The Essential Survival Guide to Living with Inflation

(Psst: The FTC wants me to remind you that this website contains affiliate links. That means if you make a purchase from a link you click on, I might receive a small commission. This does not increase the price you'll pay for that item nor does it decrease the awesomeness of the item. ~ Daisy)

By the author of The Ultimate Guide to Frugal Living and The Flat Broke Cookbook

Inflation is here and it’s doubtful that it’s going away any time soon. As a prepper and someone who believes in my country, my first instinct is to rail against the disastrous decisions that have caused this crisis, but as a realist, I know this is not something that all the flaming commentary in the world can change. There are things that are out of our control, and idiotic governmental policy is one of them. If we can’t change it, we have to learn to live with it and thrive despite it, so this article is about living with inflation.

Over the past month, I’ve watched a product that I regularly bought for 2.99 go up to 3.99 then 4.99. I know many of you are having the same experience. If everything in your shopping cart is going up to the same degree, it won’t be long before your weekly trip to the store has doubled in price if you continue on your current shopping path.

Most of us don’t have the money for double grocery bills or other increased expenses. It’s time to pull out every tool in your frugal and self-reliant arsenal to make it through this financial crisis.

First things first: this is not the end of the world.

I know how it feels when money is tight and the cause is outside your control. I know what it feels like when it seems like there’s an ever-tightening noose around your money, choking out its ability to sustain you. It’s stressful. It’s scary. It makes you feel powerless.

So the very first thing you have to do is take back your own power.

(Part of this comes from knowledge. And part of knowledge is understanding the various scopes of disaster. Check out our free QUICKSTART Guide on the four levels of disaster for more info.)

First of all, remember that our country has been through an economic depression before. Sure, things were different then, but the patterns are the same. People felt much the same way then as they do now – at times the situation felt insurmountable. But by and large, most folks got through it and that difficult time imprinted habits upon them that lasted their entire lives. Every loved one I have who lived through that time spent the rest of their life being practical, self-reliant, and frugal.

I remember my granny saving grease from the skillet every time she fried something. (And I grew up in the South, so there was a lot of frying going on.) She also planted a garden well into her 80s, raising food and preserving the harvest. I recall helping pluck chickens there before my grandpa passed away when I was less than 5 years old. Granny made every bite of jelly I ever ate until I was in my early teens in addition to a host of other tasty home-canned goods. She never wasted a thing.

I recall my dad eating cornbread covered with buttermilk in a glass with a long spoon right to the end. He wouldn’t throw anything away until he’d made every effort to repair it himself. He had all sorts of tools and a workshop full of various hardware odds and ends. A lot of those came from unfixable items – which, of course, he stripped of anything that might be useful in the future before throwing it in the trash.

We had plenty of money – he was a doctor – but the lessons he learned as a young child in a poor family that did not bounce back quickly from the Depression stayed with him. Despite his money, he was practical, frugal, and never ostentatious. He made as sure that he was in a position where he would never face poverty again by wise investments and savings.

I share this to remind you that even though it seems like we’re facing an impossible future, this has happened before – and people survived. It did change them. But that’s precisely how they got through it. You have to be ready to make those changes as well.

Adapt mentally to living with inflation.

The very first thing you need to do is adapt mentally to the ever-changing economic landscape. A long time ago, I first wrote an article about three steps to surviving darn near anything:

  1. Accept.
  2. Plan.
  3. Act.

That’s right. Accept.

Like it or not, the key to getting through this is accepting the fact that we have an economic crisis on our hands and we can’t do anything about it except manage our own small circles. You may be irate at the destruction of our once healthy economy, but that’s not going to help you get through it productively. I generally hate the saying, “It is what it is” but in this situation, it’s the truth.

So, instead of fruitlessly raging against the machine, instead of being angry or sad that you can’t acquire things you used to or afford to pay for things you once could, accept it. Life is different now. Anger will keep you stuck in a place that makes it nearly impossible to change and adapt.

