How Are YOU Successfully Beating Inflation?

[bmjohnson35]

We finally have our land under contract.  We have been paying taxes on it for 30+ yrs and didn't have any plans to build on it. The taxes were only $150  annually, but why keep it when we didn't ever plan to build on it anyway? It's not a huge amount, but between our existing income streams and this sudden influx of extra cash, it will keep us from selling any of our investment shares and/or touching our existing cash on hand for the next 2-3 yrs.  This is assuming we don't have any unplanned major expenses, inflation doesn't get significantly worse and we don't get too heavy handed with our spending. All we can do is execute our plan and adjust as needed along the way.

[nereo]

THis is all great but I do find it amusing that one persons answer to "how are you beating inflation" is: "I grow my own broccoli".

The housing stuff misses from a math perspective a bit I think because:
-lower interest rates resulted in higher house prices, unless you will never move you will pay the piper for those lower rates at some point. I know you think you'll never move but in all likelihood you will because your life situation will change in ways your current self cannot imagine.
-prop taxes are increasing even in areas with those caps, perhaps just at a later time
-maintence and upkeep have vastly increased. The IRS uses 27.5 years for the useful life of the building, meaning that one will spend the amount the building is worth divided by 27.5 every year to maintain the building (not land). Whether you replace that roof, floors, paint etc this year or 10 years from now you will pay higher prices when you do.

But whatever, it makes people feel good to think "they're beating inflation", NTTAWWT. If you really want to know compare this years total spending to the previous years at tax time. I do this by calculating total income - total taxes - total investments - total cash accumulated = rough total spending for the year. All this buzz about saving x amount on broccoli and bags of oatmeal is for the birds IMO. I mean I have 50 pound bags of oatmeal and rice too but Im not naïve enough to think that that's somehow going to "beat inflation".

I think many on here have a much better handle on their expenses than you give them credit for. As a community you can find a higher percentage of people on this forum who can tell you to the dollar (if not to the penny) what they have spent each month going back several years, if not a few decades.

As for "paying the piper" at some point - meh, your assumptions are as broad as others here. If inflation hangs around 10% for a decade or so but is around 2% for a decade in either direction and you aren't making a lot of purchases now or have locked in expenses by design (or by luck) you will indeed avoid the headline inflationary rate. For many of us this is no accident, but is a core theme of this entire forum.. at least it used to be.

[Fru-Gal]

Here are my levels of thinking:

Decades ago: We bought a house, wow!
Later: Let's build & remodel & get a 2nd mortgage.
Years pass: Homeownership is a drag, family is growing, this equity loan is a noose around my neck
7 years ago: (Becoming mustachian) Refinance to a 15-year so I can pay this off early (big payment)
1 year ago: (understanding DPOYM math and having discipline as saver/investor) Refinance to a 30 year at 2.75 interest.

[Fru-Gal]

Considering that housing, transportation and food are the 3 largest discretionary costs people have, yeah, if you optimize those you should be fine. (Healthcare obv also can be optimized via ACA or benefits or living in country with national care.)

[sonofsven]

THis is all great but I do find it amusing that one persons answer to "how are you beating inflation" is: "I grow my own broccoli".

The housing stuff misses from a math perspective a bit I think because:
-lower interest rates resulted in higher house prices, unless you will never move you will pay the piper for those lower rates at some point. I know you think you'll never move but in all likelihood you will because your life situation will change in ways your current self cannot imagine.
-prop taxes are increasing even in areas with those caps, perhaps just at a later time
-maintence and upkeep have vastly increased. The IRS uses 27.5 years for the useful life of the building, meaning that one will spend the amount the building is worth divided by 27.5 every year to maintain the building (not land). Whether you replace that roof, floors, paint etc this year or 10 years from now you will pay higher prices when you do.

But whatever, it makes people feel good to think "they're beating inflation", NTTAWWT. If you really want to know compare this years total spending to the previous years at tax time. I do this by calculating total income - total taxes - total investments - total cash accumulated = rough total spending for the year. All this buzz about saving x amount on broccoli and bags of oatmeal is for the birds IMO. I mean I have 50 pound bags of oatmeal and rice too but Im not naïve enough to think that that's somehow going to "beat inflation".

So what are you doing to beat inflation?
Not gardening, not diy-ing home maintenance.
Low interest rates also resulted in lower monthly payments for those who re-financed at rock bottom rates.
If you total your spending for the year (you're not the only one who does this, btw) and it's within 9.2% of the previous year have you beaten inflation?

[afox]

THis is all great but I do find it amusing that one persons answer to "how are you beating inflation" is: "I grow my own broccoli".

The housing stuff misses from a math perspective a bit I think because:
-lower interest rates resulted in higher house prices, unless you will never move you will pay the piper for those lower rates at some point. I know you think you'll never move but in all likelihood you will because your life situation will change in ways your current self cannot imagine.
-prop taxes are increasing even in areas with those caps, perhaps just at a later time
-maintence and upkeep have vastly increased. The IRS uses 27.5 years for the useful life of the building, meaning that one will spend the amount the building is worth divided by 27.5 every year to maintain the building (not land). Whether you replace that roof, floors, paint etc this year or 10 years from now you will pay higher prices when you do.

But whatever, it makes people feel good to think "they're beating inflation", NTTAWWT. If you really want to know compare this years total spending to the previous years at tax time. I do this by calculating total income - total taxes - total investments - total cash accumulated = rough total spending for the year. All this buzz about saving x amount on broccoli and bags of oatmeal is for the birds IMO. I mean I have 50 pound bags of oatmeal and rice too but Im not naïve enough to think that that's somehow going to "beat inflation".

So what are you doing to beat inflation?
Not gardening, not diy-ing home maintenance.
Low interest rates also resulted in lower monthly payments for those who re-financed at rock bottom rates.
If you total your spending for the year (you're not the only one who does this, btw) and it's within 9.2% of the previous year have you beaten inflation?

I cant beat inflation! And neither can you.

Note that inflation is calculated as a relative increase in prices. If you were DIY-ing your home projects before and just buying supplies and you are DIY-ing your home projects now the percent increase is the same. I suppose if you grew your own trees and milled your own lumber you would be "beating inflation". I still need to do the math for 2022 spending but Im sure my expenses went up considerably.

[jim555]

Lidl has some crazy price pops since last week.  $1.99lb chicken breasts now $4.25lb.  Peas $1.15 now $1.99 for 10 oz.  No eggs.  Sale soda was 5 for $5, now 4 for $5. 

[Villanelle]

THis is all great but I do find it amusing that one persons answer to "how are you beating inflation" is: "I grow my own broccoli".

The housing stuff misses from a math perspective a bit I think because:
-lower interest rates resulted in higher house prices, unless you will never move you will pay the piper for those lower rates at some point. I know you think you'll never move but in all likelihood you will because your life situation will change in ways your current self cannot imagine.
-prop taxes are increasing even in areas with those caps, perhaps just at a later time
-maintence and upkeep have vastly increased. The IRS uses 27.5 years for the useful life of the building, meaning that one will spend the amount the building is worth divided by 27.5 every year to maintain the building (not land). Whether you replace that roof, floors, paint etc this year or 10 years from now you will pay higher prices when you do.

But whatever, it makes people feel good to think "they're beating inflation", NTTAWWT. If you really want to know compare this years total spending to the previous years at tax time. I do this by calculating total income - total taxes - total investments - total cash accumulated = rough total spending for the year. All this buzz about saving x amount on broccoli and bags of oatmeal is for the birds IMO. I mean I have 50 pound bags of oatmeal and rice too but Im not naïve enough to think that that's somehow going to "beat inflation".

So what are you doing to beat inflation?
Not gardening, not diy-ing home maintenance.
Low interest rates also resulted in lower monthly payments for those who re-financed at rock bottom rates.
If you total your spending for the year (you're not the only one who does this, btw) and it's within 9.2% of the previous year have you beaten inflation?

I cant beat inflation! And neither can you.

Note that inflation is calculated as a relative increase in prices. If you were DIY-ing your home projects before and just buying supplies and you are DIY-ing your home projects now the percent increase is the same. I suppose if you grew your own trees and milled your own lumber you would be "beating inflation". I still need to do the math for 2022 spending but Im sure my expenses went up considerably.

I suppose that depends on one's definition of "beating inflation".   A three year, fixed-rate rental lease seems to me like I'm beating inflation.  Housing costs are up; mine are not.  A low rate fixed mortgage seems to me like "beating inflation".  Finding easy ways to get stuff for free seems like beating inflation; if the retail price of that puzzle goes from $17 to $20, I am still paying $0. 

