Looking for Brighter Times Ahead!
It was an interesting and slightly sad day today.
In service of saving money due to the ever increasing cost of living around here, today I said goodbye to my phone service — fixed net, not mobile — that I have had since moving to this part of the USA in 2006.
In doing so, I'll be saving about $67 a month, and I am happy for that! But it also felt like it marked the end of an era. Or maybe it just marked my stepping into "modern times," as most people under the age of 25 don't even know what a fixed landline phone is.
These days, it feels like I'm doing a lot of ”shrinking.”
By shrinking, I mean that it feels like the world is increasing its demands and costs at a rate that far exceeds my ability to meet them. Consequently, I have to dial down what I consume, along with my expectations of what I can hope to get with my available means.
Meanwhile, I read a lot of articles and listen to a lot of podcasts that speak to the fact that the economy in this country is going to be pretty much screwed for the next few years. In other words, I am absolutely not alone in my predicament.
One of the interesting —and somewhat disturbing — articles I read this afternoon had to do with the cost of eggs here in the USA.
Some of you may be aware the price of eggs in this country has gone completely crazy after various stories about an outbreak of bird flu affecting and killing millions of chickens. As a result, we have seen the price for one dozen eggs go from about $2-$3 about 18-24 months ago to a price in the range of $8-$9 a dozen as I write these words.
The disturbing article I read was talking about the largest egg suppliers in the country reporting record profits and — in fact — operating at a profit level that is approximately triple or more than what it was two years ago, primarily due to the fact that the price of eggs has tripled. As a footnote in this story, it was noted that the largest supplier of eggs in the US in fact had not had any of their flocks affected by bird flu.
Short version: the entire 200% increase in the price of eggs has gone not to recoup "the loss of millions and millions of chickens," but straight to a corporate bottom line. It's kind of scary, considering that eggs used to be one of the few reasonably affordable sources of protein for many families.
In and of itself this is perhaps not such a big story, but when you take dozens or even hundreds of stories like this and compound them all added together to people's financial bottom lines it's no wonder that so many of us are struggling!
April was a difficult month at the best of times both in terms of finances and things that needed to be repaired as well as the financial markets taking it on the nose thanks to all the tariff nonsense.
I can only hope that May will bring us brighter times!
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great remainder of your week!
How about you? How was the month of April, for you? How is the cost of licing trending, where you are? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 2025.04.30 23:30 PDT
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I think there was a time I was spending around $30 per month just on eggs. It might not seem much in USA but in a place where average salary is less than $300, spending 10% of income on eggs is just too much.
Leave eggs, electricity and gass bills suck over 30-40% of income and sometimes more than 50%. I'm paying double the amount of fee I paid for my single semester in university for one of my kid who is in grade 1 and that's very nominal in comparison to other schools which are charging 3x more.
It's getting harder to survive; these modern times are closing in on us.