There’s a gut punch hiding in the latest numbers, and if you’ve been feeling the squeeze at the grocery store, you’re not the only one.
You’re living through something that a February 2026 LendingTree analysis just put a number on: 49% of American adults say it is at least somewhat difficult to afford food right now, and 52% are spending more on groceries this year than last year.
That’s nearly half the country – in the richest nation in the history of the world – struggling to keep their kitchens stocked.
You already knew it, though. You’ve watched the receipt totals climb while the bags got lighter, switched from name brand to store brand, then from store brand to whatever’s cheapest, and it’s still not enough.
So let’s talk about how we got here and, most importantly, what you can do about it right now.
A Decade of Slow-Motion Collapse
Nobody woke up one morning to a broken economy. This was a slow bleed over ten years – a series of decisions, events, and consequences that stacked on top of each other until working people couldn’t keep up anymore.
Here’s the timeline:
- 2015–2019: On paper, things looked good – unemployment dropped, the stock market climbed, and the news kept saying the economy was strong. But wages for working people barely moved while housing costs and medical bills kept creeping up year after year. The “good economy” was mostly good for those who already had money.
- 2020: COVID shut the world down and millions lost jobs in a matter of weeks. The government responded by printing trillions of dollars and sending out stimulus checks to keep people afloat, but supply chains broke down. The money supply exploded while the amount of goods you could actually buy with that money shrank.
- 2021: Everything reopened, but the damage was already baked in. Too much money was now chasing too few goods, and prices started climbing fast on lumber, used cars, housing, and groceries. Regular people felt it immediately at the register, even though the official numbers lagged months behind.
- 2022: Inflation hit 9.1% in June, the highest in over 40 years. The Federal Reserve started jacking up interest rates to cool things down, which made credit cards, car loans, and mortgages all more expensive overnight. Therefore, groceries jumped 13% in a single year – eggs doubled, ground beef went through the roof, and families started making hard choices at the checkout line.
- 2023: Inflation slowed down on paper, but prices didn’t actually come back down. A slower rate of increase still means things cost more than they did before. Grocery prices, rent, energy, all of it stayed elevated. Meanwhile, credit card debt in America crossed $1 trillion for the first time in history because people were borrowing just to keep up.
- 2024–2025: Grocery prices have risen roughly 25–30% compared to where they were in 2020. Wages went up too, but not nearly enough to close that gap, especially for hourly workers, tradespeople, and service jobs. The average family is spending significantly more on food, energy, and housing than they were five years ago.
According to economists, this situation won’t change soon. The trends show us that this gap is going to deepen and it might be no way of going back. Inflation may slow, but that just means things get more expensive at a slower pace – the damage is already locked in.
The Federal Reserve projects inflation will hover around 2–3% going forward, but that’s on top of prices that are already 25–30% higher than 2020. The America of 2020 prices is gone. What we’re living in now is the new baseline.
Click here to see what economists predict is coming next and what you can do about it!
What the Study Found
The LendingTree analysis, conducted in early February 2026, surveyed thousands of American adults between the ages of 18 and 80. The findings paint a clear picture of a country that is adapting to survive.
According to the report, 49% of Americans said it is at least somewhat difficult to afford food right now. And we are not talking about luxuries or steak dinners. This study is about basic groceries, and 52% said they’re spending more on food this year than last year.
Moreover, grocery shopping has become a strategic operation for most families. Nearly 90% of people now say they are more mindful of what they buy – creating lists, clipping coupons, hunting for sales, and planning around what’s discounted that week. About 16% are making trips to multiple stores just to save a few bucks across different items.
And if you think that’s normal budgeting, you’re dead wrong. That’s survival.
The Part That Should Worry Everyone
Here’s where the LendingTree data gets darker. Lower-income households aren’t changing their habits much, because they have nothing left to change. They were already stretching every dollar before inflation hit. They were already buying store brand, already skipping meals, already clipping every coupon. So what are they doing now? Buying less food – fewer items in the cart, smaller meals, less leisure time.
LendingTree put it plainly: “Many low-income households may already be using common cost-cutting strategies – and are now reducing food purchases because they can’t trim costs further.”
