inflation hits home........

reply to post by rubbertramp


My wife and I have a plan. 1 quarter of our groceries are fresh foods that we will eat in the immediate future. And the rest is foodstuffs.

I also buy MREs, emergency rations, and my wife is getting into canning.

reply to post by SirMike


yes, i was just about to mention that more and more i find myself purchasing things that are on sale.
i never really used coupons in the past, nor did i always check the 'flyers' when i walk in the door as much as i do now.

reply to post by projectvxn


i basically do the same, but do not trust the military type mre's.
reasoning is basically that i do not trust my government and have no doubt there may be extra ingredients added.
scary ingedients at that!

the dried food i have stashed away is guarented organic.

reply to post by rubbertramp


My wife and I have been going through every coupon we can find. We even go online for them. It can be a pain in the butt to wade through hundreds of coupons for the stuff you need, and to find sales. But it is worth it.

reply to post by rubbertramp


MREs will do in a pinch. It's just dehydrated stuff. There's nothing to fear from them honestly and they keep forever.

I'm just saying that one should be stocking up and storing away. I don't have nearly as much stocked up as I'd like to...But I'm getting there.

Tonight, in Australia, I went to Coles (major shopping centre) to buy fruit for a nice breakfast tomorrow morning.

2 bananas. 2 mandarins. 5 kiwi fruit. 1 pineapple. 2 pears. 2 plums. 1 punnet of Strawberries. $19.70 AUD.

I think that's fairly reasonable seeing as we're going into the colder months.


I can usually make $60 AUD last a week for food, seeing as my wife and I are vegetarians. We make sandwiches and salads, soups and what-not. Bread is usually the most expensive item, though we buy the expensive brand for $6 AUD for 2 loaves.

I have tomatoes growing out the back and out the front and I pickle them myself, along with carrots and potatoes. I buy 5 cans of Tuna for $6 (yes, I still eat fish) and I have those in the sandwiches and in the salads.

All in all I think I live a fairly in-expensive life.

Fuel, though, is about $1.40 AUD per litre at the most around these parts.





It is a bit of a hassle living the way we do in the western world, but if you make a few decent decisions, you can do it.



Being a former meat-eater, if you can, buy cheap mince. The kids won't know it has beef hearts and such minced in to it, and does it really matter if you know? Meat is meat, after all. Roll it up, along with some bread crumbs and herbs and you can make it last. Bake it so that you don't lose too much moisture and natural oils.

Buy cheap oats and make your own muesli bars. They are full of energy and such, and it is very cheap to make.

Stay away from chocolates and such, sweets are nothing more than a distraction from real life, in my opinion.





If you have a tomato or a potato with a black spot on it, don't throw it away. Cut the spot out and boil it up for a snack or meal. It's all good.




Live life and remember that you are in charge of it.

reply to post by rubbertramp


It is only going to get worse, much worse. I'm currently living in Hawaii where the food has always been more expensive than on the mainland. It is now wildly expensive. Yesterday I bought a gallon of milk and it was $6.35 and this was in a major grocery store chain. Large box of ceral? Depending on the type, around $7.

With the massive hit the islands are going to take with the damaged Japanese economy, since the Japanese are the single largest group of tourists to the islands, this place will be hurting for years.

A ton of folks are looking to move back to the mainland.

There is no way they can keep inflation from going up, it is a simple consequence of printing money with abandon. If these wankers in Washington can not get their hands around the spending and continue to print more money, we'll be looking at double digit inflation within 3 years.

another sign i've noticed is..........
i volunteer at a small non-profit thrift store here that benefits an abused children shelter and the lady who runs it told me she is absolutely amazed by the 'higher' class of people she sees shopping there.
she said that never in the past has she noticed women getting out of bmw's and benz's, coming in to purchase used clothing.
their biz has gone way up, which is great for the kids in need.

reply to post by dolphinfan


I'm giving it less time than that.

