As the cost of food has skyrocketed, my wife and I have gotten pretty good at stretching our budget to the breaking point. We've cut back on our restaurant visits, joined a CSA for fresh vegetables, found the cheapest markets in our area, begun using the dollar store as a source for canned foods, and started taking a weekly trip to Trader Joe's.

Consequently, we've managed to eat as well, or better, than we did when food prices were lower; still, there are some areas where we can't cut back. For example, over the past year, the orange juice that my wife and daughter drink has gone up from $2.50 per half gallon to $3.99. On some days, I'm still able to get it at $6 for two half gallons, and I recently saw it at $5 for two, but these surprises have become few and far between.

We've all heard the numbers, but it's still worth noting that, according to the last Consumer Price Index report, Grade A eggs are up 40% over last year's prices. Cheddar cheese has risen 14%, dried beans have gone up 25%, and white potatoes have risen 11%. This has been happening for a couple of years: between 2006 and 2007, the Consumer Price Index for food rose by 4%. At the time, this was the largest increase in more than 15 years, but it has risen by a further 6% over the last year and food prices are on track to rise by 7% in 2008. The standard reason for this massive increase is that escalating gas prices have made it more expensive to transport food. While this is true, it is only a small part of the story.

Meijer has a cool new site they recently launched called Meijer Mealbox, which wraps recipes, meal planning and coupons into one slick easy to use package. Mealbox is currently in beta but anyone can use it to get a better handle on meal preparation and grocery shopping. The service revolves around a widget which lets you browse recipes, complete with nutritional info, and add them to a weekly planner under breakfast, lunch dinner and other to plan the week ahead.

As soon as you add an item to the meal planner the ingredients are automatically added to the shopping list for the week. This is where Mealbox really starts to shine -- the grocery list is grouped by ingredient type so that you only need to look at one section of the list as you go through the store. No more realizing you needed shredded cheese at the last minute because you wrote it next to deodorant on your list. It gets better -- anything you add to your list that is on sale that week is marked on the list with the sale price. Finally, if there are any coupons available from Meijer or the manufacturer for the items on your list, the coupon is embedded right below the list so it prints out at the same time.

As a regular Meijer shopper, I can't wait to add this tool to my weekly routine of grocery shopping. I love the fact that I can sort the recipes by meal type, ingredients or by special diet requirements to find what I am looking for. I wish I could sort by recipes with sale items this week so that I could get the best bang for my buck. My only other complaint is that I can't change the serving size of the recipe to reflect the fact that we are cooking for two. Still, the service is in beta and I can easily adjust the quantities on the shopping list for the time being. This is an excellent tool and is a prime example of a company that "gets" its customers. Now if only they would implement a tool attached to my cart that would push all those annoying "aisle talkers" out of my way!

A new study reported in USA Today finds that "kids meals" at chain and fast food restaurants are too high in calories for a single meal. According to the analysis from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, some meals contain more than 1,000 calories, which is the typical daily calorie count per DAY for elementary school children. Considering that the average child, under 18, eats 167 restaurant meals in a year, that is a lot of calories.

This does not surprise me. All you have to do is look around. When I was a kid, we were all skinny. It was unusual to see a heavy-set kid in the class. Now I go to my daughter's swim class and the majority of the kids are overweight. Granted, kids may be sitting more, but I vote that the eating habits are more of the problem.

How much does ground beef cost in your supermarket? In my local Safeway, it's $3.49 a pound, but at the specialty market where I shop to get beef that was raised by local farmers and grass-fed, it's $3.99 a pound; a fair price, I think, though my grocery budget is seriously straining my family's finances. In Little Rock, Arkansas, where a few of my blogging mama friends shop, ground beef is only $3.10 per pound, and the sample grocery basket of 20 items we created at WalletPop costs only $39.72; it's $63.85 in Portland, Oregon, where I live.

But what about my friends in Adelaide, Australia? London, England? Brussels, Belgium? In Adelaide, Jessica shopped at Coles and found that "4 Star Choice" (lean but not extra lean) was AUD6.54 per 500g -- or $5.75 per pound. In London, Catherine shopped at Waitrose and found ground beef priced at £4.99 per 500g -- a whopping $9.03 per pound, the second most expensive of all the cities where we shopped (the priciest was Paris, where ground beef is $11.03 per pound). In Brussels, Gaby reported ground beef to be €2.25 per pound ("carbonnade" cut at cheap butcher's shop) or €4.45 per pound ("steak tatare cut" at normal or quality butcher's shop) -- $3.54 per pound, nearly the same as here in Portland.

According to NewScientist, if Americans want to save their economy, they should go on a diet. Not only that, but ecologists say that "the apparently looming energy crisis could be averted if US residents cut their calorie intake."

