Hardware inflation revelations

If you think inflation isn't here, just look around.

At a hardware store this weekend, I bought some 1 1/4 inch, #8 sheet metal screws for 55 cents each.

The big home improvement retailers aren't much cheaper. There you get three or four in a bag for 99 cents or $1.18 depending on the store. The smaller the item, the more you get.

Used to be, you could buy a whole box for a couple bucks. Old timers will remember going to hardware stores and buying by the pound for under a dollar.

Nails, bolts, washers are also getting pricey.

Used to be, I'd spring for a whole box of common hardware items if I thought I'd eventually use them. But now that boxes range from over five dollars and up, I hesitate before making that plunge.

#12 brass washers now sell for two for $1.18 at Lowe's. In a pinch, it would be much cheaper to start drilling holes in pennies, nickels and dimes, and substitute them for store-bought washers.