The cost of living going up fast and we won't be able to keep pace with it

[Skidmore]

soon.

I just came back from the grocery store where the only variety of onion available this week was priced at $.94 each. Many things had gone up $.20-$.40 since I went in a week ago. Yet the superstore was full of all kinds of plastic doodads and whatnots and trinkets that serve no purpose in life whatsoever. I can't help but think that some of the staples of life would be cheaper if all the energy that went into producing the junk were utilized for the production of mainstay items. We're living on one salary now, just the two of us and groceries cost me $113 today. And I don't buy processed foods.

[Rude Horner]

1. Went to the grocery store a couple days ago

and spent $116 and we felt like we barely got anything. Just a few small plastic bags worth of stuff. Unreal.

[dogday]

2. The price of gas goes up, it

not only affect our gas tank but any mode of transportation that uses gas to move merchandise also goes up, thus the price of just about everything is going up....

[pooja]

5. then how do other prices come down. why is jc penny having

a sale like everyday at 50% off. that doesn't fly. they know where we have to spend our money and they are taking advantage of it. then blame it on gas prices. Would it be so awful if their ceo's took a damn paycut?

[anarch]

14. 'cause nobody can afford shit at jc penney's

they spent all their money on bills, gas, and groceries.

[dogday]

21. When you mark up an item 100% and it

sits on the floor or shelve, it is no big deal to them to mark it down 50%... They still are making money..

The new stuff that is coming in now will be more expensive because of the cost of shipping...

[pooja]

3. i noticed that shampoo is the same price, detergent, household

products.. but food prices keep going up a few cents here and there. Never heard of watermelon at 3.85 a pound ever never in my life (i'm 27) what will they be like 6mo from now. $5.00 a loaf of bread. we won't even be able to live off of pb&j.... What will be the earning amount before we all qualify for food stamps--or ebt cards?

[halobeam]

7. earning amount before we all qualigy for food stamps, you ask?

it will be lower than what any human being can possibly live on, just like it is now. It won't go up. The only way you can qualify for food stamps is if you own NOTHING, earn NOTHING, and you can NOT have a life insurance policy with any cash face value, or a burial plot you can "possibly" sell. You'd have to cash in your life insurance and burial plot first. If your kids have a college account started up by ANYONE in your family (grandparents, aunts, friend of the family, etc.) then you are required to take them to court to liquidate the account. By the way, I am not lying, I lived it.

It would be better if ALL people qualified for food, I guess JUST BECAUSE WE ARE HUMAN BEINGS FIRST. Then we can work out the details. Sure, right. Not in this land of the free. They'd step over your corpse, or your own children to get their next buck.

[foreverdem]

11. Food is ridiculous

Lettuce by me is $1.69 a head. Everything is out of hand. Sale prices are what normal prices used to be.

[cornermouse]

15. No it is not.

the same price. They're putting it in smaller bottles.

[leeroysphitz]

17. You are correct.

An astute shopper will see a lot of this going on at the grocery store.

If you look closely at what you buy you'll see MANY products that have been repackaged with an OZ. or two less inside with the same price as before. My SO and I call it a "stealth" price increase. Prices are going up across the board companies like Hershey's, Sunkist and Orida (to name a few) are just being sneaky about it.

[dogday]

25. Yeppers

there are some sneaky corporations out their always trying to pull one over on the consumer...

[laruemtt]

4. national geographic has said

you can live on potatoes. looks like it might come to that after all..............

[Yollam]

6. plastic doodads and whatnots and trinkets?

Like this, perhaps?




And what would you do without that fiber-optic glittering 9-11 New York Skyline with crying bald eagle portrait?

[sam sarrha]

8. Globalization really means that there many more people get'n an cut

which drives up the price

[sam sarrha]

9. Mexican onions put local farmers out of buisness, they dont have slaves

[Nickster]

10. Tell me about it, my favorite coffee went up from 4.99 a can all the way

up to 9.50 a can. Needless to say, I switched my brand of coffee. That jump in price was just a matter of months. I grinned and bought it the last time when it was at 6.99, but then by the time I had to get a fresh can, it was 9.50. Frigging unbelievable.

[Skidmore]

12. Might be a good time to start hammering those Rs in Congress

on the price of food right now as it relates to energy costs. We need to talk about these thing in the public arena. Markets are not free and they do not set the best price. Particularly when the energy market and medicine markets have their thumb on the scale.

[Sammy Pepys]

13. It's amazing how quickly....

You can spend $30-$40 at the grocery store and not even be half done with your shopping.

