Things you quit buying due to inflation.

Discussion in 'Back to Basics' started by larryinalabama, Feb 29, 2012.


  1. Cephus

    Cephus Monkey+++ Founding Member

    Won't be long till the FRN's are worth nothing so why should I save them for toilet paper !!!
     
  2. jungatheart

    jungatheart Beginner's Mind

    Really miss jumping in the truck and making a circle drive on back roads. Glad I did a bunch of it when I was younger. Used to do it with a cold beer tween my legs and a cigarette. Given both of those up too.

    Chocolate Chip cookies. Finally figured out I can make a huge batch of dough, make tablespoon sized balls and freeze them. When I want a cookie I just pop a couple in the toaster oven and viola, I have excellent cookies fresh and hot. Better cookies for less money, can't beat that.

    Sometimes it works just the opposite. I find buying expensive meats from Omaha steaks winds up cheaper because they satisfy my meat cravings. Buying cheap meat from my grocery store only satisfies my cardboard/Styrofoam cravings.
     
  3. wrc223

    wrc223 Monkey+

    We dont do name brand stuff anymore (unless it is a quality issue) and home made is the way of life here. The only thing that we have really changed is the number of places we shop. We buy specific items from different suppliers. For example, we buy dry good in bulk from a local dry good supplier. We get our meat from a butcher/farmer down the road. We get everything else from two different grocery stores. Now we go with coupons in hand, we never did the coupon/rebate thing before.
     
  4. Lucky Johnson

    Lucky Johnson Monkey

    Went grocery shopping yesterday. There are a lot of things I didn't get that I normally do. No more paper towels. Will just have to use dish towels to dry my hands and napkins for dinner time because they were cheaper. No more lysol wipes. Back to a spray bottle filled with bleach and water for disinfecting dirty counter tops and tables. (Or lysol and water). The price of canned and dried goods seems to have skyrocketed, not to mention that any canned / dried goods on "sale" were pretty much gone from the shelves. Needless to say I didn't buy very much dried or canned goods. Guess I should make more of an effort to can the fresh fruits and veggies that I do buy. I had to switch brands of dish soap to whatever cheapest product was available. Also no more buying stuff for the dishwasher. Fairly new dishwasher will now just serve as a dish drying rack. Now that we have chickens, I hope that we will not have to buy eggs any longer, especially since the cost of dairy products is now through the roof. Now we just need a dairy cow. :)
     
    weegrannymush and jungatheart like this.
  5. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    I am riding my motorcycle a lot more instead of taking the pickup. I have cut way back on the number of USPSA matches I shoot. I am going home for lunch a lot more rather than eating in a cafe.
     
  6. RightHand

    RightHand Been There, Done That RIP 4/15/21 Moderator Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    Instead of buying that new truck I would like, I'm thinking more on the lines of "rent a wreck"
     
  7. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    Drive the TA, Dee...why do need a truck;go burn some gasoline!
     
  8. RightHand

    RightHand Been There, Done That RIP 4/15/21 Moderator Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    I don't think CT is allocated enough gasoline to drive it on a regular basis. Beside, I'd have to work another 12 hrs a day to afford it

    Beside, I want to be able to take some long road trips on less than my AGI
     
  9. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    I would like to point out a few things I have noticed as of lately:
    a pound of bacon now only has 12 ounces instead of 16. I just went to till my garden and the tiller broke; then I noticed there is no means of changing oil any more, just a filler tube, not even a drain plug. There is no choke any more, just a stupid rubber bulb that ozone eats up and when I went to get a new one, had to buy a pack of assorted sizes for $11.00 rather than one that would work and then the brittle plastic retaining ring that holds it in place broke. Designed obsolescence has become so ****ing blatant, they don't even bother to disguise it any more. The Koi pond filter pump crapped out after only a few months, replacement costs for it has increased 30%. oh, back to the rotor-tiller, (two years old) the gear is made of nylon and that is why the tines quit turning. Charge more, sell less, build cheaper with less life expectancy; the American way.
     
  10. Gray Wolf

    Gray Wolf Monkey+++

    That's why I like old stuff, it was made to last for generations!
     
    Moatengator likes this.
  11. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    Sea... You can thank ALGORE for all the changes, to small single Cyl Gasoline Engines..... He and his Idiot Greenie Buddies got the EPA in the Small Engine design business and now Regulate how they are built, with NO Carb Adjustments, and only a few LubeOil Drain Plugs, in modern Imported Engines.
    By doing so, and having Ethanol Contaminated Fuels, they have created a Monster of a Service Headache for Dealers and Repair Folks, when the fuel coagulates in the Fixed Jet Carbs. It takes a Ultrasonic Cleaner to open those very fine holes, or some very expensive Fuel Treatment like SeaFoam. I have been lucky, so far and have only gone thru ONE Carb on the Log Splitters Honda 160 Engine, so far but lots of the little Honda Gensets are now clogging up the local Honda Repair Shop, in town, with plugged Card Jets, and they are charging more to clean them in the Ultrasonic cleaner that what the Carbs cost on eBay... Oh Yea, there was a guy sell ing after-Market Carbs with fully adjustable Jetting, on eBay a while ago.... for about 125% of what a replacement Honda Carb was costing. ..... YMMV...
     
