Food dropped significantly because of improved transportation. And transportation costs went way up at the same time, erasing all those savings. Ironic.

My plan is to designate an amount, and to see how well I can budget within that amount. It can be when you are only one person. When I was really poor and had little kids, I was able to stretch things and plan meals. But just for me? I rarely want to cook, and sometimes do not even want to eat what I cook. It's a struggle.

I would be the same way cloud.

Not only transportation costs, big change in our diets and eating habits, made it possible to take advantage of economies of scale. The switch to processed, pre-prepared foods, means less spoilage than fresh foods, but soylent green will be even cheaper.;)

what went on between 1972 and 1984?

1972 - Richard Nixon goes to China
1972 - Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with USSR
1972 - U.S. presidential election, 1972 (including Watergate burglary, Richard Nixon re-elected)
1972 - Apollo 17 flies to the Moon, the last manned mission there for many decades
1973 - Vietnam Peace Treaty. Troops and POWs return home.
1973 - Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling over-turns state laws against abortion
1973 - The celebrated Senate Watergate hearings, highlighted by Fred Thompson's discovery of Nixon's secret tapes.
1973 - Skylab, USA's first space station launched
1973 - Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigns in disgrace as part of a plea bargain
1973 - Congressman Gerald R. Ford of Michigan becomes the first person to be appointed Vice President under the 25th Amendment to the constitution
1973 - In a single day, President Nixon fires three Attorneys General over disposition of the secret tapes and the actions of the Special Prosecutor.
1974 - The House Judiciary Committee votes to impeach the President
1974 - Richard Nixon resigns Presidency over Watergate
1974 - Gerald R. Ford becomes President (by succession rather than election)
1974 - Nelson A Rockefeller of New York becomes the second person to be appointed Vice President under the 25th Amendment to the constitution
1974 - Ford Pardons Nixon
1975 - Fall of Saigon
1976 - U.S. presidential election, 1976
1977 - Jimmy Carter becomes President
1978 - Humphrey Hawkins Full Employment Act
1978 - Camp David Accords (1978)
1979 - Three Mile Island nuclear accident
1979 - Iran hostage crisis begins
[edit] 1980s

President Reagan was the face of the United States during the 1980s1980 - [bockeys on deck
1980 - Mount St. Helens eruption in Washington kills 57 (see 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens)
1980 - U.S. boycotts Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
1980 - U.S. presidential election, 1980
1980 - John Lennon Assassination
1981 - Ronald Reagan becomes President (Iran releases hostages)
1981 - Attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley
1981 - Kemp-Roth Tax Cut
1981 - Sandra Day O' Connor becomes first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court
1983 - 241 U.S. Marines killed by suicide bomb in Lebanon
1983 - United States invades Grenada
1984 - Most of Eastern Block boycotts Summer Olympics in Los Angeles
1984 - U.S. presidential election, 1984 (Ronald Reagan is re-elected)

1973 oil embargo.

I think more significant was the change from local, regional growing to massive centralized growing, gov't farm subsidies (especially the really big growers), and a change in our dietary practices which oddly saw an increase in consumption of typically more expensive foods that had become cheaper due to centralizing production and economy of scale.

And breeding practices as well. eg, in 1935 it took 112 days to raise a chicken to 2.85# slaughter weight and it req'd 4.4# of feed. By 2000 it took 47 days to raise a chicken to 5.5# and it only req'd 1.95# of grain.

At about the same time an acre of corn would produce about 20 bushels, now it is close to 180 bushels. On a creepy side note the amount of nutrition in a bushel of wheat is about 1/3 of what it was 100 years ago, meaning that you need to consume 3x as much food (and calories) to get the same nutrition as one did 100 years ago.

Obese kids are presenting with scurvy and rickets (probably more a chips and mountain dew issue, but still...)

It reminds me of that old chestnut (haha) Cheap, quick, or good. You can have any two. Obviously it applies to food.

Finally, the real question should be "What is the real cost of food?"

Good lord. Are you guys counting just food, or all household supplies? Ie: Including dog food, paper towels, shampoos, cleaning products, etc.?

My weekly market bill runs $250+, although I'm desperately trying to get it under $225. That does include ALL household/pet/personal products in addition to food. But dang...I don't know how other people spend so little. We are a family of 5 + 1 cat + 1 dog. Included are two grown men, one teenager, one preschooler, and me.

We eat mostly organic, all natural, unprocessed products although I do not go to a specialty store to buy that it. We pack our lunches and only eat out 1-2x a month and never, ever eat fast food or take out. But still, my marketing bill runs nearly as much as my mortgage/rent bill. That's just amazing!!

Everything. I comparison shop for everything, I shop in three or four stores, I buy in as much bulk as I possible can, stocking up on sale items, I rarely buy organic all natural unprocessed......

I hear ya, Stormie. We buy the expensive (i.e. good) ingredients too, and our normal grocery bill is easily $200 a week. Jinx noted earlier in the thread that hers was about as high too, and they're another family that sticks with the healthier foods.

I bought organic corn chips that tasted like feed corn and organic brown rice that had organic material in it that wasn't rice. I think organic vegetables and fruit suck as well. If they from a local farm fine but I do not want organic vegetables from Mexico.

I'll buy less refined healthy nutritious food but grotie on the organic stuff.
I think mass produced organic label items are overrated.

Ive stayed away form the 'organic' line of foods at the grocery store because I don't really trust them to be organic. Especially anything processed...it seems like its more of a marketing gimmick. I will, however, consider them from a natural foods store or farmers market where the farmers are local.

It seems if the package is a certain type of paper, adorned with greenish and tannish hues, usually a field of wheat included, we are to believe it's organic.

They should change all the packaging with the word "organic" to "orgasmic." I might buy some orgasmic wheat crisps.

I feel exactly the same.