If someone uses this as a prompt to add one degree to their summer thermostat, is that beating inflation?  It's more of a gray area, IMO, but it is finding a way to make a cut in an area where the increases are huge and thus it makes more of a difference.   Or if someone switches from using most ground beef to mostly ground pork because beef in their area is up 10% and pork only 2%, have they "beat inflation"? (Assuming the pork stays overall cheaper than the beef.)  Again, it's a gray area, but it's certainly not as cut and dried as you make it out to be because some areas inflate more, or more quickly than others.  What about my spouse deciding to drive my smaller, more fuel-efficient car on the days he works offsite (and is reimbursed the IRS mileage rate, no matter what vehicle he is in)?  We aren't paying less per gallon of gas, but the situation prompted us to look more critically at things and find a way to spend less when gas prices are way up--more than just by the average inflation number. 

If you want to just throw up your hands and feel we are all helpless--little economic boats borne back ceaselessly into smaller relative buying power, cool.  But that seems pretty contrary to the ethos of this site, and also pretty untrue.  There are ways to alter one's spending habits and other choices that will decrease or eliminate the amount of spending one does in the areas that have seen the most inflation.   

[sonofsven]

THis is all great but I do find it amusing that one persons answer to "how are you beating inflation" is: "I grow my own broccoli".

The housing stuff misses from a math perspective a bit I think because:
-lower interest rates resulted in higher house prices, unless you will never move you will pay the piper for those lower rates at some point. I know you think you'll never move but in all likelihood you will because your life situation will change in ways your current self cannot imagine.
-prop taxes are increasing even in areas with those caps, perhaps just at a later time
-maintence and upkeep have vastly increased. The IRS uses 27.5 years for the useful life of the building, meaning that one will spend the amount the building is worth divided by 27.5 every year to maintain the building (not land). Whether you replace that roof, floors, paint etc this year or 10 years from now you will pay higher prices when you do.

But whatever, it makes people feel good to think "they're beating inflation", NTTAWWT. If you really want to know compare this years total spending to the previous years at tax time. I do this by calculating total income - total taxes - total investments - total cash accumulated = rough total spending for the year. All this buzz about saving x amount on broccoli and bags of oatmeal is for the birds IMO. I mean I have 50 pound bags of oatmeal and rice too but Im not naïve enough to think that that's somehow going to "beat inflation".

So what are you doing to beat inflation?
Not gardening, not diy-ing home maintenance.
Low interest rates also resulted in lower monthly payments for those who re-financed at rock bottom rates.
If you total your spending for the year (you're not the only one who does this, btw) and it's within 9.2% of the previous year have you beaten inflation?

I cant beat inflation! And neither can you.

Note that inflation is calculated as a relative increase in prices. If you were DIY-ing your home projects before and just buying supplies and you are DIY-ing your home projects now the percent increase is the same. I suppose if you grew your own trees and milled your own lumber you would be "beating inflation". I still need to do the math for 2022 spending but Im sure my expenses went up considerably.

My point was that all those cost savings tips you are making light of add up to less relative spending over the year. Which is the whole point of the thread.

[afox]

THis is all great but I do find it amusing that one persons answer to "how are you beating inflation" is: "I grow my own broccoli".

The housing stuff misses from a math perspective a bit I think because:
-lower interest rates resulted in higher house prices, unless you will never move you will pay the piper for those lower rates at some point. I know you think you'll never move but in all likelihood you will because your life situation will change in ways your current self cannot imagine.
-prop taxes are increasing even in areas with those caps, perhaps just at a later time
-maintence and upkeep have vastly increased. The IRS uses 27.5 years for the useful life of the building, meaning that one will spend the amount the building is worth divided by 27.5 every year to maintain the building (not land). Whether you replace that roof, floors, paint etc this year or 10 years from now you will pay higher prices when you do.

But whatever, it makes people feel good to think "they're beating inflation", NTTAWWT. If you really want to know compare this years total spending to the previous years at tax time. I do this by calculating total income - total taxes - total investments - total cash accumulated = rough total spending for the year. All this buzz about saving x amount on broccoli and bags of oatmeal is for the birds IMO. I mean I have 50 pound bags of oatmeal and rice too but Im not naïve enough to think that that's somehow going to "beat inflation".

So what are you doing to beat inflation?
Not gardening, not diy-ing home maintenance.
Low interest rates also resulted in lower monthly payments for those who re-financed at rock bottom rates.
If you total your spending for the year (you're not the only one who does this, btw) and it's within 9.2% of the previous year have you beaten inflation?

I cant beat inflation! And neither can you.

Note that inflation is calculated as a relative increase in prices. If you were DIY-ing your home projects before and just buying supplies and you are DIY-ing your home projects now the percent increase is the same. I suppose if you grew your own trees and milled your own lumber you would be "beating inflation". I still need to do the math for 2022 spending but Im sure my expenses went up considerably.

I suppose that depends on one's definition of "beating inflation".   A three year, fixed-rate rental lease seems to me like I'm beating inflation.  Housing costs are up; mine are not.  A low rate fixed mortgage seems to me like "beating inflation".  Finding easy ways to get stuff for free seems like beating inflation; if the retail price of that puzzle goes from $17 to $20, I am still paying $0. 

If someone uses this as a prompt to add one degree to their summer thermostat, is that beating inflation?  It's more of a gray area, IMO, but it is finding a way to make a cut in an area where the increases are huge and thus it makes more of a difference.   Or if someone switches from using most ground beef to mostly ground pork because beef in their area is up 10% and pork only 2%, have they "beat inflation"? (Assuming the pork stays overall cheaper than the beef.)  Again, it's a gray area, but it's certainly not as cut and dried as you make it out to be because some areas inflate more, or more quickly than others.  What about my spouse deciding to drive my smaller, more fuel-efficient car on the days he works offsite (and is reimbursed the IRS mileage rate, no matter what vehicle he is in)?  We aren't paying less per gallon of gas, but the situation prompted us to look more critically at things and find a way to spend less when gas prices are way up--more than just by the average inflation number. 

If you want to just throw up your hands and feel we are all helpless--little economic boats borne back ceaselessly into smaller relative buying power, cool.  But that seems pretty contrary to the ethos of this site, and also pretty untrue.  There are ways to alter one's spending habits and other choices that will decrease or eliminate the amount of spending one does in the areas that have seen the most inflation.

You, like many others are conflating saving money with beating inflation. All of those money saving examples are things that you could do regardless of inflation. And most of us have always done those sorts of things to save money. For example turning my thermostat down is saving money but does nothing to beat inflation.

You can save money to make up for higher costs due to inflation but that is not what I would define as "beating inflation". Your rent example is a good one but of course its temporary and no landlord is going to sign a 3 year fixed rate lease now.

Its okay to say that inflation is affecting you, that doesn't mean that you've failed in some way.

[rmorris50]

The only way to “beat” inflation is to have the real return on your wages and assets not be impacted. Or in other words your increase in wages and assets goes up commensurate with inflation. Reducing expenses is adapting to inflation, but not beating it because you had to give something up, even if technically the impact of giving it up was immaterial to your lifestyle, you still had to give it up.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[EvenSteven]

THis is all great but I do find it amusing that one persons answer to "how are you beating inflation" is: "I grow my own broccoli".

The housing stuff misses from a math perspective a bit I think because:
-lower interest rates resulted in higher house prices, unless you will never move you will pay the piper for those lower rates at some point. I know you think you'll never move but in all likelihood you will because your life situation will change in ways your current self cannot imagine.
-prop taxes are increasing even in areas with those caps, perhaps just at a later time
-maintence and upkeep have vastly increased. The IRS uses 27.5 years for the useful life of the building, meaning that one will spend the amount the building is worth divided by 27.5 every year to maintain the building (not land). Whether you replace that roof, floors, paint etc this year or 10 years from now you will pay higher prices when you do.

But whatever, it makes people feel good to think "they're beating inflation", NTTAWWT. If you really want to know compare this years total spending to the previous years at tax time. I do this by calculating total income - total taxes - total investments - total cash accumulated = rough total spending for the year. All this buzz about saving x amount on broccoli and bags of oatmeal is for the birds IMO. I mean I have 50 pound bags of oatmeal and rice too but Im not naïve enough to think that that's somehow going to "beat inflation".

So what are you doing to beat inflation?
Not gardening, not diy-ing home maintenance.
Low interest rates also resulted in lower monthly payments for those who re-financed at rock bottom rates.
If you total your spending for the year (you're not the only one who does this, btw) and it's within 9.2% of the previous year have you beaten inflation?

I cant beat inflation! And neither can you.

Note that inflation is calculated as a relative increase in prices. If you were DIY-ing your home projects before and just buying supplies and you are DIY-ing your home projects now the percent increase is the same. I suppose if you grew your own trees and milled your own lumber you would be "beating inflation". I still need to do the math for 2022 spending but Im sure my expenses went up considerably.

