If your household size hasn't changed much in the past three months, your grocery bill probably hasn't either. The cost of 16 basic grocery items in the first quarter of 2016 was $51.20, it was $51.25 in the last quarter of 2015 according to the Arizona Farm Bureau Federation's latest Marketbasket Survey.
"We're getting a pretty good gauge of what prices may do in 2016," said Arizona Farm Bureau's Communication Director, Julie Murphree. "We continue to encourage Arizona families to keep hunting for those bargains in our basics like your meats, fruits, vegetables, diary and eggs to stretch your food dollars. Overall, dairy and meats were down."
Of the 16 items the study looked at, nine decreased and seven increased compared to the 2015 fourth quarter survey.
The three items with the largest increase :
- Apples up $0.66 to $1.85 per pound.
- Shredded cheese up $0.48 to $5.28 per pound
- Deli ham up $0.40 to $3.99 per pound
The 3 items with the largest decrease:
- Boneless chicken down $0.46 to $3.19 per pound
- Ground chuck down $0.40 to $3.12 per pound
- Toasted oat cereal down $0.33 to $2.61 for an 8.9 ounce box
Want to save money at the grocery store? The Arizona Farm Bureau compiled these tips.
