Will Work for Food

The price of groceries

“Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again, to bring down the prices of all goods.”

“Starting the day I take the oath of office, I will rapidly drive prices down and we will make America affordable again. We’re going to make it affordable again.”

“We’re going to have prices down- I think you’re going to see some pretty drastic price reductions.”

~Donald Trump

My husband and I have five kids. All of them are out of the house, except our youngest who will start 8th grade next week. We raised three big boys, and we had to cook nightly throughout their childhood because eating out was just too expensive.

I cooked every night. They loved salmon patties and beans and rice and meatloaf. I often made breakfast for supper because eggs were cheap and biscuits and gravy filled them up.

On their own, the boys ate cereal out of mixing bowls and could devour a box of Ramen noodles in one afternoon. A loaf of bread and jars of peanut butter and jelly could disappear overnight.

They ate everything that didn’t eat them first.

After all of those years of cooking, I have to say that I don’t like the chore much anymore. The act of cooking is tedious, and the cleanup is worse. We eat a lot of “girl dinner” in my house these days. Soup or some veggies cooked in the air fryer. Popcorn or a tortilla with melted cheese. A turkey sandwich or a grilled cheese.

Sometimes I feel bad about that, and I will cook a proper supper. That’s exactly what I am doing as I am typing.

That is my kitchen and those are my groceries. Today I was on a mission to cook a regular midwestern meal of meatloaf, salad, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, and fried squash and zucchini.

You can tell that I bought the generic brand for most items. The most costly item by far was the 85/15 ground beef. It was over $16. To be honest, I buy the higher-quality meat because a meatloaf shrinks in the oven.

Coming in second for the most expensive item? The red potatoes. They are over $7 for five pounds.

I bought the items I needed, but I had a few ingredients in the fridge that I didn’t buy. I didn’t buy milk or seasonings or salad dressing or sour cream or ketchup or cornmeal to fry the veggies.

The grand total for the groceries above? $56.44. At Walmart no less.

My god.

I don’t work for minimum wage, but I know folks who do. If you drive just three miles up the highway from me, you are in Iowa. The Iowa minimum wage is stuck at the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour. The meal I am preparing would take an Iowan making minimum wage 7.5 hours of work.

7.5 hours of work for one supper for your family.

How in the world can anyone afford to feed their family? I don’t understand how Americans are supposed to absorb the higher prices and the tariffs on top.

I thought Trump was going to bring down prices on day one?

The crazy thing? When I post about the high cost of beef or potatoes, the comments are filled with Trump supporters claiming they are paying less for groceries. Obviously, it’s not true…here is my receipt to prove it.

The vast majority of U.S. adults are at least somewhat stressed about the cost of groceries, a new poll finds, as prices continue to rise and concerns about the impact of Trump’s tariffs remain widespread.

I read an article in the Kansas City Star a few weeks ago that stated a family of four needs an income of $200K per year to live comfortably in Kansas City. The article stated, “Adults making under $80K can’t afford to live comfortably in any state.”

Three of our adult children live in Kansas City and not one of them makes anywhere close to $200K per year — I see them struggle. They are all in their professional jobs, and they are all making much less than needed to live comfortably.

As a mom, this economy enrages me. My kids shouldn’t struggle like they do when they work 40 hours plus per week. When they graduated college or made their way into trade. Two of my kids regularly work a second job. They still make nowhere close to 200K.

The economy is tough for all of us, but for young people, it is bleak. Add tariffs onto their grocery bills and high rent and unaffordable childcare and watch their paychecks disappear.

One of the sadder patterns I have noticed is people living in their cars or vans.

I love to car camp when I hit national parks across the country. I bring a tent, but I often end up sleeping in the back of my SUV because I feel safer in a vehicle than I do in a tent.

I joined a car camping group on Facebook to see the setups others have for their camping vacations, and to my horror, I realized several in the group are living in their cars full-time. Many of them are young people who can’t afford rent.

I follow one young man on TikTok who lives in his car and delivers food for DoorDash all day trying to save up for a tiny home. He sleeps in his car, not an SUV, usually in a Walmart parking lot or gas station overnight. He is much too tall to sleep comfortably in a car, but he makes it work.

He bought a Planet Fitness membership so he can shower for $10 per month.

People can’t afford to live anymore, and the Trump regime is doing nothing about it. They lie about jobs numbers. They lie about the price of gas. They lie about the price of groceries. They lie about anything and everything.

Trump lied about caring for the working class. He rode a wave of high egg prices only to lower those prices by a dollar or so while increasing the price of nearly everything else. Ground beef was a staple for my cooking and on the menu for many families — it is now a luxury. Hell, even the canned salmon I used to feed my kids on a cheap night is now over $7 a can.

Democrats should use the literal kitchen table issues in front of them to talk to voters.

My neighbors would assume I was drunk if I knocked on their door and talked about Epstein’s Island in an attempt to get them to vote for Democrats, but they would all nod in agreement if I talked about the price of hamburger meat.

Focus on groceries and housing and insurance and child care. These are the things hurting everyone.

These are the areas where Democrats can make a difference.

Focus.

~Jess