Things have not really improved since the gasoline prices skyrocketed a few years ago. Yes, I know they have since came back down, but it is kind of distracting to what happened. When the price shot up even my job was affected. I paid more to get back and forth to work, and my job froze all raises citing their increased fuel costs. We started paying more for everything from our groceries to our clothes, and even our electricity rate and other utilities climbed in price. Everyone was citing how the gas prices were costing them more money. They did that to make more money, but I got froze out of a raise but still had to pay more for everything.
People kind of took it in stride just trying to get through their days, but the impact is still being felt. The lowered prices on fuel feel like a discount, but that is like doubling the price of food for a couple of years then lowering it quickly to make people think things are getting better. You still are paying more, just not that ridiculously doubled price. However, have you noticed that since the fuel prices went down that the cost of everything else is still up? The market will charge what the people will pay. I just got proactive in finding the lowest prices for the things we do and use from our electricity rate to the food we put on our table.
I had to learn how to go for the lowest price and not just buy things for convenience sake. Speaking of convenience, we are even careful about buying anything at a convenience store. It is so much better to pay a discount price and get more. For example, I chew gum and a pack is almost two bucks at a convenience store and $2.50 for three big packs at the grocery store. As a family, we just make better choices with our money. This even includes getting a better per kilowatt hour on our electricity rate as well as paying less for our natural gas. We find savings where we can, and we choose to work to not pay full price.
