This weekend was a hot mess :( We were supposed to host a picnic for Memorial Day this weekend providing the hot dogs and Italian sausages, but I came down with some kind of stomach thing on Saturday, which meant I couldn't host. All that cleaning and work went to waste, and I sent the meat over to the person who volunteered to host instead, so we ended up not having a nice picnic or getting any yummy food. Luckily we had some leftover stuff and the meals I had put back in the cupboard for just such an occasion. It also meant we missed all of the Memorial parades and activities because I was waiting for the next victim to drop, and drop they did.
So today is Tuesday, I am still trying to recover from the virus, and take care of the kids because I can't go to work and they can't go to childcare. I miss at least 2 days of work this week and I still haven't gone grocery shopping. I had no idea my little emergency cupboard would come in handy so quick. I haven't made a menu plan yet, half of us don't feel like eating, so we are hitting the ramen, crackers and peanut butter pretty hard. I am so grateful to have this option and that my husband can make those emergency meals work.
While being home, I have been reading a lot of news and am getting really nervous about the articles on our local news station’s page talking about meat prices going up, food prices going up and no one being sure what is going to happen with inflation. Our local Farmers to Families boxes have ended, as well as the local library program that gave away a week's worth of snacks. I worry about the people in my area. Our local food banks are all filled by donations, which come from our neighbors. Our area is not full of Richey Riches, so prices raising exponentially will affect everyone along the line. People who can afford to be generous will be less likely to be generous, those of us keeping our heads above water will be closer to the edge and starting to really struggle, and those who depend on the food pantries will have even less access to food. People on food stamps, Snap, Ebt, their benefits will buy even less food. This is not good. Not to mention what might happen to our little grocery store and it's employees. We already have limited resources in our area, mainly the Dollar General, a handful of gas stations that sell some foods, and our little grocery store. It would be devastating for our area if the store had to close.
I have hope that something will turn around before it gets to a catastrophic point, but in the mean time, I am going to try to replace our emergency meals and do what I can to find a way to figure out how to deal with the rising prices.
What have you seen prices go up on? Do you have any strategies you are going to employ to help ease the new costs?
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