How to Stockpile Food for Free
The study also revealed big shifts in how Americans eat outside the home. A majority are cutting back on dining out and delivery. About 39% are eating out less often, and 16% have stopped getting food delivered entirely. When people do go out, they’re choosing cheaper restaurants or fast food over sit-down places. Some have even started eating at home before going out.
Tipping habits have shifted, too. Sixty-six percent of Americans say inflation has changed how they tip. The generational split is telling: 64% of Boomers say their habits haven’t changed, while 26% of the younger generation don’t tip at all for takeout or delivery and 29% tip less at restaurants than they used to.
What This Means for You
Here’s the hard truth most of us already feel but don’t want to say out loud: nobody is coming to fix this.
Nothing is going to bring your grocery bill back to where it was.
And that’s not meant as a dig at anyone – it’s just the situation we’re all dealing with now.
The good news is, once you stop waiting on outside help, you can start making real moves on your own terms.
So what do these numbers actually mean for your household? Here’s a breakdown:
- Your food budget is under pressure, and it’s probably staying that way. Prices are not coming back down to where they were in 2019 – that world is behind us. They might stabilize or slow their climb, but the new floor is already set. Whatever strategy you’re using to feed your family, it’s worth thinking of it as the new normal rather than a temporary fix until things “get better.”
- A lot of us are closer to the edge than we’d like to admit. If you’re pulling in a middle-class income and feeling like you’re holding it together, that’s great, but it’s worth taking a harder look at the math. One job loss, one busted transmission, one trip to the ER, and suddenly you’re standing in the same 49% as everyone else in this study. The gap between “we’re fine” and “we’re in trouble” has never been thinner, and that’s true for most working families right now.
- Every meal you depend on the grocery store for is a vulnerability you can chip away at. When half the country is struggling to buy food, the system is telling us something. Every tomato you grow, every jar you put up, every pound of meat you stock in the freezer from an animal you raised or hunted – that’s money you never have to earn and a kind of security that no paycheck can match.
What You Can Do Right Now
You don’t need a hundred acres and a trust fund to start insulating yourself. You need a plan and the willingness to work at it.
Here’s where to start:
- Grow something. Anything. A raised bed of tomatoes, peppers, beans, and squash can produce hundreds of dollars’ worth of food in a single season. Container gardens work on porches and patios. If you’re looking for a solution, we’ve got one for you – click here to find out more. Start small, but start.
- Learn to preserve food. Canning, dehydrating, vacuum sealing, and fermentation – these skills turn a seasonal harvest into year-round food security. A $30 dehydrator, some mason jars and the awesome projects presented in this book can stretch your food supply dramatically.
- Buy in bulk when prices dip. Rice, beans, oats, flour, sugar, salt; these are cheap now relative to what they may cost later. A deep pantry is not hoarding, but common sense. Your grandparents did it without thinking twice. 👉 Here’s what long-lasting food you can buy from Walmart under $1.
- Cut the middleman where you can. Farmers’ markets at closing time, direct-from-farm meat purchases, buying a quarter or half cow, or joining a co-op. All of these cut costs and get you better food.
- Get your debt under control. Every dollar you’re paying in credit card interest is a dollar that could be feeding your family. Attack the highest-interest debt first, then cut subscriptions and sell what you don’t need. Free up cash flow so food isn’t competing with interest payments. Also, make sure you invest in other things that can be valuable when SHTF – here’s a list of what’s worth buying right now.
- Build community. Trade skills for food and start bartering labor for eggs. The lone wolf fantasy sounds good online, but in hard times, connected communities survive and isolated individuals struggle. Just look at the Amish and how they’ve been thriving for over 300 years. Learn more about their lifestyle here.
- Stock a 90-day food supply as a baseline. You shouldn’t do that thinking that the apocalypse is coming, but because of layoffs, supply chains hiccups, and high grocery prices. We made the perfect 90-days food plan, so you can ride out a rough patch without panic. 👉 Take me to the plan
The Uncomfortable Truth
Here’s what nobody on TV wants to say: the American economy has been restructured over the last decade in a way that benefits asset holders and punishes wage earners. If you own stocks, real estate, and investments, you’ve done well. If you trade your time for a paycheck, you’ve fallen behind.
