I know I’ve seen food price increases, but I really haven’t felt them yet. A few years ago our grocery/restaurant bills were more than double with two teenage boys in the house. A whole pizza would be a snack for 1 and he’d be hungry 2 hours later. It’s much easier now even with the increases.
That being said, I can’t say I’ve ever eaten at a sit-down place for a lunch on a work day. I always go home for lunch and eat my peanut butter bagel and nap. (I fully admit I’m weird.) people know not to mess with my lunch time naps! I did used to pick up KFC once a week when the kids were in K-3 and I’d eat with them at school.
But, H has NEVER once in 30+ years bought a lunch at school. Every Sunday, he preps for the week and has it ready to go. He always brings it in his 70s cooler that was given to him by a friend in college. Everyone knows H’s lunchbox. I’m seriously considering putting his ashes in it as I travel around scattering them in various places, assuming I outlive him of course.
I do something similar. My supermarket receipt lists % discount from sticker. My standard is 30-40% discount. In some weeks I reach over 50%. Once in 2021 reached over 80% on a $200-300 bill, which related to a special personalized deal for first pick up order combined with several other discounts. I’ve had prices on my receipt for specific products listed as negative numbers, and the negative number number was correctly added to my total. However, this year’s sales tend to have lower discount from sticker than 2021, and do not reach as low nominal prices as in 2021.
For example, my closest supermarket is Vons. They have weekly Vons for U digital sales, including personalized deals. Last year I used to get some quality personalized deals each week. It was standard to get a $5 off if I spent $50 (10% discount) each week. Every ~2 weeks, they’d offer a $5 special for rotisserie and/or 8 piece chicken. The 10% weekly discount seems to be eliminated, and their chicken discounted price has increased from $5 to $8, corresponding to a 60% increase. Vons for U used to offer me some interesting products for free each week to encourage me to try a different brand. For example, I discovered the ice cream flavor blueberry cobbler through such a free offer in 2021, which remains one of my favorites. Now my Vons for U digital sales + personalized deals rarely often anything noteworthy.
Other markets show a similar pattern. I usually buy fruits at a smaller market. Rather than buy the same fruits each week, I choose among the lower price per serving options, which varies according to sales or what happens to be in season In 2021, the market at which I typically buy fruits had at least one brand of apple I liked for $0.99/lb or lower during the vast majority of weeks, which was often a sale price. Now it’s rare to see any brands below $1.29/lb. They also seem to have removed the brand red delicious entirely. This increase from $0.99 to $1.29 corresponds to the 30% increase in prices for fruits I mentioned. I don’t buy fruits at Walmart for a variety of reasons, but they’ve had even greater increases. They used to sell one brand (don’t recall which one) at $0.88/lb as their standard non-sale price. Now all are $1.29/lb or higher, corresponding to a 47% increase. All sellers I am aware of have had substantial increases in prices for produce – both sale and non-sale.
Dh was out of town last week so I went to our favorite Mexican place last week for cheap carryout for my daughter and me. A burrito with a choice of steak, chicken or pork is $7.00, no matter what meat you choose. D and I both got steak. Normally I never have cash, but noticed I had a $20 bill so got to the register and pulled it out to pay, thinking I’d get change. She grabs my order and says, $20. Huh? Ok, I said, “I guess you raised the price.” (I had looked at the menu online before ordering, and it said $7/burrito). She didn’t say anything back, limited English and they were busy.
Got home and noticed they upcharged $2.99 per burrito for steak. The worst part was I think they have also changed the cut of meat they use b/c it was very chewy, unlike it has been in the past. While I wasn’t upset at the upcharge, tho it would be nice if their menu reflected the new pricing, it was annoying that the meat was not good like it usually is. At least next time I know to choose chicken!
So the moral of this thread story could be that inflation affects EVERYONEs finances except for those - above upper middle class - who just don’t have to worry about money.
How you adjust to those $ changes (the best you can) is buy your life spending choices or options - which probably become more limited the less $ you have to work with. And there are many more in a needy situation than those in the upper middle class (my opinion but feel free to dispute it)
Our store uses that same system U digital sales. I don’t see as much free stuff which I don’t mind because we didn’t care for most of it. We are still getting some pretty good deals on a weekly basis.
I have noticed some items that say were $1 before now are $1.19, but have been on sale for $1 since the increase. They are playing with people’s minds.
I took over all the grocery store runs when Covid hit. I didn’t want my better half out when she didn’t need to be. So it have become a game for me at the store trying to find the best deals.
I have contemplated doing instacart for that store because I definitely know where everything is at.
Seems not that many are cutting back on coffee at Starbucks - goes along with what I’ve seen at restaurants TBH. I’ve never been to a Starbucks to know, so will trust what they said in their quarterly earnings:
In the United States, Starbucks reported same-store sales growth of 11%, which was the result of people spending more on average and a slight uptick in traffic. Prices were also up 6% from a year ago, but executives said they don’t plan to raise prices anymore for the time being.
Either our supermarkets have very different policies or we have very different definitions of “pretty good deals”. Looking at my Vons for U deals this week, I don’t see a single item that I may actually buy. I initially thought the chicken for $8 instead of $10 sounds promising, but I see that the discount is only for 8-piece fried, and I don’t want fried. This is a far cry from types of deals that I’d be consistently offered each week in 2021.
When we were younger and had a lot less income, we always shopped the sales at the grocery stores. One of my first purchases out of college was an upright freezer. This enabled me to buy whatever was on sale…and that saved money in the long term.
