Who else review their budget every week or every other week like I do? Also, who else is feeling the inflation on everyday items? I know the gas price is going up to a new high, and I’ve heard about that in many places (WA, HI, and CA especially), we are already looking at $5+ per gallon, with CA (San Diego) over $6 as of few days ago. I’m lucky in a sense that I work from home, so my gas consumption isn’t as much as those who commute to work, but I can only imagine the struggle especially if your work has required you to go in after all the mandates seem to have dropped when spring comes around.
With that said, we still feel the pinch, especially when it’s only March 20, and I’ve gotten close to deplete my grocery budget for the month already (currently at $600). I still think I can stretch what we have in the fridge to the end of the month, especially also because Mr. Xennial works at a pizzeria, and we can get some leftover pizza fairly easily. I’m not the biggest fan of pizza… Wait, let me try again before you all hate on me for not loving pizza: I love pizza too; but I’m Asian, so I can’t eat pizza for EVERY MEAL like Mr. Xennial does. He doesn’t eat pizza every meal either; but comparing to how much pizza I can eat, he definitely eats significantly more.
There are other things I’d implement too…
- Eating less meat: As I mentioned before about eating less meat, I think this is definitely more crucial than ever to eat even less. While I always joked about being “part-time vegetarian,” I still think there’s a need to do so not just for the sake of the environment, but also for the sake of controlling my auto-immune condition. Plus, generally speaking, plant-based diet costs less than meat in general (if we don’t count the plant-based “meat” options because those can be quite pricey). So far, I’m adding more plant-based protein options (while not completely quitting meat as a whole), and it’s not really as bad as you think.
- Be “choosy” with meat: I know beef usually costs more, and I do love my steaks; but right now, the cost difference is pretty ridiculous. So if I find any deal, I’d grab some; but if not, other options are just fine (or plant-based would be okay, too). I’m cooking more chicken (mostly thigh meat; not only because it is usually cheaper, but also because I feel it’s more delicious). Also, I think this is definitely the time to take Costco up for their offer on the rotisserie chicken. I mean, $4.99 for a whole chicken that is already cooked for you? Heck yeah! Usually one whole chicken would last us quite a few days, and I mix a little of chicken meat with beans just to cut down on the consumption sometimes, too.
- Go grocery shopping at your friendly neighborhood supermarkets that have killer deals: for our area, Grocery Outlet has been kicking ass (I heard in other areas, Aldi and WinCo are also pretty solid options, too). We can almost always count on Grocery Outlet for good deals on most everyday grocery items (with the exception of fruit… I don’t always have a good luck with that), and they do have some plant-based options as well.
- Cutting down on online grocery shopping, too: so, recently I was gotten slightly addicted with Weee!, an Asian grocery shopping app that delivers grocery and goodies to my door. While it is great to do so, I want to cut down to 1x a month, and rely on Grocery Outlet and occasional Safeway for our grocery. In the beginning, I feel like the price for grocery items on Weee were comparable to most supermarkets; but as the gas price goes up, I feel like they are not as budget friendly somehow; hence the decision. (Plus, there are way to many things that fall into the “want” category instead of “need”…)
- Be more diligent with app/deal checking: By this, I mean to check on Safeway apps and iBotta more often before grocery shopping. Safeway, while you could scan deals in-store, sometimes the delay in placing those coupon or deals on your account could mean no deals after all. Plus the wifi connection in most Safeway sucks (or is it just me?); so if I know I’m going to Safeway, I’d prefer checking that at home or while I’m in the car waiting for it to warm up. I also have iBotta, a cash back app that can be quite handy, so if there are cash back opportunities on there, of course I’ll take that, too. Quick note on iBotta though: I try to check that after the purchase to avoid falling in the trap of getting unnecessary items.
- Upping my game with credit cards: for a long time, I use one card (Chase Amazon Prime Reward Card), which also allows me to track everything in one place; however, I feel like since I’ve been doing well and paying my bills off every month, I should really “hack” it. By that, I mean starting to use our Citi Costco card again for getting gas (if we’re paying more, why don’t we get 4% back?) and Costco shopping, and use Chase credit card only for Amazon purchases. I’ve also researched and found the American Express Blue Cash Preferred card, which has a 6% cash back on grocery and streaming services, so I want to give it a shot, too. We’ll see how this goes since this also means that I’ll need to track each and everyone of them every month, but we shall see if this is all worth it.
- Reviewing subscriptions: I’m sure many of you heard that Amazon Prime membership is going up, and this makes us wonder if it is still worth it. Mind you, we got the membership in Hawaii, where anything costs extra for shipping, and it was worth every penny. Now that we are in WA, and we have Amazon warehouses literally everywhere here, I honestly think it’d make sense to simply make the free shipping threshold and call it good… As for the streaming services? I don’t think we really use it all that much to justify the cost, to be honest.
While inflation is to be expected, I can’t say it didn’t hurt the people like us who don’t make a 6-figure salary, although it isn’t like 6-figure income folks aren’t suffering either… but maybe they’d have more wiggle room if they use their income wisely, right? All this is to say that frugality definitely makes sense for us right now, even if we are now borderline being cheap. But hey, if being cheap means I still get to max my Roth IRA out, invest a little bit, and no one goes hungry in the house? I’ll take that.
What about you? What are some ways you do to battle this inflation? Please share!
Xennials on FI/RE 
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