Posted on 08/18/2025 10:20:43 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Do you feel knots in your stomach due to financial stress? If so, you certainly have lots of company. All of a sudden, everyone is talking about the cost of living and prices are rising by double-digit percentages all around us. There are so many people out there right now that feel like they are “drowning” because no matter how hard they try there simply isn’t enough money for everything. Unfortunately, we are being warned to brace ourselves for even more inflation in the months ahead.
When I heard that the cost of vegetables in the United States had gone up by 40 percent in one month, I thought that there was no way that it could be true.
So I looked it up, and I discovered that the cost of vegetables in the United States didn’t go up by 40 percent in one month.
The real figure was 38.9 percent…
A 38.9% increase in prices for fresh and dry vegetables from June to July was the major driver of a higher index for “final demand goods” (things that are done and ready to be sold to a consumer, as opposed to things that go into a later production process).
That is nuts!
How can the cost of vegetables go up by 38.9 percent in a single month?
Apparently this was the largest spike that we have ever witnessed in a summer month “in figures that go back to 1947”…
Per Bureau of Labor Statistics data, it’s also the largest monthly increase ever recorded in a summer month (June-August), in figures that go back to 1947.
The other day, I wrote about how beef has become so expensive that it is now considered to be a “luxury”.
Well, now vegetables are a “luxury” too.
And let’s not forget coffee.
The price of coffee went up by 25 percent in just three months, and that was before coffee exports from Brazil were hit with a 50 percent tariff…
Coffee prices were already up before a 50 percent tariff on Brazil, the top coffee importer to the U.S., went into effect last week.
Coffee prices sharply rose 25 percent over the past three months, according to inflation data released Tuesday. Reuters reported Tuesday that Brazilian coffee exports have started seeing postponements to their U.S. shipments.
About two-thirds of all U.S. adults drink coffee.
This is one of the most basic things that Americans buy.
But now a lot of people are either going to have to cut back or stop drinking it entirely because it has become so ridiculously expensive.
Air conditioning is rapidly becoming a “luxury” as well.
Electricity prices have been rising twice as fast as the overall rate of inflation, and some seniors must now choose between paying the electricity bill and paying for medication…
Across the country, electricity prices have jumped more than twice as fast as the overall cost of living in the last year. That’s especially painful during the dog days of summer, when air conditioners are working overtime.
In Pembroke Pines, Fla., Al Salvi’s power bill can reach $500 a month.
“There’s a lot of seniors down here that are living check to check. They can barely afford prescriptions such as myself,” says Salvi, who’s 63 and uses a wheelchair. “Now we got to decide whether we’re going to pay the electric bill or are we going to buy medication. And it’s not fair to us. You’re squeezing us between a rock and a hard place.”
As our leaders were borrowing trillions upon trillions of dollars that we did not have, I warned that this was going to cause rampant inflation, but a lot of people out there didn’t want to listen.
And as the Federal Reserve was pumping trillions upon trillions of dollars that they created out of thin air into the financial system, I warned that this was going to cause rampant inflation, but a lot of people out there didn’t want to listen.
At first it seemed like our leaders were totally getting away with it.
But now look at what has happened.
There are countless videos on TikTok right now of people breaking down emotionally over the rising cost of living.
In one video, a woman that feels like she is “drowning” explains that no matter how hard she works “she can’t afford to live anymore”…
The video made by “diannaallen5” for TikTok was shared on X by @WallStreetApes to their 1 million X followers, writing, “Americans are breaking down, a grown woman crying because she can’t afford to live anymore.”
The woman in the video, who said she is from Illinois, was distraught and in tears as she spoke, saying that “gas prices and the electric bills and the prices of food is just so overwhelming.”
“I’m wondering if anybody else is feeling like they’re drowning and they can’t get out,” she said. “I work overtime, and I cannot get above water. I mean, I literally have no gas for next week.”
“I’m just wondering if anybody else feels like they’re drowning,” she said is despair.
Can you identify with her?
I think that a lot of us can.
At this stage, 83 percent of all Americans are experiencing “stressflation”…
A LifeStance Health survey released today reveals “stressflation” is affecting most Americans, with 83% reporting financial stress driven by inflation, mass layoffs, the rising cost of living and recession fears. Millennials and Gen Z report the most significant mental health impacts.
The number of respondents who have been deterred from seeking mental health care due to financial constraints remains consistently high (60%), increasing two percentage points from 2024. Those experiencing high financial stress levels are more than twice as likely to forgo mental health treatment due to cost, highlighting a mental health gap where financial strain exacerbates mental health challenges while limiting access to care.
We should have seen this coming way in advance, because we were specifically warned that this was coming.
And if we stay on the same road that we have been traveling, conditions will get a whole lot worse.
A lot of people out there don’t seem to understand that consequences do not always show up immediately.
What we are experiencing now is the result of decades of bad decisions.
It took time for the consequences of those bad decisions to materialize, but now they have officially started to arrive.
* * *
Electricity is higher because producers are being forced to close existing plants and build new “green” plants
If we didn’t import food as much from the southern hemisphere, of course prices would be up in July and August, as harvest time here is from August through October.
I have been growing all my food forever
so I have no idea if this article is credible or not
I’m not drowning due to retail prices. Why you ask?
