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If you occasionally shop Costco, try their Kirkland Colombian Supremo. It is my favorite coffee in the US at about $13 for a 3 lb can. I drink coffee plain, without cream / sugar and the Kirkland coffee is smooth with a rich coffee flavor - not fruity, bitter or bland.
That's the one I've been drinking for the last year and a half, since I moved to an area where Trader Joe's is too far away. It's a really good coffee and the price is right. I think it's what... $11.99, $12.99? I can really taste the difference.
There is nothing new about seniors being on fixed incomes, or inflation. What IS new in my own lifetime is how quickly grocery prices rose just this year alone. Gas prices have jumped high before and are expected.
Standard ways to stay on budget include the obvious stuff such as eating out less often, traveling less often and for shorter distances, not buying frivolous things that you don’t enjoy more than a few minutes or hours, unsubscribing from little-used (or oft-used but useless) services, selling any items that you no longer want (a.k.a. garage sales), making more things yourself whether meals or household items, quitting smoking or drinking, forgoing expensive convenience doodads, selling high-maintenance houses and switching to one with lower cost.
Kinda hard to reduce very basic food budgets more, so other stuff will have to give way.
I saw an old, obese guy stuff a full-size grocery cart with packages of price-slashed sweet baked treats. Nothing else. That’s one way to reduce the food budget...at a high cost to health, but maybe he doesn’t care.
I think a lot of people are getting by on their credit cards at the moment.
Costs have gone up, and while wages have as well, it generally hasn't been to the tune of inflation. That's if you even buy the inflation numbers as stated. I've spent around $200 in gas alone over the past few weeks, and I work from home. If I had a typical commuting pattern, gas would probably be $100/week for me right now. I'd guesstimate my food/gas/
I've nearly stopped going to the mainline grocery stores. Between Sam's Club, Walmart, Aldi, and the local produce/farm stand, most of my grocery needs are met.
Girlfriend and I stopped to get breakfast stuff Saturday night at Food City. An eight pack of sausage patties, dozen eggs, and loaf of wheat bread was $10.94. I can buy a box of ~40 patties at Sam's for around $9.
Personally, I see people continuing to spend like it's going out of style. I went out to a brewery last night and it was very busy - maybe it was because the only place open at 7 PM. The high end hibachi place we went to was busy. Median HHI in this area is ~$40-$45k.
Eventually, folks are going to exhaust their spending power in the face of rising inflation and interest rates. Credit card bills are going to get harder to pay. A recession looks likely. The goal of the Fed right now is to slow the labor market. People may end up losing their jobs.
My girlfriend and I make about $175k (live/finances separately) combined. We're changing the vacation plans from Maine to Key West. I had difficulties flying to Maine back in 2019 - I could have driven it faster. I don't want to fly anywhere with a layover or at a major airport with the flying environment the way it is now. She doesn't want to be in the car for a 2,200 mile roundtrip over nine days. Hotels are basically double what I paid in 2019.
We can get a cheap Allegiant flight from Asheville to Key West, be there in under three hours, with a checked bag, priority boarding, everything, for ~$550 together. We likely won't need a car. Hotels are cheaper than Maine.
Around here, the minimum wage was almost doubled...while wages were de facto raised higher still as we had some very big unemployment incentives. The place I was at then raised basic warehouse wages from $15 to $22 with full health and dental paid and even there was only attracting the very bottom of the barrell. The place I'm at now has a floor of $30/hour for manufacturing.
Those costs are being passed along. Fixed income just lost a ton of their purchasing power to these various incentives. Basically, steal value from everyone (including those that can no longer produce) in order to subsidize the working age population that won't work because their entitlements have not been met. Unemployment is very low, but so is worker participation. Combined and aggravated with extreme supply chain disruptions....this inflation is going to be difficult to contain.
All of this is local.
I'm in Tennessee. The minimum wage hasn't gone up here. It's still $7.25/hr, but no one is realistically paying that because they couldn't attract anyone. I saw a "$1,200 sign on" bonus on a Popeye's chicken restaurant last week.
The very bottom rungs have seen pay raises. Where the squeeze is really hitting are jobs like CNAs, call center workers, accounting clerks - people that might have been making $12-$16/hr before the recent wage run-ups. Those people aren't getting paid much more than they previously did, but those jobs are seeing wage competition from places like Target or Aldi.
I used to work for a hospital system's IT department. I saw one of the desktop support team leads out a couple weeks ago - he mentioned they had lost people to Target, and one to a car wash, because those jobs paid better than an IT position.
What are you talking about with "the working age population that won't work because their entitlements have not been met?" COVID-related extended UI has been gone for many months, if not a year or more in most locations. I don't buy, at all, that a few stimulus checks which amounted to a few thousand dollars for most people, hasn't yet been exhausted, or is the proximate cause behind today's high inflation.
Anyone I know of who was laid off due to COVID found something else, usually back in 2020. If someone of working age isn't working right now, they probably aren't going to work.
I'm in Tennessee. The minimum wage hasn't gone up here. It's still $7.25/hr, but no one is realistically paying that because they couldn't attract anyone. I saw a "$1,200 sign on" bonus on a Popeye's chicken restaurant last week.