I suppose that depends on one's definition of "beating inflation".   A three year, fixed-rate rental lease seems to me like I'm beating inflation.  Housing costs are up; mine are not.  A low rate fixed mortgage seems to me like "beating inflation".  Finding easy ways to get stuff for free seems like beating inflation; if the retail price of that puzzle goes from $17 to $20, I am still paying $0. 

If someone uses this as a prompt to add one degree to their summer thermostat, is that beating inflation?  It's more of a gray area, IMO, but it is finding a way to make a cut in an area where the increases are huge and thus it makes more of a difference.   Or if someone switches from using most ground beef to mostly ground pork because beef in their area is up 10% and pork only 2%, have they "beat inflation"? (Assuming the pork stays overall cheaper than the beef.)  Again, it's a gray area, but it's certainly not as cut and dried as you make it out to be because some areas inflate more, or more quickly than others.  What about my spouse deciding to drive my smaller, more fuel-efficient car on the days he works offsite (and is reimbursed the IRS mileage rate, no matter what vehicle he is in)?  We aren't paying less per gallon of gas, but the situation prompted us to look more critically at things and find a way to spend less when gas prices are way up--more than just by the average inflation number. 

If you want to just throw up your hands and feel we are all helpless--little economic boats borne back ceaselessly into smaller relative buying power, cool.  But that seems pretty contrary to the ethos of this site, and also pretty untrue.  There are ways to alter one's spending habits and other choices that will decrease or eliminate the amount of spending one does in the areas that have seen the most inflation.

You, like many others are conflating saving money with beating inflation. All of those money saving examples are things that you could do regardless of inflation. And most of us have always done those sorts of things to save money. For example turning my thermostat down is saving money but does nothing to beat inflation.

You can save money to make up for higher costs due to inflation but that is not what I would define as "beating inflation". Your rent example is a good one but of course its temporary and no landlord is going to sign a 3 year fixed rate lease now.

Its okay to say that inflation is affecting you, that doesn't mean that you've failed in some way.

Another way to look at "beating inflation" is to limit the effects of inflation on your life. So I agree with you that inflation of 10% is still 10% no matter what your spend is, but you can make 10% inflation not matter as much if you have low expenses relative to your means.

[Villanelle]

THis is all great but I do find it amusing that one persons answer to "how are you beating inflation" is: "I grow my own broccoli".

The housing stuff misses from a math perspective a bit I think because:
-lower interest rates resulted in higher house prices, unless you will never move you will pay the piper for those lower rates at some point. I know you think you'll never move but in all likelihood you will because your life situation will change in ways your current self cannot imagine.
-prop taxes are increasing even in areas with those caps, perhaps just at a later time
-maintence and upkeep have vastly increased. The IRS uses 27.5 years for the useful life of the building, meaning that one will spend the amount the building is worth divided by 27.5 every year to maintain the building (not land). Whether you replace that roof, floors, paint etc this year or 10 years from now you will pay higher prices when you do.

But whatever, it makes people feel good to think "they're beating inflation", NTTAWWT. If you really want to know compare this years total spending to the previous years at tax time. I do this by calculating total income - total taxes - total investments - total cash accumulated = rough total spending for the year. All this buzz about saving x amount on broccoli and bags of oatmeal is for the birds IMO. I mean I have 50 pound bags of oatmeal and rice too but Im not naïve enough to think that that's somehow going to "beat inflation".

So what are you doing to beat inflation?
Not gardening, not diy-ing home maintenance.
Low interest rates also resulted in lower monthly payments for those who re-financed at rock bottom rates.
If you total your spending for the year (you're not the only one who does this, btw) and it's within 9.2% of the previous year have you beaten inflation?

I cant beat inflation! And neither can you.

Note that inflation is calculated as a relative increase in prices. If you were DIY-ing your home projects before and just buying supplies and you are DIY-ing your home projects now the percent increase is the same. I suppose if you grew your own trees and milled your own lumber you would be "beating inflation". I still need to do the math for 2022 spending but Im sure my expenses went up considerably.

I suppose that depends on one's definition of "beating inflation".   A three year, fixed-rate rental lease seems to me like I'm beating inflation.  Housing costs are up; mine are not.  A low rate fixed mortgage seems to me like "beating inflation".  Finding easy ways to get stuff for free seems like beating inflation; if the retail price of that puzzle goes from $17 to $20, I am still paying $0. 

If someone uses this as a prompt to add one degree to their summer thermostat, is that beating inflation?  It's more of a gray area, IMO, but it is finding a way to make a cut in an area where the increases are huge and thus it makes more of a difference.   Or if someone switches from using most ground beef to mostly ground pork because beef in their area is up 10% and pork only 2%, have they "beat inflation"? (Assuming the pork stays overall cheaper than the beef.)  Again, it's a gray area, but it's certainly not as cut and dried as you make it out to be because some areas inflate more, or more quickly than others.  What about my spouse deciding to drive my smaller, more fuel-efficient car on the days he works offsite (and is reimbursed the IRS mileage rate, no matter what vehicle he is in)?  We aren't paying less per gallon of gas, but the situation prompted us to look more critically at things and find a way to spend less when gas prices are way up--more than just by the average inflation number. 

If you want to just throw up your hands and feel we are all helpless--little economic boats borne back ceaselessly into smaller relative buying power, cool.  But that seems pretty contrary to the ethos of this site, and also pretty untrue.  There are ways to alter one's spending habits and other choices that will decrease or eliminate the amount of spending one does in the areas that have seen the most inflation.

You, like many others are conflating saving money with beating inflation. All of those money saving examples are things that you could do regardless of inflation. And most of us have always done those sorts of things to save money. For example turning my thermostat down is saving money but does nothing to beat inflation.

You can save money to make up for higher costs due to inflation but that is not what I would define as "beating inflation". Your rent example is a good one but of course its temporary and no landlord is going to sign a 3 year fixed rate lease now.

Its okay to say that inflation is affecting you, that doesn't mean that you've failed in some way.

No, I'm not conflating anything.   Housing prices are up about 10% in my area in the last year.  Mine are up 0%.  How is signing a 3 year lease not a way to beat inflation, which you said can't be done?  And I signed that only a year ago, when prices in my areas were skyrocketing.  I am part of a group for people moving to this area and many people are still signing 2-3 year leases, so you are simply wrong about no landlord doing it.  And I'm pretty sure banks are still issuing fixed-rate mortgages. 

I clearly acknowledged that some of those other things are gray areas.  But since inflation is not equal across all prices--it's not just that everything costs 6.9% more--shifting spending does, IMO, beat inflation.  You buy less of the highly inflated beef and more of the barely inflated pork.  As I clearly acknowledge, this depends on how one defines the terms, but I see now point in just saying "you can't beat inflation", when there is plenty that can be done in the face of inflation, whether you want to call it "beating" or not.    It is certainly possible to look at 7% overall inflation and keep one's cost increases to >7%, even if one isn't actually buying overall less stuff or doing less traveling and is just thoughtful about shifting a few choices.

[afox]

THis is all great but I do find it amusing that one persons answer to "how are you beating inflation" is: "I grow my own broccoli".

The housing stuff misses from a math perspective a bit I think because:
-lower interest rates resulted in higher house prices, unless you will never move you will pay the piper for those lower rates at some point. I know you think you'll never move but in all likelihood you will because your life situation will change in ways your current self cannot imagine.
-prop taxes are increasing even in areas with those caps, perhaps just at a later time
-maintence and upkeep have vastly increased. The IRS uses 27.5 years for the useful life of the building, meaning that one will spend the amount the building is worth divided by 27.5 every year to maintain the building (not land). Whether you replace that roof, floors, paint etc this year or 10 years from now you will pay higher prices when you do.

But whatever, it makes people feel good to think "they're beating inflation", NTTAWWT. If you really want to know compare this years total spending to the previous years at tax time. I do this by calculating total income - total taxes - total investments - total cash accumulated = rough total spending for the year. All this buzz about saving x amount on broccoli and bags of oatmeal is for the birds IMO. I mean I have 50 pound bags of oatmeal and rice too but Im not naïve enough to think that that's somehow going to "beat inflation".

So what are you doing to beat inflation?
Not gardening, not diy-ing home maintenance.
Low interest rates also resulted in lower monthly payments for those who re-financed at rock bottom rates.
If you total your spending for the year (you're not the only one who does this, btw) and it's within 9.2% of the previous year have you beaten inflation?

I cant beat inflation! And neither can you.

Note that inflation is calculated as a relative increase in prices. If you were DIY-ing your home projects before and just buying supplies and you are DIY-ing your home projects now the percent increase is the same. I suppose if you grew your own trees and milled your own lumber you would be "beating inflation". I still need to do the math for 2022 spending but Im sure my expenses went up considerably.

