As many of you know, my children and their parents do a stack of leisure activities. So much so, I'm a bit of a local expert on what's available and how to get in before they fill up. And they fill up fast, here. Or at least they did until this year.
There are about 10 co-op preschools in our area and we each usually have a waiting list longer than the number of children enrolled. This year we all have places available weeks after school has started. Suddenly we're calling each other to ask for names and addresses on non-existant waiting lists rather than to try and place a family on our own waiting lists who have no hope of a place with us.
Hebe joined a non-profit swim team and a dive team this year. Both have only 50% of the registration of last year. (Do we smell?). Peewee soccer for 3-year-olds usually has 12-16 teams. This year there are 6. The boys' swim classes and Beest and my weights and yoga classes are usually impossible to get into unless you know the system. This year there are a few spots still available in the swim classes (unheard of -they usually close the waiting lists on the first day of registration, the lists being at least as long as the rosters) and the W&Y classes are less than half full.
What is going on? Is it the economy? Is it the same where you are? The people I talk to are the other people who are still signing up. We're all flummoxed by it. Can anyone shed any light on it? Is it a national phenomenon? It's so sudden. Yhere was no noticeable decrease last year on previous years and yet now it seems to be at least 50%!
I can't think of any activities that we do where we would notice such a change. The majority of what the kids do are tied in with school and us parents don't have extra activities apart from ones that don't cost us anything lol
What I have noticed is
There is a gas station down the road that is much cheaper than all the others (sometimes up to 20c a gallon but normally anything from 2c to 6c a gallon cheaper) and the queues are crazy there. It has always been a gas station that is busy but this is just rediculous.
Sometimes empty shelves in the supermarkets - nothing drastic but not something that ever used to happen on a regular basis at Stop and Shop before and it is getting very annoying. Also, over the years I have got to know many of the staff and we have quite a laugh. They normally have a smile for me and ask how everyone is - not anymore. Grumpy, not interested, and the shop was quiet and it was Friday! That place is never quiet on a Friday.
I haven't noticed a huge decrease in the number of people in my classes at college but then I don't think it will have an effect on that until next semester. Those that pay up front for their college fees had paid for it before the price hikes and those that pay as they go won't really have a problem until the end of this year when they haven't paid their bill and need to pay the next one. However, with it being a state college, unless there is a really issue, the college will let them carry on into the next semester, putting their fees on top of what they already owe. The problem will come at graduation time - they can't graaduate/pick up their degree until all fees are paid.
Maybe peoples lives have just gotten so overwhelming busy that they've cut out some things. You know both parents working etc.
Or maybe the price of gas is really effecting people, so they are cutting back.
I'm noticing that people do save up their errands to do all in one day etc. we've not only had increases in gas, we have a shortage here.
I also see up to 20c differences between stations Ben, and just don't understand how they can do that.
Mangos yank husband here had to post. Yes-I am no economist but virtually every single raw material has had a price increase for one reason or another. Milk as simple as it may be went up about 25% why did grass get more expensive. As with lumber 25%, as with concrete and steel. All three the base raw materials for construction which is economic growth. The more building loans there is the more jobs and more cash is in circulation. Then finally gas went up 25% this is devasting to those in retirment or on a fixed income. No job or pension will increase 25%. Federal state and local government employees lower on the pay scale really are feeling the pinch $60-100 a week to fill up a week that is alot when you have two or three small children to feed which most do. Next I assure you is interest rates after Greenspan leaves office. Some knucklehead will get in there and create an excuse and they will go up to 9-12% which will be the dagger in the heart. U.S. will be in full economic recession and the 700,000,000,000.00 deficit our IDIOT president has created will need to get paid. Stock market will have a minature crash and the across the board layoffs will begin within a year or two. I am an optimist in the truest sense but the same exact thing happened in the 1960-70's in this country. I was born in 72 but you had Vietnam (Iraq) low interest rates, cars being built that got 8-10 miles a gallon (rememder the SUV craze 95-2004), lots of jobs between 1965-about 74,75 then bam war had to be paid, an excuse(OPEC) and gas skyrocketed, and the housing interest rates soared topping it all off.Yes my friends the pinch is only beginning so adjust now and be ready.
Interesting you should bring this up monster, on Friday we went to see Disney on Ice at the Hampton Colliseum; we have been every year and it is always jam-packed. This year the crowd was noticeabley thinner and we wondered if it was all down to the current gas prices and people perhaps being wary of spending more money than they already are on mortgages, car loans etc.
