In Cairns a rort developed over the past couple of years regarding courier services. businesses which previously delivered for a reasonable fee now have to use couriers with a standard $90 charge. Buy a tin of paint from a hardware store or a strip of aluminium for $25 & pay $ 90 to have it taken to another transport agent to take it to Mareeba/Atherton & there goes another $25-30.
Bunnings charged $50 last year, don't know how much it is now.

We are trying to start a "community garden" with the help of the local council. We have a site of private land which the council is hopefully able to purchase. Stage 1 a bloody big fence.

On the score of supermarkets; Involved in the 'SecondBite' program with Coles, and similar with Woolworths, Aldi have a program through Oz Harvest I believe. Estimated we receive $75k a year in usable product from the 'Big Two' and we are only a small charity, 22 volunteers, serving the local community only. Volunteers pick up from each supermarket 5 days a week, fruit & veg, bakery items, dairy, lots of stuff. Waste is huge, particularly items such as bread, we take about 20% only in that department, can't store it. A new thing with Coles sees their excess bread going to reprocessing as animal feed. Also receive donations of items from the supermarkets for "special occasions" like our Woolies only yesterday donated about $200 worth of soft-drinks etc off the shelf for our 'July Hot Lunch', for 90 or so, the local RSL donated the meal. There are a lot of businesses and organisations out there that do help people.

BTW There is a new breed of poor, call it the "wealthy poor", young families who have a big house and flash car etc, kids at school but can't pay the rent or mortgage, yep the wealthy poor they now exist.

The fact remains: supermarkets operate on a profit of 2-3%. If I had money to invest it wouldn't go into a supermarket.

The big profits - 30% - 100% - are in the fashion industry and stuff that we don't actually need to survive.

We should be grateful that investors are willing to take such miserable profits so that we don't have to go back to hunting and gathering to survive; or slave away on a bit of ground to feed ourselves, as is still the case in many Third World countries,

Governments have tried, with obvious success among the non-thinking drones, to make enemies of supermarkets. That’s part of the typical totalitarianism that takes our minds of what the totalitarians themselves are up to.

Personally, I cannot say that I have been affected by the supposed increases in the cost of food. And, I couldn't comment on how other people manage unless I knew how well they managed their finances, what their priorities are, and if they BUDGET.

Without that knowledge, I remain convinced that the CPI hysteria is just another 'look-over-there' tactic of bad government trying to avert attention from their own rip-offs and corruption: such as mass immigration, the real cause of Australians becoming poorer than we should be.

Hey Paul,
Whats the name of the church in Wynnum where you're at again?
I have a friend whose doing it tough atm and could genuinely use some help.
I know she's planning a run at the local charities.

"Am I alone here or do others feel the same?"

No, you're not the only one. There are millions of people as economically illiterate as you.

I always like to remind people that the current inflationary uplift dates back to the lockdown mania where billions (yes B) of dollars were splashed around for people to do nothing. The country never recovered and still struggles to recover.

At the time of the lockdowns this was easily predicted. But the lockdowns continued and were enthusiastically supported by the majority of the population.

So if you supported the lockdowns or supported those who implemented the lockdowns, don't go looking for scapegoats for the current inflation - you're the cause.

And it ain't over yet -the nation will be paying for the lockdown lunacy for a generation. Economic suicide is always a choice.

Hi AC,

Its through the Anglican Church, have a look, you'll find it. BTW, Coles this morning, logged in 60kg F&V and 20kg bakery, no bread wanted today. Woolies soon. p/s Get a lot of eggs, with 1 broken in carton, get fresh milk just on used by date, The 'Old Man' always said these use by dates were a marketing ploy to get you to buy more, milk kept cold will generally go a week beyond UBD. Also Best Before Date, has up to 90 days on top for some items.