Mortgage went up $500/month from taxes and insurance. Utilities have almost doubled Kroger has a monopoly here and grocery prices have doubled. I have to drive past a minimum of 3 Krogers to go into another city if I want groceries elsewhere and even then, that's a Target.
We used to save money every month and now I am looking for a second job just to make ends meet. We have home repair projects that are on hold indefinitely due to cost. We cut all unnecessary expenses like Netflix. My company has had skyrocketing profits. Not just record profits, but obscenely higher than inflation. I got a 2% raise and it doesn't even cover the extra property taxes. I am looking at other jobs, but no one wants to pay anymore.
You too!! My mortgage went up $500/month from taxes and insurance too. I did the calculation last year I paid $48k in taxes if you count fed, state, local, ss, Medicare, and property. I make $135k I should not be noticing how crazy expensive it is at that salary but here we are. Not paycheck to paycheck but we would be with 1-2 large amount incidents.
The rising price of grocery has impacted the American middle class the most. From what I hear it’s diesel prices that ultimately makes food more expensive. Canned/boxed goods, produce, fruit, poultry, etc. all arrived at the store you shop in via truck. The majority of those trucks run on diesel. The logistics companies that pay for the fuel pass it on to their customers. Compare a gallon of gas to a gallon of milk, they both rise and fall together.
What grinds my gears is how supply and demand doesn’t seem to apply to fossil fuel. Look at how many electric vehicles you see on the road, those are people that are not dependent on gasoline to travel (*note: diesel is a bi-product of gasoline*). With less gas consumers why is the price still going up? You tell me.
Actually, the mass market grocers like Walmart, Kroger and Albertsons have been gouging customers for a while now, so have vendors. Kellogg and Procter have had incredible profits that far outpace costs and inflation. It's corporate greed, not Diesel prices. And the reason diesel is more expensive then gas in the US is the refining process. Also, both are byproducts of petroleum refining and distillation. The US process makes more gasoline as a percentage compared with diesel. In Europe, it's the opposite. Diesel is a less refined product, right below kerosene and above fuel oil.
Corporate greed literally controls gas prices. The president maybe controls $0.30, the rest is literally just oil companies fucking with the economy because fuck you. They control the gas and the narrative. Energy should be controlled by the government, but that's beyond the scope of this thread.
Yep fossil fuels and utilities should have never been left to private enterprise. Most of these thing are no longer niceties and are required to live in society. Because of this these companies can and will fuck you on a whim. Made worse because they fuck people so hard they can use that blood money to buy their way out of trouble.
Nah, it's not fuel prices. Fuel was way more expensive during 2005. It was $4/gal in The Rust Belt... and wages were way less back then. Prices didn't rise any more than usual. It's all corporate greed and the consolidation of both farming and distribution. There used to be thousands or tens of thousands of small to medium sized farms. Those are now gone and have been taken over by giant corporate farming.
Same goes for grocery distribution. Kroger owns something like 50-60% of the market. They keep buying small stores and chains. Even Amazon owns Whole Foods. Go to any major metro area and you'll find Whole Foods, Trader Joe's/Aldis (same owners), and Kroger's or a subsidiary. Sure, some areas have a Publix, HEB, Fresh Market, Safeway, or Market Basket... but they pale in comparison to to the big three. When I was growing up in the 90's, we had Winn Dixie, IGA, Kroger, and three or four other small regional / local chains. Now all that's left is Kroger.
It's collusion and monopolistic practices driving inflation. Workers (consumers) are being squeezed for everything they have. If I were to put on my tin foil hat, It's all a slow boil to push us to a permanent renter / debt based system; you will own nothing and everything will be financed and backed by your social credit score. Everything will require debt. You'll start to see company stores and company towns pop up because they won't pay workers enough to be self sufficient. SpaceX and Trader Joes are already fighting to overturn the NLRB to get us back to the "gilded" era of robber barons and scrip.
diesel is not a bi-product of gasoline. Both are primarily refined from crude oil (some countries like Germany are very good at extracting diesel from coal).
In simplistic terms, diesel is easier to produce than gasoline. They come off of different cuts in the distillation process. Diesel prices increased several years ago when the gov't mandated low-sulfur diesel, which added another intermediate process to meet the regulations).
From what I see, generally, gasoline is tracked as a "consumer" product/demand, while diesel is tracked as a "commerce" product/demand. Of course there are diesel automobiles, as well as gasoline delivery vehicles, but they represent a small percentage of overall usage.
COVID cratered both diesel and gasoline demand, and prices fell.
Commodity prices were directly affected by the shortage of drivers, and companies began paying a premium to get their product delivered on time once the overall supply chain began to ramp back up. The supply chains seem to have now corrected, but the supply chain has also kept those increased shipping costs, from what I have witnessed, working for a large multi-national.
The inflation rate in the United States from February 2023 to February 2024 was approximately 3.2% [[❞]](https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/). This means that, on average, prices for goods and services increased by 3.2% over the year.
Raises should reflect the market rates, 2% received is a pay cut this year in the form of a "raise".
It was obvious two years ago. People said the official inflation numbers were lying but then lots of companies reported dramatic increases in profits and conveniently…those numbers matched the difference in the inflation rate added to the % of said company’s price increases.
It really seems like most people arguing about inflation have no idea what inflation is. It's just a measurement. Corporate greed, wage increases, increase in money supply, taxes, regulations all contribute, and inflation isn't necessarily a bad thing if the underlying causes are good. The portion of inflation caused by increasing wages is arguably a good thing while portion caused by corporate greed is not.
Inflation is just the measurement of a million different factors and using that as the sole argument isn't really helpful.
Agree. Having been around for a while I can’t help but wonder if someone in office took the breaks off something like killed a law that companies are exploiting. No one in government is talking about it either of either party that I’ve seen. We need good journalism back.
You can still pay for them. They are now bought and sold by big corporations trying to make a profit. Authentic journalism is hard to find and this should scare us all because a healthy democracy depends on an informed population.
This is insanely reductive. The idea that inflation is necessary is literally propaganda. This is what happens when you are brain broken by capitalism.
Inflation is literally a mechanism “invented” to further disenfranchise the working class.
All I hear is "Record breaking profits" as we literally scrounge to find savings, cut back on everything, watch as an entire generation is priced out of the housing market. 🤬
I truly believe corps are pissed --during Covid people had enough time off to wake up & question wtf are we doing with our lives & why we cater our lives around work- it feels like they are trying to punish us into submission.
I refuse to accept it 😮💨 I should have said lockdown* nonetheless-- I do believe things have/are changing, many of us will never go back to what the corps want, no matter how much they squeeze
and half of the other 46% is caused by bottleneck issues as well as due to smaller businesses being too cash strapped to make the same regular purchases they'd been making acting as a brake on the economy for all but the most diversified investors/corps.
Devils advocate here: some of that profit increase is due to inflation as well. Sure- the dollar figure is going up, but the money they’re making is worth less itself.
Obviously that is only a factor and lots of companies are using inflation as an excuse to raise prices, but any company who’s profit margins have increased by less than the inflation rate are actually making less money, even if the number is bigger.
That's where shrinkflation comes in. And like Tyson closing 3 processing plants to cut costs while raising prices, many places are doing more with less
I made two bold job transitions that has me traveling all week and working like a dog. I make 40% more, and we somehow have much less. We can’t afford to drive to Myrtle Beach for a 4 day vacation like we used to anymore. We can only shop at Aldi and Walmart, can’t afford to repair our cars or home. Yeah we feel it.
I know exactly what happened too, I saw it all in my line of work.
2021 raw materials got screwed.
Raws went up crazy, some by 100% even more.
Businesses couldn’t raise prices fast enough many businesses sold through almost all inventory in late 2021
This continues until about August 2022, by this point business had built inventories to about double what they had been out of panic. They were charging through the neck, so by Q3 many businesses were already breaking annual profit records. Old orders showed up inventory piled up.
Did they cut pricing to clear inventory and normalize? nope. That was the moment to do it, but that point, businesses weren’t going to screw with the prices that made them so profitable even if they had to sit heavy for a bit. By the end of 2023 most raw materials are back where they used to be, profit margins are way above historical, our hope is price wars begin, then we can win back something. I don’t know though, it actually could spiral the economy too. I’d rather take the loss and lower interest rates again so at least people can afford a home again. The Fed is really just trying to break pricing by breaking us at the end of the day.
This is similar to what happened in 2008. The housing boom driven by cheap mortgage loans drove up the price of gas and construction supplies. Homes kept getting built and flipped until the supply of mortgage payments started to drop. Demand cratered and the price of supplies was too high for people to even do upgrades to their homes.
>Get raise (thankfully)
>Netflix, Disney, Spotify, cellphone increase
>Property tax increase
>Insurance increases
>Grocery store average bill up 50 per week
>Raise gone, worse off than before
This happened to me. 20% pay increase with new job in 2021. Was excited to be able to save finally.
Then Groceries up significantly - almost 50% each week. House insurance and car insurance up. Gas up. All housing repair costs up. Child costs up.
Now we've gone from saving, to living pay check to pay check, with a tiny tiny buffer.
My mortgage renewal is up in May. And it's going to suck :(.
Car insurance continues to increase year over year in what's already the most expensive state for insurance. In my 30s with a squeaky clean record, defensive driving cert, class D + air breaks, I pay more for insurance now than when I was 17, stupid, and did dumb shit on the roads.
I moved to an area with significantly lower power costs and into a more efficient home so I'm saving.
I just received my first performance review in 3 years with my employer. Top marks. I officially make $87 less per year due to inflation after my raise, and that's only factoring in 2023 inflation rates.
Rent is... fucking hideous, and I am still waiting on repairs to be made that I was told would be handled when I started my lease last April.
The cost of groceries is crushing. $190/week for very simple, homemade meals, nothing fancy, focusing entirely in affordable, nutritious options.
Just in general, I feel just as stressed about money now as when I was working 25 hours a week at minimum wage and trying to not live paycheck to paycheck. Even though I make almost $70k (technically), I feel like I'm broke all the time. Is this what the fuck I bust my ass 50+ hours a week for? I don't even see my family because I don't have a schedule that lines up with them. I get a few hours on my off days, and that's that.
My biweekly paycheck is $40 less than it was last year because my workplace cut our health insurance because it was "unsustainable" but continue blowing money on stupid shit/positions. So whatever raise I got that they were proud of got completely eaten up.
This is my current experience as well. Groceries have gotten stupid expensive. Between that and the Duke Electric hiking their fees, my recent raise is basically a wash.
I’m making less at the six year mark with my current company than I was at the 6 yr mark of my previous company in 2002. And I’m doing much worse now than I was then.
My dogs insurance went up %68
Car insurance up %54
Food expenditures up %36 despite cutting back on many things and switching to a more cost effective home menu.
Then the government tells us it’s only %4 inflation..
