In all honesty,
it doesn’t matter what government reports tell us or what is reported on the
news. The articles that are written by
economists or even Harvard Business School don’t accurately portray the true
rate of inflation either. The true rate
of inflation is how the cost of goods and services impacts each individual. I know exactly how inflation has affected me
because I track my expenses in detail. I
have shared my grocery expenses on this blog and my previous blog for years. I track it all.
As I sit here I
can tell you my greatest impact from rising prices and the highest rate of inflation
I experience is at the grocery store. It’s
food, plain and simple. Something so basic
as a ten pound bag of potatoes. Well, for
one thing, they don’t sell ten pound bags of potatoes at my grocery store, they
are now eight pound bags. A couple years
ago at the holidays I used to be able to buy a ten pound bag of potatoes on
sale for $1.99. This year five pound
bags of potatoes were on sale for $1.99 making the rate of inflation on
potatoes 100%. And I live in Idaho.
A loaf of store
brand whole wheat sandwich bread was regular price 89¢ a loaf in 2022. That same loaf now sells for $1.99, a rate of
inflation of 120%. I used to buy chuck
roasts on sale for $1.99 a pound, now they go on sale for $3.99 a pound, a 100%
increase. I used to buy a gallon of milk
for $1.99, now it is $2.99 a 50% increase. A head of iceberg lettuce was 99¢, now it is
$1.99, a 100% increase. That is a lot in
just two years and these are just basic food items, nothing fancy.
So in the long run,
it doesn’t really matter what the reported rate of inflation is, it matters how
you are personally affected by the rising costs on the goods and services that
you require. Now we just need to take
the steps we need to take and work our way around it. Stick around and we’ll figure it out
together.
I have noticed here also that everything is twice the price of what it used to be and probably smaller quantity. Looking forward to your tips to work around it.
ReplyDeleteI'm even seeing it in sale and clearance items. One store I go to used to mark down their day old bread/bakery to 99c. No more. Now it's more like half off or maybe even a third off. At 99c I often bought a few things. I don't anymore because I can make it cheaper.
ReplyDeleteI'm often surprised that there are still loss leaders. I recently bought 6 pounds of apples because of the price. Often here apples are at least 1.99 per pound. They were 3 pounds for $1.99 which is comparable to seasonal apples. Who knows what apples will be in the fall so I got them now mostly to make apple chips and sauce. Sweet potatoes were 49c and they haven't been that low in a few years. I got a few pounds to bake then freeze.
One of the major drivers of increased grocery prices is the amalgamation of grocery chains. I believe there are about 4 companies nationally that own all the smaller chains, therefore eliminating the competition. Hyper capitalism :(
ReplyDeleteWe are definitely feeling it in our family. Our dollar buys less and less as the weeks go by. It's the fast food prices that blow my mind! We don't buy it often, but I was blown away by what certain things cost now.
ReplyDeleteI homeschool my kids. The curriculum we use for math and language arts includes a teacher book along with ten workbooks for each subject. Yesterday I went to the website to price workbooks for next school year. Thankfully I’m able to reuse the teacher books for the next child and only have to purchase those for my oldest. When we started using this curriculum about six years ago, the pack of 10 workbooks cost $30. It’s now $51 for the pack. 70% increase!
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, that's a jump in price!
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