Inflation, how are you dealing with it?

[Shoeless]

2 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

Oh I hadn't heard or seen that yet.  Ikes.  I bought of bunch of book series for the kids a few months back and they were decent prices.  Then I am picking up books at the Dollar Tree for my oldest since she goes through them so fast.  I spent like $70 there a bit ago to give her a stash of books for Christmas.

I put a bunch of books in my amazon cart, saw the total, and thought "Yikes!" I can't tell you how much of an increase there has been this last year, just that I was very surprised by the total. I'm poking around eBay to find some used options and may drive out to the nearest Half-Price Books to see what they have.

I don't mind giving used books for Christmas as long as they aren't really beaten up, but I do like to include a few new books as well. Just...ugh! 😕

[marbel]

8 minutes ago, MissLemon said:

I don't mind giving used books for Christmas as long as they aren't really beaten up, but I do like to include a few new books as well. Just...ugh!

I have been stockpiling used books from Thriftbooks and Better World Books. They have both been pretty reliable as far as sending things that match the description, though once I got a book from Thriftbooks that was definitely not "like new" as advertised. They refunded me and added points or whatever to their program for a free book.  Last year almost all Christmas gifts were used books.

 

But not everything is available used and it is nice to give new books too! In particular to support newer/lesser known authors. 

[SeaConquest]

6 hours ago, theelfqueen said:

Oh I would give up a lot of things before I got to that point! 

I'm with you. You'd have to pry online shopping from my cold dead hands. I just don't know how to people in stores anymore. Shopping is way too draining.

[Shoeless]

6 minutes ago, marbel said:

I have been stockpiling used books from Thriftbooks and Better World Books. They have both been pretty reliable as far as sending things that match the description, though once I got a book from Thriftbooks that was definitely not "like new" as advertised. They refunded me and added points or whatever to their program for a free book.  Last year almost all Christmas gifts were used books.

 

But not everything is available used and it is nice to give new books too! In particular to support newer/lesser known authors. 

I've bought from Thriftbooks and BWB before; the description is usually pretty good. The shipping time is pretty long, though. It often takes 3 weeks when I buy from them. 😕 Does it take that long for you?

[TravelingChris]

I see it in lots of places.  Hotels are not raising prices, but have cut service-like you have to request service so most don't and less workers.  Restaurants. grocery stores, gas stations, etc.  Uber and Lyft prices have risen a lot.  Same with almost every service you hire- from cleaning to plumbing to painting(I haven't had painting but dd2 and dsil2 have just two weeks ago). 

How do we deal with it- with frustration.  We would not be doing badly but two out of three kids and their spouses or spouses and children are suffering a lot from the inflation.  We are going to be getting at least part of our income increased some- though not enough to make up for inflation.  Both dh's military pension and his VA disability payments will increase 5.9% in Jan.  And he works at a employee owned company and he will be getting a bonus plus an increase in salary plus if he gets the new part-time position at the company- his total salary will increase.  And what I love is that he still won't be working more than 40 hours a week.  But helping all three kids is very costly==we are almost done paying off student loans that dd1 made/

[Clarita]

6 hours ago, cjzimmer1 said:

I can get ground hamburger from a local farmer cheaper than I can buy it from Costco or Aldi so I've got 50 pounds on order (I may bump it to 100 depending on when they have it ready). 

I was floored by the fact that it was cheaper to buy directly from the rancher (better meat and everything) than to purchase from Costco. It's cheaper but you have to buy at least a half cow (since I don't live close to the actual ranch) and have the freezer space. (It's hard to compare because I pay a price per pound which includes all the cuts of the cow.) 

[cjzimmer1]

8 minutes ago, Clarita said:

I was floored by the fact that it was cheaper to buy directly from the rancher (better meat and everything) than to purchase from Costco. It's cheaper but you have to buy at least a half cow (since I don't live close to the actual ranch) and have the freezer space. (It's hard to compare because I pay a price per pound which includes all the cuts of the cow.) 

When I buy a half it's more per pound than the stores but definitely better quality.  But it's not uncommon when the farmers turn the whole cow into hamburger (instead of doing all the cuts), that it comes in under the grocery stores.  There was no minimum to get this price (so don't need a lot of freezer space) and if you spent $50 they provided free delivery.  

[Frances]

2 hours ago, SeaConquest said:

I'm with you. You'd have to pry online shopping from my cold dead hands. I just don't know how to people in stores anymore. Shopping is way too draining.

While I generally dislike shopping (and stuff of almost any type), I’m so glad that Delta has receded enough here that my husband and I are back to in-person grocery shopping. I was so tired of all of the substitutions and errors, not having the brands we want, paying way more $, etc. Maybe had the employee owned store we frequented offered any type of online shopping, I would feel differently. But they didn’t, so we did the main pick-up from a locally owned one and then used Instacart to get a few particular brands/items from another. We really aren’t the stocking up type, but we do have two refrigerators now and plenty of storage room, so I probably should just go ahead and majorly stock up so that any future online shopping will be negligible. Honestly, having to go back to that personally concerns me more than inflation affecting grocery prices at this time.

