I am switching from having only games I want in my basement to having a few games other people really want as temporary trade bait. I traded my Deadpool Pro for a Spiderman VE last month and will keep it the next few months. I'd like to try out most Spike 2 games like this. I'm planning on switching one of my classic Bally's for a System 11 to do something similar with 80s games. Temporary trades are way cheaper than permanent trades +/- cash.

Also, money is better than it's ever been for me, but I'm working a few extra hours here and there for extras for the family. I've also made a few thousand extra picking garage sales and estate sales for high dollar items to flip on ebay the past few months, and the kids have had a blast coming along. I am also doing more "out" meals at home. If the family want's Pho I'll still get it for them, but it's $25 cheaper eating it at home without paying for drinks and tip.

The first thing is anyone that was already over spending before the recent inflation was just being dumb with their money. So many people live off of credit it’s ridiculous. Several years ago I made the choice to pay cash only for everything. If I buy anything on credit it’s on a 0%card and I have the cash to pay it off in the bank….that just allows me to earn rewards points and is a free loan…I just make sure it’s paid off before the zero % period is over. If I don’t have the cash for something I don’t buy it…simple as that. Debt free is the only way to be. Once you get out of the gotta have it today mentality and eliminate debt it’s so much easier to save for what you want. It takes discipline but I now have more money in savings/to invest and actually spend IF I decide to spend money on something.

I have also limited eating out and other unnecessary spending. I don’t do Starbucks and stupid stuff either. I don’t have the latest over priced smartphone. Cut back on cable too. Tons of things to save a little bit here and there.

You can absolutely make a living with this model. However, there is a lot of leg work involved and it's not easy. There are a few things I watch out for that I always pick up to sell (old video games in boxes, first editions of books I have heard of, some odds and ends). I pick up the stuff I happen to see that I know I can make big money on with little effort. Once again, I am not making my living this way, but I'm up a few thousand so far this summer for maybe 12 hours of work total, and have gotten to take my kids to yard sales where they look for stuff they like. Yard sales are generally pretty cheap entertainment... and kids love picking up toys/books there. Estate sales are where it is at I have found, but you generally have to be there right when they open as that is where the people serious into this sort of thing go.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/what-besides-pins-to-look-out-for-at-estate-yard-sales-to-sell

We bought a new home in the early days of the pandemic. We had been planning the move for years, repairing the old home for sale etc. It seemed like a huge risk at the time to make that commitment.

Then real estate went crazy. Our new home increased nearly 20% in value. We decided to extract that through a HELOC, and used it to invest in my wife’s new business.

So while we have some new debt, we also have new cash flow and my wife controls her own work schedule. It doesn’t translate into much change in my pins though. I plan to stick to one machine per year, selling or trading when I run out of space.

Not so much. Oh don't get me wrong, I bitch about it and I'm definitely noticing it. The gas station, the grocery store, eating out, they have all gone way up. And honestly it feels like a lot more than the 9.6% of that report.

But let's be honest, we are in the pinball hobby, so on average, we are doing well. I don't think... well, I would hope nobody would ever be stupid enough to by a pinball machine on credit. You only EVER pay cash, and it is always cash you can afford to spend. So you just have one less game in your collection. Selling a modern Stern game would buy a lot of hot dogs. Maybe I don't buy Iron Maiden. It's not really a sacrifice when I'm talking about toys.

Where inflation is getting me..

Housing - I'm waiting to make a move that I want to make because inventory is scant and prices are insane.

Gas - Just sucking it up. We're not driving less. We will be going EV as soon as something like that Equinox EV with 300 mile range for ~$30K becomes a reality.

Food - Same as gas, but we don't eat out much and always shop sales.

Luxury Items - When nobody else is buying, it's actually a great time to buy this sort of stuff. You can buy a 77" LG OLED for just under $2K now. I'm not going to, but I'm tempted.

Thankful I bought a house a decade ago and it is paid off. That makes the pinch a lot more manageable, but I still notice it in everything from gas to food to going out and products. Like others have said, most people on this forum are probably fine for the most part and aren't going to be wildly affected. I don't know how people that are getting murdered with high rent and low wage jobs are surviving at all. Inflation can leave as quickly as it comes sometimes, but I question whether the corporations posting record profits would even care enough in this day and age if their bottom line dropped to put that savings on to the consumer. We've had inflation and even stagflation before in this country and it has ironed out, but I worry more this time because I just feel the climate is different. And, we've never had the wage to price of goods ratio we seem to have now.

Packing lunch more

Not buying pinballs just trading tit for tat.

Canceling Netflix.

Mowing my own lawn with Ryobi junk.

