{"id":1010,"date":"2025-09-13T18:31:30","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T18:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.budgethomepage.com\/blog\/?p=1010"},"modified":"2025-10-04T16:36:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T16:36:06","slug":"things-i-had-to-give-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.budgethomepage.com\/blog\/?p=1010","title":{"rendered":"Things I Had to Give Up in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Because of inflation in the past 12 months, I have had to stop spending on non-essential items. Here is the list of things that I have had to give up spending money on in 2025:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Dinning Out &#8211; First it was full-service restaurants, then we had to cut fast food. If we do get fast food, its only because we have a coupon. We used to eat out once a week, now we are lucky to get fast food once a month. Prices exceed the quality of the food you get, and the value just isn&#8217;t what it used to be.<\/li><li>Alcoholic beverages &#8211; I used to enjoy a beer or mixed drink while sitting out on our deck. That has been replaced with a glass of soda or juice on ice. The beer that I used to buy was lower tier. But prices have increased, and I can no longer afford to buy alcohol. Soda pop is less expensive than beer, for now.<\/li><li>Gambling &#8211; No visits to the local horse track this season, which breaks a ten-year streak. We visited the local Indian casino a few times early in the year. But have no desire to go back, despite the free hotel rooms and free gifts they offer. We can&#8217;t afford to risk losing any of our money right now.<\/li><li>Traveling &#8211; No trips in the past 4 years. I only drive to local destinations about once per week. This has saved a lot of money on fuel and vehicle maintenance. Both vehicles are also getting old (15 and 18 years). <\/li><li>Red Meat &#8211; The only red meat we buy now is hamburger. No more steak or roasts. We buy only enough chicken and pork to cover 4 or 5 meals. We have only used our gas grill a few times this year.<\/li><li>Stocking Up &#8211; We used to always have a full pantry. Not anymore. Our budget only allows us to have about 7 or 8 days of food on hand. I remember not too long ago when it was easy to fill the freezer and pantry with food to last for three or four weeks. Now our freezer is 90% empty and pantry shelves are 50% bare. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>You might think this is a good list of things to give up. I&#8217;m probably eating healthier and staying clear of a potential gambling addiction. But I have also had to give up routine doctor and dental visits. The health insurance I have is only for emergency use. There are potential out-of-pocket expenses that I can&#8217;t afford. I don&#8217;t look forward to replacing our vehicles. A 4-year-old used car costs between $25k &#8211; $30k depending on the make and model. My 15-year-old Honda isn&#8217;t going to be worth anything in trade. I&#8217;m retired and only have $15k in annual income, they probably won&#8217;t give me a loan, at least not one with good terms. I have two more years before I claim Social Security. By that time, the extra monthly income will be absorbed by inflation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Because of inflation in the past 12 months, I have had to stop spending on non-essential items. Here is the list of things that I have had to give up spending money on in 2025: Dinning Out &#8211; First it was full-service restaurants, then we had to cut fast food.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.budgethomepage.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.budgethomepage.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.budgethomepage.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.budgethomepage.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.budgethomepage.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1010"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.budgethomepage.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1027,"href":"http:\/\/www.budgethomepage.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010\/revisions\/1027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.budgethomepage.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.budgethomepage.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.budgethomepage.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}