We REALLY have been spending more but getting less

[Anonymous]

I am pretty organized and actually “like” tracking things on mint and doing our family budget. And the last 24 months we truly spent so much more money despite cutting back back back. Groceries, my middle childs special needs therapies, things like swim lessons and house repairs… all of it is costing 12-20 percent more, sometimes close to a third more. We have kept an eye out and we are now mowing again, cleaning our own gutters, painting everything ourselves, really trying to not hire out. We dont eat out because we are ethnic and prefer our own cultures food but groceries are still up even though i buy less meat than ever. My middle son has an upcoming sacrament and having the same party i had for my eldest in 2019 will cost about 37 percent more. Same exact venue, caterer etc. Having it at home didnt prove to save money after renting tent and tables/chairs. I just want to confirm this is somewhat universal because all my social peers around me either arent talking about this or dont seem to be feeling it at all. While i dont mind cutting the fluff i also have less personal time than ever so our weekends are just nothing but house work and kids activities. For reference our hhi is 300 on the button. 90 me (public school teacher) and 210 dh (inhouse counsel). We are blessed that loans are out of the way (dh had an employer pay for JD and mine were forgiven at the ten year mark) so i was mentally thinking by this point we would be SO ahead. Dh thinks that its just everyone we know “has family money” but that seems very unlikely. I feel like everyone around us is prosperous while we reduce our lifestyle year after year. Just throwing this out to see if others feel similar.

[Anonymous]

Not really? 225k HHI. We have switched to shopping at Aldi, which has made a huge difference. Other than that it’s fine.

You are extremely prosperous. Enjoy it.

[Anonymous]

Yes, we're spending way more. Income is way up too, though, so we aren't feeling the pain and haven't cut back in any way. But I am sort of flabbergasted when I think about the dollars we spend.

[Anonymous]

Yes, we feel similar OP.

It doesn't affect us as much because we grew up middle class (DC lower middle class) and our parents always mowed and cleaned out gutters, etc... so we always did that as well and never hired everything out once moving to the DC area.

We do this as much for the environment as for the cost savings, so that's one way to refocus your motivation. If we mow our own grass, we don't have to mow as much and can let it grow a bit between mowings, which is better for the environment.

I have kept the same quality of groceries, just stopped any and all junk food or snacks or most premade food, which eliminates a lot of packaging.

Not that impressed with Aldi, except for the produce, and they have all that tempting stuff in the center of the store that drives up the cost per trip.

Our grocery bill is approximately the same, but it's now mostly produce, meat, dairy and bread / rice / pasta and condiments. No treats of any sort. I buy only things that are discounted every week, and then freeze or store until we need them, and menu plan around the sales. If something is not discounted, we don't buy it. I stopped buying and using eggs when prices soared, and have only started buying them again lately.

We also don't talk about this, even cost saving things we do mostly for environmental reasons, because people here assume we are on the brink of poverty if we do so. It's something that I would have definitely talked about more to others in medium sized cities we have lived in previously. We make about 200k a year.

[Anonymous]

Yes, and our income increased from $250k to $300k this year. We have been mercilessly cutting costs but even stupid things like our car wash subscription went up from $12 to $19 a month since last year - like, for what!? Insurance premiums, streaming services (we cut all but Netflix), Amazon prime, food, everything. It’s all gone up - a lot!

[Anonymous]

This is what happens when the government incessantly prints money that’s backed by nothing

[Anonymous]

This is also the result of the government trying to avoid recession at literally any cost. By changing monetary policy and injecting massive amounts of cash into the economy, we avoid short term severe shocks to the economy in exchange for long term inflation

[Anonymous]

The important thing is that these costs get absorbed by the customer, not the corporation.

Corporate profits are through the roof! Thanks, Joe!

[Anonymous]

I'm late 30s, so it's not like I have millions in the bank, but the past year has been fantastic for my savings accounts. Even my plain savings account is getting almost 5%. Food might cost more, but we're way making up for it with how all our savings are growing. (Other than the 529s because those are awful).

[Anonymous]

We also feel the crazy inflation and costs going out of control. Our monthly spend is higher than ever. Here's what is creating a small dampening effect:

- Equity markets are way up so our net worth is growing apace with or beyond the rate of inflation
- Housing costs are somewhat fixed, which is our largest monthly expense. However, we are investing more in renovations since we are aiming to stay in our current house longer than expected instead of moving given where interest rates are.
- We are continuing to grow our incomes through growing our careers

Would could be feeling tight is having three kids on 300K. I think it's totally doable on your income, but don't necessarily compare yourself to others who may be making more, have fewer kids, or had kids later in life.

We are just now having our first at 35 with 800K+ HHI, two properties, and several million saved across taxable and retirement accounts (minimal family help, just high earning careers + DINK lifestyle). But still I envy you as I wish we started our family earlier.

[Anonymous]

Corporate profits are through the roof!

I keep seeing this on DCUM. An increase in profits is expected in inflationary times. However, absolute profits do not determine profitability; earnings per share do.

Example: Walmart

Here are their profits; indeed record for them, but increases are below inflation (apart from 2021, where profits increased due to the Covid outbreak the year before):

Walmart annual gross profit for 2023 was $147.568B, a 2.65% increase from 2022.
Walmart annual gross profit for 2022 was $143.754B, a 3.54% increase from 2021.
Walmart annual gross profit for 2021 was $138.836B, a 7.33% increase from 2020.

Here are their earnings per share: Sharp decline in 2023 and below the level even in 2020.

Walmart 2023 annual EPS was $4.27, a 12.32% decline from 2022.
Walmart 2022 annual EPS was $4.87, a 2.53% increase from 2021.
Walmart 2021 annual EPS was $4.75, a 8.48% decline from 2020.

Does not look like their profits are through the roof.

[Anonymous]

Hey OP ignore these people with millions not feeling anything

I have literally your HHI and we are feeling it bad, even racking up some credit debt for some medical issues but literally I now have to stop and think do I need this can I do without this? And I didn’t use to while living our normal life. But basics we used to take for granted we can’t quite afford so I’ve had to make changes and adjustments.

And yes it sucks, can never dig out this hole.

[Anonymous]

How are you getting less OP? It seems like you are paying more for the same services?

We are honestly not spending that much more, we but did do things like switch to Aldi and Trader Joe’s and our grocery bills went way down.

Some services are higher but it’s such a small percentage of our annual income that it’s not really affecting us because we are also benefiting from decent wage growth.

While greedflation clearly exists and is terrible, I see the increase in services are a positive overall, as long as wage growth stay above inflation. Also I when I look back at some of the larger jumps in service costs, I’ve noted that they did remain flat with little to know increases for several years, so what appears to be a sudden 20% increase really covers multiple years of no increases.

[Anonymous]

Op, right there with you and we are really feeling it. I ignore the naysayers who act like this is all normal. Yesterday evening I left a grocery store with three bags, and only one meat item of four pork chops ... the total cost for those three bags was 142.00! This is insane. We too are now doing all our household chores (never had a maid service) but did hire landscaping and handyman services regularly. Guess who isn't getting a paycheck from us any longer ... landscaper, electricians, plumbers, handyman, painter, babysitter, dog walker. I could go on, but the point is trickle down is hurting so many more than my family. We just don't have the extra money for vacations or clothing (new), everything is second guessed before we purchase now, no impulse buying. This sucks!

[Anonymous]

Aaaaand yet all of you will vote for Gavin or whoever it ends up being because "orange man scary!"