Major Price Increases Early In 2023?

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HappyDaze
Posts: 4186
Joined: Tue Oct 15, 2019 11:11 am

Re: Major Price Increases Early In 2023?

Post by HappyDaze »

LogicsHere wrote: Sun Dec 04, 2022 4:53 am I listen to some of those vlogs as well, but you can't let what one vlogger says about price increases being astronomical after the new year throw you into a panic . . . no one has a crystal ball with all the answers. All you can do is expect that some will continue to go up and work with what you've got. Personally I think a lot of this so called inflation is the result of price gouging in addition to the effect of COVID and the Federal Bank trying to crush the stock market. When a product goes up 25% or more in a month that's not inflation, that price gouging.

My suggestion would be is to try to make sure you keep as full a pantry as you can because if you run it down it costs far more to replace at one time. Whenever you see something on sale that you eat frequently and that stores well, if you have the money buy some additional.

I keep a full pantry so that when I'm on the verge of running out of chicken I can buy just chicken that month because I have enough of everything else. In my area chicken prices have been coming down. I have one local market that has advertised boneless chicken breasts for $1.79 for the last 2 weeks.

I'm eating spaghetti on average 4 days a month, fitting in pancakes and pastina 2 to 4 times a month and eggs at least twice a month for dinner. I'm also eating soup a couple days a month. Now of course, it's just me so it makes it a bit easier.

Menu planning is also key here and in some ways changing your eating habits.

I dropped my food budget significantly since COVID and have been keeping my food costs under $200 a month. Mackie said the other day she goes through the food ads with a fine tooth comb. So do I, the instant they become available.

I've been using my Chase rewards money towards "free" things from the drugstore as well as the supermarket. I don't like the third party cash payments that Pinecone is using so I recently looked at Amazon and currently use some Pinecone points for Amazon credits. I saw that I can buy a physical VISA or Mastercard. True there is a purchase fee of between $4 and $5 dollars, but right now I have over 20,000 points sitting at PineCone and nothing I want and they don't offer physical gift cards for anything I need.
Logics, I agree with what you said about price gouging - come on, it has to be a thing! I also eat very simply and have been able to keep my food budget in line with pre-inflation costs for the most part. Buying markdown items and incorporating them into my menus helps a lot. I also use my Amazon rewards (MTurk) to stock up on bulk pasta, instant potatoes, tomato sauce, etc.

I've been looking at what I have an how to use it up. One apple left becomes a topping for pancakes for supper, one sad looking orange got juiced and added the juice to my sliced peaches.
"All his life he tried to be a good person. Many times, however, he failed. After all, he was only human. He wasn't a dog."

Charles M. Schultz
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Jackielou
Posts: 13425
Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2015 7:51 pm

Re: Major Price Increases Early In 2023?

Post by Jackielou »

Prices will continue to go up and down. I think if the price of transportation keeps dropping (at least here in Canada) the cost of goods will finally start to drop a bit. That is unless companies are happy to gouge people for record profits. That does seem to be the case here in Canada.

I would also say that it is going to take a while for stores who "stocked up" to get rid of there excess product so prices will not drop too rapidly into 2023. I don't think all stores did this as my Walmart does not have the Christmas decor, they once would carry and neither does our Canadian Tire. Of course, we are a small city (down in the US we would probably be classified as a town) and that could also be the reason.
Jackie
http://inthelandofthelivingskiesii.blogspot.ca/
Quilter51
Posts: 2815
Joined: Sat Aug 29, 2015 6:04 pm

Re: Major Price Increases Early In 2023?

Post by Quilter51 »

I am not in panic mode. I'll be honest here. I would rather have the kind of job situation we have now and moderate inflation than having no jobs and cheap food. It's a simplistic comparison but many parts of the economy is doing well and while increased interest is bad for home owners it's great for investors and savers.

I agree that prices will go up and down depending on access and numbers. The trucking industry is chronically short of drivers, some farmers could not get seed last year (When I was driving across the country last week I learned that cotton growers could not get seed and so the cotton crop last year was low). the price of gas is going up and down and that also affects prices.

I have a small freezer and a fairly decent one person pantry and a laundry area with some shelving. At this point at least I am not willing to put canned goods under my bed or in the buffet. So I shop for loss leaders with a goal to have two backups of everything or enough to last until the next sale, realizing that the next sale may not be quite as cheap as this one.

I think I am in good stead in that I eat almost anything. So if there arent chicken breasts I am happy with legs or thighs. I'll eat pork or lamb if it's on sale and so on and so forth.

Right now I budget 75 a week for me and don't panic if some weeks it hits 100.
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