Spend wisely. Shop for deals.

Example what not to do.....I knew a young couple back in the 90's that bought a Kirby vacuum cleaner from a door to door salesman. Paid $1600 and put it on a 4 year payment plan. They could have bought a new vacuum cleaner from Walmart every 2-3 months for what they paid for that Kirby. Maybe the Kirby was better, but the Walmart $69 vacuum cleaner does a decent job.

Or if you want to know the time you can buy a Rolex for $10,000 or a $10 watch at Walmart. They both tell the time. In fact, the cheap watch probably keeps more accurate time (fact).

Spend wisely. Put away some money every month for retirement.

Canceling Netflix is the obvious thing to do when you have Hulu/HBO Max and breeze by Netflix every single day because stranger things is over why not get rid of it?

YUP. After our Dyson kept throwing belts I bought a 50 dollar dirt devil, it's about 5 years old now. it sucks- and that's all I need it Todo.

I would never have believed what you're saying had I not taken a roadtrip from NC to Wisconsin this past April. I really noticed the early closings and limited number of workers while stopping in Indiana. On the west side of Raleigh, we are definitely living in a bubble.

Expanding my business. Grew it in a pandemic and expanded in a recession. Is that how it’s supposed to work?

We are feeling the weight of almost double cost gas and cost of groceries. I'm the cook and food buyer for the house and I've started going for cheaper foods. It's starting to feel a bit like my college days eating wise. Ramon noodles, spaghetti, frozen pizza, and hot dogs way more often than before.

The scary thing with all this inflation is that it's just beginning to ramp up. The Feds are way behind the curve when it comes to interest rates. They need to be at 10% to curve inflation. We will continue to see interest rates going much higher.....15% is not unlikely by next year. What is even more scary than the rising interest rates in the water levels of Lake Mead & Lake Powell. Anyone on the west coast feeling the impact from that? Water shortages are going to make water an expensive commodity.

TL;DR- In retrospect, inflation isn't affecting our family lifestyle much as all our major expenses are prepaid and/or save up for.

Refinanced the house, locked into a 10 year loan at 1.875 percent a little over a year ago. No other debt. Already have money set aside for big upcoming expenses. Putting in a pool (worked alot of extra hours for that and got another degree), have a Weird Al on order (sold some A list games at Allentown so it's pre funded), and have a trip to Disney World I paid for 6 months ago. Those are big expenses, but I have no debt beside the house and already had money set aside for those. I have worked every year to increase the salary by getting at least one new certification or degree. I'm 1 new certification away from a higher labor category. I'm lucky enough to have enough skillsets and bosses that will let me work over 40 (and pay me for it) when I want to, and have been working an extra 5-8 hours per week the past few years to fund the above expenses and sock extra away in retirement while the money is good..

Now, that's obviously a crap load of expenses. But I'm driving a nice 10 year old Hybrid I never paid interest on, my wife's van is similar. Despite my respectable collection I've actually slowly been taking money out of it the past year. I love variety in year/playstyle/technology, and have found that through temp trades I can always have something new. I don't need Deadpool, Turtles, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Godzilla, and Led Zepplin. I just "need" 1 and will do 3 month temp trades for the others so I can try all the games and always have something fresh. I don't have other expensive hobbies.

I've started going used on alot of things, and have found I can actually get nicer stuff that way. Which is nicer, the Ikea kitchen table or the 50 year old Ethan Allen solid oak with formica top table? Which costs more? Kids still get new lego sets, but when I find them at yard sales I scoop them up as they are 10 cents on the dollar. Picked up a 5 gallon bucket full of toy army men type toys for $5 last month. The kids have lost their minds over those. The wife is a book worm and the library is suplemented by the used book store. We've got nice hardcover copies of all of Sanderson's latest books, but they are/were $2 at Goodwill as opposed to $29 new. While doing the yardsale thing I bring the family and the kids have alot of fun. I've also started grabbing a few things to flip on ebay here and there, and I'm up a few thousand this year on it. There are a few other hobbies I'd like to get into... namely vintage computing and laserdiscs if/when I find a steal at a yardsale and that will keep me busy on the cheap.

