671–680 of 918 posts
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Careful with that last line. Toward the end Trump was making some serious moves towards not accepting the outcome of the election, and the idea that the election was "stolen" is still the going line in Trump circles. Say what you will about the Biden administration, at least it's not threatening to burn the house down out of spite.
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I'm planning on getting a bike to commute to work. I don't have a car right now and also don't really want to buy one because it's a huge expense. My only regret is that it's much harder to get groceries with a bike so I might end up walking instead for that.
Just get panniers
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I'm riding my bike a lot more to get places, rather than just for recreation; and it seems this is true for many around me as well.
But when you think about it, what’s the benefit of driving? For reasonably short drives you don’t save much time with parking in cities and you don’t get any exercise.
"In the fall of 1972, President Nixon announced that the rate of increase of inflation was decreasing. This was the first time a sitting president used the third derivative to advance his case for reelection." - Civ5
Would that be third derivative or just second? My brain doesn’t want to parse that
Great. All I know is I'm trading a lot more time for money this year. Way less takeout, avoiding toll roads unless it saves at least 30 minutes, fewer streaming services (will renew on a show-by-show basis), and food is getting so crazy I might start going to multiple stores to try and save money instead of my one consolidated trip to Wegmans. I'm also stuffing my freezer with meat and have a year's supply of non-per…
If you live in the USA, a Costco membership is very worth it.
- Too many items force you to buy insane quantities that don't make sense even for a 4 person family. The meat, for example, is great quality and value, but it's very hard to make steak or chicken taste good after being frozen, and in no universe should I be eating 4 huge steaks within the refrigeration shelf life. I can never use their giant tub of sour cream or shredded cheese before it goes bad.
- Related to the last point, Costco makes you pay for the square footage in your home to store their stuff, and to really utilize the membership you're gonna want a chest freezer, a whole extra appliance to purchase, run (electricity), and repair. Probably about $50/year in electricity costs.
- Too many of the items that are "great deals" are things most people would probably never buy in the first place when sold at the normal higher retail price. For example, Red Bull is barely over a dollar a can, which is unbeatable, but in no universe should I be buying a 24 pack of Red Bull for any reason.
- Similar to the point above, Costco's deals encourage consumption where the alternative is to not consume anything at all. For example, paper towels are an item where you really should just reduce your usage. Just use dish towels and cloth napkins, toss them in with your regular laundry. There are very few messes where you actually need to use paper towels.
- I know it's not supposed to be a replacement for a grocery store, but I think it's very hard to cook from scratch using whole and minimally-processed foods solely from what Costco sells.
- The low SKU count of the store has never not been infuriating to me. The entire health and beauty section is the worst offender here: good luck having any sort of preference.
- The store wastes your time by making you memorize aisle layout, this is done on purpose to increase aimless browsing time.
- The negotiation practices that Costco uses to keep prices low also causes their inventory to be incredibly inconsistent. One day there will be a pallet of Legos or an interesting brand of trail mix, the next it could be gone or replaced by something else.
- Costco is almost always packed with an uncomfortable amount of people.
- Am I the only one who thinks Costco doesn't have enough cat supplies?? It's all stuff for dogs!! You'd think I should be saving so much money by using Costco for cat litter but...nope, the stuff I buy at Target is about the same cost, they'll deliver it for free in two days, and Costco doesn't sell any form of unscented cat litter product.
- Their lauded snack bar is trash food and I don't believe the common refrain that it's a loss leader. Costco brags about that as a PR exercise. It breaks even at the very least.
- If your Costco is able to sell beer/wine/liquor, that's a pretty nice perk that can pretty legitimately make up for the membership cost over a year, but anyone with a really legit liquor warehouse type of store (e.g., Binny's) isn't going to be massively impressed. Low SKU count is still a problem here, and I don't actually think Costco is that great at curating wines (another PR exercise they like to engage in).
- Don't forget that you have to pay $60 a year just to get in the door. You have to buy enough discounted things to make up for that difference. Sure, it probably makes more sense than Amazon Prime, but that's still a major point to think about.
I think the only reason to be a member is to buy diapers, you'll make up the membership cost very quickly that way. Still, if you can tolerate lower quality diapers, Target's brand is actually lower cost than Kirkland. There are a number of Costco products out there where other store brands offer something at a close-enough price and quality ratio, without having to shell out a membership fee. For many products it might not actually matter that "Kirkland is the best."
"In the fall of 1972, President Nixon announced that the rate of increase of inflation was decreasing. This was the first time a sitting president used the third derivative to advance his case for reelection." - Civ5
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I don't think anyone serious is taking this as anything more than mildly encouraging.
The monthly figure dropping to 0% inflation (0.3% core) is about as encouraging as you could possibly have on the inflation front. The main moderating factor on that is that one month doesn't necessarily mean a sustained trend.
This is a single number in a noisy series of measurements. If it repeats 1-2 more times, we're on firmer ground.
Great. All I know is I'm trading a lot more time for money this year. Way less takeout, avoiding toll roads unless it saves at least 30 minutes, fewer streaming services (will renew on a show-by-show basis), and food is getting so crazy I might start going to multiple stores to try and save money instead of my one consolidated trip to Wegmans. I'm also stuffing my freezer with meat and have a year's supply of non-per…
So I know I can make 65 an hour with side jobs. I've got a few side gigs where I can set my own schedule and work those hours at any time. I could probably push higher if I wanted (75-100 an hour). When I need to pad my savings I cut some costs but mostly I just work extra hours in side gigs. I couldnt imagine its worth going to multiple grocery stores to compare prices. Shop at 1 store, pay more for some items, work…
"In the fall of 1972, President Nixon announced that the rate of increase of inflation was decreasing. This was the first time a sitting president used the third derivative to advance his case for reelection." - Civ5
The suggestion seems to be "yes", and that he was playing a game of telling a literal truth that was not however the good news 99.9% of the electorate would take it to be.