Total for 'fantasy shopping list' drops a bit

A great sale on bread and breakfast cereal almost countered a 30-cent rise in the cost of a gallon of unleaded gasoline during the monthly Deseret News shopping spree Wednesday. Overall cost of the 15-item fantasy shopping list was down slightly, compared to the same time in June.

The cost comparison has been ongoing since April 2008 and the results often yo-yo, especially when the spree occurs doing a sale on a higher-ticket item. The cost of Levi Strauss Signature jeans, for instance, has consistently been either $21.99 or $19.99, depending on whether the sale just started or just ended.

This time, gasoline rose from $2.30 a gallon in the early June shopping trip to $2.60 on July 1, just in time for summer vacation travel. However, the price of staples such as laundry soap, diapers, orange juice, bananas and even that date-night special of pizza and a movie stayed flat.

It cost more to eat eggs or drink milk, but the price of hamburger and blue jeans was down.

Betty Carman was looking at greeting cards at the downtown Smith's Marketplace and admitted that she hasn't been paying too much attention to the fluctuating prices of late. She's shopping primarily for meals and decides what sounds good to her — "it's a mood thing" — planning a week's worth of meals at a time, she said. Her main concern Wednesday was finding food that would not need to be cooked, because of the heat.

As for rising gas prices, she said she and her husband always buy gasoline at the same place, regardless of the price, because they believe it's the ony true way to see what kind of mileage a vehicle gets.

Mickey Falkner was shopping on a lunch break from work and said she hasn't noticed big swings either way, although the price of apples was up.

E-MAIL: lois@desnews.com