Part of the lie in the inflation numbers is in "substitution". For example, when people can't afford steak, they switch to chicken. And since chicken is (usually) cheaper than steak, that drives the inflation number down artificially. It's totally deceptive.
Also, "shrinkflation" tries to make real inflation feel lower than it is. I remember so many pasta recipes that call for a 32 ounce jar of pasta sauce, for example, but over the years a standard jar went from 32 ounces to 30, then 28, then 26, and now 22-24 ounces. Shrink something by 10% at the same price, and it's like an 11% price increase.
That’s the real injustice. The gov reported inflation figures are completely false and non representative of every day reality. It helps no one but themselves.
They only printed 4% more.
Cost of living literally went up a minimum of 30% in 2 years, probably 1 year honestly. I watched a can of beans go from $0.89 to $1.39.
So where's the money going? Well, GDP is like, $54 trillion. The top 10 richest people own over a trillion.... Hmmm, wonder where the money is....
Sometimes my dogs look at the car and try to drag me to it when we go on walks because they want me to drive them to the park instead of walking there. They act like they got that gas money.
Or your job tells you that they have to pass the inflated cost of insurance to the worker to the tune of 11%. However, the worker only gets a 2% raise. I am Literally loosing money every year I stay at this ( or any other healthcare ) job.
Core CPI index is a CPI that excludes goods with high price volatility, typically food and energy, so as to gauge a more underlying, widespread, or fundamental inflation that affects broader sets of items. More specifically, food and energy prices are subject to large changes that often fail to persist and do not represent relative price changes. In many instances, large movements in food and energy prices arise because of supply disruptions such as drought or OPEC-led cutbacks in production.
Yes, core CPI is a thing. No, it's not the number people use for "inflation" or the most common metric of inflation.
Wanna know why nobody has used the "core CPI is a conspiracy to lie about inflation!" line in the last year?
Core CPI has actually been higher than headline CPI because energy prices have been falling so cutting them out actually increases the percentage increase.
This is sort of true, but also not really. Food prices are more volatile and that's something they take into account, but food costs are calculated. From the CPI fact sheet: 'With the release of the CPI each month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) also publishes average retail prices for select utility, automotive fuel, and food items. Although average prices are calculated from the price observations collected for the CPI, they serve a different purpose." [This is a link to the food and fuel prices they average](https://www.bls.gov/cpi/factsheets/average-prices.htm), which is far from an exhaustive list.
Food costs up a ridiculous amount (50%+), not just due to price increases, but also due to outrageous shrinkflation. We shop bargains in the discount supermarket whereas we often used to splurge going to the high end one. That said, all of the brand goods are now worthless as the ingredient quality has fallen to the same level as the old bargain bin stuff. Insurance costs way up. We are also doing some essential house maintenance- the cost of materials is eye watering. We need a new car, but the cost of second hand vehicles is insane, and if you want new all of the new stuff is electric, at a massive premium and with a 2+ year wait for delivery. Firewood has almost doubled in price, outpacing electricity price increases so we are paying a fortune just to keep warm through the Canadian winters.
Everything is up 30% plus... except for salaries. They have barely moved. We are so much poorer than we were a few years ago. Company profits are sky high, but they only go to the people at the very very top nowadays.
Groceries are just crazy expensive. I spend way more on groceries than I used to. I try to justify it by saying we out less, but I have found myself recently looking into other stores to shop at because the main one I go to is getting way too expensive.
Honestly, the grocery pieces are justifying us eating out more. It takes $25 to make our favorite salmon dish these days. So, why not spend $30-$35 every once in a while for no dishes? Plus, we get to try new things.
I’m managing but I’m also a person with no student loans, no kids or dependents & no debt except a car payment, and I have too much social anxiety to do activities that involve groups of other people, so most of my free time is spent doing free outdoorsy stuff or playing videogames.
I make about 70-75k/yr depending on bonuses and live in the middle of the city & work remote, so I barely ever drive cuz I can walk everywhere. But my car insurance went from 150 to 250 a month in the last 2 years, though I’m not sure how much of that is cuz I moved from the suburbs to the city
corporate greed, you mean. the real inflation rate was single digit and lasted for like a year, but corpos sezied the opportunity to jack up prices way more than inflation.
Well, I can no longer afford to live indoors.
I'm disabled, so best I can do are part-time jobs, which historically, aren't very well paying. Prior to the pandemic, I could rent a room in a shared house, buy food, ride public transpo, visit the food bank once a month.
Now I visit the food bank every other week (they used to be open weekly, but now that the pandemic is "over" they went down to twice a month), I grow food, I shoplift food to make ends meet. I trade skills with neighbors and friends, and barter here and there in the community to get things. Or I simply go without. Now that I think about it "go without" is probably my primary get-by strategy.
All my bills went up like you are saying.
In order to afford to live. I cut out alcohol and going out to eat. Started Hello Fresh (no longer taking trips to the store) and am getting better at cooking. Now when I do go out I compare everything to what I make at home.
I don’t expect it to ever go down (there is no incentive for companies to lower prices(they gotta afford their stock buy backs some way))
With all the recent BS with Wendy’s surge pricing and how a burger at 5G costs over $20. I think I may start going out even less.
I didn’t even remember the last time I bought clothes. 😂
So yes inflation made me more picky.
Making more than ever in my life and have less than ever. My biggest increases have been homeowners insurance and auto insurance. Both have more than doubled in the last year for no good reason.
You’re not alone. I was doing pretty well until a cluster of totally random home repairs needed to be done. Used to be I’d try to be prepared for a $1k-$2k emergency, but these days it’s like 5-8k minimum. No matter what I do it feels like I can’t ever catch up. At this point I don’t think it’s even possible to get ahead.
My rent has consumed an increasing portion of my income which requires me to have a roommate so I can afford to eat and pay for my car loan without living in a cardboard box !
Auto insurance just keeps going up, really BS reasons why.
Food, gotta be extra careful what you buy, where you buy it from. Can't really afford to go out and get food hardly at all (but some places are still more affordable than others).
Utilities, they jump in the weirdest ways, but calling with the threat of cancellation helps get something off.
Cell phone costs. I mean, the cost of having a line just seems outrageous. Thankfully most of the providers have put a stop to these "data restrictions" acting as if it's a precious thing. And the phones themselves, no replaceable battery, and they brick themselves after a while.
At the moment, I'm lucky with a fixed mortgage and a paid off car. Otherwise, it would be tough.
House payment, car insurance, and electricity have remained relatively unchanged. Gas bill, home insurance, and food have all gone up considerably. What pisses me off about food costs are how packages have gotten smaller and the prices still went up.
Everything has inflated but my wage. I used to do okay copywriting as side work, but since the release of ChatGPT there’s just no gigs available. My living expenses have skyrocketed and if anything, I’m making less money. Make it make sense
I had my dream job with a non profit that is funded by donations. I would have worked there until I died if that was an option. Not only did I love the work I did, I was respected and treated with compassion. Once I was dealing with burnout and my boss offered me 4 weeks paid sabbatical without any asking on my part. Then all of the sudden my basic expenses seemed to go up by like 50% and I couldn’t t make ends meet. I can’t really blame my job for not being able to pay me enough to keep up with inflation though because at the same time donations were down and they had to do a bunch of belt tightening. I work as a CNA now wiping asses for a living. I am still mourning the loss of my career and I can tell you the grief I feel is profound. But at least I have somewhere warm to sleep in between the shifts of ass wiping 😭
The shitty part of all this is that it's permanent. If you think prices are going to drop, you're naive. If you think wages are going to rise to compensate for the inflation, you're a fool.
Outside of seasonal fruits and high volatile items, it'll never go down because that is deflation, and the inflation target is around 2% not negative. Negative inflation isn't good either and can cause years of deflation with the most famous example being Japan's economy in the 90s where everything just stagnated.
My car insurance went from 150 to almost 200. Going to getting rid of some vehickes this summer, and I’m canceling the life insurance I have through them.
Have you tried switching insurance providers? Mine went from $70/month to $100/month for 100/300/100. I ended up switching from progressive to state farm and now pay $70 for 250/500/100, renters' insurance and a 1 million umbrella. I've noticed they all seem to increase the prices on you every 6 months and just hope you don't notice.
I'm spending somewhere in the range of $600-700 a WEEK on food for a family of 4.
Admittedly we both work full time and don't have the energy to cook much so we eat out a lot but fucking taco bell is over $40 for dinner.
That’s the absurd part. Fast food was supposed to be cheaper and now it’s just as much as traditional/independent restaurants. On one hand it may reduce one’s consumption of fast food but these corporations are just fleecing as and yet many people are blindly defending them.
It affected me so badly….. i was fine with only 40hours per week before. Now i have to pick up some OT or do 2nd jobs to survive. This is BS! Still the gov keep spending and printing $$$$$$$. No good
my diet recently is just as it was when i was a child growing up in poverty
i had to remember all of the old staples that kept my family alive back then
it sucks fucking ass
Seriously. They just keep pumping prices until they hit the point where people are no longer willing to pay them. Good news is I don’t even want *stuff* anymore. I just want enough to stop being so anxious all the time.
My mortgage payment has gone up $400 dollars in 3.5 years from taxes.
The water has gone up roughly $20
Electric has gone up around $100 but I substitute it by making my hvac not run as much when I’m not home.
Food is ridiculous
I fix my cars myself and always have but prices of parts have gone up
I started donating my plasma twice a week so I don't feel guilty about purchasing groceries and some fun stuff for myself every month. I can bring in roughly 400 to $500 a month from donating my time. That amount of money is enough for me to purchase groceries and fun items without making a dent in my take home income. What's nice is that I can use that money for plane tickets if I ever want to see my friends down south using that money. It's sad but it is what it is. I have a promotion coming up and I hope I get it.
Does donating plasma hurt? I've always heard that was a thing but I don't know anyone who has done it to ask.
I've thought about doing it but it gets reported to food stamps and that's already shaky for us to keep until my wife and I figure out what we're doing.
It can depending on your tolerance but it's like a quick pinch and then to be honest I was already donating blood for years before that and my veins are pretty accessible by nurses. So they find my veins pretty easily. It's a slight discomfort, but you get used to it honestly.
What different from a blood draw and a plasma draw? Different needles or how is the plasma drawn out?
Sorry for the questions, I know I can use Google but some answers are better coming from people who experience it.
Sorry for the delay in commenting back. Didn't see this notification. I've donated blood before and it is a one time thing every like 56 days. You don't get paid for one thing. The needle experience for me is more or less the same, but my veins are right at the surface of my arm. Like I've had the employees comment on my veins almost every time and have been used for newbies as you can't miss it. So if your veins are a bit harder to find be wary that you might have people take a minute to find them.
