I'm no economic scholar, so I'm not even going to try to talk about what's going on in the financial markets and with the big boys in the worlds of investing, mortgages and insurance.

What I do know -- what we all know -- is that what we pay at the pump, the grocery store and the checks we write out to our utility companies are all going through the roof, in increments of 10 cents here, a quarter more there. (Or $84 per month more on my We Energies bill. Whatever.)

It seems like every time I go to the store lately, the prices on the basic grocery items I always buy are inching up on me. It's just small enough that if you don't really look at the label on the shelf and think about what you paid last time, you might not even notice it. When it's all added up at the register, you notice, but you don't necessarily see that couple of cents on each individual item.

Just for fun (sick fun, I admit), I decided to track one item on my grocery bill. Just one. There's a certain kind of granola I like to buy, mix it into some vanilla yogurt and eat it every morning for breakfast. (My husband says this mixture looks like a bowl of bird poop, but I digress.)

Anyway, a bag of the granola is 12 ounces.

In July, it was $4.79 per bag.

By August, it had increased to $5.09.

Today, it's $5.25. 

In two months, it's up nearly 50 cents. 

That's just for that one item -- one of 30 that I bought on my shopping trip this week. In fairness, I didn't track the others to see how much they've risen in two months, but I would imagine that most, if not all, have increased by some percentage in the past six months. 

This price creep has me thinking: How soon until I consider my granola a luxury item? When it hits $5.50 per bag? $6? What about when the staples hit these kinds of number? Milk's close to $4 per gallon. What will happen when it hits $5? It's near that in some parts of the country.

While everyone else is worrying about the big powerhouse financial giants, we're worrying about those of us who are not. Think there's going to come a time when they worry about us?

All the health experts will tell you to read the labels carefully when you shop to make sure you're buying the right stuff for your family -- and avoiding as much junk as possible.

But what can you do when you don't know if the L Rhamnosus and Acesulfame Potassium listed on the yogurt container are ingredients that are good for you or not? I just heard about a new web site called LabelWatch.com that lists all the ingredients in foods you buy at the grocery store and color codes them so you know which products are fair game to consume and which you might want to leave on the store shelf.

It breaks the ingredients into three categories -- beneficial, coded with green; OK, coded with orange; and cautionary, coded with red. Obviously you want more greens than reds in the foods you buy. If you click on one of the coded ingredients in the list, a box pops up with more information about why that ingredient is considered harmless or not.

There's also an alphabetical listing of food additives so you can search by that as well if there's one in particular you're curious about. 

It all sounds very scientific, but the site is designed in a fairly straightforward way, so it's easy to read. If you're a label reader or want to start doing it more diligently, it's a good place to get more information.

And FYI? L Rhamnosus? That's considered beneficial.

Acesulfame Potassium? Potassium's good, right? Apparently not this kind. Who knew?
 

A writer friend and I were talking about cool perks of the job the other day, and there's one in particular that we both just love. As a writer, when you're curious about something or thinking of making a change in your life, you can often find a way to work that into research for a story. A two-birds-with-one-phone kind of thing.

And while most of us don't want to talk about the school bell just yet, that's what I'm immersed in right now -- preparing our Back-to-School section on MilwaukeeMoms.com.

I'm knee-deep in what's hot in backpacks, and how to get your kids back into reading if they've slacked this summer, and how to make sure your kids are getting a great night's sleep.

Last Friday was my day to talk to local dietitians and food coaches about what families should be eating and what should go into a great bag lunch.

The perk of the business kicked in as I started to ask questions straight from my own cupboards, but I think they're pretty universal for other families as well.

The hard facts: My family doesn't eat so healthy and it is all my fault. As the primary shopper/food preparer, I've often relied on convenience over substance and wanting to minimize complaining over pushing for better nutritional value.

I buy white bread for my family because that's what I had growing up and some wheat breads are just too heavy. I buy kid-friendly cereal like Apple Cinnamon Cheerios and Peanut Butter Crunch. My kids drink juice -- some that's 100 percent juice, and some only a pitiful 10 percent. My kids eat fruit, but the vegetables are lacking -- seriously lacking.

After talking to the experts, I was a little depressed about the sad state of my cupboards and freezer. I know I need to do better, but with kids now old enough to complain -- a lot and loudly -- it's daunting to think about making so many changes.

The experts were great in suggesting how to do it in steps: Replace the Peanut Butter Crunch with Kashi Mighty Bites. Substitute a whole-wheat bread (even if it is a softer kind) for the white bread. Try one of the newer flavored waters that doesn't contain artificial sweeteners instead of the sugary fruit juices. Put out cheese and whole-grain crackers for snacks and, my weakness, look for appealing ways to get those vegetables in there -- even if it means adding a dip for the red pepper slices.

I headed out to the grocery store Saturday morning with new eyes. I bought the Kashi cereal, the whole-wheat bread and new crackers. I picked up some vegetables my kids would normally turn their noses up at with a new resolve to find ways to make them work.  

I'm happy to report that even this little step into healthier eating has been well received. I found my daughter with a big bowl of Mighty Bites at breakfast Monday morning. "They're good," she said.

I presented my son with a sandwich on the whole-wheat bread on Sunday.

"That bread is brown," he said, as the nose started to turn up ever so slightly.

"Just try it," I said. "It tastes good. Trust me."

He ate the whole thing without another peep.

In the end, I was so surprised at how uneventful it was. I expected griping, balking, complaining. What I got was kids peacefully eating things that are just a touch better for them.

More changes are on the way, so I'll keep you posted. I'd also love to hear how you keep your family on the healthy track, or how you're trying to make some modifications too.

And be sure to keep an eye out for our Back-to-School section at the end of this month. We'll have many more tips and ideas to help you whip your family into shape before that dreaded bell rings again this fall.