Price of Gas, Groceries and other necessities

$3.15 last night for gasoline. Grapes near $4.00 per pound. Milk at 2.89 a gallon. The everyday price of things aregoing up at a ridiculous rate. The government has a lulled into thinking there is a 2 or 3% inflation rate. They need to step out in the real world.

This last week I went to a popular restaurant. 14 tables it was 11:40when we entered 1 tables of three, we added another 3 and that was all in the whole place. By noon a table of two had come in. I do not know how they kept the doors open.

The only time you see anyone in the Morton area restaurants for lunch is on Friday. Guess it must an escape valve from work on Friday.

We are paying by my estimates on what I see about 20 to 25% more for food. If you notice this is really evident in packaging. If you buy bulk you will notice that there are not as many rolls of paper towels for the same price point. I was in the Spaghetti sauce aisle and the price of Pasta and sauce has risen quite sharply. You rewally need to review the ads to get the values. But how much shopping can you do with $3.15 per gallon gas.

We have limited our traveling to shop. We now go out 1 day a week for our shopping and try to get it all done by planning ahead.

We were faced with a huge electric rate increase in January of last year here in Central Illinois. The legislature rolled some of that back but sooner or later it will rise again.

Arriving in the mail the other day was the IRS forms. I would predict that this will be a record year for People getting basically a payday type loan on their anticipated income tax refund.

You see the headlines about Credit Card debt, low levels of personal savings, Christmas spending down. Do not have a Crystal ball on the economy but it looks like some lean months for the stock market, even though it is an election year.

Looking around Mid America these are not the same signs that the New Yorkers and Washingtonites are talking about in the national new media. It is the real world out in the Heartland, the real world is not the Big Apple or inside the beltway.

It seems to me that there should be a ground swelling from the voters about the economy. The soundbites from the candidates are anything but about the basic human needs of the voters.

Maybe it needs to be a paradigm shift by the consumers. Do we need to ask ourselves "Is this the highest and best use for my money", as we look at buying that new HDTV or (You fill in the blank).