Many of the major news outlets ran stories today that Biden’s approval rating has dropped to just 33 percent. Just as the news outlets speculate on the cause when the market drops, they speculate that Biden’s dismal approval rating is due to rising inflation. I have no doubt that is a driver.
I track my finances carefully, and I am in awe of how much my grocery bill has gone up while our indulgences in high end items like steaks, fresh fish and wine have gone down. I am finding creative ways to pay less for proteins, including buying whole chickens and turkeys when they are on sale and then making a multitude of meals out of them. Before the pandemic, leftovers were for lunches and snacking, now it is not out of the norm to find them on the dinner table.
We are not feeling the hit as much at the gas pump because I still work from home more than half the time. Our car insurance actually went down, but this has to do with Brainy Bird being away at college without a car, and with me selling my car. I now drive his car, and I plan to until next year.
We are delaying all big purchases for as long as possible. In pre-pandemic times, I would have replaced my dying dishwasher and refrigerator already. Instead, we are hanging on in hopes that we can continue to repair them until the prices for new ones come down. I do not know how my parents got along with their faulty appliances without YouTube to show them how to “repair” them, or at least get them to work for a while longer.
In addition to the grocery store, the other big hit has been the expenses for the fur kids. The fur kids’ food, vet bills, flee treatment, and grooming exceed their monthly budget every month. I need to increase the budget, but I cannot decide where to pull the money from. On top of the cost, I am having a hard time finding the food they normally eat. This is especially problematic for Potatoe, who is allergic to beef and chicken, and Chewy, who has a sensitive tummy.
We typically have to go to two or three different stores to find their food. Each store seems to take a turn of being out of what we need. Having grown tired of hopping from store to store, I finally went online to order their food. Online, I found Chewy’s food priced more than a dollar per can. I remember when a can was just eighty cents, and I could get them for seventy-five cents at HEB if I purchased ten or more. Potatoe’s food is the hardest to find. I was floored when I saw that a bag online was $55.98. I could not believe it. That is 450% inflation from what I normally pay. I feared doing the math of what that would cost per day. I had to purchase it. He is allergic to basically everything else. I decided to buy just one bag in hopes that Walmart or Petsmart would restock it before I needed more again.
I laughed out loud at myself when the food arrived today, and I found it was a 30-pound bag, not a 3-pound bag, so not an issue with inflation. I wonder how much inflation has impacted eyeglasses, which I seem to need. I now have enough dog feed to feed three or four Potatoes the rest of the month. Unfortunately, I could not find his food in a canned version, which he definitely prefers. He will be stuck eating the dry food for a while.
I am spoiling him in other ways, starting with a freshly laundered blanket, which I folded up and made into a cozy spot next to my chair. He wagged his tail immediately when I picked up the blanket and walked toward my desk. He is now snuggled up on the blanket. He just lifted his head at the sound of Little Chirp rummaging around in the kitchen for a snack. Little Chirp’s daily calorie intake is rising at an even higher rate than inflation. The year is off to an interesting start.