Inflation- What steps are you taking?

For years we have talked about Venezuela on this site. We saw a country slowly spiral down to the point where the middle class disappeared and their currency become worthless. Venezuela has the extremely rich and the poor. Food is hard to afford or find in that country.

In the past few weeks there have been reports that infant formula is hard to find in the United States. We all know gas prices have doubled and the costs of food, fuel, housing have all increased. What steps have you all taken to try and maintain your circumstances? Or have you not done anything?

Steps I have taken because I live on a budget, I set for myself:

Try to not drive two days a week. This has helped greatly with my fuel budget.

Scaling back on meat and more pasta dishes and eating breakfast (eggs) at least once a week. My groceries were up $30 a week but shopping sale foods and changing menu has helped get me back into budget.

All frivolous spending has been stopped. We only order pizza once a month and only on buy one get one free night.

We turned our thermostat down to 68 and are lucky that we have a wood stove and used that nightly.



There are more steps taken but those are a few. Any suggestions to help make funds go further would be appreciated. I believe this is only the beginning and hard times are ahead. Survival Monkeys are wise, so let’s hear how you are battling inflation.

 

Same here fixed income --drive less, plant a big garden, eat more rice dishes less meat, buy stuff when on sale (more than), no fast food, no going out to eat (which was only a few times in a month. The worst is yet to come I'm afraid

 

Dumped cable TV ($180/mo!)
Don't eat out.
Gas is still less per day than insurance, so, not a lot of difference there.
Have over the last year, switched to LED bulbs
Shop around like a crazy to get best price.

I lived thru Carter simply because I was fortunate to live in military housing. My current house is paid off, but the power, gas, water, etc bills keep going up....

 

I've been able to make some adjustments without a lot of stress since I'm stuck at home for a couple months with the new hip.

Not that I was planning on getting a new car...ever, but I looked at my 312K mile, seventeen year old windshield and noticed it had wiper tracks worn into it. I've got glass coverage, so I'll have a new windshield installed at no cost. Make the old car look like new. I might even vacuum up the inch of sand on the floor.

Good insurance works for me on the car and my medical bills, and has been something that I've been very happy that I took the time to set up.

My driving habits have been an easy adjustment.
I have scheduled appointments, so I plan all my travel and shopping needs around them. This has made me very thrifty on gas.

I haven't been eating fast food at all, since I'm not out all the time. Even today I had thought about getting something at a drive-thru and didn't. I have been enjoying some nice lunches and breakfasts with my driver, and she's invited me to breakfast a few times since I started driving myself again.

Since I wasn't driving for awhile I polished off all the Scotch I had here. Prices haven't gone up much on my favorites, but I decided to save some money here too. I can get two gallons of Old Crow, two bottles of sweet vermouth and a bottle of bitters for less than what I was paying for a fifth of Scotch.

I was going to borrow a truck and drive to Wilmington to pick up a trailer. Looked online and found they offer free delivery.
I can't have it here til the end of the month, but the savings on gas for that trip are tremendous.

Little things here and there. Turning off lights, using Food Lion bags as trash bags, opening doors and windows instead of using the A/C.

All this stuff is good practice for my retirement that's not many years away now. I've done a month and a half with no work income and don't miss it much. I miss work, but have been surviving with no income coming in.

Once my energy level gets better there are lots of craft items that I can make to sell at the local farmers market. The tourists eat this stuff up, so through the summer I can always supliment my income by making stuff out of junk.

 

Inflation hurts losers the most.
Should be tit feeding those babies anyways.
The biggest chunk of the weighted CPI index is housing. We got our current place in 2017 when it was a buyers market with the lowest home loan rates since WW2.
Still have those rental houses.
The second biggest chunk is utilities and energy. My wife drives a hybrid 8 miles to work and I drive my electric car about 17 miles to work (each way). We don't have natural gas, most of our home heat comes from wood sourced from our land. I got my leaf in 2018 when electric car prices were in the toilet and my wife got her 2018 hybrid in 2019 when hybrid car prices were in the toilet because everyone wanted SUVs with $2 a gallon gas. Then got solar panels in 2020 when solar installers were dieing for work, the price of solar installs has only been going up since 2020.

 

Buying a rental property because cash in the bank is losing money and a rental property is an income stream.
Investing in a ridiculously high monthly dividend paying derivative investment with limited downside.
Buying consumables (food, paper products, cleaning supplies, soap/shampoo/toothpaste, OTC meds) by the twos and threes or more knowing it's not going to be cheaper next month and loading the pantry.
Fixing the cars/trucks vs buying a replacement.
Taking profits on investments that have gone up more than 25 percent (no one ever went broke taking a profit)
dumping stocks that show little hope a return (also offsets gains above)
planting a garden again this year.
ditto for chickens, added new chicks ... love eggs but also sell them for 6 bucks a dozen to the yuppies.

Other than that ... not much.

 

Its a security risk to post what I am doing here but really I only have 1 thing left to do on my checklist. Should last me and the kids the rest of our lives. Hopefully a lot longer.

 

I'm lucky, the house and land are free of debt, I'm working full-time and have some rental income. I'm also free of any credit card debt. I have 3 major credit cards but pay them in full every month. Try to limit luxuries (eat plainly and at home, and few trips), reduce utilities, limit driving, and have a garden. I might even get some chickens.

