I can't find a cheaper equivalent for the frozen fillets[0]. There are differently breaded fillets for cheaper (23.8¢/oz vs 29¢/oz, wheat vs. corn), but they are still around 120% more than we paid for the ones we like in 2021. If I substitute those for this particular example receipt, the increase is _only_ 42.7%.

My point wasn't that I can't reduce my standard of living to live more cheaply. My point was that food prices have risen dramatically in the past two years. If I had already started on the cheapest foods and had nowhere lower to go, my prices would still have risen by approximately the same amount.

For fun, however, I went through and replaced each item with the cheapest equivalent at Walmart, including cases (like the fillets) where I would consider a decrease in my quality of life. That still leaves me at 32.8% increase in cost. And I'm eating soggy fillets, yogurt that tastes like aspartame, have to doll up my cornbread with extra ingredients, etc., etc.

If your cost of food has only gone up 20% since 2021, consider yourself lucky. That certainly isn't the case in our area. CPI says it's only gone up 14.3% in that same time period.