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This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Tim Connon, a <\/em>self-employed insurance agent<\/em><\/a> from Grundy County, Tennessee, about experiencing inflation at his local grocery store. The following has been edited for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n I live in Altamont, Tennessee, a small rural town with a population of around 1,100 people<\/a>. The closest grocery stores we have near us are The Dollar Store and Piggly Wiggly, which are walking distance from my house. The only two big-chain stores are Save A Lot and Walmart, which require driving a few miles down the mountain \u2014 so they’re far and I don’t end up going to them very often, if ever.<\/p>\n I try to spend less than $100 a week on groceries since I only have myself to feed. I usually buy a protein like chicken or beef, vegetables like broccoli or Brussels sprouts, and occasional carbs like potatoes. <\/p>\n I remember the price of chicken<\/a> at my local Piggly Wiggly store was $6 for two-and-a-half pounds of Tyson boneless skinless chicken breasts two years ago \u2014 now it’s $9.39. Philadelphia cream cheese has also increased in price<\/a>; I remember it being around $1.59 for 18 ounces and now it’s $2.99. The price of bread<\/a> today is $7 a loaf, up from $4, and broccoli’s price<\/a> rose from about $2.70 a bunch to $2.99, according to my estimates.<\/p>\n If I buy beef, that will usually put my bill over my $100 weekly limit. When I recently checked beef prices<\/a>, a pound of beef was $15; before I remember it being $10 or less. <\/p>\n I drink a cup of coffee every day that I brew at home from ground coffee beans. The cost of Starbucks ground French roast that I buy from the grocery store has increased by more than 50%, from $6 to $10.99 per 12-ounce bag. <\/p>\n The high coffee prices<\/a> have been one of the hardest things for me to deal with. They’ve caused me to resort to purchasing lower-quality coffee like Folgers.<\/p>\n One shift I’ve made has been finding online alternatives that serve my budget better. I’ll typically go to Amazon to look for different deals, and it’s the main online platform I use to shop for cheaper items. I’ve had to switch to other methods, such as buying bone-in chicken instead of boneless breasts, in order to save an extra $5. <\/p>\n I’ve also cut back on using recipes that have cream cheese to once a month instead of several times a month like I used to. One of these recipes was for “Crack Chicken<\/a>,” which I really enjoyed because it was a creamy chicken with bacon added \u2014 but that particular recipe is also hard to make if you have bone-in chicken like I have now. <\/p>\n Another change I’ve made to save money was switching to a different brand of cream cheese that costs half as much but has more added ingredients. <\/p>\n When I first noticed bread prices rising, I even learned how to bake my own bread with home ingredients for a fraction of the cost. But I’ve been on the keto diet<\/a> for a little while now to lose weight, so I’ve stopped buying bread, and this is helping to cut costs as well.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n Tim Connon lives in Altamont, Tennessee, where there’s a Dollar Store and Piggly Wiggly. He says grocery-store items like broccoli and bread have become a lot more expensive. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Tim Connon, a self-employed insurance agent from Grundy County, Tennessee, about experiencing inflation at his local grocery store. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[161],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48072"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}I’ve noticed the grocery items I typically buy have gotten more expensive<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Given inflation, I’ve had to make some adjustments to my spending decisions and habits<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"