It Is Time To Take Care Of Your Own Economy

These past 3 and 1/2 years have been hard for everyone. We are no exception. Prices are insane and I don’t see them getting any better anytime soon. I think that this inflation will continue into next year. It will be difficult even for a new President to turn things around. So many things have been regulated which has caused inflation that it will take any new President quite a while to unravel. So many Executive orders which should never have happened.

Let me give you a little history lesson. We went through something similar back in the 1970’s with Jimmy Carter as President. But what turned it around was the Central Banks raised interest rates up to where they needed to be to calm inflation. Then inflation came down. Jimmy Carter was considered the worst President ever until now.

The Central Banks and the administration today are playing games with us. They are telling us inflation is coming down and it is not. They are manipulating it. If you follow the inflation rate that they report every month, you will see that the next month or so they change it. The same thing is happening month after month with the unemployment rate. We are told that everything is just fine when it is not. So many things are being manipulated. They are lying to us.

Another bank is reportedly going bankrupt in the next few months. An executive of that bank was overheard telling his wife that so many people and businesses will lose all their money. Then he laughed and told his wife not to worry that he has a golden parachute. This is what the elites thing of us. They don’t care two cents about any of us. I don’t care whether they are bankers, elite government officials, or large box stores, etc. They don’t care. All they care about is their own profits.

I have always believed in capitalism. It works really well when it is not manipulated. No one wants to live under socialism or communism. Most Americans have seen how that works.

Most Americans like to shop at Amazon and Walmart. I do when they have the lowest price in my area. But they have become too big. We have antitrust laws in this nation but for the past twenty years the government has not gone after them. They just let Walmart build anywhere they wanted and did not file antitrust suits against them. This is part of the problem. They have put a lot of small businesses out of business over the years. They pay their employees less than other grocery stores. That ruins the towns they have come into by hurting the local community.

Unless Walmart has the best price, I will not be buying anything there going forward. Yes, they have expenses for transportation, maintaining their stores, taxes, the products and to pay their employees. I have no problem with those expenses. Most grocery stores make a 1-2% profit. I do not have a problem with them making money. However, Walmart’s prices have skyrocketed over the past few years and when I see them make a gross profit for the year ending 4/30/2024 of 7.6 % year over year, I have to wonder if we are being ripped off. Their prices seem to go up at least once a week. Have other stores increased their prices? Yes but it does not seem as often as Walmart.

So while the elites get richer, we all get poorer!

I have decided to use my money to bolster my small family owned business called Niagara Produce. I will buy their specials on meat, dairy, and produce. That will be the first market I shop at every week or two. I will buy loss leaders at other stores when they have the best prices. But anything that is not at the best price will not be purchased at Walmart.

If you want to see how inflation has affected you look no further than this calculator:

https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

Let me tell you how it has affected us since we retired in 2001. The same money that we had then has lost 77.1% of it’s buying power. Don’t feel sorry for us. I only tell you this to explain one of the reasons that we save every penny we can to keep up with that inflation. Anyone who is planning on retiring soon, remember to take inflation into account. Prices are always going up so we do what we have to stay ahead of inflation.

Remember when you use this calculator that food and gasoline are not included in these inflation numbers. A friend told me that she has tracked food prices since 2021 and they have gone up on average 60%. We all know that gasoline prices have doubled since that year.

So it is time for me to take control of our own economy and do everything that I can to control those dollars from slipping away in my wallet.

I will be looking at every thing that we spend even the little things. It all adds up. I know there are streaming services that we pay for so I will be getting rid of those soon. I haven’t paid for Amazon Prime in years. I just save up my items until I have spent enough to get free shipping. Walmart + may become history. Anytime I have a need to spend money, I will see if I can make a substitution for something I already have. We will ask questions like “Can we fix it ourselves?” or “Can we do without it?” I will let you know when we do things like that.

So stay tuned and see how we do this.