Examples of current inflation - add yours!

[audreyh1]

"Buyers' Strike." I like that phrase. In some areas, that describes what I'm doing pretty well. Selectively, for product lines which experienced blatantly opportunistic price increases. Snack foods, breads and soft drinks come to mind. All things I can do without, and refuse to be taken for a fool over. Plus I like making bread.

Yeah, I know, for most people money is no object for those products. Obviously the market has spoken, and those prices are what the market will bear. But just like striking workers, for me it's the principle.

Interesting. I don’t buy any of that stuff anyway. Not because of price, but because that highly processed stuff is just not good for you period. So I guess that’s my principle, ha ha.

 

[GenXguy]

This week, a local supermarket has 80/20 ground beef on sale for $1.99 a pound if you buy a multi-pound package. This is lower than we've seen in many years, since long before the pandemic - ground beef is kind of a staple for us and we watch its price closely. Companies have greedily fattened their bottom lines using the phony baloney inflation excuse and now have latitude to lower prices.

I used to buy 85% beef in one pound packages frequently for $2.99 sale price just a few years back. I think it has hit that in the last year or two, but much less frequently than it used to. The current sale is 80% for $3.99 for the pound package. Mehhh.

 

[Koolau]

While I agree with the buyer strike concept and am doing some of that myself, that is not how pricing works. An individual sale of rolls doesn't have to make a profit. The profit probably comes from the chips and sodas that many people buy to go with the burger buns.

I agree. And the chips and sodas are exactly what I'm passing on when I go for groceries OR (very) occasionally, fast food. I delete the very things that give the highest profit.

 

[jollystomper]

I just opened laundry detergent we purchased at Costco in January 2023. At the time, I wrote on it the price we paid - $13.79. There *might* have been a sale then. If so it would have been no more than $3 off, so the regular price might have been $16.79 at worst. The current price for that detergent is now $19.99.

 

[single2019]

I am not surprised. Not long ago I stopped at McD’s for a quickly coffee and leg stretching break from driving. I noticed that they had Filet-O-Fish sandwiches. $6.99 each.

Clark Howard has noted signs of what he calls a Buyers Strike amongst consumers in the area of food - grocery stores and restaurants. IMO, he is correct. You find his comments in the first 5 minutes of the podcast.

05.23.24 Buyers Strike In The Grocery Aisle / Investment Property Purchase Rule

Buyers Strike In The Grocery Aisle / Investment Property Purchase Rule

clark.com

Senior coffee at McD is still $0.69

 

[Car-Guy]

Senior coffee at McD is still $0.69

There is a What-A-Burger around here that gives seniors free coffee as does several stores.

 

[GenXguy]

Senior coffee at McD is still $0.69

I think that varies by location and is usually not that much of a discount. And didn't McDonald's stop giving free refills on their coffee?

 

[Gumby]

I just opened laundry detergent we purchased at Costco in January 2023. At the time, I wrote on it the price we paid - $13.79. There *might* have been a sale then. If so it would have been no more than $3 off, so the regular price might have been $16.79 at worst. The current price for that detergent is now $19.99.

I make our laundry detergent and have for years. It's easy and substantially less expensive.

 

[Chuckanut]

Mickey Ds prices vary a lot by location. Sr coffees in my area are gone the way of the Dodo bird. But it’s still far less than any any coffee house or restaurant. My guess is that the near $20 an hour they have to pay took out the senior coffee.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

It does make me chuckle to read some of the folks here anecdotes on what they consider inflation. I am not NOT criticizing, to each his or her own, but we have a lot better things to do than making our own detergent, avoiding high profit items, price shopping etc. etc., seems a little petty to me. And we are NOT in the top 5% of the USA's net worth by any means.

DW and my SS + SS Equivalents, more than covers our annual expenses all in. In fact, it is almost double our regular expenses. We feel very privileged when we compare them to our Canadian, English and European relatives and what they get in SS or equivalents and what their expenditures are.

This leaves virtually ALL our nest egg income and withdrawals for discretionary items like vacations, and other frivolous purchases. I am sure we are not the only ones here in this position, in fact I know by reading post over the years that there are way more here that are much better off than we are. Inflation is a fact of life, in fact it is the way economies work.

 

[GenXguy]

It does make me chuckle to read some of the folks here anecdotes on what they consider inflation. I am not NOT criticizing, to each his or her own, but we have a lot better things to do than making our own detergent, avoiding high profit items, price shopping etc. etc., seems a little petty to me. And we are NOT in the top 5% of the USA's net worth by any means.