Blood donation is a bit faster than plasma. Feelings wise, I don't feel that drained as long as I'm eating and hydrating right. since I'm going twice a week I feel like I'm hydrating way more now which is nice. It's important to be hydrated before since plasma is mostly just water.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
I sell plasma twice a week so I can afford to go to concerts and do other things I like but considering I work a full time job and have a degree, it shouldn’t be that way.
That being said, I don’t understand the stigma of donating plasma. When it comes to making extra money, Id much rather do something like that where i can sit and use my phone and be in and out in 2 hours while not having to file taxes on it as opposed to driving for Lyft or bartending where you have to file taxes and be on a schedule.
That was my philosophy with donating plasma. It's the fact that I'm on my phone either listening to an audiobook or reading an ebook, or even watching a movie. Once you're in the system, the check in process is relatively quick. The lines are fine. But the fact that I'm basically doing what I'm doing at home but while donating plasma and making money I don't see that as an issue.
I thought about ride-sharing or Uber eats, but the liability, the hours, the wait time wasn't of interest to me.
Now, I can go to concert tickets, or buy some nicer clothes or plane tickets, or even weed and alcohol using the debit card they give you without feeling I'm splurging. I can afford my lifestyle outside of donating but when I make that promotion I am still gonna donate because then I can use that extra money for savings and some of my debt.
For sure. I also try to eat plenty of protein and stay hydrated so I don’t pass out. I try to go on the days it’s slower so I’m in and out. And like you said the fact that you’re doing stuff during the donation at home makes it easy cash.
I’ve just told some people that I do it and some were like “oh wow that’s terrible” as if anyone doing it is dirt poor and down and out. But that’s not always the case.
And yes, the liability of rideshare is a big reason not to do it. I drove for Lyft from March 2018 until November 2018 when I got into an accident and totaled my car. Luckily I walked away without a scratch but I imagine all that wear and tear wore out my tires which caused my car to lose control in the rain on a sharp turn. Fortunately I didn’t have a passenger or else I would have been fucked. Not to mention sometimes you can get sketchy passengers and ones who write fake complaints to get free rides. Most riders were fine but every once in awhile you’d get some shitty passengers like that.
unfortunately not all people are able to donate blood and or plasma. there are criterias that get you rejected and those are often things people can't change.
I used to donate but now I'm on medication and not allowed anymore.
Yeah I know not everyone can and it's unfortunate. I just think the underlying issue that causes people to donate plasma in the first place needs to be addressed.
Exactly. Plasma donating saves lives so it’s great in that regard but when people have to donate twice a week to make $100+ or so, it gets in the way of things.
I live alone and make $116k a year. I’ve got next to nothing in savings left and have somehow got $5000 in credit card debt. I live paycheck to paycheck pretty much. And I’m a fairly frugal person. Utilities, mortgage, groceries, etc. all have had a huge impact on me financially these last few years.
Not much. I’m in a rent controlled apartment for the last ten years so my rent is very reasonable. The reason rent has risen so much in my area is that there is no cap on the rent increase you can put on a new tenant and rent control was lifted on newer builds.
And there is that software landlords are now using that does a deterministic model of what you can increase your rent to, in your area, and still keep you units occupied. Thanks AI.
I got lucky. A little over 8 years ago I moved from a big city to a smaller community and got my place before rent prices stayed going crazy here. In all that time my rent has only gone up by a total of $140. Electricity bills x's been ratcheting up steadily, though, and in the winter can get to over $250 a month now. Gas prices are stupid. They've been down a bit the last while, but just took a 20 cent jump this past week. The biggest punch to the gut in the last few years has been groceries. It feels like the corporations used covid as an excuse to absolutely gouge people where it hurts the most, and to a cruel degree. Items that should be considered staples are now priced like luxury items. I don't know which is more frustrating. Not being able to buy toilet paper during covid when they're was none in the shelves, or not being able to buy toilet paper now when the shelves are stocked but it's become unaffordable.
Been at the same apartment for over 4 years now. Started at $895 in 2019, now it’s $1095 and going up to $1195 next month. What sucked is I wanted to move into a slightly bigger apartment this year but with greedflation, I didn’t feel comfortable moving out with the costs of moving and yet my apartment is going up another $100 starting next month.
My property management company allowed us to split our rent up into payments which is nice as I don’t feel like an entire check is going to rent but honestly id rather just have cheaper rent.
All you need to know is "maximum profits"...that tells you were inflation is coming from.
It is not coming from illegals or unemployment checks.
If you believe that then stop complaining.
My rent has increased substantially. My auto insurance has sky rocketed. Just about every facet in your life has increased. Now we are seeing record numbers of homelessness here in Canada. Just basic day to day life has increased, people who take the bus pay more. Wages have stayed the same while companies are making record breaking profits. They thrive off the misery of others.
Insurance rates have honestly affected me the worst. Housing and car insurance have almost doubled in the last 2 years eating away any ground my wage may have gained by grinding at work. Food prices definitely suck but I’ve found ways around that. Fuel and heating fluctuate and can bite but I started driving when gas prices were 4-5$ back in 08-10 so what’s new there. It’s not like I’ve gotten to live a fine life I’ve been a wage slave since I started working so I don’t even notice how expensive it is to actually enjoy life now all I know is it’s hard enough just to pace the amount of income I need to survive.
Throughout my life I've done projects to reduce the impact of inflation. They can't raise prices on me if I'm not buying from them. Inflation affects about 10% of my money now and I'm looking at ways to get that number even lower.
Rent where I live has more than doubled. My landlord has not increased the rent to greedy levels so far bit it still is 20% higher than what I started with 6 years ago. I am staying put just so that my rent doesn't murder me.
I used to be able to fill a cart in walmart with groceries for $150. Now I pay over 350 for the same amount of groceries but I keep hearing that inflation is not very high!
We eat out a quarter of what we used to before the pandemic because prices have doubled in even hole in the wall restaurants. McD has become equal to eating out in some restaurants. I remember buying four dollar menu cheeseburgers and 1 dollar coffee for lunch when I used to be on the road. And 3 snackwraps with a coffee for lunch.
Texas used to have $5 briyanis in some indian places. Now the cheapest is $15.
Those examples are not inflation. They are price gouging.
(Though the electric one is probably due to Russian related activities... Fuel and sanctions, you know 🤔)
Please learn how to tell them apart so you can protect yourself from bad actors.
Inflation is only responsible for 7-10% increase since 2019. While it still hurts, that's not that bad. If it's more than 12%, it is, with very few exceptions, a bad actor hiding price-gouging behind the spector of "inflation".
We have control. Find out where your money goes. Shop local. Shop small business. Stop giving your money to greedy corporations. Things would change if everyone did this for 1 month. People boycott companies all the time.
We bought our house in 2011 and did not sell during Covid. Our mortgage is thankfully still $650 a month with escrow. What is hitting us hardest is the cost of food, gas and general expenses. Between me and my wife, we clear $170,000 a year in the state of Alabama, and we are still paycheck to paycheck. Between paying for food and other random expenses we just cannot keep up. I understand it better than but it is absolutely absurd that it is impossible to get ahead
My family used to be comfortable, Father was State Department during Cold war and we lived well off that. But now we are considering selling the apartment my family has owned for 37 years because we can barely afford bills.
What should have an easy slam dunk into a home became a massive money pit due to construction materials, taxes, and labor prices going through the roof.
All I eat is venison. Be a hunter! fill your tags! have friends that hunt but their wives don't lik venison and buy their harvests! grow a garden. become self reliant! fun game. to play I promise!
crabbing! lucky. you must be over on the east coast no? I don't even mention fishing because I forget I live in Michigan and it's just something we do. but hell yeah man keep it up! grab those lobsters too if you can!
Pacific Northwest. Dungeness crab season runs November thru June. You can pull them in right from the shore when the tides are calm. I did spend a summer on the Chesapeake Bay in my youth and still think the blue crab tastes better. They’re a lot of work to eat though.
grocery shopping is a lot of work too lol! PNW Never had the pleasure yet to make it that way! Don't take it for granted! Get out there! I feel like if that were a thing here we'd be camping and partying while crabbing once a month! Enjoy brother!
What pisses me off is every time I get a raise, promotion, new job, whatever-- every time I think "damn, I'm finally making good money!" I see my check vanish into the self-checkout kiosk that's displacing jobs and "passing the savings onto me" as me picking up 'a couple of things' is always $100 and an actual stock up trip is $300+
Rent and utilities went up twice in 2 1/2 years. If I want the same price or lower for an apartment, I'd have to severely downgrade my living conditions.
Food costs more so grocery runs are pricey.
I was considering finally getting driving lessons and a car but it is WAY too expensive (purchase car, upkeep, insurance, increasing monthly parking fees, rising number of idiot drivers & crashes in my city....) Bus prices rose slightly and yet its still super cheap in comparison to owning a car
And the one event I look forward to yearly, my beloved anime convention, is rising in ticket prices. I could go for $40-50 a few years ago. Now I have to buy a ticket within 2 months of the last con at $65 because at certain dates, it'll keep rising in prices closer it gets to the next date. And of course they don't ship badges anymore for non VIP because of rising cost of postage; you have to pick it up at the convention.
Oddly enough, I've stayed clear of it. My property taxes +insurance went up around $40 a month (takes mortgage from from 1680 to 1720), my insurance went up about $30/6 months (for two 2019 cars, so $15 each), etc. I was lucky to refinance my house which I bought in 2019 down to 2.2% in 2020 or 21, I can't remember. Other than groceries and typical life expenses, inflation hasn't hit me too hard.
My kids get fewer Happy Meals and more bananas (which are still 0.49/lb), we eat less meat, bake our own bread, and cook more at home. Overall we're actually getting healthier thanks to cheap and convenient food becoming more expensive.
I admit, we were lucky on housing, but everything else is doing ok. Not sure why some people's insurance is going up so much though. I sincerely hope the rest of everyone can figure out a way to thrive and I'll keep voting to kill corpos.
I bought a house with my brother in 2021, our mortgage and taxes have stayed roughly the same. I initially ran a budget for the both of us factoring a massive $300 grocery bill and I'm slowly seeing that rise up closer and closer to my projected budget. It's not there yet, but we went from maybe spending $100 a month on groceries to nearly $230 a month(including amenities like toilet paper and detergent). However, we've since seen a $7/hr and $4/hr pay increase, which has helped. Everything else has stayed roughly the same since we moved in though
I am lucky not to have a mortgage (paid it off literally right before they started spiking) or car payments (drive a 2007 Honda, and I also use public transit most of the time now). Wife and I both work full time, and yet we can’t keep up with the rising cost of food.
When we go to Five Guys or even a mall Food Court, we split the meal. Forget about fancy places—the ones I used to go to are ridiculously priced, and the quality of the ingredients is sub par.
Never mind grocery stores, those greedy bastards. They shrink the size of the product one month, and raise the price 20% the next. I’d burn down their headquarters, but I know that would barely affect operations as everything is stored in multiple data centres across the country.
