While housing prices remain completely unaffordable in Toronto despite an apparent lull in the market and rent continues to jump to new heights, residents are also dealing with a rising cost of living in every other aspect as inflation wreaks havoc on all of our wallets.

Most Canadians have been unable to keep up with increased prices for gas and transportation, clothing, housing and other basic necessities, especially food, which has soared ludicrously in cost, in part thanks to supermarkets taking advantage of the current economic climate to jack up prices — and their profits — even more.

How basic costs have changed in a year, comparing year-over-year increases this past June and July. Chart from StatCan's Consumer Price Index, July 2022.

With a whopping 70 per cent of people nationwide stressing about money this summer and 75 per cent seriously adjusting their usual spending habits to make ends meet, diets have had to change, whether it means eating out less or cutting out certain items altogether.

But what if it was the most basic of household staples that was getting too expensive to justify?

According to the latest numbers from StatCan, food prices are indeed reaching exorbitant levels, increasing vastly when compared to last year, and at a faster pace every month.

How prices for different grocery store item categories have changed in a year, comparing year-over-year increases this past June and July. Chart from StatCan's Consumer Price Index, July 2022.

While the average price of something like non-alcoholic beverages (pop and juice) was up 5.1 per cent in June 2022 compared to June 2021 and then 9.5 per cent in July 2022 compared to July 2021, other items spiked by nearly double this amount.

Bakery products, for example, were 10 per cent more expensive in June 2022 than June 2011, and 13.6 per cent pricier in July 2022 than in July 2021.

The cost of fresh fruit at the grocery store was up 10.2 per cent year-over-year in June and 11.7 per cent in July; coffee and tea, 11.3 per cent in June and 13.8 per cent in July.

But the steepest price increase from one year to the next has been for eggs, which rose by 7.9 per cent year-over-year in June, but a whopping 15.8 per cent year-over-year last month.

Putting year-over-year rising food costs into perspective. Chart from StatCan's Consumer Price Index, July 2022.

This is all despite the fact that the consumer price index overall climbed less drastically in July than in June versus with the same time last year, largely thanks to gas prices — though natural gas prices here in Ontario were a staggering 45.3 per cent higher this July than last.

"The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 7.6 per cent on a year-over-year basis in July, down from an 8.1 per cent gain in June. On a monthly basis, the CPI rose 0.1% in July, the seventh consecutive monthly increase," StatCan's Consumer Price Index report from last month reads.

"Prices for food purchased from stores increased more on a year-over-year basis in July (+9.9 per cent) than in June (+9.4 per cent)... Higher input costs and global supply uncertainty related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine continued to put upward pressure on global wheat prices amid an already constrained supply."