Our family grocery bills have gone up 25% over one year ago because of an increase in prices and the fact that we are eating at home more.

For years my husband and I have had one lunch out per weekend at an average cost of $22.00. The past few months the average cost has gone up to $28.00 and we are doing it less often.

It's not just the cost of the meal, but the cost of driving to get to the restaurant. This weekend we are staying home.

Actually there are a lot of local farms here in NJ - but they are in central (where i live) and southern NJ. Did you know that 2/3 of the worlds consumption of eggplant is grown here in NJ? The problem is that NJ doesn't have good climate for long storage crops - like wheat and potatoes and etc. So we pay more for bulk staples in the market.