Did the weekend ‘Co sopping (WinCo and CostCo) and since gas is, thus far, cheapest up at CostCo I filled up there. Mind you, I still had 3/4 of a tank of gas…but I filled up because its a uncertain thing about where the price of gas is going to go, so…err on the side of frugality and caution. For the record, it was $3.89/gal. when pretty much every place in twon was $4.10. Heck of a time to be living in when we view $3.89 gas as a bargain.
CostCo itself was unremarkable. There was rice, toilet paper, pasta, water…no signs indicating purchasing limits. So far, so good. I suspect that most people who would be inclined to stock up have already done so.
A friend of mine hit the LDS cannery the other day. It was reported back to me that they were out of quite a bit of stuff and they were a bit dodgy about letting how much inventory they had on hand be known.
Me, I’m a fairly satisfied camper. I’m good on pretty much everything although it’s not a bad thing to gild the lily by having a bit more on hand than anticipated to be necessary.
I’m thinking that as inflation starts hitting people where they live, and interest rates go up, the housing market is going to cool down and prices may start coming down. I’m going to go ahead and stay on my course to buy some property at the end of this year but who knows if the world will accommodate and not blow itself up before then.
I can’t really say what the rest of the year is going to look like but it won’t be boring…pretty sure about that.
Re: housing market
If we accept the government’s claim of 8% inflation, I wonder at what point lenders will realize the insanity of lending someone $400k for 30 years at 5%?
It’s a guaranteed loss. Clown-world never ceases to prove me wrong, but I would imagine at some point, mortgage rates will roar past 8% to a historical norm of 9% to 11%.
The banks get that money from the Fed for something like 2%. So lending at 5% for a 3% profit for handling the paperwork is pretty good for them. (VERY gross and simplistic numbers i am using here, but that is the principle at work). The only thing that is real money (assuming dollars are real money) is the reserve %age on the loan that the bank has to keep ‘on hand’.
I appreciate that possibility, but even with 8% inflation (grossly understated), it’s still a loss. I don’t see how this can go on.
Lowest I see gas price for regular unleaded is $3.76 a gallon in deep south Texas RGV. My GMC pickup has a 26 gallon tank and it takes $30 to take it to full when gauge is reading 3/4 mark. Damn, $120 for a full tank of gas. Multi-tasking is definitely done here. Very lucky work is just over 7 miles from where I hang my hat.
Saw a meme this morning telling that when a driver ran out of gas and called insurance for roadside assistance, the insurance company just totaled the car. Probably not far from the truth in Kalifornia, Hawaii and Alaska.
We thought we bought our house at the peak of the market in 2008. It’s probably more than doubled in value since.
We just took possession of a house and property in a rural area as a vacation getaway/BOL and feel like we paid up, certainly far more than we would have liked, and much more than we would have a couple of years ago. We feel lucky to have gotten it at all, despite the large amounts of work it needs.
We felt like the money was losing purchasing power to inflation at an ever increasing rate, and it’s much safer to store up our life’s effort (saved money) in real property.
I guess this is all to say, it’s hard to time the market. If you find something that meets your needs and you can swing it, go for it.
n
$3.89’s no fun?
Have I mentioned how much fun $6/gal isn’t?
Just got back home from the UK – gas (petrol) prices are the equivalent of $6+ a gallon….
They aren’t exactly amused either Aesop….
I question why it’s difficult to find a 1/2 ton GM pickup,
Then wonder why they are 50k plus….
Cheap Wrangler, 35k.
Yes purchasing power for working class is meeting reality…
I’ve been driving around from Houston north for the past couple of weeks and prices for gas seem to have stabilized around $3.89/gal. DIESEL though, is anywhere from 90c to $1.20 MORE than gasoline.
That’s crazy, and not good news for trucking, or those of us who buy anything moved by truck or grown using farm machines…. ie. ALL of us.
Stack all the things, it’s not getting better soon.
n
Brownell’s has shotgun primers in stock, financing available.
Costco five pack of Colgate toothpaste, were 8+ oz. tubes are now less than 6 oz. Arggggg…