Five years ago I started this consulting job and gasonline was around $1.65 per gallon. I clearly remember it passing $2.00 per gallon and saying to my former boss, "I'll need more money for gas mileage since it is so high now." Ha. She didn't give me more for another 6 months and now my job doesn't reimburse me mileage at all. It is supposedly "built in" the payment I receive on each report. Yeah. A load of crap. It was "built in" as of 1 1/2 years ago when gas was high, but not FOUR FRIGGIN' DOLLARS per gallon. ho hum.
It has filtered down to groceries and the few cents here and there that I scoffed at six months ago has now turned into anxious panic. Seriously. D often does the grocery shopping for us. I went for the first time in about a month last weekend. OMG. I was floored at how much everything has increased. When I went out to my car (which I filled up for $53) I seriously felt anxious.
I am taking unecessary trips in the car less, piling up errands so that I do them all at once rather than over a period of days, we eat at home a lot more, and are making a few other changes here and there.
I assume we are not the only ones feeling the crunch of the nose-diving dollar. What are you doing to save money/cut costs?
I'm writing this blog to keep friends and family up to speed on what's happening at our house! Also, I hope it will create a nice "memory book"... a reminder of sorts about what life was like when my kids were little. I post updates about my kids, my life, my thoughts, my feelings. Let's face it..life is anything but a piece of cake!
Followers
Kate, K, Katie bird
Loves: Kindergarten, reading, dancing, playing Barbies, everything princess, and making new friends
Dislikes: white milk, big changes in life, having to say goodbye, and onions
Dislikes: white milk, big changes in life, having to say goodbye, and onions
3 comments:
I hear you. The grocery thing kills me. I have been amazed by this for months and seriously have no idea how people are making it.
We buy more store brands (Kroger). I have mostly stopped going to Bloomingfoods. And we have been using coupons on items I like but are higher priced. We also look for those 2 for $5.00 type deals and buy multiples like 4 or 6 of the item at that price and stock it away in the pantry.
We grow some of our own veggies so we do not need to buy some things throughout the summer (lettuce at the moment, tomatoes & squash & herbs later.)
Our grocery bill used to be maybe $100 a week before the increases now it has climbed MUCH much higher.
I still buy mostly organic products (especially fruit & veggies, yogurt, milk and some cheese) but for the most part I look for the best deals and those generally do not include organic foods.
We eat out less I guess. We still get pizza delivered about once a week but that is mostly out of exhaustion on my part by the end of a day (which hopefully once the baby arrives and we get adjusted will slow down again.)
We never really ate out much before as it was but I guess we are eating out less. We stopped our weekly Starbucks Sunday morning thing and I have not been to Starbucks in weeks myself.
We have also gone back to buying certain products in bulk from Sam's because it was cheaper to do that (Pancake mix for instance...)
Yeah, shocking between the gas prices, rising food bills and general overall bills. There have been numerous articles I have read lately about the middle class feeling this crunch the hardest. CRAZZZZZZY!
I am trying to not eat out as often or grab food on the go - it really piles up.
I should be saving more in gas once I officially go on maternity leave, and considering it takes about 70$ to fill up, it should help.
Sadly, we haven't actually changed much of anything yet. I am acutely aware, however, of how much gas I am using, which will soon push me to start limiting car excursions. I actually thought to myself today, "If I can't get Mac to sleep, I will just drive him around." Then I thought "No, you can't waste that gas. It is liquid gold." Luckily, we have paid off the gas-guzzling Trailblazer. So now I look at our gas consumption bill as a monthly car payment.
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