inflation

[mendeleev 68]

My wife has gone back to Russia to visit her mom and all the rest. She had been gone only 7 months.

She reports that prices for a lot of basic foods have just about doubled. To humor me, she's keeping grocery receipts for us to review back here. We'll do the same when we return in November.

But it sounds as though the situation for pensioners who are on their own is completely terrible. Things aren't a cake walk here, but we sure do have it easier!

Just wondering what others here are hearing and how you are responding.

[bruc 0]

My wife has gone back to Russia to visit her mom and all the rest. She had been gone only 7 months.

She reports that prices for a lot of basic foods have just about doubled. To humor me, she's keeping grocery receipts for us to review back here. We'll do the same when we return in November.

But it sounds as though the situation for pensioners who are on their own is completely terrible. Things aren't a cake walk here, but we sure do have it easier!

Just wondering what others here are hearing and how you are responding.

I'm hearing this from a lot of my friends that either have wives or fiances. I've had to up the financial help a little with my fiance because of the grocery prices going up.

I was over for a visit recently and from a previous thee month visit I could tell a big difference in the grocery prices increasing and it seemed the Ruble was down on us also.

bruc

[eekee 182]

yes, prices for food and everything else have gone up a lot. But as far as food goes, i find that if i go far from the center of the city (spb), things aren't that much more expensive than they were a year ago. Where I live prices have gone up a lot, so i do my big food shopping 10 km away or so.

[slim 1,525]

No problems for my wife's family. Her mom and sis still have boyfriends that take care of them, so they should be fine.

She did mention something the other day about buying her mom a new washing machine. The good news is her sis is going to cover 1/2 the cost so that boyfriend of hers must be a pretty nice guy!

I'm not sure who's going to cover our 1/2 though..... no rich boyfriend here. Yet. (I keep telling her if there is one to have him pay the rent too. So far, no takers.)

[Satellite 1]

inflation, how severely is it hitting your family over there?

Forget them, I have enough problems with inflation from gasoline and food right here in the United States.

[LvivLovers 39]

Inflation is a big problem in Ukraine right now too. They are pegged to the US dollar, so that doesn't help things.

[Kazan' Tiger 1]

Alla has told that prices have "grown up many" but they all seem to be doing okay.

[Ilya R. 0]

Prices in St. Petes are out of control, food is like gold

[visaveteran 1]

The real issue will be the rise in airfares...which will soon be beyond the average person's budget.

[eekee 182]

Today I read an article about the results of an opinion poll of whether the Russian goverment should introduce food stamps, and a full 28 percent of respondents felt that food stamps were something they personally needed.

[bruc 0]

The real issue will be the rise in airfares...which will soon be beyond the average person's budget.

I called Delta this morning to make reservations for August to fly back to my girls and was a little surprised to find the tickets were only a little over $1400 from Atlanta to Moscow. I remember paying $1200.00 this time last year. My last trip a couple of months ago was about the same price of $1400.00. I went ahead and made more reservations for October and the tickets were $1200.00. This could be the end of that fare and it could explode even higher.

I have a friend flying back to Ukraine to visit his girl about the same time in August and his ticket was over $2000.00 and he tells me an increase of $800.00 from his last visit. He has to fly to JFK and connect there to Kiev.

My fiance told me that one of her girl friends fiance has had to postpone his trip to her until winter rates because of the increase in the fares.

The economy where I live, mountain resort area construction being the major industry, has been totally dead for a year and we see it not improving.

I'm an architectual engineer and where 90% pf my business comes from this area I'm now having to reach into several more areas to find work to have something to do.

I know a lot of people that have stop flying because of the increase in airfares and trying to keep their businesses alive via the internet and phone.

It's tough right now and some of us think maybe we haven't even got started good going downhill due a lot to the price of oil now.

bruc

[slim 1,525]

Airfare is weird.

[bruc 0]

Airfare is weird.

[/q

Sometimes I think my fiance is weird too

[Thomas-n-Elena 0]

Airfare is strange I sent my wife and son to south carolina for 2 weeks to visit my sister and I found a ticket for 300 round trip from grand rapids to charlotte NC. The first one I found was 1100 and then 800 and then 300.

Just because a country's money is based on the dollar doesnt always mean that food prices will go up, oil is having a large effect on food prices all over the world because of added cost of seed, running farm equip etc. Its staggering what oil speculation has done to mess things up.

[russ 1]

Trans Atlantic tickets are usually cheapest October to May, as fewer people want to go. Airlines lower the prices to fill the seats (your $1400 loses less money than an empty seat does). On long haul flights, they don't have the option of using smaller equipment to cut costs during the off season.

Inflation adjusted, tickets are about where they were 20 years ago. Which is expensive. 4 years ago, the first time I was in Russia, I managed to go roundtrip on BA for $700. About $700 for us on Delta last year too. This year, I guess it will be frequent flier miles. (50,000 Delta miles is still a good deal, even though you get nickel and dimed - $50 booking fee, $200 in taxes, $25 telephone fee, etc)

Jet A was 34 CENTS a gallon 8 years ago, and about 4 DOLLARS a gallon now. The airport across the street from my house is charging almost $7! Ouch! Long Haul flights (like Russia) are inherently less fuel efficient, since the extra weight from the fuel means carrying yet more fuel. When oil gets to $200 a barrel, at least it should start cutting demand, and boosting output - which should in theory start to lower prices...

I called Delta this morning to make reservations for August to fly back to my girls and was a little surprised to find the tickets were only a little over $1400 from Atlanta to Moscow. I remember paying $1200.00 this time last year. My last trip a couple of months ago was about the same price of $1400.00. I went ahead and made more reservations for October and the tickets were $1200.00. This could be the end of that fare and it could explode even higher.