Cost of Everything About to Go Up

Feb 21, 2011

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CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - You paid more last month for practically everything you bought.

From food to gas to airfare tickets - even clothing.

And now the price of everything is about to go up again.

A new report from The Labor Department indicates its concern about inflation, and businesses are claiming they can't absorb the rising cost of commodities alone. Many say they'll have no choice but to raise prices and shrink packages. Frustrating stuff for an economy that's supposed to be recovering.

"Things are just not going well," says Charlotte resident Lisa Bettinghouse. "You have to eat, but you can only have what you can afford, and now it's getting scary."

Bettinghouse needs a plan. She'll be asking herself tough questions, and so should you.

What things should you stock up on now?

What things can you do without?

Take bottled water. Every time you purchase one of these, you already pay a 4,000% markup. Time to reevaluate your tap.

And you should also rethink fruits and vegetables. Right now many stores fly them in, and with the price of fuel, well, you know how expensive they already are.

Charlotte resident Jonathan Weber says he'll fight the rising costs by sticking to one rule: buy local.

"Local food is important," Weber says, "because when you consider the transport cost of importing food from Mexico or bringing it across country from California that really is sort of a hidden cost."

There are a spattering of farmers markets around town, and this summer, thirty local food vendors will move in to the old Reid's spot uptown.

And when it comes to combating costs, don't forget about another product of our times - all those money-saving coupon sites.