We've managed to be able to get by on a little under $100 per week for two of us, but we've had to cut a lot of things out. One thing that helps is planning our meals a week in advance, making a shopping list from that and exercising some discipline and sticking to the list.

I'm pretty bad though...I end up buying things like cocnut milk and pomegranate juice.

[anarch]

16. way ahead of you there, friend.

I've never eaten so much beans and rice before in my life, nor ever had to beg for money or food before.

It's ironic...I'm in the position of having the "best" job I've ever had in my life, what should be a solid "middle class" salary, and I can't even come close to supporting two people with the cost of living what it is now. I honestly have no idea what to do. I mean, we'll have to move somewhere cheaper soon, but I can't give up my job, so then I'll have to commute farther, which will mean spending waaaay more on gas, and so on...I don't know if anyone else is quite experiencing this, but I just feel totally, hopelessly fucked.

[lastliberalintexas]

23. A friend of mine is in a similar situation

She makes ok money but is barely able to keep up taking care of her and her daughter. (she's getting no to very little child support) For now she's doing ok and is still able to even pay for her daughter's one indulgence, a sports team. But I worry that she won't be able to do that much longer, especially if gas really does spike even higher later this year.

Good luck to you and I hope things somehow improve.

[newportdadde]

18. I buy for a family of 5.

Thats my wife, myself, a 2 year old and twin 4 month old babies. I go every Saturday morning, take coupons when I can etc and I have yet to get out of there with less then a bill of 50-60 bucks, and I am buying the cheap cheap store brands. Last week with my sons diapers it was 110. It seems pretty damn high to me when growing up my mom would get two cart loads filled to teh brim, enough to last 6 weeks for maybe 200.

We can handle it right now even on just my salary but its not fun. Any extra spending money we did have is gone with gas prices doubling in the last 2 years.

[porphyrian]

19. Good thing average wages have dropped drastically.

:eyes:

[HughBeaumont]

20. Soon?

There's no keeping up with it now.

[TexasLady]

22. This summer we will have eight

as of Saturday when we go to Nebraska to pick up my step daughter. Sooo, I make my own pizza, make hamburger a hundred different ways, and for fresh fruits and veggies(on special occasions) I go to our Mr Cisco from south Texas who sells his stuff real cheap. I guess we spend 500-600 a month altogether on food. ouch!!

[MadHound]

24. A couple of suggestions

Start growing your own produce, even if it's in pots out on the deck. You grow your own produce, clean and store it cheaper than what you buy in the store.

Second, for meats, find a local farmer whose cattle and operation you like, and buy beef, pork, chickens in bulk. I bought a quarter cow last fall, and the total price after processing fees was $1.80/lb, no matter what the cost.

Cruise your local back country roads and look for the roadside veggy stands. Not only are they usually cheaper than store prices, but the produce is tastier and better for you.

When fruits start coming in, berries, apples, peaches etc. look for you local U-pick-em patch, and go pick your own fruit. Again, not only will the fruit be cheaper, but better for you.

If can afford/have room for a full size freezer, get one. You can buy produce in bulk and freeze for later use. Either that or get out that old double boiler and start canning.

[Skidmore]

26. We grow a lot of stuff in our veggie garden.

No produce yet from it yet this year as it stayed cold well into the planting season, so we got a late start. We put in corn, green beans, carrots (not one came up this year though), peas, cabbages, eggplant, cucumbers, tomatoes, pumpkin, cantaloupe, and watermelon, and I raise my own herbs. I had to replant my strawberry bed because I lost at least a third of my plants to winterkill from the funky weather we had last winter. Blackberries are thriving but won't be ready for a while yet. Raspberries are just starting to ripen for the first crop of the year. Grapes are still green. I can't talk my husband into planting an orchard through. We just bought pork from a local farmer and beef a few months ago.

[MadHound]

28. OK, understand then

Yeah, it was a bit of a funky spring this year here in Missouri. We do have radishes in, and the snow peas are ready to eat(yum), but a lot of the other stuff is still a few weeks off.

Wow, and you're still running $113.00 a week, damn, I'm sorry about that.

I'm just fresh out of ideas then:shrug:

[catmandu57]

27. To make bad things worse

my wife is going to work for the bank, she got yet another overdraft notice this week, that's another twenty bucks gone. I can't explain it clear enough to her that if she's broke she's fucking broke, writing a hot check for lunch is going to bite her on the ass, one of these days they're going to bounce the check instead of overdrawing her, maybe, the bank lives for user fees.

I don't know how people earning minimum wage are keeping their head above water, we make good enough money for the two of us to still have a frivolous fling every now and then dinner out or some such thing.
People living off five bucks an hour, I just don't know how they're doing it.