Edited October 27, 2021 by Frances

[Catwoman]

7 hours ago, hjffkj said:

I had that feeling at first but then every week less things were available and the replacements got stranger and stranger.  Like last week they replaced graham crackers with smores poptarts, ha!  I just think the grocery stores are less stocked and when things aren't there the pickers are grasping at straws.  So, now I will just do the shopping myself or with dh because we had been enjoying that for a bit recently.

I usually choose “Don’t replace” or I pick a specific replacement, because I don’t like the idea of getting random replacement items, either! And as others have already mentioned, if you stay in contact with your shopper while they are shopping, you can minimize problems.

2 hours ago, SeaConquest said:

I'm with you. You'd have to pry online shopping from my cold dead hands. I just don't know how to people in stores anymore. Shopping is way too draining.

I LOVE in-person shopping and I miss it terribly, but with my dh being so high risk, it just isn’t worth it to me any more, so I shop online for everything.

[JustEm]

7 minutes ago, Catwoman said:

I usually choose “Don’t replace” or I pick a specific replacement, because I don’t like the idea of getting random replacement items, either! And as others have already mentioned, if you stay in contact with your shopper while they are shopping, you can minimize problems.

 

I usually do that too but with 6 kids in the house I can easily get distracted while they're shopping and miss things.  I don't do the don't replace because my orders are so big that it would take too long to do that for every item.

[Tap]

Like others.  Groceries, household items and fuel are the most noticeable because I buy those all the time. I paid more for clothes this fall, but it could have been when I shopped (missed the sales), or that I want very specific things. Maybe they were more expensive? I don't know. 

 

 

[Ausmumof3]

Fuel prices are crazy here.  What I notice more is that consumer goods haven’t gone up massively overall on the basic RRP but there’s not as much stuff discounted which makes it harder if you rely on sales shopping.  We basically have no budget for anything right now so it’s not really impacting us though. 

[Carrie12345]

I’m... watchful. And jealous of those getting great farmer deals. Locally, the focus is grass fed/organic, so prices are much higher than factory meat. Which is perfectly acceptable, imo, but not currently easy to swallow (groan.)

I get a small discount at a local produce farm, but they don’t charge less than the grocery store.

I am stocked up enough to reduce the impact on food/household through the winter if we’re creative, but not much beyond that, so fingers crossed.

Our biggest issue is more tax/construction loan payments than planned. Of course there’s a supply issue, but I suspect my house build is being downgraded in priority because we struck a good deal before the entirety of everything was reflected in the base price. If I didn’t own my land outright, I’d be terrified they were looking to sell my house out from under me (as I’ve heard happen to other people in this market.)

[Idalou]

15 hours ago, MissLemon said:

I've bought from Thriftbooks and BWB before; the description is usually pretty good. The shipping time is pretty long, though. It often takes 3 weeks when I buy from them. 😕 Does it take that long for you?

 I order from BWB once a week, sometimes twice if I forget a title. It takes 7 days, always. I use the usps tracker and they use the same path each time, as long as the books i've ordered leave from Indiana.

The cost of groceries is annoying but doable for us, but I know that even once things settle those food items won't go back down to pre pandemic. Coffee prices worry me, there's a serious drought that will affect supply for a few years as much as pandemic causes.

Edited October 28, 2021 by Idalou

[Faith-manor]

2 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

I’m... watchful. And jealous of those getting great farmer deals. Locally, the focus is grass fed/organic, so prices are much higher than factory meat. Which is perfectly acceptable, imo, but not currently easy to swallow (groan.)

I get a small discount at a local produce farm, but they don’t charge less than the grocery store.

I am stocked up enough to reduce the impact on food/household through the winter if we’re creative, but not much beyond that, so fingers crossed.

Our biggest issue is more tax/construction loan payments than planned. Of course there’s a supply issue, but I suspect my house build is being downgraded in priority because we struck a good deal before the entirety of everything was reflected in the base price. If I didn’t own my land outright, I’d be terrified they were looking to sell my house out from under me (as I’ve heard happen to other people in this market.)

Try looking for a Mennonite farmer. Locally, we buy from them because they treat their livestock very humanely, and do feed a lot of grass and healthy diet, but they have lower prices. We paid $2.79 hanging weight and that included cutting and wrapping. It was a ridiculous amount of meat from a half beef, and it is spectacularly lean and tasty. When we needed ostrich meat for our son in law who has an Alpha Gal allergy, and we wanted to provide him with something besides just chicken and turkey (he is also allergic to seafood), they were able to order it for us, and it was $5.00 per pound less than any of the other meat markets which had it priced out at $20.00 @ pound. (Ostrich meat tastes like ground beef.)

