Is your local area showing *inflation* signs?

[sweeps]

This is a follow-up to the thread on recession. I personally haven't seen much evidence of a recession (except for the bottom falling out on my stock market balances). But what I have seen is major signs of inflation.

I do my grocery shopping at Target, and just in the last week, prices have skyrocketed. We're talking roughly 10-15% price increases. Market Pantry chips that I often buy went from $1.02 to $1.79! Our local mass transit is instituting another 10% fare increase. And I see more places are charging an extra "energy surcharge". Even our preschool is in on that now.

Anyone else feeling the pinch?

[PauletteGoddard]

Anyone else feeling the pinch?

Yes. Children's bus fares where I am are increasing by 50%. We are cutting back on our meat purchases. I wash clothes in cold water. I don't go for a weekly breve (espresso drink) at my fave place now -- more like a monthly breve.

I drive every third or fourth Sunday to a friend's high-end neighbourhood, where the wee houses go for $700K and the manses $5M+. I noted that three shops we passed by on our last walk were gone.

My neighbourhood has been busy as of late, but we have discount department stores and a Temple of Mass Consumerism along with many strip mall outposts so it's usually busy.

[MonkeyMama]

No. Funny enough, all of our expenses seem to be going down.

It's been kind of refreshing this year. Are you saying I shouldn't get too used to it?

Gas is up, yes. Groceries probably are, but dh shops and we have cut out diapers, formula, milk, etc. this past year so our bills are way down. The kids are also provided meals at school. So it is hard to guage - we have been paying way less for groceries. But I am sure costs as a whole are up. I'll have to ask my dh what he has noticed.

No one else has charged a surcharge. A lot of our bills went down "just because" this year. Cable, utilities, & insurances are all down. OF course saving so much on insurance this year, the rest hardly matters. Insurance is usually the killer for us.

[disneysteve]

I haven't really noticed it either. Grocery prices are stable or down thanks largely to Wegman's. Auto insurance drops a little every 6 months as our cars get older. Gas prices go up and down but overall are fairly stable. Gas is about $2.87 now. I now after Katrina 2 years ago it peaked at $3.25, so current prices aren't terrible. Our cable bill dropped a few cents but is only $11 to begin with. Internet and cell phone rates don't change. Our home gas bill is up, but that's because DW isn't working full time so the heat runs all day. I can't turn it down in the morning like I did when the house was empty all day.

I can't think of anything offhand that has gone up significantly.

[bjl584]

Nothing has really gone up noticeably where I live. Gas has gone down, groceries are about the same, all of my utilities along with cable and internet are the same. I haven't done any major shopping lately, just day to day stuff, so maybe the bigger ticket items have changed, but I don't know.

[myrdale]

I have noticed the price of Coke has went up. A 12-oz bottle that you can get from a vending machine is normally $1.10 at most any gas station, has went up to $1.33. Another 20c and you can get a 2-Liter drink.

[aida2003]

Since my DH does grocery shopping mainly , I do not notice price changes, though he said they have increased. But I'm the one looking after our household finances and I noticed that expenses have increased indeed......and we're not the Joneses trying to keep up with our neighbors
Yesterday I shopped at BJ's, where I bought a big bag of almonds. It was $10.99 and somehow I thought that last time I bought it was $9.99.

[lgslgs]

We keep a grocery price book. In one year flour went from $0.99 to $1.67 for 5 lbs. Sugar went from $1.69 to $2.43. Milk went from sales at $2 per gallon to sales at $3.50 per gallon. An 18 pack of eggs went from $1.19 with sales occasionally at $0.99 to $2.38. Shredded cheese went from $4.50 to $7.50.

Since we don't buy processed foods, we really see the effects of higher food costs. We buy store brand basic foods, and the manufacturer can't dodge price increases by downsizing engineers, cutting advertising budgets, cutting packaging costs, reformulating to add more air or water to the recipe, or shrinking package contents.

We see the inflation in our hard goods purchases as well. Again, we don't buy finished end products. We buy stuff like rolls of wire fencing, screws and nails.

We also have to buy our own health insurance, which is going up at 7% per year like clockwork even though we have no claims. I guess compared to the other inflation we have to deal with that's almost a bargain.


Lynda

[Mikeee]

I see it for sure in grocery shopping too.

Very simple

On sale a can of mushrooms was $0.50.

The same can today, still on sale $0.60.

My Mom remembers the can at $0.40.

I would call that inflation. Also some manufacturers are making the packages slightly smaller to avoid raising prices.

I comparison shop between BJ and shoprite with my PDA.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Mikeee

Also some manufacturers are making the packages slightly smaller to avoid raising prices.

This is a great point and worth emphasizing. This is a type of silent inflation. They keep the box or can the same size but put a little less in it.

A while back, I had an opportunity to teach this lesson to DW. There was a display of pasta sauce jars at the market. I noticed there were 2 different bottle shapes for the same product. Sure enough, the bottle with straight sides was the old design and held a little more than the newer bottle with indented sides. But they were all being sold for the same price. I thought about complaining because it was really false advertising but it wasn't worth it. The posted unit price only applied to the larger bottle, not the new smaller bottle which really had a higher unit price.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

It's going up. Because I keep a price book, things like Milk, eggs, bread have almost doubled in 1 year. A lot of restaurants have increased their food prices because of energy and gas costs. I won't be surprised if they go up more because rising food costs.

Plus a year ago my car fuel bill was $100/month. NO CHANGE at all in driving but not it's about $140/month. I keep track of my mileage as well with each fill and it's just price per fill going up, not miles or mpg changing.