    Moatengator likes this.
  12. RightHand

    RightHand Been There, Done That RIP 4/15/21 Moderator Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    One of my clients is an equipment dealer. In addition to sales, they also have a large repair ship and do all the repairs for units sold through Home Depot, Lowe's, etc. In the past few years, the volume of engine repairs has skyrocketed. This is the dealer that sold over 600 generators in 3 days last fall and have probably averaged 300 a month ever since.
     
  13. Gator 45/70

    Gator 45/70 Monkey+++

    I use easy off over cleaner to clean the bowl's and jet's with...Added note Don't leave it for more than 10 second's,rinse and repeat if nessary...


     
  14. CATO

    CATO Monkey+++

    I've had my new razor and blades for a number of shaves now and can report that a single-blade shaves just as close as my old Gillette Fusions (4 blades, maybe 5).

    NOTE: I bought another kind of razor--a screw down job that bends the blade to match the razor head = smooth shave (no nicks...yet).
    Amazon.com: Edwin Jagger De89lbl Double Edge Safety Razor Chrome Plated Lined Detail, Chrome: Health & Personal Care


    Check this out if you want to get into shaving with throw-away blades without much of an investment:
    EDIT: This is not the same stuff I'm using...but, for $3/month, it's a pretty good deal.

    Bucking the Shave Trend: Is the Dollar Shave Club Worth It?
     
  15. Gray Wolf

    Gray Wolf Monkey+++

    I found a couple of places that sell non-ethanol gas for small engines. Cost about 30 cents a gallon more, but it's well worth it to not have any gummed up carbs on mowers, weedeaters, chainsaws, tillers and wood splitters.
     
  16. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    or you can go to ANY General Aviation Airport, and buy it direct from the Fixed Base Operator who sells the AvGas.... ..... YMMV....
     
    Cruisin Sloth likes this.
  17. Cruisin Sloth

    Cruisin Sloth Special & Slow

    AvGas has the real smell it did in the 60's-70's ,all my chainsaw's ,22k rpm weed-eaters /pole-saws two or four stroke mixed with synthetic pre-mix is one way I keep all my machines in tiptop running.

    For the extra $ , well worth it, I have seen new saws Husky/Stihl within a year damaged from poor fuel. Corn / alcohol additive / filler junk is the worst at keeping the premixed oil additive suspended, it will quickly separate (a few weeks) and cause wear.
    Sloth

    Edit , Quit buying beer,smokes,all that fun stuff ;)
     
    chelloveck likes this.
  18. larryinalabama

    larryinalabama Monkey++



    Beer is a necessity!
     
  19. Cruisin Sloth

    Cruisin Sloth Special & Slow

    Well Sir , that's what i did.
    Quit buyin and now Im setup to Brew it .
    Getting better and all setup with 1L flip top glass containers etc.

    Your welcome to sample , some have said that it's the best speed juice ever.

    Sloth

    Edit , I must set the table straight , speed juice = from the time you quench , till the time you MUST relieve !!!

    Some have even said it's exit both ends No waiting..
    I must be getting pretty good at it, Look out WD40.
     
    larryinalabama likes this.
  20. Home cook home grown and canned veggies and home processed meat covers most of our have to have food. (just need supplies like sugar and salt etc which I stock up on when I get to town.)

    No eating out anymore. (been over a year since I had me a mc'd's hamburger or some such.)

    No convince store snacks, if we have them bought, they are in bulk from where ever the best price is.

    Converting a flatbed over to wood gas generator with oldest son's help. Gonna be fun driving into town for supplies in that baby.

    At this point I only buy stuff I must have except for a few luxuries such as internet, which I could live without and will if push comes to shove. (there is a library in town with a pc I could borrow if I had to have one.)

    Several folk my daughter knows just bought one internet for their quad plex and all of em share a wireless network and split the cost on that.

    Co-op is one of the best friends and the church has a buyers club that buys food in bulk and then we break it down and split out our share that we kicked in for.

    Hardest thing is when the youngins come wanting some silly junk that was trash when made, but all the other kids have one.

    They earn money for their chores, so have learned about the economic principal them fancy professors call "Opportunity Cost".

    It helps that we have a nice shop and make a lot of fun stuff that they get to play with like bows and metal tree stands and such.

    And I do spring for bricks of 22 so they can shoot out back at the range oldest son and I made with the tractor a while back. (have a solid 200 yards maybe a bit more then a big dirt pile up against the mountain foot.)

    And there is the blue hole to swim in if ya can stand the cold. (does a nice job cooling beer and I'm putting a spring house over where it drains out this season time permitting and if I have enough coin.)
     
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