What have you cut

[gimmethesimplelife]

Out of your life due to inflation/corporate refusal to raise wages to match inflation?

For me this is a funky question as I never raised my consumption - with few exceptions - since moving into management. For me it's the realization that I won't be raising consumption likely ever as late stage capitalism grinds us down further. So there's not much for me to cut.

What are others cutting, though? Rob

[Tradd]

I’m making $30K more than I did in 2020. I’ve not done anything much different.

[iris lilies]

I’m making $30K more than I did in 2020. I’ve not done anything much different.
I am sorry late stage capitalism has been grinding you down, treating you so badly.

/sarcasm

[pinkytoe]

I am no longer buying solely organic produce. The price difference between conventional and organic is often huge. I am no longer buying snack foods or cereal as the prices are stupid for for what is junk food. Other than that, I can't think of anything since we are frugal to start with.

[happystuff]

Cut since when? I cut all pay tv - cable, streaming (never did this to begin with), etc - about 3-4 years ago. I stopped buying commercial laundry soap years ago as well - make my own now.

If I were to cut anything out now, it would probably be alcohol - I do like some wine for the weekend. :D

[rosarugosa]

I have mostly cut alcohol from my life, although for health/happiness reasons rather than financial. Ironically, I am now quite partial to a wine alternative (Red Clay by Proxies) which costs more than any of the wines I used to drink, lol.
I can't really think of anything we've cut in the sense of "we can't buy that anymore because it's gotten too expensive." I do try to optimize value for $$ spent, but I've been doing that since shortly before I started hanging out with you guys.

[catherine]

I've cut some dreams... but I don't think it's strictly because of inflation. I think it's just because of the realities of getting older and working less.

If I didn't have financial constraints, I think I would travel more, especially in the winter. I feel our expenses are pretty lean except for gifts and entertaining. We're trying to figure out how to stop entertaining costs (and I'm talking entertaining kids, not having parties). Every time our kids come to visit it winds up costing us $200, even though they often pay for things like pizza.

[happystuff]

I've cut some dreams... but I don't think it's strictly because of inflation. I think it's just because of the realities of getting older and working less.


This just struck me as so sad! But I totally get it, because I've done the same thing. You putting it in writing just made me acknowledge it.

[iris lilies]

I've cut some dreams... but I don't think it's strictly because of inflation. I think it's just because of the realities of getting older and working less.

If I didn't have financial constraints, I think I would travel more, especially in the winter. I feel our expenses are pretty lean except for gifts and entertaining. We're trying to figure out how to stop entertaining costs (and I'm talking entertaining kids, not having parties). Every time our kids come to visit it winds up costing us $200, even though they often pay for things like pizza.
I dont think $200 for a great family visit is too much. I think your kids visit fairly often, but that is the best way to spend money.

[pinkytoe]

Every time we road trip or fly to Tx to see grandkids, it costs at least $1000. Gas, hotels, meals, etc. I keep trying to talk DH into taking one trip of a lifetime with money his mom left him but he has little interest in travel.

[CompulsiveGardener]

Always lived frugally, so there wasn't much to cut.

I do change the groceries that I buy week to week based on prices; I always shopped sales, store brands, and Aldi, but it's different now, in which some things are just ridiculously exhorbitant. We rarely ate out pre-pandemic, and now we almost never do, because restaurant prices here are absolutely insane.

Natural gas prices in our state have been very high the past couple of years. At one point I compared the bill to the prior year and the change in cost for the same number of therms (looking at cost for the actual usage plus all the fees) was close to a 50% increase. We dropped the thermostat a couple more degrees and wore heavier sweaters. Max settings: 58 at night, 65 daytime.

Made some changes to our homeowners and auto insurance policies, but then the rates still climbed over what they had been before the changes.

We do travel some. Roadtrips around the midwest to visit family, flights to visit family and sometimes friends on either coast. Looks like I will be flying to visit my parents regularly in the coming months due to health issues, whereas I was visiting them twice/year in recent years. That's going to add up...

[iris lilies]

Our cats would protest at 58 degrees! They would turn us in for cat abuse.

[Tybee]

We've had to turn up the lowest heat setting due to husband's COPD, but its still low to mid 60's. At 58 I swear we both start getting hypothermia.

Travel to family is so expensive! One year when we were dealing with parents' health issues we spent seven thousand dollars on travel to family. I haven't had a real vacation in I don't know how long, as we have been doing family travel only for at least 10 years now.