The Cost of Living (Magazines)

(Disgraceful!) Push your cart over my foot if you disagree with me. Food prices are soaring! (and sadly my addiction to magazines is costing me my arm and my leg) Even those people 'with money' are commenting on the price of average, every day items. Like fresh produce and cereals or dairy or meat. Three juicy strip loin steaks, $28.00.  One pound of bacon $6.00.  Large boxes of Cheerios, $7.00.  Is there an end in sight? Are coupons in vogue today due to rising grocery bills?  Are those meal replacement shakes and frozen dinners looking more and more delicious and  affordable?  (I heard a whisper in our town: people are dining on $1.39 McBurgers to make ends meat....um...ahem...meet.)

If charity begins at home, then please, please send your gift to Northern Canada. How would you like to pay these prices:

Cheez Whiz $29 jar

Honey $12 jar

Cranberry Cocktail $38 bottle

Baby Formula $41 can

Kraft Cracker Barrel Cheese $19.50 750g

Milk $4.20 quart

Tropicana Orange Juice $10.39

Cabbage $4.00

4 Tomatoes $8.50

1.36 kg Margarine $28

1 package of spaghetti noodles $13

What does this mean for consumers? (here are some thoughts from The Globe and Mail) 

Less spending, more saving, and making a lot of sacrifices.

Vacations are among the chief items on the chopping block. Nearly one-third of Canadians say they are likely to delay taking a holiday....., while a similar amount plan to delay getting a new car, according to the new RBC report.

It also found that 55 per cent of Canadians are comparison shopping to find lower prices on food, while nearly half say they are following budgets more than in the past and foregoing impulse purchases.

Nearly 30 per cent of Canadians are leaving their cars at home altogether, making fewer trips and increasing their use of public transit. (More on a Pedestrian Lifestyle in the coming days.)

(Forty-nine million people in the U.S.—one in four children—don’t know where their next meal is coming from.)

Food is available. We just can't afford it. 

(Francis Moore Lappe: Throughout her works Lappé has argued that world hunger is caused not by the lack of food but rather by the inability of hungry people to gain access to the abundance of food that exists in the world and/or food-producing resources because they are simply too poor. She has posited that our current "thin democracy" creates a mal-distribution of power and resources that inevitably creates waste and an artificial scarcity of the essentials for sustainable living.)

Footnote:  I challenge you to find anyone who loves magazines as much as I do, but I fear soon I will be reading e-mags only. Here in Canada, magazines cost $5-$15 each issue.  (unless printed mags would love to send me some - complimentary -  and I will write sponsored posts about each issue here. hint. hint.)