With the financial stress of inflation and rising food costs, families across the country are thinking twice before putting that extra item in their grocery carts.
Scott and Jenny Sturgeon of Prairie Village, Kansas told Fox News on Thursday that the struggle to cut back on grocery costs while keeping cooking enjoyable has become a point of contention in their marriage. For Jenny, a nurse practitioner, garnishing her salad with pine nuts after a long day of work makes her feel pampered. Her husband Scott, though, doesn't see the need for it.
"I do love pine nuts, and it’s such a silly thing to talk about, but with grocery prices and food prices being so high we have tried to eat in more and cook at home," Jenny said on "America Reports." "And we both work really hard, and if we cook at home I want our meals to be fun and something kind of unique, and if all it takes is a little pine nuts to make it feel more fancy, then let’s go for it."
SURGING INFLATION CAUSES FOOD INSECURITY FOR WORKING FAMILIES AS FOOD BANKS STRUGGLE TO MEET DEMAND
Scott, a financial planner, said he's more of a "meat and potatoes kind of guy."
"Every time I check the receipt for a grocery bill I clutch my wallet," he said. "I’m more of a meat and potatoes kind of guy, so when Jenny gets a little…extravagant, maybe more excitable things than your standard grocery fare, sometimes maybe I take a little bit of a pause with that."
All things considered, The Sturgeons said they've been weathering the inflation storm "pretty well" and have made adjustments in different areas of their life to leave room for rising costs.
FOOD BANKS ARE ALREADY WORRIED ABOUT FALL, WINTER — SOME FAMILIES MAY NOT HAVE TURKEYS THIS YEAR
"With Scott being in financial planning, we have always had really open conversations about money throughout our whole relationship and that’s made the past couple years through the pandemic and a little volatility with prices has made that easier for us to talk about," Jenny said.
"I do feel like we are handling it ok. We are trying to cut back on our groceries to make room for other things in our life that we still want to do."
"I will say," she added. "We have a daughter who has allergies to dairy and eggs, and we try to buy her a vegan mac and cheese or vegan cheddar cheese to give her something fun to eat. Those are not cheap, and so by cutting back on our day-to-day foods, it makes more room for fun things for her, too. So that’s something we are really watching, cutting back on travel, cutting back on shopping, little things here and there.
"Nothing that’s changed our lives completely," she said. "But just enough that we felt it together."
