Austin, Texas – When Beth Brown needs groceries, she often shops in the backyard.
Brown estimates she’s saving $400 a month on groceries by growing vegetables like lettuce, squash, tomatoes and cantaloupe. The nurse and single mother of two said she is trying to save everywhere because prices are skyrocketing.
“Food prices have really gone up everywhere,” Brown told CBS News. “So I’ve been growing a lot more vegetables to keep up.”
In June, the average U.S. household spent $51 more on groceries than a year ago, according to Moody’s, as inflation pushed food prices to a 43-year high.
“Americans used to spend less than 10 percent of their budget on food. That compares to maybe 15 percent to 20 percent or more in the rest of the world. Now, the U.S. is up to 12 percent,” Bartholomew Sparrow, a professor at the University of Texas, told CBS News.
Brown knows the price hikes are sending people to their backyards. He runs the Facebook group Central Texas Vegetable Gardeners, whose membership has grown significantly this year, he said.
“I think we’re close to 20,000 members now,” he said.
Brown says that, as many home gardeners know, the food she grows also tastes better than store-bought.
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- gardening
- inflation
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