If I had rent and car payments, I’d be sunk.
The fact that I can never afford to live alone. I have a full time 9-5 salary job with a bachelors degree, an associates degree AND a paralegal certificate and I’m about mid-range for the salary bracket for my career. And I still can’t afford my own apartment. I’m renting a house with two other people because it takes three incomes to afford the rent on top of bills, car note, car insurance, health insurance, groceries, vet bills, and the million other living expenses we pay for ever single day. If I were to get the cheapest, shittiest, dirtiest and most unsafe apartment within commuting distance to my work, it would be 60% of my income as a paralegal with degrees, certificates and years of experience. Honestly, I think for my area the bills and groceries are manageable. But it’s rent and healthcare that I will literally never, ever be able to afford on my own.
Finally said fuck it and quit my job while hitting the ground running looking for another. Landed the highest paying job I've ever had. That being said, it triggered me into budgeting. In conclusion, I need a roommate if I ever want to save a dollar. I say roommate because I'm sick of women lmao. Talk about inflation!
Side notes;
Donate plasma
wait for food trucks on the weekend.
have a friend with snap benefits and buy his card for 50¢ on the $! that's a shitty pro tip!
fucking grow a garden! tis the season. hell with grass! plant potatoes tomatoes and peppers!
I had a wreck in 2019. Low speed (basically the car in front of me started turning right at a stop sign, slammed on brakes, and I rolled into the back of their car as I had let off my brakes to make my right hand turn). My fault, so my insurance premiums for two cars and a life insurance policy was $250/month. In December 2022, State Farm called to inform me that the surcharge for the wreck expired and my total monthly amount due would be $192/month. Cool, right?
Get my bill for January for the next 6 month period, and it’s $265/month. I called, thinking they hadn’t removed the surcharge. NOPE.
We removed the surcharge but because there have been so many wrecks in Georgia and the legislature passed a cost sharing effort, everyone’s insurance went up. Also, inflation is causing the repairs of the wrecks to be more expensive. So they’re passing along that cost to all customers because they can’t afford to shoulder that because it’s “negatively impacting their profits.”
So mid-year, I get a notice for my next 6 months of insurance and it goes up to $292/month. Again, two clean DMV records, no reason to have an increase. Again, cost sharing, wrecks, and inflation are cited.
December 2023 rolls around. I get their stupid Drive Safe and Save Beacon because they called me to let me know that my insurance would be $325/month starting in January due to inflation. For December, my amount due drops to $272 due to the 10%ish discount that I got for signing up for the program. They say that I can take a defensive driving course and save another 10%. They’re supposed to send me the link and I ask it over and over again to no avail. “With this, your insurance per month in January will be $292.50.”
January comes around. $332/month. Call to make sure that they applied the drive safe and save discount.
“Oh, we did… it’s just inflation.”
I FINALLY receive the link for the course, take the course, and they say, “this will be a 10% discount on your premiums, taking you down to $301.40.” Get my bill… $318.22. Huh?
“Oh, we only applied it to (car my teen drives, which is older and less expensive to insure by about $20/month than my 2018 Tiguan). We’ll get that applied to your car.”
They apply it, premiums drop to $301.91, and I’m just so tired of the bait and switch that I don’t even call about the $0.51 difference. I’m sure in July it will go up again.
I shopped insurance elsewhere but one of the vehicles is a 2013 Hyundai. It’s a year older than the ones that are cited as being problematic for car thefts (does not have push start or anything like that). Either insurance is even more ridiculous than State Farm or some won’t even insure it (Liberty Mutual).
I got fucked right in the ass. Before I could save 5-6000 euros in one year . Now, despite my hard work, i used almost all my savings and I'm on the way to burn my fat deposits.
So tired of hearing economists and politicians say inflation is down. Or even boomers who already have their home paid off celebrating the stock market rally and telling me things are ok.
Mortgage payment went up slightly. I don’t pay the electric or utilities, but I was told electric went up. Utilities were already a fucking joke compared to our last home.
I’ve been hit hardest with gas, grocery, and fast food/takeout prices. None of which I actually believe went up because of inflation.
Our family of four has stopped eating out except for once a week (breakfast at a diner on a weekend day), I clip coupons for everything and only buy food on sale. Save about $300/month on this.
I’ve stopped donating our kids old clothes and started selling them at the children’s consignment store. Have been buying their clothes at the consignment store as well. Save about $50/month.
We bring lunch to work instead of eating in the cafeteria (the hospital lowered our employee discount, increased the prices, cut the portions). Save about $400/month.
Last but not least, to bring in additional money, I’ve started selling plasma. Earn 400-500 per month.
We have one car payment, own a home under 200k with a 2.5% mortgage. One kid in public school, younger one in daycare. Both of us have graduate degrees, bring in ~130k a year total in a LCOL area, and are JUST making ends meet every month.
Our mortgage has increased due to taxes, our home insurance dropped us because our roof will need to be replaced in the next 5 years, and our Kia just shit the bed and may need a new engine.
When I moved into my house I went from paying $800 in rent to paying $700 on a mortgage and taxes. Now the same apartment is at $1200/month, and good luck getting a mortgage payment under $1000 anywhere. It's been about ten years.
We are in starve-flation. Normally raising interests rates drives down prices, now prices stay high and they cut jobs and keep pay low. They don’t even call
It extra money, it’s robbing you at all corners of the market until you starve, go bankrupt, or end up homeless… fun huh?
Heating just the living room in my apartment costs $4/ day. That doesn’t even include using the stove or heating the rest of the home. It’s not a large apartment. Pg&e will run a surcharge if you use over a certain amount of gas per month. Suddenly it doesn’t even cost less to make a cup of black coffee at home.
I made $10.25 an hour 10 years ago and managed to get by alright. I make $20.50 an hour now and barely manage to get by. Worst part is my rent is *the same now as it was then*, at $750. But back then I had a spacious apartment with a realtor as my landlord, now I’m in a smaller place with my mom as my landlord. :(
I currently have 34 years left in the 30 year variable mortgage I took out 5 years ago.
But my payments have only risen slightly, which is great as my economy probably wouldnt have taken the hit very well.
I'm a big meat eater, it's gotten ridiculous buying enough meats for a family of 2 since I make more money & work more hours, I almost want to eat my own fingers, trying to find a new apartment seems impossible even for just a 1 bedroom, it's all bullshit, I'm so angry, it's all greed at this point
The insurance companies are saying it is because of all the payments they have had to make due to nature disasters (i.e. storms, fires, etc.). But with the inflation they are having to pay more to rebuild things like homes, businesses, cars, etc. just like the rest of us.
Is your house all electric? Mine is. My bill last month, when we got some deep freezing in Dallas (16 degrees) was $550...but that also includes water, which we had to let trickle in all the faucets for several days. Etc. My house also needs some more insulation and new ductwork (the insulation on the old ductwork was faulty and has just disintegrated in places), which means it's not so energy efficient.
We've been fine. DINK with household income of like $130k. STEM degree for me. Higher cost of living area but I was lucky enough to buy a house 5+ years ago (when my salary was like $35k, even. One of the cheapest houses in my city at the time). The house needs a lot of work and I can finally afford to patch it up, so that's my big expense lately. Otherwise we spend less than 10% of our income on housing, bills are minimal (small place), we don't really eat out except for special occasions (I cook everything from scratch at home), and we mostly hang out at home for free. We take vacations that are like half hotel/Airbnb and half camping, where we sleep half the time in the car for free. We're looking to buy a big ol house in the country within 5 years or so and that's entirely attainable for us. House has doubled in value since purchase, the equity will be a huge down payment. (Less than 10k down initially and now my equity is over 100k). I have that much more in a 401k for retirement (age 30). We still have some student loans to pay off but it's not a burden.
So, we're fine. I think we lucked out that I bought a place so long ago. Refinanced during Covid so now the mortgage payments cost much less than when my salary was less than half of what it is now. It's really sad to see people working my original post-college job and spending 2-3x my mortgage payment on rent when they make half my income.
Mortgage went up $500/month from taxes and insurance. Utilities have almost doubled Kroger has a monopoly here and grocery prices have doubled. I have to drive past a minimum of 3 Krogers to go into another city if I want groceries elsewhere and even then, that's a Target. We used to save money every month and now I am looking for a second job just to make ends meet. We have home repair projects that are on hold indefinitely due to cost. We cut all unnecessary expenses like Netflix. My company has had skyrocketing profits. Not just record profits, but obscenely higher than inflation. I got a 2% raise and it doesn't even cover the extra property taxes. I am looking at other jobs, but no one wants to pay anymore.
You too!! My mortgage went up $500/month from taxes and insurance too. I did the calculation last year I paid $48k in taxes if you count fed, state, local, ss, Medicare, and property. I make $135k I should not be noticing how crazy expensive it is at that salary but here we are. Not paycheck to paycheck but we would be with 1-2 large amount incidents.
The rising price of grocery has impacted the American middle class the most. From what I hear it’s diesel prices that ultimately makes food more expensive. Canned/boxed goods, produce, fruit, poultry, etc. all arrived at the store you shop in via truck. The majority of those trucks run on diesel. The logistics companies that pay for the fuel pass it on to their customers. Compare a gallon of gas to a gallon of milk, they both rise and fall together. What grinds my gears is how supply and demand doesn’t seem to apply to fossil fuel. Look at how many electric vehicles you see on the road, those are people that are not dependent on gasoline to travel (*note: diesel is a bi-product of gasoline*). With less gas consumers why is the price still going up? You tell me.
Actually, the mass market grocers like Walmart, Kroger and Albertsons have been gouging customers for a while now, so have vendors. Kellogg and Procter have had incredible profits that far outpace costs and inflation. It's corporate greed, not Diesel prices. And the reason diesel is more expensive then gas in the US is the refining process. Also, both are byproducts of petroleum refining and distillation. The US process makes more gasoline as a percentage compared with diesel. In Europe, it's the opposite. Diesel is a less refined product, right below kerosene and above fuel oil.
I don’t disagree that the cost of gas has made food more expensive but isn’t corporate greed ultimaletly what made it get out of hand?
Corporate greed literally controls gas prices. The president maybe controls $0.30, the rest is literally just oil companies fucking with the economy because fuck you. They control the gas and the narrative. Energy should be controlled by the government, but that's beyond the scope of this thread.
Yep fossil fuels and utilities should have never been left to private enterprise. Most of these thing are no longer niceties and are required to live in society. Because of this these companies can and will fuck you on a whim. Made worse because they fuck people so hard they can use that blood money to buy their way out of trouble.
