Prices of everything—a vent thread

[icedcoffee]

Anyone else starting to feel depressed about the prices of everything? First it was just housing but now groceries, flights, gas. It’s all insane. And no one has given any reassurance that prices will come down.

And anything in the stock market? I don’t even want to look.

We were just starting to get back to “normal” after Covid and now I feel like we need to stay home because everything is so insanely expensive.

Add your vents. Or talk me down. Or add advice.

How is everything :::waves hands::: affecting you? Your actions? Budget?

[blondemoment123]

Its definitely effecting our day to day life. I've had to get creative with meals. I want to take some day trips but gas is insane. And forget flying anywhere. Tickets are crazy expensive and a few people I know who have flown lately (or planned to) had flights cancelled etc.

[VillainV]

Starting to feel pretty pinched, especially as the school year comes to a close knowing that my H won’t get paid for the next three months at least (he’s a teacher, and we’re moving to a new district where he doesn’t have a job yet). Upside is we don’t have to pay for camp for our son this summer.

So far no ONE thing is affecting us very much, but it’s more that EVERYTHING is more expensive. Mostly we’re trying to drive a lot less. We’ve cut as much out of the grocery budget as we can. The new house has solar, so our energy bill should go way down.

I’m trying not to pay too much attention to the stock market. I’m far enough away from retirement that it’s not an immediate concern (and will likely just depress me), and we don’t have extra to invest right now anyway.

[abs]

Oh I know. Everything is so expensive. Every time I buy groceries my eyes bug out of my head. We are losing value from our 401ks terrifyingly fast. I don't expect it to get better anytime soon because why would it?

We are still going through with trips and things we previously planned but we are going to have to buckle down on our budget beyond that. It sucks because I feel like we have already given up SO much in the past few years but we do want to retire one day.

[thebreakfastclub]

I'm a buyer so we have been raising prices for a year now.

A shipping container went from $3k to $20k due to high demand. Now demand is falling and we are canceling as much as possible. Hopefully this will bring the container prices down.

The prices don't affect me as much personally but it makes my job difficult.

[SusanBAnthony]

We are noticing everything going up. I understand why and honestly I'm.shocked it didn't happen a year ago.

It sucks, especially coming after the last two years.

My attitude about retirement is that we aren't close to retiring so let's not even look at it because it will make us sad. But my annoying husband likes to check daily and then have anxiety attacks about it.

[winecat]

I’m in Paris right now and Denver prices now make it seem reasonable. My breakfast was 7 euros and no tip plus whatever bullshit charge we have to “cover costs” which I’m sympathetic to but some places are adding 20% plus we tip another 20%. I’m drinking an aperol spritz right now that’s 8.5 euros and again no tip. So even with the exchange rate, I’m spending less than I would back home.

Idk though, we’re used to everything being cheap and big. Something has to change.

[mx27]

Yup! It’s part of the reason I’m looking for a new job.

[lilypad1126]

We have a cc dedicated just to groceries. I about dies when we got the bill this month. It’s just the 2 of us, we haven’t bought anything outrageous and the bill was $150 MORE than I anticipated 😱😭 And it’s not like we have more food in the house - in fact it’s probably less!

The only thing making it somewhat ok in my mind is that since I work from home now I don’t spend a lot on gas, even with the rise in prices, bc I don’t drive very much. So I can just move the money in budget from one category to another. But still, everything is just so expensive.

Mostly I’m just sticking my head in the sand and hoping things return to normal soon. And forget looking at my 401k. Or the market in general. It’s all just so awful.

[CurlyQ284]

Its scaring me.
We are ok financially. My H was out of work for 2 years during the pandemic, he has a job now. We have $ in savings again, he has a work truck and I only drive DS to and from school and errands around town. I was hoping to do some weekend trips to go camping, hiking in Hocking Hills etc but now I think I stick close to home and just focus on our Disney trip in November. We are doing better now than in 2020/21.

But if this doesn't start going down I worry about upcoming elections and consequences of those elections.

[icedcoffee]

May 21, 2022 8:13:14 GMT -5 CurlyQ284 said:

Its scaring me.
We are ok financially. My H was out of work for 2 years during the pandemic, he has a job now. We have $ in savings again, he has a work truck and I only drive DS to and from school and errands around town. I was hoping to do some weekend trips to go camping, hiking in Hocking Hills etc but now I think I stick close to home and just focus on our Disney trip in November. We are doing better now than in 2020/21.

But if this doesn't start going down I worry about upcoming elections and consequences of those elections.

If things don’t turn around there’s no way those elections will go well. 😭

[W.T.Faulkner]

Absolutely love spending so much more money to feed three of us while stressing out that I can’t find formula for one of us. Fucking fantastic.

Edit: The Democrats are going to get their shit rocked in the midterms. And you know what? The party (not ordinary people) deserves at least some of it. I’m still going to vote, but it’s to stop the hemorrhaging, not because I believe they will exact any meaningful change.