On the surface, this sounds like it could be contradicting plain economic reason. The U.S. must consume more, not less, to save the economy, right? But is that long-term thinking in the face of higher food and energy costs?

The scientists who tried to bring their point across, David Pimentel of Cornell University and colleagues, showed how a few relatively simple changes can save energy. A lot of it. Changes include improvements in farming to more efficient bulbs, reduced transportation distances, cutting on packaging and more.

Fine, you say, what's that got to do with my diet?

Every day, WalletPop will be bringing you information about a fantastic freebie. Like what you see? Check back tomorrow for more!

AmMed Direct is offering a pretty cool box of free stuff willing to fill out this quick form. According to the company:

Your FREE Better Care Kit™ includes:

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• FREE copy of the Better Care Magazine – with 5 food secrets that reveal how you can enjoy healthier, more delicious meals
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• FREE special issue of our popular Diabetes Directions newsletter with important diabetes news, health tips and delicious recipes
  

A couple of months ago, I wrote a post about the link between fast food restaurants and diabetes. According to a study headed by UCLA's Center for Health Policy, the number of fast food joints in one's neighborhood has a direct, measurable effect on one's changes of developing diabetes. In fact, the study generated an measurement method, the "Retail Food Environment Index," and determined that people who lived in areas with and "RFEI" of 5 or more had a 23% greater chance of being obese than people who lived in areas with an RFEI of 3 or below.

Los Angeles councilwoman Jan Perry has issued a proposal that takes the RFEI to the next level. Her ordinance would place a two-year moratorium on the construction of any new fast food restaurants in South Central Los Angeles. This makes perfect sense: according to the Los Angeles Times, South LA has the highest percentage of fast food restaurants in the city, which has resulted in an obesity rate that is just under 30%, almost 10% higher than the obesity rate in the rest of LA county. Among children, the obesity rate was 29%, almost 6% higher than in the rest of the county. Similarly, the area's diabetes rate is over 25%, more than 10% higher than the rest of the county.

Many other areas, particularly small, wealthy enclaves, have already placed bans or limitations on fast food restaurants. However, this ordinance, should it pass, will place a particularly large hardship on the fast food industry, as it completely dominates the South LA dining scene.

As somebody who has a McDonald's, a Burger King, a KFC, a Kennedy Fried Chicken, and a Dunkin' Donuts all within a one-block radius of his apartment, I can only wish that Jan Perry would have a heart-to-heart with some of my elected representatives!

Bruce Watson is a freelance writer, blogger, and all-around cheapskate. In truth, he gets most of his trans fats and empty carbs from the Mexican restaurants in his area. Sometimes, he dreams of a carne enchilada taco with extra crema...

I grew up in a "traditional" family with the sort of mom who got up early to make us a big breakfast. I remember eggs, pancakes, biscuits, sausages, toast, and always a pitcher of freshly-mixed juice. We were also firmly on the underside of the poverty line (so it was margarine on our toast and generic brand 'pancake syrup' on our flapjacks).

When I got to be a parent, I stuck to my grown-up spendthrift ways for quite a while, buying cold cereal, scones, bagels and the like, rarely making a big delicious breakfast of biscuits or pancakes or muffins but far more often just picking it up from the coffee shop.

And then one day -- maybe it was the fact that I stopped eating processed foods and cut out white sugar, or maybe it was just that our grocery budget was through the roof -- I made a commitment to start making breakfast, just like my mama before me.

Every day, WalletPop will be bringing you information about a fantastic freebie. Like what you see? Check back tomorrow for more!

Most avid home chefs -- at least the ones I know -- would never pass up a free cookbook. If you fill out this form, Gooseberry Patch will send free copies of its Fall Favorites with Sun-Maid® Raisins & Dried Fruit and Gooseberry Patch Family Favorite Recipes with Sun-Maid® Raisins & Dried Fruit.

A suggestion: uncheck the boxes to receive free tips and special offers unless you feel like you don't receive enough promotional email already.

It's commonplace for customers to ask for some kind of freebie if a meal is screwed up or if the service is poor at a restaurant and most places will happily oblige. It's another story entirely when consumers threaten to leave a bad review of the restaurant on an online review site. This has been happening in San Fransisco at several restaurants where customers have threatened to "Yelp" the restaurant if their meal is not on the house.

Yelp is a site whose trademark is "Real People, Real Reviews" but unfortunately since the reviewers are real people it doesn't always mean the stories are real. While the site tells its users that they shouldn't accept free food in exchange for a good review, and that they should disclose any special services or comps they get, the reality is that the users can do and say whatever they want. While these amateur reviewers definitely fill a gap in bringing real life opinions about restaurants to the masses, many seem to lack the ethics of professional food critics.