Kids have been having great fun on old technology too. We don't pay for any of the streaming music services, but I bought my kids a $20 bookshelf CD player and the kids have had infinite fun picking out CDs of their own at Yard sales. There are infinite options on CDs, and people are practically giving them away. My kid has discovered and loves classic rock. He's $10 of his own money deep into it, and has more than he can listen to in a day.

I've started doing a bit more outdoor stuff for fun. The wife practically lives at the neighborhood pool with the kids while I'm at work, but we've rediscovered the woods. There are several parks near me where I can take the kids swimming in the bay (nasty) but the kids have fun and chase crabs. I've been going on long woods walks with the kids on weekend mornings and they love it. This week has been extra heavy in this matter as the wild blackberries are now ripe, and it's all you can eat fresh fruit.

I guess in reality we really have not changed how we are living our lives due to the latest inflation. I'm not radically changing what we are doing as we've always lived below are means and saved up for things before major expenses. The only thing we are really doing less of is eating out, and we have switched our policy on that to mostly doing that when we are out of town or very far away from home. I understand others may be hurting now, but life is still good here, and I feel like conservative planning along with a bit of luck has gotten us there. I hope everyone does well in these trying times.

What inflation?

I’ve canceled/sold Disney, Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, gave up my NFL season tickets, bought guns and ammunition and never felt better! [Removed]

We are handling it by not letting it get us down. Still having fun, bought a ccr, and a boat. I still complain about prices, but don't let it affect us too negatively. Hoping it turns around soon, but not likely.

Combination of rising costs and labor are killing businesses. Tons of small businesses are closing outright or adjusting hours down. You have a raft of factors including COIVD, stimulus, supply chain, Ukraine, and transportation costs impacting things. My stock broker tells me we are at peak inflation now but that is his job to try and keep me happy and spending money. Conagra came out today saying the cost of chicken has gone up 60%. Reason: Labor and supply costs. This all comes down hill to the consumer.

I think the push to raise wages particularly on the low end of the spectrum is going to have unintended consequences in certain sectors that ultimately continues the disparity of wealth, outsizly impacting those that are the most susceptible to the impacts of inflation. For example, the gas station at the end of the road steadily raised the starting salary for workers to 15/hour and managers to 85K/year. They have had a horrible time finding people to staff if, and the staff they did find was not great and have had a fair amount of turnover. Their solution: they brought in a self-checkout kiosk. Talking to the manager there, it both is much more cost effective and has increased customer satisfaction. Based upon this, they are cutting back on their staffing, which of course has ripple effects. Seeing this trend a lot in fast food. I do not have easy answers on this, just sharing observations.

Inflation sucks but we've been fortunate not having credit card debt, big car payments or kids. Having a stable job in the DoD arena doesn't hurt. Even with higher gas, my drive is 19 miles round trip to work. Driving both our Jeeps hasn't affected us much. Shopping at Giant for food puts gas points on our card to use at Shell for up to 50 cents off a gallon. Food is pretty expensive but we buy ahead a little and have a freezer when there are deals.

One of my favorite movies is "This is 40". Graham Nash has a quote "The secret to life is to have a small nut." Basically, try not to owe money to people or live beyond your means. Easier said than done but its good advice.

It's complicated because there's no single solution, but let's just remember that back when 'America was great' companies were paying way more in taxes and were paying themselves way less. Ironically, that isn't the part that is being pushed as a fix. The only fix those people are suggesting is to quit giving those poor lazy bastards more wages. Big companies posting record profits for 2+ years (and in 2022) and their only solution is to make people pay more? No, the system is broken. Automation was always coming, the pandemic just hastened it. We've known for a long time that automation is going to be bad for jobs, but yet we keep driving for it.

