off topic: getting ripped off... grrrrr...
212rowboat
Member Posts: 2,593 ✭✭✭✭✭
I've been married for almost two years, but we're having our church wedding in a few weeks.. having a party the night before in the back yard, and will likely have 150+ people at that, alone... Weddings are expensive, no?
I like to do my own work.. I've installed a complete outdoor kitchen on the deck, stained and sealed every bit of wood (and there is a lot), planted the garden, and flowers, ect... Built a pergola and fence around the patio to keep the kid out of the pool.. rebuilt a fire pit.. painted shed.. ceramic tiled the counters, sodded, repaired or replaced decking boards.. and the list goes on and on...
Right now I'm building an extension on my shed.. primarily as a tool shed.. I didn't want to do this, and was going to pay someone.. its a time thing, not that I can't do it.. but anyway.. I asked a friend who runs a construction company to quote.. he quoted $2600~$2800 in material alone... ?????????... A friend, now..
I started this eve, and have everything needed except for roofing shingles and tar paper.. I've got $400 in it so far, and after paint and trim, I'll likely have another $200~$300 including shingles...
What is the deal? Is EVERYTHING going sky high? Yeah, I get that market values are always in flux, but it is EVERYTHING right now.. it seems everyone is on the take right now.. freakin fuel @ $4 a gallon nearing.. milk @ $5 a gallon.. bacon nearing $6 a pound.. produce unspeakable.. beef- uh... Man... Seriously, this is nuts, and everyone is blaming everyone else.. round and round it goes...
Am I alone in thinking this way? I mean, I work hard and have a decent paying job, but I sure ain't saving like I used to, and its because of this what I feel is prices soaring without justifiable reason..
Thoughts? Surely, I can't be alone in this observation and impact..
I like to do my own work.. I've installed a complete outdoor kitchen on the deck, stained and sealed every bit of wood (and there is a lot), planted the garden, and flowers, ect... Built a pergola and fence around the patio to keep the kid out of the pool.. rebuilt a fire pit.. painted shed.. ceramic tiled the counters, sodded, repaired or replaced decking boards.. and the list goes on and on...
Right now I'm building an extension on my shed.. primarily as a tool shed.. I didn't want to do this, and was going to pay someone.. its a time thing, not that I can't do it.. but anyway.. I asked a friend who runs a construction company to quote.. he quoted $2600~$2800 in material alone... ?????????... A friend, now..
I started this eve, and have everything needed except for roofing shingles and tar paper.. I've got $400 in it so far, and after paint and trim, I'll likely have another $200~$300 including shingles...
What is the deal? Is EVERYTHING going sky high? Yeah, I get that market values are always in flux, but it is EVERYTHING right now.. it seems everyone is on the take right now.. freakin fuel @ $4 a gallon nearing.. milk @ $5 a gallon.. bacon nearing $6 a pound.. produce unspeakable.. beef- uh... Man... Seriously, this is nuts, and everyone is blaming everyone else.. round and round it goes...
Am I alone in thinking this way? I mean, I work hard and have a decent paying job, but I sure ain't saving like I used to, and its because of this what I feel is prices soaring without justifiable reason..
Thoughts? Surely, I can't be alone in this observation and impact..
Comments
In short, there are so many large corporations that have significant control over the market, they raise prices just because they can. More profits, better upper managment bonuses, 'stock holder value', and zero to low single digit salary increases for the workers. Add in speculators with billions of dollars and they can play the commodity markets to manipulate prices too. Just for the record, I'm not 'anti-business' or an off-the-wall 'peace and harmony' guy either...but I see this first hand in businesses I deal with.
Take a look at the beef and pork industries. Twenty odd years ago there were thousands of independent slaughter houses, now there are about 4. They drive the price to buy the cattle/pigs down because they own the market and the ranchers have no where to go. Yet the price at the market is way up. Just because they can. Watch "Food Inc" (documentary)sometime to get a nice overview.
I think your thoughts represent most of the middle class and lower. But look at who is in charge: millionaires and more.
