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Expect to pay more for these popular grocery items due to shortages around the world.

Prices are on the rise in grocery stores across the country. You may not notice the changes right away; that loaf of bread may be only a dime more expensive than it was last year. The soda you buy may be the same price but it’s now 1.5 liters instead of two. Many of the major cereal manufacturers, such as General Mills, have warned of impending price increases.

Why Are Grocery Prices Going Up?

While almost every grocery store aisle is affected by rising prices, a large part of the reason all comes down to two commodities: wheat and corn. Both food staples have been hit hard for the past two years – a combination of climate change, natural disasters and crop disease. Russia has experienced severe drought for the past two years and had stopped exporting wheat altogether to ensure enough of a domestic supply. They have resumed limited exports as of July 2011 but supplies are still short. A disease called wheat rust UG99 has wiped out crops across Africa and is spreading to other wheat-producing countries at a rapid pace.

Read more: 4 Rising Food Costs That Will Hurt Your Wallet

One restaurant’s $1,000 bagel isn’t quite the same as what you get at the corner deli.

Fast food has been consistently popular all over the world for decades, for reasons that are pretty compelling–it’s tasty, it’s filling, and most of all it’s cheap. Much has been made in recent years about the health impact of these foods, but it’s done little to keep customers away. After all, a typical fast- food restaurant allows a family of four to eat for $20, and in this economy that’s a likely source of repeat business, regardless of the health implications.

Still, would people be willing to pay more for fast food if it were made with better ingredients? Would they be willing to pay more for a hamburger made of high-quality beef? What if it was made from fresh Kobe beef from the Hyogo Prefecture in Japan and smothered in foie gras and black truffles, while perched atop a brioche truffle bun dotted with edible, 24-karat gold leaves? Would the average fast-food consumer be willing to part with a few extra bucks for such an experience?

Read more: 5 outrageously expensive fast foods

Nearly every province mandates minimum prices for the stuff

Canadians find beer an endlessly interesting topic. We enjoy drinking it, brewing it, watching ads for it and even following the delivery of equipment used to make it. Consider, for example, the daily press coverage of the recent transportation of six massive beer fermenters, each seven metres high and capable of holding one million bottles of beer, to the Molson Coors brewery in Toronto. The $24-million operation required shutting down several highways and lifting 1,600 service wires: it also had its own logo, website and Twitter feed. Despite all this fermented fascination, however, there’s one aspect of beer in Canada that receives far too little attention: the fact that nearly every province mandates minimum prices for the stuff. These policies stifle competition and choice and force all Canadians to pay more than they should for their favourite alcoholic beverage.

The issue of minimum beer prices made a rare appearance in the news last week with reports that the Quebec Brewers Association is lobbying the provincial government for a bigger boost in the floor price of beer. Quebec’s minimum price is reviewed annually and adjusted for inflation. The brewers, however, are arguing beer prices should be hiked by more than the national consumer price index. At current rates, they warn, beer will soon be cheaper than milk. We can only hope.

Read more: Why is your government standing in the way of cheaper beer?

You can keep your expenses in check simply by changing where your eyes go in the grocery store

Food, clothing and shelter generally top the list of basic human needs. While shopping at a discount store instead of the mall generally takes care of the clothing issue, and living in a small apartment instead of a McMansion can address your housing situation, rising world food prices can lead to some significant challenges in the food department. Everything from rising transportation costs to the development of biofuels, such as biodiesel, push up the cost of food and put a pinch on consumers’ wallets.

Read more: 22 Ways to Fight Rising Food Prices

Standing in the supermarket checkout line waiting for your food to scan can be as much fun as watching paint dry. But if you watch carefully and spy a scanner price error, you could score that grocery item for free.

Mistakes on electronic price scans are common at the grocery store. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has found that errors occur in 1 out of every 32 regularly priced items. Errors are more common on sale items, with 1 out of 28 items being overcharged to consumers. The cost of being overcharged at the till can add up to many dollars per month per family.

Read more: Watch the price scanner to get your food for free

It depends on what they buy. While some big-ticket expenditures have skyrocketed, the relative cost of many necessities has dropped.

For many Americans, thinking back to the days of 99¢ gas and 50¢ cups of coffee, it may be cathartic to grumble about how expensive life has become, especially during the current economic downturn. The reality, however, is that a lot of things aren’t as expensive as we think—and many things actually cost less in relative terms.

A look at the cost of living between 1980 and 2010 shows that nominal income rose more than overall consumer prices (nominal income is income not adjusted for inflation). The price of many day-to-day expenses such as food and even energy increased at a slower pace than overall consumer prices, which means their relative costs are lower, while some big-ticket items, such as education and health care, became more expensive, causing a shift in spending.

Read more: Are Americans as Poor as They Feel?

If you are what you eat, then I should weigh-in at under $1 a pound.

That’s because, as a general rule of thumb, I try to only buy foodstuffs that costs under a buck per pound. Under $1 a pound, year-round — that’s my grocery shopping mantra.

It’s not just because I’m a world-class penny-pincher and smart shopper; believe it or not, it’s also about eating healthier. When you look at the USDA’s “food pyramid,” many of the things we should be eating the most of — grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables — happen to cost the least.

Read more here: 50 healthy foods for under $1 a pound

Tim Hortons Inc. (TSX:THI) chief executive Don Schroeder is optimistic that a good year for Columbian coffee crops could mean the price of your morning cup of joe will hold steady for the foreseeable future.

While the head of Canada’s iconic coffee and doughnut chain didn’t make any promises about holding back from price increases, he did provide a glimpse of a brighter future for coffee lovers who were burned last year when a smaller crop and bad weather helped raise the price of a cup of coffee.

Read more here: Tim Hortons coffee prices could hold steady on good crop, says CEO