For the record, I’m not suggesting that what has happened to our country is okay in any way. I’m just saying that we have to live in our setting, whatever that may be. Selco always talks about those who adapt to the new rules first are more likely to survive. While our situation may not be life and death, the rules have definitely changed. Adaptability is still the key to survival.

Look for substitutions.

When shopping, you may not be able to find the items you’re accustomed to buying, either now or in the near future. Or those products might be available but at double the price. You have to be prepared to make substitutions when living with inflation.

In the introduction, I mentioned a product that I’ve watched the price rapidly rising. That product is oat milk, which I get for my coffee because dairy doesn’t agree with me. Not only has the price gone up, but the brands I like have also been harder to acquire. So the first adaptation was moving to whatever brand was the best price. Now that the price seems to have risen across the board, I just placed an order for 50 pounds of organic oats and I’ll make my own darned oat milk for a fraction of the price. Oat milk is certainly not a life-and-death product, but it’s one I like having on hand. So to me, making my own is worth the effort.

Another example is meat. You may have seen bare cases at your local grocery store. Perhaps it’s time to look for different cuts than you normally purchase.

Let’s say that something is on sale but it’s a cut you dislike. You can often ask the butcher to grind a cut that you don’t care for and then you have ground beef or pork that you can use at a much lower price than the stuff in the case. They’ll also cut roasts into chops, stew meat, or steaks for you, generally at no additional charge. If they charge, you might want to invest in a meat grinder and some high-quality knives for processing the meat yourself into your desired form.

Now is a time of fewer options. You’re probably going to have to learn to make do with something different than your first choice when it comes to food, household goods, cleaning supplies, etc. If you look at it as simply a substitution or different option instead of with a mindset of scarcity, it won’t be nearly as stressful.

Repair things instead of replacing them.

New electronics could be the next shortage we face due to a lack of microchips. People are waiting months for new furniture orders to arrive. All sorts of things that used to be a simple matter to replace have now become scarce and/or outrageously expensive. Such is life when living with inflation.

It’s time to repair whenever possible. Even spare parts for computers and vehicles are getting hard to come by, so if you’re in a position to do so, grab anything you suspect you might need now and save it for when you need it. Also, now is the time to be on the lookout for the tools you may need.

Why are you replacing your furniture? I grabbed a perfectly good cabinet from the trash and the only problem with it was that it was wobbly. I put a piece of folded-up cardboard under the back leg and it’s absolutely fine. Our blender lost a leg many years ago.

Every time we move, someone drinks a bottle of water or soda pop and saves the cap – it’s exactly the right height – and we ceremoniously stick it under the base. We’ve been using a bottle cap leg for that blender for more than a decade but the blender itself works perfectly well.

Is there something you can do to fix a piece of furniture that’s seen better days? Can you add a piece of plywood under seat cushions for a sagging frame? Can you recover the pillows? Does it just need some cardboard folded up under a leg or even a couple of bricks for a missing leg? Be creative and see what you can do to make the things you already have usable again.

If you have absolutely no choice but to replace something, search first for a good quality used replacement.

Simplicity

We live in a complex world with lots of moving parts, must-haves, shortcuts, and subscriptions. It might be time to dial it back and seek out simplicity while living with inflation. After all, what is more cost-effective: doing a yoga class from Youtube in the privacy of your living room or driving to the studio and rolling out your mat with a group? You can get the same workout at home if you are determined to do so. And do you actually need a gym membership with weights or can you do more walking and carrying everyday things?

I’m replacing my beloved Keurig that requires pods with a coffee maker I have in storage and taking the cost of my coffee from 19 cents a cup to 10 cents a cup. Living with inflation may soon cause you to have to focus on the cents as well. I’m focusing on simple foods that don’t require a million ingredients, using up leftovers, and finding satisfaction in plainer profiles and smaller servings.

But simplicity goes further than food. Time is money. The time it takes you to hang your laundry to dry instead of using your dryer saves on utilities. The time it takes to make holiday decorations instead of buying them or to create tote bags or pillow covers out of worn clothing saves on purchase provides the items with less out of your pocket.

