Rant #3,380: Shop Around

Just picking up from yesterday, I continued to digitize my Rolling Stones singles in between work and everything else I had to do during the day.

I finally finished, but to keep that vibe going, next up are several solo Stones singles I have in my collection from Bill Wyman, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger.

Should be fun.

My wife and I did our weekly food shopping today, or at least a portion of it.

We go to the local dollar store once a week, and we have been doing that since they started to do business in our neck of the woods at least a decade ago.

We have found that we can save money in our weekly food shopping--which we usually do on Friday morning--by doing at least a little bit of it in the dollar store.

And with food and grocery prices going sky high, it has become a necessity to shop in these stores.

And now that I am up and about, I see thst we are spending much more at the dollar store than we used to.

Part of it is certainly the fact that the dollar stores aren't really that anymore--

They charge a minimum $1.25 per item, with some items priced as high as $5.

But even so, and with this new pricing in place, before I hurt myself, I was spending about $16, $17 or $18 a week in the dollar store.

Now, slightly less than a year later, I am spending anywhere from $25 to $30 a week in these stores.

My wife and I are buying more cleaning products, more snacks, and more beverages in these stores, and we are doing it in an attempt to keep our costs down.

Still, last week, I spent $170 fir groceries at Walmart, which means I would have spent upwards if $200 if I shopped elsewhere.

Prices are ridiculous, and our groceries are for three people ... but when you add up our main grocery shopping, our dollar store shopping, and the shopping that my wife and son do, we are spending from $200 to $250 a week on groceries per week.

And it is not like we are buying stuff we don't really need.

We are buying things that are necessary for our quality of life, keeping it at the level we are accustomed to, or even slightly less.

I cannot tell you how many times I have checked out a price on an item and put the item back on the shelf because it costs too much.

We buy plenty of store brands to try and keep our grocery bill down, but even some of these items are outtasite as far as price is concerned.

We do count our pennies, but I really don't know whst else we can do to keep our grocery bills down.

And no, Social Security doesn't really help, and no, my son, at least, does not qualify for SNAP ... because he makes too much money (if you knew how much money he makes each week from his part-time job, you would shake your head as we do).

Thank God I have my little job, and my wife is furiously trying to find a part-time job.

She has another interview today, but like what i went through a while back, ageism definitely exists--

But go prove it.

So we are doing the best we can with what we have, but at least we know thst it isn't just us ...

There are millions of families going through the same thing.

We will survive, but something has to give, don't you think?