Food Prices: Just a Heads Up!

I just got through doing a how to on freezing bell peppers, because it's time to get them now:
wiresplice.com...

We've got the roof up on our greenhouse as of today. Stupid decking nails are 17.00 a box and we are out so the rest of it will have to wait for a few days.

I've been converting 2 liter bottles into self watering planters. Hope to find some plastic totes that I can convert into earth boxes, and we're building some solar heaters for the greenhouse. Our back porch is also converted into a green house.I've always gardened in the spring/summer but I've never tried to do it year round before this year.

There's a good facebook group if anyone's interested - it's called self sufficient skills.

We've been stockpiling and putting back for a few years now - and I'm glad b/c when my hubby lost his job, we'd have never made it otherwise. My husband always thought that something would happen and the SHTF and we'd need it, but I was always looking at the frog in the pot scenerio myself. Well, the pot's plenty hot, and there's no place cool to land when you try to jump. We're going to try to keep jumping as long as we can.

Had a friend say a gallon of milk was 4.59 this week up up north. GEEZ

Don't know about you guys but for the last 4 years income has only went down, down, DOWN. It's about as low as it CAN go now. Water is HOT.

If you know it .... sorry.

If you don't ... you should.

Roubini Global Economics is for Sale

What does that tells you ??

Funny how none of the so called experts are relating the dollar's devaluation to the rise in commodity prices.

Sigh.

reply to post by hadriana

Income is going down and prices are climbing higher than ever! I am glad that we have a food stamp program because I know quite a few hard-working people that would be SOL if it weren't for that assistance.

Sadly there are not enough people that have the skill that you have and when we hit another "great depression" in America we will see a lot of people starving.

I am hoping we can pull our heads out of our collective asses real soon or we will be in some serious trouble.

That's why I started the blog - it's not for the rich - it's for the poor or very poor.
If I can do it - and we've been doing it for a while now - we have a house & mortgage (27k to go!) ...making below poverty level - well, I thought perhaps I could document some of the things I do to help others.

I really didn't have a whole ton of these type skills - I went to college but I was never educated in home ec or really anything practical - but with the web you really can learn a lot if you put your mind to it.

Doing it is one thing, but then trying to do it healthily - that's a whole 'nother ballgame. I really look at it as a challenge though - oh, I get mad at the situation - it's totally not fair- b/c I know for a fact my husband is one of the hardest working men ever - but anyway, I try to look at it as a fun challenge instead of a nightmare. lol

It helps somehow - mentally- but I am mentally adept - I find I can actually hold the mindset I need to be mentally healthy AND still know what's going on about it and want to whip certain people's greedy little expert rear ends about it.

This increase of costs of commodities has taught me something. Something I already knew but never had to practice till now. To be less materialistic. Budget my monies. If there is anything I want bad enough, then I will save the money. I have not had credit cards for 3, almost 4, years now. Yes, I seem to do without some things I see my peers getting. But in the long run, I am the one better off. I haven't wasted money on big girl toys that go out of vogue or loose their appeal.
More of my budget is spent now on food commodities, stocking up on things that I hadn't realized were important to stock up on. In times of lean I have become more resourceful and repurposing items that could have previously been thrown away. I acquire items only when there is a specific need for them.

It's gonna get bumpier on this ride, cause we are just getting started, its being a hard climb, but I don't fear the crash on the otherside near as bad.

reply to post by SunflowerStar

It's gonna get bumpier on this ride, cause we are just getting started, its being a hard climb, but I don't fear the crash on the otherside near as bad.

Well said!

I don't fret for myself, but I have to admit that I fear for my kids and other little one's close to me. My wife and I have always held a special place in our hearts for kids, and it pains me to think of what they may go through....no matter what the future holds.

All a result of the markets being allowed to speculate on food prices, it's not really got anything to do with a lack of food.

They've pulled most of the money out of the worlds economy, and it didn't have the same dramatic results as in the past, ie the people saying enough is enough.

So whats the next step after they've reduced everyones spending power by half ?

Half our spending power again by hyperinflating the price of things we just can not live without.

Maybe that'll be enough to tip us over the edge, because they sure are trying everything to get to the tipping point.

One of the main reasons that meats are spiking is due to increased consumption/demand in the Asian regions, especially China.

For example just a month or two ago, the price of Pork increased significantly and the Chinese government had to tap into vast surplus emergency pork reserves to keep the price artificially lower than it would have been.

