How is inflation affecting you?

[Exterous]

Just curious how its affecting people here. Grocery store food has always been pretty cheap in SE MI so that still isn't a notable part of our budget even with some increases. We own a home, don't need to buy a car, don't eat out that much and were already cutting down on our meat eating. I drive a hybrid and work from home now so I fill up like once every other month. So it really hasn't been much of an impact for us. But for anyone who needs to buy a car, wants to buy a house or eats out all the time its a lot more painful

 

[K1052]

Grocery prices up a bit but that's about all I really notice. Have one EV and a plug in hybrid so gas prices, which a lot of focus seems to be on, are a non-issue. It was already pricy to go out to eat here in Austin and its just gotten slightly pricier so *shrug* on that.

 

[biostud]

The video cards are expensive. 😎

 

[dank69]

I'm laughing 7% more at the poors.

 

[herm0016]

my pole building project is about half the size I wanted it to be. we are eating simpler, less spent on going out and more other projects being delayed/put off like ground mount solar.

edit.. and propane for heat, i cut and split a couple cord of free fire wood and we are using the wood stove a lot to save propane at 2.xx per gallon.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Paid an absolute fuckton for an addition on our place over the last year, a lot of that was pandemic though (not that it matters). Cooking a lot more, going out a lot less. Pay raise this year was pathetic in retrospect, as with most I'm making less now than last year.

 

[nakedfrog]

Also mostly grocery prices here, particularly ground beef, which I don't buy that often anyway.
I did notice fuel prices going up a bit, but I've only been filling up once every 4-6 weeks anyway since I haven't been travelling much and get 400-450 miles per tank.

Edit: I have occasionally checked in on prices with the homebuilders I was looking at when I first moved out here. The floor plan I favored most, a 2,080 sq ft 4 bed/2.5 bath was $213k in Sept/Oct of 2020, it's currently $347k. Another builder had a 2,686 sq ft at $198k in August of 2020, now $309k.

 

[nakedfrog]

The video cards are expensive. 😎

Well, there's that too, but that's not really tied to just plain old inflation 🙁

 

[dullard]

I'm laughing 7% more at the poors.

Depends on their situation. If they, like many, got a good wage increase over the last year, then it roughly matches the inflation price increase. You would think that would balance out. But, if they also have debt, then that debt is much easier to pay off the more inflation we get (assuming wages increase to match).

Extreme Hypothetical Example:

• Suppose you were making $20k/year. Suppose you barely made ends meet by spending $20k/year. Suppose you had $10k in credit card debt. That would be 6 months salary. It is almost impossible to get out of that kind of debt.
• Now suppose we get hyperinflation, prices and wages both go up 10x. Now you are making $200k/year, your expenses are $200k/year and you barely make ends meet. But your debt doesn't go up with inflation. It is still just $10k. That is now just a bit more than a paycheck.

Inflation helps those in debt (assuming wages go up with inflation).

On the other hand, if you didn't get a wage increase and you rent in an area with strongly increasing rents, then you are screwed.

 

[dullard]

For me, inflation hasn't really impacted me. I too own my house, so my biggest bill never goes up in price. Food was never any significant percent of my budget, so even if it doubled in price I wouldn't notice.

I guess the only real thing was when my wife's engine was eating oil. Instead of replacing the vehicle with a nearly non-existent expensive one, we had the lower engine block replaced.

 

[BurnItDwn]

My Natural Gas bill is up over 100%, I can pay it, but, many folks may have trouble paying all their bills on time since lots of people are underpaid.
Groceries are up quite a bit, but, again, I can pay it, but many folks are underpaid and do not earn enough to be able to afford it.
I have a mortgage on my house, so I am not personally impacted by rent increases. However, many folks are underpaid and do not earn enough to afford rent increases.

 

[nakedfrog]

My Natural Gas bill is up over 100%, I can pay it, but, many folks may have trouble paying all their bills on time since lots of people are underpaid.
Groceries are up quite a bit, but, again, I can pay it, but many folks are underpaid and do not earn enough to be able to afford it.
I have a mortgage on my house, so I am not personally impacted by rent increases. However, many folks are underpaid and do not earn enough to afford rent increases.

Is that inflation, or just because it's winter? My natural gas cost per therm has only gone up a little, 0.429560 in June versus 0.489580 on my latest bill.

 

[shortylickens]

groceries and gasoline. And I dont like it.
Never bought a full size pickup before. I really want one. Today while getting some work done I drove a brand new shiny Pro4X and I loved it.
The way things are going, I'll end up with a Leaf.

 

[pete6032]

How is inflation affecting you?

About 7%.

 

[pete6032]

Is that inflation, or just because it's winter? My natural gas cost per therm has only gone up a little, 0.429560 in June versus 0.489580 on my latest bill.

