year, milk prices per cwt started to increase, and are predicted to stay at higher levels for a while.......here in Wisconsin, the big push for this is ethanol (as well as most of the country)- and how does that relate? Well, it takes corn to make ethanol for fuel, and more people are trying to help in our independence from foreign oil, so the demand for ethanol based fuels is increasing, which in turn increases the demand for corn, which makes corn more expensive to feed cows, and so on. Many of the farmers around the country are planting more corn, because corn prices have increased 50% over a year ago, and are still on the rise........my dad is one of those....he replaced 50% of his soybean crop with corn, as did alot of farmers, which will affect the other products.....soybean, wheat, alfalfa, etc. production will decrease because of the corn increase, and that's what will make the products that are manufactured from those crops more expensive. It's all one vicious cycle, and opinions vary, but the grocery store costs will keep rising until everything levels off. The gas prices are really the biggest push for all this.........sorry, I am rambling now, but that's my 2 cents worth.

Kerri, that's the best explanation I've seen. I hadn't even factored in the "lost opportunity" cost with fields converting from soy to corn, thus while corn production is increased to meet demand, we are creating new shortages in other grains.

I don't feel so bad about my rate increase anymore.

Gas prices do seem to be the root of the problem when you think about it. It is too bad that we can't find another renewable resource to replace that with besides something that is already being utilized for food! Of course, if I had the answer to that I wouldn't have to worry about what to charge my customers!!!

try costco, sams club, or smart and final for bulk butter. its usually cheaper

I sell food to restaurants and bakeries for a living so I am constantly watching the numbers.

Our butter prices actually went down this week. Eggs have gone up and will probably continue to rise. Dairy prices will probably increase for another month or so until the dairies up production and schools open.

In my area I've noticed shortening has almost doubled in price!

anything shortening related is going through the roof. the cheap oil that my restaurants used to buy for $9 is now in the $16 to $18 range - and that is the bottom of the barrel quality.

looking for new fuel sources for cars is great but remember that most of those sources are currently being used for food items - as the demand goes up so will the price!

At least on the positive side, food products is a renewable source so it's not as detrimental as oil dependency.

But I'm no tree hugger. I want cheap food and cheap gas and no excuses!

check out olive oil too, it's up to $10 bottle!!

I also grew up on the farm in WI and my only thought is hopefully soon the farmers will actually be paid what they're worth to this country! (a LOT more than the insurance and other big name industries who get bonus checks in the billions just for gracing a company with their presense) The sad reality is that the jump in prices only makes the farmers closer to paying the bank to let them operate yet another year, not actually turn a true profit.

The ethanol is a double-bind in that yes it does help get us less dependent upon foreign oil, but if we TRULY wanted to be, there would be a mandate out tomorrow that all vehicles produced after such & such a date would be required to run on it or Bio Diesel completely. Especially when the raw materials for a gallon of ethanol are $12 (ethanol is highly subsidized). Also, the push to allow more ethanol plants versus the push to eliminate any idea of adding an additional refinery or three to help ease some of the problems as well (we just came off of $3.50/gallon gas because a refinery in Kansas or was it Missouri had to shut down because of flooding)..

The other factor of the food cost increase is the fact that the minimum wage just went up this week and that "raise" has to come from somewhere. The sad reality is that the minimum wage hike was only a "feel good" measure by a lot of people who don't understand pure and basic economics because the cost of things like butter, flour, etc. for living is going to go up equally to that minimum wage hike. Most people are paid higher than minimum wage but are going to expect a raise of $ because they are gracing the company with their just showing up. My brother called the Minimum Wage Increase a "Wage CUT!" because his employer is not going to give him any extra money to work his job but his cost of living is going to get hiked. He's barely at a living wage currently, this drop in what he will get for his money is going to push him farther for making everyday ends meet (he already isn't running the AC this summer)..

Kory, hey girl! Do you remember me from Juneau? Looks like you are doing great. I will pm you. : )