PC BYC, Holland, MI
I built a cabana a few years ago, with a friend who was a carpenter. I bought the materials myself. The cabana uses high quality finishes, is insulated, full on studded and drywall finish. Proper light fixture, full pane entrance door, you get the idea. I can live in it if it was a little bigger. I spent about $6500 all in for a 10 x 8, including compensating my friend handsomely for his labor. The materials were around $4700.
Over here in Toronto I know of a shed supplier, he pre assembles the sections and they come in and install, takes 2 hours. It is a solid shed made with thick pine, and painted for protection with shingled roof. About $1500 installed for a 6 x 6. Company is Grand River Sheds.
If you look you can find good prices. If you don't spend time looking you will inevitably get high prices because there are 10 or more guys who want to get rich for every guy that wants to be fair.
Boat Name: King Kong
"Boat + Water = Fun"
I play in the stock market, just like many if not most of y'all here do.... I've not anything to brag about, but I don't think the returns are shameful, either... that said-
"to be king for a day", I'd dis-ban the exchange(s) altogether... I swear to y'all, I really don't think 'raising capital for upstarts' or 'expansions' was supposed to turn into what it has... my royal decree would be "if you can't take possession of it, and you can't maintain it's condition, you can't buy it just to manipulate the prices"...
this is the world of big business, I reckon.. It's disheartening to know how it works, and as you said, Mark, that there is little that can be done about it..
A huge Lowes Foods, and then a Lowes Home Improvement (not same company) both built within a half mile of my home.. I love them being so close (and where do you think the supplies for that shed came from?), but I hate what they both did to the mom-n-pops who were here previous...
a gallon of paint, mixed, cost $25 from mom-n-pop paint store prior to the box store arrival... Lowe's opens, and sells the same paint for $12.. mom-n-pop close their doors after a year or so, because that is less than their cost (and in spite of the Robinson/Packman Act)... A decent middle class family, paying decent wages to it's employees who are mostly retired or young (laborers) and their health care is forced out.. as soon as they close, Lowe's jumps to $25+ a gallon for the same paint, and pays mostly just above minimum wages and cut-rate insurance if any at all to the family, if that family is lucky enough to get a job there.. that money doesn't stay local, which means it hurts everyone...it goes back to corporate... you'll never get folks to listen to that, though...
I like to grow my dinky garden... My wife is Italian and cooks like a pro- and as many of the ingredients as I can grow are fresh- tomatoes, garlic, lettuce, peppers galore, ect... what isn't used is canned (by her).. it's for fun, understand.. I buy all my plants and material from a local nursery (redfearns), and make it a point to go there for everything garden related.... in hopes my contribution can keep them alive.. .... Saturday, I was in Lowe's getting something I forgot for the shed (hurricane straps), and guess who I saw pushing a shopping cart? The freaking manager of Redfearns... and in it? Water hose, and a flat of some sort of plant or another... you gotta be kidding me...
people either lack the intellect to figure this out, or they are apathetic to it.. or, they are in it for themselves and could care less about the impact.. I want to believe they are just ignorant, which in this case is the lessor of the listed evils.
Haha good luck getting your wife to cut back on the kitchen for boat gas money, glassguy.
We all know the result to that showdown.
Now if only we could build kitchens on boats ... wife will then happily spend money on the thing we love the most. Have I just come up with a good new business opportunity ???? LOL.
Boat Name: King Kong
"Boat + Water = Fun"
I guess I'm pretty fortunate when it comes to the admiral's demands. Yes, we updated the kitchen a few years back, but we have that nice bright yellow bathroom and baby blue one as well (good guess, the house was built in the 80's). She has been ok with me saying "well, you'll never hear the kids saying I got a nice new bathroom while I was growing up", but "we had a boat our entire childhood and did two 10-day trips every year on it" is more likely to be said. I could go on for a very long time with this, but I'll leave it at that.
Mark, I think that business already exists, we just can't afford it!
Dream 'Inn III -- 2008 400 Express