The pandemic led to a lot of oil and gas production being taken offline. There is now a big shortage of natural gas causing big price increases. Hopefully by next year production will match demand again.

 

[repoman0]

I wouldn’t have noticed if it wasn’t plastering the front page of every news website.

 

[nakedfrog]

The pandemic led to a lot of oil and gas production being taken offline. There is now a big shortage of natural gas causing big price increases. Hopefully by next year production will match demand again.

Interesting, had to poke around a bit to find a chart. Seems our prices are pretty low out here comparatively speaking, but I'm not really seeing anything on the price of natural gas itself having gone up anywhere near that much, hence why I was asking.

 

[pete6032]

Interesting, had to poke around a bit to find a chart. Seems our prices are pretty low out here comparatively speaking, but I'm not really seeing anything on the price of natural gas itself having gone up anywhere near that much, hence why I was asking.

Here in Chicago its about double to triple the rates from last year. People are getting monthly gas bills around $200-$300 and freaking out. Fortunately my place is small and well insulated so we don't use much.

Spiking natural gas prices may add hundreds of dollars to winter heating bills in Chicago

Get ready to bundle up or pay up to stay warm this winter in Chicago. Driven by supply chain disruptions and increased demand, the price of natural gas is projected to nearly triple this winter, hi…

www.chicagotribune.com

 

[pmv]

Gas (that is, actual gas, for heating the house, not "gasoline") price has doubled (because all the lower-priced suppliers went bust), and is expected to go still higher. Consequently cannot have the heating on at all (but still have to pay the equally-inflated "standing charge").

Nothing else is really having an impact yet.

Absolutely ludricrous that VAT is applied to home heating as if it's a luxury.

 

[nakedfrog]

Here in Chicago its about double to triple the rates from last year. People are getting monthly gas bills around $200-$300 and freaking out. Fortunately my place is small and well insulated so we don't use much.

Spiking natural gas prices may add hundreds of dollars to winter heating bills in Chicago

Get ready to bundle up or pay up to stay warm this winter in Chicago. Driven by supply chain disruptions and increased demand, the price of natural gas is projected to nearly triple this winter, hi…

www.chicagotribune.com

Wow, that's rough. I wasn't on gas last year, so no easy comparison.

That's how much my gas bill was normally during winter in Nebraska though 😕

 

[jpiniero]

The pandemic led to a lot of oil and gas production being taken offline. There is now a big shortage of natural gas causing big price increases. Hopefully by next year production will match demand again.

Hmm.. and here I was thinking that it was more about the USD taking a dump compared to commodities since it's all traded in USD. If the Fed raised rates that would help but don't hold your breath (and your 401k would then take a dump). O&G companies going bust because of the shutdowns certainly isn't helping.

Course you also have the upcoming Russia invasion of Ukraine...

 

[Spacehead]

.. and propane for heat, i cut and split a couple cord of free fire wood and we are using the wood stove a lot to save propane at 2.xx per gallon.

4.xx per gallon here.... they just delivered a couple days ago & got the receipt today 🙁

groceries and gasoline.

Yep.
Luckily for me everything is paid off except my car & i generally live cheaply. Not doing any major construction any time soon either.

 

[Red Squirrel]

The main way it's affecting me is I have way less disposable income than I had when I originally started living on my own so I continue to have less as years go on. I feel like I work just so I can afford to live, and have little to no room for anything else. Anything I do buy is basically going on the credit line and I pay it off very slowly with whatever is left over from a pay cheque after all the bills come out.

I realize this is not sustainable long term and I don't really want to have to get a 2nd job or switch careers so I do plan to eventually live off grid so I can eliminate most of my bills. Otherwise switching careers IS an option. There's a big demand for diamond drillers and they pay close to 100k I think. But I rather get out of the rat race entirely and live off grid. So that is my plan and I already bought the land. Will be quite a few years before everything is 100% ready though. The property is an hour away so it's only really viable to go when I have a bunch of days off in a row. Winter is also harder until I can get better equipped with a tractor etc to plow the road there. But once I live there and sell the house I will have enough money to buy an EV and maybe a tractor and other equipment that I'll need. Maybe EV truck with plow will work too.

 

[biostud]

Only about 4.3% here in Denmark, so I can see that things are more expensive, but not something that affects my everyday life. Last year I changed our last traditional lamps for Led, reducing our electricity usage by 30% in the dark months, but still the electricity bill was 20% higher than last year. I know it is not directly related to the inflation, but rather the high energy prices are part of the reason for the high inflation. Luckily our distributed heating uses straw as its primary energy source and not gas, so our heating bill has remained the same.

 

[drnickriviera]

An interesting take on the 7% number