The struggle is real. Just today I bought an order of popcorn chicken at a Quickly, and it was nearly eight dollars after taxes. Not that many years ago, that same bag of chicken would have been under five dollars. That much money for not really amounting to a full meal is kind of shocking. I should have known, after paying nearly seven dollars for a gallon of gas last week, that such inflation was to be expected every where. But damn if it isn’t still surprising every time.
Good thing I seldom eat out. If I did so regularly, I probably would have to cut back by now. Honestly, inflation hasn’t affected me that severely. I am lucky to say there’s enough room in the budget for these increases. An extra few dollars here and there for a quart of milk or a dozen eggs isn’t going to upend my lifestyle. If it did, I’ve got bigger things to worry about than inflation.
It’s good to see the Fed doing something to tackle the problem - by raising rates. Interest on my savings account with Ally have crept back up to 0.75%, after being stuck at 0.50% since the end of 2020. I guess I can count that as a sort of stimulus. I mean, the IRS is certainly going to tax that as income! All things being equal, I think the Fed should further tighten fiscal policy and raise the rates some more. I’m paying nearly eight dollars for popcorn chicken!
And it’s not like my income is going up commensurately. Fingers crossed the union can get some inflation-adjusted increases on the next contract.
Reduce, reuse, recycle.