I love to cook, but prices have been getting steadily higher for less in my country too. These days I have largely stopped buying much food (my office supplies lunch, so I just make that my one meal for the day). Which sounds insane, but even if I can afford groceries it just feels painful to spend so much on a fairly small amount. When I do buy groceries now I jyst buy eggs and flour and make a lot of pasta, mostly cacio e pepe or aglio e olio. It's the most cost efficient thing I can think of.