Country singer Marty Stuart has a song that many of us can relate to these days — “There’s too much month at the end of the money.”

His song hits the nail directly on the head.

Inflation has hit many of us hard in the last few months.

Gasoline averages $4 per gallon in the region. You’ve had to notice that your trip to the grocery store is costing much more than it did last year or the year before the COVID pandemic.

Inflation especially hits hard in eastern Kentucky and southern West Virginia. Most elderly citizens who have retired are on fixed incomes and it hurts their checkbooks even more. Prices on most items at the grocer have risen. If it cost $1.99 two years ago, it is likely $2.99 now. Some items, like meat, eggs and other essential food products, are double what they were just months ago.

For the first time in roughly four decades, the U.S. inflation rate hit 8.5 percent last month, the highest reading since 1981. Month after month, inflation climbed in the United States.

As the Wall Street Journal reports, “High inflation is the downside of booming growth as the economy bounces back from COVID-19, powered in part by low-interest rates and government stimulus to counter the pandemic’s impact.”

Longtime radio personality and talk show host Hoppy Kercheval wrote, “Consumers can and do cut back on non-essentials, but there is no escaping the necessities, meaning families often must make difficult decisions.”