Planning a Memorial Day cookout may come with a bigger price tag this year — even for families keeping things simple and staying close to home.

A new analysis by the Century Foundation and Groundwork Collaborative found that classic barbecue foods now cost an average of 13% more than they did a year ago, putting fresh pressure on holiday budgets at a time when many households are already stretched thin.

What's happening?

According to Scripps News, and shared by WMAR-2 News Baltimore, common cookout foods — including burgers, hot dogs, and watermelon — are costing more in 2026, according to the recently released report.

The most dramatic increase in the analysis was yellow corn. Six ears now average $5.90, up from $2.97 compared to last year. That's a nearly 98% jump.

The report is another sign of fast-rising prices affecting U.S. consumers since the conflict in Iran began. Breyon Williams, the chief economist at Groundwork Collaborative, told Scripps News that shoppers should expect the rising costs to go beyond just meat.

For example, travel is getting more expensive too, with the cost of gas hitting over a dollar and a half per gallon higher than before the conflict in Iran began. 

Why does it matter?

For a lot of families, Memorial Day is supposed to be one of the more affordable long weekends of the year — a backyard meal, a short drive, and maybe a grocery run for a few summer favorites.

But when food and fuel costs rise at the same time, even those relatively simple plans can start to feel out of reach.

Janelle Jones, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation and a former chief economist at the Labor Department during the Biden administration, told Scripps News that higher diesel prices are especially important to pay attention to because most food in the U.S. is transported by truck. In other words, fuel increases can ripple through nearly every aisle of the grocery store.

Fresh government data shows inflation is still weighing heavily on households. April consumer prices were 3.8% higher than a year earlier, while producer prices were up 6% from 2025, the biggest wholesale increase since late 2022.

What can people do?

For households trying to keep costs down right now, the most realistic option may be adjusting plans rather than waiting for prices to fall. That could mean trimming the guest list, swapping out the most expensive menu items, or choosing a closer-to-home gathering if gas prices make travel too costly.

Those steps won't solve the bigger problem, of course. But they may help families avoid taking on extra strain during an already expensive weekend.

As Jones put it, "These aren't, you know, once-in-a-generation things they're buying. These are things they need every day."

And for many households, she added, "The pain is already there, and when families have already been dipping into their savings, they don't really have anywhere else to."

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