DW and my SS + SS Equivalents, more than covers our annual expenses all in. In fact, it is almost double our regular expenses. We feel very privileged when we compare them to our Canadian, English and European relatives and what they get in SS or equivalents and what their expenditures are.

This leaves virtually ALL our nest egg income and withdrawals for discretionary items like vacations, and other frivolous purchases. I am sure we are not the only ones here in this position, in fact I know by reading post over the years that there are way more here that are much better off than we are. Inflation is a fact of life, in fact it is the way economies work.

This thread is for posting examples of inflation, not to complain about others who are posting theirs or to talk about how well you are doing. There's nothing petty about saving money. Inflation totally turned my retirement plans upside down. After years of consideration of where I might move, the cost of relocating has soared with all of the housing related costs, so now I'm staying put. Maybe you could post about how streaming services have gotten really expensive and how you found a lower cost option that allows you to watch everything from all of the services combined. And I mean that in the nicest way.

A small McD coffee is up to $1.19 here. But some of those breakfast sandwiches are pushing $6.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

This thread is for posting examples of inflation, not to complain about others who are posting theirs or to talk about how well you are doing. There's nothing petty about saving money.

Who is complaining? Certainly not me, in fact I made a point of saying so in the post, knowing some folks would jump to conclusions . It does make me chuckle when I see what folks post some trivial examples though. I do agree that insurance has been the major one that we notice though. But I must say that is really the only one that seems to be affecting us ... kind of, but I am not even sure that is inflation as opposed to the companies trying to cover/recover their losses (Natural disaster claims) and exorbitant Attorney fees and settlements (In the case of car insurance), we live in Florida and that seems to be common for our location.

 

[GenXguy]

Senior coffee at McD is still $0.69

Mickey Ds prices vary a lot by location. Sr coffees in my area are gone the way of the Dodo bird. But it’s still far less than any any coffee house or restaurant. My guess is that the near $20 an hour they have to pay took out the senior coffee.

Thanks for the heads up on this. I had a $2 breakfast sandwich available through the McDonald's app, so I brought of the code for that inside to get a sausage/cheese/egg McMuffin. I asked about a senior discount for small coffee - first time I've ever asked about a senior discount in my life! Upper 50's and just never think of myself as a senior citizen. lol Anyway, that brought the coffee down from $1.19 to 75 cents. And to top it off, no pun intended, there are FREE refills, so I topped it off before leaving. And the credit card machine didn't even ask for a tip! lol So, nice little breakfast for $2.75 + tax, and used 5% cashback credit card to boot (for restaurants through June).

Fillet-o-Fish is $4.69 at my local McD. We have a high minimum wage at $14/hr, soon to be $15/hr, so I'm sure all the restaurants will be jacking up all the prices again, especially with inflation still running well above target.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Mickey Ds prices vary a lot by location. Sr coffees in my area are gone the way of the Dodo bird. But it’s still far less than any any coffee house or restaurant. My guess is that the near $20 an hour they have to pay took out the senior coffee.

Thanks for the heads up on this. I had a $2 breakfast sandwich available through the McDonald's app, so I brought of the code for that inside to get a sausage/cheese/egg McMuffin. I asked about a senior discount for small coffee - first time I've ever asked about a senior discount in my life! Upper 50's and just never think of myself as a senior citizen. lol Anyway, that brought the coffee down from $1.19 to 75 cents. And to top it off, no pun intended, there are FREE refills, so I topped it off before leaving. So, nice little breakfast for $2.75 + tax, and used 5% cashback credit card to boot (for restaurants through June).

Fillet-o-Fish is $4.69 at my local McD. We have a high minimum wage at $14/hr, soon to be $15/hr, so I'm sure all the restaurants will be jacking up all the prices again, especially with inflation still running well above target.

 

[GenXguy]

View attachment 51171

Wow, those are even higher than here. Just for comparison to downstate Illinois, here are current prices at my local McDonald's:

Medium French Fries $2.99
McChicken $2.59
Big Mac $5.29
10 McNuggets $5.19
Cheeseburger $2.39

Fillet-o-Fish $4.69
Small Coffee $1.19 (75 cents with Sr. Discount)

In August 2019, an ice cream cone was $1.09 locally. It's now $2.39. That's a 119% increase.

In Nov 2018, I could get a hot fudge sundae for $0.99 off the dollar menu. Now it's $2.99. That's a 202% increase. That's over 3X as expensive. I found an email I sent in 2019 where I was complaining to someone when they increased to $1.29. lol

 

[Koolau]

I think that varies by location and is usually not that much of a discount. And didn't McDonald's stop giving free refills on their coffee?

Yeah, if you can find coffee at McD's in the Islands even for a dollar, you're doing well, but YMMV.

