Inflation-what are you doing?

[Wolfepack88]

Nothing political, but what are you doing about inflation? We are keeping cash to ride out likely Crud market for a few years and will be staycation after our last trip coming up next week (booked it back in December). Told kids, last hurrah for a few years, we have pool lets hunker down next couple of years. Buying takeout will be paired back as well. This recession could be very nasty!

 

[dfwnoob]

Dialing back on eating out, putting off unnecessary purchases, cancelled a trip I planned on taking at the end of summer. On the bright side, we're cooking more at home. I already work-from-home, so not much to change as far as driving habits go. The late summer trip was supposed to be us driving up to PA, but $5+ gas and a Hemi are not a good combination. Never thought I'd see these gas prices in my lifetime.

This is likely going to be a bad time over the next few years. Hoping my work sector stays solvent. I've tried to prepare for the worst as much as I can, but I can't prevent everything.

 

[jark87]

No big purchases. We put off an RV purchase earlier this year and based on gas prices, I’m glad we did. We’re celebrating our anniversary with a hotel stay in the area instead of traveling. We also have a vacation planned in September and luckily, we bought airfare and prepaid the hotel early this year before prices started going nuts. The Fed rate is expected to hit 4-5% by the end of the year, with a big bump coming tomorrow. We’re at a stage in life where we don’t need to borrow, so those rates don’t impact us like it does our kids, except for the effect they have on the market. Hopefully, they’ll slow inflation. Thank goodness our son and his family were able to buy a house last year.

 

[wgipe]

It's about to get ugly, for sure. I work with a client who is a contractor to power companies in the midwest who shared that electricity disconnects have doubled in the last 60 days. To make a bleak story even more worrisome, about 85% of that increase was with customers in new developments of $400-700k homes (which are upper-middle-class homes here). Not. Good. At. All.

Despite the disapproving looks and stern admonishment of our financial advisor, we crossed the chasm to completley debt-free (finally!) early this year, and hope to never ask a bank for money ever again. We've pushed vacations to next year, and just plan to live below our means and enjoy each day for what it is until some clarity emerges.

Here's to cars with 200,000 miles on them and long lazy nights by the pool!

 

[PoolGate]

Our pool is our vacation. Whenever we book a vacation (purely for the wife) we end up cancelling it because no matter how you slice it, a vacation is $5k. All I have to do is show her the numbers and she comes to her senses. Seriously though I hate vacations I hate crowds I hate commercialism. I'm happy to stay home and enjoy my pool fortunately I am 100% work from home and my wife is 80%. Gas would be killing us right now. Retirement accounts are way down too. Hope I can retire in 10 years!

 

[Wolfepack88]

It's about to get ugly, for sure. I work with a client who is a contractor to power companies in the midwest who shared that electricity disconnects have doubled in the last 60 days. To make a bleak story even more worrisome, about 85% of that increase was with customers in new developments of $400-700k homes (which are upper-middle-class homes here). Not. Good. At. All.

Despite the disapproving looks and stern admonishment of our financial advisor, we crossed the chasm to completley debt-free (finally!) early this year, and hope to never ask a bank for money ever again. We've pushed vacations to next year, and just plan to live below our means and enjoy each day for what it is until some clarity emerges.

Here's to cars with 200,000 miles on them and long lazy nights by the pool!

My wife and I are old school we hated debt and paid off house and never carried debt. Financial advisors love debt when the rates are so low but those days are over. Inversion occurred (2 year treasury carried high yield than 10 year) so every single time in history (except for once) a recession followed. Fed botched this badly and now we are seeing 1970's staring at us. I truly hope for all my fellow TFP'ers and countrymen that this doesn't go totally south on us all. I remember my brother's mortgage being 18% in the early 80's. Inflation is the worst evil.

 

[Minda Martin]

It's about to get ugly, for sure. I work with a client who is a contractor to power companies in the midwest who shared that electricity disconnects have doubled in the last 60 days. To make a bleak story even more worrisome, about 85% of that increase was with customers in new developments of $400-700k homes (which are upper-middle-class homes here). Not. Good. At. All.

Despite the disapproving looks and stern admonishment of our financial advisor, we crossed the chasm to completley debt-free (finally!) early this year, and hope to never ask a bank for money ever again. We've pushed vacations to next year, and just plan to live below our means and enjoy each day for what it is until some clarity emerges.

Here's to cars with 200,000 miles on them and long lazy nights by the pool!

