How are you adapting to inflation?

[roomtempmayo]

I’m wondering what sorts of contrarian hacks Mustachians have developed to address the inflationary time we’re living in?  Ways of reducing consumption?  Adjusting what goods you buy? 

We have one car, and we live in a car-centric city.  During the pandemic our public transit has become ... sketchy.

Rather than buy a second car (see used car prices), we joined the local car sharing program.  It's inconvenient enough that perhaps it's not our forever-solution, but it's good enough for now.

But I wouldn't say we're particularly concerned about inflation.

I drive by the gas stations and check out the price like an accident on the freeway or a citizen witnessing an execution in Plato's Republic: Wait, what?!  My curiosity has indicated that we're up to about $3.60/gallon, but like a highway accident, it's a curiosity.

It's sad that we (Americans, and also to some extent western Europeans) have used all of our prosperity to consume endlessly more whatever, without using much/any of that wealth to build resiliency.

On Friday I was listening to NPR's Marketplace coming back from skiing (driving in an ICE car), and one stat they gave was that only a very bare majority (51% or so, if I remember correctly) of Americans would support tariffs on Russia if it meant higher gas prices. 

Man, $6/gal, $8/gal, $10/gal, bring it on.  It makes zero difference to me.  With all the money we've got in the US, at the very least it seems like we should put it to use not having to worry about Russian (mis)adventures.

[ixtap]

Your comment about the reduced public transport schedule is kind of like the shrinkflation we've seen in goods... it's the first example of it happening in the service sector that I have seen.

I guess you haven't been to a hotel lately.

https://thepointsguy.com/news/missing-hotel-amenities/?utm_source=TPG%20Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=3784969&utm_usr=82d9cdb74aebb92726074379679f5b8d8d41690e2743188eb9b2c0fcf341afb0&utm_msg=28bb7cb9eb5e4bb98356b55fb1739bb0&utm_date=2022-02-27

Thanks for the link.  Out of all the things that went away "because of covid", I would miss the do not disturb sign the most.

Happy to report that every hotel I have stayed at in the last 9 months had the do not disturb sign available.

Yeah me too. However every hotel I have stayed at in the last year had no more housekeeping unless you ask for it a day in advance, barely any food service (breakfast, lunch and/or dinner) and increased prices for everything.

Not that I travel much outside of work these days, but AirBnB it is. For work, well, I don't really have a choice, unfortunately, but I'll check these things before I choose a room to book, even if it's not my usual Marriot (haven't gotten a room upgrade in a year either, although I'm a Gold member).

Oh, we have definitely run into housekeeping in the hallways and had no issues with food.

[affordablehousing]

continuing in my, only use stuff i find on the street, i found a quart of paint in exactly the color I needed to cover some drywall patches and coat a wall. I was shocked to find just the thing, in the same sheen, in so close a shade my wife assumed I'd gotten a color match at Benjamin Moore. I also found a neighbor retiring out of the country and hit the bonanza, including some nice potted plants, some artwork I'd actually want to hang, some kids toys, stucco patch that saved me from buying a can, and some pottery that gets me out of buying a housewarming gift for a friend. I am a collector, and inflation would be hard if I couldn't turn to the street to provide for me.

As a reminder the garbage can is the ONLY store that never changes its prices!!!

For my fellow collectors do you think the pandemic has increased the quality of garbage or decreased it? In my area I think it is increasing with the churn of stuff going through peoples' homes as they renovate and redecorate.

[Tyson]

A non-Mustachian would 'adjust' to inflation by using it to justify buying a bunch of stuff 'before it gets too expensive!".  The way I look at it, I adjust to inflation by being Mustachian in the first place.  There are several things I learned here that are making me more robust than I would have been prior to MMM.  Things like investing consistently in 80/20 stock/bond index funds.  Keeping my 3% mortage on my house and not paying it off early and funneling all my extra money toward investments instead.  Living on a reasonable budget.  Not living paycheck to paycheck.  Going after pay increases when I change employers.  Etc.... These are the things that make things like inflation somewhat of a non-issue. 

Of course I'm still working and might feel differently if I were already RE.

[Poundwise]

 Though we've already been Mustachian for decades, oddly our response to the uncertainty of the past couple of years has been to spend more at businesses we want to support. We tip more-- perhaps extravagantly. And I've been trying to declutter faster so that people don't have to spend money, since so many items have been ripening in my garage for years.