Telling wife to go back to work.

Just cheaper beer… lots of it.

Thus far it hasn't effected me at all, in that I haven't had to change a single aspect of my spending.

I guess I'm just lucky. Not having kids or a car probably helps.

Less driving around and actually paying attention to how much stuff costs at the grocery store rather than just throwing whatever looks good in the cart. Wow groceries have gotten expensive.

John is that you?

Got a 20% raise, but having half of it eaten up by inflation is, well, somewhat deflating to my psyche. We have no debt other than the house (and we only owe about 2 pins on it). We drive older vehicles and I fix them myself and we save a TON with no car payment and not having full coverage insurance. We have 3 kids.

1. Driving less. Consolidating trips, going to grocery store on way home from work, etc. Been saving about $30 a week on this.
2. Trading down on meats and buying store brands. Save about $40/ week there
3. I only buy pins I know are going to fetch the same price I paid +/- a few bucks (free entertainment) $50/week saved staying home playing them
4. Cut back on big trips. Doing shorter ones staying away from tourist traps/ high price resorts/hotels. $300/ month saved
5. Use as little electricity between 2 pm and 7 pm as possible since they jack up the rates then. A/C up to 74, no showers, dryer, washer in that 5 hour window. Saved $50 last month
6. Buy cheaper beer. 20% cheaper to be exact. Save about $3,649 per week.

My life hasn't changed in the slightest. I don't have credit cards and we only dine out once a week anyways. We mostly eat veggies with minimal meat and we shop at Costco once a month. We're outdoor enthusiasts so gear aside it's a free hobby.

No we dont have any of those around here but a new grocery store called “Aldi” just opened up here a couple weeks back, I hear its got some good prices but havent cheeked it out yet.
Hell, in fact I think Ill get off my ass and go check it out right now!

It's making me start to consider dropping things I may not use enough like some streaming services. Overall I haven't changed much though. Still go out to eat with family about twice a week. Still driving the same and getting same groceries etc. I've lucked out where I did well this year so far with my job but in sales you never know. Kids in sports/dance, travel, etc. definitely adds up! I'm sure I'll start to hold off on some luxury items (maybe lol). My debt is car and house but car was zero percent interest so I didn't want to pay it off at the time.

We do this a lot. We call it "out to eat night". Our local library has several of the "top secret copycat restaurant recipe" books. A lot of the recipes are spot on and taste just as good or better than the restaurant version for 1/4 the price. I got some cast iron pizza pans real cheap at a garage sale yrs ago. I make the copycat pizza hut pizza recipe using the pans, I've had people convinced it was pizza hut pizza.

Aldi's is a good place to get cheap but seemingly high quality groceries. They offset the cost by having bare bones employees, no grocery bags, and $0.25 grocery cart "rental", you put the quarter in to unlock the cart and get the quarter back after you return and relock the cart. It's a different experience. Bring your own bags and a quarter!

Aldi did a big push here. It's a bit cheaper than Publix but the stores are small. Sadly nothing beats Walmart.

I try not to buy anything at the grocery store unless it's on sale, and our local gas station always has great fuel rewards program that sometimes has slight glitches I maximize , I scrutinize deeply and pay attention to and usually fill up $1 a gallon. I have two young kids that are expensive as fuck &I'm looking for a part time job also to help put some money back in the bank, and would like to sell 4-5 pins and not replace them

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It's gonna take a lot of inflation to erode that great apartment deal you snagged during the great covid exodus...

I assumed they were everywhere! Been shopping there for over 20 years. Worth checking out. Most often you'll still hit up another place too though

To be honest I never think about it really. Sure I notice prices on everything has gone up and just like everyone else I don't like it either but what are you going to do? You either buy it or go without, simple as that. The only reason gas prices were ever talked about for the last 100 years is because it changes on a hourly basis and it's always advertised right in your face in front of each station. Again, I never worried about gas prices either because its the same thing. You gotta have it and the big companies know it so pay it and move on (no pun intended). I'm really surprised it took Covid to finally make the prices go up higher on everything. The companies can charge whatever they want, who's going to tell them different? It's corporate greed plain and simple, and no it's got nothing to do with politics so lets not even get into that......
I'm glad I got my own gas pumps though, I can still fill up for .29 cents a gallon. LOL.

John

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There is something you can do, cut down on driving. For example, my back-road booze cruises are now limited to 12 miles instead of twenty.

I showed them greedy corporate bastards!!

I am consuming every "NYC rent armaggadon" NY Times story with much glee.

We just signed our new 2 year lease with $30 monthly rent increase yesterday!