Inflation transferred wealth from savers to borrowers, specifically the biggest borrower of all, which is the federal government. The money printing that kept things afloat during COVID didn’t create new wealth. It diluted existing wealth – your dollars bought less, while your savings lost value sitting in the bank.
This is why self-reliance isn’t a hobby. It’s not a lifestyle brand.
You don’t control the Federal Reserve. You don’t control trade policy. You don’t control the price of eggs. But you control your garden, your pantry, your skills, your debt, and your community.
And if you’re serious about that, look into My Survival Farm. It goes way beyond basic gardening. We’re talking techniques that even experienced preppers and gardeners have never seen – methods for growing a fully self-sustaining food source that stays hidden, off the radar, and out of sight from anyone who doesn’t need to know about it.
Click here to see what My Survival Farm can teach you, before the next price hike decides for you!
Nearly half of America is struggling to afford food. The question isn’t whether this is a crisis (it already is), but whether you’ll be ready when that number keeps climbing.
You may also like:
Foods You’ve Been Storing Wrong Your Whole Life
A Food Crisis Could Kill Millions of Americans. Are We on the Verge of it? (VIDEO)
Good article! Last year was my last hunting, so now I’ll have to add more meat to the grocery bill, but that’s okay. We already garden and preserve with canning, freezing and dehydrating. Stretch your purchases as far as you can, ham with the bone in is always good for a pot of beans later, turkey and chicken carcass to make broth and the larger leg bones and scraps for soup. That’s main meal, soups, and stock for up to a triple reward. Veggie/fruit scraps for the chickens. From scratch stir fry meals are cheap and healthy and a good way to stretch ingredients as are soups and stews.
If you don’t have space to raise a garden, is there a place where you could offer to help with farm chores for a garden patch? Community garden or containers? Easily made Olla pots help with watering plants. They can be purchased ($$) or made with unglazed terracotta pots. Happy gardening!
Looking back on my life one of the life problems that i always struggle with was that job that i would get and if it payed well i always thought it would be there for me , so my priorities in spending my money always seem to leave me hanging when sure enough shtf and no job for what ever reason .When you don’t have a job ,everything costs too much .But things worked out .Family…friends…kept me going even total strangers would share a nugget or two …long enough to finally start taking better care of myself.
Build community looks good on paper, but in real life it reveals a much different story. I am the only resident in my neighborhood that grows a garden. I grow food in containers and raised beds. My small plot of land will not grow foods due to greedy people taking the coal and didn’t reclaim the land for the future.
Yes, the Amish thrive on their own. But don’t forget that they are a community of like-minded people. They don’t have thieves and lazy layabouts to have to deal with.
Look up Keyhole Gardening and vertical gardening.
Thank you, you gave me an article idea about survival gardening 🙂
Interesting topic… food… I’ve been prepping since 1999, I feel alittle comfortable with my situation… Retired, Single, just SS for income… little over 3yrs ago I moved from a huge Metromess AO, to a very rural AO, (Old farmhouse)… My problem is having enough moneys to afford food for consumption and or storage… With prices on everything on the rise, there’s little left to purchase extra provisions… Even though, I do sneak in a couple of cans of this and that, I still worry about whats going to happen tomorrow… People have told me that I needed to suck up my pride and possibly apply for food stamps… Well, and now that truly doesn’t sound like a bad idea… If I was to qualify, not sure where to even go to apply, I could use it for some of that extra can goods, as well as meat for the freezer… and still have money’s left for my meds, and gas for my Jeep…
Sooo, what I’m saying and or asking, is there anyone else doing this or is it a bad idea? Remembering the Alamo, 911, and all the rest, Live long and prosper…
Hi Poppy …I’m kinda in the same boat as you …I’m also very curious about the programs that are out there for seniors that you could qualify for .Without lying about .The fraud and threatening prison sentences associated public programs , really turns me off .but trying to get info. should be easy but it’s like ….you get a better responce from the state by talking to the wall …..If i was you i would do i deep dive into the progams near you . Even church programs would be interesting to know about . But again it’s a bummer getting depended on it ….just be grateful and thank God if you find somthing that helps you .
