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Vista Increasing Prices

Tonight was a bit atypical in our house (only a bit), but illustrates the point. HEB ran a holiday special (4th of July, Memorial day, I don’t remember) and we picked up some nice bone in ribeyes for $5.49/lb. Now, I didn’t know this discussion was was a thing when I unwrapped them, so I didn’t record the price. But, know we payed $20+ for the steaks. That’s on a screaming sale. These steaks usually run $14.99-17.99/lb. I cooked 3, but we only ate 2. Yes, the 4 of us split 2 steaks.

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Charcoal for the smoker, seasoning rub for the steaks, finishing butter for the sear, it all adds up. Now, of course, man can’t live on steak alone, so we added a couple of sides. But, I hope you will agree that this isn’t an extravagant meal.

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Even with the steaks on sale, I figure this meal is in excess of $5 per person. 1/2 a steak, salad, roast vegetables. I’m not counting the wine, as I make it from mustang grapes we harvest in the neighborhood.

Maybe we’re living a bit higher on the hog than some, and I’m not saying I can’t afford to feed my family, I do it gladly. Some single guy whose monthly booze bill runs into several hundred dollars doesn’t have the first clue about raising a family.

And, if you want your wife to give you a blow job, cook her a steak and pour her a glass of wine.
 
Tonight was a bit atypical in our house (only a bit), but illustrates the point. HEB ran a holiday special (4th of July, Memorial day, I don’t remember) and we picked up some nice bone in ribeyes for $5.49/lb. Now, I didn’t know this discussion was was a thing when I unwrapped them, so I didn’t record the price. But, know we payed $20+ for the steaks. That’s on a screaming sale. These steaks usually run $14.99-17.99/lb. I cooked 3, but we only ate 2. Yes, the 4 of us split 2 steaks.

View attachment 8289598

Charcoal for the smoker, seasoning rub for the steaks, finishing butter for the sear, it all adds up. Now, of course, man can’t live on steak alone, so we added a couple of sides. But, I hope you will agree that this isn’t an extravagant meal.

View attachment 8289599

Even with the steaks on sale, I figure this meal is in excess of $5 per person. 1/2 a steak, salad, roast vegetables. I’m not counting the wine, as I make it from mustang grapes we harvest in the neighborhood.

Maybe we’re living a bit higher on the hog than some, and I’m not saying I can’t afford to feed my family, I do it gladly. Some single guy whose monthly booze bill runs into several hundred dollars doesn’t have the first clue about raising a family.

And, if you want your wife to give you a blow job, cook her a steak and pour her a glass of wine.

Been there done that, except my steak of choice was a delmonico.....still no bj but I digress.

Steak is a no go, one the quality at the store is ass and two it is expensive.

Mangalitsa/Berkshire pigs and red Angus cows for next year. Time to get back into raising the families food.
 
like you are the first to live through financial hard times. you really do believe that, don't you?

i aint wishing bad shit on anyone. i am saying, there are ways to deal with it and survive. i did. i went without a LOT of shit.....

and boomer? guess again. gen x.
Guess what, I'm surviving just fine. I'm doing well, but with my having worked and made good decisions for 30 years, built a successful business by myself with no daddy money or anyone elses, saved and sacrificed, I should be able to save a lot more money and it shouldn't take near what it does just to get by. This is a fact. Looking at what just the average salary bought you 30 years ago or 20 years ago or even 10 years ago vs what the average salary buys you today is enough to make you want to puke! I went without a lot of shit too, so good for you and me....????

Not sure what your point is here?
 
Guess what, I'm surviving just fine. I'm doing well, but with my having worked and made good decisions for 30 years, built a successful business by myself with no daddy money or anyone elses, saved and sacrificed, I should be able to save a lot more money and it shouldn't take near what it does just to get by. This is a fact. Looking at what just the average salary bought you 30 years ago or 20 years ago or even 10 years ago vs what the average salary buys you today is enough to make you want to puke! I went without a lot of shit too, so good for you and me....????

Not sure what your point is here?

The american ideal that those who suffered the most are the best, the toughest, etc....

Keep the little people fighting for scraps....
 
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The american ideal that those who suffered the most are the best, the toughest, etc....

Keep the little people fighting for scraps....
That's a good point. What we all want for our children is to have it better than we did. The boomers are the very first generation in America to not do that, though they certainly are not the last. We don't want to suffer or have it hard nor should we. Being given the gift of being born in the USA we just straight up shouldn't have to suffer at all. If you work hard and make good choices you should do extremely well in this country and that was true up until recently. This idea that he who suffers most is the best is stupid.