Small companies can't compete as they don't have the padding to be as flexible and those businesses tend to be less profitable in general (retail, restuarants, bars), but we set ourselves up for this by supporting the most profitable companies. If we were true to our intent, we would not reward monopolies and people who are known to screw over their employees for $.

On a positive note, many of those people not working traditional jobs are finding they can get by doing the new era of self employment due to technological advances. I admit, I don't get it, but part of me is jealous I don't have that conviction and ingenuity. I think this has had a much larger impact on the employee pool than people realize. The online money making bizz exploded over the last few years. Those same people also have learned to live with less, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

??? This is the core of our economic system. Price your product as high as the market supports.

You can see this also on pinside. As long as there are people paying, items will be expensive. And profits will be record breaking.

It’s not a broken system. It’s working exactly as designed.

Awesome, then this must be a 'what if' thread. Glad everything is perfect in the world.

Highly relevant

None of this really is in response to what I said, but sure.

For the second point first, everybody has a personal choice for who they do business with. I personally shop local and support small businesses when I can and conduct business with them on their terms. I can't legislate what you or anybody else does but that is what I do to support my community. I personally do not shop at Walmart for how they have treated their business partners after reading the Vlassic pickle story many years ago (fascinating case study that I encourage folks to look at if you want to see the underside of business).

As for the first part, you are correct, there are no simple solutions. You brought up about automation being bad for jobs. However, in a lot of cases, automation is the only way to meet demand and at the price point needed. You conflate big business and small business a lot in your responses, going back to the days when I used to post in the stock market thread. This gas station that I am talking about is not a big chain; it is a mom and pop operation. What choice do they have with the profit margins they are dealing with in this market? They chose to automate.

Eating smarter and on my bike vs a car whenever possible. Not due to inflation, but due to the 15 I gained during pandemic.
Silver lining folks..

I was trying to point out there are 2 major branches in that particular discussion. Small business and Big business. Small business is obviously impacted more by these things because they have less profit margins, less flexibility, but are really only being offered the same few solutions as big business. Small businesses tend to be of the same vein, traditionally most of which are considered low skill, low paying jobs. These were also the people who were most taken advantage of during the height of the pandemic. Many of these people have moved on to other means of making money.

My inclusion of big business is because big business and our love of profits exacerbates the issue for small companies because they simply can't compete on wages, etc. They don't exist in a vacuum. It's all intertwined. As was pointed out in a subsequent thread however, everything is working exactly as it should be. Apparently there is no room for improvement. Just shopping at your local shop doesn't solve the issues for small business unfortunately.

Was not aware of the Vlassic story, I will look into it. Not that I am completely blind to the things Walmart does. (never stated I wasn't a slave to the same issues I call out).

Vlasic story for you. Lot's of things came out about this story around that time. https://www.fastcompany.com/47593/wal-mart-you-dont-know

We've got businesses scooping up blocks of 1st-time-buyer homes, driving up prices and renting them out to those folks who should be buying them. People shouldn't have to compete with business to buy a home. It's disruptive and in many ways the system is broken. We're not supposed to be a nation of renters.

I got a feeling this will end bad.

In before the lock. Have a nice day!

I'm handling inflation by trying to guilt those who have more than me.

How's that working out for you? It's been your MO for years in multiple threads.

If it's wrong to want people to be nice to others and not be dicks and take advantage of others, I don't wanna be right.

Nothing wrong with that and I agree. But just admit that you are also a hater.

I don’t like this either. But unless you have a system that is supposed to regulate it, it’s not broken.

I don’t know of any regulations for businesses and home buying. Are there any federal rules or state wide rules that prevent a business from just buying up whole blocks? I guess there may be some local ordinances?

If there are and it still happens while it’s not supposed to, then it’s broken.

Just because you and me don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s broken.

Nah, I'm not a hater. I actually feel fortunate for what I have. Doesn't mean I don't recognize wrongs in the world and question the status quo. I will however admit I am pretty cynical about human nature in general.