I suppose that depends on one's definition of "beating inflation".   A three year, fixed-rate rental lease seems to me like I'm beating inflation.  Housing costs are up; mine are not.  A low rate fixed mortgage seems to me like "beating inflation".  Finding easy ways to get stuff for free seems like beating inflation; if the retail price of that puzzle goes from $17 to $20, I am still paying $0. 

If someone uses this as a prompt to add one degree to their summer thermostat, is that beating inflation?  It's more of a gray area, IMO, but it is finding a way to make a cut in an area where the increases are huge and thus it makes more of a difference.   Or if someone switches from using most ground beef to mostly ground pork because beef in their area is up 10% and pork only 2%, have they "beat inflation"? (Assuming the pork stays overall cheaper than the beef.)  Again, it's a gray area, but it's certainly not as cut and dried as you make it out to be because some areas inflate more, or more quickly than others.  What about my spouse deciding to drive my smaller, more fuel-efficient car on the days he works offsite (and is reimbursed the IRS mileage rate, no matter what vehicle he is in)?  We aren't paying less per gallon of gas, but the situation prompted us to look more critically at things and find a way to spend less when gas prices are way up--more than just by the average inflation number. 

If you want to just throw up your hands and feel we are all helpless--little economic boats borne back ceaselessly into smaller relative buying power, cool.  But that seems pretty contrary to the ethos of this site, and also pretty untrue.  There are ways to alter one's spending habits and other choices that will decrease or eliminate the amount of spending one does in the areas that have seen the most inflation.

You, like many others are conflating saving money with beating inflation. All of those money saving examples are things that you could do regardless of inflation. And most of us have always done those sorts of things to save money. For example turning my thermostat down is saving money but does nothing to beat inflation.

You can save money to make up for higher costs due to inflation but that is not what I would define as "beating inflation". Your rent example is a good one but of course its temporary and no landlord is going to sign a 3 year fixed rate lease now.

Its okay to say that inflation is affecting you, that doesn't mean that you've failed in some way.

Another way to look at "beating inflation" is to limit the effects of inflation on your life. So I agree with you that inflation of 10% is still 10% no matter what your spend is, but you can make 10% inflation not matter as much if you have low expenses relative to your means.

True, BUT, if you're still working that 10% (10% is arbitrary number) increase in expenses will delay your early retirement and if you're retired that 10% increase in expenses either eats away at your savings or leaves less money to spend on something else.

[bacchi]

But since inflation is not equal across all prices--it's not just that everything costs 6.9% more--shifting spending does, IMO, beat inflation.  You buy less of the highly inflated beef and more of the barely inflated pork.  As I clearly acknowledge, this depends on how one defines the terms, but I see now point in just saying "you can't beat inflation", when there is plenty that can be done in the face of inflation, whether you want to call it "beating" or not.    It is certainly possible to look at 7% overall inflation and keep one's cost increases to >7%, even if one isn't actually buying overall less stuff or doing less traveling and is just thoughtful about shifting a few choices.

Yep. CPI-U is an average. It's not a universal increase across all measured items/categories.

https://www.bls.gov/cpi/latest-numbers.htm

[afox]

THis is all great but I do find it amusing that one persons answer to "how are you beating inflation" is: "I grow my own broccoli".

The housing stuff misses from a math perspective a bit I think because:
-lower interest rates resulted in higher house prices, unless you will never move you will pay the piper for those lower rates at some point. I know you think you'll never move but in all likelihood you will because your life situation will change in ways your current self cannot imagine.
-prop taxes are increasing even in areas with those caps, perhaps just at a later time
-maintence and upkeep have vastly increased. The IRS uses 27.5 years for the useful life of the building, meaning that one will spend the amount the building is worth divided by 27.5 every year to maintain the building (not land). Whether you replace that roof, floors, paint etc this year or 10 years from now you will pay higher prices when you do.

But whatever, it makes people feel good to think "they're beating inflation", NTTAWWT. If you really want to know compare this years total spending to the previous years at tax time. I do this by calculating total income - total taxes - total investments - total cash accumulated = rough total spending for the year. All this buzz about saving x amount on broccoli and bags of oatmeal is for the birds IMO. I mean I have 50 pound bags of oatmeal and rice too but Im not naïve enough to think that that's somehow going to "beat inflation".

So what are you doing to beat inflation?
Not gardening, not diy-ing home maintenance.
Low interest rates also resulted in lower monthly payments for those who re-financed at rock bottom rates.
If you total your spending for the year (you're not the only one who does this, btw) and it's within 9.2% of the previous year have you beaten inflation?

I cant beat inflation! And neither can you.

Note that inflation is calculated as a relative increase in prices. If you were DIY-ing your home projects before and just buying supplies and you are DIY-ing your home projects now the percent increase is the same. I suppose if you grew your own trees and milled your own lumber you would be "beating inflation". I still need to do the math for 2022 spending but Im sure my expenses went up considerably.

I suppose that depends on one's definition of "beating inflation".   A three year, fixed-rate rental lease seems to me like I'm beating inflation.  Housing costs are up; mine are not.  A low rate fixed mortgage seems to me like "beating inflation".  Finding easy ways to get stuff for free seems like beating inflation; if the retail price of that puzzle goes from $17 to $20, I am still paying $0. 

If someone uses this as a prompt to add one degree to their summer thermostat, is that beating inflation?  It's more of a gray area, IMO, but it is finding a way to make a cut in an area where the increases are huge and thus it makes more of a difference.   Or if someone switches from using most ground beef to mostly ground pork because beef in their area is up 10% and pork only 2%, have they "beat inflation"? (Assuming the pork stays overall cheaper than the beef.)  Again, it's a gray area, but it's certainly not as cut and dried as you make it out to be because some areas inflate more, or more quickly than others.  What about my spouse deciding to drive my smaller, more fuel-efficient car on the days he works offsite (and is reimbursed the IRS mileage rate, no matter what vehicle he is in)?  We aren't paying less per gallon of gas, but the situation prompted us to look more critically at things and find a way to spend less when gas prices are way up--more than just by the average inflation number. 

If you want to just throw up your hands and feel we are all helpless--little economic boats borne back ceaselessly into smaller relative buying power, cool.  But that seems pretty contrary to the ethos of this site, and also pretty untrue.  There are ways to alter one's spending habits and other choices that will decrease or eliminate the amount of spending one does in the areas that have seen the most inflation.

You, like many others are conflating saving money with beating inflation. All of those money saving examples are things that you could do regardless of inflation. And most of us have always done those sorts of things to save money. For example turning my thermostat down is saving money but does nothing to beat inflation.

You can save money to make up for higher costs due to inflation but that is not what I would define as "beating inflation". Your rent example is a good one but of course its temporary and no landlord is going to sign a 3 year fixed rate lease now.

Its okay to say that inflation is affecting you, that doesn't mean that you've failed in some way.

No, I'm not conflating anything.   Housing prices are up about 10% in my area in the last year.  Mine are up 0%.  How is signing a 3 year lease not a way to beat inflation, which you said can't be done?  And I signed that only a year ago, when prices in my areas were skyrocketing.  I am part of a group for people moving to this area and many people are still signing 2-3 year leases, so you are simply wrong about no landlord doing it.  And I'm pretty sure banks are still issuing fixed-rate mortgages. 

I clearly acknowledged that some of those other things are gray areas.  But since inflation is not equal across all prices--it's not just that everything costs 6.9% more--shifting spending does, IMO, beat inflation.  You buy less of the highly inflated beef and more of the barely inflated pork.  As I clearly acknowledge, this depends on how one defines the terms, but I see now point in just saying "you can't beat inflation", when there is plenty that can be done in the face of inflation, whether you want to call it "beating" or not.    It is certainly possible to look at 7% overall inflation and keep one's cost increases to >7%, even if one isn't actually buying overall less stuff or doing less traveling and is just thoughtful about shifting a few choices.

True, but this is not what you said the first time so I guess I prompted you to think about it some more!

The fact is that landlord signing the 3 year fixed rate lease is losing money. Most likely scenario is that the landlord is an idiot, very common in the real estate realm. They are probably just looking at their monthly PITI amount and saying to themselves: this rental amount is over my monthly payment so that's it. I should be renting instead of owning!

[Fru-Gal]

From what I understand chicken and egg prices specifically will be up due to avian flu.

I have raised chickens for most of my life. Best eggs ever, and they are fun pets as well. Due to avian flu it's currently important to keep wild birds separate from them/not pooping in their foraging area.

[Cranky]

The only way to “beat” inflation is to have the real return on your wages and assets not be impacted. Or in other words your increase in wages and assets goes up commensurate with inflation. Reducing expenses is adapting to inflation, but not beating it because you had to give something up, even if technically the impact of giving it up was immaterial to your lifestyle, you still had to give it up.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think you “beat” a lot of things by not being overly attached to any given material/consumer item.