[CurlyQ284]

May 21, 2022 8:16:18 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

May 21, 2022 8:13:14 GMT -5 CurlyQ284 said:

Its scaring me.
We are ok financially. My H was out of work for 2 years during the pandemic, he has a job now. We have $ in savings again, he has a work truck and I only drive DS to and from school and errands around town. I was hoping to do some weekend trips to go camping, hiking in Hocking Hills etc but now I think I stick close to home and just focus on our Disney trip in November. We are doing better now than in 2020/21.

But if this doesn't start going down I worry about upcoming elections and consequences of those elections.

If things don’t turn around there’s no way those elections will go well. 😭

Yes, and that terrifies me. I mentioned in my thread about flights that I read gas could go up to $6 nationwide by the end of summer and I was at panic attack level anxiety all day yesterday.

W.T.Faulkner is totally right, they need a rude awakening but I'm just scared if Republicans win in November.

I had been meaning to get passports for all of us for years and just haven't (see Hs unemployment!) But mine and SD1s are in progress. We filed the paperwork a week after the leaked SCOTUS ruling. SD2 lost her birth cert after boot camp, waiting on the replacement and then I'll get hers and DSs.

[wildrice]

Yes, I am getting more mad than anything. Thankfully we planned our summer travel months ago so the prices on that were still lower, but that only gets us through August and I'm certain we'll want to do a trip somewhere this fall, fly to see family for Christmas, etc and it's going to be painful.

But it's more that just every single thing seems to have gone up. Restaurants we go to have raised prices at least a couple of dollars on each thing. Things I've been buying for years at Costco all are a couple of dollars more. I paid $50 to fill my Honda Civic gas tank the week before last and almost fell over - it used to be closer to $30-35. Some of it I get, and some I don't. To some extent it seems like some things are costing more just because they can, not because they actually need to. This area is already laughably expensive for a lot of things (like we paid $14 for two ice cream cones last weekend - what?) and it's nuts that it's getting even worse.

Thankfully we can afford the increases on most day to day stuff without a ton of pain, BUT it seriously reduces other financial goals to do that. I am ok with saving less if it means we get to do more, but I am frustrated that that has to be the case. And just puts things like updating our bathrooms, getting new floors, etc further and further away (especially given the costs of those keep going up!).

[cherry1111]

I used to buy a bag of frozen chicken breasts each week for $7.99-$8.99 depending if it was on sale. That same bag was $12.99 last week. Tell me companies (every single one in the supply chain) aren’t taking advantage of this climate to see how high they can push their prices.

I’m tired of every single thing we buy telling me they have to pass along their costs to me, meanwhile I’ll get my usual 1% annual increase from my company.

[isabel]

DH and I just had a conversation yesterday that we need to sit down and talk about money. We’ve already spent $1k on groceries so far this month and I spent $55 to fill my gas tank (used to me $40).

I am feeling really frustrated. He got a $20k raise with his new job. My raise bumped me about $9k. Somehow I feel like we’re struggling. I mean, we’re not, but we don’t have excess money like I thought we would. It’s all going into daily expenses, a higher mortgage payment because escrow went up because of taxes, etc.

We need to go visit his grandparents this summer. They’re old and not doing well. His aunt just texted me dates for a trip they’re taking so we don’t miss them when we visit. She said tickets were $$$ and she doesn’t blame us if we don’t visit this summer.

It’s honestly just out of control.

[Velar Fricative]

I drive a Hyundai sedan. Before covid, when gas prices were steady, filling the tank cost about $45. The other day, my eyes bugged out when I saw $73 on the screen at a gas station cheaper than almost all others around here. I think we as a society need to drive a lot less (including me), but this hurts a lot of people. We already have a housing affordability crisis with people having to move further out to afford housing, including many people unable to work from home. It’s really concerning.

I have the luxury of having a work car. I hate it and was happy to not drive it for a while, but I will go back to using it for most of my (already short) commute and for site visits just to pass along the gas costs to my employer. We are also very fortunate to be walking distance to just about anything we need, so I’ve been walking places a lot more which is really what I should have been doing this whole time for wellness reasons. I’ve also been eyeing bikes and scooters for longer trips.

I’ve already been eating less meat because I’ve been finding it less appealing anyway but also, there is no way my DH can ever go vegetarian. Luckily the only meat my kids eat are chicken nuggets.

I’ve also noticed that my usual places to buy discounted stuff (TJ Maxx, HomeGoods, 6pm.com, etc.) have much less inventory. I’m so used to steep discounts for my kids’ shoes but nope, not this time.

We will not be flying anytime soon. Staycations and driving vacations only, which of course will cost more with gas prices, but still much cheaper than flying. Our first post-covid family vacation for longer than a weekend will be to Canada, which we would have gone to anyway but the USD’s strength against the CAD is definitely a bonus.

At the end of the day, I’m thrilled for an excuse to reduce unnecessary spending and keep junk out of my house. But if we are impacted as a household with a healthy HHI, I know it’s way worse for so many others. I know my 59yo mom has to work overtime at the hospital to afford the increase in food prices and she’s already paying so much of her income towards rent. It sucks.

[bittybomb]

I was making my grocery order yesterday. I use half and half in my coffee and I drink a lot of coffee. A half gallon of store brand was $8.19. I almost fell out of my chair. So completely over it.