While I said it Has not impacted me personally .. I think that I lied.

Lot's of family members, retired people and other I know have gotten the beat down.

I've just had to reduce the games I buy a year a factor of 1. So instead of 2 / 3 titles a year
I'm having to stop at 1 and thats a good thing. Really it is . No one needs 16 games in basement.
After the FOMO purchase of 2019-2021 and breaking even more or less on hobby thru some
sales. I am pausing..

Had seriously planned on opening a location. Then Covid hit.. You'd think a space in an empty
strip mall would of gone down in price it has not. Cost per SQFT is ridiculous around here and
the folks that own all the properties would rather have empty space. Than cut a deal.

I have not bought the next pin I wanted. Very selective with any purchases now. Not going to the (g*n) range so much anymore. No therapeutic driving sessions in the sporty car.

I've kept my cash ready to buy any property that becomes available as inflation, then recession hits because I need more space for my small business. It is hard to get more property now because private equity groups swoop in and buy everything, while regular people then have to rent from those same groups. I can't get myself to buy a place that isn't worth the current price tag on it. (I don't know, maybe if there were a system, where some people we could elect to make rules to protect the common man from corporate vultures--something like that--any idea of what I'm talking about?!).

But I tip big every time I go out, which is very selective now because of lack of consistently good food and lack of workers at most places now and it's not worth the experience of going out.

My wife has decided to raise money so that all school supplies can be bought for the incoming 1st grade class of the local elementary school. She says it is so that parents don't have to spend money on gas and school supplies when they all cost more these days. She's good at running a business, and since she buys in bulk--and most parents don't need 100 markers for example--she can get the cheapest price for each item and then divvy em up. She wants to do the whole school, but there is only so much local fundraising she can do while working full time. It has been amazing the grateful response from teachers; some retired teachers pitch in to purchase the supplies, too! I didn't realize how MUCH the requested school supplies from parents every year don't actually make it to the teachers and our county doesn't supply the teachers with the supplies.

Picked up this bad boy for a weeks worth of gas and having a blast saving money. Charge it wherever it's free. ;D

Unless it's a Dirty Donny Met, but not one. Oops.

How does that phrase go….”we’re always fighting the last war”

(Last as in previous)

Another ripple are the technicians who designed, program and maintain these kiosks. So you've exchanged a monotonous customer service job for some higher-end technical jobs. This should be a good thing, but not all the former customer service people are interested in more technical jobs.

No reason to censor gun here, nothing political about enjoying shooting. Anyone who owns or uses guns should practice regularly anyway.

I'm wondering if most here on this thread remember (I'm assuming that they WERE indeed taught this) from school-economics class to be specific- the old "Give everyone in the country $1,000,000 dollars. That didn't work out so well, as far as I can remember.

When you have a completely unregulated capitalist system those with the most money ultimately win, it's just how it works. Anytime any form of regulation gets brought up people scream to stop it, so this is the system we have as per what the people want. As for me inflation hasn't affected me although we did plan ahead by locking down a very low mortgage rate, no variable interest debt, electric cars, etc, and my business is entirely self run and purely online based so it still does well even in hard times.

I'll say this much though, I've lived in the USA for 25 years now and learned early on that it's a very different system than other countries. Most other places I lived in are setup for people but I find the USA is more setup for corporations. As such I setup an LLC about 18 years ago and run everything through that, legally of course. If I only gave people living in the USA one piece of advice it would be to live as a corporation, not as a person. This is far too large of a topic to get into on a forum but seriously, look into it and adjust how you operate to be a company, it will financially change things quite dramatically.

I am buying what I need, when needed. I can't control the prices, but we're not extravagant either.

Chris

Well, "Better call Saul" is not over, is it? Hehe.

interesting take.

Your kid also ate all my my cheetos Saturday. Free loader.

Do you have enough space for a pin?
I always thought a good Pinside topic would be small homes/apartments/condos/mobile homes that have space allocated for a machine or two.