Eight Ways to Shave Grocery Costs

One result of higher oil prices is that producing food and shipping it to retailer becomes more expensive.

That cost often gets passed on to consumers. The U.S. is now seeing the worst food-price inflation in more than a decade. Food prices rose 4% in 2007, according to the Department of Agriculture, compared with a 2.5% annual increase over the previous 15 years.

The trend for 2008 is even worse. Just for the month of March, food prices soared 1.2%. This followed a 0.5% rise in February.

Food prices are bound to keep going up. Other household costs also are rising, and food is one area with some wiggle room in the family budget. The choice is continue to shop like you currently do and get less, or learn to exploit some areas within the system to get more for your dollars. ...