There are a very few people in Canada who aren't feeling the pressures of bonkers inflation right now, with the cost of just about everything hitting sky-high levels and continuing to rise.

At this point, most residents can't keep up with climbing prices for most items, around 70 per cent are seriously stressing about their money situation and nearly 75 per cent say they can no longer afford transportation, food, housing and clothing, and have had to seriously adjust their spending habits.

The prices of food and gas in particular have been hurting people's wallets the most as we hit a 40-year inflation high in June — and wages are certainly not keping pace.

Demand for the services of food banks and other charities has spiked as a result — Toronto's Daily Bread Food Bank has gone from 120,000 client visits per month in January to 160,000 now, it told Global News — and the issue is only bound to get worse now that food suppliers have said even more price increases are coming.

“The difficult part is what we’re predicting for the end of the year—around 200,000 client visits on a monthly basis…We know that 1 in 5 Canadians are anticipating having to make use of food charity this year alone,” says @DailyBreadTO CEO Neil Hetherington. https://t.co/eBPGmcyAaT

— Feed Opportunity (@feedopportunity) June 30, 2022

Dairy is set to go up for the second time this year by two cents a litre (as per new Canadian Dairy Commission standards) starting on Sept. 1, but certain brands of milk, cheese and other dairy products are marking things up even more due to higher costs on their end as well — like Lactalis Canada, which is hiking prices by five per cent come fall.

Wine, too, is slated to shoot up in price due to the heightened shipping and importing costs — as per The Star, by September, consumers can expect bottles to be $1 to $3 dollars more expensive for brands of vino from outside the continent.

Canadian food suppliers are once again issuing notices to grocery retailers informing them of upcoming #pricehikes. The letters signal more price increases will hit grocery stores this fall in a year that has already seen nearly double digit increases in food costs.

— Mike Anton. 🇨🇦🇺🇸🇬🇧🇬🇷✝️ (@mahabs4life) July 13, 2022

While there are definitely supply chain difficulties and rising costs at all steps of the process, many are also questioning the role that grocery stores are playing in all of this, with one recent Star investigation suggesting retailers are upping prices faster than is necessary.

This is all after companies like Loblaws reported a huge increase in profits over the course of COVID-19, with those profits jumping a whopping 40 per cent in the first quarter of this year.

Just saw people complaining that dining out in Toronto is cheaper than groceries. And not downplay absolute late stage capitalism greed of companies like Loblaws profiteering off inflation… some of y’all really need to learn how to cook consistently.

— .serge 🇺🇦 (@Sergetacular) July 11, 2022

The overall cost of living in the U.S. went up by 1.3 per cent in the month of June alone, hitting a stunning 9.1 per cent inflation rate with no slowdown in sight and buyers definitely changing their behaviours in response.

The most recent StatCan data from May indicates that here at home, our national consumer inflation went up 7.7 per cent from May 2021 to May 2022, marking "the largest yearly increase since January 1983 and up from a 6.8% gain in April."

Suppliers should.make more...lions share of food profit go to retailers

— Lynd Taylor (@LTaylor2962) July 13, 2022

As the agency noted, "price pressures continue to be broad-based, pinching the pocketbooks of Canadians and in some cases affecting their ability to meet day-to-day expectations."

We all know that the cost of gas reached exorbitant levels this year, but prices for services and experiences like eating out, staying at a hotel, and leisure activities and more have also soared alongside basic necessities (by about 5.2 per cent annually).

the way ordering in is cheaper than making your food with groceries rn in toronto 💀

— noosh⁷ (@minnienooshi) July 12, 2022

May's national Consumer Price Index showed gas costs up 48 per cent year-over-year, traveller accommodation up 40.2 per cent, energy up 34.8 per cent, furniture up 15.8 per cent, food up 9.7 per cent, shelter up 7.4 per cent, and homeowners' replacement cost (the price to rebuilt a home anew with current labour and material costs) up 11.1 per cent.

Looking at food specifically, certain items are becoming way more expensive faster than others: edible fats and oils were 30 per cent pricier in May 2022 than in May 2021, fresh veggies were 10.3 per cent more expensive, fish was 11.7 more expensive and meat was nine per cent more.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Canada just hiked interest rates another full per cent on Wednesday, meaning housing is now even less within reach due to high lending costs (though prices will be dropping somewhat as a result).

I run a restaurant. The cost of all of our food and supplies is skyrocketing so we have to raise prices. Our suppliers have raised their prices because their costs of production have gone up so much. Their costs of production have gone up because the cost of energy has gone up.

— Carrie Brecht (@carrie_brecht) July 13, 2022

In Ontario, at least, there's one thing that is actually going down in price this week: gas, which is set to drop around five to seven cents per litre on Thursday.