It's an illusion

[DailyDi]

$200 worth of groceries does not look like it used too. Even staying away from the more expensive meats we were just barely ($15 over) able to get a weeks worth of meals and basic household supplies.

[Elfy]

The cost of living has been going up for decades and wages/benefits/everything else haven't kept up. Remember, when your wage or benefits don't rise in concert with inflation you are essentially getting a pay cut in terms of spending money.

[Nia]

It's truly frustrating how few bags of groceries that buys anymore.

[Little Cub Pants]

58 minutes ago, Nia said:

It's truly frustrating how few bags of groceries that buys anymore.

Will if you ask me that's just another sign that we need to come up with a better economic system. And that's more easily said than done.???????????

[rusty pins]

True, the wage increase has not quite kept up with inflation over the years.  My dad used to complain that a loaf of bread used to cost 20 cents and now it's $2.00 (or was years ago when he was still alive).  I also pointed out that back then the wage he made was about $2 an hour where as in todays economy it would be around $12.00.  In fact, he said around the time of World War Two the average wage was about 35 cents an hour and he felt privileged because he was making 50 cents an hour!  I agree that you pay a lot more for an amount of groceries than in the past, but in perspective, many many years ago when the prices were so much cheaper you earned a fraction of what people earn today, even though as we all agree wages haven't kept up with inflation.

[beallucanb]

A lot of the prices are up because of short supply, we used the supplies that were in the pipeline during lock down.

Its going to take some time before the pipeline can work like we are used to it working.

Remember when you wanted to buy a new car, you had your choice of the same car in 10 different colors,  you can't buy a new car.

When the supplies of cars are replenished, will be about when the supplies of grocery items will be replenished at decent prices.

[MegaChar]

3 hours ago, BabySpiderBoy said:

Will if you ask me that's just another sign that we need to come up with a better economic system. And that's more easily said than done.???????????

There is one or two thats better for the US:

Free Market Economy

Or

Hydrogen Market Economy in which that leads to Free Energy Market Economy(post energy scarcity)

The reason why we are moving towards electrification and not hydrogen is because you cannot make a profit when the resource could potentially cost nothing because there is so much of it. Electricity is more rare then oil therefore better profit margins. However this will drive income inequality as the lower incomes will have to pay more for ever more rare electricity.

[drynot]

5 hours ago, Nia said:

It's truly frustrating how few bags of groceries that buys anymore.

When you can bring everything into the house in one go rather than multiple trips......

200 dollars likely would amount to 3 grocery bags where we live....

[Little Cub Pants]

1 hour ago, MegaChar said:

There is one or two thats better for the US:

Free Market Economy

Or

Hydrogen Market Economy in which that leads to Free Energy Market Economy(post energy scarcity)

The reason why we are moving towards electrification and not hydrogen is because you cannot make a profit when the resource could potentially cost nothing because there is so much of it. Electricity is more rare then oil therefore better profit margins. However this will drive income inequality as the lower incomes will have to pay more for ever more rare electricity.

But I thought electricity wasn't rare, that it was virtually unlimited.? That's why I thought it's a great resource for people to use because it never runs out.? That's also why I thought electric cars were so popular back in the 1920s. But because of economics gas cars became more profitable and sensible for companies to manufacture, like mobile.?

[MegaChar]

17 minutes ago, BabySpiderBoy said:

But I thought electricity wasn't rare, that it was virtually unlimited.? That's why I thought it's a great resource for people to use because it never runs out.? That's also why I thought electric cars were so popular back in the 1920s. But because of economics gas cars became more profitable and sensible for companies to manufacture, like mobile.?

You cannot generate or create electricity from nothing which is why its so rare. Electricity must be made from somewhere or something. Unlimited would be that electricity could be made from nothing which is impossible.

Anyways, getting off topic. Sorry DD.