You can apply for SNAP (food stamps) and other helpful things like energy assistance at your closest Department of Human Services. Just call and make an appointment.
Your local/closest food pantry is another great option. My husband and boys work at ours. We serve about 150 families in our rural mountain community. Sadly, as commented in the article, we see almost double of what it was just two years ago.
Stop providing for those who cannot speak common English and ALL Democrats you can find.
You can pretty much tell if someone is an illegal or not too.
Way they act, dress, and other things.
What they buy (Mexican food for example) is a dead giveaway.
Don’t stock or supply any of that stuff.
We Like to believe that it is affordability
but I think it is Priorities
Instead of so much waste , Fraud , abuse in the welfare, aid, system thru the crime familys and those who lie, cheat and steal from every agency they can steal from
Try good stewardship , better management , proper distrubution of funds
NOT the best , most expensive, and wrong foods
Try NO Alchohol , tobacco , garbage food from ampm , 7elevens , fast Garbage foods
Were not in a shortage
we are in a lack of good common sense, good ethics, good management , good foods
WRONG PRIORITIES
Train your children , dont let some fool in some Godless School Train them for you
This is The Problem
Wrong Training , Wrong Directions, Failed Woke leaders who dont care about YOU , Your children , Your food , YOUR best Interest
The Lousy , Lack of True Education in our societies
This is the Real Issue
YOU let someone else train up your children in the wrong Training .
Godless, Pleasure seeking , Self Seeking
Real Issue
no direction , no savings, no future planning , JUST the moment
Para, wishing you more happy hunting !
Spice, what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger
Hillbilly, 100 yrs ago, they had no idea about restoring the land AFTER. that changed, in NY they go overboard and wonder why everything is cost prohibitive. NOW, our dip S Gov says she wants the wealthy to RETURN to NY because SHE needs the TAX Money.
POPPY, get the FS, you paid in your whole LIFE, YOU deserve some back. Spice is right, above. Depending on your state, thats the answer for where and how. Do you have a Senior center ? if your county has that, they can HELP !
The Article,
Only 52% spend more on food this year than LAST, REAL analysis says 48 % are fooling themselves. Unless, last year you purchased groceries and this year you get groceries for free.
The last 10 Yrs, snuck up, IF you were sleeping the whole time. This community has seen it and known it the whole time !
Lots of assumptions, with holes in their theory’s.
If your going to be POOR, be POOR in America ! Makes me wonder, did they check the major seed companies to see if sales have increased ?
We have all kinds of POOR, but most of them make bad choices, at every turn. Like, grocery prices, do they plant ? Spent most of my life standing at the checkout, watching the people ahead of me, wishing I could afford what they had on the belt, then they whip out the EBT card (welfare) and I discovered I was affording those items, they just took them home instead of ME. Yes, young able bodied. The old, they deserve help. The young, they deserve a LITTLE hand UP, help find them a job ! mostly.
GROW AND PRESERVE
YES ! ! !
Build community, SORRY, Worthless in a CITY ! your group will be attracting attention, and becoming the TARGET when SHTF. Rural area, I bet you already are part of a community. YES /NO GROW that community !
If your NOT already prepped for a 7 day ice storm, your an IDIOT ! And I don’t care if you have never seen a prep site. I dont think CD ever planned to teach for ice storm 2027, I think he meant to teach Prep for Total Chaos ! a new GREAT DEPRESSION, 10 times bigger than the first, WWIII, war of the EMP’s, MASSIVE sun blocking volcanic action, TEOTWAWKI ! ! ! Whatever. And while we wait, same skills will help with the smaller events, promote generational wealth etc. To that end, spend a few WEEKS thinking about what level you are prepping for, because 9 months of food is just low hanging fruit . . . Nothing More
The real item that people will not acknowledge is in any disruptive situation almost no one will actually starve to death in the USA in 2026! They may die from violence, dehydration, or poor sanitation but that will be long before any starve. My historical proof is Angus Barbieri (382 day fast) and modern Venezuela. Simply stated “people” are very fat today and while they may claim they are “starving” most have no real concept of actual survival calorie requirements. Six months to a year after any catastrophic event there will be significant numbers of people with hanging loose skin still looking for food. Actual calorie need, not want nor morale boost, is not a fun level to live on but it is also not that hard to achieve. Storage methods and personal discipline are the real skills needed to cover the growing season and hunting gaps.
