My husband works for a dairy and you would think with milk prices going up they would be making even more money. They aren't. The government sets the prices of milk but most dairys provide milk for schools and other public organizations that get the milk for a set price also set by the government. We could until recently have my husband bring milk home from work at the same price as the government school pricing. But now we pay the lowest price that they sell it to outside markets for...Which means I can now go to Walmart and buy their brand of milk for less than what my husband can get it for at work.

I guess I am lucky as far as gas prices. $3.19 is what I paid today in east Tennessee. If I knew 1 year ago I would be saying I was lucky for paying $3.19, I think it would have made me sick. When I was 16, 5 years ago, I had a Saturn and paid $14 to fill the tank. As far as milk goes, I only get a certain brand and it is about 4.69. I don't drink it that often though, so I don't worry to much about that.

I just bought a gallon of milk at Costco and it was $3.09 for 2%.
At the grocery store, it's running $3.99 for a gallon.

Gas at their pump was $3.39 a gallon, which is about $0.15 less than elsewhere around here.

.

My understanding is that the cost of producing and transporting the milk has gone up, and therefore prices have gone up as well in order to maintain any kind of profit margin (which was probably paper thin to begin with). The cost of feed for the cows has gone up due to crops being used for ethynol instead of food production (to create "alternatives" to gasoline), and of course the cost of transporting milk to the grocery store has gone up because trucks run on gas.

It always comes down to gasoline. Amazing....

$3.45 in my area....sighs...right now, my family is just filling their gas tanks halfway every time, because it's about 20 bucks that way. We're not about to spend more than that as we can't afford it.

I would love to walk to my grocery stores, etc, but I live way too far from the nearest bus line, and it would literally take me ALL day just to get to one place, forget about others.