We had that freezer off most of the time once our kids left for college.
Well…we are using it again. It’s good to buy when the sales are happening, and really, a lot of things freeze well. We are also able to make batches of soup, sauces, etc, and freeze some for later use. Lots less waste.
So…we are actually doing what we did when we had less income. And it works well.
We always shop grocery sales. It’s always fun to save especially now! Even DH will say that if smthg we need isn’t on sale to wait bc often it goes on sale the next week.
In terms of restaurants, I went to breakfast today and couldn’t believe how it was completely full, and about 10-15 people waiting when we left. Prices were up a bit compared to last time I was there a few months ago.
I’ve certainly noticed the monthly Costco grocery bill has increased 25%, but we’re comfortable and can absorb the price increase. We get takeout weekly and enjoy a daily coffee or bubble tea. Others in our circle are still eating out and traveling too despite higher prices. We’re grateful for this life and pay it forward.
I do worry about people like our parents who are trying to get by on fixed-incomes. It’s not so easy for them to adjust to higher prices.
I’m still getting coupons for discounts on produce - $5 off $20 worth of produce - was the latest one to come in our ‘personalized’ pack of coupons from the local store today. Also $0.40 off 2 lemons, $0.75 off pack of grape tomatoes, $0.50 off berries. We basically only buy produce at that store, and get lots of produce coupons in the mail. Best when stacked up on store sales of these items…and the coupons are good for about 6 weeks so I have time to wait until the prices are good on those items.
We don’t buy very much processed food, meat or dairy. So we haven’t seen the massive rise in prices that others report. But, I don’t know how many other people are happy to eat a mostly plant based diet, with minimally processed ingredients. Or are willing to cook as much as we do in our household. We use our instant pot 3-4 times a week and live off batch cooking; big pots of red sauce, mushroom&lentils, homemade hummus, and soups. So many soups. As well as making sheets of roasted veggies that become a meal by itself or a side dish.
It’s things like this and the Starbuck’s article I posted above that definitely make this an atypical recession if it’s a recession. My best guess is many people have had a pay raise, so just absorb the costs. Even those living on savings interest (usually retired folks) have seen that interest increase (for the first time in a long time - was pretty common to have decent interest from savings in the not too distant past). Social Security is supposed to be going up a bit too.
Students at school yesterday were talking about having $16/$17 per hour part time jobs. In PA our minimum is still the federal $7.25/hour, so one can’t blame in on mandated increases. Regardless, it’s giving them quite a bit more to spend than kids have had in the past.
I’m not at all convinced the sky is falling, though I agree that fixed income folks (no COL increases) have it the worst. I think the bar is changing for what “normal” prices are and it will level out. We don’t have 5 cent loaves of bread any longer, but no one is surprised.
I do think it would help things level out if we allowed more immigrants to legally have jobs. Around here there aren’t enough folks to fill the jobs - hence, wage increases to try to attract workers and price increases to still make business profitable. Allow the immigrants to work and one can fill jobs plus get income tax paid in to gov’t coffers. The US is odd among nations not letting visitors work legally.
I too wish we could reform the immigration system and let in quite a few more immigrants. I do not understand why it is so difficult to have a system similar to Canada or Australia…we need all sorts of workers from highly skilled to manual labor. Estimate what we need and give points and let those in…otherwise enforce Everify and control the border.
As touched on in other posts, there is nothing about inflation that inherently causes negative financial effects on an individual level. Instead it depends on whether your income sources have increased faster or slower than the inflation rate, and what portion of spending is short/near term vs long/far term.
As an example of the latter, suppose an upper middle class person has a mortgage, and typically gets larger raises when inflation is larger. Increased inflation reduces the real value of their mortgage debt, effective making the amount they owe smaller. The effect is even greater, if he/she locked in a fixed rate mortgage when rates were lower. Inflation may offer a large, positive financial effect.
In general, I’d expect lower income persons to struggle the most. However, I’d make a similar comment in low inflation periods as well. In general financial situations are most challenging for persons with lower incomes. Regarding inflation specific losses, retired persons may struggle more than most, as many have limited income sources and substantial retirement savings in accounts that do not keep pace with inflation. Upper middle class would not be among the groups that I’d expect to face the largest challenges.
The “market basket” of what you buy is an important factor. Someone who relies on public transportation (and rides a bike to work) is only peripherally impacted by rising gas prices (goods get more expensive, but there’s a time lag). And although bus fares might go up- it takes a LONG time for fare increases to work their way through the system. Someone with a lower cost/high deductible health care plan-- and these people are generally healthy-- is not going to be impacted by rapidly rising drug prices since they don’t have chronic ailments which require monthly meds.
Etc. It’s not just short term and long term- it’s about who consumers what and the overall mixture. I remember “back in the day” when everyone was complaining about the sharp increase for HBO, Showtime or whatnot. I had the bottom of the barrel TV plan (price did NOT go up) so felt relatively affluent for a long time!
However, those lower income people whose pay levels are part of the drivers for inflation (e.g. restaurant workers going from $10 to $15+ per hour, or moving to higher paying non-restaurant jobs) may get a significant net benefit. Of course, not all lower income people are in this category.
I don’t think there is any data to show that lower income wage earners are deriving “significant net benefit”. The increase in gas prices, grocery commodities, childcare and rent seem to be higher than their increase in salaries. Most of the studies done to show the impact of raising the minimum wage were done by economists who were assuming a low interest rate environment and low inflation. Once you add those two factors it is likely a wash for hourly workers.