Costs are rising around the world. How are you responding to this challenge?
I grew up with, Henry, who was born in 1900. Consequently, he lived through the depression. If you've ever known someone like this - the ordeal has lasting effects on the people who endured it. My grandfather was no exception. Though he has little of it, he kept his money spread out in multiple bank accounts in case one (or all of them) disappeared. He bought in bulk and routinely stored food and also gas for his truck when the prices soared.
I picked some of this up from him. It's the Capricorn connection, I suppose. In whatever case, I was thinking about how people used to put the basic stuff in canisters. Flour. Sugar. Coffee. Tea. Those were the basics at the time. You don't see that anymore. But I just bought 25# of flour because it costs about 50% less than buying 4-5# at a time. I also figure 25# will soon be $20 pounds. You know how that goes.
It's not that I use a lot of flour, but I expect I will eventually as tortillas I used to pay 99 cents for, now cost nearly $4.
I know from friends, Walmart is very well stocked right now... canned goods and stuff. So if you're needing something, I would check there. Sam's club (we don't have a Costco) is out of their store brand of sugar and flour of any size. I was specifically told that Walmart bought the living hell out of everything... sure enough, I walked in the store and there are pallets of canned food, corn and beans and stuff, dropped in the aisles.
How are things going in your land?
I was raised by parents who survived the Depression. After a brief flirtation with extravagance in the 80s, I became more frugal than they ever were. So I'm stocking up more of what's still affordable and foregoing what no longer is unless it's a necessity.
Unlike yours, my Wal-Mart has been increasingly out of stock on many staple items, some of which are no longer even listed in their ordering app. Prices increase weekly. Instacart throws me a bone once in a while, a coupon that covers the fees for Aldi to get some of my old favorites like sprouted bread and whatever WM is out of.
I learned long ago to keep all staples in canisters or in the fridge to keep the critters away! In my first old house, mice ate holes in a leather jacket, and popped their heads up from the gas stove burners after consuming portions of the baked sweet potatoes I'd left to cool in the oven overnight!
I got out of equities awhile back and bought I-bonds. They are pegged to the inflation rate.
I bought a bunch of dog food a couple months ago. I had several huge bags. Blink and they're gone.
Walmart has been well stocked for a week around here. Lots of cans, like 15 pallets of cans, stacked 5 feet high. Soup, corn, beans, and regular modern prices. Beans have been over $1 can here. They were like 80 cents.
Stores have shorter hours and one store has not opened on time, twice this week. No employees. The gal with the key has to drop off her kids or something. She opens the store as soon as she can?
It's pretty bad here in the UK. Everything's costing more,and keeps rising. Our utilities (which went up by 40% this April) were expected to go up another 80% on October 1st, but our new PM is supposed to be putting a freeze on current prices soon. People are still struggling, though - working families having to use food banks, barely able to afford the travel costs to get into work, taking an extra job to cover the rise in prices, it's heartbreaking.
Shelves are still pretty well stocked, but we do sometimes get the odd item that just disappears for a couple of months. I'm just stocking up on the basics when I can - pasta, tinned foods, lentils and the like.
I'm pretty angry that everyone could see this was coming but our government just sat back - Boris disappeared for weeks on end whilst the rest of the Tories argued amongst themselves and now we have the third PM in a row that we, the people did not vote for, trying to win popularity rather than actually helping get us out of this mess.
No sporting events for this year. As much as we like hockey and the occasional baseball game, the costs have just gone through the roof. That one cut back has saved us an average of $100 per month. Because hubs and I do not like huge heavy dinners, when we do order take-out, we just order one meal and split it. As an extra boon, sweets and desserts have been cut back, and a few extra pounds have been lost. Due to the crazy hot summer many of us are living with, lawn and yard service have also been reduced. Gift giving, birthday, anniversary, etc. has been scaled back. That will hold for Christmas. We are all adults and not one of us needs anything. Sharing a nice meal with loved ones is a gift unto itself. My other half is now going through things like cable bills, cell phone services, streaming services, etc. Our phones are a couple of years old and they work just fine -- no need to spend $$$$$ for new phones. One thing I am extremely grateful for, living in Florida, we have an abundance of fresh fruit and veggies all year long, and for the most part, the cost is reasonable and there are a number of fruit stands all over the state.