People adjusting how they’re spending money with rising costs

People in SWFL are making money changes because of skyrocketing prices to help make ends meet. Whether it’s cutting back on groceries or how far they drive, people are making sacrifices.

For Steven Patricola these are desperate times. While shopping at Aldi to save money, Patricola said, he’s struggling to stretch his cash much further.

“I can’t afford food,” Patricola said. “I mean, I’m gonna I’m literally going to have to, like pick and choose days I eat if prices keep going up.” At Aldi, Milk is $3.79 a gallon, a dozen eggs are almost $2, and meat prices are up too.

As an epileptic, Patricola needs to take his medication. Paying for his meds, food, and gas has become increasingly difficult in the last year.

“Medications are outrageous. I mean, I had to stop taking one because like, it went up like $100 or something like, you know, I just kept going up like 20 bucks every month,” Patricola said. “And finally was like, I’ve had grand mal seizures, just because I can’t afford to pay for the medications.”

Not totally surprising seeing as the consumer price index is up 9% in the last year. This means the prices we pay for pretty much everything are up. Aldi shoppers Beth Dougherty and Mike Putnam told WINK News it’s forcing them to make lifestyle changes.

“We’ve kind of changed our shopping strategies,” Dougherty said. “We don’t go for the higher-end things. We try to make things stretch a little bit more. We buy what’s in season, come to short stores like this.”

“We like to take road trips. And that’s kind of out of the window for the time being not really out of the window, but you know, we have to be practical about it,” Putnam said. “With gas at four to $5 a gallon. It’s very difficult to make long-distance road trips, or even just to go to Sebring or go up to Sarasota.”

It’s not easy saving money when the price you’re paying for rent and food keeps going up.