The rising cost of living has had me contemplating the alternative this week and it's borderline given how expensive funerals can be.
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I went to the supermarket midweek to pick up a few items and am still nursing pain round the hip pocket.
It was like a shark took a bite, only a much bigger chunk than normal.
I certainly yelped when I saw the docket.
I'm not suggesting it was all fresh food related, because processed stuff seems to be going up too on the tide, like a storm surge.
Investors seeking safe haven in uncertain economic times should maybe forget gold and buy shares in red capsicums. Take a look at eggplant stocks too.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers warned things were going to sting but this latest grocery shop felt more like a whack.
It's been coming on for a while now what with interest rates skyrocketing, and the price of petrol rising higher than apartment buildings round Newcastle. Can't wait for the fuel excise to return in September.
Energy companies basking in obscene profits in the wake of Putin's push into Ukraine can only pray Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan again sometime soon.
Just how unaffordable things are getting really came into focus as I studied the price of cauliflowers. So big, so fresh, yet so unpurchased by me, at least at these prices.
It all felt a bit of a blur really and normally that would get me heading to the optometrist for a new pair of glasses.
But I'll be rubbing that off the list for the time being too as yet another unjustifiable discretionary spend.
Maybe along with eating.
It got me contemplating the economic hamster wheel we're all on and whether I can continue to play my part in the revolution if prices keep going forward and wages keep slipping backwards.
Standing there in the fresh food aisles I was already having natural consumer thoughts like I better stop consuming.
A harsh short-term solution, I know.
Particularly to economists.
But you sense a rough famine ahead when potatoes and dripping are already too expensive to subsist on.
I'd take solace in alcohol if a standard shout didn't already trigger a squeal, and they're getting set to give the beer tax another hike in coming days.
Thank god for home brew, which is something I thought I'd never say after the last batch I butchered.
It bodes poorly for the dining and entertainment sector too if people think they're better off staying home to not eat and not drink.
And not use electricity if they can help it given the dire warnings we're getting on that front.
Authorities suggest we should get used to this hip pocket pain because there is no relief in sight, that we can afford anyhow.
And a hip pocket replacement is out of the question because elective surgery is on hold now until at least probably the next election.
In the meantime it looks like we're just going to have to just hobble along.