There's many reasons we are where we are, The Fed , corrupt politicians, allowing our society to lose our morals and norms, electing ( when we were actually electing ) crappy politicians, ect...... but what's happening here simply doesn't need to be and shouldn't be.
 
$1,000 is a lot for groceries for 4 people. I mean a whole bunch of a lot. I just don’t know how people spend that much a month on groceries to feed 4 people even at today’s food costs.

A $7.48 pack of chicken thighs, $2.99 noodles, $5 block of cheese, $0.10 of flour, $1.00 of butter, and $3.00 for two big cans of green beans should provide at least 2 meals for a family of four. $19.57 total and those are Publix prices where I am.

LOL,, how small of a block of cheese. Here's it 9.99, 1 dollar of butter? stuff is 7.00 a pound
3.00 for two cans of green beans.. nope try 4.00
chicken on sale is 3.99 a pound. hell, eggs were 9.99 and came down to 4.00 a dozen.
2 meals? if your kids are 2 and 4 years old maybe.
If you can get it at those prices, good for you. Just don't think you're the only person who knows how to shop or cook from scratch.
 
At some point the middle class is gonna break..
It already has. Credit cards is what's keeping it alive. What's the average CC debt these days.

How many "middle class" peeps can actually afford to take a vacation, without using a CC or going into debt. What's the average savings of a middle class family these days. How many are one paycheck from foreclosure or car repo.

Doc
 
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Oh I know. It absolutely burns me up! I hear people say "I only pay $35 a month for my insurance " and then they have these 10 co-pays and no cost medicine. THIS IS WHY WE HAVE TO PAY 1800 A MONTH FOR HEALTH INSURANCE. THEN PAY MORE ON TOP OF THAT FOR COPAY, THEN PAY OUT OF POCKEY FOR WHAT INSURANCE DOESNT PAY AT ALL FOR. ITS ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE. Half the damn country is on "disability " to boot.

Every time I go to the health department to get septic permits, I see the mass of illegals in there getting set up for their damn food cards. Then see them at the store with all the good shit in their carts, and then peel off a wad of $100's for thr video games they are also buying. Makes my damn blood boil!!!
5 million illegals receive $20 billion in free health care. Every year.

Let that sink in.

And another thing......................

When Obamacare started, it cost about $10,000 a year per person. It now costs about $30,000 per year. People gripe about the cost of Obamacare, and they should. But the bulk of the cost increases were shifted to the tax payer.

So you better get an early start today. And stay a little later. Pick up a little work on the weekend. There are millions of illegals and your neighbors are counting on you.
 
Guess what, I'm surviving just fine. I'm doing well, but with my having worked and made good decisions for 30 years, built a successful business by myself with no daddy money or anyone elses, saved and sacrificed, I should be able to save a lot more money and it shouldn't take near what it does just to get by. This is a fact. Looking at what just the average salary bought you 30 years ago or 20 years ago or even 10 years ago vs what the average salary buys you today is enough to make you want to puke! I went without a lot of shit too, so good for you and me....????

Not sure what your point is here?
point is, raising a family has always, WILL always me a motherfucking expensive endeavor.

i agree with you about the devaluing of the dollar and how fucked it is. BUT...we've been screaming about it from the rooftops, no one seems to care. people will bitch, then go out and support the very shit that begets this situation. you get to the point where

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You know what makes it sting even worse? You can’t even get a appt with a doc anymore, much less the guy you’ve seen for years because they are forced to see more patients. And top it off, wait until you are waiting around with people and find out how much their healthcare costs are. We pay good money for good insurance (I think all insurance is a scam but that’s another convo) and then my copays can still be $35-$60. One of my last doc appointments I had to pay my $60 deal and the lady in front of me only had to $10. Once she was called back I inquired what insurance she had. Lady at the front desk told me it was gov ran insurance of some sort and hinted at obamacare. It’s like a triple slap in the face. Not only are we paying more for less coverage, the people we are paying for are paying less than us and apparently can get appointments with real docs now while we can’t. It’s pretty jacked up.
I am into that "Healthcare Matrix" as we speak. There are some medical expenses where I have triple coverage and I still get a bill 6 months later after all the smoke disappears.
I think we can all agree on how rapidly these changes are taking place.
I ask "Is this sustainable" ?
 
