Someone asked me a couple weeks ago whether I had written a blog post yet on inflation, which has certainly been in the news lately. My first thought was “Well no – there’s nothing we can do about inflation, and we can’t foresee the future… so what could I write?” It dawned on me later that in fact there ARE some points I can share to help us all deal with higher prices.
If prices go up and our income doesn’t increase enough to keep pace, it’s a lot like getting a pay cut. Our normal patterns of spending and saving no longer work – something has to change. For some people the change involves minor sacrifice – perhaps eating out fewer times a week, or at less-expensive restaurants. For other people, higher prices may mean much more challenging changes. The good news is that at least YOU are the one who gets to decide what changes to make. Ideas for making the changes less painful:
- You may be able to use non-monetary resources to meet some of your needs. For example, if you usually buy birthday cakes for your family, perhaps you can make them instead. OR perhaps you have a friend who could make the cake in exchange for you watching her children one Saturday. Think about ways in which you can use your own time and energy and skills to accomplish things that you usually pay for. And remember that your friends also have skills they may be willing to share. Common examples include: cooking from scratch rather than using convenience foods, shoveling your own snow instead of paying someone else, learning to cut family members’ hair to avoid the cost of regular haircuts, giving gift certificates for your time and talent (I’ll bake you a pie!) in place of purchased gifts.
- Make use of community resources that are available. Even if you have never before applied for energy assistance or used the free tax preparation available in your community, when times are tight, using these services and others can make a big difference.
- Careful shopping can make limited funds stretch further. Even with increased prices, retailers still have sales, and generics are still less expensive than brand names. Sometimes changing where we shop and what brand we buy makes it possible to save money even without severely cutting back our shopping list.
- When the reality is that we are going to need to “do without” something, we can consider our priorities and choose what to keep and what to give up. One person might “give up” their morning stop at a coffee shop, so they could continue to pay for their streaming services or premium cable; another person might make the opposite choice.
Recognizing that we have a choice can help our attitude: we don’t “have to” give up anything; instead, we choose what to give up. For example, instead of feeling deprived about not going out for lunch every day, we can feel proud about bringing lunch to work so that we can continue to use funds for something more important.
This short list is only a starting point. We would love to have you share your strategies for dealing with inflation! Please share in the comments!
