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Shelbyville, Tennessee ~ Thursday, November 20, 2008
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"Increased Luck"
Posted Tuesday, March 4, 2008, at 11:09 AMRead comments | Respond | Email link | Next >>
I filled up at the gas station, almost having a heart attack when it topped over $40.00 ( I drive a small car). When I got to work, I noticed the soda and snack machines have went up in price. At lunch, I went to my favorite little place to eat, when I go there, my lunch, that I eat twice a week, has now gone up .80 cent. Now that is not bad, but once you ad tax plus a drink (which has also went up) Now it is almost in the double digits!
After work, I went to the grocery store to get milk and eggs- eggs were the most expensive I have seen in my entire life! (only 26) I finally get home and open up my mail- Oh great the electric bill- I open it. Again, I felt another heart attack coming on.... It was extremely high!
The next day at work I opened up my paycheck- hoping that my "increased" luck would be there- nope, still the same. I think tomorrow I will call in and say I can not afford to go out of the house today, and I will just stay at home in the dark! Comments Showing comments in chronological order [Show most recent comments first] |
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I feel your pain Amanda. I think they are calling that the trickle down effect and we the consumers are the bottom of the hill. So that means what we feel is more than a trickle it's more of a wash out.
Not to mention I got a letter from my insurance company saying my health insurance premiums are increasing 4% (and I thought they had just went up at the end of Dec07 in fact I know they did) but upon reading the entire letter it not only seems my premiums are increasing but my co-pays are increasing also which means instead of paying the normal co-pay at Dr's office of 15.00 per visit I will now be paying 25.00. And Oh wait more good news, the prescription co-pay went up also 10.00 more on any script.
If it weren't for the fact of needing the Major medical I would drop this high insurance it's not like I ever use it anyway. With house insurance, car insurance, life insurance, health insurance I feel like I am insurance poor now.
Sometime when I am driving - I think to myself, maybe I should crash this car, it is insured- if you are going to pay for it, then use it right?
But I don't because I am smart enough to know that it will increase my car insurance!- oh an the car payment because I will have to have a new car, and probably medical bills and time away from work, and so on & so on...
We are feeling the pain, also. I hate pain.
My husband drives to Nashville everyday to work. His gas bill is at least $80 a week now.
My electric bill went up about $60 from the month before, and my husband was complaining about his vending machines at work going up in price, too.
It is eventually going to get so bad that people are going to have to start begging or demanding raises.
I am fixing to have a clothes line put in my backyard. I have wanted one for a while now, because we are going green, but now I am going to HAVE to have one.
Thats another thing, all of our appliances are energy effiecient, except for our dryer. Our light bulbs are sqiggly, and I never have the lights on during the day.
I understand inflation, but this is rediculous.
I LOVE my clothes line. It sure comes in handy for my bedwetter. We have our electric bill set up on budget billing where its the same every month but then ya have to settle up that one month in the spring.
We still haven't got over it from two years ago going from $70 per month to $140 per month.
Hubby got a $1 hr raise, but then they took it away. Its not fair that everything is going up, but not pay. gggrrr.....
mmp84
I would be on cloud nine if my electric bill was $140 per month. Our last two have been $450 & $485 and I'm not kidding!
I so agree . . I keep wondering why my money doesn't seem to go as far as it did last year and then I see the price of everything and know why. I just cant believe that I am spending around $150 in gas for my car every month . . . I would have never seen that coming just a couple of years ago plus my electric bill has gone up crazy even though I try and maintain lower usage and use the new light bulbs.
I can now see why so many people whip out their credit cards to pay for everyday things like groceries . . . money just doesn't get us where it use to and the middle class is definitely hurting now and that is the bread and butter of the economy. I was thinking about buying a house but it has me a bit scared to do that because you just never know what might happen.
The Flex Fuel vehicles don't help either, you can't find E85 stations anywhere close.
I can relate,I recieved my electric bill and was scared to open it. My wife both my daughters and my grand daughter which is 3 live here .We own 5 acres and my mom lives by her self behind us.My electric bill was 264.00 and hers was 242.00 what's with this? Our water runs around 80.00 to 90.00 a month. Gas is another story it takes 75.00 to fill my truck up and 50.00 to fill her car up.house insurance 800.00,auto insurance 2,800.00 a year because my daughter 16.Then property tax 900.00 a year. Groceries around 200.00 a week. What is a family to do? There is no way to save anything with one working.My wife has been disabled for 20 of our 24 years of marriage and you know she gets a big check "lol". You know the old saying "the buck stops here". The buck stopped long ago. The bad thing is ,it's not going to get any better!
And don't forget to add in the SSA clothes now.
I think we're going to see a lot more car-pooling,public transit,victory gardens,barter,root cellars,wood stoves,off-grid and alternative power sources, couponing,earth sheltered,cob or straw bale homes,frugal living, cocooning,community sharing,co-housing,"putting up" food,crafts and other strategies left over from the Depression,World War II and the flower child era.
We can't afford conspicuous consumption and waste now.
Soon,we may not be able to support sane living on what we have at our disposal.
We've got to renew,reuse and recycle.
What was the old saying?
"Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do or do without."
Homemade fun,"Meatless Mondays",walking and biking,etc. will make a comeback while we cut expenses in order to pay for what we can't avoid buying.
The self sufficiency and thriftiness will be good but how far can we extend our cash when the outgo goes so far beyond the income-even under the best of circumstances?
The question will be whether we can afford wellness care,car and home maintainence and savings,etc.
Maybe some of the people with their hands out will learn to live as businesses did years ago.
It looks as if we're going to have to.
Well, when gas goes up, everyone needs to pay the piper. Unfortunately, the piper's pipe is rusty and no money can fix it. Everyone is so opposed to socialized medicine that we have to call it universal health care. Why? Because the insurance companies are BIG business now. Years ago insurance came into play to help people handle crisis situations. There was no big fees, no 20/80 percent co pays, no co pays at all and then some big shot said, we can make money on this. So then, Kaiser Health came into being to make it "better" for people to get health care in one place except that now, it was big business and no one could get real health care. Dr's aren't making a lot of money like people think because the insurance (malpractice) is so high that they pay through the nose every month. Many GYN/OBs have gone out of business. We can thank the lawyers and sue happy public for that. If we had universal health care, And for all the rich people they can have whatever they want, we would be able to get dental, health, hospital and all that we need to stay healthy without all the copays. We need to rethink this situation. Whatever happened to solar energy. Ohhhh the electric companies are so busy collecting fees that people aren't able to look into it. What about those gas prices. Feels good to go to the pump these days doesn't it. We need to go on strike and not buy anything for about two weeks and I bet those prices go down , course we might lose our jobs, homes, etc...what is the answer. We are smart people. Lets come up with some way to get back at those that are crushing the little guys.
The US is not allowed to drill for more oil near it's borders. The oil reserves off shore of Florida, and the ANWAR would go a long way to help, but extreme environmentalist keep us from drilling.