I do feel bad for the folks who are getting screwed, but we rode out the early days of the pandemic when so many others fled, and we were smart enough not to sign a "bargain" lease on an unregulated apartment, for which many are paying the price now.

I complain about it everyday, but I’ve changed nothing.

$1.89 per gallon , that almost free .... we are in litres and Costco gas was $171.9 per litre so $6.50per gallon .

now converting this I feel like I have raped !

Try Premium; yikes!

I quit eating out. The positive side effect is that I’ve lost weight and feel much better. The bad side effect is that I feel for the waiters & waitresses, they have to make a living too.
I have a luxury car and in CA, the real story about fuel is not told on the news. I hear reporters talking about the 4-5.00 average all the time, but here, nobody feels sorry for us here, they just expect us to work our asses off and pay it. Keep in mind this is not even for 93 octane, they don’t have that here in CA, it’s for 91. The psychology is mind boggling.
I’d rather have a pin then go on vacation. Who wants to pay the airlines who are just trying to fill flights or if not just cancel them? Or these food prices? Pinball is more fun. Thankful to have a hobby, many people don’t. It helps.

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No. $1.089 a gallon, dollar and 8 cents. I get that because of the fuel rewards system , regular price is like $5 a gallon give it take , I can't always get it that cheap, and it's 20 gallons max.

I'm in normal retirement age but I continue to work.

I don't like these prices but nothing has changed for me and my wife. We're in the go go years. (Age , health and finances)Then comes the slow go years (older and less healthy)followed by the no go years.(run out of everything)

Cheers

Canceled all streaming services or luxury services: no Netflix, free Amazon Prime, no Spotify, no Disney+, no monthly drive through carwash, lowest cell phone plan possible with amenities cell phone Hotspot disablcar wash,

Eat out at Chick-fil-A once a week.

Suspended nearly all driving of the Factory Five 65 Roadster. Haven't filled gas into it since May. Drive it one weekend a month if that.

Being military helps. Locked in rates on rent and utilities. I go TDY to Tinker every other week, which permits me to see my family in Wichita Falls - so I can see them and not pay out of pocket for airfare, rental car, hotel, rental car gas, etc. All I have to pay is the parking fee for any day I take off work during that TDY (one single Saturday in a 14 day period).

Since I get to see my family about 4 days a month, I don't feel badly one single bit going TDY for work and seeing them on the weekend on the government's dime.

USAA is not like it used to be. Was with them for 25 years and their rates got so out of control last year I switched to State Farm, it was almost 40% cheaper.

Spending more on day to day stuff and still going out to eat and taking vacations and doing fun stuff with my family. I don't think its affecting my daily life but I'm cutting down on the big expenditures like new pinball machines and vehicles. I want a new pickup truck and a fishing boat but will wait until prices and demand drops from current levels. Also happy with my current pins and not willing to pay the current ridiculous prices. I'll take inflation and the current economy over what we suffered through in 2020. Glad I can at least go out and do stuff and live a normal life again.

I'm going to try to keep this non political but I'm sure the mods will spank me for this. If people decide to stop allowing American to be energy self sufficient the problem will only get worse. While the claims of 9.1 inflation are alarming it's worse than that. Food is up 9.1%, energy is up 46% and fuel is up 59%.that is the highest increases in a 12 month period since 1981.but everything is going fine and if you point out the real culprits you'll be heavily moderated here.

So I'm doing fine. Must just be "bad luck".

Borrowing was artificially cheap for way longer than I expected (over a decade!!) so I always tried to plan for those days ending.
So while I definitely have less spending money over all, I've been somewhat preparing for the increase for many years now.

America is a net exporter of all oil products and the largest energy producer in the World. Unfettered capitalism and greed (record profits) have more to do with current prices than domestic supply of energy products.

If one is not buying a new home or car, the focus is on gas and food.

As we see gas drop, our costs are still 1/2-1/3 that of Europe, AU, etc we can only drive less, order more in.

For Food, Eating out less, but also shopping better. Keeping Meat at $4.95/Pound at Costco, along with ground Turkey,
Local produce, sales, and less junk food.

Still its around an 8% increase at worst, so around $2K a year. Pins went up, so Im OK.

Aldi's is owned by Trader Joes....Some good deals, Seafood.

Everything beats Walmart. There is not a single priced item that can’t be found cheaper elsewhere. You sir have been duped…

I once did an economics study in college on the actual versus perceived prices at Walmart and Target. Went into the stores and checked prices on the same basket of goods, using the cheapest available brands, repeated weekly over a semester. Target was higher , but on average only by about 75 cents on a $25+ total.

So yeah, I haven’t been back to Walmart in 20 years.