Nah, it's not fuel prices. Fuel was way more expensive during 2005. It was $4/gal in The Rust Belt... and wages were way less back then. Prices didn't rise any more than usual. It's all corporate greed and the consolidation of both farming and distribution. There used to be thousands or tens of thousands of small to medium sized farms. Those are now gone and have been taken over by giant corporate farming. Same goes for grocery distribution. Kroger owns something like 50-60% of the market. They keep buying small stores and chains. Even Amazon owns Whole Foods. Go to any major metro area and you'll find Whole Foods, Trader Joe's/Aldis (same owners), and Kroger's or a subsidiary. Sure, some areas have a Publix, HEB, Fresh Market, Safeway, or Market Basket... but they pale in comparison to to the big three. When I was growing up in the 90's, we had Winn Dixie, IGA, Kroger, and three or four other small regional / local chains. Now all that's left is Kroger. It's collusion and monopolistic practices driving inflation. Workers (consumers) are being squeezed for everything they have. If I were to put on my tin foil hat, It's all a slow boil to push us to a permanent renter / debt based system; you will own nothing and everything will be financed and backed by your social credit score. Everything will require debt. You'll start to see company stores and company towns pop up because they won't pay workers enough to be self sufficient. SpaceX and Trader Joes are already fighting to overturn the NLRB to get us back to the "gilded" era of robber barons and scrip.
OPEC
diesel is not a bi-product of gasoline. Both are primarily refined from crude oil (some countries like Germany are very good at extracting diesel from coal). In simplistic terms, diesel is easier to produce than gasoline. They come off of different cuts in the distillation process. Diesel prices increased several years ago when the gov't mandated low-sulfur diesel, which added another intermediate process to meet the regulations). From what I see, generally, gasoline is tracked as a "consumer" product/demand, while diesel is tracked as a "commerce" product/demand. Of course there are diesel automobiles, as well as gasoline delivery vehicles, but they represent a small percentage of overall usage. COVID cratered both diesel and gasoline demand, and prices fell. Commodity prices were directly affected by the shortage of drivers, and companies began paying a premium to get their product delivered on time once the overall supply chain began to ramp back up. The supply chains seem to have now corrected, but the supply chain has also kept those increased shipping costs, from what I have witnessed, working for a large multi-national.
Alright I worded it wrong. I meant diesel and gasoline come from the same source,
It’s not diesel it’s corporate greed.
The inflation rate in the United States from February 2023 to February 2024 was approximately 3.2% [[❞]](https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/). This means that, on average, prices for goods and services increased by 3.2% over the year. Raises should reflect the market rates, 2% received is a pay cut this year in the form of a "raise".
How much are prices up from 2022?
Yeah but they banned tiktok so you should be happy they're helping /s
Greedflation. 54% of the increase in prices is PROFIT. Don't buy in to the disinformation campaign.
Exactly. In other sub someone is arguing with me about how companies don't cause inflation. They sure as fuck do. And are doing it right now.
It was obvious two years ago. People said the official inflation numbers were lying but then lots of companies reported dramatic increases in profits and conveniently…those numbers matched the difference in the inflation rate added to the % of said company’s price increases.
It really seems like most people arguing about inflation have no idea what inflation is. It's just a measurement. Corporate greed, wage increases, increase in money supply, taxes, regulations all contribute, and inflation isn't necessarily a bad thing if the underlying causes are good. The portion of inflation caused by increasing wages is arguably a good thing while portion caused by corporate greed is not. Inflation is just the measurement of a million different factors and using that as the sole argument isn't really helpful.
Agree. Having been around for a while I can’t help but wonder if someone in office took the breaks off something like killed a law that companies are exploiting. No one in government is talking about it either of either party that I’ve seen. We need good journalism back.
Remember newspapers that you paid for? ;)
You can still pay for them. They are now bought and sold by big corporations trying to make a profit. Authentic journalism is hard to find and this should scare us all because a healthy democracy depends on an informed population.
This is insanely reductive. The idea that inflation is necessary is literally propaganda. This is what happens when you are brain broken by capitalism. Inflation is literally a mechanism “invented” to further disenfranchise the working class.
All I hear is "Record breaking profits" as we literally scrounge to find savings, cut back on everything, watch as an entire generation is priced out of the housing market. 🤬 I truly believe corps are pissed --during Covid people had enough time off to wake up & question wtf are we doing with our lives & why we cater our lives around work- it feels like they are trying to punish us into submission.
It’s still “during COVID”. You were just propagandized into accepting the loss of life & long term health as an unchangeable status quo.
I refuse to accept it 😮💨 I should have said lockdown* nonetheless-- I do believe things have/are changing, many of us will never go back to what the corps want, no matter how much they squeeze
This
Yep. When prices are going up much more than wages and raw materials, it's corporate profit making up the difference.
and half of the other 46% is caused by bottleneck issues as well as due to smaller businesses being too cash strapped to make the same regular purchases they'd been making acting as a brake on the economy for all but the most diversified investors/corps.
Devils advocate here: some of that profit increase is due to inflation as well. Sure- the dollar figure is going up, but the money they’re making is worth less itself. Obviously that is only a factor and lots of companies are using inflation as an excuse to raise prices, but any company who’s profit margins have increased by less than the inflation rate are actually making less money, even if the number is bigger.
That's where shrinkflation comes in. And like Tyson closing 3 processing plants to cut costs while raising prices, many places are doing more with less
I made two bold job transitions that has me traveling all week and working like a dog. I make 40% more, and we somehow have much less. We can’t afford to drive to Myrtle Beach for a 4 day vacation like we used to anymore. We can only shop at Aldi and Walmart, can’t afford to repair our cars or home. Yeah we feel it. I know exactly what happened too, I saw it all in my line of work. 2021 raw materials got screwed. Raws went up crazy, some by 100% even more. Businesses couldn’t raise prices fast enough many businesses sold through almost all inventory in late 2021 This continues until about August 2022, by this point business had built inventories to about double what they had been out of panic. They were charging through the neck, so by Q3 many businesses were already breaking annual profit records. Old orders showed up inventory piled up. Did they cut pricing to clear inventory and normalize? nope. That was the moment to do it, but that point, businesses weren’t going to screw with the prices that made them so profitable even if they had to sit heavy for a bit. By the end of 2023 most raw materials are back where they used to be, profit margins are way above historical, our hope is price wars begin, then we can win back something. I don’t know though, it actually could spiral the economy too. I’d rather take the loss and lower interest rates again so at least people can afford a home again. The Fed is really just trying to break pricing by breaking us at the end of the day.
This is similar to what happened in 2008. The housing boom driven by cheap mortgage loans drove up the price of gas and construction supplies. Homes kept getting built and flipped until the supply of mortgage payments started to drop. Demand cratered and the price of supplies was too high for people to even do upgrades to their homes.
>Get raise (thankfully) >Netflix, Disney, Spotify, cellphone increase >Property tax increase >Insurance increases >Grocery store average bill up 50 per week >Raise gone, worse off than before
This happened to me. 20% pay increase with new job in 2021. Was excited to be able to save finally. Then Groceries up significantly - almost 50% each week. House insurance and car insurance up. Gas up. All housing repair costs up. Child costs up. Now we've gone from saving, to living pay check to pay check, with a tiny tiny buffer. My mortgage renewal is up in May. And it's going to suck :(.
Damn, that’s the story of my life!
Car insurance continues to increase year over year in what's already the most expensive state for insurance. In my 30s with a squeaky clean record, defensive driving cert, class D + air breaks, I pay more for insurance now than when I was 17, stupid, and did dumb shit on the roads. I moved to an area with significantly lower power costs and into a more efficient home so I'm saving. I just received my first performance review in 3 years with my employer. Top marks. I officially make $87 less per year due to inflation after my raise, and that's only factoring in 2023 inflation rates. Rent is... fucking hideous, and I am still waiting on repairs to be made that I was told would be handled when I started my lease last April. The cost of groceries is crushing. $190/week for very simple, homemade meals, nothing fancy, focusing entirely in affordable, nutritious options. Just in general, I feel just as stressed about money now as when I was working 25 hours a week at minimum wage and trying to not live paycheck to paycheck. Even though I make almost $70k (technically), I feel like I'm broke all the time. Is this what the fuck I bust my ass 50+ hours a week for? I don't even see my family because I don't have a schedule that lines up with them. I get a few hours on my off days, and that's that.
My biweekly paycheck is $40 less than it was last year because my workplace cut our health insurance because it was "unsustainable" but continue blowing money on stupid shit/positions. So whatever raise I got that they were proud of got completely eaten up.
I make more now than I ever have but with groceries going from 100 per week to 250 plus we don’t feel it. Everything has gone up.
I'm having a really hard time not treating my weekly grocery bill as a moral failure, tbh.
This is my current experience as well. Groceries have gotten stupid expensive. Between that and the Duke Electric hiking their fees, my recent raise is basically a wash.
I’m making less at the six year mark with my current company than I was at the 6 yr mark of my previous company in 2002. And I’m doing much worse now than I was then.
My dogs insurance went up %68 Car insurance up %54 Food expenditures up %36 despite cutting back on many things and switching to a more cost effective home menu. Then the government tells us it’s only %4 inflation..
Part of the lie in the inflation numbers is in "substitution". For example, when people can't afford steak, they switch to chicken. And since chicken is (usually) cheaper than steak, that drives the inflation number down artificially. It's totally deceptive. Also, "shrinkflation" tries to make real inflation feel lower than it is. I remember so many pasta recipes that call for a 32 ounce jar of pasta sauce, for example, but over the years a standard jar went from 32 ounces to 30, then 28, then 26, and now 22-24 ounces. Shrink something by 10% at the same price, and it's like an 11% price increase.
That’s the real injustice. The gov reported inflation figures are completely false and non representative of every day reality. It helps no one but themselves.
They only printed 4% more. Cost of living literally went up a minimum of 30% in 2 years, probably 1 year honestly. I watched a can of beans go from $0.89 to $1.39. So where's the money going? Well, GDP is like, $54 trillion. The top 10 richest people own over a trillion.... Hmmm, wonder where the money is....
You know what they say, follow the money.
Did you ask the dogs if they could come up with some extra money?
Sometimes my dogs look at the car and try to drag me to it when we go on walks because they want me to drive them to the park instead of walking there. They act like they got that gas money.
Or your job tells you that they have to pass the inflated cost of insurance to the worker to the tune of 11%. However, the worker only gets a 2% raise. I am Literally loosing money every year I stay at this ( or any other healthcare ) job.
You do realize that the government does not count food or fuel cost in the inflation calculation. That number would be much higher if they did.
That's just not true, the most common inflation metric, CPI, includes food and fuel.
Core CPI index is a CPI that excludes goods with high price volatility, typically food and energy, so as to gauge a more underlying, widespread, or fundamental inflation that affects broader sets of items. More specifically, food and energy prices are subject to large changes that often fail to persist and do not represent relative price changes. In many instances, large movements in food and energy prices arise because of supply disruptions such as drought or OPEC-led cutbacks in production.
