Food producers announce price increases

"...Prices of staples including milk, beef, coffee, cocoa and sugar have risen sharply in recent months. And food makers and retailers including McDonald's Corp., Kellogg Co. and Kroger Co. have begun to signal that they'll try to make consumers shoulder more of the higher costs for ingredients.

For food executives, how quickly to pass along higher costs presents difficult choices. Missteps could be costly when the economy...."

Per the Wall Street Journal

There is a window to stock up now on staples before these preplanned price increases take effect, unless of course one believes the money can be invested elsewhere for a higher return than the price increases will be, right now it appears to be anywhere from 3% for companies and 4 dollars on 1 pd of premium beef.

Thank you helicopter Ben, now armed with information, I'd expect a buy of staples as not even pasta and rice will escape this round of price inflation and Coffee seen as a daily staple inside the US will certainly see even more of a price increase as the dollar's decline will make importing Coffee even more expensive as well as piggy back price increase by coffee producers that they will blame on the declining dollar.

Knife Sharpening.

Well, if you have time to watch TV, you have time to sharpen all of your utensils. A sharp knife means less effort is needed to use as well as being a nice helper when you are deboning a chicken thigh or a fish or what have you.

This a video on how to use a wheeled knife sharpener these do a fine job especially on longer blades and charming cheapy flea market blades.

The old fashioned way, a wet stoned pocket knife

For a prepper, or Frugalist, how to use a cinder block to sharpen a knife

How to use some commercial systems such as a Lansky

How to fix a blade with a chip in it with a stone

Wet stone maintenance

Learn to sharpen your own blades, scissors, shovels, hatchets, what have you, so they perform the way they should when you reach for them.

The Bicycle experiment

Lately I've found, with additional time on my hands, that I have a renewed interest in bicycling, a past time I loved as a young man moreso than driving an automobile. Being forced into frugality, my selection for bicycles to engage in this past time is limited to the products at the local Goodwill Thrift Store.

Which means..Huffy bicycles, at one time Huffy was just considered a lower end bike, now among bicycling purists Huffy is akin to cow flop with rims that may or may not melt when exposed to direct sunlight.

At least that is what my online research (research=lurking on Bicycle Forums and reading old posts) has shown. Undaunted, I picked up two Huffy bikes, one a Superia 15 speed, the other an ancient Santa Fe 10 speed. The Superia appears to have been what I'd politely call a "good idea at the time" bicycle, someone bought it, rode it maybe 5 times, parked it in the garage and eventually donated it to Goodwill, the tubes are fine, the tires are fine, the brakes work etc. But with air in the tires, and a relubing the crank, forks, and wheels, it was road ready from Day 1.

It also cost a whopping 12.50 cents

The Santa Fe is a different situation completely, it was more or less from the "rode hard, put away wet" category, the 1 3/8th inch tires were flat, the front derailuer does not work, the bearing were all dry as sun bleached bones, the inner tubes had holes, the rear dereaileur was out of adjustment, and to top it off, it came from an era where tires and tubes are not standardized a 26 inch road tire could mean one of 3 possibilities and no amount of googling will solve the mystery one has to try them out or take the wheel to the local bicycle shop were to enjoy the faintly patronizing looks as the innocent question of "do you have a tire to fit this rim" question is asked.

I have no intention of mentioning that it belongs to a Huffy, least wise the patronizing look turns into thinly veiled contempt as they consider this klutz in front of them basically married their Sister, or at least 1st cousin, by owning a Huffy and having the gall to walk into THEIR shop with such a piece of garbage!

Pardon the digression.

The Sante Fe cost a whopping 10 dollars, but the reality is a Huffy of that vintage is worth 100 dollars..at most. So repairs are an expense that is not going to be recouped. However the advantage the 10 speed has over the 15 speed is simple, it is a lighter, quicker bike if one has to peddle 10 miles less weight and less rolling resistance is the way to go.

I found the tires and tubes needed on Amazon.com for 32 dollars delivered which is somewhat expensive, however if the Santa Fe works I suspect that it will be ridden far more than the more durable, but heavy, Superia. 

At the end of it all, the benefit from a cost point of view will not be all that great, even with gasoline at 2.80 a gallon, my vehicle achieves 22 mpg, meaning to recoup that 42 dollars I'll have to peddle 70 miles or so to just break even and since it is the Fall heading into Winter, that seems like a tough deal to manage to accomplish. However the health benefits should not be ignored as if one does not have health, what do you have to replace it?

