Are things in your neighborhood going sour?

[Historic NY]

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080120/NEWS/801200313

These are the hard, cold choices for working mom Connie Doolittle and thousands of local residents: A gallon of milk. A gallon of gas. Or a gallon of fuel oil. Life's necessities — the food that feeds us, the fuel that moves us and the oil that heats us — have soared through roofs of homes that now cost more than ever for those who can least afford them.

A gallon of milk costs about a dollar more than a year ago. So do gallons of fuel oil and gas. Rents have skyrocketed 41 percent in the past seven years.

As we enter a new year, this region that once seemed to be gliding on a wave of prosperity is now treading on thin ice.

<snip>

"One day, you wake up and everything's so expensive," she says in the kitchen of her home on a road with half-million-dollar homes that are beyond her comprehension. Her savings account is empty. "I don't understand it," she says. "It's crazy."

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080120/NEWS/801200313

[Fresh_Start]

1. The food banks in this area are struggling

the demand has increased so much. And this area is a moderate climate so that heating is a lower component for most households (compared to when I lived in NYS).

[msongs]

2. our neighborhood is doing ok these days. all the home owners have been here for years nt

[Jed Dilligan]

3. We're overrun with homeless this winter

and the mailbox is full every day with collection notices for the former tenants.

[mac2]

6. The economy is bad when you are without a job or home

It is good when you are employed and well fed.

The numbers of the poor grow daily. Bush doesn't care. He should be impeached for his poor management of our economy and foreign policy.

Bush, Inc. is out to destroy us and our democracy while he steals the last crumb in the pantry for himself.

[midnight]

4. Went to the grocery store yesterday and picked up a few essentials.

It came to 132.00. I was shocked. Only two bags of groceries. When nixon was president my brother came home with two bags of groceries for 25.00 and I remember my father being shocked.

[Breeze54]

5. My usual convenince store is now charging $4.89 for a gal. of milk!

I left it on the counter and walked out in disgust. It had been $2.49 until a few weeks ago.

I then went to a discount grocery store and milk was $2.89 a gal. (still high but affordable)

Reg. gas was $3.05 at a local station a few days ago but today it is $2.95.

Good bread is at least $2.49 a loaf. We get the 99 cent white. Ugh. I splurge, on occasion, for the whole grain oatmeal.

I spent $67.29 on groceries (for 2) the other day and I didn't buy any fresh meat at all but did get fresh salad makings.

My electric bill is through the roof and we use lights on a limited basis/have those saver bulbs too.

Everything is going up except wages and I'm back to robbing Peter to pay Paul, like I did when Raygun was in office.

Put a few more notch holes in your pants belt. You're going to need them in the next year. :(

[mac2]

7. The government took out the cost of food and oil from the

cost of living index. Now that is fudging the books if I ever heard of one. The cost of living index is used to factor the health of the economy and increase pay for workers and even retired.

Call your representatives and tell them you want real numbers from our government agencies.

I'm betting they doubled since Bush came to power.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

9. I make my own bread in the Cuisinart.

Saves an awful lot of labor kneading it. You can make yeast bread in it, put it in a bowl to rise twice and then bake it. I think it's cheaper, since you get 2 loaves out of one recipe, usually.

[Breeze54]

11. I don't have a Cuisinart

I know how to make bread. Did it for years and years.

I don't want to anymore.

[prolesunited]

10. Use coupons

shop sales and create a pantry.
Spend a little extra each week only buying the loss leaders at each store and stock up, especially if you have coupons. I always get extras from family who don't clip.

For example, soup's on sale 10 cans for $10 and I have 5 coupons for $1 off two. That sure makes it affordable and nice to have on hand when I haven't had time to cook from scratch.

Over time, we hardly shop for things we need, just bargains that are on sale. It's cut our grocery bill by more than a third. I don't eat meat and my husband eats very little, so that also helps.

[Breeze54]

13. Been there, done that but then I'd have to buy a newspaper.

:evilfrown:

I appreciate all the great tips.

Have used many of them and shared the same with others many times over.

We can afford food but we are cutting back on ALL expenses.

But that really isn't the point. (coupons, etc.)

The point is the over all costs of everything are going up.... sometimes daily!

We're cutting way back. That's all.

[zalinda]

14. If you live in a big enough city

you can find used bread machines at thrift stores for about $5. Now the tricky part is finding the yeast. Places like BJ's, or other markets that cater to small businesses carry yeast in a package about the size of a pound of vacuumed packed coffee, actually a little shorter than that. The last time I bought it, it was less than $5. I keep mine in a glass jar in the refrigerator, it will last at least a year without a problem. Just a teaspoon or so of yeast is all that is required to make a loaf of bread. There are tons of recipes on the web, and you can have any kind of bread you want. If you want you can also take it out of the bread machine and bake it in the oven.

zalinda

[Breeze54]

15. Thanks but no thanks.

I'll not be baking, cooking (as little as possible) or canning or freezing! Well, maybe freezing
foods but I've done all of that for years. I don't want to do that anymore!! We have food!! It's
the costs of everything else going up that I was referring to! I am well aware on how to cut coupons,
can foods, stock up on sales; etc., etc., etc. That's a lot of work too! I'm done with all of it!
My kids are grown and there's no need to "stock up" in large quantities now. We're fine.

[roguevalley]

21. that is what a gallon of milk cost in Barrow a while ago. I am too

afraid to look to see what it is now.

[alfredo]

8. Poverty and debt are tools of control.

[The_Casual_Observer]

12. If I had to pay for fuel oil on top of everything else I don't know

what the hell I'd do. Compared to the east coast it's practically free to heat a home here.

[bridgit]

16. a little some in some parts of town, seen two boarded up bank repos the other day...

one with "Fuck You Money Grubbers!!" spray painted on one; whole tent cities springing up under bridges not cardboard but tents, some smaller but larger camping tents, other homes for sale by owner with their trucks & car for sale right along with it...as mentioned up thread, food banks having a rough go

there's always been dicey parts of this town...it's getting dicier

[grasswire]

17. get this

cabbage: $1.29 per pound at my local Safeway.

Cabbage! Plain old green cabbage!

The "fancier" savoy or red cabbage: $1.49 per pound.

[ordinaryaveragegirl]

18. Milk is $3.50+ a gallon everywhere around here.

I remember it being $1.49 before *. Everything is higher but paychecks. It took 10 years to boost the minimum wage at all, and it took a Dem Congress to finally get it done. The Repugs would have never done it. Yet tens of millions of people still can't put enough food on the table, because they still don't get paid enough to make a living. I know many, many people who work 2 or even 3 jobs just to make it. Welcome to America under BushCo...the rich keep getting richer, and the poor barely survive.

[spinbaby]

19. Things are tight, no doubt

We're a two income, college-educated couple with two "good" jobs. Our house is paid for and we have a son in college. We've always lived below our means and we have savings. We're the ones who should be doing well, but we're feeling very pinched, largely because of the increased cost of fuel oil and gasoline and the fact that our income is only about 3% higher than it was in 2000. We're lucky--we've held onto our jobs and could afford to add extra insulation to our house and buy a Prius to help offset the cost of fuel. I don't know how others are doing it.

[sarcasmo]

20. It has been this way for quite sometime now in Michigan.