Inflation is taking the spark out of Fourth of July barbecues as the American Farm Bureau Federation estimates that cookouts on the holiday will cost people an average of 17 percent more than a year ago. Kristin Myers, Editor in Chief at TheBalance.com, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss how rising prices will impact the holiday gatherings, as well as some tips for barbecuing on a budget. "I think there are some signs for hopes going forward in the future but at least what we've been hearing from farmers things are still very expensive and they're going to have to pass on those prices to consumers at least for the near term future," she said. Myers recommended going for fruits and vegetables, hamburger patties versus chicken wings, and refilling propane tanks rather than getting a new one as some tips to save a little cash.

Opening Bell

Cost Saving Tips as Inflation Bites Into Fourth of July Cookouts

Kristin Myers Editor in chief at the balance dot com joins us now. Kristen we likely won't see the administration throwing out a tweet like that again or bragging this year. So, so let's just talk a little bit about how, how we got here. Besides inflation, why are we seeing these pretty significant increase in costs? Yeah. So we've seen the grocery list and your grocery bills essentially going up for a myriad of reasons, inflation of course is one of those reasons. But we're also seeing supply chain shortages that have of course been hitting a lot of farms, um, which makes the cost of everything we eat far more expensive than you add in the fact that we have supply chain shortages when it comes to the trucking industry and bringing those groceries Essentially to your local, local supermarket and then to you were seeing the price of just about everything that you're going to eat essentially going up. And that is especially true this year for 4th of July. All right, so let's break this down a little bit more where we're seeing some of the biggest price increases. I mean give us a breakdown which foods or products are more expensive this year. So for a little more budget conscious, maybe those are the things we avoid. Yeah. So over at the balance, we decided to take, you know, pretty much the standard and popular food items that I think most Americans have at their July four barbecues and we found chicken wings of all the things on the list actually increased 54% for those chicken wings propane was the second most pricy item on that I think grill list that's up 26% since last year. But surprisingly if you want to save a little bit of money rack of ribs that's actually dropped in price 2% and there's a, you get a lot of ribs uh in one rack, you can give everyone one rib and hope that they get a little bit, they get fill fill up on some of those fruits and vegetables, which also haven't increased too much in price. Yeah, I mean I saw strawberries that's down 16%. 1 of my favorite fruits. I'll have ribs and strawberries this year at the barbecue. I'm not mad about that in terms of the future. Does the USDA expect prices to continue to rise on some of these grocery items or is there a chance and expectations that that that that starts to come down hopefully in the near future? Look, I mean, I think the hope is right now that everything, regardless of whether it's food, whether it's closed gas to fill your gas tank. Everything, the hope is that it's going to start coming down right. The Federal Reserve has decided to really start getting aggressive with its rate hikes to really start to combat inflation and of course we did get those PC numbers out this morning up but still moderating slightly from last month. So I think there is some signs for hopes going going forward um in the future but at least what we've been hearing from farmers things are still very expensive and they're going to have to pass on those prices to consumers at least for the near near term future. You mentioned Pc. E something that we also got with the Pc is some insight in terms of consumer spend spending adjusted for inflation according to the data out this morning. That was down by about 4/10 of a percent with that kind of in mind. I wonder how do these price increases that we're obviously seeing at the grocery store. How are they going to manifest themselves In terms of spend on the 4th of July? Do you think we're gonna see kind of fewer items purchased by people, fewer cookouts as a result of it? Yeah, that's a really great question right now because american consumers have actually started to change a little bit of their spending habits, They haven't stopped spending. As we've been seeing of course with those retail sales figures that have been coming out and the demand of course has not yet moderated. But folks when they go to the grocery store, when they go to the store in general are starting to make a little bit of choices. So for example if they see that chicken wings are far too expensive, they probably will pivot and choose a different item in that grocery aisle but will they stop barbecuing, will they stop meeting their friends know that that's not changing? I don't think any time soon. Alright, so as you mentioned there, chicken wings being the big kind of expense this year. I imagine people gonna avoid those if they're price sensitive. You know, other meats obviously being expensive. What are some of the cheaper alternatives for consumers to look for if they're looking to host a barbecue on the budget? We got ribs, we got strawberries. What else? Yeah, so fresh fruits and vegetables. I know broccoli isn't exactly the most fun barbecue item that you might have on your list, but maybe go for fruits and vegetables, but also hamburger patties. They are a little bit more expensive than chicken wings, but their price increases have not gone up as much. Um and you can make some of those hamburger patties at home. So skip the frozen and go and make your own. You are going to be able to save a little bit of money steak. Still expensive price hasn't increased as much, but still of course far more expensive than some of the other items on the list. Aside from some of those options, any other kind of budget advice you have for shoppers in this high inflationary environment. Yeah. So before you can even fire up the grill, of course you're going to need that propane tank. I would avoid going and buying a new one if you can go and get a tank refilled, you're definitely going to be able to get some savings there because at $3 a gallon for propane and your average grill has 20 gallons in the tank. It's going to be pretty expensive just to turn the grill even on. So definitely try to get some savings there. And of course if you can avoid driving anywhere, make all of your trips in one go, you'll at least save a little bit of money when it comes to filling up your gas tank. It's so funny you mentioned propane, I was gonna say this past weekend, I was at my brother's house and it was 60 bucks to fill up his propane tank and he was just like, oh my goodness, that was almost double from the last time that he had filled it up um which just points to just these, these elevated prices that we're all dealing with. Kristen such such great advice. Kristin Myers Editor in chief at the balance dot com.