Cost of everything is going up
 

I have noticed a lot of changes the past couple of years. The price of my feed for the animals has gone up 3.00 a 50# bag just in 1 week :flame: .
We try to do most things ourselves but still struggle. The cost of materials to build things, I try to find useable wood laying around to build sheds for the animals.
Our food prices have jumped up to, we don't buy anything fancy, a loaf of cheap bread was .50 cents... now it is twice that. Beef I don't hardly buy anymore not even ground beef, it is over 2.00 a pound. Milk almost 4.00 a gallon.
That's not including many other things, this has really affected us. I guess Iam going to have to start using more of my resources at home. I am going to start milking the goats, we haven't bought eggs in 5 yrs. But somethings we try to do on the farm, just isn't cost effective. It sometimes cost more to feed the livestock then to go to the store. Sometimes I feel like I am just getting hogtied.:sob:
Is everyone noticing these changes? What have you done to ease the cost of everything?

Gripe and fuss :fussin: Guess it is diet time :shrug::shrug::lookout:

same thing here going on...i gripe every two weeks when i go to town!! don't do no good though...

I have noticed the changes but can't do much about it...i have cut back as much as i can on buying 'in town'...

Well, fitwind I wish milk was $4 a gallon here instead of $7.70 to $8.10 depending where it is bought! Goat ration has climbed from $11 a bag to $ 26 a bag in the last five years! Hen scratch feed is up tp $15 a bag from $6. Butter from $3.99 to $5 a pound. Electric power company keeps raising rates. As costs increase we cut back as we only have so much money. Keeping less chickens means we buy very little scratch feed. We find 12 is a good number to sell eggs to pay for feed and provide some meat every year. The rest of their feed comes from the garden or pasture. We are cutting the goats down to three. I buy very little from stores. As costs rise we cut back and do without to the point we are about 95% self sufficient. We do what ever it takes to live within our means. That also means not making debts that we can't afford to pay back.

we just cut our rabbit herd in half and changed them from expensive pelleted ration to hay and mixed grains. And we are increasing the garden.
We sell a few rabbits to cover the cost of feed. I sold some garlic starts from my crop so i could buy a couple of years worth of seeds.

I am almost debt free.... house and land is almost paid for December will be my last mortgage payment. :bouncy:

I would love to be more self suffcient..... 95% is awesome Imrose.. :goodjob: I am trying very hard. Hoping that I can do the same... I am going to try meat goats and milking, to try and cut back on food costs
Going without is how we paid for our house in 5 1/2 yrs. We live within our means. I also do not take any debt I can not afford...

I too had to cut back, I got rid of 50 chickens, they were old and not producing eggs. I have a bunch of bantams that are free ranged, that I do give soem feed to but not much. They supply us with enough eggs and soem that I sell.

I do gripe and fuss a little, but sometime that helps me work out things.. Dieting is an option :heh: but that always costs me more money

I moved out here to keep costs down. I don't owe a dime on anything, buy only what I truely NEED. What little I buy is mostly direct from the grower. I only have what I NEED, nothing extra.... 3 goats, 4 chickens and 2 rabbits. Prices have gone up since the depression....James

YOu forgot the price of gas....last week - $3.1999999.

It has ALWAYS been more expensive for me to raise my animals than buy at the store. I think I break even on the veggies I can. Fruit - I come out ahead. It isn't going to get any better.

One thing that's being forgotten in this discussion is that the quality of home grown is almost always superior to that which can be found in stores. It's fresher and cleaner, and you got valuable exercise obtaining it.

I hate seeing prices climb too. I find I reassess those things and figure out what's most important, what contributes most to the quality of my life, and get rid of the rest.

:nanner: I know something that the cost of isn't going UP.

LABOR. Hourly Pay rates have been flat for years. :help:

Horseyrider I agree with you that home grown is best. We have been eating our own veggies , fruit,eggs, chickens, goats and milk for 25 years and never get a cold or flu. We harvest crops at their nutritional peak to preserve them while vitamin content is highest.
There has to be a benefit because I am still alive and doing well at 64 yrs. I have only one relative left of my generation who is 61 yrs. Everyone else died before my age. Some of the next generation died off also now in their 30's and 40's.All had diabetas or cancer, high cholesterol, high blood pressure or kidney problems. We came from poor genectics i guess. I am prone to high cholesterol and diabetas by heredity but caught it early on and contol it by how I eat. So I know eating healthty is so very important.

Like my husband's 4 year old great nephew said to his mother one day; " Uncle Bill and Aunt Linda are still kicking around. I see them in the pasture!" I hope to be kicking around for a long time yet!

