Expensive!

I went grocery shopping this weekend and spent $50 at Target, $25 at Trader Joe's, $60 at Jewel-Osco. And I didn't buy much stuff (and hardly any meat), but everything is so expensive. When I was in Alabama last month, my father and I picked up a bag of Lay's at Walmart (shown below) and I couldn't believe the price was over $5....for a bag of chips. Crazy (which is why I took a picture of the price)! I'm grateful I have a job and money to buy groceries and that I only have myself to feed. I can only imagine what people with kids are spending weekly/monthly on food. And what if your kids are older kids who eat a lot? Oy vey! 

In addition to paying a lot for food and basic needs stuff like toilet paper (a whopping $9.99 for six rolls at Jewel for me), housing costs are out of control too. I just read an article in the NY Times today about how intense the bidding wars are now for homes in some areas. People are bidding $50K or more over the asking price and still being outbid on homes. I'm glad I don't have to deal with that. I couldn't compete with that kind of competition. It's brutal. I'm glad to live in my little co-op that I bought a few years ago and didn't have to get into a bidding war over (although I was outbid initially by an all-cash offer that fell through). The NY Times article showed a series of houses a couple lost out on in Austin, Texas and many of them looked like small homes that I found hard to believe anyone would bid $400K or more for. The market is insane and I feel for anyone who's out there now trying to buy a home. I know interest rates are low and people are saving more due to working from home and not having commuter and other work costs, but still.