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#Bidenflation: 58% of Americans Living Paycheck-to-Paycheck

#Bidenflation: 58% of Americans Living Paycheck-to-Paycheck

“Everything’s gotten more expensive. We need the extra income because grocery bills have doubled and I basically have my own little army.”

A survey in June revealed that 58% of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck thanks to inflation.

Costs are rising. Salaries are remaining stagnant.

Parents know back-to-school costs are high. Man, I loved shopping for anything back-to-school! New clothes, new uniforms, new shoes, new supplies, etc. Not to mention more food for lunches. Money for field trips, extra-curricular activities, tuition, etc.

The National Retail Federation believes shoppers will spend around $37 billion this season.

That is the same number as last year.

However, inflation is at 9.1%, which is a 40-year high. Are households going to spend $864? No. One poll found only 7% want to spend more than $500, down from 25% last year.

From NBC News:

Many middle-income shoppers such as Sam Waldorf, a 33-year-old mother of four in Fort Campbell, Tennessee, have lived comfortably throughout the pandemic. But her husband’s Army salary of about $80,000 doesn’t go as far now. Waldorf said she plans to get a part-time job in retail to help cover the higher costs of sending her kids to school this year.

“Everything’s gotten more expensive,” she said. “We need the extra income because grocery bills have doubled and I basically have my own little army.”

Even with a rotation of hand-me-downs and new shoes gifted by family members for the school year, Waldorf’s budget is stretched thin. She plans to spend $200 total, down sharply from the $800 she recalls spending last year.

Some companies and retailers try to help parents:

Back-to-school promotions are rolling out sooner than in years past, with more in bundles like “buy one get one 50% off,” which encourages shoppers to buy multiple items, said Nikki Baird, vice president of strategy at retail-technology company Aptos.

Walmart priced 100 school supplies at under $1, including a 24-pack of Crayola crayons, child-safe scissors and spiral notebooks. Target raised its student discount for loyalty program members to 20% from 15% last year. The Container Store is offering a 15% discount to parents and students who sign up for its loyalty program and 25% off orders over $200 for existing members. Dozens of school backpacks, including Adidas and Jansport, are currently 25% off at Kohl’s, which is also discounting Levi’s clothes by up to 40%.

Central Texas parents are going to back-to-school drives.

Other parents plan on reusing supplies from previous years:

“We are also looking into upcycling, so any of our supplies from last year like the plastic folders if they can be used again we are going to use them again,” she [mother Sue Sobon] said, “We are going to use bookbags again there is no reason why they have to be replaced just because it’s a new school year they all are completely functional and good to go.”

Sobon is even taking advantage of her oldest son’s supplies, who no longer need them after graduating college.

“He left a whole bunch of school supplies for us that we are going re-use,” She said, “And feel like if they have a purpose we’re just going to use them.”

Parents put their children first. This requires cuts in other categories to ensure their children have everything they need and most want for school.

The Los Angeles Times reported that credit-card companies noticed that more people had dropped name brands or more expensive to save money.

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Comments

Welcome to America as run by a dementia-ridden, retarded pedophile. F*ck Joe Biden and anybody who was immoral and stupid enough to vote for him.

    jb4 in reply to Ironclaw. | July 26, 2022 at 9:58 pm

    This was totally predictable. Years ago, Obama reportedly said, “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to (expletive) things up.” Brandon promised to destroy the oil & gas industry during the 2020 campaign. Those two points guaranteed the mess and high inflation that we have. Harris, with her “word salads”, looks to be the Chauncey Gardiner to come to the rescue.

      Barry in reply to jb4. | July 26, 2022 at 10:44 pm

      “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to (expletive) things up.”

      Obama is one of the worst three presidents we’ve ever had, pushing the Peanut to a very distant 3rd place. Every bit of the biden presidency residency is part of obama’s doing. The fraudulent regime actually running things includes obama,

      1st and 2nd on the list?
      Obama and Obama. Biden is just a footnote.

2smartforlibs | July 26, 2022 at 5:19 pm

Under our Jug eared overload, a study found a majority of Americans couldn’t afford a $500 emergency.

Yeah that utterly insane ‘y’all are saving 16 cents on hotdogs’ so thank Joe Biden messaging has come full circle. The WH communication folks and whomever keeps spinning out ready made anti-Biden memes from behind the curtain really need to rethink their messaging strategy.

AMZN stock won’t do well during this recession.

70k incomes now have 63k in buying power.

No one will tell you this- but server farm usage is going to plummet as well and costs will go up as their power bills will also go up… along with chop prices and availability issues etc. Their big customers are going to be asking for price breaks as their bottom lines are also being hit.

“We need the extra income because grocery bills have doubled and I basically have my own little army.”

And she’s more than likely shopping at the base commissary – no taxes or profit margins.

The Gentle Grizzly | July 26, 2022 at 6:21 pm

“We are also looking into upcycling, so any of our supplies from last year like the plastic folders if they can be used again we are going to use them again,” she [mother Sue Sobon] said, “We are going to use bookbags again there is no reason why they have to be replaced just because it’s a new school year they all are completely functional and good to go.”

Sobon is even taking advantage of her oldest son’s supplies, who no longer need them after graduating college.

“He left a whole bunch of school supplies for us that we are going re-use,” She said, “And feel like if they have a purpose we’re just going to use them.”