If you switch from prime rib to hamburgers, you can think of that as a terrible loss of quality of life, or you can just think of it as something different to eat. I personally like burgers as well as steak, so it’s not a downgrade to me.

I have tightened up my budget in the last year for a lot of reasons, but my life is not worse for it. There is no suffering because we are using the library more and Amazon less. My quality of life isn’t about how far we drive or what we buy.

And there is no knowing whether things will be more expensive in a few years. You know when a great time to buy stuff was? 2008/9 - if you had cash there were fire sales everywhere. If we have a major recession, we may well see some big dips.

[rmorris50]

The only way to “beat” inflation is to have the real return on your wages and assets not be impacted. Or in other words your increase in wages and assets goes up commensurate with inflation. Reducing expenses is adapting to inflation, but not beating it because you had to give something up, even if technically the impact of giving it up was immaterial to your lifestyle, you still had to give it up.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think you “beat” a lot of things by not being overly attached to any given material/consumer item.

If you switch from prime rib to hamburgers, you can think of that as a terrible loss of quality of life, or you can just think of it as something different to eat. I personally like burgers as well as steak, so it’s not a downgrade to me.

I have tightened up my budget in the last year for a lot of reasons, but my life is not worse for it. There is no suffering because we are using the library more and Amazon less. My quality of life isn’t about how far we drive or what we buy.

And there is no knowing whether things will be more expensive in a few years. You know when a great time to buy stuff was? 2008/9 - if you had cash there were fire sales everywhere. If we have a major recession, we may well see some big dips.

I know, I get it. Isolating whether you beat inflation is almost impossible, because it require us to remove our feelings from the equation and whether or not we would have made the change regardless of inflation.


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[afox]

The only way to “beat” inflation is to have the real return on your wages and assets not be impacted. Or in other words your increase in wages and assets goes up commensurate with inflation. Reducing expenses is adapting to inflation, but not beating it because you had to give something up, even if technically the impact of giving it up was immaterial to your lifestyle, you still had to give it up.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think you “beat” a lot of things by not being overly attached to any given material/consumer item.

If you switch from prime rib to hamburgers, you can think of that as a terrible loss of quality of life, or you can just think of it as something different to eat. I personally like burgers as well as steak, so it’s not a downgrade to me.

I have tightened up my budget in the last year for a lot of reasons, but my life is not worse for it. There is no suffering because we are using the library more and Amazon less. My quality of life isn’t about how far we drive or what we buy.

And there is no knowing whether things will be more expensive in a few years. You know when a great time to buy stuff was? 2008/9 - if you had cash there were fire sales everywhere. If we have a major recession, we may well see some big dips.

I get swapping out one item for another due to one item inflating in price more than another, although this is easier said than done. Just finding the data is difficult.

What I don't get is saving money thru traditional means, like your example of using the library instead of buying books. Yes, this saves money and offsets lost money due to inflation but the library was always free and buying books on amazon was always a frivolous expense from a mustachian perspective when there are free alternatives. So aren't all the people that have been frugal for the past many years/decades already using the library or finding other alternatives to buying books on amazon? As a person that grew up frugal before it was a thing I am perplexed at how suddenly finding ways to save money and claiming its "beating inflation" makes any sense most especially in this forum. Obviously if you haven't figured it out already using the library instead of amazon means you can literally retire earlier, nothing to do with inflation.

[nereo]

I cant beat inflation! And neither can you.

Sorry, but I find that statement to be completely absurd
Either everyone's prices have increased by the same amount, or they haven't. If cost increases are not universal, some people will be pay less and some more.

Given that we already know inflation is not uniform across all sectors, some people "are beating" inflation.

[afox]

I cant beat inflation! And neither can you.

Sorry, but I find that statement to be completely absurd
Either everyone's prices have increased by the same amount, or they haven't. If cost increases are not universal, some people will be pay less and some more.

Given that we already know inflation is not uniform across all sectors, some people "are beating" inflation.

You mis-interpreted. Noone is "beating" inflation, some people are affected less than others. Does that sound better?

[jrhampt]

I requested and received a raise (cost of living plus title upgrade - 13%, although I lost a year to a salary freeze in 2021). 
Work from home, no commute.
Energy costs - installed heat pump and solar panels last year.
Still living in 600 sq ft house w 2.65% mortgage (refinanced when rates were low).
Putting off replacing current car (reliable 10 year old Honda Fit with ~90k miles on it, bought used a few years back) with more fuel-efficient plug in hybrid until supply/demand reverts to mean.

Food costs are definitely up but I'm not doing anything to offset that (other than the raise).

[Cranky]

The only way to “beat” inflation is to have the real return on your wages and assets not be impacted. Or in other words your increase in wages and assets goes up commensurate with inflation. Reducing expenses is adapting to inflation, but not beating it because you had to give something up, even if technically the impact of giving it up was immaterial to your lifestyle, you still had to give it up.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think you “beat” a lot of things by not being overly attached to any given material/consumer item.

If you switch from prime rib to hamburgers, you can think of that as a terrible loss of quality of life, or you can just think of it as something different to eat. I personally like burgers as well as steak, so it’s not a downgrade to me.

I have tightened up my budget in the last year for a lot of reasons, but my life is not worse for it. There is no suffering because we are using the library more and Amazon less. My quality of life isn’t about how far we drive or what we buy.

And there is no knowing whether things will be more expensive in a few years. You know when a great time to buy stuff was? 2008/9 - if you had cash there were fire sales everywhere. If we have a major recession, we may well see some big dips.

I get swapping out one item for another due to one item inflating in price more than another, although this is easier said than done. Just finding the data is difficult.

What I don't get is saving money thru traditional means, like your example of using the library instead of buying books. Yes, this saves money and offsets lost money due to inflation but the library was always free and buying books on amazon was always a frivolous expense from a mustachian perspective when there are free alternatives. So aren't all the people that have been frugal for the past many years/decades already using the library or finding other alternatives to buying books on amazon? As a person that grew up frugal before it was a thing I am perplexed at how suddenly finding ways to save money and claiming its "beating inflation" makes any sense most especially in this forum. Obviously if you haven't figured it out already using the library instead of amazon means you can literally retire earlier, nothing to do with inflation.

Using the library more meant figuring out some technology issues, and honestly sometimes I just went for the convenience option. I didn’t do that *because* of inflation, but having done that, it means that I’m not affected by rising entertainment costs.

It also helps to have a long perspective. We do have a Netflix subscription. Has the price of that gone up? Well… I actually pay slightly less for Netflix than I did 20 years ago when they mailed out dvds.

I’m not really in a race with inflation so I am not trying to “beat” it, but I do have a fairly fixed income being retired, and I’m motivated to keep my costs low and my life satisfaction high.

[Villanelle]

THis is all great but I do find it amusing that one persons answer to "how are you beating inflation" is: "I grow my own broccoli".

The housing stuff misses from a math perspective a bit I think because:
-lower interest rates resulted in higher house prices, unless you will never move you will pay the piper for those lower rates at some point. I know you think you'll never move but in all likelihood you will because your life situation will change in ways your current self cannot imagine.
-prop taxes are increasing even in areas with those caps, perhaps just at a later time
-maintence and upkeep have vastly increased. The IRS uses 27.5 years for the useful life of the building, meaning that one will spend the amount the building is worth divided by 27.5 every year to maintain the building (not land). Whether you replace that roof, floors, paint etc this year or 10 years from now you will pay higher prices when you do.

But whatever, it makes people feel good to think "they're beating inflation", NTTAWWT. If you really want to know compare this years total spending to the previous years at tax time. I do this by calculating total income - total taxes - total investments - total cash accumulated = rough total spending for the year. All this buzz about saving x amount on broccoli and bags of oatmeal is for the birds IMO. I mean I have 50 pound bags of oatmeal and rice too but Im not naïve enough to think that that's somehow going to "beat inflation".

So what are you doing to beat inflation?
Not gardening, not diy-ing home maintenance.
Low interest rates also resulted in lower monthly payments for those who re-financed at rock bottom rates.
If you total your spending for the year (you're not the only one who does this, btw) and it's within 9.2% of the previous year have you beaten inflation?

I cant beat inflation! And neither can you.

Note that inflation is calculated as a relative increase in prices. If you were DIY-ing your home projects before and just buying supplies and you are DIY-ing your home projects now the percent increase is the same. I suppose if you grew your own trees and milled your own lumber you would be "beating inflation". I still need to do the math for 2022 spending but Im sure my expenses went up considerably.

