You won’t see it in writing. It’s not on any tax law books. But start looking at what you have been paying for almost everything you buy.
Hubby and I bought our usual take-out Chinese food. I was expecting our usual $29 cost only to find out that the same meal we ordered 8 months ago, now cost us $40. Ditto for a good friend of mine. She bought her usual take-out tacos (6 in total, plus 2 smallish soups) and got hit with a $70 bill! WTF?
It’s not just limited to our groceries, necessities, take-out meals……..Nope….it’s now on every single thing we buy. Companies have to make up for their pandemic losses and they are coming after YOU, the buyer, to play catch-up. The price of almost everything has gone up by at least an unspoken 25%. And guess what? You’ll pay it!

I have a standard contract with my energy provider. I order a specific amount of gallons per year, they charge me a specific, agreed-upon amount each and every month of $187.76. At the end of the year when we tally up, I either owe them money or they owe me a credit. Thankfully, they send me a statement each month and when I looked at this month’s statement I noticed two strange charges. One was for $129.00 stating that since my usage was low (under 500 gallons) they tacked on a special fee. Plus, even though I pay them regularly each and every month, they started charging me interest ($5.17) WTF?
So, I was being penalized because I’m using less energy and even though they automatically charge my credit card every month, I was being charged a late finance fee? A quick phone call to their office got the extra charges taken off BUT how many other people out there do NOT look at their bills or just assume their automatic payments are taking care of everything?
I call this the sneaky ‘Pandemic Tax’. Businesses are suffering and they are going to start going after anyone who has a check book or a line of credit. Beware!

New rule: Before you buy anything, ask how much it is going to cost.
So, in addition to the outrageous consumer price rise, we have to be on the lookout for some rather unscrupulous businesses. I can’t truly blame them. People are hurting and money (or the lack thereof) does strange things to people. It is up to us to be vigilant, watch our dollars, ask questions and be very careful how and where we spend our shrinking dollars.
In the CPI, the cost of some services jumped sharply. Motor vehicle insurance was up 9.3% in July, on top of a 5.1% increase in June. Wireless telephone services rose 3.6%.
Goods also rose. Prices for used cars and trucks climbed 2.3%, while new car prices increased 0.8%.
Airline fares also rose, up 5.4% in July, on top of a 2.6% jump in June. Shelter costs rose 0.2%, or 2.3% year over year.
The cost of food at home fell 1.1%, after rising 0.7% in June. Food away from home also rose 0.5% in both June and July, as restaurants reopened and consumers could have more meals outside of their homes.
The government said the cost of food at home index rose 4.6% over the last 12 months, with gains in six major grocery store food groups. Beef was up 14.2% , while fruits and vegetables were up 2.3% over the 12 months. Click here for info source.
This Just In: (click here) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said they would impose a new fee to insulate themselves from losses on refinanced mortgages they guarantee, a sign of potential turbulence in the housing market and a move likely to generate pushback from lenders.
As I’ve said, be on the look out for those Pandemic Fees.
Yep. It’s outrageous, actually. My husband drives a hybrid car. Our County taxed him an extra $92 for his registration because of his lower gas usage. He’s being penalized for using a gas efficient car. Food prices? obnoxious, for sure. We don’t get take out very much but have noticed the pizza charges going up and our bagels going up as well. I LOVE both of these restaurants, so I’m not as bothered to support them. It’s a brave new world, for sure.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We’re damned if we do. We’re damned if we don’t. Either way, we lose.
LikeLike
Our State utilities commission keep granting new breakout category fees to the electric, natural gas, and cable companies Which keep adding on new cost not by your usage just because your a customer.
Amazon have new categories that do not qualify for Prime 2 day shipping But for extra cost they will do it!
My well repair had extra fees not told in
my original phone conversation but sent on the emailed quote adding an extra $200 !
I like your coining The phrase.,Pandemic Tax.
I am buying less food but Instacart- Aldi’s prices on the three receipts are higher every time. I am eating only two meals a day and I make two to six servings of each dish or meat so there’s microwave fast meals unprocessed too.
Curbside pickup of the same meals in R.I. have gone up too.
