Gasoline prices jumped twenty-five cents overnight here in Pork Smith -- it was 3.69/gallon when I went to bed, and it's 3.89/gallon now, 3.99/gallon at the pricier stations. Over at Pandagon, they've started a thread on WTF are y'all doing to handle the gas prices? Me, I'm having daily anxiety attacks.
Well, right now, we're sort of okay, given that mr. delagar is home writing his dissertation, and only has to leave to buy more film (he is taking B&W and pin-hole photos as a dissertation-delaying tactic) as well as ingredients for exoctic recipes (he also bakes and cooks, ditto -- last week he made a very nice lime tart); and I am on our tiny semester break; even next week when Summer I started I'll only have to drive the eight miles to school and back, all interstate, no stopping. We have a post office, a nice little library, a grocery, amd a liquor store all within walking distance of our house -- like 1/2 mile, the furthest of these, the liquor store, is. So we're doing pretty well.
But when fall comes -- well, mr. delagar has applied for a lectureship up the hill: if he gets that, he'll have a 110 mile commute 5 days a week. If gas prices are still this high...Yikes!
If he doesn't get it, he'll be teaching adjunct, here at my university, for diddly and squat. Which would be worse? It's hard to say.
(Look at me, borrowing trouble. Ai.)
Beyond the problem of driving, of course, there's the problem of eating: even at our handy little grocery, we have to pay for the food, which is getting pricey. We've about stopped eating meat. Fish, sometimes -- the kid likes tuna, which isn't so expensive, and now and then we still buy an organic free range chicken, because mr. delagar wants the protein and he does nice things with it. But mainly we are eating cheese and eggs and peas and rice and lots of vegetables and fruits. It helps that this Harps has a wonderful produce section. It doesn't help that my shit the produce prices are through the roof. Trucking costs, I'm sure.
I hear farmer's markets are cheaper, and I hear we have one in Pork Smith, but it's way the hell downtown, and only runs twice a week from dawn to zero. I'd have to drive down there and find it.
I could garden, I suppose. Maybe I should start.
3 hours ago
5 comments:
We took SG out of our beloved preschool and moved her to one significantly closer to home (roughly $100/ mo. savings). I'm trying to drive as little as humanly possible. Eating out is going to become something of the past. I've lofty aspirations of getting a garden planted. Having only one car and the scooter is saving our asses. Thrift and consignment stores are my new best friends. Buying bulk, turning off the lights, unplugging anything when not in use...the list goes on and on. Truthfully, though, we're going to struggle financially because everything is becoming outrageous. At this point I'm hoping and praying Mr. Tonks gets his architecture license, they make him an associate partner and he gets a juicy raise or bonus because it's not going to get any better anytime soon.
Mr. Zelda and I are buying less and less. We went over three weeks without buying one food item. We began looking in the bottom of the refrig for lost containers of yogurt. I no longer cook extra. We eat a lot of peanut butter. We are no longer going on long drives and I take the bus. I hate what this is doing to us. In fact, my medical bills have capped out at over 100 thousand and my insurance has paid what they will. If I get one more fucking call from one more collection agency, I'm a thinking that I'll cuss the mudderfudders out. Sigh! Being poor sucks.
Crap, I don't even want to think about what my finances will look like in a month. I'm not teaching this summer, and still have to pay rent, bills, etc. Plus, we're having a rough medical year in my family so I'm down often to be fulfill my roles. I DID have a budget for the next three months. I'm not sure how that's all going to work with gas prices on the rise as it were.
Medical bills are doing it to us too. I feel you, Z -- I've also been "turned over," which is what they call it down here in the valley. WTF? The insurance company charges us like a fifth of our take-home up front, to even supply health insurance, so that there isn't any money left to pay medical bills when they come in; then they only pay 80% of what the hospitals and doctors charge -- or, in the case of my insurance, frequently, they don't pay selected bills at all. Then, when I haven't got any money left at the end of the money to pay those bills -- because the insurance people took all my money up front -- I get turned over to collection agencies? This is our fine American Health Care system?
I consider every person should read this.
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