The very bottom rungs have seen pay raises. Where the squeeze is really hitting are jobs like CNAs, call center workers, accounting clerks - people that might have been making $12-$16/hr before the recent wage run-ups. Those people aren't getting paid much more than they previously did, but those jobs are seeing wage competition from places like Target or Aldi.
I used to work for a hospital system's IT department. I saw one of the desktop support team leads out a couple weeks ago - he mentioned they had lost people to Target, and one to a car wash, because those jobs paid better than an IT position.
What are you talking about with "the working age population that won't work because their entitlements have not been met?" COVID-related extended UI has been gone for many months, if not a year or more in most locations. I don't buy, at all, that a few stimulus checks which amounted to a few thousand dollars for most people, hasn't yet been exhausted, or is the proximate cause behind today's high inflation.
Anyone I know of who was laid off due to COVID found something else, usually back in 2020. If someone of working age isn't working right now, they probably aren't going to work.
And what exactly does this have to do with retirees on a fixed income
I was checking the yogurts in my store to find one that didn't have so many additives. A lot of time Greek yogurt is just thickened with agar, or carrageenan instead of drained to remove the excess water. The funny thing was, the only Greek yogurt that was just milk and cultures, was the store brand organic. What a pleasant surprise. It's cheaper, and better for me. All the fancy brands had tons of additives and artificial ingredients.
Let me know how you like it I live really far from my Costco so I went and got a small can of Great Value Colombian from Walmart I have to say I really don't care for it it's weak and it kind of tastes funny, but YMMV. I hope so!
PS I doctor mine with either cream and sugar or those flavored creamers. Still didn't make a difference
Most Americans don't know what real coffee tastes like. They think that stuff they pour at Denny's is coffee for example. I can't drink that stuff...
I think a lot of people are getting by on their credit cards at the moment.
Costs have gone up, and while wages have as well, it generally hasn't been to the tune of inflation. That's if you even buy the inflation numbers as stated. I've spent around $200 in gas alone over the past few weeks, and I work from home. If I had a typical commuting pattern, gas would probably be $100/week for me right now. I'd guesstimate my food/gas/
I've nearly stopped going to the mainline grocery stores. Between Sam's Club, Walmart, Aldi, and the local produce/farm stand, most of my grocery needs are met.
Girlfriend and I stopped to get breakfast stuff Saturday night at Food City. An eight pack of sausage patties, dozen eggs, and loaf of wheat bread was $10.94. I can buy a box of ~40 patties at Sam's for around $9.
Personally, I see people continuing to spend like it's going out of style. I went out to a brewery last night and it was very busy - maybe it was because the only place open at 7 PM. The high end hibachi place we went to was busy. Median HHI in this area is ~$40-$45k.
Eventually, folks are going to exhaust their spending power in the face of rising inflation and interest rates. Credit card bills are going to get harder to pay. A recession looks likely. The goal of the Fed right now is to slow the labor market. People may end up losing their jobs.
My girlfriend and I make about $175k (live/finances separately) combined. We're changing the vacation plans from Maine to Key West. I had difficulties flying to Maine back in 2019 - I could have driven it faster. I don't want to fly anywhere with a layover or at a major airport with the flying environment the way it is now. She doesn't want to be in the car for a 2,200 mile roundtrip over nine days. Hotels are basically double what I paid in 2019.
We can get a cheap Allegiant flight from Asheville to Key West, be there in under three hours, with a checked bag, priority boarding, everything, for ~$550 together. We likely won't need a car. Hotels are cheaper than Maine.
We were just in Key West back in February. Drove from Miami to Key West after doing the Everglades. Great trip but we decided one day and night was all the time we needed to spend in Key West. Turned out the snorkeling is nothing like some of the hype in that area either. Apparently it used to be much better decades ago...
I was checking the yogurts in my store to find one that didn't have so many additives. A lot of time Greek yogurt is just thickened with agar, or carrageenan instead of drained to remove the excess water. The funny thing was, the only Greek yogurt that was just milk and cultures, was the store brand organic. What a pleasant surprise. It's cheaper, and better for me. All the fancy brands had tons of additives and artificial ingredients.
My wife got me into using Greek yogurt instead of sour cream years ago. Again for better health, and I really can't taste the difference. The organic Greek yogurt sold at Costco is pretty good. Good on baked potatoes, for adding to tacos (with salsa). In smoothies...
I was checking the yogurts in my store to find one that didn't have so many additives. A lot of time Greek yogurt is just thickened with agar, or carrageenan instead of drained to remove the excess water. The funny thing was, the only Greek yogurt that was just milk and cultures, was the store brand organic. What a pleasant surprise. It's cheaper, and better for me. All the fancy brands had tons of additives and artificial ingredients.
I've started to buy store brand Greek yogurt and it is just as good as name brands.
I have a usual grocery store that I go to about five miles away. As a single person household (mostly), I run up about $100 a week on average. This past week I was in three different grocery stores just out of convenience and not intentional. I was surprised by the price differences. Lower than I see at my usual place -- some higher. It might be advisable to shop around for groceries but then you have the gas prices to factor into the cost.
My neighbor would go to Costco once a month and fill up two or three carts for the whole month's shopping. I went with him once but spent maybe $40 because I can't plan ahead for a month. I hardly know what I want to eat tomorrow. Ideally, I need a neighborhood grocer that I can visit daily or every other day. As it is I'm doing salvage cooking sometimes trying to eat something before it goes bad.
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