Photo by Nicholas Cappello on Unsplash

In the last two-and-a-half years inflation has become a four-letter word. For the 40 years before that, inflation had been relatively benign and for a huge percentage of the American public, inflation was something they’d heard about but never really experienced.

Today, everyone has seen the effects—the price of gas is almost double, eating out requires a small loan, and at the grocery store, many consumers are trying to figure out what to do. Sean Connolly, CEO of Conagra Brands, says consumers are “hunkering down” instead of “trading down.” They’ve gone from name brands to generic brands, to buying less food.

NielsonIQ, a research firm specializing in consumer behavior, published a report in April showing that shoppers were buying 2% less groceries than they were compared to the same period a year before. The largest declines were in frozen foods and household items.

A new study by Morning Consult Pro, an international survey company, surveyed 2,548 U.S. adults who are “primary cooks,” which is defined as a U.S adult who is chiefly responsible for the cooking duties in a household. Here are some of the ways the found cooks dealing with culinary inflation.

• 46% of those surveyed said they are changing the types of meals they cook. Some meals are more expensive to prepare than others. Homemade tomato soup is a lot less expensive than preparing a lobster.
• 40% say they are substituting ingredients. With a little work, they’re finding cheaper substitutions that work just as well.
• 38% are using fewer prepackaged meals knowing that some of the cost is paying for the convenience. They are taking more time to cook from scratch.
• 36% are using more recipes
• 28% are using fewer recipes
• 26% are leaving out some ingredients

Will it continue? NIQ Vice President Carman Allison believes people are “burning through the food” they have on the shelf and in the freezer and that buying trends will get back to normal at the end of the summer.

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