I'm sure that's true for the average recipient even if the raise did end up being 10% but now it's now official, 8.7% is what we're getting. For me that works out to a little more than $225 a month+ the $5 reduction in Medicare premiums.
Inflation is calculated by combining price increases over several different daily expenses. You mentioned eggs. I pay no attention to the price of eggs and eat 2 of them a day. We've been trading with neighbors for several years. I bought my first 23 gallons of diesel for my f250 since Russia invaded Ukraine back at the end of Feb. and don't use gasoline in my car. It's full electric and the lease payment is locked in at $298 a month. I don't pay to charge it because I charge it from my solar system. My shack is paid for and I don't pay interest on my credit card. We make our own bread and tortillas with flour from a 100lb. supply. 60% of all of my electric use is covered by my solar system too, not just charging my car.
That $230 raise will darn near make the $298 lease payment on my car.
Not sure why you shared the link to the medicare increase I had last year for Part B? Part B is going down this year by a little over $5.
Please tell me how I'm falling behind? I'll hurry up and correct the deficiency.
I was not prepared back in '78 as inflation began to run out of control but got lucky and bought my 1st house before interest rates broke over 7.5%. When I sold it the buyer took a 12% loan. The years that followed were brutal for a young father of 2 but I managed somehow. By 1984 nobody in this country were getting raises except those on Social Security. Us blue collar workers were taking pay cuts. Electricians got hit especially hard losing $10,000 a year off the check. That was hard shit right there. It took us 10 years to get back to the wage level we enjoyed in '83.
Like I said, I'm coming into this eyes wide open and well prepared. I suggest everyone look hard at their own shit right now because you are right, as for the average American.
Lots and lots of Americans are going to get beat up financially over the next 2 years or so even if the war doesn't widen or persist through the winter. Too much damage has already been done.
Tomorrow we will can the last of the salsa for the year.
I hope you've been preparing as well.
The reason why I added the 14.5% increase is because the increase already happened and if you are on medicare, you are already paying for it before the 8.7% raise including all of the increases prior to that. Is 8.7% greater than 14.5% minus $5 ???
I used to work in a jewelry store when young. They would raise prices 300% and then advertise a 25% off sale. Many customers thought they were getting a bargain.
A local grocery store would normally sell individual hostess fruit pies for $25 each. When the sale ads for 3/$1 went out, they sold out of them. It's all in the marketing.
My smarmy dentist gave me a 10% cash discount so he wouldn't have to pay his office staff to deal with insurance companies. He then tried tacking on a 50% surcharge after the procedure was completed. Much to his dismay, not all of his customers are that gullible.
This is exactly the the game you are being sold. Citizens are paying those price increases even if they are lead to believe otherwise. You say you bake/cook your own food, but you still are buying the raw materials (if you aren't growing them). If you are growing them, your ag costs have gone up. Fertilizer is up 30% YTD. I don't see too many solar tractors and combines in use. California's average diesel prices are $6.68/gal and there isn't enough water to grow your own garden here without being fined.
FWIW, I have done everything I can to prepare including saving, buying bulk sales and being debt free for decades expecting SS to be just a faint distant memory by the time I am allowed to collect my own maxed out cash contributions. We pay no DIRECT interest charges on anything (loans, leases, mortgages, credit cards, "same as cash scams", etc.) but still realize we are paying the interest and bad debt incurred by others and then passed onto taxpayers and customers (higher banking fees, student loan debt, etc). That still hasn't prevented my expenses from increasing @ $10K/year this year for food, utilities, energy, taxes and insurance even though we have consumed less.
Speaking of which, since we buy in bulk on sale, we notice "shrinkflation" between our new and old stock when rotating the shelves. Not only are prices increasing, but quantity is decreasing simultaneously.
The phrase "It won't cost you one thin dime", while technically accurate, has cost us tens of thousands of $$$. It cost us double overnight, then triple and then quadruple, none of which was technically "not one thin dime" yet millions still believe claim while quality of care has gone down.