FORT MYERS, Fla.(WINK) \u2014 As families across Southwest Florida prepare to fire up the grill this Fourth of July, many are finding they need a different strategy at the grocery store.<\/p>\n
A new survey from the American Farm Bureau Federation found the average Independence Day cookout for 10 people will cost $73.82 this year, up 4% from last year and the highest total since the organization began tracking holiday cookout prices in 2016.<\/p>\n
The survey includes traditional Fourth of July favorites like hamburgers, chicken, pork chops, potato salad, baked beans, strawberries, lemonade and ice cream.<\/p>\n
For Fort Myers resident Logan Whitby, the rising cost of groceries means shopping smarter, not necessarily buying less.<\/p>\n
\u201cGroceries are expensive for everybody,\u201d Whitby said. \u201cI always start at the cheapest place. If that\u2019s Sunflower Market or Aldi, that\u2019s where I go first. I love Publix, but I don\u2019t go there first. I go there last to round out everything else I need.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whitby said saving money often means making several stops instead of buying everything in one place.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be more convenient to get everything at one place, but that\u2019s just not how it is sometimes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s even changing his holiday menu based on price.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe we don\u2019t need burgers and hot dogs. Maybe I\u2019ll just get hot dogs because then you\u2019ve got to buy the burger buns and the hot dog buns. That\u2019s how they get you,\u201d Whitby joked.<\/p>\n
According to the Farm Bureau survey, several cookout staples saw noticeable price increases this year. Ground beef rose 5.5%, hamburger buns climbed 7.7%, chicken breasts increased 3.5%, pork chops were up 4.7%, strawberries jumped 12.4%, and pork and beans increased 13.8%.<\/p>\n
Not every item became more expensive. Potato salad ingredients fell nearly 18%, while egg prices dropped significantly after recovering from recent outbreaks of avian influenza.<\/p>\n
For Mary Ellen, a retired Fort Myers resident, budgeting has become a way of life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m officially retired now, so I have to shop differently than I used to,\u201d she said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t concerned about what I was spending every week before. Now I live differently.\u201d<\/p>\n
She now shops sales, looks for discounted products and supports locally owned businesses whenever possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cBudgeting and planning\u2026$75 is a lot of money when you have a limited amount of retirement income,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Even so, Mary said she\u2019s still focused on helping others.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of what\u2019s in my cart today isn\u2019t about me,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s about how many people I can provide for with the small amount of retirement money that I have.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Farm Bureau noted that while consumers continue paying more at checkout, farmers receive less than six cents of every food dollar, with the remainder covering processing, packaging, transportation, marketing and retail costs.<\/p>\n
Despite higher prices, shoppers said Fourth of July traditions aren\u2019t going away, they\u2019re simply becoming a little more intentional.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT MYERS, Fla.(WINK) \u2014 As families across Southwest Florida prepare to fire up the grill this Fourth of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,1521],"class_list":["post-328439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-southwest-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}