‘That’s an extra $2,600 this year’: Breastfeeding mothers tell MarketWatch they’re struggling to keep up with the weekly grocery bill

Now the couple are hesitant to buy certain items and rely on inexpensive grocery stores to keep costs down. They were buying fun drinks, specialty cheeses, and more. Now they skip drinks and buy mostly rice, pasta and bread.

Not all frozen aisles go into baskets. The “really wholesome, super-delicious frozen food” that Hutch always ate was $7 or $8 for him, he says. “You can start to get hesitant about that sort of thing,” he said.

The Hatch family spends about $200 a week on groceries. That bill increased with their new addition to the family: “He’s an extra $2,600 this year…it really adds up,” he told MarketWatch.

Food prices are rising, as the latest consumer price index shows. Supply chain disruptions and labor shortages pushed food inflation to his 11.2% in September. Inflation rose 8.2% year-on-year in September, down slightly from 8.3% the previous month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Inflation peaked at 9.1% in June, the highest in almost 41 years. In a more ominous sign for consumers, so-called core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, surged 0.6%. Wall Street had predicted a 0.4% rise for him. Core interest rate gains over the past year rose to a new cycle peak of 6.3% to 6.6%, the largest rise in 40 years.

Hutch and his wife liked the old grocery store they chose for a more “curated” and relaxed shopping experience. You can’t shop often because one or two bags of food become five or six bags of food from a more cost-effective retailer or grocery store,” Hatch said. rice field.

The couple also turned to breastfeeding when they couldn’t find a brand of formula in stores during the recent nationwide shortage of formula. exacerbated the shortages caused.

Adapting to breastfeeding was not easy and costly.

“It’s really hard for my partner,” Hatch said. His wife has to take care of her milking and nursing job responsibilities. She, like many of her nursing mothers, has had to consume her additional calories, which has increased her food costs.

Especially for cash-strapped Americans, the room for maneuver is shrinking. His personal savings rate reached 3.5% in August, down from 7.5% in December last year, according to government data. The US personal savings rate is the percentage of your income after deducting taxes and daily expenses.

According to the Financial Health Pulse 2022 US Trends Report, published last month by the nonprofit Financial Health Network, Americans’ financial status fell for the first time in five years. Less than one third of respondents said they were financially sound. That means you spend less than you earn, pay your bills on time, and have plenty of savings.

More Americans also have credit card debt. Credit card debt in the second quarter increased 5.5% from the previous quarter and increased 13% year-on-year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Kishana Taylor, 34, a postdoctoral researcher at Rutgers University-Newark, is also a breastfeeding mother. She and her husband live in Newark, New Jersey with her 4-year-old son and her 9-month-old twins. Like millions of working Americans, she wants to avoid going into debt to set the table for her family.

Taylor’s diet also increased, as she needed the extra calories to maintain her breast milk supply. Taylor needs to consume 800 extra calories each day, which is roughly equivalent to her eating every three hours, she said.

The first year of formula costs parents $1,200 to $1,500, while breastfeeding equipment can cost $1,500 to $5,000 depending on the type of product and the medical procedures required. (Prices for breast pumps range from $25 to over $200.)

“We probably weren’t saving as much as we would have liked because we were pouring money into groceries and inflation,” Taylor told MarketWatch.

So my parents started going to Costco every Sunday to buy groceries in bulk. Taylor and her husband buy what they think they’ll need for the week and come back on Wednesday or Thursday to fill in the gaps.

A household’s weekly grocery bill averages at least $175, she said. Every time she goes shopping, Taylor and her husband try to stick to her $100 budget, but “it’s really easy to go over that right now,” she said. It also doesn’t take into account the supplements that Taylor needs for breastfeeding.

“And it’s just the basics,” Taylor said. “ridiculous.”

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