Important Takeaways:
- In an era where grocery prices fluctuate and people crave a deeper connection to their food and land, homesteading is making a major comeback.
- Across the country, more and more people are taking steps toward growing their own food, raising small livestock and embracing self-sufficiency.
- While gardens are often the first step for many homesteaders, chickens are not far behind. Raising a small flock is one of the easiest ways to take control of part of one’s food supply, providing fresh eggs daily and even a little entertainment in the process.
- When most people think of cattle farming, they picture large ranches with hundreds of head of cattle. However, small-scale cattle keeping is becoming increasingly common, with families choosing to raise just a few cows for personal beef or dairy consumption.
- Others have opted to keep a milk cow, providing their families with fresh dairy products while reducing their reliance on store-bought milk. With milk prices continuing to climb, having a single cow can be an economical and healthier alternative.
- For Jenkins, Holloway and plenty of others, homesteading isn’t just a phase, it’s a lifestyle shift. Rising food costs, concerns over food safety and a desire to be more in control of their own resources are all factors keeping people invested in the movement.
- …once people get a taste of homegrown food, it’s hard to go back.
- For those who aren’t ready to jump in with both feet, starting small is key: A couple of tomato plants, a small herb garden or even just a backyard chicken or two can be enough to get started on the homesteading journey.
- One thing is for sure — the Ozarks are fertile ground for this growing movement, and more and more people are choosing to embrace the homesteading way of life.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Once a month, Kersstin Eshak visits a food pantry in Loudoun County, Virginia to stretch her family’s budget.
- Eshak’s husband works at a big box retailer. She works as a substitute teacher. They have income, but with prices up nearly 23% over the past five years — and still rising — their earnings just don’t stretch quite far enough some months.
- Food banks across the nation are seeing a similar story: A post-pandemic wave of demand for food driven by working people caught in America’s cost-of-living crunch.
- “This is a new era of food insecurity,” said Emily Engelhard, vice president of research at Feeding America, the largest US hunger relief organization. “This isn’t an unemployment issue.”
- As prices have risen, so have the share of Americans reporting they don’t have enough to eat. And despite robust economic growth and historically low unemployment, those figures have remained elevated in 2024, US Census data show.
- “Everyone sees prices getting high — for food, clothes, everything,” Eshak said in an interview at a food pantry run by Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington
- Capital Area Food Bank distributed 64 million meals last fiscal year in Washington and the neighboring areas — five million more than the prior year. Their research shows the sharpest increases in food insecurity in the area were in households earning about $100,000-$150,000.
- “Increasingly, those who are food insecure are middle income and more highly educated,” said Radha Muthiah, chief executive officer of Capital Area Food Bank. “We don’t suffer from people not being employed.”
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Some consumers have been weighed down by a “vibecession” for a while now — and those feelings might get worse, experts say.
- A “vibecession” is the disconnect between consumer sentiment and economic data, said Kyla Scanlon, who coined the term in 2022. Scanlon is the author of “In This Economy? How Money and Markets Really Work.”
- “It’s this idea that economic data is telling us one story and consumer sentiment is telling us another,” she tells CNBC.
- Nearly half, 45%, of voters say they are financially worse off now than they were four years ago, and the highest rate since 2008, according to NBC Exit Poll data.
- Yet economic metrics show the economy is booming.
- “Americans’ lingering frustration with the economy and their personal circumstances appears rooted in the persistently high prices that remain post-pandemic,” he said. “This makes for daily sticker shocks when buying groceries, getting a burger, paying rent and filling up the car.”
- The consumer price index, a gauge measuring the costs of goods and services in the U.S., grew to a seasonally adjusted 0.2% in September, putting the annual inflation rate at 2.4%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Denny’s has abruptly announced the closure of 150 locations in an effort to counteract poor sales.
- The chain announced 50 store closures are set to take place this year and the remaining 100 locations will be shut in 2025.
- The news comes after 15 of the chain’s locations closed this summer alone and 70 in total have closed in the last two years.
- Previously, inflation was blamed as a significant factor for the recent closures.
- Steve Dunn, Denny’s executive vice president and chief global development officer, has now said the affected planned locations are either too old to be remodeled or in areas that have become unprofitable.
- Many dine-in restaurants have felt the effects of changing consumer habits as money gets tighter and habits changed post pandemic.
- Stores like Denny’s have begun releasing offer value options to lure in customers, such as Applebee’s ‘Whole Lotta Burger’ with fries deal for $9.99 and Chili’s $10.99 burger meal that is bigger and cheaper than the Big Mac.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Walgreens announces closure of nearly 700 branches nationwide. Inflation costs force the company to shutter underperforming locations.
- This move affects thousands of employees and millions of customers. Will other major retailers follow suit in this economic climate?