The kentgirl household is certainly having to tighten its belt right now; with a large construction project underway and rapidly rising costs we are not even breaking even at the moment. We are certainly cutting out unecessary travel and unnecessary expenditure.
Trips to England are on hold for the foreseeable future and Christmas spending will have to be cut.
We are going to have to invest in some thermals this winter if we are going to stay warm in the house. (
I had a delivery of heating oil on Oct 29, @$2.599/gal. 159.2 gallons for $413.76.
I bought gas for my car this morning @ $2.889/gal. I have a Saturn S1 and about 3/4 of a tank was $22.36. I'm glad I don't have a gas guzzler. I bought the gas at a Wawa and the Gulf right next to it was 3 cents more. Usually they match or charge only a penny more.
I am not so pessimistic as Mr. Mango. My oldest daughter also, was born in '72 and I remember the times well. There are many differences; the main one was that there was raging inflation because there were more jobs than people, people were moving from one job to another for more pay but not producing more; we have the reverse of that situation now. The fed puts up the interest rates to control inflation, if there is low inflation or if it is due to outside influence, they will go easy. I am retired and I don't drive nearly as far as I did before i retired, and the same is true for most of my friends, however the price of everything we buy is affected by inceased fuel cost.
Gas prices are creeping up on the maximum price back in the 70s, measured in real terms, but I think they have not reached those prices except in spots and for only a short duration.
We're definitely sucking it in and tightening our belts....not only have gas prices starting going back up again, we're pretty concerned about home heating fuel oil prices here in New England. This is my first experience with having to deal with it (last place we were in, we rented and it was included) and deal with the vendors and wondering how much it's going to end up costing us just to keep the house heated this winter. If this winter is ANYTHING like last winter, it's going to be pretty costly!
I've got a friend who decided to stay home with her newborn last year and has since started her own daycare to avoid the cost of commuting, however she's now wondering whether or not she's going to be able to keep their house warm enough this winter for the 3 kiddies she cares for, plus her own little one. She's debating raising her prices, but knows that the parents who leave their kids with her are already having a hard enough time meeting costs as it is.
I'm going to Baltimore this weekend to get together with friends and have decided to rent a little economy car rather than deal with the expense of filling up the swedish beastie. I'm anxious to see what gas prices are while driving through NH, MA, NY, NJ, and MD compared to here in Maine - if there is any difference.
Sadly to say, it is only going to get worse. You just can not continue to spend at the rate the government is doing so without it ultimately having a major negative effect.
The only pleasure I get these days in regards to politics is when I find out that the person complaining about prices etc is a republican.
I was just wondering if anyones gas/electric bills have gone up significantly already?
I was paying about $100 per month for gas/electric in our old house and recently moved. We physically moved half way through August. We still received a bill for $100 even though we were really only there for two weeks and the house stood empty for the other two weeks. I've just got another bill where they have recalculated for that month that I owe an extra $30 due to the fact they did an estimated meter reading.
I'm thinking that the energy company (monopoly where we have to get both gas and electricity through them) are just gouging.
I was just wondering if anyones gas/electric bills have gone up significantly already?
I was paying about $100 per month for gas/electric in our old house and recently moved. We physically moved half way through August. We still received a bill for $100 even though we were really only there for two weeks and the house stood empty for the other two weeks. I've just got another bill where they have recalculated for that month that I owe an extra $30 due to the fact they did an estimated meter reading.
I'm thinking that the energy company (monopoly where we have to get both gas and electricity through them) are just gouging.
I'm confused, you appear to live in what, being a vurrener frum Englun, I would call Cornwall, but you posted in dollars. That sounded like a rip off, do you not have a way to check there numbers, or did the cost include a fee for cutting the service?
I was just wondering if anyones gas/electric bills have gone up significantly already?
I was paying about $100 per month for gas/electric in our old house and recently moved. We physically moved half way through August. We still received a bill for $100 even though we were really only there for two weeks and the house stood empty for the other two weeks. I've just got another bill where they have recalculated for that month that I owe an extra $30 due to the fact they did an estimated meter reading.
I'm thinking that the energy company (monopoly where we have to get both gas and electricity through them) are just gouging.
Yes and how and what's worse they're set to go up a huge jump later in the year. Thank you Ahnold.
Back to wood fires if I can get some wood before their prices go up. :roll:
Back to wood fires if I can get some wood before their prices go up. :roll:
Ah.. the pleasure of a wood fireplace, enough wood on the ground to last 5 years and a 28 ton log splitter :)
why did grass get more expensive?
Yes.
Yes it did.
:o
Sorry Londonsquare, I ought to edit my profile to say I'm now in Colorado, USA )