A few years ago, you went to the store, filled your shopping cart, went to the cashier, where you were told how much you had to pay. Then you got the receipt, that you threw away right after.
Today things work a bit differently as you fill your shopping cart, scan the products and you know the total of your shopping before you press pay. You can even leave some stuff out if you see your shopping is getting close to your daily limit, if you have one. But this is not the best part.
Photo by Spenser Sembrat on Unsplash
The best part is that you don't throw the receipt away as it's digitally stored in the app, which means it's retrievable anytime you want and this brings us to where I want to go today in this post.
When the US-Israeli-Iranian war broke out, only the fools could think our life will not be affected by it. Anyone with half a brain could suspect changes are going to be made, regardless of your location and not in a good sense. At first everyone and their mother tried to minimize the impact it's going to have on our pocket, but it didn't take long to see how one thing triggers the other and how we're paying more and more for everything.
Photo by Wolfgang Weiser on Unsplash
As I'm continuing my weight loss journey, my morning and evening meal contains vegetables. My meals would contain vegetables anyway, as fresh vegetables are important, but the problem is, it's spring in this part of the world and most of the fruits and veggies are imported. I suppose you can already figure out what this means and this is how my usual shopping costs doubled already. It was shocking to see my tomatoes, paprikas and cucumbers sold at 30% extra price, not I'd say it's painful that I pay 100% more.
Even before life started to get more expensive, I was thinking how to best handle the situation, without giving up too much or paying too much. I'm not going to cut veggies out of my diet, that's for sure as health is important, so I'd rather cut back in other areas.
Photo by Bro Takes Photos on Unsplash
Looking for deals is a good way to by more with less, but you need to be realistic and buy what you need, not what's on sale. I see so many buying just because some products are on sale, but if you don't need it, or buy too much, you don't save, on the contrary.
Talking to someone the other day I was told prices are going to come down and normalize once fresh, homegrown vegetables appear at the farmers market, but that's wishful thinking as production costs are still high, the government is trying to help, but we go from one political/governmental crisis to another, inflation is one of the highest of modern times, borrowing at state level costs more and more as credibility has long gone out of the window.
The problem is, the worst is yet to come, the effect of this war started by others is going to be felt for years and if you don't have a plan, it's going to slap you hard.
Two months ago, when the war broke out, I said we should be happy the heating season is over as capping gas and energy prices were about to expire. With the geopolitical changes, the government had to step in and introduce a new cap for household consumers, so that helps a little, but there will come a new heating season in a few months and better be ready.
I've been doing my best to be energy-efficient with the resources I have. Solar unfortunately is not an option at the moment as I only own the flat, not the building and to set up solar panels would require the consent and the contribution of all 20 owners, which I'm never going to get. Another solution would be 3 or 4 panels on my balcony, but I need to consult with my technician to see how much benefits I can obtain, vs costs, to see if it worth it and that would be a plan for next year anyway.
I'm not really a fan of journaling every penny spent as it kills your mood, but to protect myself, I'm setting up a plan and following it through to see how I can grow instead of going into any kind of debts, or going backwards. Failing is not an option. Never is! Work harder, make smarter decisions, learn to be better and it's doable. There's always a way, you just have to avoid being blind to the problem.
By the way, this morning I dropped my phone and as a result, I cracked the glass protection of the display 😬 This is the first one on this phone, set up when I bought the phone four and a half years ago. I paid 10 euro back then but I suspect now it's going to cost me around 25, but it's possible I'm too optimistic. We'll see. I'll let you know.
What about you? What have you changed in your life, since the war broke out? What's your plan for the upcoming year or two?
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