 

[GenXguy]

Dairy Queen had small dip cones (or regular cones) on the mobile app special for 99 cents multiple times last summer. Well, it just showed up on today's mobile app special for $2, so that's a 100% increase over last year's special price. The regular price is a ridiculous $3.59. Our local Burger King still sells a regular cone (not dipped) for $1.

 

[John Galt III]

Here's an example of DEflation (in a secondary market).
I have a medicare advantage insurance policy that gives me $105 free to spend every quarter on health care over-the-counter items.

You have to order from their website, and most of the items are quite overpriced, but some are actually on par with store prices. Like Depends underwear. So I bought a lot of Depends with my $105, for my Mom.

I actually have an excess supply of them at the moment, and tried to sell them at a flea market for 25% of retail (discounted 75%) . Some folks looked at them, but they thought 25% of retail was too high ! Brand new in package. Hmmmm, I thought.

So I went online and saw a plethora of Depends for sale. Most were 50% of retail. But some were as low as 20% of retail. These flea market customers must be scoping up the 20% retail offers. So it's a race to the bottom in the Depends market.

My point? The 'free stuff' mentality is causing this deflation in the secondary market. Interestingly, the store prices are still the same, while this underground depends market whizzes away behind the scenes.

I could be wrong, lol. Has happened before. Just found it interesting.

 

[CaptTom]

...we have a lot better things to do than making our own detergent, avoiding high profit items, price shopping etc. etc., seems a little petty to me. And we are NOT in the top 5% of the USA's net worth by any means.

DW and my SS + SS Equivalents, more than covers our annual expenses all in. In fact, it is almost double our regular expenses. We feel very privileged when we compare them to our Canadian, English and European relatives and what they get in SS or equivalents and what their expenditures are.

This leaves virtually ALL our nest egg income and withdrawals for discretionary items like vacations, and other frivolous purchases. I am sure we are not the only ones here in this position, in fact I know by reading post over the years that there are way more here that are much better off than we are. Inflation is a fact of life, in fact it is the way economies work.

You are very fortunate indeed. But it does very much seem like you're looking down your nose a bit at those who do have to worry about wasting money. Your post really adds nothing else to the conversation.

In my own defense (and maybe others in my circumstances) I chose to RE at pretty much the point where I had just enough to get by in the style I'd wanted. I chose not to keep working until I had double the income I need. I left little room for unplanned frivolous purchases. The frivolous stuff (boat, travel, etc.) was all carefully considered in my planning.

So, yes, I avoid high-profit items and do considerable price shopping. Frugality is how I was able to RE. I don't regret my decisions and I'm neither impressed nor disdainful of anyone who made different decisions. And I certainly don't hijack unrelated threads to brag about them, but I will defend my decisions when challenged.

 

[karen1972]

View attachment 51171

This really though ignores the fact they completely changed their pricing model and the 2019 prices are no 100% accurate as they came from a different source.

McDonalds now has what I call a "LIST" price and then the franchises all do local deals thru the app and if you are buying LIST price then you are one of only a handful.

Looked up random place in LA, $6.50 for a big mac, med Fry, Med drink today in their deals. $1 hash browns, etc. Everyday there are numerous deals like this and they vary by franchise.

 

[Chuckanut]

It's hard to imagine that a fast food joint can have the same prices nationwide when things like minimum wage, taxes, etc. vary so much from state to state and even city to city within the same state.

 

[GenXguy]

This really though ignores the fact they completely changed their pricing model and the 2019 prices are no 100% accurate as they came from a different source.

McDonalds now has what I call a "LIST" price and then the franchises all do local deals thru the app and if you are buying LIST price then you are one of only a handful.

Looked up random place in LA, $6.50 for a big mac, med Fry, Med drink today in their deals. $1 hash browns, etc. Everyday there are numerous deals like this and they vary by franchise.

On the other hand, if all I want is a McDonald's hot fudge sundae, like I used to buy on occasion, the current price is over 300% of what it was a few years ago, and that's whether I use the app or not.

 

[Koolau]

On the other hand, if all I want is a McDonald's hot fudge sundae, like I used to buy on occasion, the current price is over 300% of what it was a few years ago, and that's whether I use the app or not.

Can't think of the last time a McD's ice cream machine was actually w*rking locally. Maybe it's an Island thing.

 

[Gumby]

Can't think of the last time a McD's ice cream machine was actually w*rking locally. Maybe it's an Island thing.

That stuff is not really ice cream anyway.

 

[DJRR]

Can't think of the last time a McD's ice cream machine was actually w*rking locally. Maybe it's an Island thing.

No pretty common here as well. I don't think the employees like cleaning the machine.