Mustachian consumer price index?

[modusoperandi303]

Sooooo after reading some of the case studies which mr money mustache has posted I have started to notice a theme running through them. The crux of the problem for most studies is 'Make sure you’ve shopped around thoroughly for food, transport etcetera' or 'have you found the most economical price for product/service x'. Whilst there is always a cheaper way of attaining food (growing it in your back garden), cheaper transport (change your 50mpg toyota yaris (not sure if they have them in america?) in for a honda cbf 125 that gets 100mpg, then discover the art of motorcycle maintenance) and almost everything else. Some may or may not be the most economical of solutions for most people given the time constraints we all have. Though how would I have known that saving myself £10 a day in fuel and challenging myself to cycling 40 miles to work and back would be enjoyable until I had read the true cost of commuting post. The how thing was a process which started with working mathematically through the possible options of changing my car for a motorbike to push bike, applying the decision to having the cash accounted for and saved in the bank.

Could there be a plausible agreement for spending our time creating a consumer price index which is moderated and added to by the community to help people on there way to greater financial responsibility and the freedom it brings?


Here is a brief and quickly though out path to creating this raw data and making it useful to the general mustachian public:

• The Mustachian consumer price index must be there to help people make informed decisions
• The would correct the flaws of the current consumer price indexes and keep what works
• provide real time and searchable data
• take into account regional data and display it for relevance

 

Is there anything I have missed out that might make this question more relevant?


 

[grantmeaname]

The regional data thing is the big hurdle IMO. You can get really good data in the US from the BLS, but it would be hard to find equivalent replacements for Canada, Oz, the UK, and the various locations with just a couple readers.

[KingCoin]

It's not clear to me exactly what you're proposing.

A CPI typically tracks the price of a basket of goods in order to get an approximate measure of inflation. A Mustachian CPI might include things like unprocessed food items, a basket of 4yo gas efficient cars, the cost of high deductible health insurance, etc.

You seem to be advocating for an inventory of frugal alternatives to common expenses. That could be a nice a nice one-stop guide for mustachian living, but calling it a CPI might be a bit of misnomer.

[chucklesmcgee]

It's not clear to me exactly what you're proposing.

A CPI typically tracks the price of a basket of goods in order to get an approximate measure of inflation. A Mustachian CPI might include things like unprocessed food items, a basket of 4yo gas efficient cars, the cost of high deductible health insurance, etc.

You seem to be advocating for an inventory of frugal alternatives to common expenses. That could be a nice a nice one-stop guide for mustachian living, but calling it a CPI might be a bit of misnomer.

I think you're summarizing it well. Honestly, I don't see much of a point. Prices vary so much locally that it's not generally worth our time to summarize it. There's this site called Amazon.com that's often worth checking out, but you've probably never heard of it. Try the Fidelity 2% back Amex or maybe a credit card with rotating 5%  back categories like the Chase Freedom.

If you were to truly make a bare bones mustachian index that looked like the CPI, I'd speculate that the mustachian index has actually increased at a greater rate than the regular CPI. The cost of basic energy, unprocessed foods, etc that would comprise the mustacians has risen fairly dramatically over the past few years compared to regular consumer junk like cars, fast food and other crap.

[shadowmoss]

I believe one of the tenents of Your Money Or Your Life is that the CPI for people who follow that way of living, or actually the effects of inflation, will be different.  This is how Joe D. discounted inflation in the forcasts, that since you are living low on the consumer food chain the things that rise in price won't effect you as much.  There are arguments for and against this idea, mainly that health care doesn't follow along the lower inflation curve no matter how low on the consumer lifestyle you live.  Perhaps the OP was attempting to gather a CPI along these lines?

[CB]

Here are the main components of the U.S. Census' CPI:

FOOD AND BEVERAGES (breakfast cereal, milk, coffee, chicken, wine, full service meals, snacks)
HOUSING (rent of primary residence, owners' equivalent rent, fuel oil, bedroom furniture)
APPAREL (men's shirts and sweaters, women's dresses, jewelry)
TRANSPORTATION (new vehicles, airline fares, gasoline, motor vehicle insurance)
MEDICAL CARE (prescription drugs and medical supplies, physicians' services, eyeglasses and eye care, hospital services)
RECREATION (televisions, toys, pets and pet products, sports equipment, admissions)
EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION (college tuition, postage, telephone services, computer software and accessories)
OTHER GOODS AND SERVICES (tobacco and smoking products, haircuts and other personal services, funeral expenses)

One approach to coming up with a MMM-CPI (More Mustachian Measure-CPI) could be to go and re-weight with non-MMM-friendly items removed (e.g., take out tobacco, jewelry, haircuts, full-service meals, etc.).  You would need to dig down into the CPI detailed reports (e.g. http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpid1209.pdf) and decide which sub-categories to exclude.  Then you could re-weight the index.