Sliced bacon averaged $6.756 a pound across the United States in September, 53.4 cents or 7.3% below the $7.290 of a year earlier, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. That makes bacon one of the few grocery items getting cheaper while beef and household energy climb. A shopper who buys a pound a week is spending about $28 less over a year.
What the September price table shows
BLS lists the September 2026 bacon average at $6.756 a pound in its table of average retail food and energy prices, a U.S. city average that is not seasonally adjusted. The price is up from $6.605 in August, a 2.3% monthly gain, so the decline is a year-over-year story: bacon has ticked up since summer yet sits well under last September.
Pork cuts broadly tracked bacon lower. Boneless pork chops averaged $4.550 a pound in September, 4.2% below $4.748 a year earlier. The Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service, in its September 25 outlook, forecasts pork prices rising 1.2% for 2026 as a whole, within a range from a 0.1% decline to a 2.6% increase.
Chicken is flat and ground beef is not. Whole fresh chicken averaged $2.064 a pound, 0.1% above a year ago, and the ERS forecasts poultry up 1.0% for 2026. Ground beef averaged $6.792 a pound, up 7.4% from $6.323, and the same ERS outlook has beef and veal prices rising 9.4% for the year.
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For a household, the question is whether cheaper breakfast meat shows up in the weekly total. At 52 pounds a year, the 53.4-cent difference works out to $27.77 less than last September’s price would have cost. A pound of ground beef a week would cost about $24 more over the same year.
The rest of the grocery basket
Eggs show the steepest drop. A dozen grade A large eggs averaged $2.272 in September, down 34.9% from $3.488, BLS data show, and the ERS expects egg prices to fall 29.4% in 2026.
Staples barely moved. White bread averaged $1.830 a pound, 2% under last year’s $1.867, and a gallon of whole milk averaged $4.106, 0.6% below $4.129. Ground roast coffee, at $9.332 a pound, is 2.1% higher than the $9.139 of a year ago. Cheddar cheese averaged $6.133 a pound, 1.4% above $6.049.
The broader inflation data agree that groceries are calm. The September Consumer Price Index, released October 14, showed food at home up 1.8% over 12 months, well below the 3.7% rise in all items. The meats, poultry, fish and eggs index fell 0.5% in September alone.
Counting the foods in the BLS table, five were cheaper than a year ago: bacon, pork chops, eggs, bread and milk. Four cost more: ground beef, chicken, cheddar and coffee.
The ERS forecasts all food up 2.9% in 2026, with food at home up 2.4% this year and 1.8% in 2027. The 2027 food-at-home range is wide, running from a 5.0% decline to a 9.2% increase, which is a reminder that the forecast is a midpoint and not a promise.
Where the grocery savings go
Energy is where the budget feels the pressure. BLS puts gasoline of all types at $4.631 a gallon in September, 33% above $3.481 a year earlier. Electricity averaged 19.6 cents a kilowatt-hour, up 4.3% from 18.8 cents, and piped natural gas averaged $1.700 a therm, up 5.4% from $1.613.
The bacon saving of $27.77 a year is smaller than the extra fuel bill. At $1.150 more per gallon, a 12-gallon fill-up costs $13.80 more than it did a year ago, so two fill-ups erase the bacon discount.
All three energy lines BLS lists rose over the year, gasoline by 33%, electricity by 4.3% and piped gas by 5.4%, while bacon, eggs and bread all fell.
That asymmetry is why grocery-price headlines can feel out of step with household budgets. Food at home is rising 1.8% a year, while fuel and electricity, the bills that cannot be skipped, are rising faster.
How much one month of averages can say
BLS average prices are national figures, not store prices. A pound of bacon in a rural grocery can cost more or less than the $6.756 average, and brands and pack sizes vary within it.
The measures also answer different questions. The CPI food-at-home index covers all groceries, while the price table follows single items. A 34.9% drop in eggs and a 7.3% drop in bacon can sit beside a 7.4% rise in ground beef without changing the basket’s overall direction much.
Bacon’s own path has been uneven, $6.605 in August and $6.756 in September. The table for October, published with the next round of price data, will show whether the 2.3% September gain was a one-month bounce or the start of a turn.
For households on fixed incomes, the comparison that matters is whether grocery relief arrives faster than the energy bills climbing beside it, and whether any program is helping with the difference.
Is cheaper bacon covering the gas bill?
Cheaper bacon saves about $28 a year, but gasoline is up $1.150 a gallon and electricity is up 4.3%, so a fixed income can lose ground even as the grocery bill eases, and the programs that offset food and heating costs only pay after someone applies.
The Benefits Checklist is a downloadable guide that scans 11 benefit programs retirees most often miss, including SNAP and heating help. It lists the 2026 income limits for each and adds a 50-state phone directory plus a printable application tracker.
Scan the SNAP and heating-help limits in this 11-program checklist →
More Financial Reading
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- 21 Ways Retirees Can Raise $1,000 Fast Without a Job
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
