Inflation Woes - Where Americans Say Their Expenses Have Gone Up

Summary

This podcast episode hosted by Ralph Estep, Jr. covers rising inflation in the US and provides practical tips for Americans to save money on expenses like housing, food, energy, transportation, insurance and subscriptions. Key data shows housing, grocery, dining, energy and fuel costs have significantly increased. The main advice includes budgeting, meal planning, seeking rental assistance, using public transport, bundling insurance, canceling unused subscriptions. Additional services from Saggio Accounting Plus are promoted such as financial counseling and the book 'Mastering Your Finances'.

Chapters

Introducing Inflation Podcast and Host

The host Ralph Estep, Jr. introduces an episode of his financial advice podcast 'Ask Ralph' focused on discussing inflation concerns and providing money-saving tips for Americans.

Overview of Inflation Impacting Americans

Prices have risen across housing, grocery, dining out, energy and other key expense areas for Americans. Data shows costs continue increasing with tangible impacts on household budgets.

Saving Money on Housing and Rent

Tips to reduce housing costs include downsizing, getting a roommate, negotiating lower rent, and seeking rental assistance programs.

Saving Money on Food and Dining

Tips for lower grocery and dining bills include meal planning, buying generic brands, using coupons/loyalty programs, and cooking at home more often.

Saving on Energy, Fuel and Other Expenses

Advice for reducing energy, fuel and other costs includes using efficient appliances, adjusting thermostat, maintaining vehicles properly, bundling insurance policies.

Professional Services for Personalized Finance Advice

Saggio Accounting Plus offers financial counseling sessions and Ralph's book 'Mastering Your Finances' for tailored advice on budgeting and money management.

Action Items

1. No explicit action item identified.

Welcome to the Ask Ralph podcast. We're listening to an experienced financial professional can help you make sense of confusing questions current headlines and industry trends about taxes, small business, financial decision making, investment strategies, and even the art of proper budgeting.

As Ralph makes the complex simple by sharing his real-world knowledge with all things financial. Now here's your host, Ralph Estep, Jr. Welcome back to another episode of the Ask Ralph show. I'm your host Ralph Estep, Jr.

And today we're going to tackle a topic that affects us all and that is inflation. This episode is brought to you by Saggio Accounting Group, your trusted partner in financial management. So join us today as we jump into this discussion of inflation.

And like I said, if you haven't seen it so far, check out our new podcast homepage. That's at www.askralph.podcast.com. You can leave us a review. You can share it with friends or you can click on the little microphone icon and actually send us a voicemail and tell us about topics you might want to discuss.

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Listen, if you're like me, you go to the grocery store, you go to buy anything, you see that prices continue to go up. You know, you can listen to the news all you want, but the truth of the matter is prices continue to rise.

So let's talk about some areas where Americans say their expenses have gone up. And let's also, rather than just talk about where they're going up, let's talk about some practical ways to save money during times of increasing prices.

Well, the biggest one, and I hear this all the time from my clients, is rent. You know, truth is housing costs, including rent, have been on the rise in many parts of the country. That's just something that we've all had to face.

I mean, it's just gone up. Well, so what are some things you can do? Well, number one, you can consider downsizing or finding more affordable housing options. You might explore getting a roommate or finding a place with shared living spaces.

And finally, another idea, and a lot of people don't think about this, is negotiate with your landlords for lower rent or seek out rental assistance programs if available. So these are all ideas to try to help you cut back on your housing costs.

Well, the second one that we've got to talk about with inflation is food prices. And you know, it's funny, my wife and I have these discussions sometimes, and we get done at the grocery store, and I say, wow.

I remember when what we would spend would fill up our cart. Now with what we're spending in that same amount, it only puts about a quarter of the stuff in our cart. The cost of groceries and dining out has also increased significantly.