YES SIR ! The Man Is RIGHT.
Water, 6 days and brain fog gets heavy !. In a dry area 6 days your DONE, few more days you are done, anyplace. Food, all of us can go 30 days no food. Watch the survival shows – Naked & A.
to be productive you need some food.
look down in SA, they have no pets, except the ultra wealthy, THEY ATE THEM all.
Now doesnt Socialism / communism work well – your media hid all that from you, then you use crap media !
City, the disease from no sewer flow starts in 72 hrs. City, massive loss in 2 weeks time.
Live where you can Hunt & Gather, like the first few million years.
Yes, most people probably won’t starve, but living paycheck to paycheck is still a hard way to live. It means constant stress and no real safety net. For a country like the U.S., which promised a good life and stability, that’s not something to ignore.
I suppose this article, spreads news to some people (who probably won’t chance upon it to read it anyhow). It is kind of like a blurb on the news declaring “It is no longer 1950!” Thanks captain obvious ….
What surprises me is the multiple claims about people no longer buying big name brands, and buying store brands, or finally what ever is the cheapest.
So are there actually people that haven’t been doing this all along, despite what the economy is doing to your pocket? Example: Catsup … Store brand Catsup … is there a company specifically making store brand catsup, in the same plastic bottles that Del Monte or Heinz is using, and putting store brand label’s on them?
I wasn’t born in the ice age, and even then Neanderthals, could figure that out. Store brands are made by the same companies as famous brands, same texture, same putrefied chemical based ingredients .. same plastic bottle, different label. If you are paying $2.39 for a name brand, and $1.99 for a store brand … the catsup chemicals cost $1.50. From the store brand the store makes $.20, the manufacturer makes $.29. From the name brand, the store makes $.20, and the manufacturer makes $.58.
People that buy name brand products in about 98% of the items, a buying store brand with a familiar name on it, and wasting money. Knowing that … how the hell, do people fall for that, and waste the money?
Sometimes I wait, and listen for a voice from the heavens saying “Common sense, has left the room!”
Common sense is just not so common these days, wonder how that happened ?
Its just like democrat agendas have crept thru schools and critical thinking is no longer taught.
I like Heinz and Red Gold, Hunts etc, not so much. I buy R Gold in # 10 can, put it in other containers and my wife runs thru it like water in the shower !
I own a CHAMBER Vac machine, the best ! JUST Vac packed 50 Lbs of W. rice, double bag- points are sharp over time. we were down to 15 lbs white, 12 Lbs basmati, 10 Lbs Brown Basmati. cant eat much starch these days or I would have an extra 100 Lbs on hand.
Sometimes, the name brand doesn’t even make the name brand. A smaller company, processes it, and on go the labels from 5 or 6 brands. Sometimes, there are differences, sometime NOT. I.E. Peas, cheap brand cans are filled with lower (natural) sugar content peas, and the higher test go in the expensive label cans. I dont know about “limits” to post, BUT, I know that S.F. puts things in the can and on goes an “L” label label label. Many other labels as well. All the peas, Corn, carrots, potato’s, beans, all arrive in the same Trucks and get dumped into 1 big pile.
Ketchup, more less Sugar, spice, vinegar, different labels and prices.
TRY the store brand, you might even like it more. Like others said, almost anyone smart enough to prep – is well aware of this. If this is your first introduction to Prep, listen and learn fast, your 30 years behind !
If you are on SS, you may qualify for extended benefits, depends on your expenses.
If you are a widow, you qualify for higher benefits if your spouse got a higher amount. Check with SS office.
Most of the time you do qualify for Snap. Dept of human services.
