Today I got pretty depressed with the cost of the items at the store. Especially fresh fruits and veggies. I couldn't believe how much the costs have risen in just two short weeks. It's very depressing and scary. I'm so glad I was able to find peppers in the discount bin a couple of weeks ago because today the peppers were 1.98 per pound. A lot different from the costs a few years ago. I didn't need any but I wanted to check the price anyway.
Here's the costs for today:
Prescriptions 165.10
Food 125.60
Non-food 80.38
Tax 8.50
Total for all 370.58
Ok, that's really depressing! My money bought only a fraction of the food I could have bought a couple of years ago. I had some special non-food items that I needed to buy today. Photos developed, printer ink, printer paper, etc. Without those special items, my non-food total would have been around $30.
One thing I do to stay within budget is to separate edible items from non-edible items and pay for the food first. I actually have the cashier ring them up separately. I use only cash and buy the non-edible stuff with what is left after paying for the food. I line the non-food items up on the register in order of importance. I don't care if I make the people behind me angry for taking the time to do this. If the lines are too long then they need to hire more cashiers! My budget is more important than someone's impatience. I watch carefully as things are rung up and when the total gets to my limit I tell the cashier to stop.
We can't live without the food but we certainly can do without the other stuff.... except medications. Now days the shelf price and the register price don't always match which is why I watch carefully.
Does anyone still believe the economy is getting better? How can it be getting better when our dollars buy so much less each day? I will believe the economy is recovering when my grocery budget starts getting smaller each week instead of larger.
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