We had a name for that when I was growing up: it was called thrift. It was also known as common sense.

For knowing how to not only survive but live well in times like these it’s a real blessing to be a child of the 50’s and 60’s. Increase in the cost of living has been addressed by simply going back to ways I learned from mom and dad as parents of hungry teenagers in a single-income family. Meat has doubled? Cut back portions, use less expensive cuts, make casseroles, soups, stews, increase the portions of vegetables, potatoes, rice, other grains. Water or Kool Aid instead of soda, home brewed coffee in a thermos instead of coffee purchased by the cup, etc. Car pooling to work, or with the neighbor to the grocery store. Be a cord-cutter – put up an over-the-air antenna. Don’t keep streaming services that aren’t used; activate one or 2 at a time and exhaust their content then drop them and sign up for another. Turn off the A/C and open the windows. Plant a garden. Just the other day I discovered my aversion to cow’s milk was lactose – when the store was out of Silk and I bought a generic Lactaid for half the cost. Side benefit – Silk free now I think my man-boobs are shrinking.

We saved a bunch celebrating our 25th anniversary at home and canceling the restort / spa weekend. Likewise doing my own landscaping rather than hire it done (my fat butt needed the exercise anyway). I also turned 1.5 acres of grass back to field rather than mow it once a week. It gets chopped 2-3x per year now. That saves 6+ hours and 5 gallons of gas per month.

These times have me remembering the 60’s fondly – a happy teen (most of the time) in a 2 parent family – coming home from school to a mom waiting with fresh baked cookies and a glass of milk. There’s benefit to be had from simply cutting back on entertainment / convenience and embracing time with family.

There’s also a satisfaction in all this … I’m sticking it to Biden and the globalists in as much as I’m NOT letting them wear me down and discourage me.

    gonzotx in reply to MrE. | July 26, 2022 at 8:19 pm

    Have you looked at price of vegetables?
    I have been trying to grow some, I have a black thumb and it doesn’t help it’s been 107 for 3 months and now on water rations, and the war with my squirrels

    gonzotx in reply to MrE. | July 26, 2022 at 8:24 pm

    Hmm

    My mother worked at Ramblers 7-3
    My dad 3-11 so despite all the home cooking, which was 99.9%
    I didn’t come home to baked cookies

    My gf’s mother however was tired of her 8 kids coming home and listening to their complaints that all their friends mothers had warm
    Cookies for them upon coming home from school
    So she would buy cookies at the store and be pulling them
    Out of the “warm” oven that they had been in 2 minutes to
    “Warm up” and they never knew the difference
    Lol
    Always loved that story

      That’s a good one, Gonzo. We’re retired of course and have the time (kid-free) to work out better solutions. And the fortune when I was a kid that dad had a good job in aerospace. We’re also fortunate to be on the Olympic peninsula where there is a lot of water and fresh fruit and veg, which we either grow ourselves or buy from the Sunny Farms stand for a lot less than what it costs in the grocery store.

      I feel for you in TX with the heat. Family history wise, my grandparents settled in the Tulsa area (Sapulpa) in the 20’s and lost everything in the depression / dustbowl. They put everything they could carry on an old Ford and made their way to south King county (Auburn), WA. The only reason they knew about the area, is my grandpa caught a boat out of Seattle (?) to SE Alaska during the post gold rush years – where he worked as a builder / painter and met my grandma in Skagway. They married and made their marriage home in OK until SHTF for them. The main reason my fam came to the PNW is my grandpa loved to fish and we have a lot of rivers, lakes and streams here. I guess we owe our fortune to his love of fishing. If only hunting liberals were legal we could restore this state to what it once was.

    henrybowman in reply to MrE. | July 26, 2022 at 9:02 pm

    “I also turned 1.5 acres of grass back to field rather than mow it once a week.”

    A BLM surplus burro runs $25. He will be overjoyed with your field, and groom it like no lawn mower ever made (not like a goat or sheep, who pulls it out by the roots). Plus, BLM really, really wants to find homes for these donkeys. And on top of all that, they tend to establish “potty piles” (rather than leaving it all over wherever, like dogs) that you can cart out easily and use or sell as superb garden fertilizer!
    Win, win, win, win!

      There’s one across the road. When it goes off it sounds like someone is gettin’ kilt. 😉 There’s black bear, cougar and bobcat aplenty here to threaten livestock. Abundant deer, who are lousy at keeping the yard trim. Love my flower gardens though. Seriously, how hard is it to train a BLM donkey to quit kneeling?

henrybowman | July 26, 2022 at 9:05 pm

This is a first world problem.
Your kids don’t need school.
Give them a margarita, and take them out to kickbox their friends.

The only news here is people have gotten too used to better economic times and forgotten that you need savings to get you through the tough times.

We lived on a “shoestring budget,” very slowly paying off debt, driving clunkers, living in the same small house that always needs work and just eeked by and made it just in time for our kids to graduate from homeschooling and start their career path (educations and qualifications).

At the end i got laid off and started over again.

So the lessons are:
Work Hard
Buy Just What You Need
Save For Bad Times
Stick Together
Buy the Correct Vehicles
Learn To Maintain What You Have
Pay Off All Of Your Debt
Pray Hard
And Expect The Unexpected

Life Is Never Easy, But You Are Learning to Live It Every Day, One Day At A Time.

If I Can Do It, So Can You!