Having a Fourth of July cookout this year? Celebrating Independence Day with a backyard barbecue is an American tradition, and new research reveals it shouldn’t be too much more expensive than last summer.
The Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute crunched the numbers on the costs for hosting the classic holiday gathering to see what we can expect to pay.
- Their team looked at how much the food and drinks for a barbecue for 10 people would be.
- Their menu includes staples like barbecue chicken breasts, beef sliders, hot dogs, fresh fruit, a veggie platter, potato salad, corn bread, cake, apple pie, ice cream, beer, wine, soda and sparkling waters.
- According to their research, you can expect to pay around $130 for enough of all that for 10 people.
- That’s only 2.2% more than the cost of the same gathering last Fourth of July.
- Prices on beef and eggs have seen the biggest increase this year, with ground beef up 7.4% over last year.
- Eggs are often a part of the menu, whether they’re deviled, in potato salad, or used for baking. Egg prices are seeing a little relief from highs earlier this year, but they’re still 40% higher than last year.
- But plenty of cookout essentials are still affordable, with prices only slightly more than last year’s, including chicken breasts (only up 1%), potatoes (up 1%), cauliflower and broccoli (both up 1.2%), baby carrots (up 1.9%), and BBQ sauce (up 2.3%).
- And some costs are actually lower than last summer, including for hamburger and hot dog buns (down about 1.5%), watermelon and strawberries (down 0.6%).
- Beer and wine prices have only gone up by less than 2%, sodas are 2% more, and sparkling waters are up 4.7% from last year.
- And for dessert, apple pie costs only slightly more than last year (up 1.5%) and the ice cream to go on top has gone up less than 1%.
Source: USA Today
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