I suppose that depends on one's definition of "beating inflation".   A three year, fixed-rate rental lease seems to me like I'm beating inflation.  Housing costs are up; mine are not.  A low rate fixed mortgage seems to me like "beating inflation".  Finding easy ways to get stuff for free seems like beating inflation; if the retail price of that puzzle goes from $17 to $20, I am still paying $0. 

If someone uses this as a prompt to add one degree to their summer thermostat, is that beating inflation?  It's more of a gray area, IMO, but it is finding a way to make a cut in an area where the increases are huge and thus it makes more of a difference.   Or if someone switches from using most ground beef to mostly ground pork because beef in their area is up 10% and pork only 2%, have they "beat inflation"? (Assuming the pork stays overall cheaper than the beef.)  Again, it's a gray area, but it's certainly not as cut and dried as you make it out to be because some areas inflate more, or more quickly than others.  What about my spouse deciding to drive my smaller, more fuel-efficient car on the days he works offsite (and is reimbursed the IRS mileage rate, no matter what vehicle he is in)?  We aren't paying less per gallon of gas, but the situation prompted us to look more critically at things and find a way to spend less when gas prices are way up--more than just by the average inflation number. 

If you want to just throw up your hands and feel we are all helpless--little economic boats borne back ceaselessly into smaller relative buying power, cool.  But that seems pretty contrary to the ethos of this site, and also pretty untrue.  There are ways to alter one's spending habits and other choices that will decrease or eliminate the amount of spending one does in the areas that have seen the most inflation.

You, like many others are conflating saving money with beating inflation. All of those money saving examples are things that you could do regardless of inflation. And most of us have always done those sorts of things to save money. For example turning my thermostat down is saving money but does nothing to beat inflation.

You can save money to make up for higher costs due to inflation but that is not what I would define as "beating inflation". Your rent example is a good one but of course its temporary and no landlord is going to sign a 3 year fixed rate lease now.

Its okay to say that inflation is affecting you, that doesn't mean that you've failed in some way.

No, I'm not conflating anything.   Housing prices are up about 10% in my area in the last year.  Mine are up 0%.  How is signing a 3 year lease not a way to beat inflation, which you said can't be done?  And I signed that only a year ago, when prices in my areas were skyrocketing.  I am part of a group for people moving to this area and many people are still signing 2-3 year leases, so you are simply wrong about no landlord doing it.  And I'm pretty sure banks are still issuing fixed-rate mortgages. 

I clearly acknowledged that some of those other things are gray areas.  But since inflation is not equal across all prices--it's not just that everything costs 6.9% more--shifting spending does, IMO, beat inflation.  You buy less of the highly inflated beef and more of the barely inflated pork.  As I clearly acknowledge, this depends on how one defines the terms, but I see now point in just saying "you can't beat inflation", when there is plenty that can be done in the face of inflation, whether you want to call it "beating" or not.    It is certainly possible to look at 7% overall inflation and keep one's cost increases to >7%, even if one isn't actually buying overall less stuff or doing less traveling and is just thoughtful about shifting a few choices.

True, but this is not what you said the first time so I guess I prompted you to think about it some more!

The fact is that landlord signing the 3 year fixed rate lease is losing money. Most likely scenario is that the landlord is an idiot, very common in the real estate realm. They are probably just looking at their monthly PITI amount and saying to themselves: this rental amount is over my monthly payment so that's it. I should be renting instead of owning!

How is that different from what I said the first time, when I acknowledged that things like shifting from one item to another is a gray area, and that it will depend on how you define "beating inflation"?    What I said in this post is identical to what I said in the earlier post, which is that by shifting to less inflated items, you can (IMO) "beat" inflation. 

Also, those landlords may not be losing any money.  It costs money to turn a property, especially a nicer property where tenants expect the paint to be in decent shape, and other things that the landlord need to address during turnover.  Addressing them costs money, and it costs time.  Even a 2 week vacancy can be a $1500+ loss in revenue compared to just keeping the same tenant, and that is before the costs of any actual services. If there is a property manager used, most charge fees for turn over.  That can be one month's rent.  So keeping the same tenant is likely cheaper than getting a new one for a couple hundred dollars more.  And there's no better way to keep a tenant than to lure them in with a long lease, and then have them legally obligated to stay.  So I understand why landlords do it, and I don't think it makes them idiots, even if I might not (and have not, as a landlord) made the same choice. 

Which brings up another way to "beat" inflation.  Owning a rental property might meant your overly stringent definition.  You can increase rents (unless you have one of those pesky multi-year leases).  In the area I live and the area I own, rents have increased far more than average overall inflation.  That means making more money, even when compared to the overall level of increases.  Prices up 6.5%, rents up 10%.  That means income for the owner is up which should offset increased prices, especially if they are also beating (or "beating", I guess?) inflation by making some smart substitutions and changes.

Or maybe we all just need to throw our hands up in dispair, bemoan that we  just can't beat inflation because it is impossible, keep doing everything the same, and watch ourselves get poorer.  That's certainly another option. 

[bmjohnson35]

I cant beat inflation! And neither can you.

Sorry, but I find that statement to be completely absurd
Either everyone's prices have increased by the same amount, or they haven't. If cost increases are not universal, some people will be pay less and some more.

Given that we already know inflation is not uniform across all sectors, some people "are beating" inflation.

You mis-interpreted. Noone is "beating" inflation, some people are affected less than others. Does that sound better?

I understand what you are trying to say afox.  Even if you can avoid selling shares from your investments and avoid/reduce cost increases in certain areas, inflation still negatively impacts us.  If we continue into a full-blown lengthy recession and inflation persists, it chips away at the purchasing power of money and ultimately our wealth.  It would probably be more accurate to ask what mitigations people are using to reduce the impact of inflation.

[nereo]

I cant beat inflation! And neither can you.

Sorry, but I find that statement to be completely absurd
Either everyone's prices have increased by the same amount, or they haven't. If cost increases are not universal, some people will be pay less and some more.

Given that we already know inflation is not uniform across all sectors, some people "are beating" inflation.

You mis-interpreted. Noone is "beating" inflation, some people are affected less than others. Does that sound better?

Ok, that’s fair. I understand what you are saying better now, and this might just be bickering over semantics. As to your broader point that “no one is beating inflation.”  Some of us have automatic inflationary raises (or COLA). If you have individual increases in the low single digits but an increased paycheck in the 8-10% range is say that yes, you are “beating” inflation, at least compared to most of your peers and in real world terms. You can argue that we’d collectively be much better off with 2-3% inflation (and you’d probably be right).

FWIW this is pretty much the situation we find ourselves in: very moderate personal spending increases that are being more than offset by additional take home.
Bottom line: our financial situation has improved slightly over the past year.

[sonofsven]

Yes, I think it's just semantics, too, so I will no longer beat inflation. I will simply fight inflation.
afox, I'll ask again because I'm curious. So you total up all your spending for this year, and it's more than last year. If it was 6% more, would you be beating inflation?

[jnw]

Just had a free sealing and upgrading of attic insulation from R9 to R39.   The duct air leakage was 200 before sealing and 50 after sealing.  Max efficiency for home is like 776 and before sealing it was 1350 or so.  After sealing its around 1000.  (I don't know what they units of measurements are, I asked them and they didn't even know lol.)

But anyways I hope to save 10 to 15% per year on my heating & air conditioning bills now.. hopefully.  This will help a lot as they have gone up by like 30% in the past year.

This sealing and insulation was paid for by the electric company.. they don't want to build a new power plant so they are upgrading people's homes , those who are low income that is.

[rantk81]

Last week, I paid $4.29 for an 18ct of conventional/non-fancy grade A large eggs from Jewel-Osco.

Yesterday, I paid $4.49 for an 18ct of conventional/non-fancy grade A large eggs from Target.  Only a 4.7% increase in a week, so a win, right (?)
/s

[FrugalAussie]

This ..

Food – eggs have quadrupled in price over the last 18 months so buying very few eggs until the avian flu passes.   Eating fewer meats and more beans/lentils, starting homemade bread.  We are still taking a close look at our food purchases to optimize.

We don't have a lot of expenses to reduce. Most of our property, utility charges and insurances are externally determined.  We're already efficient users of electricity and natural gas.  We own a hybrid Carolla, which we top up with petrol fortnightly now we're both FIRE'd. 

Food costs have increased where we live, especially meat. My husband doesn't mind spending whatever it costs at the supermarket as we rarely eat out and are generally frugal. I've been working to reduce the grocery bill by stealth, ie. more beans and lentils added to one pot meals, extra vigilance with shopping for specials/markdowns of meat,  meal planning to use what we have and a bit of baking. We also do an online order of bulk dried goods every six months or so which saves us a heap.

I'm also working hard to address my coffee habit.  A latte now costs $5, which is not a good use of my money.