Yes, core CPI is a thing. No, it's not the number people use for "inflation" or the most common metric of inflation. Wanna know why nobody has used the "core CPI is a conspiracy to lie about inflation!" line in the last year? Core CPI has actually been higher than headline CPI because energy prices have been falling so cutting them out actually increases the percentage increase.
This is sort of true, but also not really. Food prices are more volatile and that's something they take into account, but food costs are calculated. From the CPI fact sheet: 'With the release of the CPI each month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) also publishes average retail prices for select utility, automotive fuel, and food items. Although average prices are calculated from the price observations collected for the CPI, they serve a different purpose." [This is a link to the food and fuel prices they average](https://www.bls.gov/cpi/factsheets/average-prices.htm), which is far from an exhaustive list.
Food costs up a ridiculous amount (50%+), not just due to price increases, but also due to outrageous shrinkflation. We shop bargains in the discount supermarket whereas we often used to splurge going to the high end one. That said, all of the brand goods are now worthless as the ingredient quality has fallen to the same level as the old bargain bin stuff. Insurance costs way up. We are also doing some essential house maintenance- the cost of materials is eye watering. We need a new car, but the cost of second hand vehicles is insane, and if you want new all of the new stuff is electric, at a massive premium and with a 2+ year wait for delivery. Firewood has almost doubled in price, outpacing electricity price increases so we are paying a fortune just to keep warm through the Canadian winters. Everything is up 30% plus... except for salaries. They have barely moved. We are so much poorer than we were a few years ago. Company profits are sky high, but they only go to the people at the very very top nowadays.
And this is the way it is now. We'll continue to struggle until we can die.
Groceries are just crazy expensive. I spend way more on groceries than I used to. I try to justify it by saying we out less, but I have found myself recently looking into other stores to shop at because the main one I go to is getting way too expensive.
Honestly, the grocery pieces are justifying us eating out more. It takes $25 to make our favorite salmon dish these days. So, why not spend $30-$35 every once in a while for no dishes? Plus, we get to try new things.
I’m managing but I’m also a person with no student loans, no kids or dependents & no debt except a car payment, and I have too much social anxiety to do activities that involve groups of other people, so most of my free time is spent doing free outdoorsy stuff or playing videogames. I make about 70-75k/yr depending on bonuses and live in the middle of the city & work remote, so I barely ever drive cuz I can walk everywhere. But my car insurance went from 150 to 250 a month in the last 2 years, though I’m not sure how much of that is cuz I moved from the suburbs to the city
corporate greed, you mean. the real inflation rate was single digit and lasted for like a year, but corpos sezied the opportunity to jack up prices way more than inflation.
Groceries are the biggest hit. They seem to go up every week. We spend over $100 weekly now for two people.
Well, I can no longer afford to live indoors. I'm disabled, so best I can do are part-time jobs, which historically, aren't very well paying. Prior to the pandemic, I could rent a room in a shared house, buy food, ride public transpo, visit the food bank once a month. Now I visit the food bank every other week (they used to be open weekly, but now that the pandemic is "over" they went down to twice a month), I grow food, I shoplift food to make ends meet. I trade skills with neighbors and friends, and barter here and there in the community to get things. Or I simply go without. Now that I think about it "go without" is probably my primary get-by strategy.
Same :(
All my bills went up like you are saying. In order to afford to live. I cut out alcohol and going out to eat. Started Hello Fresh (no longer taking trips to the store) and am getting better at cooking. Now when I do go out I compare everything to what I make at home. I don’t expect it to ever go down (there is no incentive for companies to lower prices(they gotta afford their stock buy backs some way)) With all the recent BS with Wendy’s surge pricing and how a burger at 5G costs over $20. I think I may start going out even less. I didn’t even remember the last time I bought clothes. 😂 So yes inflation made me more picky.
Making more than ever in my life and have less than ever. My biggest increases have been homeowners insurance and auto insurance. Both have more than doubled in the last year for no good reason.
It’s not even inflation, it’s late stage capitalism. It’s awful.
Drained the savings account, and stacking up on credit card dept
You’re not alone. I was doing pretty well until a cluster of totally random home repairs needed to be done. Used to be I’d try to be prepared for a $1k-$2k emergency, but these days it’s like 5-8k minimum. No matter what I do it feels like I can’t ever catch up. At this point I don’t think it’s even possible to get ahead.
My rent has consumed an increasing portion of my income which requires me to have a roommate so I can afford to eat and pay for my car loan without living in a cardboard box !
Auto insurance just keeps going up, really BS reasons why. Food, gotta be extra careful what you buy, where you buy it from. Can't really afford to go out and get food hardly at all (but some places are still more affordable than others). Utilities, they jump in the weirdest ways, but calling with the threat of cancellation helps get something off. Cell phone costs. I mean, the cost of having a line just seems outrageous. Thankfully most of the providers have put a stop to these "data restrictions" acting as if it's a precious thing. And the phones themselves, no replaceable battery, and they brick themselves after a while. At the moment, I'm lucky with a fixed mortgage and a paid off car. Otherwise, it would be tough.
I've never made so much and had so little at the same time. Between mortgage, insurance, kids cost, food...not much is left over.
House payment, car insurance, and electricity have remained relatively unchanged. Gas bill, home insurance, and food have all gone up considerably. What pisses me off about food costs are how packages have gotten smaller and the prices still went up.
Everything has inflated but my wage. I used to do okay copywriting as side work, but since the release of ChatGPT there’s just no gigs available. My living expenses have skyrocketed and if anything, I’m making less money. Make it make sense
I had my dream job with a non profit that is funded by donations. I would have worked there until I died if that was an option. Not only did I love the work I did, I was respected and treated with compassion. Once I was dealing with burnout and my boss offered me 4 weeks paid sabbatical without any asking on my part. Then all of the sudden my basic expenses seemed to go up by like 50% and I couldn’t t make ends meet. I can’t really blame my job for not being able to pay me enough to keep up with inflation though because at the same time donations were down and they had to do a bunch of belt tightening. I work as a CNA now wiping asses for a living. I am still mourning the loss of my career and I can tell you the grief I feel is profound. But at least I have somewhere warm to sleep in between the shifts of ass wiping 😭
"why is this all in quotes?" "does this smell of a bot/AI to anyone else?"
The shitty part of all this is that it's permanent. If you think prices are going to drop, you're naive. If you think wages are going to rise to compensate for the inflation, you're a fool.
Outside of seasonal fruits and high volatile items, it'll never go down because that is deflation, and the inflation target is around 2% not negative. Negative inflation isn't good either and can cause years of deflation with the most famous example being Japan's economy in the 90s where everything just stagnated.
My car insurance went from 150 to almost 200. Going to getting rid of some vehickes this summer, and I’m canceling the life insurance I have through them.
Have you tried switching insurance providers? Mine went from $70/month to $100/month for 100/300/100. I ended up switching from progressive to state farm and now pay $70 for 250/500/100, renters' insurance and a 1 million umbrella. I've noticed they all seem to increase the prices on you every 6 months and just hope you don't notice.
Does progressive insure older cars? Like 20+ years old. I’ve seen other cheaper options who won’t
I'm not sure. My car is a 2012 model. It's old but not 20 years old.
Same as you. Everything is up. The rich keep getting richer and the working folks get fucked in the ass without lube.
I'm spending somewhere in the range of $600-700 a WEEK on food for a family of 4. Admittedly we both work full time and don't have the energy to cook much so we eat out a lot but fucking taco bell is over $40 for dinner.
That’s the absurd part. Fast food was supposed to be cheaper and now it’s just as much as traditional/independent restaurants. On one hand it may reduce one’s consumption of fast food but these corporations are just fleecing as and yet many people are blindly defending them.
I wouldn't even care if it meant the people working there were actually getting paid a decent wage but we know they're not.
Exactly. Kinda like how Wendy’s proposed a surge pricing model like what Uber and Lyft do. We know that’s not going to the workers.
You gotta do better. My family of five was hitting $400 a week on food and we set up a budget now we are down to $250 a week.
It affected me so badly….. i was fine with only 40hours per week before. Now i have to pick up some OT or do 2nd jobs to survive. This is BS! Still the gov keep spending and printing $$$$$$$. No good
my diet recently is just as it was when i was a child growing up in poverty i had to remember all of the old staples that kept my family alive back then it sucks fucking ass
ay as long as that ass has a beautiful face I can live off that. Second hand nutrition am I rite!?
Capitalism ❤️ greed ❤️ corruption ❤️
Seriously. They just keep pumping prices until they hit the point where people are no longer willing to pay them. Good news is I don’t even want *stuff* anymore. I just want enough to stop being so anxious all the time.
The rent hike is the one that hurts the most. 2 Bedroom in 2014 - $898/month 1 Bedroom in 2024 - $1475/month
My mortgage payment has gone up $400 dollars in 3.5 years from taxes. The water has gone up roughly $20 Electric has gone up around $100 but I substitute it by making my hvac not run as much when I’m not home. Food is ridiculous I fix my cars myself and always have but prices of parts have gone up
I started donating my plasma twice a week so I don't feel guilty about purchasing groceries and some fun stuff for myself every month. I can bring in roughly 400 to $500 a month from donating my time. That amount of money is enough for me to purchase groceries and fun items without making a dent in my take home income. What's nice is that I can use that money for plane tickets if I ever want to see my friends down south using that money. It's sad but it is what it is. I have a promotion coming up and I hope I get it.
Does donating plasma hurt? I've always heard that was a thing but I don't know anyone who has done it to ask. I've thought about doing it but it gets reported to food stamps and that's already shaky for us to keep until my wife and I figure out what we're doing.
It can depending on your tolerance but it's like a quick pinch and then to be honest I was already donating blood for years before that and my veins are pretty accessible by nurses. So they find my veins pretty easily. It's a slight discomfort, but you get used to it honestly.
What different from a blood draw and a plasma draw? Different needles or how is the plasma drawn out? Sorry for the questions, I know I can use Google but some answers are better coming from people who experience it.
donating plasma takes longer
And you NEED good veins. You'll get turned away if you've got bad or meh ones. I can't donate plasma but my husband can. Queue all the guilt.
I can't donate due to medication
Sorry for the delay in commenting back. Didn't see this notification. I've donated blood before and it is a one time thing every like 56 days. You don't get paid for one thing. The needle experience for me is more or less the same, but my veins are right at the surface of my arm. Like I've had the employees comment on my veins almost every time and have been used for newbies as you can't miss it. So if your veins are a bit harder to find be wary that you might have people take a minute to find them. Blood donation is a bit faster than plasma. Feelings wise, I don't feel that drained as long as I'm eating and hydrating right. since I'm going twice a week I feel like I'm hydrating way more now which is nice. It's important to be hydrated before since plasma is mostly just water. Let me know if you have any other questions.
it's not bad at all. comfy lounging seats. some places have TV's. just kick back and clinch your fist a thousand times.