The same goes for activities. Your kids can take all sorts of classes at the YMCA or local community center at a fraction of the price of official “lessons.” Who says that date night can’t consist of a picnic at sunset or making dinner together and streaming a movie? Instead of a trip to Disneyworld every year, perhaps just driving to the beach would be a more cost-effective outing. It may take some effort to change the expectations of your family members but the rewards will be well worth it.

Self-reliant living

Last but certainly not least is self-reliant living. We have talked about that more than ever over the past few years and it’s essential for getting through hard times and living with inflation. Nearly anything that you can produce yourself will cost less than store-bought. This goes for food, clothing, household supplies, furnishing, and decor.

The great thing about self-reliant skills is that they don’t just save money. They are gifts that can be passed on to younger generations and the time spent together working on these skills is quality time your loved ones will never forget.

Get some ideas for self-reliant skills you can do anywhere – city, suburbia, or country – in this article, this one on food production and this one that runs the gamut. Your sense of satisfaction when producing things yourself will far override your sense of scarcity from seeing barren store shelves. I suggest you purchase any necessary tools or supplies now while you can still get a hold of them.

How are you living with inflation?

Have you noticed rising prices and scarcity in your neck of the woods? How are you living with inflation? Do you have additional strategies not mentioned here? Share them in the comments.

About Daisy

Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, adventure-seeking, globe-trotting blogger. She is the founder and publisher of three websites.  1) The Organic Prepper, which is about current events, preparedness, self-reliance, and the pursuit of liberty; 2)  The Frugalite, a website with thrifty tips and solutions to help people get a handle on their personal finances without feeling deprived; and 3) PreppersDailyNews.com, an aggregate site where you can find links to all the most important news for those who wish to be prepared. Her work is widely republished across alternative media and she has appeared in many interviews.

Daisy is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books, 12 self-published books, and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses at Learn.TheOrganicPrepper.com You can find her on FacebookPinterest, Gab, MeWe, Parler, Instagram, and Twitter.

Picture of Daisy Luther

Daisy Luther

Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, globe-trotting blogger. She is the founder and publisher of three websites.  1) The Organic Prepper, which is about current events, preparedness, self-reliance, and the pursuit of liberty on her website, 2)  The Frugalite, a website with thrifty tips and solutions to help people get a handle on their personal finances without feeling deprived, and 3) PreppersDailyNews.com, an aggregate site where you can find links to all the most important news for those who wish to be prepared. She is widely republished across alternative media and  Daisy is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses. You can find her on FacebookPinterest, Gab, MeWe, Parler, Instagram, and Twitter.

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  • Your first things first comment “this is not the end of the world” is a lie. It is the end of the world. The day of the next false flag using the nuke the criminal bastard government stole and blamed on Iran is the day America is annihilated by Russia, China and the SCO. This is the war of Armageddon and you can know it is now because of the chemtrails that have been hiding the approaching Planet X for the past thirty years. Planet X caused the sinking of Atlantis and Noahs flood. This time around it will end the coming, planned WW3. That is also the reason for the scamdemic and toxic fake “vaccine” death shots. Stop your fucking lying!

      • Yeah, he must be giving Arizona a run for the most loony post of the year award.
        Or, being sarcastic. Too bad the comments section does not support purple text.
        [COLOR=”#800080″]Or does it?[/COLOR]

      • Stupid government liars are as obvious as they are stupid. All you criminal pieces of government shit need to be immediately executed!

    • WOW! so much hate to a fine lady who is trying to help people! you’re not welcome here! what are you afraid of, if you are right with God and your family??? I beat cancer and i worry alot less about world events that are far away. But don’t you EVER use language like that directed toward Ms. Daisy again!

      • There is no help here for Americans. 90% of Americans will die before Planet X ends the war. There will be no food or water. Everything that moves will try to rape, kill and eat you. All the starving dogs are going to eat people too. The famine will be so great that parents will eat their children and vice-versa. Its all in the Bible. Over half the book is all about the war. In addition, there will be 200 million invaders hunting Americans and that is after they nuke the big cities. So good luck with that advice at the end of the world.