I really feel for people who are time poor and that can't get to the shops regularly, who don't have the time/energy for shopping for bargains, cooking from scratch etc. I've been there, it was a real struggle.

[Tigerpine]

I have to admit, I personally haven't noticed inflation much.  I track things such as the per unit cost of natural gas and electricity, but the reality is we don't use much of them.  We own our house, so housing costs are fixed.  Our property tax is low.  Our food expenses are low.  We don't drive a car much on a regular basis.

Having said that, there was a time in my life when inflation in food and gasoline such as we're experiencing today would have had a huge impact.  Back in those days money was extremely tight, and as it was, I was slowing going deeper into debt just to get by.  I drove every day, spent a lot more on food, and had a girlfriend I was supporting who didn't have any sympathy for my monetary concerns.

It makes such a huge difference to have a partner on the same page.  To have money saved.  To have investments, even when markets are down.  To have health insurance.  To be out of debt, aside from our mortgage.

I am incredulous and eternally grateful that we have the luxury to view the current inflation as a minor inconvenience.  I also understand how tenuous our position is, everyone's is.  There's no telling when disaster will strike, when the Black Swan will suddenly appear to humble us and make all our preparations meaningless.  Men plan and God laughs, as they say.

Which is to say, we face inflation by being humble.  We do our best to take care of our health for the long term.  We save money when we get some.  We try our best to avoid debt whenever possible, saving in advance for large expenditures such as home improvements.  We cook at home and avoid unnecessary car use.  We go for walks and enjoy each other.  The library has become a greater part of our lives.  Our lives may be small, but they are quiet and comfortable.  The love from my wife has a value to me beyond measure, with the only currency to exchange being the love I return.

[afox]

I have to admit, I personally haven't noticed inflation much.  I track things such as the per unit cost of natural gas and electricity, but the reality is we don't use much of them.  We own our house, so housing costs are fixed.  Our property tax is low.  Our food expenses are low.  We don't drive a car much on a regular basis.

Having said that, there was a time in my life when inflation in food and gasoline such as we're experiencing today would have had a huge impact.  Back in those days money was extremely tight, and as it was, I was slowing going deeper into debt just to get by.  I drove every day, spent a lot more on food, and had a girlfriend I was supporting who didn't have any sympathy for my monetary concerns.

It makes such a huge difference to have a partner on the same page.  To have money saved.  To have investments, even when markets are down.  To have health insurance.  To be out of debt, aside from our mortgage.

I am incredulous and eternally grateful that we have the luxury to view the current inflation as a minor inconvenience.  I also understand how tenuous our position is, everyone's is.  There's no telling when disaster will strike, when the Black Swan will suddenly appear to humble us and make all our preparations meaningless.  Men plan and God laughs, as they say.

Which is to say, we face inflation by being humble.  We do our best to take care of our health for the long term.  We save money when we get some.  We try our best to avoid debt whenever possible, saving in advance for large expenditures such as home improvements.  We cook at home and avoid unnecessary car use.  We go for walks and enjoy each other.  The library has become a greater part of our lives.  Our lives may be small, but they are quiet and comfortable.  The love from my wife has a value to me beyond measure, with the only currency to exchange being the love I return.

Thats all great and I dont mean to downplay your success at living fruagally at all it at all but its all pretty much typical frugalism and has nothing to do with "beating inflation", except maybe for the interest portion of your home payment, which depending on how long you've owned your home may be a large or small portion of your housing payment. The amount your spending on home cooked food has increased with inflation just as it has for everyone. You may spend less in absolute terms than some heavy spender but percentage wise your spending has gone up just like everyone's.

[Tigerpine]

I have to admit, I personally haven't noticed inflation much.  I track things such as the per unit cost of natural gas and electricity, but the reality is we don't use much of them.  We own our house, so housing costs are fixed.  Our property tax is low.  Our food expenses are low.  We don't drive a car much on a regular basis.

Having said that, there was a time in my life when inflation in food and gasoline such as we're experiencing today would have had a huge impact.  Back in those days money was extremely tight, and as it was, I was slowing going deeper into debt just to get by.  I drove every day, spent a lot more on food, and had a girlfriend I was supporting who didn't have any sympathy for my monetary concerns.

It makes such a huge difference to have a partner on the same page.  To have money saved.  To have investments, even when markets are down.  To have health insurance.  To be out of debt, aside from our mortgage.

I am incredulous and eternally grateful that we have the luxury to view the current inflation as a minor inconvenience.  I also understand how tenuous our position is, everyone's is.  There's no telling when disaster will strike, when the Black Swan will suddenly appear to humble us and make all our preparations meaningless.  Men plan and God laughs, as they say.

Which is to say, we face inflation by being humble.  We do our best to take care of our health for the long term.  We save money when we get some.  We try our best to avoid debt whenever possible, saving in advance for large expenditures such as home improvements.  We cook at home and avoid unnecessary car use.  We go for walks and enjoy each other.  The library has become a greater part of our lives.  Our lives may be small, but they are quiet and comfortable.  The love from my wife has a value to me beyond measure, with the only currency to exchange being the love I return.

Thats all great and I dont mean to downplay your success at living fruagally at all it at all but its all pretty much typical frugalism and has nothing to do with "beating inflation", except maybe for the interest portion of your home payment, which depending on how long you've owned your home may be a large or small portion of your housing payment. The amount your spending on home cooked food has increased with inflation just as it has for everyone. You may spend less in absolute terms than some heavy spender but percentage wise your spending has gone up just like everyone's.

That's an interesting response.

I was merely reflecting on how inflation impacts my life.  If that's off-topic, then I am guilty as charged.

But that's really not the point.  The point is purely that inflation or not, I am very content in my current circumstances.  If inflation is a beast that causes grief and consternation, I "beat" it by being content nonetheless.  I claim nothing special.

[Undecided]

I am paid in US dollars, but I live in the euro zone; the currency swing seems to have meaningfully cushioned (if not offset altogether) my local inflation. I’d like to buy a house in the current economic circumstances, but unfortunately I have no idea where I expect to stay long enough for that to make sense.

[poxpower]

Thats all great and I dont mean to downplay your success at living fruagally at all it at all but its all pretty much typical frugalism and has nothing to do with "beating inflation"

The only true way I've seen in here to actually "beat inflation" is people who can refinance a loan.
Then you get pre-inflation purchase prices with the current under-inflation interest rate.

The other way to "beat inflation" is of course to be the one creating it ( the central bank in this case and the banks they lend to ).

Even getting into these long-term loans at ridiculous rates isn't a guarantee of beating inflation since you don't know the future. If your loan period is 20 years then only in 20 years will you know if your home purchase has increased your net worth more than if you had just rented and invested. If the price of your house stagnates for 20 years but the market quadruples, very unlikely that you then will have "beaten inflation".

If I look at the USA market you can see that around 2009-2011 is when the average price of homes was at a huge discount ( https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/ASPUS ) while at the same time interest rates were under inflation ( https://themortgagereports.com/61853/30-year-mortgage-rates-chart#current ).

So that's like 10+ years of people getting into homes at below-inflation interest rates but then in 2020 the sale price of housing shoots way up. How likely is it that anyone who paid 20-50% above market post-2020 is "beating inflation"?

At the end of the day, really, the only true way to ever securely beat inflation is, again, to be the thief yourself. To be the one who gets those gold coins, melts them, mixes them with copper and sends them back into the world as if they were 100% gold.

[roomtempmayo]

A friend just had a couple trees go down in a storm.

I'm going over to help her clean them up, and I'll haul some of the wood home to heat my house next winter, or the winter after.  Natural gas costs about $7.50/MMBtu.  A cord of red oak has about 25 MMBtu.  An afternoon cutting, hauling, and splitting a cord offsets about $187.50 worth of natural gas, minus the cost of fuel.

Build friendships and get strong, with the happy accident of saving money.

[HuskiesUnited]

I got a 13 percent bonus and a 4 percent raise earlier this year, and wife and I probably only spend ~20 percent of our income.  If we spend 25 percent of our income due to inflation, I don’t really care.  The raise and bonus easily pay for any inflation we experience. 

We don’t drive much for work (my commute is 7 miles and hers is 2).  After doing a lot of staying at home the last two years with Covid, higher gas prices are not going to stop me from taking the ~monthly 140 mile trip one way to visit my family.  Summer is here, and there will be more eating out / meeting up with friends.  I don’t plan to pass on those experiences either due to inflation.  Maybe I’m not being all that mustachian?

Also, we are holding ~$120k in Ibonds, so that is going to produce about $10k this year, though we won’t be cashing them out for a while.

[CrabbitDutchie]

I'm not beating inflation. We have little fat to trim and a disproportionate (compared to average consumer) amount of our shedding is on housing, electricity and food. Here some of the biggest rises in costs are in staple basic foods and electricity. As a result our relative expenses will be up by more than the average inflation %.