Free Stuff and a Cold Steel Shovel upgrade

Gentlemen sounds as if he is Australian, but his modification of the Cold Steel Special Forces Shovel are among the best I've ever seen the cord wrapped handle along with the additional pouches attached to the nylon sheath are good ideas. I've used a CS shovel for everything from camping to a coal moving device on a BBQ grill to a thrower and the CS shovel just trucked right through everything that I've thrown at it.

Ah, Kuntao Silat Footwork, Steve Gartin IS a fine teacher, but with a troubled past, as with most teacher/student relationships, both should take away what they are looking for and discard that which is unprofitable.

General Mills has announced a 5% price increase for their products.

Take advantage of opportunities, especially if you live in the Southern Portions of the US as Winter will be upon us soon and all we can wait for is Spring, and the rebirth of the Earth..5 months from now..

Federal Reserve Announces:we have to steal more value from your savings

We've all been to the movies to see an Action Film, the Hero is some supposedly highly trained merchant of death out to save the world, the villian is of course clearly delineated, suspicious laugh, psychotic small army of men willing to spend their lives etc.

That of course is Reel Life, in Real Life, they are much more difficult to spot but occasionally they do mark themselves, to whit:

Federal Reserve Open Market Committee:

"...The Committee will continue to monitor the economic outlook and financial developments and is prepared to provide additional accommodation if needed to support the economic recovery and to return inflation, over time, to levels consistent with its mandate..."

In their view, the way to fix things is to make the money you have in your pocket, bank account, piggy bank, what have you, worth much less in order to stimulate the Economy.

Basically they are planning to rob the value of your money through the silent tax of inflating the currency, now would be a great time to use a Modern Version of the Alpha Strategy to purchase items that are needed, but will be more expensive in the future as the Robber is not using a firearm, but a digital creation of US Dollars to make everyone in the United States all the more poor.

This is in addition to the news that now 1 in 7 Americans are in poverty, the highest level ever recorded, there are an additional millions barely above the poverty line via Unemployment Insurance Payments that should have expired some time ago.

However as a philosophical issue, income should never mean poverty or no poverty as it is safe to say whomever bothers to read this blog is smart enough to structure their life to have as Wealthy a lifestyle as Common Sense may provide.

From raising a garden to self improvement to recapturing that health of youth, "we" know the score no matter the promises from a politician of Nuevo Utopia, it is up to ourselves to create our own lives and it would be helpful if they stepped out of the way and allowed that to happen.

Lower Fixed Costs by any means necessary.

Welcome the Consumerist to the links at the bottom of the page

Ran across the Consumerist on Survival Blog and thought it a useful tool for those who are concerned with both saving money and receiving good value when money has to spent.

Their Shrink Ray is both funny and sad and illustrates "how" Large Food Corporations change weights and amounts of ingredients but use the same size packaging. Any consumer or modern Alpha Strategist needs to know that information as per unit cost is one of the keys to savings and value.

How the Alpha Strategy has made money for me.

Ah, Unemployment, the new American Pandemic, a terrible affliction that has reached my doorstep in the form of losing my job in the down economy. Fortunately I had a month and half of lead time before the closure and put it to work via stocking up on goods that would have to be purchased with expensive but cheap money over the upcoming months whilst the job search, or new venture is launched.

Expensive but cheap money, one asks, isn't that an oxymoron?

Allow me to explain, right now after years of working the household is well stocked with the items that make a home a home, cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, soap, toilet paper etc. as time rolls forward those items will be depleted through normal usage, to purchase replacement items two months from now, with dwindling cash reserves is quite expensive when there is no other income coming into the home. But the money is "cheap" as it was created out of nothing at all but a vague promise of "full faith and credit".

By purchasing those household items over the past two years, in bulk, the Alpha Strategy helped me to avoid the "Expensive but Cheap" conundrum, as well as sidestepping the 10% inflation on those items that has bumped prices upwards.

Reviewing my notes from 2008, a jumbo box of Surf detergent at Sam's Club in 2008 cost 14.54, today they cost over 17.00, so every box of Surf purchased in 2008 has made around 3 dollars per box..not to bad a ROI.

There is one item that has retreated in price due to Govt Subsidies, Light Bulbs, in 2009 those mercury filled, energy efficient bulbs were 9 dollars for a pack of 8, now they are 3 dollars for a pack of 8 due to Subsidies from the Govt.

Win some, lose some.