I've been watching food inflation for a bit. COVID supply chain issues? Sure. Russian invasion screwing with grain prices? You bet. Higher price of oil/gasoline adding to transport costs? Yep. Those are all in the news and we have a basic understanding, but there's also the supply problem and the fact that changing climatic conditions are playing havoc with agriculture--never a highly predictable pursuit to begin with. Just a few recent nuggets: In the US, the winter wheat crop got blasted by drought and the spring wheat crop planting is delayed by too much recent rain. Winter wheat crop is down by 25% in Kansas, 24% in ND. Also affected are soybean yields. 33% of corn fields in the US are experiencing significant drought. Soybean crops in New South Wales, Australia were wiped out by February floods: A drought in Chile killed thousands of farm animals and will also affect avocado availability. Brazilian orange yield was hammered by a freak freeze on top of a drought while Florida orange growers are fighting a citrus tree disease. This combo has pushed orange futures up 55%. The heat waves and drought in India means they most likely won't be able to export any mangoes this year. The same conditions are responsible for a dramatic drop in India's tomato, rice, and wheat exports. That's just in the last 3-4 days. While we don't use a lot of Indian mangoes for example, others do and they'll be forced to find alternate supplies which will obviously drive up our prices in the US. I suspect we will be facing instability in food prices from here on out. Plan accordingly.
Some of this thread is depressing, especially the last post @rimrocker just posted. You work hard, think you've made it, then inflation throws you back a few yards.
I used to eat out several times a week for cheaper meals like pho or burritos but now every "cheap" meal that used to cost $10-15 a person is now $20-25 so now I cook much more frequently.
Even the $6-7 fast food meals now cost $8-9. I don't think that's all been in 2022, but people are finally noticing.
I make about $100 a month doing online surveys while I work from home. Google Survey Junkie. I try to earn at least $5 a day. It takes a while, but what else are you going to do while sitting in boring meetings that you don't even have to speak in? #multitasking
You could do whole other job while working from home. If your primary is a little lax and you're already really efficient at it. I have a buddy that did that for a while. I personally would just find time to do the things that would get me promoted or just work on myself. Sometimes I go for a walk while I'm on Teams in those useless meetings.
Started eating chicken & rice for all my lunches and most my dinners during the week. I’ve actually had a couple extra hundred dollars left over between paychecks which use to be living straight paycheck to paycheck Also made the hard decision to not resign with my roommates and going back home at the end of the month. I’m turning 30 this year and barely have any in savings. Going to try to save 20-30k for the first time in my life and see where the economy is next spring
Pro Tip: If you are planning on robbing a bank, ask the teller to account for inflation. They are good with numbers. Free service.
Just always remember what makes you happy. It could be an activity, it could be a food (learn to cook a few healthy recipes, btw), it could be a group of people, it could be your couch.. Give yourself a day once a week or 2 to do whatever you want. It could be anything, because it's personal, but keep it in your life, because as the old Greek said "happiness is the greatest good" Everything in moderation, that's how I've found diets and stuff to work. May not work for you...who knows? Everyone is different.
Oh I’ve barely changed my weekend spending I just noticed if I cook my meals Monday -Friday for lunch and eat the left over from meal prepping 3-4 times a week that I save a lot of money. I use to spend $10-15 at both lunch &dinner during the week. I still enjoy my weekends