Now I've also got a large savings rate so the effect on me in my day to day life is far less than if I was someone with similar expenditure but without that buffer. Makes me pretty grateful for my frugal tendencies and stable job. Many in my neighbourhood are struggling.

 The only place I feel we're really beating inflation is on rent. We've been in our current flat for 8.5 years with not a single rent increase. I really hope the landlord doesnt read this because the going rate for similar places around us seems to be about 50% more these days!

[rmorris50]

My way to cope with inflation has been two decades in the making - investing in stocks and a house.

I’m taking it in the chin eating out, but ‘be adapted by eating at not as fancy of places.

I’ve noticed inflation in groceries too. And clothing.

Travel I actually noticed it some but still have been able to find deals.

Most other expenses are basically fixed. Buying out my 2019 car lease recently was a steal.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Fru-Gal]

So what are we to make of the fact that posts on this new thread about inflation are from multiple parts of the world?

(Not trying to be insensitive to anyone in Argentina or Venezuela, who have truly frightening inflation)

[OtherJen]

We already rarely eat at restaurants, so we're not really beating grocery inflation. The hikes in some products but not others, and the variations in supply, are weird.

I went to Costco today and paid $6.59 for 8 cans of Kirkland brand organic tomatoes (down from $7.99 previously) and $6.99 for 2 dozen organic cage-free eggs (same price I've always paid, with no apparent shortage), so those were wins. However, I paid $17.49 for a 3-lb bag of Kirkland coffee beans (up from $15.69), $11.59 for husband's favorite Kirkland beef jerky (up from $9.99), and $10.29 for a bag of 6 avocados (up from $6.99). I had hoped to grab a rotisserie chicken, but the nearest Costco hasn't had those available for at least a year, at least not when I've been in the store (usually early afternoon). No gluten-free bread, either.

At Aldi on Wednesday, I paid $3.49 for a bag of kale (up from $2.99), $3.19 for a lb. of gluten-free pasta (up from $2.79), $3.58 for a lb. of butter (up from $2.99), and $3.89 for a bag of lemons (up from $1.99). No noticeable changes in the prices of foods like cherry tomatoes, Italian sausage, scallions, mushrooms, or frozen hashbrowns.

We can absorb the costs for now, but I'll have to start being much more conscious about grocery sales and reining in my husband when he wants to cook and eat something that has skyrocketed in price (I handle 98% of grocery shopping; he doesn't pay attention to prices). For years, I had a good idea of the best buys at Aldi, Costco, and BJ's, with rare trips to Meijer for something not sold at any of the other stores or a good sale. Now I'll have to start comparison shopping things like coffee beans and produce again.

[OtherJen]

So what are we to make of the fact that posts on this new thread about inflation are from multiple parts of the world?

(Not trying to be insensitive to anyone in Argentina or Venezuela, who have truly frightening inflation)

It's not Biden's fault?

Seriously, though...I feel like it's just one global hit after another: COVID; massive heatwaves, droughts, and floods due to climate change; the war in Ukraine, etc.

[Cranky]

I got a 13 percent bonus and a 4 percent raise earlier this year, and wife and I probably only spend ~20 percent of our income.  If we spend 25 percent of our income due to inflation, I don’t really care.  The raise and bonus easily pay for any inflation we experience. 

Truly, if your income has a COLA, you do beat inflation. My only real gripe is that dh's pension does not have a COLA.

My dd (we share a house) has gotten a raise considerably higher than the inflation rate + a sizable bonus, so they are better off income-wise, not worse. (She thinks her employer might have heard that google is sniffing around...)

[Arbitrage]

I got a 13 percent bonus and a 4 percent raise earlier this year, and wife and I probably only spend ~20 percent of our income.  If we spend 25 percent of our income due to inflation, I don’t really care.  The raise and bonus easily pay for any inflation we experience. 

Truly, if your income has a COLA, you do beat inflation. My only real gripe is that dh's pension does not have a COLA.

My dd (we share a house) has gotten a raise considerably higher than the inflation rate + a sizable bonus, so they are better off income-wise, not worse. (She thinks her employer might have heard that google is sniffing around...)

This is a key point.  People like to imagine that they're beating inflation if their costs are rising less than the headline inflation rate, or perhaps if they're paying a lower interest rate than the inflation rate.  I submit that's only true if their assets and/or income (whichever is most applicable) are rising commensurate with headline inflation. 

I got a 2.9% raise this year.  My wife received no raise.  My assets are mostly negative.  Sure, I'm keeping my personal inflation rate lower than 8+%, but I'm still losing to inflation.  In the long run, it's fine, but if I were to take out a loan at 7%, it wouldn't suddenly mean that I'm beating the system unless I can do better with that money.  Right now, other than I bonds, I'm not.  In the long run, I'm sure I will, but it ain't happening so far since inflation kicked up.

[marty998]

I have to agree with those who are saying you can't beat inflation. There are just various degrees of loss.

Inflation has well and truly hit us here too.... in Australia it's 5.1% annualised but nobody believes that. The price of everything has gone up more much more than that.

I'm having a bit of a personal mental crisis of "it's all fucked right now and I might as well spend a bit of coin before my cash is worth shit". So I've been eating out a lot more, spending on things I normally wouldn't (hello new rowing machine!), and just generally loosening the purse strings.

I'm now re-considering what my net worth growth is for 2022 in terms of "inflation adjusted growth". I'd have to grow it by $100,000 just to match inflation, and be exactly where I was at the start of the year. In a year of falling stockmarkets and falling real estate markets that really messes with your head.

Shit's fucked yo.

[poxpower]

I'm having a bit of a personal mental crisis of "it's all fucked right now and I might as well spend a bit of coin before my cash is worth shit". So I've been eating out a lot more, spending on things I normally wouldn't (hello new rowing machine!), and just generally loosening the purse strings.

Buy stocks.
SP500 down 15% on top of two years of 10% inflation. That means it's down more like 30%. Stock market is on sale right now.

[vand]

I'm looking for a higher paying job. I've been with my company a long time and my career hasn't advanced as quickly as it might have had I moved around a bit more (which is fine, because work is about more than just the paycheque), but it's grown to the point where I have too much responsibility for too little recognition and I don't enjoy my work any more, so am looking to make a move.

In the meantime as my team is currently also falling apart there I'm doing more weekend cover and bringing in extra income while I secure myself a new position. The money's good and the work isn't that demanding. However it's not a long term solution as obviously I can't devote all my time to work.

I agree that there really isn't anything you can do to "beat" inflation unless your income and asset base are rising at least as fast, although holding long term fixed debt is definitely one area that will benefit. In fact in net worth terms its possible to construe a scenario where even if your investments and income are lagging inflation, if you have a lot of debt (eg a large mortgage) then that too will be shrunk in real terms, so your net worth remains constant or even grows due to gradual erosion of debt.

[vand]

I'm having a bit of a personal mental crisis of "it's all fucked right now and I might as well spend a bit of coin before my cash is worth shit". So I've been eating out a lot more, spending on things I normally wouldn't (hello new rowing machine!), and just generally loosening the purse strings.

Buy stocks.
SP500 down 15% on top of two years of 10% inflation. That means it's down more like 30%. Stock market is on sale right now.

Except the peak was only 4 months ago and (official) inflation since then has been more like 3-4%, so more like a 20% real discount. S&P was eyewatering at 4.8k, and it's still very expensive at 4k. 3.5k is pricey, 3k is reasonable, 2.5k is cheap

[stoaX]

I'm having a bit of a personal mental crisis of "it's all fucked right now and I might as well spend a bit of coin before my cash is worth shit". So I've been eating out a lot more, spending on things I normally wouldn't (hello new rowing machine!), and just generally loosening the purse strings.

Buy stocks.
SP500 down 15% on top of two years of 10% inflation. That means it's down more like 30%. Stock market is on sale right now.

Except the peak was only 4 months ago and (official) inflation since then has been more like 3-4%, so more like a 20% real discount. S&P was eyewatering at 4.8k, and it's still very expensive at 4k. 3.5k is pricey, 3k is reasonable, 2.5k is cheap

Everything thing I see about inflation in the US shows higher numbers than the "3-4%" cited above. Perhaps I misunderstood you, but here's what statistics.com is reporting:

Monthly 12-month inflation rate in the United States from April 2021 to April 2022

table
column chart
Characteristic   Inflation rate
Apr '22   8.3%
Mar '22   8.5%
Feb '22   7.9%
Jan '22   7.5%
Dec '21   7%
Nov '21   6.8%
Oct '21   6.2%
Sep '21   5.4%
Aug '21   5.3%
Jul '21   5.4%
Jun '21   5.4%
May '21   5%
Apr '21   4.2%