I think this abuse of the restaurants is despicable, it's cases like these that ruin the current system of comping items when something really is wrong. Have you ever wondered why every store is moving to a return policy with as many rules as the FAA issues for air travel? It's because people abused the system and took advantage of lax return policies ruining the experience for the rest of us. Not to mention degrading the value of user driven review sites as well. I wonder how long it will be until we hear about the first case of extortion on Angie's List from a customer who wanted her walls painted for free!

China has ordered the 112 official Olympic restaurants not to serve dog meat during the Beijing Olympics in August so as not to gross out Westerners. They also strongly suggest that all the other eateries in town stop selling dog meat for the month, too. The move is like their orders to shut factories to clear pollution for the month: purely cosmetic. If anything it shows how deeply entrenched dog-eating is. Animal groups say the practice is actually growing into a big business worth about $4 billion a year.

Even the government's Xinhua News Agency announcement shows how dog-eating is almost revered: "Gourmets with a special predilection for dog meat will be disappointed if they come to the Chinese capital in the coming two months." The Beijing Catering Trade Association (BETA) will "blacklist" those who don't cooperate, but they'll make an exception for dog meat "for medicinal purposes." Many Chinese think eating canines lowers blood pressure, the agency says.

According to the Asian Animal Protection Network, eating dog used to be a "cottage industry" where the rural poor would raise puppies to take to market. Now it's become fashionable -- especially in southern China and among Koreans. Dog meat is more expensive than pork. Factory farms with horrific conditions raise the dogs. The Asia Animal Protection Network says the farms are now importing big, docile breeds, especially St. Bernards, known locally as "Big Dumb Dog," as dog livestock. The Filipino organization Dog Meat Trade also reports that the dog meat industry is expanding and is now about $3.8 billion.

In a comment made in response to my post lamenting New York City's insane grocery prices, one WalletPop reader explained how he cuts down on his grocery bills (edited for clarity):

I get my son to shop for me... It helps me avoid me from impulse buying. Thefirst thing I do is visit online grocery stores, prepare a grocery list & if I think the delivery fee doesn't make sense then I get Neil to pick up the stuff for me. I really think getting a person who doesn't like to grocery shop works because it doesn't put a hole in your pocket.

It makes perfect sense to me -- if you have a son who's willing to do your shopping for you at no charge. Most people know that making a grocery list and sticking to it is a good way to avoid overspending on impulse items. But I also wonder whether having someone else to your shopping is a good personal finance strategy: maybe if you and a friend swap lists and do each other's shopping, you'll both spend less? It seems a little complicated and most orders would probably get messed up in some way: "I wanted the light blue cheese dressing!" But if are looking to lose weight -- and can't help stocking up on unhealthy foods -- sending someone else to do your food shopping might be just the trick. It's sort of the idea behind programs like Nutrisystem.

I'm curious if anyone reading this has experimented with having someone else do their shopping, and what the results have been. Please leave a comment and I'll do a follow-up!

No need to panic yet, but you may have heard the buzz that honeybees have been disappearing from the Earth.

This is a problem for a variety of reasons. For starters, we have a lot of crops that depend on honeybees. The United States alone has 130 crops that are dependent on honey bees for pollination, including carrots, onions, squash, blueberries, apples and almonds. Honey bees are basically in charge of seeing that $15 billion in food crops are nutritious and edible and able to go to the grocery store. Or put another way, the honey bee is given credit for 85% of the pollination necessary to supply about one-third of the nation's food supply.

Nobody really knows the cause, and lately it's suspected that it's a variety of causes, but there are the current crop of suspects.

I'm in New York City this week and one of the exciting things about that is that I can try a wide variety of foods that Cape Cod grocery stores don't have. Today I bought a package of "Glenny's Low-Fat Soy Crisps" and, while they were quite good and relatively healthy for a packaged snack food, the consumer advocate in me has some complaints about the advertising on the package at right. It reads "10 Grams pure Soy Protein" and "Only 65 Calories per Serving."

This is a classic example of advertising spin: it isn't false and it isn't even misleading necessarily -- but it's a case of the company putting its best nutritional foot forward, and health-conscious consumers will need to be vigilant.

A look at the nutritional fact shows that there are indeed 65 calories per serving, with 2 servings per bag for a total of 130 calories. Each serving contains 5 grams of protein and the entire bag contains 10.

My beef with the marketing here is that they present the one you want a lot of -- protein -- on a per bag basis and then they present the calorie count on a per serving basis. 10 grams of protein appears right above 65 calories, but you'd actually have to eat 130 calories to get the 10 grams of protein.

Moral of story: pay no attention to "low -fat", "high protein", "light," "low calorie", etc labels on the front. If you want to know what you're eating, flip the product over, put on your glasses, and read the nutritional label: "just the facts ma'am."