Costs of Living

How High Can they go?

We didn’t go blindly into retirement.  As is my bent, I studied and researched it thoroughly.  I knew the projected retirement income we would receive after 35 years of gainful employment on my part as well as 10 years of graduate work.  My husband chalked up another 49 years and his income would include Social Security as well as retirement income from his job.  Both of us felt that we would be very secure on our retirement income for years to come.   We were ready for the future!  Bring it on! 

What we didn’t see coming down the road was escalating prices for everything!  Food, fuel, utilities, clothing, travel and healthcare co-pays.  What a shock to the system!  Do we have no recourse?  Do our elected officials not see or feel this unprecedented pinch on our budget.  Where is the outrage and the congressional hearings on gouging by supermarket chains and others simply because they can?  I want to demand a hearing today.  I understand that peanut butter will go up this year because of problems with the peanut crop.  Okay, fine, I accept that.  At least there is a rational explanation. 

Today, I literally hate going to the grocery store.  I have hated it for more than 2 ½ years now and I keep waiting for the prices to stabilize and allow me to budget adequately to put decent, nourishing food on our table.  I have been so appalled at the rapid increase in food prices that I have begun to keep a diary of prices for selected products.   As an example, since 2011 the price of the generic sourdough bread at my town’s Wal-Mart has gone up 16%.    Generic French bread has gone up 7%.  This reflects the overall rise in the prices I pay for everything!  Initially, higher gas prices were blamed for the first severe rise in cost, but since then gas prices here have fluctuated vastly, and for a period of time were relatively low, but none of the prices have come down.  The cost of all commodities continues to go up.  I have a theory that supermarkets continuously change the location of products in the store so that we are so frustrated we won’t be as liable to complain about the price hike when we do find what we came for.  For some reason, after a frantic search, we simply have a sense of relief.

Today we take better care of our cars than ever before in order to postpone the inevitable built in obsolescence we know is coming.  We take advantage of every relevant bargain we come across.  We drive less than ever to conserve on our gas consumption.  We use our fireplace all the time during winter to avoid higher natural gas prices.  I say we are doing everything we can to cope with this situation.  I am truly concerned with family members and friends who don’t have the assurance of a guaranteed monthly income (which doesn’t increase by the way).  Every recent conversation revolves around the high cost of living.

I suspect very strongly that we, the citizens are being manipulated and put  through a corporative ringer and that no one, except the shopper is paying any attention to.  I’m stretching my dollar as much as I can.  Is anyone listening?   I am going to write my senators and congressmen as soon as I finish this post.  Hey, why don’t you join me?  Take a few minutes and contact your representatives too.  You have nothing to lose.  Below is a link that will help you find out how to contact them.  Contact the Congress (there are 539 electronic contacts for U S elected officials as well as their office phone numbers),  either is equally effective in making a point.  Go for it – Express yourself.   http://www.contactingthecongress.org/