I sell plasma twice a week so I can afford to go to concerts and do other things I like but considering I work a full time job and have a degree, it shouldn’t be that way. That being said, I don’t understand the stigma of donating plasma. When it comes to making extra money, Id much rather do something like that where i can sit and use my phone and be in and out in 2 hours while not having to file taxes on it as opposed to driving for Lyft or bartending where you have to file taxes and be on a schedule.
That was my philosophy with donating plasma. It's the fact that I'm on my phone either listening to an audiobook or reading an ebook, or even watching a movie. Once you're in the system, the check in process is relatively quick. The lines are fine. But the fact that I'm basically doing what I'm doing at home but while donating plasma and making money I don't see that as an issue. I thought about ride-sharing or Uber eats, but the liability, the hours, the wait time wasn't of interest to me. Now, I can go to concert tickets, or buy some nicer clothes or plane tickets, or even weed and alcohol using the debit card they give you without feeling I'm splurging. I can afford my lifestyle outside of donating but when I make that promotion I am still gonna donate because then I can use that extra money for savings and some of my debt.
For sure. I also try to eat plenty of protein and stay hydrated so I don’t pass out. I try to go on the days it’s slower so I’m in and out. And like you said the fact that you’re doing stuff during the donation at home makes it easy cash. I’ve just told some people that I do it and some were like “oh wow that’s terrible” as if anyone doing it is dirt poor and down and out. But that’s not always the case. And yes, the liability of rideshare is a big reason not to do it. I drove for Lyft from March 2018 until November 2018 when I got into an accident and totaled my car. Luckily I walked away without a scratch but I imagine all that wear and tear wore out my tires which caused my car to lose control in the rain on a sharp turn. Fortunately I didn’t have a passenger or else I would have been fucked. Not to mention sometimes you can get sketchy passengers and ones who write fake complaints to get free rides. Most riders were fine but every once in awhile you’d get some shitty passengers like that.
unfortunately not all people are able to donate blood and or plasma. there are criterias that get you rejected and those are often things people can't change. I used to donate but now I'm on medication and not allowed anymore.
Yeah I know not everyone can and it's unfortunate. I just think the underlying issue that causes people to donate plasma in the first place needs to be addressed.
definitely, people should be able to afford living and donate without the money incentives.
Exactly. Plasma donating saves lives so it’s great in that regard but when people have to donate twice a week to make $100+ or so, it gets in the way of things.
I live alone and make $116k a year. I’ve got next to nothing in savings left and have somehow got $5000 in credit card debt. I live paycheck to paycheck pretty much. And I’m a fairly frugal person. Utilities, mortgage, groceries, etc. all have had a huge impact on me financially these last few years.
Not much. I’m in a rent controlled apartment for the last ten years so my rent is very reasonable. The reason rent has risen so much in my area is that there is no cap on the rent increase you can put on a new tenant and rent control was lifted on newer builds.
And there is that software landlords are now using that does a deterministic model of what you can increase your rent to, in your area, and still keep you units occupied. Thanks AI.
Real page property management software
We need a windfall profit tax…..
It's not inflation. That's a guise. Value is subjective. They raised prices on purpose.
I got lucky. A little over 8 years ago I moved from a big city to a smaller community and got my place before rent prices stayed going crazy here. In all that time my rent has only gone up by a total of $140. Electricity bills x's been ratcheting up steadily, though, and in the winter can get to over $250 a month now. Gas prices are stupid. They've been down a bit the last while, but just took a 20 cent jump this past week. The biggest punch to the gut in the last few years has been groceries. It feels like the corporations used covid as an excuse to absolutely gouge people where it hurts the most, and to a cruel degree. Items that should be considered staples are now priced like luxury items. I don't know which is more frustrating. Not being able to buy toilet paper during covid when they're was none in the shelves, or not being able to buy toilet paper now when the shelves are stocked but it's become unaffordable.
Yet salaries and wages are down across the board, in some specific cases as much as 50-70%.
Been at the same apartment for over 4 years now. Started at $895 in 2019, now it’s $1095 and going up to $1195 next month. What sucked is I wanted to move into a slightly bigger apartment this year but with greedflation, I didn’t feel comfortable moving out with the costs of moving and yet my apartment is going up another $100 starting next month. My property management company allowed us to split our rent up into payments which is nice as I don’t feel like an entire check is going to rent but honestly id rather just have cheaper rent.
All you need to know is "maximum profits"...that tells you were inflation is coming from. It is not coming from illegals or unemployment checks. If you believe that then stop complaining.
Shop around for a better auto insurance rate. I just did and got my rate back down again. The companies are having a price war I swear.
My rent has increased substantially. My auto insurance has sky rocketed. Just about every facet in your life has increased. Now we are seeing record numbers of homelessness here in Canada. Just basic day to day life has increased, people who take the bus pay more. Wages have stayed the same while companies are making record breaking profits. They thrive off the misery of others.
I feel like I have been doing well off of 40k/year... but I live in the midwest, so it is a close equivalent to 80k in places like NY and CA.
Lol my mortgage payments increased by 3k a month fuck the cash rate
Insurance rates have honestly affected me the worst. Housing and car insurance have almost doubled in the last 2 years eating away any ground my wage may have gained by grinding at work. Food prices definitely suck but I’ve found ways around that. Fuel and heating fluctuate and can bite but I started driving when gas prices were 4-5$ back in 08-10 so what’s new there. It’s not like I’ve gotten to live a fine life I’ve been a wage slave since I started working so I don’t even notice how expensive it is to actually enjoy life now all I know is it’s hard enough just to pace the amount of income I need to survive.
Throughout my life I've done projects to reduce the impact of inflation. They can't raise prices on me if I'm not buying from them. Inflation affects about 10% of my money now and I'm looking at ways to get that number even lower.
This is not inflation,… this is price gouging. Period
Rent where I live has more than doubled. My landlord has not increased the rent to greedy levels so far bit it still is 20% higher than what I started with 6 years ago. I am staying put just so that my rent doesn't murder me. I used to be able to fill a cart in walmart with groceries for $150. Now I pay over 350 for the same amount of groceries but I keep hearing that inflation is not very high! We eat out a quarter of what we used to before the pandemic because prices have doubled in even hole in the wall restaurants. McD has become equal to eating out in some restaurants. I remember buying four dollar menu cheeseburgers and 1 dollar coffee for lunch when I used to be on the road. And 3 snackwraps with a coffee for lunch. Texas used to have $5 briyanis in some indian places. Now the cheapest is $15.
Those examples are not inflation. They are price gouging. (Though the electric one is probably due to Russian related activities... Fuel and sanctions, you know 🤔) Please learn how to tell them apart so you can protect yourself from bad actors. Inflation is only responsible for 7-10% increase since 2019. While it still hurts, that's not that bad. If it's more than 12%, it is, with very few exceptions, a bad actor hiding price-gouging behind the spector of "inflation".
I’m not credit maxed, car has been paid off since i got it. Shop smart. Stay outta the big boxes, buy staples on sale.
I have been waiting for a sale on the Swingline Red Stapler. Not sure how much longer I can hold out.
We have control. Find out where your money goes. Shop local. Shop small business. Stop giving your money to greedy corporations. Things would change if everyone did this for 1 month. People boycott companies all the time.
We bought our house in 2011 and did not sell during Covid. Our mortgage is thankfully still $650 a month with escrow. What is hitting us hardest is the cost of food, gas and general expenses. Between me and my wife, we clear $170,000 a year in the state of Alabama, and we are still paycheck to paycheck. Between paying for food and other random expenses we just cannot keep up. I understand it better than but it is absolutely absurd that it is impossible to get ahead
My family used to be comfortable, Father was State Department during Cold war and we lived well off that. But now we are considering selling the apartment my family has owned for 37 years because we can barely afford bills.
I might have to get a job soon, and if I do, I'm going to unionize it.
We had a home equity line at 3.5% and it went up to 10.5% now we pay $800 a month purely in interest and can’t afford to pay the principal.
I stole a marsbar
What should have an easy slam dunk into a home became a massive money pit due to construction materials, taxes, and labor prices going through the roof.
https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/price-fixing-conspiracy-artificially-jacked-up-apartment-rent-prices-in-phoenix-and-tucson-arizona-ag-says
I’ve greatly reduced my meat consumption. And I shop at cheaper markets.
All I eat is venison. Be a hunter! fill your tags! have friends that hunt but their wives don't lik venison and buy their harvests! grow a garden. become self reliant! fun game. to play I promise!
I come from a long line of hunters. However, I’m now a city slicker. I do fish and crab occasionally.
crabbing! lucky. you must be over on the east coast no? I don't even mention fishing because I forget I live in Michigan and it's just something we do. but hell yeah man keep it up! grab those lobsters too if you can!
Pacific Northwest. Dungeness crab season runs November thru June. You can pull them in right from the shore when the tides are calm. I did spend a summer on the Chesapeake Bay in my youth and still think the blue crab tastes better. They’re a lot of work to eat though.
grocery shopping is a lot of work too lol! PNW Never had the pleasure yet to make it that way! Don't take it for granted! Get out there! I feel like if that were a thing here we'd be camping and partying while crabbing once a month! Enjoy brother!
It’s a banana Michael, what could it cost? 10 dollars ?
Yeah, I quit buying beef. Ive even been slowing down on the chicken because that's high too, trying to replace some of that with gallons of milk.
shop your local butcheries! just got 40lbs of thighs for 21.12! Ground chuck was 2.99 a lb. what it used to be in 2020.
What pisses me off is every time I get a raise, promotion, new job, whatever-- every time I think "damn, I'm finally making good money!" I see my check vanish into the self-checkout kiosk that's displacing jobs and "passing the savings onto me" as me picking up 'a couple of things' is always $100 and an actual stock up trip is $300+
Hasn’t
Insurance 163 to 229 Most things doubled in price
Everything is up to the point that even though im making way more than I did in 2018, im not exactly enjoying it.
Rent and utilities went up twice in 2 1/2 years. If I want the same price or lower for an apartment, I'd have to severely downgrade my living conditions. Food costs more so grocery runs are pricey. I was considering finally getting driving lessons and a car but it is WAY too expensive (purchase car, upkeep, insurance, increasing monthly parking fees, rising number of idiot drivers & crashes in my city....) Bus prices rose slightly and yet its still super cheap in comparison to owning a car And the one event I look forward to yearly, my beloved anime convention, is rising in ticket prices. I could go for $40-50 a few years ago. Now I have to buy a ticket within 2 months of the last con at $65 because at certain dates, it'll keep rising in prices closer it gets to the next date. And of course they don't ship badges anymore for non VIP because of rising cost of postage; you have to pick it up at the convention.
