5/25/22 Is It All In My Head?

     I was having a conversation with a friend of mine, as usual, I was complaining about the cost of gas this time.  He looked at me blankly and said, "is that really a problem or is it more psychological?"  I retorted back that I am filling my small Escape now with $50 when it used to cost me less than $20 a year ago.  Now if you only do this once a week or less, maybe it doesn't seem like a big deal, but I know Wife is more stressed because she is filling her car up 2-3 times a week, and the Telluride is now closer to $60 every time.  In his defense, his kids are grown, and his Wife is driving an electric car, so he is just filling up to come to work and home.  When Mijo was doing home school in the midst of Covid, I could go two weeks between fill-ups because I would just drive to work and home, there were no multiple trips to drop him off and pick him up, plus going to Bill Miller or Whataburger and waiting in long lines every day.  Life is much simpler when kids are not involved (but I am already tearing up thinking I'll be done being his chauffer next year).

    This can't be in my head, gas costs and everything else has to be affecting real people everywhere.  My friend over here works with me, and fortunately, we do ok, in the big picture.  How are families with normal salaries getting by?  This is something I think about all the time, like when I am getting groceries.  For a while, I was getting a pair of rib-eyes, a pair of New York Strips, some fajitas, and maybe some chicken, when Mijo was doing the home school thing, and we ate good every day.  Now, I get chicken for at least twice a week, some ground beef, for spaghetti or whatever Mexican concoction Wife comes up with, and maybe a pack of pork, but while steaks are over $10 a pound, I can't buy them, it seems wrong.  I'll do an occasional pack of fajitas on the weekends, but they do cost more than they used to.

    Which again leads me to think, I have adjusted down, to keep costs down, but what are the options for "poor" people?  Between food and gas being more expensive and then if you live in Austin, the housing market is just crazy, are more and more people just destined to live in the streets?  I see an exodus of people leaving Austin in the near future.  I hate to think I won't be living here in the future, but if the cost of living gets to be too great, we might not even be able to afford the property taxes, let alone mortgage, cost of new vehicle (at some point I need to buy myself something newer), and everything else, which I am not including fun things, like boats.  Let's face it, hardly anyone is having fun right now.