Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

Picked up another rack of steel wire shelving the other day. At the rate things are going, in terms of us stocking up on more and more items in larger and larger quantities, it was necessary. Unfortunately, CostCo must have moved to a different supplier of these made-in-China wonders because when I tried to combine the uprights with my older shelves the adjustements didnt line up properly. Spent about three hours last night assembling, dis-assembling, and then re-assembling shelves to try to get them to line up right. Finally had to get out a level and some shims but I finally got it. Major pain in the ass though. After finally giving up for the evening I plopped down in front of the computer to play Warcraft for a few horus and said “You know, sometimes being a survivalist is a major pain in the ass.” “Yeah, but think about how happy you’ll be when youre warm and fed”, was her reply. True. Still a pain, though.

Since I was moving shelving around I had to move the contents of the shelves around as well. Many of the items on the shelves have their date, purchase price and place of purchase marked on them. In this way, I can keep track of things. I noticed that on items where a price had been noted a year or so ago, and a new version had been purchased recently, prices were around10% higher. For example, ziploc bags from Costco were $9.99 a year ago and were $10.75 yesterday. About 7.5% increase from last time an amount was purchased.

So, unless you’re making 10% more than you did a year ago you are getting less value for your money these days. :::shrug::: Not much you or I can do about it except shop carefully and strategically.