How to Survive in Times of High Inflation in 2022?
***Disclaimer – I’m not a financial advisor, just a normal guy with financial success. The information shared here is purely for educational purposes only***
2022 Might as well be known as the year of high inflations (upwards of 8% and highest in 40 years). World events and COVID-19 has also contributed to the ugly reality that inflation has ran rampant throughout the world. It’s something that has directly impacted everyone at all socioeconomic levels (though it hits the lower income households much harder), nevertheless it directly impacts everyone. So how can you hedge against this beast known has inflation?
Take Time to Re-Evaluate Your Spending
There is no better time than this to re-evaluate how you are spending your money. Inflation has not just hit the entertainment and higher ticket industries, it has also hit the basic necessities that every human being needs. From mortgage, to rent, to food, transportation, energy, you name, inflation has its footprint all over it.
Many households have reportedly paying hundred dollars more per month on groceries (depends on the size of your household also), so that alone can seriously eat into your income. If money is tight, you’ll want to consider foregoing luxury grocery items in favor of making sure everyone in your family is fed well. Some of the lower income households reportedly have to choose between paying for rent, food, or utilities. Hopefully you are not in that boat.
Avoid Additional Debts If Possible
When inflations are high, interests are typically high too because the federal reserve’s main job (the central bank of US) is to control monetary policy and guide the economic health of the country, so having high inflation is not healthy for the economy and thus forces the federal reserve to raise interest rates to combat high inflation. So with high interest rates, borrowing any kind of capital becomes more expensive.
If you are already struggling with paying bills and have no way of finding additional incomes, your best bet is to cut spending and try your hardest to not have to finance your daily expenses with expensive interest related product such as credit card cash advance or credit card debts.
Look into Deals
Do you usually look for discounts when purchasing things or when you go shopping? If you don’t, times of high inflations would be a good time to start doing that. Whenever you come across good deals for household goods and necessities, it might be a good idea to buy them in bulk while they are discounted, especially if they are non-perishable goods. Human beings tend to spend more money when you make multiple trips to the store, if you can cut down shopping trips and buy things in bundles, you just might save a bunch with discount and having to buy few unnecessary items.
If you are not a couponer, consider start looking for coupons alongside deals. Often times you can combine the two and you can find savings up to 90+% or even free stuff after coupons and rebates. There are many useful app that offers savings and rebates. One our favorite is Ibotta, we get so many useful free stuff after rebates and they also offer different bonuses each month.
We also use Rakuten (formerly Ebates), Fetch Rewards, and TopCashback. Combining all the different apps and coupons, we usually saved hundreds of dollars in useful household and basic necessity items.
Maximize Offers
Most grocery stores and many stores and restaurants all offer loyalty and rewards programs. If you haven’t been paying attention to them, now might be the time to start doing that. Oftentimes, the grocery stores will mark up their goods and give you a discount for being their loyalty rewards member, expecting you to use that discount. So if you don’t use the discount, you are leaving money on the table.
Restaurants and retail stores often have their own rewards program and many will offer freebies for your birthday for example. When you sign up for their rewards program, they will also send you promotional emails so you can save some money using their promotions.
If you are a responsible credit card user (the keyword here is responsible), you can take advantage of the reward points that credit card offers. One of our favorite credit card to use is the award-winning Chase Freedom Unlimited card, it offers 1.5% back on everything and sometimes will give you 5% on certain category of goods and services for a quarter on the year.
We usually coupled the rewards from that one with another one of our Chase favorite cards, the Chase Sapphire Reserve card that offers 50% more points on food, grocery, and travel-related redemption. I highly recommend both cards not just for normal use, the Reserve card is also the best travel card in my opinion. Chase Sapphire Preferred card is another awesome travel card that can currently net you $750 worth of sign-up bonus.
Make Some Money With Sign Up Bonus
The three cards that I mentioned above all have sign-up bonuses, and of course this is by no means an exhaustive list, but those are pretty awesome bonuses nevertheless. Chase Freedom Unlimited offers $200 bonus after you hit their spending limit. Chase Sapphire Reserve Gives you 60,000 points or worth $900 when redeeming for groceries, food, and travel when you meet their requirements. . Chase Sapphire Preferred Gives you 60,000 points or worth $750 when redeeming through the Chase website.
Many banks also offer sign-up bonuses. For example, we use Chime bank and they are fantastic if you prefer to use the online app instead of going to a physical bank all the time. They offer a $100 sign-up bonus, so it’s pretty easy money, especially if you are looking for a bank anyways.
There are many banks that offer bonuses for signing up for their checking or savings or both, because they want your money and for you to bank with them. I have signed up for many of them and usually there are no fees even with zero balance in the account. Just make sure you read the account requirements on how to occur monthly fees.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are definitely some things you can do in times of high inflation. Control your expenses, cut out luxury things or excessive unnecessary things, and make a little bit extra money on the side to cover expenses. If you do some or all of the aforementioned things, you will do well in stormy times like these.
***Please feel free to reach out to us at contactus@savingformore.com if you want some free advice on your finance***
This page contains affiliate links. We participate in the Amazon affiliate program. We may earn a commission when you click the links posted & make a qualifying purchase (at no extra cost to you)
You can also Follow Us On Facebook, and Twitter for the latest updates, giveaways and more!
***Disclaimer – I’m not a…