  • Last year, seeing empty shelves, various reports of inflation, we decided to raise two hogs. Between the two, we have quite a bit of meat.
    Last years gardens were expanded. This year, even more so.
    The current batch of chickens are likely coming close to the end of their egg laying days. Will replace them this spring. These ones will become stew birds (crock pot, low and slow till the meat falls off the bone), and the chicken stock we make from them.

    Yeah, I too hate the phrase, “It is what it is.” But it does apply here.
    Usually I utter a colorful metaphor, accept the situation, then while close to Daisy’s three steps (great, now I got Lynyrd Skynyrd in my head), apply the OODA loop.
    And of course, Semper Gumby.

  • Well said, Daisy. Being willing to give up former products and habits, and to take extra time to create substitutes for former products and habits is the way to go here.

  • Brilliant piece, we are in the UK and have a plot of land. We’ve dug a garden, improved the hen run, and bought pigs for fattening. I think we excepted the Inevitable a while ago. In some ways I’m looking forward to some harder times, I think the everything generation needs some tough luck

  • Wonderful writing Daisy.

    On the subject of other strategies not mentioned, I would add to find an enjoyable activity to unplug, unwind, and have fun with that doesn’t mean dollars flying out of your pockets. Costs of vacation will go up along with everything else. With fewer dollars to dispose of, if there is no outlet to blow off steam enjoyably there will be increased family tension.

    In our case, we invested in a herd of ponies. We have the pasture, housing, and feed so while the investment hurt initially, the price of replacing them from the date of purchased has already increased. So I feel good about our choice of entertainment. Plus, we had enough left over we bought a super heavy rugged marathon cart for one team or single tree.

    If everything goes to hell, that cart will be our new farm truck along with my halfcart for the draft ponies.

    • Hey Jim,
      no pun intended but speaking of dollars “flying”, how about kite flying?! Every March the granddaughter and I try to fly kites in the March wind. A friend who owns horses is giving me a set of old horse shoes for us to play horse shoes and sometimes I pick up clearance games like Corn Hole in Wally World or at the thrift stores. I have a collection of craft materials and great but cheap DVDs along with some spare DVD players, and tons of board games and dollar store puzzle books and some actual puzzels as well. Got to look out for the mental health.

      • We go to a local church thrift store weekly ( our entertainment) and in talking the manager he told us jigsaw puzzles, games like Monopoly, Scrabble, checkers, chinese checkers, etc sell as fast as they come in. Even though Florida is a ‘wide open’ state, it appears those who live here are staying home and making their own entertainment.

  • Amen sister.

    We’re trying to raise a few more larger animals (3 lambs instead of 2), and are trying to trade more within our community. For example, I have a neighbor who gave me several hundred pounds of apples last year so when we get our pigs done I will give him a nice bit of meat. Said neighbor also has grapevines, I’m hoping we can work something out regarding those, too. And I’ve got some ideas for extending my garden season further, we’ll see how it works out.

    My family is scattered literally all over the world. I like my family, but I am done flying across the world just to avoid being alone on the holidays. My plan this year is to stay in state for all of my togetherness/ recreational needs. Flying is just too damn expensive.

    • Joanna,
      Concerning your neighbors and trade, good on you!
      We have neighbors who gives us scraps from their garden (i.e. they can) or the stuff that they dont eat, for our hogs. They will get some of our pork, bacon in trade. They said we did not have to, but we feel they contributed to the weight gain, through their labor, we should compensate them and do so willingly!

    • We have a trade system with one of our neighbors as well. We give them several gallons of blueberries when they are in season from out bushes and they keep us in fresh eggs year round. We pick up a couple bags of chicken scratch for them from time to time.

