INFLATION RATIONALIZATION

Ah, the holiday season is here again! Also known as the over-spending season! I don’t buy that many gifts, but I do love all those special holiday foods. Many are way expensive, but the holiday season is brief.

However, a bar of Milky Way Dark tastes just as (if not more) delicious to me as gourmet chocolate. I remember when you could buy ANY Mars bar for just 5 cents! I was furious when they jumped to a dime!

Here I go talking old, again. So if you grew up with computers stop reading right now, because you are not going to relate to anything in this posting.

During early fall when I was 9, my parents took a 4 day trip over to the other coast. Since I was in school, I stayed home with my grandfather & brother. My brother (11 years older) was getting ready to go into the army. Being guys, they didn’t want to cook or do any dishes, so we ate out every night. We hit every dive restaurant in town because they were so cheap. And we ate well!

Never was it soup OR salad with our entrees, always it was both with rolls included. Plus we ordered dessert! Our meals were only a few bucks for the 3 of us. 

Nowadays, a dessert alone cost more than 3 meals together back then! Sure, wages were far less, but money stretched a whole lot farther! You could actually support a family on one modest income.

Several of my friends came from large families with 5 or more kids. Their fathers were truck drivers or laborers and their moms were homemakers. They didn’t have many luxuries, but nobody starved, either.

Now more than ever it’s expensive just to breathe!

I would have NEVER considered shopping in a Thrift Store back in my 20’s! Now I’m paying the same amount (sometimes more) for second hand clothes as I used to pay for new in the 1970’s!

A visit to the doctor was $8! Around the mid 1970’s, I handed the receptionist my $8 check and was informed the price was now $15 forcing me to dig into my purse. Prices don’t leap, they pole vault!

Now that I’ve entered my senior years, I’m forced to make big changes. I’m thinking with my wallet more than ever.

Two big exploratory trips are ahead of me, one in 2015 and another in early 2016. Every spare penny is going toward these. Afterward, I must make a life altering decision. There can be no more rationalization about inflation.