I don't experience much inflation. In fact, I don't see any in my budget. I know everyone says prices are getting higher, but we've actually tracked our expenses the last 2-3 years, noting down every little expense in a spreadsheet, and I don't see any signs that prices are rising.
Our supermarket expenses are the same as before, even slightly smaller. Our rent is the same although our landlord legally could have raised it if he wanted to.
All in all, we spend less money than before because:
- we don't commute,
- we barely eat out,
- we buy less clothes when staying home,
- we travel a little less.
The last big purchase we made was a flat screen TV. It costed less than the 10 year old TV it replaced but is so much better.
Electricity and heat have gone up. That's all I see in our budget that has gotten more expensive.
There are purchases we haven't made because they are stupid expensive at the moment: We don't buy shares, we are postponing buying a house, and we have been postponing changing our car. I would have liked to buy a new laptop, but the specs of the new ones look like the 4 year old I have, so it feels wrong.
Could it be that we just have higher prices on some items and assets and that the CPI and mainstream economists are generally correct?
I cannot imagine what you buy that your groceries have not increased in price in the last eighteen months. We too track every expense, and the grocery costs have increased 20-30%.
For what it's worth, his experience mirrors mine. I don't itemize down to extreme detail, but my wife and I actually do more cooking at home now in the last 1.5 years than we did previously yet our average grocery bill is actually down about $12 a week this year. Honestly, it's kind of shocking.
And before you ask: No, it's not because we switched from buying prepackaged/processed food to raw ingredients. We just order-out less.
Some of it might have to do with the fact that I live in Chicago, a major logistics hub, in a middle class neighborhood that has price-sensitive consumers and multiple major grocery stores.
It's plausible, but not on a medium to large scale. Of all my consumption expenses, certainly coffee has gone up per cup, but everything else is roughly the same.
Oats, deli meat, fruit, pasta, that's about it. Canned beans have gone up a little, maybe butter too.
Last month was the lowest spending month our household has had in nearly five years, for what it’s worth. And that’s with some home renovation (DIY) and a new hobby.
The biggest factor for us is changing what we buy, not prices. Buying less alcohol and fewer pre-packaged foods has made a huge difference in our grocery bill.
Is it possible that on the high end of expensive groceries it hasn’t gone up as much? For instance a 12oz bag of my favorite coffee beans were $20/bag in 2019, they’re still $20/bag…
You spending less money on stuff has nothing to do with inflation, though. And your point becomes kinda moot when you intentionally skimp out on things you feel have become too expensive..?
“We’ve intentionally avoided purchasing things because they’ve gotten too expensive” sounds like the perfect way to prove exactly the opposite of your point.
It's not really reasonable to extrapolate from one of the richest, most expensive places in the world. Manhattan has a unique set of circumstances that drive prices there that often do not apply anywhere outside of the NYC metro area.
The article is addressing a problem in industries you're admittedly not using much of, so you're probably not feeling what they're talking about.
But you do mention travel and eating out. I think you would find if you tried to do the same amount of travel and eating out that you used to do, you would notice that you're getting less for your money than you used to in lots of little ways.
Counterpoint, we travelled this year and got two flights for the price of one. The refunded flight from early COVID days literally paid for both. Even after somewhat expensive COVID testing costs, still a significant saving.
Sure, now that travel restrictions are causing less uncertainty and demand is ramping up, this might not be repeatable. Perhaps hotels are skimping, not sure as we stayed with family. Either way, there's always some subjectivity in use cases and that can easily tilt the scale one way or the other.
Going to telework can save loads of money but this is irrelevant to the parent point. Not everyone can do this either. You can’t telework manufacturing or service jobs.
Our supermarket expenses are the same as before, even slightly smaller. Our rent is the same although our landlord legally could have raised it if he wanted to.
All in all, we spend less money than before because:
- we don't commute, - we barely eat out, - we buy less clothes when staying home, - we travel a little less.
The last big purchase we made was a flat screen TV. It costed less than the 10 year old TV it replaced but is so much better.
Electricity and heat have gone up. That's all I see in our budget that has gotten more expensive.
There are purchases we haven't made because they are stupid expensive at the moment: We don't buy shares, we are postponing buying a house, and we have been postponing changing our car. I would have liked to buy a new laptop, but the specs of the new ones look like the 4 year old I have, so it feels wrong.
Could it be that we just have higher prices on some items and assets and that the CPI and mainstream economists are generally correct?