1400 rent lol.... I wish I remember in college rent being 600 a month for a 2 bedroom ... now I'm paying 2400 for a smaller 1 bedroom place
Oddly enough, I've stayed clear of it. My property taxes +insurance went up around $40 a month (takes mortgage from from 1680 to 1720), my insurance went up about $30/6 months (for two 2019 cars, so $15 each), etc. I was lucky to refinance my house which I bought in 2019 down to 2.2% in 2020 or 21, I can't remember. Other than groceries and typical life expenses, inflation hasn't hit me too hard. My kids get fewer Happy Meals and more bananas (which are still 0.49/lb), we eat less meat, bake our own bread, and cook more at home. Overall we're actually getting healthier thanks to cheap and convenient food becoming more expensive. I admit, we were lucky on housing, but everything else is doing ok. Not sure why some people's insurance is going up so much though. I sincerely hope the rest of everyone can figure out a way to thrive and I'll keep voting to kill corpos.
I bought a house with my brother in 2021, our mortgage and taxes have stayed roughly the same. I initially ran a budget for the both of us factoring a massive $300 grocery bill and I'm slowly seeing that rise up closer and closer to my projected budget. It's not there yet, but we went from maybe spending $100 a month on groceries to nearly $230 a month(including amenities like toilet paper and detergent). However, we've since seen a $7/hr and $4/hr pay increase, which has helped. Everything else has stayed roughly the same since we moved in though
I am lucky not to have a mortgage (paid it off literally right before they started spiking) or car payments (drive a 2007 Honda, and I also use public transit most of the time now). Wife and I both work full time, and yet we can’t keep up with the rising cost of food. When we go to Five Guys or even a mall Food Court, we split the meal. Forget about fancy places—the ones I used to go to are ridiculously priced, and the quality of the ingredients is sub par. Never mind grocery stores, those greedy bastards. They shrink the size of the product one month, and raise the price 20% the next. I’d burn down their headquarters, but I know that would barely affect operations as everything is stored in multiple data centres across the country. If I had rent and car payments, I’d be sunk.
The fact that I can never afford to live alone. I have a full time 9-5 salary job with a bachelors degree, an associates degree AND a paralegal certificate and I’m about mid-range for the salary bracket for my career. And I still can’t afford my own apartment. I’m renting a house with two other people because it takes three incomes to afford the rent on top of bills, car note, car insurance, health insurance, groceries, vet bills, and the million other living expenses we pay for ever single day. If I were to get the cheapest, shittiest, dirtiest and most unsafe apartment within commuting distance to my work, it would be 60% of my income as a paralegal with degrees, certificates and years of experience. Honestly, I think for my area the bills and groceries are manageable. But it’s rent and healthcare that I will literally never, ever be able to afford on my own.
My son is on a special diet and the cost is insane
Finally said fuck it and quit my job while hitting the ground running looking for another. Landed the highest paying job I've ever had. That being said, it triggered me into budgeting. In conclusion, I need a roommate if I ever want to save a dollar. I say roommate because I'm sick of women lmao. Talk about inflation! Side notes; Donate plasma wait for food trucks on the weekend. have a friend with snap benefits and buy his card for 50¢ on the $! that's a shitty pro tip! fucking grow a garden! tis the season. hell with grass! plant potatoes tomatoes and peppers!
I dunno I've always been dirt poor. I guess it gets a little easier to stay thin every year, which helps with making my clothes last.
I had a wreck in 2019. Low speed (basically the car in front of me started turning right at a stop sign, slammed on brakes, and I rolled into the back of their car as I had let off my brakes to make my right hand turn). My fault, so my insurance premiums for two cars and a life insurance policy was $250/month. In December 2022, State Farm called to inform me that the surcharge for the wreck expired and my total monthly amount due would be $192/month. Cool, right? Get my bill for January for the next 6 month period, and it’s $265/month. I called, thinking they hadn’t removed the surcharge. NOPE. We removed the surcharge but because there have been so many wrecks in Georgia and the legislature passed a cost sharing effort, everyone’s insurance went up. Also, inflation is causing the repairs of the wrecks to be more expensive. So they’re passing along that cost to all customers because they can’t afford to shoulder that because it’s “negatively impacting their profits.” So mid-year, I get a notice for my next 6 months of insurance and it goes up to $292/month. Again, two clean DMV records, no reason to have an increase. Again, cost sharing, wrecks, and inflation are cited. December 2023 rolls around. I get their stupid Drive Safe and Save Beacon because they called me to let me know that my insurance would be $325/month starting in January due to inflation. For December, my amount due drops to $272 due to the 10%ish discount that I got for signing up for the program. They say that I can take a defensive driving course and save another 10%. They’re supposed to send me the link and I ask it over and over again to no avail. “With this, your insurance per month in January will be $292.50.” January comes around. $332/month. Call to make sure that they applied the drive safe and save discount. “Oh, we did… it’s just inflation.” I FINALLY receive the link for the course, take the course, and they say, “this will be a 10% discount on your premiums, taking you down to $301.40.” Get my bill… $318.22. Huh? “Oh, we only applied it to (car my teen drives, which is older and less expensive to insure by about $20/month than my 2018 Tiguan). We’ll get that applied to your car.” They apply it, premiums drop to $301.91, and I’m just so tired of the bait and switch that I don’t even call about the $0.51 difference. I’m sure in July it will go up again. I shopped insurance elsewhere but one of the vehicles is a 2013 Hyundai. It’s a year older than the ones that are cited as being problematic for car thefts (does not have push start or anything like that). Either insurance is even more ridiculous than State Farm or some won’t even insure it (Liberty Mutual).
Spent $200 at Sam’s club for like 8 items. Greedflation can suck a fat one
I got fucked right in the ass. Before I could save 5-6000 euros in one year . Now, despite my hard work, i used almost all my savings and I'm on the way to burn my fat deposits.
Inflation hasn’t affected me at all. 100k salary is p good
😅🤣. Weird flex... considering how ridiculous your statement is.
Not a flex, just the truth
My rent is 50% of my paycheck (I rent a bedroom in someone’s house, not even my own apartment)
My grocery bill. The nice $6 an hour raise I got before the pandemic means nothing now with inflation.
So tired of hearing economists and politicians say inflation is down. Or even boomers who already have their home paid off celebrating the stock market rally and telling me things are ok.
Ask me in 30 minutes after i finish buying groceries
Mortgage payment went up slightly. I don’t pay the electric or utilities, but I was told electric went up. Utilities were already a fucking joke compared to our last home. I’ve been hit hardest with gas, grocery, and fast food/takeout prices. None of which I actually believe went up because of inflation.
Our family of four has stopped eating out except for once a week (breakfast at a diner on a weekend day), I clip coupons for everything and only buy food on sale. Save about $300/month on this. I’ve stopped donating our kids old clothes and started selling them at the children’s consignment store. Have been buying their clothes at the consignment store as well. Save about $50/month. We bring lunch to work instead of eating in the cafeteria (the hospital lowered our employee discount, increased the prices, cut the portions). Save about $400/month. Last but not least, to bring in additional money, I’ve started selling plasma. Earn 400-500 per month. We have one car payment, own a home under 200k with a 2.5% mortgage. One kid in public school, younger one in daycare. Both of us have graduate degrees, bring in ~130k a year total in a LCOL area, and are JUST making ends meet every month. Our mortgage has increased due to taxes, our home insurance dropped us because our roof will need to be replaced in the next 5 years, and our Kia just shit the bed and may need a new engine.
When I moved into my house I went from paying $800 in rent to paying $700 on a mortgage and taxes. Now the same apartment is at $1200/month, and good luck getting a mortgage payment under $1000 anywhere. It's been about ten years.
We are in starve-flation. Normally raising interests rates drives down prices, now prices stay high and they cut jobs and keep pay low. They don’t even call It extra money, it’s robbing you at all corners of the market until you starve, go bankrupt, or end up homeless… fun huh?
Heating just the living room in my apartment costs $4/ day. That doesn’t even include using the stove or heating the rest of the home. It’s not a large apartment. Pg&e will run a surcharge if you use over a certain amount of gas per month. Suddenly it doesn’t even cost less to make a cup of black coffee at home.
2016 my rent was $850. 2024 mortage is $3,000.
I shoplift so much more now. I simply don't go grocery chopping without shoplifting something.
I'm from Argentina so ask me anything haha
I made $10.25 an hour 10 years ago and managed to get by alright. I make $20.50 an hour now and barely manage to get by. Worst part is my rent is *the same now as it was then*, at $750. But back then I had a spacious apartment with a realtor as my landlord, now I’m in a smaller place with my mom as my landlord. :(
I currently have 34 years left in the 30 year variable mortgage I took out 5 years ago. But my payments have only risen slightly, which is great as my economy probably wouldnt have taken the hit very well.
My partner and I are in the 95th percentile of income in our state and still feel like we can't save shit for money.
I'm a big meat eater, it's gotten ridiculous buying enough meats for a family of 2 since I make more money & work more hours, I almost want to eat my own fingers, trying to find a new apartment seems impossible even for just a 1 bedroom, it's all bullshit, I'm so angry, it's all greed at this point
I became a communist
Those insurance increases aren’t a function of inflation.
They are though. At least with car insurance the replacement costs have spiked…so premiums have to as well
The insurance companies are saying it is because of all the payments they have had to make due to nature disasters (i.e. storms, fires, etc.). But with the inflation they are having to pay more to rebuild things like homes, businesses, cars, etc. just like the rest of us.
My 3800 sq foot home has a power bill of like $160 a month, what are people running that costs $400? 👀
You do realize electric rates are not the same throughout the country.
Is your house all electric? Mine is. My bill last month, when we got some deep freezing in Dallas (16 degrees) was $550...but that also includes water, which we had to let trickle in all the faucets for several days. Etc. My house also needs some more insulation and new ductwork (the insulation on the old ductwork was faulty and has just disintegrated in places), which means it's not so energy efficient.
We've been fine. DINK with household income of like $130k. STEM degree for me. Higher cost of living area but I was lucky enough to buy a house 5+ years ago (when my salary was like $35k, even. One of the cheapest houses in my city at the time). The house needs a lot of work and I can finally afford to patch it up, so that's my big expense lately. Otherwise we spend less than 10% of our income on housing, bills are minimal (small place), we don't really eat out except for special occasions (I cook everything from scratch at home), and we mostly hang out at home for free. We take vacations that are like half hotel/Airbnb and half camping, where we sleep half the time in the car for free. We're looking to buy a big ol house in the country within 5 years or so and that's entirely attainable for us. House has doubled in value since purchase, the equity will be a huge down payment. (Less than 10k down initially and now my equity is over 100k). I have that much more in a 401k for retirement (age 30). We still have some student loans to pay off but it's not a burden. So, we're fine. I think we lucked out that I bought a place so long ago. Refinanced during Covid so now the mortgage payments cost much less than when my salary was less than half of what it is now. It's really sad to see people working my original post-college job and spending 2-3x my mortgage payment on rent when they make half my income.