Seventy per cent of survey respondents said that the cost of living and inflation were their biggest financial challenges.<\/p>\n
While inflation has been cooling in many parts of the economy, grocery prices are still edging upwards.<\/p>\n
Dalhousie Agri-food Analytics Lab\u2019s\u00a0Canada\u2019s Food Price Report (CFPR) 2026<\/a>\u00a0forecasted that overall food prices will climb by four to six per cent in the next year, with an average family of four expected to spend an additional $994.63 more on groceries than they did in 2025.<\/p>\n Daily Hive spoke with some Vancouverites to learn their best tips for cutting down on grocery costs.<\/p>\n Shop at multiple stores to find the best deals Pascal Huot\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n When Dayna Jagdeo moved back to Canada after living in London, England, for five years, she said the high cost of groceries \u201ckind of hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCanada has abnormally high grocery costs,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jagdeo and her partner initially moved to Toronto, where her parents live, for a year before they relocated to Vancouver.<\/p>\n In Vancouver, their current plan is to \u201cset up a bit more stability\u201d for themselves, and so they\u2019ve run costs and comparisons between London and Vancouver.<\/p>\n \u201cNaturally, we were comparing those costs in groceries,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd just noticing that was a very big difference in terms of what we were typically spending on groceries in England versus what we\u2019re now spending on groceries here.\u201d<\/p>\n In London, Jagdeo said a week\u2019s grocery shop for two people (at a store equivalent to Safeway) would be about $70. In Vancouver, she finds it hard to spend less than $100.<\/p>\n But she finds that shopping at multiple stores helps cut down on costs. For example, going to Costco for meat or No Frills for canned goods.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that part of grocery shopping [in Vancouver] is kind of going to the places that make the most sense,\u201d Jagdeo said.<\/p>\n Meal plan around weekly flyers Camille Baycroft<\/p>\n Camille Baycroft started taking her grocery shopping seriously about a year ago, after noticing that the prices were really starting to tick up.<\/p>\n She found that she\u2019d go out and shop for ingredients for one recipe without thinking about how she\u2019d use the leftovers to make other meals. Sometimes, she would have to throw out forgotten food.<\/p>\n As a software engineer, Baycroft started to think about how she could optimize her process. She began looking at weekly flyers (using the Flipp app<\/a>) and planning her meals that week based on what\u2019s on sale, instead of on recipes. She said that smaller grocery stores, like Hannam Supermarket, tend to have better deals on produce.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll look across what is on sale, and then I will look and build a few meals around those things, and pick a few anchor ingredients that can stretch across those meals. And make sure that I plan leftovers on purpose, and nothing gets forgotten in the fridge,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Through meal planning, she said that she saves between $20 and $40 a week.<\/p>\n At first, Baycroft went through this process manually each week.<\/p>\n \u201cI was still working as a software engineer, and I kept thinking, \u2018There has to be a better way to solve this problem.\u2019 So I decided to actually leave my job and focus on building a tool for this.\u201d<\/p>\n
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