The one thing I never cut back on is food. The prices have doubled some tripled on certain things.

I have prepped for nearly 3 years. Ever since I first started watching the commodities market. So far it's all coming true. Now with the Texas fires meat prices will go through the roof but the good news is we really don't need to eat meat, we can all get by on other food. Humans only need to eat twice a day. Maybe some light snacking at night. Just think we'll all lose weight without taking a poison stomach shot that will eventually kill you or you'll gain back the weight plus.

Utilities are unreal. Something else I won't cut back on. I realize we're ahead of most but we do help family so as long as we have money and can share we will do that. If we don't help each other when we can what's the point living and being greedy ? Sharing is caring. Caring is love. We knew years ago when we paid off our house that extra money would be banked and used for family. I refuse to watch anyone suffer if I can help.

There is nothing in this world more important than family. Family is everything.

Things are hard for a lot of people right now. This forum lies. I think more are struggling but their pride won't allow them to admit it.

I think what a lot of commenter are missing are the costs for the SN therapies (not covered by insurance often). That is why we have almost the same income and feel like it's not going very far. My son looked at my ratty Old Navy sweatpants sweatshirt combo the other day and said mom I know you have a good job, but I don't really think you're getting much out of it.

Especially if you're also saving for college and retirement there's just not a ton of money sloshing around for us. And the "extra" we have goes tonward visiting family.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our income increased recently from 240k to 330k but our spending has not increased since 2020 because we budget our income before the money hits our checking account. Budgeting works.

Even in low inflation years it'd be extremely remarkable not to see any increase in spending across four years. Given the substantial inflation in food alone of the last four years you are either not honest or you are scaling back (lowering your quality if life) in order to stick to strict savings benchmarks.

I don't really get the substantial increase in food, at least not now. It used to be high in 2021, but so many everyday food items are cheaper than in 2021 and equivalent to 2019 (I think). Just went to Trader Joe's and paid $1.88 for a dozen eggs...$2.39 for a gallon of milk. Pay attention to what is on sale that week at Safeway/Giant in terms of meat and other stuff. Also, love Amazon Fresh as they routinely give 20% off for Amazon Prime members and actually have great sales on different items.

I guess I have always shopped this way.

Your anecdotal experience is irrelevant. The data is crystal clear and is all over the internet if you'd bother to research it, both for official year to year inflation, and food inflation. Since 2019 we have had substantial inflation across the board, food, housing, cost of services, healthcare, insurance, car costs, materials, services in general. If you aren't feeling it, you are either clueless or in denial.

Hey...you are clearly resigned to your position, no matter what. Obviously, everyone's inflation rate is different based on what they consume. Those of us who own a home are not impacted by housing inflation. My homeowners and car insurance likely went up by a decent %age, but the nominal change is really not that impactful. My homeowner's insurance went up by 13%...but the nominal change is $150. My utilities costs have gone down in nominal amounts...natural gas is cheap right now, so heating costs are down by about 10% YoY. I don't have to drive very much...gas prices are down YoY, but driving has never been much of an expense ($30/month for gas on average).

I actually track things very closely, so I am not in denial. Again...everyone's inflation index is specific to them.

In the meantime, my stocks have gone through the roof, my interest on cash has gone from 1% to 5.25% over the course of 15 months, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our income increased recently from 240k to 330k but our spending has not increased since 2020 because we budget our income before the money hits our checking account. Budgeting works.

Even in low inflation years it'd be extremely remarkable not to see any increase in spending across four years. Given the substantial inflation in food alone of the last four years you are either not honest or you are scaling back (lowering your quality if life) in order to stick to strict savings benchmarks.

I don't really get the substantial increase in food, at least not now. It used to be high in 2021, but so many everyday food items are cheaper than in 2021 and equivalent to 2019 (I think). Just went to Trader Joe's and paid $1.88 for a dozen eggs...$2.39 for a gallon of milk. Pay attention to what is on sale that week at Safeway/Giant in terms of meat and other stuff. Also, love Amazon Fresh as they routinely give 20% off for Amazon Prime members and actually have great sales on different items.

I guess I have always shopped this way.

Your anecdotal experience is irrelevant. The data is crystal clear and is all over the internet if you'd bother to research it, both for official year to year inflation, and food inflation. Since 2019 we have had substantial inflation across the board, food, housing, cost of services, healthcare, insurance, car costs, materials, services in general. If you aren't feeling it, you are either clueless or in denial.

I just don’t even notice or care what groceries cost. We’re not that rich but I’m not interested in spending so much compared to our income fluctuation in price of eggs stresses me out. I’d rather cut the big stuff.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our income increased recently from 240k to 330k but our spending has not increased since 2020 because we budget our income before the money hits our checking account. Budgeting works.

Even in low inflation years it'd be extremely remarkable not to see any increase in spending across four years. Given the substantial inflation in food alone of the last four years you are either not honest or you are scaling back (lowering your quality if life) in order to stick to strict savings benchmarks.

I don't really get the substantial increase in food, at least not now. It used to be high in 2021, but so many everyday food items are cheaper than in 2021 and equivalent to 2019 (I think). Just went to Trader Joe's and paid $1.88 for a dozen eggs...$2.39 for a gallon of milk. Pay attention to what is on sale that week at Safeway/Giant in terms of meat and other stuff. Also, love Amazon Fresh as they routinely give 20% off for Amazon Prime members and actually have great sales on different items.

I guess I have always shopped this way.

Anonymous wrote:Our income increased recently from 240k to 330k but our spending has not increased since 2020 because we budget our income before the money hits our checking account. Budgeting works.

Even in low inflation years it'd be extremely remarkable not to see any increase in spending across four years. Given the substantial inflation in food alone of the last four years you are either not honest or you are scaling back (lowering your quality if life) in order to stick to strict savings benchmarks.

Anonymous wrote: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!

Do you not get that it is precisely because your salary increased that the cost of goods increased as well?

The weirdest part of this story is that they never eat out because they prefer their own ethnic food. I mean sure, we all have a basic diet but doesn’t everyone love trying different foods in restaurants?

I feel like if you have a $300k household income and you’re stressing over your grocery bill, you must have been really close to the bone in the good times?

The real secret is to not max out your housing budget. If you do that, you have so much more cushion for everything else. But people here really push the limits to get a better house or school district. Which is a totally valid but if you’re house poor, yeah, you’re going to be really tight everywhere else.

We only make $90,000 HHI, and somehow we are doing fine.

But we made adjustments because we know the price will only come down when people stop spending like crazy.

So we have adjusted our meals to cut costs.

You people are Hella spoiled.

Anonymous wrote:Cool story OP. You really can't pay $100 to get your gutters cleaned? No one's mowed their lawn since October. How often do you paint your house? Have you talked to the therapists about why they're charging more? You can't afford swim lessons on 300k?

Since you keep such good records, why don't you post some real numbers because your story isn't adding up. It just sounds like another vague post complaining about inflation to score political points.

+1.

Cool story OP. You really can't pay $100 to get your gutters cleaned? No one's mowed their lawn since October. How often do you paint your house? Have you talked to the therapists about why they're charging more? You can't afford swim lessons on 300k?

Since you keep such good records, why don't you post some real numbers because your story isn't adding up. It just sounds like another vague post complaining about inflation to score political points.

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

NO bec "Orange Man" wants to be KING ie Dictator and Lead Criminal of the US and the Consitution says we do not install any of those.

You complete stupid sub human POS>

Yeah that description is for all Republicans still voting for the criminal don the con two bit hustler from Queens.

Our income increased recently from 240k to 330k but our spending has not increased since 2020 because we budget our income before the money hits our checking account. Budgeting works.