The housing market is in free fall still and it is the metric that is depressing the true rate of inflation in the CPI. It just goes to show what a crock the CPI is. CPI doesn't include food and fuel. If you take out housing and put in food and fuel you'd get a number closer to 9-10% inflation.

reply to post by projectvxn


question, when you mentioned online coupons, were you talking about manufacturers coupons or ones for individual stores?
links would be appreciated and any other ideas people have to help us normal peons save a couple of bucks would also be greatly appreciated.

reply to post by rubbertramp


You can visit the websites of various stores to get coupons from them. As well as manufacturer sites of the products you intend to buy.

Posting links would fill up ATS servers and I don't know what stores you buy from.

On the ammo front the best site I've ever used is www.luckygunner.com...

They don't put anything that isn't in stock on the site and they have great prices. UPS delivers right to your door.

Originally posted by projectvxn
reply to post by dolphinfan

 

I'm giving it less time than that.

The housing market is in free fall still and it is the metric that is depressing the true rate of inflation in the CPI. It just goes to show what a crock the CPI is. CPI doesn't include food and fuel. If you take out housing and put in food and fuel you'd get a number closer to 9-10% inflation.

edit on 12-4-2011 by projectvxn because: (no reason given)

not to mention the incoming commercial real estate bust.

reply to post by rubbertramp


That's already happening. Reno has so many empty store fronts and buildings.

Vegas is going to turn into a ghost town. I'm glad I left Vegas.

But I love NV so I'm staying put in Reno/Carson City

reply to post by projectvxn


i can say the same for my beloved new mexico.
even in santa fe it seems half the retail buildings are for rent or sale.
8 galleries just went out on canyon road, which has been doing well for years.
although i think it will escalate and become even worse.
the arts are always the first thing to crash in a bad economy.

reply to post by OptimusSubprime


LOL! The ball was one of those little cheesy plastic inflatable balls you see around supermarkets in those cage displays. I guess it was about $5. So nothing that would have made my total skyrocket.

Anyways, just saying, I do see prices being a lot more. FORTUNATELY, we are blessed with not having financial difficulties but I still flinched at the total for one dinner so I wanted to share. And this wasn't some Thanksgiving feast. It was just our weekend nice dinner I like to make on Saturday family night. And nobody ever knows when their situation will change. We might be OK today but hurting tomorrow, especially with the speed at which the middle class is shrinking.

At that rate, I still worry about things in general because that DOES trickle into other factors. When people are spending every spare dime they have on gas, food, and skyrocketing utilities, our whole country hurts. And those in a good condition as of right now will not be for long and those who are already struggling can barely feed their family.

Ack I hope feminine products hasn't gone up but it probably has!
Ahhh someone pass me the MIDOL!

Originally posted by OptimusSubprime
reply to post by AshleyD

 

Wow... how much was the ball?! Anyway, I have never thought of it like that. I don't think I have gone to the store to get food for one specific meal. My wife and I usually plan out a week in advance what we will eat and then go get it all at once. It seems to me that it may have been cheaper to go out for a steak dinner than to cook it yourself and that is very disturbing. I remember when eating at home was a way to actually save money, but it seems that isn't the case anymore.

I agree, my Significant other's birthday was February and I took him to Longhorn's Steakhouse for dinner and the two meals and one appetizer we shared (those yummy onions deep fried) and 2 very nice drinks (alcoholic) were total of $57!
Of course I had a coupon for the free appetizer, because I printed it out online, but still $40 less than home cooked, who'd have thought. Oh and a $12 tip, still less than the home cooked wow .

reply to post by BrokenCircles


Air is pumped into the bag to keep the chips from breaking.

Half and Half is $9.38 a gallon. Nearly twice what is was last year.

Basic domestic beer is still pretty much the same price.

seems to me the basic equation is that as we spend more we save and stock up less.
is anyone out there a rarity and actually gotten an increase in pay/savings?

reply to post by mike_trivisonno


Buy peanut butter. You can pretty much live off the stuff. It is compact, high in fats and proteins and sugars. And you don't have to eat a lot to get a lot of calories.

It is like meat that grows roots.