Guess what, I'm surviving just fine. I'm doing well, but with my having worked and made good decisions for 30 years, built a successful business by myself with no daddy money or anyone elses, saved and sacrificed, I should be able to save a lot more money and it shouldn't take near what it does just to get by. This is a fact. Looking at what just the average salary bought you 30 years ago or 20 years ago or even 10 years ago vs what the average salary buys you today is enough to make you want to puke! I went without a lot of shit too, so good for you and me....????

Some people are just now realizing that we're the frogs in the pot and the government has been slowing raising the temperature. They have wanted the Haves and Have Not society since before any of us were born.
The bubbles are now forming on the bottom of the pot.
 
So, you think only 5M of illegals get free healthcare?
Don't make me put you in camp Haney.
I think he's just saying that 5 millin get that much. There are obviously more like 30 or maybe 50 million illegals here milking the crap out of us but I think he was just using some numbers he knew for 5 of that however many are here taking advantage of us
 
My wife sits us all down every other Sunday to go over the budget for the next 4 weeks and we go over actuals for the last two. You set a dollar amount and you find a way to stick to it. She's had us on the Ramsey method for five years and we sock away over 60% of our post-tax income now.

You can get a whole big cooked chicken at Costco for $6, add in air fried potatoes for $2, and some frozen corn on the cob for another $2. That's 10$ for us with chicken left over for sandwiches and quesadillas for the kids for lunch. Or it goes into homemade chicken sup. $2.5 per person for supper. With leftovers for later.

We shop on Fridays when we get 4x points and the deals for the weekend are out on the shelves. We call it the meat of the week - whatever is on sale we get 3x of it and freeze it forward. Roast was $3.50 a lb so we got 3. Week before last it was chicken quarters at 69 cents. Pork loin the week before that at $1.49.

Ramen is a good snack for the kids. I make homemade Mac and cheese for about 1$ a meal for them. Or they get mashed potatoes or air fries. If they are hungry again they get a bowl of cereal ( again bought as a deal ) which is about 70 cents.

Meat of the week and buy 3x forward then fill in the details with standard inexpensive bulk bought stuff. Some of the pre-made meals at coco are a deal - like the pizza and some of the frozen items. We'll make rice and do the orange chicken. That's about $2 a person.
 
My wife sits us all down every other Sunday to go over the budget for the next 4 weeks and we go over actuals for the last two. You set a dollar amount and you find a way to stick to it. She's had us on the Ramsey method for five years and we sock away over 60% of our post-tax income now.

You can get a whole big cooked chicken at Costco for $6, add in air fried potatoes for $2, and some frozen corn on the cob for another $2. That's 10$ for us with chicken left over for sandwiches and quesadillas for the kids for lunch. Or it goes into homemade chicken sup. $2.5 per person for supper. With leftovers for later.

We shop on Fridays when we get 4x points and the deals for the weekend are out on the shelves. We call it the meat of the week - whatever is on sale we get 3x of it and freeze it forward. Roast was $3.50 a lb so we got 3. Week before last it was chicken quarters at 69 cents. Pork loin the week before that at $1.49.

Ramen is a good snack for the kids. I make homemade Mac and cheese for about 1$ a meal for them. Or they get mashed potatoes or air fries. If they are hungry again they get a bowl of cereal ( again bought as a deal ) which is about 70 cents.

Meat of the week and buy 3x forward then fill in the details with standard inexpensive bulk bought stuff. Some of the pre-made meals at coco are a deal - like the pizza and some of the frozen items. We'll make rice and do the orange chicken. That's about $2 a person.
How dare you!
 
My wife sits us all down every other Sunday to go over the budget for the next 4 weeks and we go over actuals for the last two. You set a dollar amount and you find a way to stick to it. She's had us on the Ramsey method for five years and we sock away over 60% of our post-tax income now.

You can get a whole big cooked chicken at Costco for $6, add in air fried potatoes for $2, and some frozen corn on the cob for another $2. That's 10$ for us with chicken left over for sandwiches and quesadillas for the kids for lunch. Or it goes into homemade chicken sup. $2.5 per person for supper. With leftovers for later.

We shop on Fridays when we get 4x points and the deals for the weekend are out on the shelves. We call it the meat of the week - whatever is on sale we get 3x of it and freeze it forward. Roast was $3.50 a lb so we got 3. Week before last it was chicken quarters at 69 cents. Pork loin the week before that at $1.49.