We are debt free also but planned to trade my car this year for a new or newer one. We have changed our minds. My car drives good and looks good and has a little over 200,000 miles. It is an Escalade 2007. The hub gave it to me for Christmas in 07. I love it. It does love gas but does pretty good on the road. The heated seat on the front passenger side quit working but I never used them anyway. Nothing else i know of wrong with it. Had a Dr appt yesterday in a town about 70 miles from here. We eat out a lot locally, mostly small restaurants or Casey's pizza. After my appt we stopped at their McDonald's and ordered 2 sausage, biscuits w/cheese and 2 small coffees. It was $17.01. The kid at the counter waited patiently while I dug in my purse for the .01! Lol! I had no idea McD's was that expensive! He checked the "Need a penny?" jar. It was empty. I dropped 23 cents into it that I dug from the bottom of my purse.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

…. After my appt we stopped at their McDonald's and ordered 2 sausage, biscuits w/cheese and 2 small coffees. It was $17.01. The kid at the counter waited patiently while I dug in my purse for the .01! Lol! I had no idea McD's was that expensive!

Getting my family of 4 kids meals at McDonalds costs about as much now as I used to pay 2-3 years ago for a fancy steak dinner for me and my wife. Suffice it to say, McDs is no longer in our budget. Heck, eating at home now is the default because (A) it’s healthier, and (B) it’s still cheaper. But the way food prices are going, the cheaper part may not last much longer.

 

[Mdragger88]

We’ve never had a ton of discretionary $$ to throw around. As income increased over the years we paid things off & saved the rest. We are slowly working towards maxing out roths for each of us - save till it hurts lol . These increased food & gas expenses since covid began are really doing a number on our ability to save & still cashflow large expenses that arise.
I am a tad concerned with the market due to the fact that our roths are primarily medium term savings accounts for us since they are not our sole retirement accounts. The goal is to pay down our house & save in the roths simultaneously & when there’s enough in the 1st roth to pay off the home balance + enough to get 1 kid started in college we would do so. That’s supposed to be possible in 4 yrs. Not sure if this hiccup will allow for it though. After that we could likely cashflow college & build the roths back up because we would be mortgage free & they would solely be “early retirement $$”.
My husband works a very physical job so not sure if he will make it all the way to 59 1/2 when he can begin to draw his work retirement. I am younger than him so I can’t draw mine for a year after that.
I have some peace of mind knowing that we have 2 nice, paid off, decently valued vehicles that we could sell in this market if necessary & just drive beaters. With the fact that we have paid down our home quite a bit & the crazy market values now we have quite a bit of equity. If there was an employment or systemic $$ issue we could sell & downsize using cash. It’s just stuff, nice to have, but not absolutely necessary.
For now we will continue to hustle, be mindful of our pennies & ride out the recession until the day we can live like no one else
Coupons & planning got me here - hopefully they’ll carry me through, not sure I would even know how to behave if I didn’t have a shoestring budget

 

[jark87]

eating at home now is the default because (A) it’s healthier, and (B) it’s still cheaper.

And it tastes much better! With all of the resources available, like YouTube and websites, we can prepare fantastic meals now. Every time we go out, we’re so disappointed because we know we can do it better. And when cooking at home, we can afford things like prime steaks - a full prime steak dinner for 2 is still under $40 when prepared at home, as compared to over $100 at a restaurant.

 

[Mdragger88]

And it tastes much better! With all of the resources available, like YouTube and websites, we can prepare fantastic meals now. Every time we go out, we’re so disappointed because we know we can do it better. And when cooking at home, we can afford things like prime steaks - a full prime steak dinner for 2 is still under $40 when prepared at home, as compared to over $100 at a restaurant.

This
We splurged & went to our favorite steak house for our anniversary back in March - well over $100 for 2. We never go out.
It was terrible- we won’t be going back. Having steaks at home on Father’s Day.

 

[Wobblerlorri]

Mike is taking early SS this year, mostly because our tenants paid off the mortgage and now own the house! We don't go anywhere, eat at home, and mostly buy store brand stuff. Watching the CCs. Getting deals where we can -- Amazon has a super cool one where you get a $125 gift card for applying for an Amex business card. Once you're approved, you get the card on your aact. That's how I paid for the hard plumbing stuff!

This fall Patrick and I are going to see Killer Queen in Pensacola, we're still debating whether to drive, or fly and and rent a car. He says it will balance out, what with the drive to the airport (ATL) and renting a car vs driving down there. I think we will do it cheaper flying. Got til Oct to figure it out!

 

[sacredcow]

Not doing too much different right now. I'm in the Oil and Gas industry so the oil price pains are (ironically) good for me and my compensation. Fat lot of good it does when everything costs more, though.

My paid-for 2012 vehicle will be spending more time with me. Unfortunately, it's German so the repair items tend to be more expensive than the norm but still cheaper than a new car. I am doubling down to get the other vehicle paid off.

