WASHINGTON, DC, Sep 9 — There are many ways to cope with inflation. For example, you might want to put together two shopping lists– one that focuses on the essentials and another that itemizes the things you don’t need. The “don’t need list” might include things such as gym memberships, magazine subscriptions, video streaming services, vacations and a new car. 

At the top of the list of necessary essentials is, of course, food. Unlike a cost of living list, it’s a cost of staying alive list. Unfortunately, for a number of reasons food is among the items that has been getting pricier and pricier since the Biden inflation cycle began 18 months ago. And just because our president passed the Inflation Reduction Act [IRA], bear in mind it does not have a positive impact on the growing, out of control rate of inflation. 

On the contrary, it is likely to make matters worse according to 230 prominent economists who signed an open letter saying that there is an “urgent need to reduce inflation, but the ‘Inflation Reduction Act of 2022’ is a misleading label applied to a bill that would likely achieve the exact opposite effect…The U.S. economy is at a dangerous crossroads. Forty-year high inflation is causing immense strain for households and small businesses, and it is prompting steep interest rate hikes that, while necessary to counter fiscal policy excesses, increase the chance of a deepening recession…As such, taming inflation must be the top short-term economic priority to avoid further economic decline and hardship. Unfortunately, the inaptly named ‘Inflation Reduction Act of 2022’ would do nothing to the sort and instead would perpetuate the same fiscal policy errors that have helped precipitate the current troubling economic climate.”

The open letter, while enlightening, cannot undo what the president and Congress have done but it can make matters worse in the near-term future. For example, a recent Consumer Price Index update shows that “The food index increased 10.9 percent over the last year, the largest 12-month increase since the period ending May 1979.”

But a New York Post assessment notes that the CPI food index is based on the average cost of food at home and the cost of food at a restaurant. The post explains that “Inflation for food-at-home, which accounts for grocery store and supermarket food purchases, rose even higher to 12.2%, underscoring how consumers are not getting much reprieve by trying to cook at home.” 

The report triggered quite a few letters to the editor, including one from a shopper who wrote: “10% is an underestimate. A trip to the store this week $6 for 4 tomatoes, $14 for a small package of chicken, beef is not even possible, $6 for an 8oz package of luncheon meat, $5 for 4 ears of corn, $6 for a small watermelon, and this is stuff that is in season.”

So, how does one cope in such a costly environment? By downsizing your grocery list and sticking to the list when you get to the store. No more impulse buys. A lot more store brand items. And, according to one handy website, Clark.com, “Another way to be sure you don’t buy anything extra is to go to a cash-only envelope system.” 

Another helpful suggestion from clark.com is to use “a recipe ingredient matching site (check out SuperCook.com)…[it’s] a great strategy as you look for ways to save on groceries. These kinds of sites help you with meal ideas based on what you have at home and what items are on sale in a given week.

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So all that writing to say your choices are either pay with cash to force you to buy less or simply just buy less. Wow! Talk about being of little to no real help to most people.

I know people who have been growing their own vegtables and then canning what they can’t use immediately. I also know people who immediately moved to rural areas of the country, where they would be able to grow more of their own food as soon as Biden was elected. People could have also realized that the Democrat policies Biden ran on would cause higher prices and inflation and stocked up on all sorts of canned goods well before inflation was staring everyone in the face or figured out how to rebalance their assets to generate more income for the dark times that were coming down the road. All examples of being proactive in the face of coming adversity.

If you think prices have peaked, I have news for you. They have NOT! We are on the same trajectory as Europe when in comes of energy costs, food prices and everything else. We are just behind them by a few years thanks largely to having President Trump in the White House for 4 years and NOT doing any of this useless “green energy” insanity.

Right with your last paragraph. Doubled my garden size just before COVID epidemic struck.

I’m one of those people who moved to a rural area. After my mother died 2 years ago, I finally was able to move to a small town, which I’ve wanted to do all my life and never could. Paid cash for the house, and immediately put vegetables and fruits in the garden. Love it here!

After this rain stops, the cool season greens (cabbage, broccoli, mini broccoli ‘Happy Rich [my favorite veg.], kale, spinach, green onions, lettuce, etc.) will be planted. Almost vegetarian. Most will live all winter outside in the cold (zone 7), some with a little protection when needed. I’ve already frozen fresh tomatoes for winter soups and sauces, and dried or frozen almost all the herbs I’ll need over the winter. Canning…maybe next year. This is the “easiest” (I’m a horticulturist) way to save money–not just a little, but easily $150-200 worth/month for just me.

Talking about a shopping list for this and another one for that, and not using a credit card to buy necessities, sounds like it came from someone who never needed to economize. Of course, we cut down on what we don’t need, but bidinflation forces us to strike even more items we used to include when shopping. Hard choices to make thanks to the b^$#^%** in the White House. And it will get worse because the wholesale price index is very high. So, the cost of products made from those items in the next few months will be correspondingly higher.

This is going to be a difficult winter for tens of millions of Americans, and the feds will end up doling out more of the taxpayers’ money or printing it to make up for their stupid mistakes.

Of course DICTATOR Beijing biden and Congress with the Senate doesn’t care about us. They are living High on the Hog with OUR TAX DOLLARS. STILL INCREASING OUR TAXES for their SOCIALIST/COMMUNIST programs and to support ILLEGAL ALIENS so they don’t have to work or be here LEGALLY. They sit in D.C. living like kings and HIDING behind ARMED guards and military with ASSAULT WEAPONS and BARBWIRE while they want to take away OUR U.S. CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS and STARVE us to DEATH with ZERO ENERGY and a WOKE SNOW FLAKE military. They SUPPORT DEFUND the POLICE, ILLEGAL and UNCONSTITUTIONAL Elections, and let their ILLEGAL ALIEN TERRORIST INVASION continue. All while DICTATOR Beijing biden continues ESPIONAGE and TREASON including his ILLEGAL and UNCONSTITUTIONAL Executive Orders. Including SPYING on us with our phones and everything else along with their new IRS STASI. Yet, AMERICAN’S CONTINUE to SUFFER. So, NO, the FASCIST regime doesn’t CARE about AMERICA or AMERICAN’S. If they did, then WHY isn’t Hillary clinton, Hunter biden, Fauci, and SWAMP QUEEN pelosi PROSECUTED? Answer: DOUBLE STANDARD for the SELF-RIGHTEOUS who never do anything wrong. But INNOCENT AMERICAN’S are ATTACKED with ILLEGAL and UNCONSTITUTIONAL RAIDS and HELD UNCONSTITUTIONALLY such as the January 6, 2021 VICTIMS. So why would they care? They DON’T. That’s why they are FASCIST. So ONLY THEY have CONTROL and POWER which is ALL they care about. NOT US.

Shopping for groceries will tell you everything you need to know about the state of the nation. Not only do your dollars buy less, familiar items are sometimes no longer available. Typical government liars report low inflation numbers, but I know actual inflation for me is closer to 30-40%. Necessities instead of niceties are what I consider when faced with this new reality. When the cost of living goes up, it will never go down. The government has now taken control of food prices by making our money worthless.

As Klaus Schwab has said “You will own nothing and you’ll be happy about it.” Obviously, it was a somewhat sarcastic remark on his part to the audience at the WEF, but he did none the less lay out the ultimate objective for the world’s population. That is if you understood his views on the masses and how they should be treated.

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