Yes, feed prices are really up....we are down to 3 hens...I just buy eggs now from a friend. Grocery prices are unreal...it was $1.89 for a can of fruit.....bread is over $4 a loaf,just unreal. We try to grow our own veggies during the summer months, can and freeze all we can, gratefully accept offers of free fruit just for the picking, and I do believe times are going to get even worse. I know I have a smile on my face when others ask "why do you do that, it is cheaper to buy it, and not do all that work?" but the knowledge that just sun and water were on the veggies or fruit is priceless...

I don't buy much compared to most people so I notice the basics like food. What I saw during high gas price spike right before the Great Recession was that canned vegetable prices shot up and only went down slightly when gas prices dropped. Now they are back up to the spike level. I doubt that the farmers are sharing in the high prices.

It would be interesting to see how workers wages have dropped in the past couple of years compared to prices for food and medicine.

I'd also like to see how workers wages have dropped compared to non-work income.

Loss leaders! I buy mainly loss leaders and make my meals from what's in my pantry. A year's worth of coffee when it's on sale. When something is a good sale, I look at the expiration date & buy not 3, but a case.

I seldom coupon, but that's next, although living so rural, our local paper has few coupons. I've found almond milk coupons on-line. There's someone here that has couponing down to a science.

I know feed is expensive, but it sure is a toss-up between home grown healthy food and some stuff in the store. I can, freeze and dry from my garden.

One thing I don't skimp on is quality. No fluffy white bread, but only stone ground whole wheat. Never eat pasta. I'd rather spend my money on quality food than the doctor.

With the cost of foods and everything rising along with our dollar being devalued, I think a full pantry is the best investment right now for me.

BTW: Went to the store for fleese to make some PJ's the other day. Cost has gone up over $2.00 a yard since last winter. So I went to look at ready made PJ's. They were about $12.00 cheaper! Used to be sewing was a way to save. NO more...

Saw this coming 10 years ago, my solution was to make more money. Trying to things to cut costs is good but you have to play the game you're in. You can only cut costs so much and in many cases trying to do things yourself costs more in the long run especially if you quit before the savings, if there are any, are recognized.

I'm starting to pay more attention to quality.

If I'm buying something that I want to last I'll pay more for better quality because it saves me from buying a replacement and time and expense of going shopping a second time.

I am also into quality, which I got to say it does cost more money!!! But I am tired of buying Chinese crap that breaks, and I always have to replace. When I bought my furniture I always get quality so it lasts.

Same here and there are times when I wonder, but if a stuff hits the fan scenario plays out those would be items that were desperately needed. For me I'd like to learn how to grow and process more of their feed as well as a bit about home doctoring..

I've been trying to figure out exactly how much it costs us to keep our animals. We have too many goats for our family needs; four does will be in milk next year and we still have four others (although one is going to freezer camp very, very soon). It's going to be a hard decision next year on which doe(s) to sell because they are all very nice milkers, but unless I can find more buyers for the goat milk it just doesn't make sense for a family of three to have four milking does.

We also have sixteen chickens, but they usually pay their way in the summer months by the sale of their eggs and we get all the eggs we need.

The little mutt dog doesn't eat much in the way of dog food; she gets a lot of scraps. We do have three cats, but they are family so I can't even think of getting rid of them.

What I have really been debating about though is the Mule & our new rescue mini-horse. We get hay pretty cheap ($4 a bale), but they'll probably eat a bale of hay every day in the winter. That gets expensive for just "pleasure" pets. Yes, I'd eventually like to break the Mule to harness, but still, it's not really necessary as we have a tractor.

Our garden is nowhere near up to snuff, so we DO depend on a lot of store-bought canned veggies, wheat, beans, etc. So we're planning on going to the big town tomorrow & stocking up on canned / dry goods. Hopefully we'll be able to work on the garden so we're not so dependent on the store.

What I find disheartening is that a lot of us here on HT are ALREADY pinching those pennies hard & doing without, but will have to try even harder just to get by.

As others have mentioned, there are non-monetary advantages of having your own milk/eggs/meat, but at some point it may become impossible to provide those homegrown goodies when the costs far surpass the grocery store junk. This, I think, is the most disturbing and depressing part of all.

Actually, the value of the dollar is falling.

'Things' are not so much more expensive. If you shop all over the world, prices of 'things' has been pretty stable the past decade.

What has happened: To get out of the bad ecconomy & get people spending money, the USA has printed more money, and is spending money that does not exist. This makes each dollar that we have worth a little less, because there are more of them available.

So it's not that feed or food are worth more. it's that your dollar bills are worth less.

--->Paul

After years of belt tightening, I have it down to a fine art. When something I want costs more than I want to pay, I quit wanting it. People(including some family members, unfortunately) always ask me, why don't you spend some your money? I do, I spend money on what I want to spend money on. I just don't want a lot. A lot of people view money as something that needs to be spent, and their idea of budgeting is to spend all the money, but prioritize. My idea about money is as long as you don't spend it, you will still have it. It
ll be there for that rainy day that you hear old people talk about, but young people don't believe in.