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- The U.S. economy has remained remarkably strong even amid persistent inflation and high interest rates.
- And yet, 59% of Americans falsely believe that the U.S. is currently in a recession, according to a recent survey of 2,000 adults by Affirm in June.
- Citing higher costs and difficulty making ends meet, most respondents said they think a recession started roughly 15 months ago, in March 2023, and could last until July 2025, Affirm found.
- Still, regardless of the country’s economic standing, many Americans are struggling in the face of sky-high prices for everyday items, and most have exhausted their savings and are now leaning on credit cards to make ends meet.
- Economists have wrestled with the growing disconnect between how the economy is doing and how people feel about their financial standing.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Even Americans earning more than six figures are worried about their finances
- A growing number of Americans making six-figure salaries are worried about paying their monthly bills, according to a new survey published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
- The survey shows that more than 30% of respondents earning between $100,000 and $149,999 are concerned about making ends meet within the next six months. That marks a sharp increase from one year ago, when 21.3% of individuals in that income bracket expressed concern about making ends meet.
- At the same time, about 32.5% of individuals earning more than $150,000 are worried about being able to pay their bills, which also marks an increase from the 21.7% figure reported one year ago.
- Interestingly, those more affluent Americans are actually more worried about their finances than many individuals who are earning less money. About 29.8% of individuals making between $40,000 and $69,999 said they are concerned, up from 23.9% last year.
- The typical U.S. household needed to pay $227 more a month in March to purchase the same goods and services it did one year ago because of still-high inflation. Americans are paying on average $784 more each month compared with the same time two years ago and $1,069 more compared with three years ago.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- McDonald’s Launches $5 Meal Deal as Fast Food Prices Soar 33% Under Biden
- Fast food chains are under pressure to put the “value” back into a “value meal” after fast food prices soared 33 percent since 2019, according to the Department of Labor. Grocery prices, for context, increased 26 percent.
- The new $5 meal includes a choice of either a McDouble or McChicken sandwich, small fries, four-piece Chicken McNuggets, and a small soft drink, Axios reported.
- The $5 dollar deal contrasts the price of the Big Mac Value Meal. A Big Mac burger, a medium beverage, and a medium fries meal now costs $18 in some locations, up $10 from 2018 when former President Donald Trump was in office.
- The McDouble sandwich, which costs $1.19 on average in 2014, costs $3.19, almost three times that amount. Medium fries increased from $1.59 to $3.79, the New York Post reported.
- McDonald’s ten-piece McNugget meal, the $10.99 combo that includes fries and a drink, costs $5.00, 83 percent more expensive than in 2014.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- How it started… how it’s going: Cost of living still way up compared to pre-Biden norm
- President Biden welcomed Wednesday’s inflation report that showed prices rose less than expected in May, but the cost of living for millions of Americans is still much higher than it was before he assumed office.
- Data from the Labor Department confirms that housing expenses, energy and vehicle maintenance costs have all increased by double digits since January 2021.
- As of May, shelter costs are up 21.4%, home prices have increased 33.9% and rent is up 21.4%, according to indexes tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Mortgage rates on a 30-year fixed loan have shot up to an average of 6.99% as of June 6, 2024, from 2.77% in January 2021 — a whopping increase of 152%, according to Freddie Mac
- Gas prices are currently sitting at a national average of $3.45 per gallon, down from $3.50 last week as low demand and increasing supply provide relief at the pump, AAA said. But overall, today’s prices are still 45% more expensive than in January 2021, when it cost $2.38 per gallon to fill up.
- Electricity costs are up about 29% since Biden took office.
- It also costs more to buy a car (20.4% increase), maintain it (30.5%) and insure it (51.3%) than it did four years ago.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- More than a quarter of Americans have resorted to skipping meals to avoid paying inflated grocery store prices, according to a new survey.
- According to a study by Qualtrics on behalf of Intuit Credit Karma, 80% of Americans say they have felt a “notable increase” in grocery costs in recent years. More than a quarter of respondents said the increased cost has led them to occasionally skip meals, while about one-third said they spend more than 60% of their monthly income on mandatory expenses such as food, utilities and rent.
- “Food insecurity is a major issue in this country as millions of Americans don’t have enough food to eat or don’t have access to healthy food,” Courtney Alev, a consumer financial advocate at Credit Karma, said in a statement.
- Of the Americans surveyed in the Credit Karma poll, 44% reported feeling financially unstable. This feeling is strongest among households making less than $50,000.
- The rising cost of living is also a likely factor in the increasing number of Americans taking on debt (55%).
- A large majority of consumers (80%) said they felt the most notable increases in expenses were for groceries, followed by gasoline, utilities, housing and dining out.
Read the original article by clicking here.
