Slower hiring, rising prices, wary consumers: Fed's beige book points to sluggish economy

[Metaphorical]

18. Meat prices (beef in particular) are insane

Here in Olympia, WA, I'm now paying $10 for a pound of ground beef, up considerably from the $5 or so just about a year ago. We don't have a very beef heavy diet (mainly taco meat used for tacos and spicy spaghetti sauce) but even so we've been cutting back on how often we have those. Cereals are also high, with even store brands (which used to be $2-$3 dollars) now pushing $5 a pop for every slimmer boxes. Eggs have moderated a little bit, but are still high, and vegetables ... ouch.

This is also factoring into how often we've gone out for dinner (much, much less lately) as an outing for four people will easily run $100 or more.

I think the one wild card so far has been in the cost of gasoline, which has continued in the $4-$5 a gallon range for a while now. I'm waiting for some international incident led by the orange one to push oil prices through the roof again, which will act as yet another accelerant for inflation.