Yes, OP is right The cost of living have actually gone up a lot over the last 2-3 years.

But as TIT you would not see it in the way you think....

The packet of cheese or butter is priced at the same as before more or less (+2-3 Baht ) but the amount you buy is a lot less... Packaging is the same size so you still feel it is same.... but in fact you will need to buy more in a shorter interval .

A very good example and proof of this is enclosed picture.

I used to stock up on CP Sausages, (4 in a pack) usually from Tesco or 7/11, buying bulk 10+ chuck it in the freezer and use when needed.

Cost aprox. 40 Baht (used to be 38 now 42) The pack looks the same as it has for years...

Back to the picture, as you can see i opened two packs from my freezer and discovered this....

Having studied this in more depth i discovered that it is not a singular event.... packet of Lays potato crisp before 65 Gram now 55 Gram cost same 20 Baht. and the list goes on...

so it is a sneaky way of avoiding getting the government on their neck by upping the prices too much, as we know that they like to try to regulate.....

so better cut the amount of product and keep prize the same....

Amazing TIT

First the on topic:

2 Adults, ca. 800฿ pp/pw excluding alcohol & cigs in TH.

In Finland it's closer to 2500฿ pp/pw same exclusions as above.

Then nearly on topic:

I almost had a heart attack grocery shopping for christmas in Finland; It was for 3 adults & one teen:

Ingredients for 3 home cooked "christmas meals"(a small ham, some fish, weg for casseroles etc), a twelve pack of beer & two bottles of wine, some miscellaneous stuff like herbs and spices; Spent money = 6500฿

Found an interesting metric regarding this discussion, where you can add your own grocery stats, and other cost of living stuff in as well: http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings_by_country.jsp?title=2014

Coming from the top 20 to the bottom 20 in Consumer Price Index it surely makes one feel like "everything is cheap" for a certain period - then if you look at the grocery stats it dawns - food items don't have that much variance after all.

When I checked the "necessary food items on 2300 calory diet", for a bare minimum pp/pm, it's 4300฿ less money required on average.

Also same same as torpedo above noticed, the food price hasn't really increased historically, but surely the volume of contents has decreased