MANAGING THE RISING COST OF LIVING

COSTS ARE RISING, BUT NOT LIKELY OUR INCOME

When I filled up my gas tank yesterday I was handed the receipt and saw that the total came to $79! I do have to admit that I was on empty (with the warning light on). But still, $79 is a lot of money for gas which will only last me one week. I was kind of stunned by that dollar amount. The cost of groceries is up. The cost of heating and cooling your house is up. Purchasing items such as paper towels and toilet paper even cost more now.

It seems like pretty much everything we need to spend money on has increased. And some things continue to increase. I think it’s safe to say that most of us have not received pay increases that cover these rising costs. So, today I wanted to talk about some things we can do to help manage these expenses that we likely did not plan for.

UPDATE YOUR BUDGET

The first thing you should consider is if your budget needs to be updated. You are probably spending much more now than you had expected to spend on things such as gas or groceries. If you don’t update your budget to reflect the new costs you will continuously come in over budget in these areas.

It might not feel good to put down on paper that these are costs are now the reality of your budget. However, if you don’t make the changes you will continuously come in over budget. This not only makes your budget inaccurate and probably not achievable, but it’s also very discouraging to continue coming in over budget each week. If you know that your costs have gone up, it’s best to update your budget and see where you are at. If your budget cannot absorb the increases, this will give you the opportunity to determine if something else needs to change.

DETERMINE IF THERE IS ANYTHING YOU CAN DO TO SAVE ON GAS

As I mentioned, the increase in gas cost really shocked me when I saw the actual dollars on the receipt. I’m sure this is the case for many of you also. Try to think of ways you might be able to cut back on gas expenses. I have heard a lot of talk recently about an app called Gas Buddy that will help you locate the cheapest gas price in your area. It’s not necessarily a good idea to travel extra to save on gas, depending on how much further the cheaper gas is. But, if two places are relatively close, it could definitely be worth looking into.

See if any warehouse clubs offer a discount on gas. I know Costco and BJs often have the lowest prices in my area. In addition, I have a BJs card that gives an extra 10 cents off per gallon.  It’s not much, but it’s something. Try to consolidate trips as much as you can. Think through your week so that you are not running out to the same area if you don’t need to. I’ve been trying to consolidate dropping my daughter off at work with my food shopping tips when I can because they are in the same shopping center.

MODIFY YOUR GROCERY SPENDING

I realize that for some of you that might be on special diets, it can be very difficult to modify how much you spend on groceries. But, often if we get a little bit creative, we can find ways to cut back.

One way to save on these items is to plan your meals around what is on sale. I plan my meals in advance of knowing what is on sale.  However, if I see something is on sale when I go grocery shopping, I can often make a quick switch that doesn’t impact my meal too much. This is something I have mentioned before. An example might be if I was planning on doing a steak, but I see that bone-in pork chops are a great deal I can easily make that switch. Most likely whatever sides I had planned to go with steak, would also go with pork chops.

It’s also a good idea to be aware in general of what some of your higher-priced grocery items are and decide if you really want to spend that much on those items. If you are purchasing extra things to have on hand, such as frozen food snacks or chips, etc.  You can try to choose those types of items based on what is on sale that week.

BE EVEN MORE MINDFUL OF IMPULSE PURCHASES

We know that impulse purchases can wreck our budgets. With the costs of our essential purchases continually rising right now, it’s even more important to be mindful of impulse purchases. It is so easy to have a thought about something you need and with a few clicks on your phone it will be here probably the next day. Unless it is something essential that you are purchasing, be extra careful to give yourself time to consider the purchase before actually making it. Often we think we need something, but if we wait on it, there is really not much of an impact on our daily life. So, if you find yourself where you are needing to cut back on expenses, practice extra mindfulness in your purchasing habits.

CONSIDER A TEMPORARY REDUCTION IN SAVINGS OR EXTRA DEBT PAYMENTS

If you are currently working on savings goals or a debt payoff plan consider if this should be reduced. Depending on how tight your budget is you might need to at least consider this. If you were putting every extra penny towards one of these goals, you might really have a little bit less to put towards those goals. You don’t want to make extra payments to debt only to have to go into debt again to cover your expenses.

Costs will most likely level out and with increased income in the future, you will most likely be able to get back to where you were at with working on these goals. But, it is not worth setting yourself up for failure trying to stick with a goal that you can no longer afford in your budget. I’m not saying to abandon the goals.  But, after reviewing your budget, if there is nowhere else to cut, it might be necessary to cut back on savings or debt paydown for a short time.

TRY NOT TO STRESS TOO MUCH

I realize that for most of us, we probably were already doing most of the things that could be done to cut back on expenses. It makes it difficult to cut back further when you feel like you had already cut back so much. We only can do what we can do with what we have. Stressing too much over something like rising costs that we have no control over unfortunately doesn’t really help the situation.

All I can do is encourage you to do the best you can with what you have. Remember that it’s not just you, there are many of us trying to figure out how to adjust so that we can cover these rising costs. Often if we keep playing with the numbers we can find some way to save a little bit more here or there. And even if we can’t we can still enjoy our life and all that we already have.

Thanks so much for checking in! If you would like to hear the podcast version of this topic to check out Lola’s Frugal Life Podcast! Also, be sure to check out my other blog posts on this site!

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