Sincerely, Lara
LikeLike
I’ve noticed on our Amazon Prime, that if we want to watch a good, popular, recently released movie, we have to PAY! Sometimes $5.99 or $3.99 or $2.99. UGH!!!! Not fair! I found a way around this, however. If you agree to super saver shipping, for us, that would be on a Thursday, for each package I delay, I get $1.00 credit which I can use either to buy eBooks or rent a movie. Guess what? I delay some shipments to coordinate on a Thursday and I get to watch late release movies for almost free. I bought a few eBooks too!
There’s always a way around that maze!
Don’t even talk to me about Aldi’s! Two years ago, I could get a weeks worth of good groceries for about $70 to $80. Now? I can’t get out of there paying less than $150. Ugh. And when I was stocking up, I got hit with $250 to $275!! That amount to spend in an Aldi’s is unconscionable!
The only way I have been able to keep my food prices down, for now, is to NOT go food shopping. I used to go every week, now it’s twice a month. I’d like to get it down to just once a month!
Breakfast for me is the same: oatmeal or grits with on over-hard fried egg every other two days. Lunch is either a vegan smoothie or a sandwich. Dinner is a protein, veggies/salad and maybe rice, baked potato or cous-cous. Sunday is ALWAYS pasta/Italian. My neighbors just built a chicken coop and will be raising chickens. I’m getting close to making the same choice. We’ll see. My other neighbor raises cattle and utilizes two per year set aside for beef. I ordered from her last year and will be doing it again this year. Hubby loves it. Me? Not so much. Tastes gamey. I’ll stick to chicken, fish and now beans, beans, beans. Ha!
LikeLike
This resonates with me. Just today I wrote a letter to my dentist. This week I finally was able to get my 6-month dental check up. After the routine x-rays and cleaning (which I am not charged for with a dental plan) the receptionist said my payment was $20.00. She said to check out the notice on the counter…they are now charging for PPE for the dental staff. What? Shouldn’t the employer (the dentist) pay for that for their employees? To me it seemed like they are trying to make up for their missed months that they were closed. I wasn’t happy. While it wasn’t much money it really aggravated me.
LikeLike
Hi Diane. So, its really true then. “They” are making us pay for their financial shortages due to the pandemic. Don’t we have our own financial problems to content with? Who’s going to help us out? Job shortages. Food shortages. “They” are going after those who have a checkbook. “They” know we have money and “they” are going to get it out of us. If your dentist sees 100 people per day, that’s an extra $2,000 cash per day X 20 work days per month = $40,000. The twenty dollars extra they caused you to pay may be nothing to you BUT it is plenty to them.
And if your dentist saw 50 patients a day, that’s still $20,000 extra cash for him per month. NOT covered by your insurance, for sure!
Thanks for your enlightening comment!!!
LikeLike
Have no interest in having chickens Myself and we have local Farmers who sell fresh eggs and grass raised and grass finished beef at our local farm market. My two meals are some kind of large salad with at least 3-4 oz of chicken or ground turkey, or hard boil eggs, Balsamic vinegar and EVOO, and 1/2 cup of walnuts, mushrooms, avocado, in some way used between the two meals. The second meal is 4 oz of salmon, Chicken, ground turkey, turkey, grass fed and finished beef or pork, eggs, cruciferous vegetables ( broccoli or Brussels Sprouts usually) or sautéed spinach, garlic, mushrooms and oil, and a sweet potato. 1/2 cup to a cup of Fresh berries and raw carrots or peeled and seeded cucumbers spears right from the garden, black coffee. I could have 70% cocoa dark chocolate but amazingly haven’t crave it. I use Romain lettuce to make sandwich wraps, too. Ground walnuts instead of bread crumbs for meatloaf, meatballs, and to coat salmon. 37 pounds down today and I am using my new found energy to do massive fall cleaning and downsizing. No need for a maid because I am back to my schedule of wiz cleaning like I did twenty years ago. 😃
Sincerely, Lara
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just had a Mexican themed lettuce wrap ground turkey and guacamole made with cut chives not cilantro garden cherry tomato, garlic powder, pepper smash avocado. Yummy 😋 Lara
LikeLiked by 1 person
That sounds delish!!!
LikeLike