Food banks for a little extra boost.
I buy sales at the local store and Walmart for other items.
Potatoes, 10 lbs for $2.79 lasts a while. A $1.99 lb pork loin, slice into portions and freeze the extra or cook and slice into lunch meat and pork steaks. Goes a long way. A pork butt on sale can be a good way to make several things. Pulled pork for BBQ, Slice or grind and season for sausage.
Beef, chicken etc. is in shorter supply due to the influx of millions pouring across our borders the past 50 years. The meat industry cannot catch up resulting in higher prices. Farmers are experiencing high fuel and fertilizer prices making crops high. It was cheap at one time, however the climate change folks made it hard to make our own fertilizer locally.
Have you ever been to the grocery store and seen the loaded baskets, sometimes 3 or 4 for the same family? They get the free food from the government (us), money from churches and work taken from US citizens at a lower wage and don’t pay taxes. Think about how many houses, how much water, how much electricity, gas, how much food, how many cars, how much extra pollution, how many jobs it takes to support them.
Back to my cave. Over and out.
The thing that doesn’t get a lot of discussion is that the 2% inflation rate was not rooted in monetary policies. When the Fed looked at inflation, they thought that inflation normally would be between 2-3%. So they set 2% as the baseline. It could have also been 3% just as easily. Now granted, we have had years that inflation was below 2%, but when 2% was picked as the baseline, inflation was much higher and it was a goal to achieve.
You’re right that 2% wasn’t some exact science, it was more of a practical choice based on what inflation tended to look like and what policymakers felt was low enough to keep prices stable while still allowing growth. What’s interesting is that once central banks started using it, it became a kind of anchor for expectations, so businesses and markets began to plan around that number, which made it more important over time. A small positive rate also gives room to cut interest rates during downturns and helps avoid deflation, which can be more damaging, so even if 3% could have worked just as well at the start, 2% stuck because it balanced flexibility, credibility, and long-term stability.
Grow something. Anything. A raised bed of tomatoes, peppers, beans, and squash can produce hundreds of dollars’ worth of food in a single season. Container gardens work on porches and patios.
Not in my garden. Bugs eat 1/2 of everything I grow.
I grow organically too. Make my own compost every year, use wood ashes for the minerals and such I need.
Only thing I wish I had access too is seaweed. LOADED with trace minerals.
I have a very small solar setup – about 150-250 watts during peak hours.
Enough to power move of my computer use.
And if not using computer, it is available for other things in the house like the refrigerator, lights, maybe fans.
It does not fill all my needs but it can help save me 45 cents a day lol
I could get more power out of it but the micro inverters are EXPENSIVE and may not work with a plug in grid tie setup.
In a grid down scenario I at least would have SOME power.
Refrigerator is the #1 item to consider.
Grid down in winter and I am screwed as far as running heat or furnace.
I can heat rocks outside in the charcoal grill if need be and bring those in.
At least wife’s tootsies will be warm anyway lol.
I agree growing your food is important … but a couple years ago, I tried. I mean there are successful growers here in the deserts of Arizona … but for the little return of fresh veggies, my water bill almost tripled (and water is expensive in Arizona). The heat and bugs got over 75% of my produce, meaning if salad worthy, I would have had a dozen salads, for all the vegetables I got out of my garden. A water bill, normally $50 a month, was $129 a month. Not to mention, our soil is rocky … so buying top soil, and such … it was an expensive lesson.
I have months of dried dehydrated and freeze dried foods, (hoping I have water) … solar generators, solar radios, barter goods, hunting supplies … though grid down, gas gone, hard to get out of the city to find game … my first live game, will likely be alley cat.
Hi Orion ,I would be looking into raising rattlesnakes and cactus….probably thats against the law …..How did the Indian’s live ? Coyote….build some kind of catch basins to trap water in all those washes out there .Doesn’t the Colorado River flow through there ? I’ve noticed that Arizona has lots of restrictions on different kinds of plants being introduced in your environment. Not sure if thats good or bad . Arizona will probably turn into one big sand dune with those kind of laws . It’s a beautiful state I’m jealous.