Ramen is a good snack for the kids. I make homemade Mac and cheese for about 1$ a meal for them. Or they get mashed potatoes or air fries. If they are hungry again they get a bowl of cereal ( again bought as a deal ) which is about 70 cents.

Meat of the week and buy 3x forward then fill in the details with standard inexpensive bulk bought stuff. Some of the pre-made meals at coco are a deal - like the pizza and some of the frozen items. We'll make rice and do the orange chicken. That's about $2 a person.
I have the $65 / year Costco membership and the Citi card with the discount. It is a one hour drive for me to get to Costco. For this year, my Costco rebate is $55. It is difficult for me, a single person, to justify keeping the Costco membership. The "packaging" has gotten bigger and bigger. Way too large of portions for a single person.
When it comes time to renew my membership I may just let it go. In all fairness, Costco worked when I had a 4 - 5 member family.
A new Winco was built this year. They do not take charge cards and I bag my own groceries at the check out. So far, that works for me. Quality equal to Costco.
We are all looking for the most for out money. every situation is different. Being in a rural town has proved to be quite a bit more expensive on groceries. The 2 hour round trip has been calculated into local grocery premium prices.
 
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I don’t have to have kids to know that $1,000-$1,300 a month is high for a family of 4. I’m not trying to throw shade or insult you and your choices. I’m honestly trying to wrap my head around it and feel you could be keeping more money in your pockets every month.
In your example, you priced $10 to feed 4 people once.
3 meals x $10 = $30 daily
30 days a month x $30 = $900 monthly.
Your example was nearly $1000 pricing the cheapest meal you could come up with.

No snacks priced. No drinks priced. Nobody eats only chicken and noodles. Most meals cost more than $2.50 per person like in your example. $1000 a month won’t cover a family of four especially with teenage boys.
 
I agree.

Prices are high on many things in line with scamdemic shortage material costs even though raw material costs have dropped significantly across many sectors.
It’s not just material costs…

Wages and trying to find workers and starting pay etc…

In Manitowoc, WI at a cheese factory earlier this year they are starting people at $30 an hour plus a $2k signing bonus if I remember correctly just for moving cheese with a pallet jack!

Same at Target distribution center and Menards local to here. Starting $28 an hour to drive a fork truck with like a $2200 signing bonus.
 
Grand scheme of things 1-5% raise in prices isn't the worst compared to other items in the economy. Once it hits retails still there's differences. Take for example 9mm, the stores around me want $18 for a box of 50. But going online it's more like $11.99/50 if you're buying say 1,000 at a time. So the manufacturer is charing one amount and retails are charging wildly different ones.
 
It’s not just material costs…

Wages and trying to find workers and starting pay etc…

In Manitowoc, WI at a cheese factory earlier this year they are starting people at $30 an hour plus a $2k signing bonus if I remember correctly just for moving cheese with a pallet jack!

Same at Target distribution center and Menards local to here. Starting $28 an hour to drive a fork truck with like a $2200 signing bonus.
Federal Reserve's plan is to simply let inflation crash the economy.
Every week we hear the propaganda from the Government.


Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Information for 2024


Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for more than 71 million Americans will increase 3.2 percent in 2024.
The 3.2 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will begin with benefits payable to more than 66 million Social Security beneficiaries in January 2024. Increased payments to approximately 7.5 million SSI recipients will begin on December 29, 2023. (Note: some people receive both Social Security and SSI benefits)
 
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Black Friday sales/background checks hit all time record for that day. Over 200k nic's checks. That's just background checks. That doesn't mean you had a person here and there buying more than one gun. So actual number of guns sold is unknown.

If we would assume 200k back ground checks = 200k firearms sold and lets assume each customer wanted a 100 rounds of ammo (if available at that store of purchase ) that would mean 20 million rounds of ammo where sold as well.

if if you cut the number to just 50 rounds of ammo per customer that day...your still talking 10 million rounds.

 
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Also the 214,913 Nic's checks do not include some states like WI where WI already had a background check system in place for handguns and long guns prior to Nic's. Wisconsin started there system in Dec. 1st, 1991

I don't know offhand how many states have they're own background check systems.

When I worked at a gunshop when WI started they're own check system and when NICS started they only used NICS for long gun sales. Again handgun sales here are run thru the WI system and not thru NICS for some of the shops that I know of. Places like Cabelas etc... I don't know what they do.
 
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