[Crinklz Kat]

Um... electricity has to be created somehow.  Through mechanical means; hydro, wind, coal, natural gas/diesel, nuclear (all of which spin a mechanical generator) - or photo voltaic.  The last of which is the least efficient with today's technology - about 30%, and of course only works in daylight. 

 

My last grocery trip this past weekend also ran near $200.  COVID and supply chain disruptions are one factor.  The other factor is the recent dramatic rise in base wages.  When you have to start paying $15/hr minimum - both from legislation and also to just entice people to apply for the job in the first place - you increase the cost of the goods or services you're offering.  That cost has to bet passed on somehow.  There's no free lunch. 

[Little Cub Pants]

48 minutes ago, MegaChar said:

You cannot generate or create electricity from nothing which is why its so rare. Electricity must be made from somewhere or something. Unlimited would be that electricity could be made from nothing which is impossible.

Anyways, getting off topic. Sorry DD.

Thanks! @MegaChar?

[DailyDi]

It would help if they didn't charge sales tax on groceries here. $20 went to the state before we began shopping!

[id0ntknow]

3 hours ago, drynot said:

When you can bring everything into the house in one go rather than multiple trips......

200 dollars likely would amount to 3 grocery bags where we live....

It would take many more than 3 bags for me, since they are made about 0.1mm thick anymore.

[feralfreak]

4 hours ago, Crinklz Kat said:

Um... electricity has to be created somehow.  Through mechanical means; hydro, wind, coal, natural gas/diesel, nuclear (all of which spin a mechanical generator) - or photo voltaic.  The last of which is the least efficient with today's technology - about 30%, and of course only works in daylight. 

 

My last grocery trip this past weekend also ran near $200.  COVID and supply chain disruptions are one factor.  The other factor is the recent dramatic rise in base wages.  When you have to start paying $15/hr minimum - both from legislation and also to just entice people to apply for the job in the first place - you increase the cost of the goods or services you're offering.  That cost has to bet passed on somehow.  There's no free lunch. 

about 10 years ago there was a show with inventor dean kamen(segway inventer) called "dean of invention", on it they talked about a means of generating electicity from your septic tank.

 

around here we dont get much in the way of groceries, we only eat 1 meal a day and snack around the rest of the time, so we might spend 50 to 100 a week on groceries, at one point before we got ran out, we managed to get by with 75 a week or less hitting aldis and sav a lot

[Dubious]

9 hours ago, DailyDi said:

It would help if they didn't charge sales tax on groceries here. $20 went to the state before we began shopping!

25% on almost everything in Norway.

I use about $100 a month on groceries, including taxes. 

[Firefly 35]

On 11/3/2021 at 7:23 PM, Elfy said:

The cost of living has been going up for decades and wages/benefits/everything else haven't kept up. Remember, when your wage or benefits don't rise in concert with inflation you are essentially getting a pay cut in terms of spending money.

Also the number of mergers in the corporate world have hugely reduced resource efficiency, since larger corporations can never manage resources as efficiently as smaller ones.  This year alone there have been nine $20+ billion mergers.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_mergers_and_acquisitions

[Nyte Kitsune]

100-150/mo Here for groceries, Mostly Soup, Ramen, Chicken, Salmon Cutlets, Tuna, rice and instant potatoes. With a few frozen pre-made meals thrown in for good measure). and another 100 for Door Dash on days I don't feel like cooking. 1 Full Paycheck every/mo to rent, then 2nd check goes to those groceries, diapers and whatever is left gets split between savings, Phone, Internet and "Fun Money" (Which includes Subcriptions to Netflix, Funimation, Amazon Prime and Paramount+).

[Crinklz Kat]

I was just looking at the phone app for my preferred grocery store.  I'm 8 points away from a free frozen turkey!  But, on that same page, it shows that I've spent $2325 so far in 2021! ?  And I don't do all of my shopping at this store, so the number is likely double that.  And I only need to shop for myself (and the cat). 

It also adds that I need to spend 1174 more to unlock "gold status"... whatever that means.  ?