  • There are some very resilient people out there, and on here! Glad to see so many prepared family, friends and neighbors. We all need to go back to living the way our grandparents did, it was a hard way to live but they lived big. Simple life, that is our dream, back to “the good old days”. Although we a(my husband and I) getting up in our years, we do practice skills that we can teach to our grandchildren, our goal is to move closer to them in the near future, we live in central Florida and the population is growing way too fast to make it sustainable to live here anymore. We have outfitted ourselves with non electric appliances and tools. So we’re getting there, never stop learning and hey, never stop teaching.

  • Daisy–great article! Thanks for writing about this.

    My mother-in-law’s Dad was a doctor during the Great Depression. While the family did not want for anything (doc took chickens for treatment and other barter), my mother-in-law carried those lessons forward to my husband. She married a doctor, who learned the same lessons from his mother and father. My parents were born during the depression and their families were poor, but they learned those lessons, too. My husband and I have lived frugally all our lives. My father-in-law told us when we got married, just live beneath your means and save the rest, and we followed his good advice.

    Which brings me to another point. As my husband and I grew a business and prospered, there was a lot of peer pressure to “keep up with the Jones’s”. We were able to fend off that pressure by setting our priorities, which were raising and in some years homeschooling our children, paying off the house, and working together in a business to make it grow. I would be remiss to not mention that we did our best to follow God in how He led us.

    One of the best things you can do is to be confident in your priorities, stand firm in your decisions, and if you’re married, to be united in that effort.

  • Most of the strategies mentioned so far related to cost reduction, but not about how to minimize the governmental theft of the purchasing power stored in the money that you have in your bank or credit union plus what’s in your pocket and maybe a hidey hole in some secret place. The problem is that when the Federal Reserve prints (either physically or digitally) much more money than the assets it’s supposed to represent … that over time forces the prices upward across the economy without an obvious trail back to the criminals who did that excess printing. The first people who get their hands on that freshly counterfeited money get to use it to buy assets on the cheap BEFORE prices get forced upward through the economy. Those “friends of the central bank” are generally the wealthy who are using what’s called the Cantillon effect to steal assets from the economy into their own pockets. Over time those oligarchs get to own more and more of an economy’s assets while the middle and lower classes get financially crushed as the purchasing power in their money gets progressively stolen (as they see prices skyrocketing).

    So what are some strategies to defend against that loss of purchasing power in your pocket and accounts?

    1. Adopt business strategies that let you adjust your selling prices upward to compensate for the loss of money’s purchasing power. Whether that’s by using or developing a trade or business or entrepreneurial ability that lets you do that is a highly individual decision to make. In contrast, working for “the man” or receiving a government pension leaves you with little upward adjustment power. And government created inflation indexes are typically and dishonestly lower than actual inflation as a strategy to 1) deceive the population, and 2) to dishonestly keep inflation-indexed obligations [like Social Security, eg] well below what higher actual inflation would make the government pay.

    2. Conserve some of the purchasing power in your money by acquiring other things that government can’t counterfeit — like skills, tools, physical assets (both sizeable and/or tradeable), real estate, high value art, etc. At the moment even some digital assets such as crypto currencies that are highly portable even across international borders might have a place in such strategies. Another strategy might be to set up an account with an international charge card system that works anywhere in the world that Mastercard does, but is backed by gold in a Swiss vault. The best example is via glintpay.com, a UK-originated service that expanded to include service to the US in 2018. Today they state that there are some 30 million places around the world where their charge card is accepted. They have some excellent FAQs on their website, plus an email support address, an online chat system, and an internationally usable phone number.

    It’s not clear how long cryptos will be useful inside the US. The SEC is looking into “regulating” their use — which likely means crippling any possible competition to the Fed’s coming digital “FedCoin.” In addition, the IRS can be expected to tax crypto transactions at some point. Outside the US might be a different story since annual earnings up to about $110,000 generated from activities outside of the US can now be excluded from a US citizen’s annual IRS tax return. (In comparison, China has blatantly banned all non-China cryptos in their jurisdiction … to give them time to set up and monopolize the operation of their own Chinese national crypto currency.)