My mom just passed away last month, so once the estate is settled I will likely look for dirt to buy somewhere. Sure as heck not going to invest that money in the market right now. And I don't want rental property again. If I want a headache I am perfectly capable of banging my head against a wall or getting massively drunk to the point of hangover.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

We had started off the year thinking we were going to do some outdoor renovation projects ... then all the estimates started rolling and the prices being quoted for things were ridiculous - materials, labor, etc, all of it was crazy. We made the decision to kill that project and take a small loss on the design fee that we paid upfront for. Seeing where things are headed right now, I'm glad we killed it and would pay double to get out of it again. Inflation is going to hurt everyone with the elderly/fixed-income being hardest hit. Then the recession should hit in the Fall along with a nice housing-market crash, ok, maybe just a fender-bender, and then another possible round of COVID fear-driven panic hoarding. Its going to get ugly for the next few months but, if you can keep your head down and ride it out until next year, things will hopefully improve. We have two 10 year old cars that are fully paid off, been that way for years, and while we wanted to look into getting a new car, it is obvious that buying/selling cars right now is a BAD idea. I'll also keep what I got running and road-worthy ... the new car can wait.

 

[sacredcow]

I'll also keep what I got running and road-worthy ...

In that vein, I had the oil from my BMW analyzed on the last oil change to make sure there wasn't some impending face slap coming my way as the N55 engine is becoming known for spun connecting rod bearings. And early in the life of this car, I wasn't exactly going easy on it; What's the point of having HP if you don't use it all?

 

[HeyEng]

I am probably one of the few that welcomes this correction, although not a big fan of the inflationary portion of it.

We have taken plenty of trips over the last 18 months, so the wanderlust has been satisfied for quite a while. Our last excursion was extended by a week, which made getting home even sweeter. I have not enjoyed the hustle and bustle of travel and the misery that has become air travel. Thankfully, I am FIRE'd (financially independent and retired early) so I don't have the commuting expenses/issues like so many folks have these days. We also fortunate to not have any debt (no mortgage, either...yay!) so that gives us a very big cushion expense wise.

We have two cars...a 10 year old Accord with a little less than 90K miles (and we have put about 5K miles on it over the last 2 years) and a 2 year old Toyota that has about 8K miles on it. We have been taking the Accord lately since it gets 25-30 MPG as opposed to the Toyota that is 15-20 MPG. So, no need for car replacement (hopefully!) anytime soon.

As far as electrical costs go...yeah, that sucks. We are track for a $500-600 bill this month, but we have a fairly large house and I like to keep it cool so it's a price I am willing to pay. I am quite fortunate, no doubt about it.

 

[scout123]

I'll keep on doing the same. I'm a special ed teacher so not worried about the job. When I became a single mom I sold what I was paying on and bought a foreclosure with cash. I updated the house as I had the cash to pay, and it's all finished (except for a pool in the backyard ) My car is ancient, but it gets me where I need to go and it's also paid off. I don't have any other debt either. Something about being the sole provider for another person, on a teacher's salary, has kept me frugal or cheap. I took my daughter to the beach for a week already this summer, so we're good for a while before we will want to travel anywhere.

I was on here a couple of months ago trying to decide about a pool. I had received a quote 2 years ago, saved up the cash, and, of course, the cost had gone up quite a bit. I was debating pulling the trigger and taking out a small loan, but I just couldn't do it. I'm glad I didn't. Food costs are crazy, and my 9-year-old loves to eat!

 

[PoolGate]

I'll keep on doing the same. I'm a special ed teacher so not worried about the job. When I became a single mom I sold what I was paying on and bought a foreclosure with cash. I updated the house as I had the cash to pay, and it's all finished (except for a pool in the backyard ) My car is ancient, but it gets me where I need to go and it's also paid off. I don't have any other debt either. Something about being the sole provider for another person, on a teacher's salary, has kept me frugal or cheap. I took my daughter to the beach for a week already this summer, so we're good for a while before we will want to travel anywhere.

I was on here a couple of months ago trying to decide about a pool. I had received a quote 2 years ago, saved up the cash, and, of course, the cost had gone up quite a bit. I was debating pulling the trigger and taking out a small loan, but I just couldn't do it. I'm glad I didn't. Food costs are crazy, and my 9-year-old loves to eat!

Thank you for what you do! My son has been in SPED since 1st grade he's mildly autistic and needs extra help. He can't handle being in general population. Very smart though straight A's this entire year. He's doing well and looking forward to ESY which he loves.

 

[Wolfepack88]

Thank you for what you do! My son has been in SPED since 1st grade he's mildly autistic and needs extra help. He can't handle being in general population. Very smart though straight A's this entire year. He's doing well and looking forward to ESY which he loves.

Agreed 100%, its a calling.