So what are some ideas for saving money on food expenses? And I think this is a great one. I talk about this, I want to say it was a couple of weeks ago on a podcast about how to save money. And it's number one is plan meals in advance and create a shopping list to avoid impulse purchases.

Listen, we've all been in the grocery store and we're like, oh, you know what? I hadn't thought about buying that. Let me put this in the cart. Let me put that in the cart. And by the time you get to the end of your shopping trip, you've added 20 items that you weren't even on your list because you didn't plan.

And if you don't plan, you plan to fail. Look for sales and discounts at grocery stores. Consider buying generic brands instead of name brands. Utilize coupons and loyalty programs offered by your supermarkets and cook meals at home more often than eating out.

Now listen, all of us enjoy eating out. But in these times of economic, you know, inflation, you know, one of the things we may have to look at cutting back on is eating out and, you know, do a better job of planning your meals for the week so that when you, when you're making your grocery list, you can really focus in on what you actually need.

Another thing that's gone up dramatically are other necessities like energy costs. Rising energy costs can impact your monthly budget. To save on these energy expenses, here's some ideas. Use energy efficient appliances and light bulbs, you know, like these LED light bulbs basically use almost no electricity. It’s not like you can buy incandescent bulbs anywhere anymore, but we made a point of going around and changing out these to LED lights so that we can save some money there.

You know, the thing you can consider is adjusting your thermosat to conserve energy when it's not needed. Unplug electronic devices when not in use. Now here's another area that we maybe a lot of people haven't thought about, but transportation expenses.

True, this fuel prices and transportation costs can take a toll on your budget as well. To save money on transportation, think about carpooling or using public transportation whenever possible. And again, that comes down to where you live.

You know, if you live in the suburbs where there's not a strong, public transportation system, then you might want to consider carpooling or do some ride sharing. You can consider biking or walking for short distances.

And here's a big deal one. And that is regularly maintain your vehicle to improve fuel efficiency. It might not seem like a lot, but this is a great time to make sure, you're doing your schedule maintenance on your vehicle.

Here are some other areas. In addition to above, it's important to be mindful of other areas when expenses may increase. Here's a great one. I'm going to talk about this in a week or two about insurance.

Insurance premiums. You need to shop around for competitive rates and consider bundling policies. And I'm going to to do a whole podcast on what makes up a traditional insurance policy. Entertainment leisure activities look for free or low-cost alternatives such as community events, parks or libraries.

And here's another big one. Subscription services. You really need to pull out your credit card or bank statement and evaluate which subscriptions are essential and consider canceling those you no longer use.

Saving money during times of increasing prices requires a proactive approach and conscious decision-making. It's important to regularly review your budget. I talk about this in my book. It's important to have a budget.

It's important to have a plan. Identify areas where you can cut back and explore cost -saving strategies specific to your circumstances. If you need personalized advice on managing your finances during inflationary periods, I highly recommend consulting with professionals like Saggio Management Group who can provide a tailored solution based on your financial goals.

One of the services that we added about six months ago was what I call financial counseling, where we sit down with somebody and put together a plan of how to improve your financial situation. I would highly recommend the book I wrote, but also it may make sense to sit down with somebody and kind of go over what's going on in your financial world.

Well, that wraps up today's episode of Ask Ralph. I hope this discussion said some light on where Americans say they're expensive and gone up due to inflation and provided you with some practical ways to save money in these areas.

As always, if you have any questions or topics you'd like me to cover in future episodes, please feel free to reach out. Like I said, go to our podcast website, www.askralph.podcast.com. You can click review.

You can click share to send it with others. And if you go down to the bottom corner, you can actually click on the microphone and shoot me a voicemail message. I'd love to hear from you. You know, if there's a topic you'd like us to discover or talk about in a future podcast, let us know that.

So, until next time, stay financially savvy. Thank you for joining us on the Ask Ralph podcast. And with a simple click to subscribe, we'll invite you back to our next episode. And remember, financial issues don't have to be complicated.

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