    3. While barter has many thousands of years of user history, community barter exchanges with local (and maybe even digital) recordkeeping can bypass the plummeting value currency in any country — at least for the products that can be handled by barter. There are plenty of books that explain how basic barter works, and it is easy to research online what it takes to set up and operate a community barter exchange. Again, that can facilitate transactions that bypass the government counterfeiting theft of purchasing power from a long time ago honest national currency. Remember that the IRS wants to tax all but the tiniest of barter transactions.

    –Lewis

  • My dad and mom, 91 and 87, grew up poor so I learned how to live frugally. I have a good sized garden, a food plot and small tractor to tend things. I am lucky enough to not have to worry about food prices but I am concerned with availability so I am planning to plant all I can and my wife wants chickens. Living in Florida I have a long growing season and have greens, lettuce, and onions growing now.

    • Live in SW Fl and can’t grow anything in the soil due to nematodes, bugs and rabbits – so I grown in Earthboxes, 10 at the moment, inside the lanai. Have lettuce, radishes, nasturiums, mint, swiss chard, pak choi, tat soi, parsley right now. Will be planting more after our freeze this weekend. Also grow 4-6 different sprouts inside year round. Also grow katuk, moringa & cranberry hibiscus as landscape plants – don’t mention to the neighbors that they’re edible and very nutritious. It also gets around the HOA rules & regs. And of course we have the requisite FL citrus & loquats. Grow what & where you can, it pays off in more ways than one.

  • “from the trash”

    if you don’t mind poking around in them, there is an astounding quantity of useful items in the dumpster bins.

    talked to a guy at the dump whose job it was to settle in whatever people came to dump. he’d salvaged a brand new sewing machine that someone had just dropped off. he told me about all the other things he’d picked up along the way.

    a city hired a company to clean out its sewer system. the guys came up with half a million dollars in coins and jewelry.

  • Loads of Good Tips and Suggestions Daisy. Thank You.

    For those of us on fixed incomes, rising costs are always a threat, because our income doesn’t increase. The Consumer Price Index may say 7% inflation, but the CPI is very much a played with formula that doesn’t reflect the true inflation we’re seeing (somewhere between 20 to 40% right now), so the CPI is worthless as a gauge.

    We find ourselves cutting back where we can, but in the end, there’s very little disposable income for prepping purchases.
    I do odd jobs when I can under the table, but those have dropped off as the economy goes down.

    Looks like we’d best get use to it,, because I don’t see this administration doing anything to combat the problems.

  • Inflation is nothing new. For too long, companies didn’t raise prices, the shrunk the package size. Anyone remember a 3 lb can of coffee? So now that prices are forced to go up combined with our country’s bungled response when Covid-19 first hit, here we are. Plenty would be squealing if the Fed upped interest rates like Volker. And low interest rates to benefit those who did not need low rates hasn’t helped either.
    Inflation has been high for a long time – health care, health insurance, college to name but a few. Until it affects a person, they tend to not care. The whining of some over inflation I compare to the frog in the pot of water – it is getting hot (aka now affecting them).

  • This is a great article that comes at a very important time. I love your perspective and I’m very thankful for your optimism and hard work Daisy.

  • Keurig – after deciding the cost of coffee pods was outrageous we bought a set of refillable coffee pods – 4 plus the coffee scoop for filling the pods for ($13.99 current price), and an additional 6 pack ( $9.99 current price )back in 2019. We stock up on coffee whenever on sale – not so often these days – but always have 2-3# on hand. Saves a lot of money, reduces waste and the coffee grounds go to fertilize.

  • Well I think the first guy needs more fiber in his diet.

    Everything said (except the first guy) is spot on.

    I am trying to not have my homestead look like Sanford and Son as much as possible. I try to save as much as possible.

    I am engaging the community to find alternate places to get things.

    Willing to trade out what I know on Solar for people in my area to help them; since no one does off grid where I am at.

    Funny thing is I am becoming my Depression Era Grandfather. He could fix or do anything. Someday I will get to his skill level.

    Still learning everyday.

    I am thankful I had my grandparents and growing up.