Walmart Survey Shows Inflation Already Here.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/40135092

Coupons and sales, people! I usually pay about 80¢ for canned fruit. Sometimes much less. Name brands.

I almost always get a good price on bread. Right now I have coupons for several different brands. I get whichever one is on sale that week. Whichever whole grain one works out cheapest, with or without a coupon.

This is the time of year canned vegetables go on sale EVERYWHERE. And the coupons are abundant.

2 weeks ago, one store had Libby's veggies for 39¢. All the other stores had them for 45¢. I had STACKS of coupons for $1 off 3 Libby's vegetables. That made them from 6¢ to 12¢ a can. I got cases until I ran out of coupons.

That would be me. :D

.............Not , always true ! I paid $.99 for a gallon of 2% milk at W. Mt , and $2.14 for Diet Can't Believe . But , this is a newly opened store so maybe that is a factor in some of the low prices . , fordy

Our canned veggies are double that amount.

Here's the canned veggie sale at Target this week (I haven't checked the other stores).

Del Monte Canned Vegetables, 14.5-15.25 oz., 45¢
Manufacturer Coupon -$1/5 Del Monte Canned Fruits, Vegetables, Tomatoes, 10.5-15.25 oz, RP 9/19
(makes it 25¢ ea)

That means the veggies are 45¢

The coupons are from the 9/19 Red Plum insert* and are for $1 off 5 cans.

This works out to 25¢ by combining the sale price with the coupon.

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*Serious couponers keep the inserts dated and filed so that when making one's shopping list from the ad matchups, you know exactly where to look in the inserts for the needed coupons.

Same here. Insane not to. When something that stores well is on sale, and there are no limits, I get a year, sometimes two years worth.

Local grocer had Libbys vegetables on sale this spring... 4/1$. Got 15 to 20 cases. I can't 'can' for that price. The lids alone cost almost that much.

Why would I buy a can of beets at regular price, when once a year, they almost give them away.

We're blessed with inexpensive food here... no unions to run prices up. I smile when folks complain about expensive this or that... their price is usually twice to three times what it costs here.

Inflation has a solution... buy what your going to need next year, now.

well then, ladycat, can you point me to a place to learn to use those coupons too!? that is a great deal, if you can pull stuff like that off! way to go! i'd love to do that, but we live where there is very little coupons, so how could i do that? i do get to a walmart a few times per year, i'd love to be able to save up and stock up while there, as well as my local little stores. help!?

i do make or raise much of our stuff, cuz i like the quality. but am finding i need to keep my numbers as low as possible to make it work. i have 3 milking goats now, 3 more young ones coming this spring but not sure i should/can keep them. i don't want to sell any of them, but...

6 does is waaay more than i need. that adds up to not only feed, but medicines and time involved that is unnesessary. i had plenty to "share" which paid for their feed, then still more than enough to make cheese and soap and freeze for when i dry them all up. that was with 2 FF's and one old one! i did decide to breed to boer this year tho., so i have no temptations to keep any beyond that 'tender' stage! (DH had this wild scheme to raise dairy goats, keep til first freshening then sell them--there is NO money here for that, i'd loose my shirt, plus be totally swamped in work!! so i got the boer to 'botch' that up! shhh, don't tell him!!) this will give me meat or sale-able stock to pay for the feed for the others.

i try to cut back in other ways than just food--less trips to town, re-using/re-purposing things, or simply, as another said, learn to not want it anymore.

sometimes i feel a bit scared to our future, as i get a bit older, i am not sure how we'll manage, but thankfully, God has always provided.

4 thoughts as someone who homesteads full time:

1. Cull your animals down to what you feed from your homestead. You want to put as little money into them as possible. You can cut browse for goats, collect trimmings and such. You can put rabbits on pasture. You can free range chickens and buy your necessary grains by the ton. 50 lb feed bags will always cost you through the nose comparatively.

2. Buy your food in bulk and prepare everything from scratch. I make all of our bread and baked goods using 100% organic ingredients. I get unbleached white and whole wheat organic flour for 50 cents a lb by buying in 50 lb bags. I can get 5 loaves of bread out of $2.50 worth of flour. Eggs and milk come from here and honey comes as a swap from a friend. Add a little organic oil and you have a loaf of excellent quality bread for about 60 cents a loaf. :)
Re-think your groceries. Eat as much from your own place as you can. Forage for wild foods. Buy in bulk and eat from your stores. I go to the grocery once a month and spend $50-$100 depending on how pricey our extras are. Make sure the animals you have are meeting your food needs and so is your garden.

