Soc. Security Cost of Living raise appeared today

[KFC911]

Biden hates eggs

[fintstone]

If it were only eggs that had gone up, that would not be so bad (although they have always been a very cheap source of nutrition). 2022 was bad news for breakfast in general as according to CPI-U numbers released in Jan, on average, eggs were up 11.1% in December alone. For the year (2022) Cereals and bakery products were up 16.1% and dairy (and related products) up 15.3%. In fact, food at home was up 10.4% and up 11.8% away from home in 2022. Fuel oil was up 41% while electricity was up 14.3% and natural gas 19.3%. The price of transportation was up 14.6%. All these numbers were helped by the big drop in gas prices in the last art of the year (hopefully they will continue to moderate).

If a person was reliant on SS largely for food and to light/heat their home, they are hurting pretty badly. It appears that they would have needed closer to 15% to keep up. It is pretty hard to put a positive spin on the SS COLA unless one raises their own food and generates their own energy.

[GH85Carrera]

We usually go eat breakfast on Sunday morning at a locally owned restaurant. They have a fantastic breakfast, and fresh fruit, farm fresh eggs, and sausage. My wife loves their blueberry waffles.

I remember "the good ol days" of buying breakfast for two for 10 bucks plus tip. Now it cost me $40 with the tip included for breakfast. It is a big meal and we always skip lunch after that, so it is like two meals for two.

[flatbutt]

https://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/honolulu

[Bob Kontak]

MLK Day Monday so Fed funded 3rd Wednesday recipients one business day earlier and with that early pay at my bank I got coin today.

I'm thinking this one.....

[KFC911]

LOL .... Coboy Bob .... makin' Texas proud !

[stevej37]

^^^ Same here...except my hat says 'Pending'

[red 928]

Originally Posted by WPOZZZ

Today, on the big island, it was $14 for a 18 pack of eggs and $11 for a loaf of bread.

That's why I can only afford to stay for
a few months at a time

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by KC911

.... makin' Texas proud !

+1 Love me some Texas!

I still got the boots I bought in Mesquite. I'm fixin' to get them resoled.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by stevej37

This am, I saw a small grocery store near me advertising 'Eggs $3.95/doz.'

Kroger is selling "large" eggs for $5.49 a dozen. I had to buy a couple of dozen last month when our hens were on strike. Our hens started laying again, but I still have a couple of the Kroger eggs left - they aren't "Large" - they're dinky. Just for grins I weighed a couple of Krogers against our home grown. I'm liking those damn chickens more all the time.

[WPOZZZ]

At my main house, I havve about 30 ducks. They lay eggs and then I see the babies. Hwever, I have no idea where the eggs are.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

I had to buy a couple of dozen last month when our hens were on strike. Our hens started laying again, but I still have a couple of the Kroger eggs left - they aren't "Large" - they're dinky.

So, as we all know I am Lance Romance.

My wife is a farm woman and I got her a custom Chicken Coup for Christmas that is being built as we speak by a Mennonite friend of mine. We were waiting for the barn drive through to be completed so we could match the metal siding with the rest of the place. Finished three days ago.

I do not think I could have made her happier. We had laying hens for years.

Before:



After:





No old barn wood was harmed...very old tobacco barn and there we rotted door at the end we removed. The rest of the old wood is covered. I wish the old Boston Whaler was mine but it is owned by the owner of Stovebolt, who WD knows.

6 degrees.

Next up this weekend is to clean up my detritus Then rock the new drive through and the barn floor.

[stevej37]

^^^ WD
Those are some great/large looking eggs. That lower, center one is huge!
(are you sure you don't have a goose in there?)

I'm wondering what size the store that I saw $3.95 had...
Is there a standard for listing eggs?...small, med, large, jumbo?

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

My wife is a farm woman and I got her a custom Chicken Coup for Christmas that is being built as we speak by a Mennonite friend of mine. We were waiting for the barn drive through to be completed so we could match the metal siding with the rest of the place. Finished three days ago.

I do not think I could have made her happier. We had laying hens for years.

Nothing says love like fixing our wife up with a flock of chickens
- and then doing all the cleaning, maintenance, and hauling of water.

If you have weasels in your area be sure to have a safe place for the chickens at night - inside 1/4x1/4 hardware cloth vault. I had 1"x2" fencing on my first coop. Weasels slipped in and murdered every last hen.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by stevej37

^^^ WD
Those are some great/large looking eggs. That lower, center one is huge!
(are you sure you don't have a goose in there?)

I'm wondering what size the store that I saw $3.95 had...
Is there a standard for listing eggs?...small, med, large, jumbo?

Yes, there are standards for eggs.
pullet = 34 g
small = 42.5g
medium 50g
large 57g
Xlarge 64g
Jumbo 71g
Our Rhode Island Red eggs 75-85g
BTW THE USDA grading of eggs is meaningless. "Large Grade A" means "large."

The picture is misleading. one of the brown eggs and one of the white eggs is propped up on the carton and so they're closer to the camera lens. The tan egg in the carton above the "big" brown one is actually the largest egg.

[GH85Carrera]

Geezer voice "Back in the days when I was a kid my grandparents had the milk man just walk in the unlocked back door, and put the milk in the fridge, and pick up the empties. They had an egg man as well, farm fresh large eggs, and often double yoke eggs. He just walked in and put a carton of eggs on the kitchen counter, and picked up the empty cartons from under the cabinet." End Geezer voice.

Grandpa and Grandma both grew up on farms, and loved to grow vegetables but had no interest in anymore livestock. It was just the two of them most of the time, and they just did not need the work of livestock and they both knew full well just how much work it involved.

[stevej37]

^^^ I remember the milkman dropping off milk also...the glass containers were quart size and he used a wire carrier to bring them into the house.

My two-room grade school offered milk for each day. (hot lunch was only on fridays)
The weekly cost for milk was 10 cents for white and 15 cents for chocolate. (or 2cents and 3 cents for a single day. The milk came in a pint glass bottle and once it was opened...it couldn't be sealed back up.

[fintstone]

Originally Posted by stevej37

^^^ I remember the milkman dropping off milk also...the glass containers were quart size and he used a wire carrier to bring them into the house.

My two-room grade school offered milk for each day. (hot lunch was only on fridays)
The weekly cost for milk was 10 cents for white and 15 cents for chocolate. (or 2cents and 3 cents for a single day. The milk came in a pint glass bottle and once it was opened...it couldn't be sealed back up.

Yep. Have three wooden crates of the glass quart bottles in the basement that I "inherited" from my city folk relative. We had a cow...that was supplemented with supermarket milk when we didn't. I guess someone somewhere collects them.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by stevej37

The milk came in a pint glass bottle and once it was opened...it couldn't be sealed back up.

I remember the little cartons for two/three cents but not glass containers.

I do remember the insulated milk boxes on the porches of many of my paper route customers in the later 60's.

[KFC911]

You had to turn in 5 bottles to buy a candy bar when milk was .05/carton (lowest I remember).....

Then we got a 50% pay increase on those bottles.... life was good !