    Thankful for the Corps for making my life hard and showing me the you can triumph in adversity no matter how bad it gets.

    Thankful for my faith for providing the “armor” to withstand the fiery darts.

    Thankful for like minded people who are willing to share.

    All said…life has shown me I have a lot to be great full for.

  • Thanks for the reality check and encouragement. I’ve always admonished my kids to “Play the hand you’re dealt.” Sometimes we don’t get to choose what happens to us but we still get to choose how we will respond. We’ve had some tough and unforeseen circumstances happen to us over the years but there is always a way to make the best of whatever happens, survive and, ultimately thrive. No sense at all in wringing your hands and being paralyzed in life over what should have or could have been. This is now. Time to figure out how to deal with it. While I wouldn’t have chosen my circumstances, I’m grateful for the training ground in the school of hard knocks which placed us, ultimately, in a better mindset and the skills to deal with such a time as this.

  • Thank you Daisy. I’m continually impressed with your clear thinking and the generosity with which you provide this vital information to people in need of it.

    One thing I ponder is how best to manage investments and savings in times of inflation. I’ve come to the conclusion that if you can invest in durable goods, tools, and equipment that will expand the things you can provide for yourself or allow you to produce something of value to barter it’s worth more than money shrinking in the bank.

  • Daisy, thank you for your rational reminder. Your suggestions are spot on and I really appreciate your seeking to help us all get thru this time.

  • your opinion please Daisy – is it cheaper to shop 3 different stores each week to find the lowest price on something you use constant? dont you use more gas that way? you could sit on computer all day to find cheapest price, but thats not good either….your suggestion? right now I stock up on sale at whichever store – but weekly shop (if needed) from one particular. I wont buy that item until its on sale….

    • I use Instacart for this purpose. Mind you, I don’t order the stuff through there, I just comparison shop by setting up carts at different stores. I open up three different windows in Incognito mode and fill three shopping carts with the things on my list. The least expensive store for the week wins. If someone is having an exceptional deal on something I might visit more than one store but I check the price difference in my Instacart carts to see if it’s worthwhile to make the trip.

  • Daisy first posted this article 25JAN2022.
    So, how is everyone fairing?
    As one pointed out, there has always been inflation. The generally accepted, normal, y-o-y rate is about 3%.
    9%?
    Not so much. And that is putting a real hurt on many Americans. Using the old way of measuring inflation, before the all new and improved math, it is more like 16%.
    The Biden admin made the claim of 0% interest for last month. By way of using funny math, that could technically be accurate. Gas went down by 0.9%. Food, rent, went up by 0.9%. Regardless, we are all still paying way more than typical inflation. Gas prices have come down some, but still way above 2020.

    Speaking of 2020, numerous economists, MSM pundits were all quoting the definition of a recession as two consecutive quarters of negative growth.
    Fast forward to 2022, and we got two consecutive quarters of negative growth. But now those very same economists and MSM pundits are trying to spin it or disclaim their previous stance.
    Reading other economic news, housing market says they are in a recession already. More than a few big tech companies are announcing layoffs. Job participation rate went down (i.e. few people working), jobless claims (unemployment) up, and that 500,000 new jobs claim? Turns out to be people having to work two jobs to make ends meet due to . . . wait for it . . . inflation.
    Several food banks have reported record numbers, and 10% are first time/new users of food banks. One article noted the guy car pooled with a neighbor to save on gas. And due to inflation, food banks purchasing power is not going as far as it has in the past.

    Unfortunately, I think it is going to get worse. Drought like conditions are affecting most of the West and parts of the Mid-West. Crops are expected at lower yields this year, and some are saying next year might not be better. Drought along with the cost of fertilizer, fuel will mean higher food prices. That is having an impact on the bottom 90%.
    That would be you and me.

  • You Need More Than Food to Survive
    50-nonfood-stockpile-necessities

    In the event of a long-term disaster, there are non-food essentials that can be vital to your survival and well-being. Make certain you have these 50 non-food stockpile essentials. Sign up for your FREE report and get prepared.

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