Beating the heat: How to avoid skyrocketing food costs this summer

CHICAGO - The temperature outside isn’t the only thing on the rise in the summer. So is the amount of money consumers spend on food.

In a Fox 32 money saver special report, Dawn Hasbrouck looks at our summer food spending habits and ways to keep them in check.

For the love of the grill, that’s one reason why consumers spend more money on food in the summer.

"Once people get used to cooking outside, they really want to continue that," said Melody Winston, senior executive at Living Fresh Market in Forest Park.

Winston said her store started preparing weeks ago to meet shopper's summer food demands.

"We had to increase inventory purchases right before Memorial (Day) weekend," she said.

For Porsha Marshall of Bellwood, there’s another reason why her grocery bill heats up in June and July.

"Yes, definitely because they are not in school. So, they are home all day," Marshall said.

The Bellwood mom has seven hungry mouths to feed at home, ranging in age from 3 to 20 years old.

"You gotta plan ahead but yeah, it’s a little rough. It can be," Marshall said.

On top of that, a new survey shows the average cost for a summer cook out is up.

"Based on this survey, a summer cookout for 10 will cost about $71.22 or $7.12 per person," said Bernt Nelson, an economist with the American Farm Bureau.

"Putting this in perspective, this is up about five percent year over year. A more alarming statistic is it’s up 30% over the course of the last five years," Nelson added.

Some of the items with the biggest price increases in the Farm Bureau's survey are ground beef, lemons and sugar. The cost for each one is up more than 10%.

"Well I know for my family probably you know we’re seeing a bump around 10% to 15%, especially around those holiday and celebration occasions," according to Sheri Ambrose, a nutritionist educator with the University of Illinois Extension.

"I think there’s a lot of things happening with our budgets during the summer. And so the food spending actually might be going under the radar," Ambrose said.

Like taking a vacation or taking your kids to their baseball games or the pool, which has you eating out or on the run.

"And generally most of us do well with our budgets when we’re in a routine. We know what we’re buying, we kind of stick to some basics throughout the course of a week," Ambrose said.

Just like during the school year, Ambrose said consumers should try to establish a routine summer schedule to try to help keep food spending in check.

But if your schedule is anything but routine, here are a few other tips and tricks to check out.

"Be aware of those prepared foods. I know they’re tempting. We don’t want to spend a lot of time cooking because we’re busy in the summer," said consumer savings expert Andrew Woroch.

While those foods may save you some time, Woroch said they can cost you more money.

"When you grab that package of pre-cut produce like your fruit salads or you get the meat that’s already put on a kebob, you’re looking at spending anywhere from 50% to maybe 100% more than if you bought the whole produce or a larger slab of meat and prepped it yourself," Woroch said.

Woroch also said be careful when buying in bulk.

"Buying in bulk is going to get you the best price per unit. So this would be great if you are having a party. You know that that big bulk bag of chips will be consumed within a day. But if you’re over-buying in bulk just to have snacks at home chances are some of it could go stale," Woroch said.

Before you head to the store, Woroch recommends checking out your fridge first.

"And then use an app like Cooklist and enter in the ingredients and it will give you some different options for meals that you can prepare," Woroch said. "Love Your Leftovers. This app will help you come up with creative ways to reinvent your leftovers. Maybe how to prep them and create a new meal."

Woroch added apps like this will help you reduce food waste, which is one of the biggest ways consumers overspend on groceries.