Because we are debt free, live below our means, outside of necessary expenses we don’t insist on spending on anything and we save at least something out of every paycheck. It’s easy but it’s hard.
The Blog would collapse with postive news, so no, it can’t report it. But what they can report is psycho BS that they know nothing about. Is the author also a Psychologist? How can he draw conclusions from the few (if he even did) persons that he interviewed. This is not reporting. It is Editorializing and should be categorized as such.
A lot of blue states jacked up electric rates recently. You probably heard of NJ in the news.
The rates are typically even higher for commercial rates.
Ever notice how nice and chilly the grocery store is?
Im doing just fine. Much better than in 2022 and 9% inflation. These clowns really try everyday to make the simple fact that this rise in specific items is nothing in comparison to what Biden and the Fed did to this economy for 2 years.
Trump tariffs.
We moved last year & I had to leave my raised beds behind (old, wooden, starting to rot). I have built a few new ones (5 using cedar fence planks) & I did move 4 metal raised beds, but the issue is finding ‘good’ dirt for filling them at a reasonable price - very expensive .... then there’s the hauling, shoveling which is a real pain.
So, no more raised beds and I need some place for raising veggies. My solution is ‘straw bale gardening’. I did it several years ago with good success. We now live in the country, so I do not think I will have an issue with finding straw bales. A couple of T-posts, some fertilizer & row cover (which I would buy anyway for raised beds) will be the only expense. The straw from one year’s garden will be used for compost the following year. Once a raised bed is in place, moving it is a major big deal (I know from relocating the metal raised beds). With a straw bale garden, it’s easy to move.
I thought I would “buy local” this year, but I haven’t been that satisfied with the small markets that are local. I saw some produce I would buy at a farmer’s market an hour away, but that’s too much of a drive to do regularly. My raised beds are mostly for flowers although I do have jalapenos in one, & a medicinal herb garden in another, so the straw bale garden will be mostly for veggies next year. I’m excited about the prospect of my own veggies right out the back door of my shop.
was getting all nervous on the coffee price, looked up my cost last year 15.99 for 18 oz bag, now one year later its 14.99 about 50 cents a cup - for me that is 50 cents a day, I think I will keep drinking coffee.
The 38% price increase is on wholesale prices, NOT retail. According to the article I linked:
To be sure, the spike in wholesale vegetable prices last month did not cause a jump in prices paid by shoppers. Vegetable prices faced by consumers went unchanged from June to July, government data showed.
I use the store bought potatoes and grow them in 5 gallon buckets. Works great. Especially the baby reds.
I can get more yield from a raised bed than I ever did from a regular garden and its easy to keep the weeds out. No tilling the soil either.
I now have 9 of them. Yes, getting dirt is hard, but I have 20 acres in woods and fields, and a triple bagger on my tractor, so in the Fall I dump the shredded leaves and chopped grass directly into the beds, and it composts nicely over the Winter.
I'm in South Alabama, and the ground doesn't freeze, so microbes can compost all Winter.
I just paid about .70 can for No Salt Green Beans at Walmart. Frozen bag of broccoli florets was $1.15.
My issue is heat. In the Summer, it is blazing hot, 95-100 every day, sunny with popup thunderstorms everywhere, that seem to always miss my land! I am now making a system of 275 gallon totes with buried drip hoses.
It's more work, and I'm not getting younger, but once in place should make things really easy.
My grandkids sell garden produce a a local farmers’ market. For some reason, this year’s zucchini crop was so big that they give it away for free.
At our old place, there was a former brush pile in the back field. When the dozers pushed trees, etc. into that pile (we cleared a couple of acres for pasture), they got some top soil as well. The pile was burned & what was left has rotted over the decades. That is where I got my dirt for my original beds and if I was really lucky, my brother took pity & got me a couple of scoops from that pile with his tractor. Being topsoil, the dirt was pretty good, little to no clay content. In the early years, when still affordable, I would add a couple of bags of Leaf Gro to each bed which improved the soil considerably. When Leaf Gro went from about $3 a bag to over $5, I built a ‘pen’ and started saving leaves in the fall for compost - worked well.
Our current place is 3 acres .... all ‘lawn’, some trees. No old brush pile (sigh). The first load of topsoil I got for the raised beds was ‘clean’ (screened), but has a lot of clay content. I added 25 pounds of sand to each bed. I think it will be ok after adding compost for a couple of years. The zinnias are definitely ok with that soil, my jalapenos are doing great & the herbs will grow in pretty much anything.
For the metal raised beds, I found another dirt source at a garden center. It is ‘river bottom’ dirt. Fairly fine, drains well and has a nice dark color. Two scoops will fill my 4 metal beds about 3/4 full - if I add 4 bags of compost to each bed, it gets the level about where I want it. I have the 2nd ‘scoop’ on the trailer now, need to shovel it off. So far, I’m $350 into just dirt .... not spending any more, thus the straw bale garden for next year.
The raised beds & straw bale garden location is near the shop which has water, so I should be good there. I haven’t contemplated drip hoses yet, but that would be the ideal situation - I can ‘noodle’ over how to potentially work that out this winter.
Vegans hardest hit. Gas prices are dropping which lowers everything.
The Economic Collapse Blog has predicted 11 of the past two recessions.
Bkmk
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