With the virus isolation and economic shutdown there is a strong recommendation that a person have a budget in place and a plan for the economic stimulus money they will be receiving. Their recommendation is that consideration be given to the fact that the shutdown will last several months. Your family may need the money to supplement your current expenses if the shutdown continues for an extended time. At any rate it is a good time to prepare a family budget based on what you currently have. Virtually all families have had their financial situation altered with the shutdown. That means you need to prepare a new budget based on what you know at the present time.

The header photo was taken at Eloy, Arizona at the Arizona Sky Diving Facility. The military uses the facility on occasion to train paratroopers. The day I took the header photo three planeloads of soldiers were taken up and dropped. They came down rather close together in a circle and all landed at almost the same time. Individual sky divers come down from all directions and land on a grassy field that looks like a football field. People come from all over the world to skydive at Eloy, Arizona. They have large number of planes available and have skydiving from early morning to dusk and also some night sky diving activities. The cost to skydive tandem is $199, or if you are an experienced skydiver and have your own equipment, it is only $25 for the plane to take you to 13,000 feet for the dive. Beginning sky divers jump from 5,000 feet several times before being taken to 13,000 feet. Tandem drops have the inexperienced skydiver attached to the the experienced skydiver and uses a much larger shute. The passenger usually lands on their butt and slide along the ground. The experienced divers come down and touch the ground running in a standing position for a few steps before the shute collapses.

THE COST OF SERVICE
On the local TV station in the Phoenix area it did a study of the cost of service for various grocery chains. Safeway, Frys( A Kroger store), Basha’s, and Walmart. If a person enters their grocery order on line for pick up at the designated area for that store , in most cases the prices on many items are listed higher on line than they are in the store. For example several items at Safeway had been marked up as much as $1 more than the in store prices. The survey selected the same items for each store Basha’s was $92, Safeway was $82, Frys was $74, and Walmart did not mark their prices up for pickup orders, it was $65. That is a high price to pay so you can conveniently drive in the parking lot and pick up your groceries.

It will be interesting to see what Amazon’s new “GO” stores charge in relation to the grocery stores. As I understand it, the customer goes into the store and selects the items they want from shelves that only have one item for each grocery item that can be scanned on your phone. Based on the items the customer scans that will be the order sent to the designated address. If you look at grocery item prices on the Amazon Website , the vendors they have do charge more than most items cost at other grocery stores.

It is handy to shop for fruit and vegetable items in grocery stores but some items may have highly inflated prices, particularly if they are out of season. In Apache Junction, Arizona there is a produce store that has produce that may be ripe or over ripe in some cases but the price for most items is very cheap. We have purchased a large number of items , like peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, pineapples, abacatos, onions, lemons, oranges, and grapefruits, and found that for less than $20 we were able to get a collection of items that would have cost twice that at a super market. There may be fruit stands or produce markets in your area that offer a better alternative than the super market? Sprout’s has beautiful produce but the prices are probably higher than the super markets. The customer is paying for a higher grade of produce than a super market.

From late December to the end of March , the price of oranges, lemons, and grapefruits are very reasonable in Arizona. We go to B & B Oranges in Mesa , Arizona, a big box of orange seconds is only $17. We have an electric juicer and juice them up for orange juice, it is truly great. If you get the #1 oranges , the price is $24 a box. The seconds may be a little smaller and some may be a little marred on the outside but they are just as good. The grapefruits are also cheaper than in the super market.

We live in a mountain area of Colorado in the summer where milk costs about $3.50 a gallon and bread costs $3 a loaf. Compare that to Arizona where you can purchase milk regularly for $2.00 a gallon, bread for $1 a loaf. On Wednesday is senior day at one of the chains and they offer 10% off for all items to seniors. The stores uses the low priced milk and bread to get the customer in the store. Also gasoline prices vary widely city to city. In Apache Junction and Mesa, Arizona, regular unleaded gasoline is currently $3.07 a gallon , in Casa Grande Arizona the price for the same gasoline is $2.43 a gallon, and in northern Colorado gasoline can be found at $1.99 a gallon. It pays to shop around to look for better gasoline prices. Also the cents off per gallon offered based on purchases from Kroger stores and Safeway can reduce the cost per gallon. Costco offers a lower per gallon cost on mid-grade and high grade gasoline but does not offer the lower grade gasoline in some areas.

When you attend sporting events , eat at home or in the motel or hotel before you get to the ballpark. The cost of food at ballparks and theaters is out of this world. It can cost as much a a $100 a person for the ticket and the food purchased at the major league baseball game.

GOOD LUCK FINDING THE BEST COMBINATION OF STORES AND STATIONS IN YOUR AREA TO SAVE YOU MONEY HELP YOU WITH YOUR FAMILY BUDGET

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