09
Jan
Inflation 2022: Bracing Yourself for the Rising Costs of Food
As we all bundled ourselves in for the holiday season, our plates filled with delicious comfort food after such a long, exhausting year, it felt a little daunting to peek into what the future will look like – especially when it came to what was on our plates, and the impact that inflation could have on our grocery bills in the coming new year. Looking down and seeing our favourite staples like ham, cauliflower, cheesy potato casserole, and knowing how much those items have already risen this year, had us needing to know how inflation would affect all of our food bills in 2022.
The Meat and Potatoes of the Situation
Alyssa Gerhardt, a PhD student in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Dalhousie, explains this as plainly as possible: “COVID-19 is still here. The food supply chain will continue to grapple with the cost of sanitation and PPE, high transportation costs and reduced maritime transport capacity, as well as decreased efficiency and disruptions due to closures”. These issues aren’t impacting one avenue of distribution, they’re affecting all. Grocery bills for consumers and kitchen supply bills for restaurants are both on the rise.
Order Up! (and up…)
Restaurants, currently faced with a historic labour shortage, rising rent, food supply shortages, lost revenue from the past two years, and, in Ontario’s case, a minimum wage hike, are reeling for options on how to remain open. The rising costs of food may require some restaurants to trim some of the less popular, more expensive items from their menu to create a tighter, more focused offering. Be prepared to see increases on your final totals between six and eight percent when supporting your favourite local restaurants.
Being the Family Bread-winner
According to Canada’s Food Price Report 2022, “a family of four, including a man (age 31-50), woman (age 31-50), boy (age 14-18), and girl (age 9-13) will pay up to $14,767.36 for food, an increase of up to $966.08 from the total annual cost in 2021.” Vegetables and dairy, key components to a healthy lifestyle, will have Canadians feeling the pinch most, while meat maintains the already high prices we’ve seen through 2021.
The Final Course
Inflation happens, it is an unfortunate fact of life. While we pine for the days where our dollars went further, the best you can do in these situations is take complete control of your finances to help them stretch as far as they’re able to go, especially during challenging times. It’s our job at Keenans Accounting to help you achieve that financial mastery, providing you the deep insights to help weather financial storms.
You are an expert in your field, we are an expert in ours. Let Keenans Accounting Service support your business with all of your bookkeeping and accounting needs, including your government remittances for HST. Give us a call at 705-526-7628 to arrange a consultation by phone or via Zoom meeting. Contactless, secure document dropoff and pickup are available at our offices in Downtown Midland.