There are some significant efforts to expand the base of meat production but please remember that this could take a few years to have effect on the market, so for the next 1-2 years expect meat prices to slowly climb higher and higher until these new production facilities get product onto the market.

I know I put on a 100 pounds for some reason. I'm going to find me a cave up on the side of a hill and hibernate till spring.
Maybe by then wall street will have collapsed from all the people marching around it and blowing trumpets. And all the troops will come home from all the wars our nation is fomenting. And everyone will scrap their cars and dig up the roads in front of their homes and plant. And then.... aww, nevermind.

snoring sounds...

Originally posted by Shadowalker


I remember in 1976 you could get wonder bread on sale for 8 loaves for $1.

Nickel a loaf in the early 1960's when my Mother would send me to the store. Hamburger was $0.19 a pound and my Dad's Lucky Lager was sometimes $0.49 on sale. A bottle of Coke was $0.13 and you got three cents back from the bottle. Different world then and the store knew us all and our parents had accounts. They would even let kids take the beer and cigarettes home if their parents smoked. In my case when I went they knew I had permission to spend a quarter on myself and no more. I miss that world.

Strangely enough I looked into this once and if you go back into the 1800's, food took nearly all of a persons income and land cost almost nothing. We seem to be heading back that way.

Sounds like I'd better take a Moose for the next few years.

reply to post by Blaine91555


I wish I could have enjoyed times like that.

There are items that I can remember being very cheap, like $.99 for a gallon of gas when I started driving, but nothing like that. Must have been nice and much simpler.

reply to post by sheepslayer247


Thank you for taking the time and having the guts to share your knowledge on this matter.
These main staple commodities prices have been gradually rising ,and poked by costly spikes over
the last 2-3 years. Inflation has not only reduced the value of our income by 10 percent(a form of hidden tax),
it has also increased the daily cost of products and living. You know, many members here, as well as advertisers there,
have been stating,promoting,and warning, to stock up on food,seeds,supplies. The vague reason was to prepare
for some kind of catastrophe. At the moment, Hyper Inflation is clearly that menace.

Thanks for your Awareness, and S&F to you

reply to post by sheepslayer247


Gas was $0.26 a gallon for me. But then remember many working adults made only a couple of hundred a week then if that. A dollar was some serious money.

I got one dollar every Saturday to go to town and see the Matinee. It cost a quarter and a pop and enough candy to get sick another quarter. That left fifty cents for things like pea shooters and peas to shoot at people in the theater and maybe enough bubblegum for the week.

Houses were a lot smaller and middle class simply meant you had one car and owned a house. If you were lucky you had the only color TV on the block. A new color TV cost a months pay then for a little 19 inch in a huge console.

In adjusted dollars I don't know that it was actually better. Now middle class means two new cars, a house twice as big, TV's in every room and still people complain. We all grew our own food and all our Mothers canned our food. We all hunted also. My Dad a product of the Depression kept around three years food at all times.

reply to post by Blaine91555

Then you exemplify what the USA was and should be.

We may have a few more TV's and cars but it came at a price. A price we cannot afford to pay and the price now was easily met, and appreciated, in that time.

Why is no one talking about the threat to national security we are facing when huge tracks of prime American farm land is being sold to the likes of UAE and Saudi Arabia?
www.economist.com...

The more poor we become, the more our land that feeds us is taken from us?

Now granted, this might be a whole 'nother level to the food crisis, but it needs attention, IMO.

reply to post by Blaine91555

I feel that I my household, we are going back to that way of life. We do not have a tv in every room, won't do if we did, I cut the cable four years ago. Why pay $100 bucks a month for something I was not home to watch! We each have a auto, but we both work and they are paid off ( wish the house was!) My house taxes going up 2%,my health In. going up somewhere around 5%. My pay, well you can guess what direction its going.. Thank God Armour Vienna Sausages are still 50 cents and can. Stocking up!!

reply to post by oldshooter1979


I tried to get my wife to shut off the cable, and even do without cell phones, but she is not easy to persuade when it comes to making sacrifices.

Someday I will talk her into it.

reply to post by sheepslayer247


We have a laptop hooked up to the tv so the girlfriend can watch her shows on hulu. I do miss the history channel, but saving $1200 bucks a year, yea goodbye history channel

reply to post by oldshooter1979


$1200 bucks would go a long way if I sent her shopping! Maybe there is hope I can change her mind.