[sent]

I see the prices are higher and while it hasn't necessarily affected my budget, I am worried for my staff. My business is down this year compared to last but my staff costs are higher in general. I can't just push their salaries higher now and then expect to pay them less later if prices come down. I'm going to do some math and deep diving into the business next weekend when my family is out and figure out if I can at least give them some COL raises.

I did finally convince myself to walk to my hair salon yesterday. My doctor has been bugging me for years to walk more. I had a health scare recently for which I need to walk more and still didn't feel like walking. Then I remembered how much I paid to fill up my tank the other day and got myself out the door. 

[Velar Fricative]

And yeah, the Ds are going to get hammered on this. They’re the party in charge. And many are affluent enough that higher prices are mostly an inconvenience and not a crisis, without understanding just how many people out there don’t give a shit about politics but see how much more expensive everything is and will want to blame the party in charge whether they’re at fault or not.

[icedcoffee]

I was really nervous posting this but I’m glad I’m not alone in my feelings. Well, not glad but you know what I mean. Ugh. Hugs to everyone who is feeling anxious.

[isabel]

Oh! My store was out of store brand cream cheese last week. So I moved my hand over to grab Philadelphia. It was $7. SEVEN DOLLARS.

I ended up buying a brick of store brand because even though the tub is more convenient, I couldn’t stomach the cost.

It’s like that with so many things right now. I’m not used to having to pay that much attention to what I buy at the store, but I’m now planning to start setting up an online order before I go. Not so I can have them pull my order, just so I know what it will cost so I can make substitutions before I go purchase stuff.

[cjcouple]

Yes!! I was just saying this yesterday after getting some food. A lot has gone up .10-20 cents

A bunch of Kale used to be .99. that's what we feed our guinea pigs often is now its 1.59. That's a 60% markup!! When you add all of it up, its getting to be a lot more money added onto the grocery bill. I may have to start going to budget stores like big lots for my grains and oils, etc.

I really want to figure out how to keep herbs (plants) alive.

[maudefindlay]

May 21, 2022 8:18:29 GMT -5 W.T.Faulkner said:

Absolutely love spending so much more money to feed three of us while stressing out that I can’t find formula for one of us. Fucking fantastic.

Edit: The Democrats are going to get their shit rocked in the midterms. And you know what? The party (not ordinary people) deserves at least some of it. I’m still going to vote, but it’s to stop the hemorrhaging, not because I believe they will exact any meaningful change.

And while not politically affiliated in name, our school board has several spots up for election/re-election, and I'm afraid things will not go well. I'm just glad current people were in office during the thick of Covid. I fear for curriculum related issues and censorship of our libraries/prosecuting our librarians.

[Velar Fricative]

Oh, and utilities have gone way up locally too.

Yet, people are somehow still able to pay $$$$$ for housing. Demand is still strong. I don’t understand the disconnect.

[icedcoffee]

Last night I told a friend I’d go to a going away thing 40 minutes from my house. My mind could not stop going about how much that was costing in gas so I just got drinks instead of dinner and drinks and ate at home. Like total first world problem but it just sucks.

And home repairs are crazy. And we’re only doing necessary ones. How long is the general public going to need to pay the cost of pandemic supply chain issues, gas prices and blah blah.

[icedcoffee]

May 21, 2022 8:50:43 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

Oh, and utilities have gone way up locally too.

Yet, people are somehow still able to pay $$$$$ for housing. Demand is still strong. I don’t understand the disconnect.

I don’t get it either. A house in my hood sold for 40% more than I paid in 2014. What in the actual fuck?!?!

[cherry1111]

May 21, 2022 8:50:43 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

Oh, and utilities have gone way up locally too.

Yet, people are somehow still able to pay $$$$$ for housing. Demand is still strong. I don’t understand the disconnect.

This is what I don’t understand either. We had been planning for years to move this summer into a bigger home. I had been eyeing homes in the $450k range for years. Those houses that sold for $450 2 years ago are now selling for over $700k. Who are all these people paying these inflated prices?!?

So we are staying out for now and hoping prices will go back down a bit.

[icedcoffee]

May 21, 2022 9:01:01 GMT -5 cherry1111 said:

May 21, 2022 8:50:43 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

Oh, and utilities have gone way up locally too.

Yet, people are somehow still able to pay $$$$$ for housing. Demand is still strong. I don’t understand the disconnect.

This is what I don’t understand either. We had been planning for years to move this summer into a bigger home. I had been eyeing homes in the $450k range for years. Those houses that sold for $450 2 years ago are now selling for over $700k. Who are all these people paying these inflated prices?!?

So we are staying out for now and hoping prices will go back down a bit.

And it’s not even like interest rates are still low. They’re back up to the highest they’ve been in years!

[dcn]

Elizabeth Warren just posted a video about myths of inflation that lines up with this thread.

I feel like every week the things we buy (yogurt, bread, etc) go up. The yogurt tubes ds likes have gone up a dollar in the last few months. It’s bonkers. So far we haven’t felt squeezed but man.

H has been oot so I’ve been driving his hybrid rather than my ascent to help with gas.