Since I am in the organization of some social groups, I've also been trying to influence people toward less consumption, i.e. resisting movement back to in person organizational meetings, questioning expenditures on event swag that will get thrown away almost immediately. I'm also looking into "ripple effect" actions that will make things more efficient for everyone in my community, like traffic adjustments that will make it easier for students to walk to school.

On the personal front, this year I do intend to garden more seriously now that we have our raised beds prepared. And I'm still struggling to get my family to eat less meat though not succeeding well there.

So I guess my reaction has been to accelerate actions that would also help the environment too.

[tygertygertyger]

Since I am in the organization of some social groups, I've also been trying to influence people toward less consumption, i.e. resisting movement back to in person organizational meetings, questioning expenditures on event swag that will get thrown away almost immediately. I'm also looking into "ripple effect" actions that will make things more efficient for everyone in my community, like traffic adjustments that will make it easier for students to walk to school.

I love this so much.

I was part of a "participatory budget" committee at my former address, and we did just this type of "nudge" suggestions for infrastructure spend. I hope to get involved in my new community in some similar way. (I want a tool library at our public library!)

And as a corporate minion, I also really appreciate less swag. (I have so many thermoses that I will never use. Please, just save the plastic... )

[roomtempmayo]

so many items have been ripening in my garage for years.

This ^ is a great phrase.  Like bananas, most garage stuff doesn't get better with the passage of time.

I live about three miles from work.  I usually bike, but lately I've been walking to enjoy the spring weather.

I somehow managed to lose my only daypack a few years ago, and walking with a shoulder bag for three miles each way is getting a little old. 

I've been on the hunt for a new daypack.  I started looking around at the usual outdoor suspects, like REI and Patagonia, but do I really need a fancy backpack to walk to work?  So I dialed up the old school classic Jansports, and it turns out that they're pretty close in price to what Patagonia offers.  I've been unmotivated to buy.

We have a gear thrift store a couple miles away.  I think I'm going to ride there on Saturday and see what they have on the shelf.  I might end up being the grown man walking to work with a castoff Hello Kitty backpack, but at least I won't end up contributing to the endless stream of nylon crap in the world.

[Cranky]

I use a Hello Kitty daypack that was originally one of my kids’ school bag, and it is darned sturdy! It’s easy to spot and I’m pretty sure no one wants to steal it!

[onward19]

Definitely noticing the inflation.

 Gas bill is up 100% over last winter, thanks to Texas's mismanagement and their bizarre cold snap last February. We always keep it at 68 in the daytime and 65 at night, but the increase is from all the costs being passed on, plus higher costs for natural gas. 65 is actually a great temperature for sleeping, so it doesn't bother us, and the electric blanket turned on for a few minutes takes the chill off of the bed. The kid, who kicks off his blankets and refuses to pull them up properly, is dressed in fleece so he stays warm.

  Fuel to drive the car is up a lot too, but that isn't really noticeable since we don't really go anywhere.
 
  Food, well food is a mess. I have a hard time meal planning because the store is always cancelling items from the order. And it's different items every week too! No rhyme or reason to it. But things have gone up in price too of course. We switched brands of butter because our favorite brand got too expensive. Coffee went from around $6, which it's been forever, to over $7, to suddenly this month it jumped a solid $1 more to almost $8.50! So DH is going to have to find another brand of coffee now, or drink less.
  We buy most things from Aldi which helps, but even they have price increases, and are the worst at product availability.

 Vehicles - the truck needs to be replaced but that's out of the question at the moment, so we're just trying to keep the old clunker running. Taking it in next week to get some bearings fixed which should be fairly cheap and make it safe to drive again for a while. No heat makes it no fun to drive in the winter, but DH doesn't go anywhere anyway. It'll get a lot of use as soon as spring hits and we need to start moving free stuff found on curb alerts, dirt for the yard, leaves and tree branch removal and all those fun spring/summer projects.
 Seriously though, spring is amazing in this town. You would not believe what people throw on the curb for free. Not only have I scored tons of items that we have personally needed, I've also picked up things that other people needed, and many items to clean up and resell. DH once went to pick up some paid furniture for me, and came home with a lawn mower that the same person had thrown on the curb for free. He cleaned it up, replaced a couple small parts, and sold it for $50!