Stock Up on Breakfast Staples: New Report Says the Price of Eggs, Cereal, and Milk Are on the Rise

If you've been to the grocery story lately and noticed that the price of basic kitchen staples, like eggs, fruit, and cereal, were higher than usual, you're not imaging things. According to the latest monthly Consumer Price Index report, which was released on Tuesday, consumers are paying 11% more for food items than they were last year.

Unfortunately, costs are still on the rise: All major grocery store food group indexes increased during August. Cereals and bakery products rose 1.2% in the last month—a 16.4% increase from 2021 to 2022. The overarching costs of meats, poultry, fish, and eggs, as well as the fruits and vegetables index, increased 0.5% since July, a 16.2% and 9.4% year over year increase, respectively.

The month over month price increases are only expected to continue in 2022. According to the United States Department of Agriculture's 2022 Food Prices Outlook, all food prices are predicted to increase between 8.5 and 9.5% throughout the rest of the year.

Thinking about dining out more as an alternative to grocery shopping? Unfortunately, the report warns against it. Data shows that year over year, the price of eating away from home has increased 13.5% since 2021. This marks this food index's largest 12-month increase since May 1979. The cost of dining out is also expected to rise between 6.5 and 7.5%—while grocery shopping prices are slated to jump between 10 and 11%—through 2022.

But, it's not all bad news: Despite large yearly and projected increases, the food index's monthly jump from July to August was minimal, which might indicate that these spikes are softening: According to the report, the overall food index increased by just 0.8% in August—the smallest monthly rise since December 2021.