 

We are debt free, own lots of land, much of which generates a good income the rest generates food for the family! We hunt, fish grow, gather, can, smoke, cure, or otherwise put up foods to last a couple of years! We drive less, dropped the insurances to the absolute minimums, and stocked up on fuels before the Pedo drove the prices through the roof! We have plenty of cash in hand, and P.Ms should it ever come to that, so by and large, were mostly all set! Using the Trackster more for running errands that don't require the larger space of the SUV or Van, and we make the trips well worth the time and expense! I'm not giving up on flying, so that's one of the few costs I'm willing to pay to keep my freedoms! We have most everything we could need, so no real need to venture out now! I have noticed the neighbors have all pretty much done the same thing as us, and the local farmers, ranchers and dairy are ramping up efforts, while kinda turning away outsiders, though mostly just servicing the local community with our needs! I also noticed the local Grange is more stocked then we have seen the last several years, and while the prices are higher, they have at least laid in the supplies that most of us will need!
Stocked up on several tons of doggy food to mix in with fresh food stuffs and waste food that's still good for the critters to eat! Got the ghrist mill up and running really well, and we laid in a couple tons of grains, apples, and other stuff to grind or press, then we can put that all up and have plenty to keep us in the green for several years! Got a bunch more set aside with the local growers as well as the butcher's and such, so as soon as it's ready, I can go pick it up and add it into our stash!

 

Normally I ring the SA bell at Xmas time , So I have experience,
Now im in front of the Candy store (Liquor ) pan handing , good thing just bought 4L /1 usg of milk and it cost me 12.18 per jug .
Sloth

 

GREAT TOPIC Moto!! I never in a million years thought I'd cry "opsec", but in some ways, there it is. We always have extra of things that don't go bad. I bought two years of anything that is shipped in from overseas last year, like socks, shoes, etc for boys. My husband badly wants to relocate as our situation in this area has changed greatly. This area used to be a very conservative area an hour away from a very liberal area, but Democrats screw up their cities and then move out to areas to avoid the logical outcomes of their stupid. We're fortunate because my husband is pretty much able to work wherever he likes and family is our only tie. We're praying. It HAS to get worse and I'm stunned people aren't truly freaking out. Can't they think? Russia and Ukraine produce more than a quarter of the world supply of wheat. OF COURSE there will be food shortages. It's math. You can't escape math.

 

Just the wife and I we're retired so we don't do much driving. I use my old Jeep for short shopping trips and other errands and burned 6 1/2 gallons of gas in just about as many weeks, and the mileage sucks on that thing. I think my wife used half that in the same amount of time with her car.

House and vehicles are paid up, as are credit cards (interest rate increases coming so if you owe try to get it paid off or at least paid down). Only thing is we've had a friend living with us for the last three years. He's going to be getting some news very soon. He works and has a pretty decent job so there's no longer any reason....OUT!

 

Hi @Seepalaces wonderful to see you! I knew you would be on this. You are so correct about the world wheat supply, folks do not realize the impact this is going to have globally. Also with Shanghai in lock-down for the second week, this have a ripple effect that will be felt in a few weeks. Some people are stocking up because I have been going on the prepared food sites and they have a lot of sold out items, more then I have seen in a long time.

 

Inflation hurts everyone. I work for a small business and we are feeling it. My job is to keep us in budget that was prepared in October. We didn't predict fuel doubling and monthly rising fuel surcharges. Everything gets passed down the line and ends up on the consumers plate.

As for the titty feeding, not all babies take. One of my kids had to have a soy formula. One must make a choice of doing things natural vs. having a healthy thriving baby.

 

Honestly not too many changes here. Since I retired from the welding I spend more on fuel for the zero turn than I do for one of the rigs per month. When I do go out I plan to get all my running in one trip.90% of my gunshop supplies are ordered online so there's that. Sass still works so there's fuel for her, but we got rid of her SUV for her "Dream Ride" and it's decent on fuel. The Mercedes wasn't bad on fuel at all, she just saw the Jeep and had to have it. We will have a larger garden and plan to can more this year. Will probably put up a couple of beef and hogs this fall. Should it come to it we have the grist mill that can hook up to the Super A. We are buying the fuel we currently use instead of dipping into the stored stuff. I hope it goes down in price, but banking the reserves in case it doesn't. I have been investigating the idea of a gasifier. I think it was Chel that posted something about them recently. Anyways, I'm exploring them for possible use.

 

I am working on equipment I can sell or trade for things I need.
I might even trade for silver.
I build air compressor units Gas engine-driven as well as electric.
Even small engine/alternator units for battery charging. With an inverter and battery one can power most appliances, but they are mostly for those with a battery bank dependent on solar. during the winter most solar is fixed position so a helper is valued.
If an enemy hits us with an EMP most electronics will be toast, your LED lights will fry. they can take a lot of abuse but not high voltage, be sure and put some in a faraday cage. Incandescent bulbs might be good to have on hand in the meantime.
There are solid-state diodes in solar panels that are likely to fry in such an event, plan to be replacing them. This is another reason I recommend mounting solar on something other than one's roof. the diodes don't make the solar work but what they do is prevent the draw from the battery at night, otherwise, they need to be disconnected and reconnected day after day.

 

Cut out the beer Cayman Jack's
Drive less,eat healthier
Like fruits and stuff.
Invested in makers mark a bit
Bought oil company stocks so the dividends help offset fuel prices.
Rag the wife about online purchases
Planted a bunch of beans and potatoes
Wish I could plow up an acre at the camp but critters cut the tops off me plants
Lost 2 satsuma trees this winter.
I'm sure I've forgotten a few but hey it's a new thing.

 

Best way to filter old diesel anyone?
Stuff is probably 6 years old
I have 50 gallons of it in a drum at the camp and it does have pickle juice in it but as cautious as I am I'd like to filter it again before it hits the kubota.