We buy their maple sausage links and bulk sausage. Very tasty, and again better prices than any other producer in the area.

[mmasc]

Groceries and gas! Both are ridiculous where I live (HCOL). 

[Kassia]

31 minutes ago, Idalou said:

 

I know that even once things settle those food items won't go back down to pre pandemic. 

I'm having a difficult time adjusting to this.  When I see sales now, the prices are the same as they used to be regularly.  I just can't wrap my brain around this being permanent but I agree that it is.  

[saraha]

38 minutes ago, Faith-manor said:

Try looking for a Mennonite farmer. Locally, we buy from them because they treat their livestock very humanely, and do feed a lot of grass and healthy diet, but they have lower prices. We paid $2.79 hanging weight and that included cutting and wrapping. It was a ridiculous amount of meat from a half beef, and it is spectacularly lean and tasty. When we needed ostrich meat for our son in law who has an Alpha Gal allergy, and we wanted to provide him with something besides just chicken and turkey (he is also allergic to seafood), they were able to order it for us, and it was $5.00 per pound less than any of the other meat markets which had it priced out at $20.00 @ pound. (Ostrich meat tastes like ground beef.)

We buy their maple sausage links and bulk sausage. Very tasty, and again better prices than any other producer in the area.

$2.79 hanging weight is a great deal!

[saraha]

8 minutes ago, Kassia said:

When I see sales now, the prices are the same as they used to be regularly. 

I was just explaining this to dh the other day

[Kassia]

34 minutes ago, saraha said:

I was just explaining this to dh the other day

Yes, the sale ads are kind of disturbing because the prices are SO much higher than they were just a short time ago.  😞  

[mommyoffive]

I need to look into buying meat from a farmer.  That would be a great savings.

I am shopping sales.  The sales I am finding at one store are amazing!  I stock up a ton when they run great sales.

Shopping Aldi.  They have raised prices on a lot of stuff, but I know the few items that are great prices there. 

Can't do much about the gas.  The kids things are far away and dh is going back to work.  so $$$$$$$$$$$$$$.    Looking to buy a hybrid minivan.

Keeping the house cooler than usual.

Selling old items around the house.

Doing more cc hacking, cash back, and rewards.

Increasing income and investing more. 

Making sure we are using all the health insurance benefits. 

 

Edited October 28, 2021 by mommyoffive

[mom2scouts]

Groceries and gas are really hurting our budget.

We need a car. We've been keeping our 18 year old car limping along, our other car is almost 8 years old and needs repairs, and our 19 year old has to use one of our cars to get to college classes, so he could use a car too. Finding an affordable and reliable used car to replace the one that is dying is not going to be easy.

Our health insurance has very high deductibles and is still expected to increase by almost $200 soon.

We really need some shoes, boots, and clothing for winter, but I'm afraid to look at the prices.

DH's employer is a very small business. They have plenty of work, but DH is salaried, doesn't have benefits or bonuses, and has never had a raise.

[Kassia]

7 minutes ago, mom2scouts said:

 

We need a car. We've been keeping our 18 year old car limping along, our other car is almost 8 years old and needs repairs, and our 19 year old has to use one of our cars to get to college classes, so he could use a car too. Finding an affordable and reliable used car to replace the one that is dying is not going to be easy.

Our health insurance has very high deductibles and is still expected to increase by almost $200 soon.

We really need some shoes, boots, and clothing for winter, but I'm afraid to look at the prices.

DH's employer is a very small business. They have plenty of work, but DH is salaried, doesn't have benefits or bonuses, and has never had a raise.

I could have written this exact same post.  My DH does have benefits as far as health insurance, but it stinks - basically catastrophic insurance that we pay a lot for.  I'm grateful to have it but it's expensive and we try to avoid medical care because it still costs so much.  

 

[73349]

Gas is up 10%, but DH is still working from home, so it's not terrible.

Groceries being up is a problem because we have limited options (celiac, no food coloring, & mostly plants) and we are also helping another family. We invested in an Instant Pot that was on sale partly to make cheaper lunches, as I had been buying a fair amount of freezer-to-microwave foods for school days.

I'm making good use of our Buy Nothing group, both giving and receiving. Somebody brought me extra canning jars yesterday, & someone else is picking up boxes from me today to use for moving, etc.

I think health care is going up again, but that's the only way it ever goes.

We're keeping our old cars limping along. Right now DH's is in the shop again. Every time those car warranty folks call, I choose to talk to a representative, but they can never help us. 😜

Edited October 28, 2021 by Carolina Wren

[JustEm]

One way that we are tweaking things for the next few months at least is by not eating out, even little trips like picking up coffee.  While we don't eat out a ridiculous amount I'd rather decrease that to stay in budget than our entertainment budget.  

Another thing is not paying off our low interest debts sooner and instead investing what would be those extra payments