It struck me as a key survival mechanism today. In other words, don't panic. Which I did back in May, in the midst of all the covid talk, war talk, sanctions talk, economic fallout, etc., when the already high price of heating oil jumped 90 cents/gallon overnight. Thanks Xiden.
I normally fill my oil tank in July, which historically is when it's at its cheapest. But this was different. Xiden is a liar and a fool, so his claim that inflation will be transitory led me to believe the opposite.
It didn't occur to me that TPTB would manipulate the markets make it look like inflation was cooling in the runup to the midterms.
So I panicked and filled my tank in the expectation that prices would head in one direction only.
Had I waited until July, as normal, I would have saved $1/ gallon, give or take. $200+ loss.
You win some; you lose some. Do as I say; not as I do.
I did have a couple wins recently. I have a collection of parakeets (7 rescues, 3 bought) and a senegal parrot (bought 27 years ago as a companion to a wild-caught senegal, coated in soot, rescued from a basement). Keeping them well fed is part of my plan, so when seed mix nearly doubled in price, in the midst of talk of food shortages, I got moving.
Chewy had a good quality base mix at the old price, so I linked into it, but wanted to wait a bit until after my credit card rollover, when I pay it off. 10 days later when I started to purchase the mix, a message popped up; it had doubled in price. A quick search showed the same high price everywhere. Except Petco, who still had the old price. 9 bags of it, an hour away. So I added trip to Petsmart, just around the corner, to buy an additional 3 large bags of dogfood.
I now have a year’s supply of parakeet food and 3 months of dogfood laid away, with the $10 gas spread across the whole thing.
I then repeated that trick with conure food and dog food.
One of the things I do is improve the basic seed mixes with herb seeds and oat groats. In searching for those seeds I came across a company that sells bulk grains and seeds. They periodically have sales, when I stock up.
I have gotten organic, non-gmo whole oats and rye berries from “Food for Life” for as little as $3/pound in 10 pound bags. You can get them for even less at higher quantities. They also offer sprout and micro green mixes. They come in sealed plastic bags with outdates of 2026. There are other, similar companies out there, I just found this place first.
For storage, I found metal pails with lids at Lowes. Each pail looks like it will hold 2 or maybe 3 10 pound bags. I like the small size for handling and tucking away inside the house. As an alternative, I could get a couple of the big metal trash cans to hold many bags, and store those in my basement. It seems unlikely a burglar would look down there. Antique basements, dark and creepy, like something out of Adams Family!
Buddhist Proverb
keep your powder dry and your head down.
it's going to be a long , long fight.