3. For what you do buy at the store take advantage of Ladycat's vast wisdom on couponing. Do like Texican said and stock when things are cheap. Set the price you are willing to spend on food and then stick too it, if you can't get it for your price don't buy it and when you can stock up on it. November and December stock up on all the loss leader baking and holiday stuff. You can get butter usually for half the price right now and it freezes fine.

4. Swap! One of the biggest ways we save money here is to swap with people who grow stuff we don't. I swap bread for pork and scones for honey. We swap work for food and other stuff. The biggest mental shift in Homesteading I think is that time and labor are money. You can provide most everything you want and need for almost no money it just requires increased time and work. :)

Just when we think we can't cut back more we find a new way, and we sure wish we could have back the money we've wasted over the years :doh:. We watch for the marked-down organic milk and freeze it (pour some off first). We haven't paid more than $1.99 a gallon in two years. Picked up a gallon last night for $.99. We gave up almonds and walnuts except for special occasion baking (buy those at Sam's) and switched to peanuts. We buy very little that isn't on sale. I'm baking all our bread and will add yogurt back into the schedule soon. We're trying a new, expanded garden spot with fencing in place for next season. (I feel like the world's worst gardener but keep reading Jackie Clay - she is so encouraging.) Gas IS expensive (~$2.75 here) so we combine trips, which is simplified by my being a pet sitter. I drive very conservatively. We're using as little electricity as possible. We've only had a couple of nights below freezing so far, and our kerosene heater warmed the house up quickly. When the living area gets nice and warm we turn the fan for the heat pump on and circulate the warm air, setting a timer to remind us to turn it off. When it's warmer but we still need heat overnight, we use the ceramic heaters and close off the third bedroom (unless the grandbabies will be coming the next morning).

And, as someone posted, I'm trying to rebuild our income. That's our biggest problem right now.

I also live where there are very few coupons, and most of the stores here are crummy. And none of the stores here double. But there are a zillion ways to get ample coupons. I have several thousand on hand at any one time.

Go to the best newbie couponing forum there is: We Use Coupons

Join that and get started by asking a million questions in the newbie section.

Just a warning, when you first start learning how, it's extremely confusing.

I'm ladycat over there. You can put me in as your referrer. :)

You'll love couponing once you get the hang of it. My Christmas shopping (since end of last December) has cost almost nothing- and that includes a couple thousand dollars worth of toys, games, and children's DVDs, which all averaged costing me about 10 cents on the dollar, just by stacking the deals on the sales.

I've got topics ALL over here at HT where I posted receipts for various shopping trips getting various kinds of stuff for free to almost free, and explained how I did it, here's one: http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/sho...d.php?t=364024

I was at the grocery store today. I made a point of checking out the price of coffee. Hubby is a bear without a cup in the morning! Anyway, the Maxwell House (11 oz or so) was on sale for $1.99 a can. I bought two cans though he prefers Folgers. The same size can of Folgers was $3.79!! I'm gonna start mixing the Folgers with the Maxwell House, so he can drink it.

Goats don't give milk with out grain and rabbits don't make fryers with out grain., The problem with buying any thing by the ton is storage. And grain gets old, especially if you buy ground grains. After awhile animals waste old grains. In my opinion for the home raiser this is bad advise.
Maybe you could split a ton of grain with some other small raisers.

Hmmm....I guess I will have to tell them they need to stop then! :) I raise fryers all summer on nothing but mixed pasture and plenty of clover. Rabbits don't normally eat grain. Same with the goats, they may produce a little less but they will produce milk without grain.

And yes you could find someone to split it with.

Goats can milk with out grain, if they are on land they browse around on . Rabbits ohh heck they have all kinds of grasses and clover, and many other things to eat.

We are just a little farther north of you, no unions here, either, but our groceries are not cheap.

I pay attention to grocery prices when we travel, and groceries here are more expensive than anywhere I have checked. WE only have really one of a large chain here - except for the Mexican grocery, and Wal Mart that are both 10 miles away.

Two years ago in NYC, I did some price checking and I could buy groceries there cheaper than here - fruits and veggies were way cheaper. Of course, I just checked things I would normally buy.

I just checked in Salt Lake City, and Grand Junction, Colo. We also have a home in Central TExas, small town, under 3,000. It has one store, one of a small chain of stores - their prices are much lower than here.

It's a puzzlement.

When we get to really stocking up, which will be soon, I'm going to have to check in larger cities, maybe and make a day of buying.

Large city stores do huge volume so many times price is cheaper. Stores are closer together in city areas so less delivery costs. Cities also get the better quality products.

I wish you'd run for congress.

during the deppresion they raised rabbit on cooked potatoes and the other weeds ect they could find. But my point is that meat and milk is produced by the animal becuase of the carbohydrates they consume.
when i saw this economy coming and i did quite a bit of research on what could be used to replace grains when to raise the rabbits. one thing I do is raise beets,carrots, turnips and parsnips extra for my rabbits.