Less expensive than ever!

[SmallCityDave]

Inflation is right around the corner however some things are now less expensive than ever.

You can get cell phone service with unlimited calls & text plus a bit of data for $5 per month (Hello Mobile). Home phone service for about $2 per month (Magic Jack), I remember paying $50.

How about "cable" you can get it for free with services such as Pluto or Crackle or better yet if you don't mind spending $20 Philo.

Vehicles are so much better than when I grew up, for $3500 my son has a Civic with 110k miles it's very reliable plus it's good on gas. Gas is expensive much more than the $1 I paid when I first started driving but I was getting 10-12mpg now 32-39mpg.

Housing... I know it's expensive but we bought a small 3/2 fixer last year it took a bit of money but after the dust settled we had $60k all in it turned out great heck I wouldn't mind living in it.

What are some of the great values that you guys are seeing?

 

[Calico]

I pay for the following streaming services:

Amazon Prime
Hulu
Netflix
Britbox
Acorn TV

My bill for internet service plus all of the above services comes to less than I paid for internet service and basic cable 10 years ago, and I have far more variety of choices via streaming than I ever had with cable.

 

[Ready]

Restaurant meals have gone up in price a lot since dining rooms began to reopen. And restaurants that previously offered promotions have cut back or stopped completely.

On the plus side, they can’t even give away hand sanitizer around here. It’s been going for around $6/gallon.

 

[teetee]

General grocery price seemed increasing. I am cutting back protein and happy to report our local dollar tree has 20oz pasta for $1 and Walgreen has the pasta sauce for $1 per jar. The discount probably will be short lived.

 

[Freedom56]

3M N95 masks have been dropping like a rock. I picked up two boxes of 20 3M N95 particulate masks for industrial use for $18.99 per box. They are now below pre-pandemic prices.

Lumber prices are ridiculous. I went to Home Depot to buy a 2x6x8 piece of redwood for mounting a transformer for low voltage lighting that I was installing. The price was $15.98. It used to be about $5.59 each in the past. When I got to the cash it scanned at $27.98. I complained and the cashier immediately subtracted $12.00 without even doing a price verification. This leads me to believe that Home Depot is gouging consumers once again. It's a reason why Amazon got 95% of my business for my recent project.

 

[Sunset]

Over the Air TV, Ok it's not any more FREE than before, but now it's HD quality. !!

I use ObiHai for my second phone with a google number, so it's totally FREE and can make free calls in USA and to Canada as well.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Interesting thread, SmallCityDave. Thanks for starting it.
- Clothes are really cheap these days. I used to sew and make all my own clothes but that is pretty expensive to do these days. Costco usually has a big assortment of jeans, tops, jackets and sweaters for $10 - $20, sometimes less at end of season closeouts.
- Energy is getting more expensive in our area but we use less thanks to solar lights, LED lights, low flow shower heads and energy efficient appliances. Rechargeable batteries are lifetime cheap, especially when charged with a solar charger.
- Low flow toilets, low flow shower heads and water efficient washing machines use less water.
- There are free online classes for almost any subject these days.
- There are many free TV and movie channels around, like Roku alone has 24 free channels. Tedtalks are free.
- Our robotic vacuums and mopper clean the floors almost for free. We just paid for the initial purchase prices of the appliances, plus the cost of electricity and replacement parts.
- We've received some big ticket items for free from Freecycle type sites. Thrift shops in our area have good deals on furniture and small appliances.
- Long distance phone calls in the U.S. are free with our cell phone plan and international calls are cheap with Ooma and Google FI. Long distance calls used to be quite expensive.
- Libraries often have free online services like classes, movie streaming, ebooks, magazines and music which don't even require driving to the library. Our library even has free or discounted tickets for events and cultural attractions.
- There are inexpensive ways to take college courses and even receive full degrees online
- Stock trading is much cheaper these days than it used to be.
- I had my first teledoc appointment last year for a pinched nerve. That was free with my insurance plan.
- Health insurance has been much cheaper for us since the ACA came along.
- We do our taxes now ourselves now inexpensively with Turbotax, which is much cheaper than using an accountant.
- Cash back credit cards and sign up bonuses usually come with an assortment of free cash, gift cards, hotel stays and air far miles.
- Banks often have free sign up bonuses.
- Zoom meetings can be free or at least cheap.
- Not many people seem to want hardcover books so used books are cheap. I buy hardcover books at library sales, often for $5 a bag.
- Many people get to work from home these days, which saves money on clothes, lunches and commute costs.
- Forums like this give free advice.

 

[Markola]

^^^^^ Great list. And, we buy all that stuff at either:

Super Target where prices are already rock bottom and we pay with their Red Card that gives us an additional 5% discount, or

Pay elsewhere with our 1.5% cash back VISA, or

Amazon, where we pay with their 5x points credit card, which more than pays for our Prime membership, allows for amazing comparison pricing, and then the stuff comes right to our door!

Next up for me, taking an online course in maximizing travel points to extend our travel budget.


Whatever national inflation is, there are lots of ways for an individual consumer to manage it through substitution.

 

[whatnot]

Markola
Will you share the name of the online course on travel points . Sounds interesting.

 

[MRG]

My electric rate at night is very reasonable at 0602 cents per KWH.

I'm glad for the folks with cheap internet options. We pay 100 monthly for 2Gb (when it works). I don't think Starlink will handle the trees around us.

ETA: I'm humbled by the people in our community that can't afford housing. I frequently see FB posts of people begging for an opportunity to rent.

 

[Montecfo]

Inflation is here, though still modest. But it is driven now mainly by supply chain disruption combined with pent-up demand. This shall certainly pass.

Higher prices attract supply. Retail sales were down last month, excluding big ticket items. It seems like people are doing the right thing and refusing to buy some items which have risen in price. Best tactic: avoid those high prices items. If we accept them, we will certainly get more!

I find lots of things have gotten cheaper over time:

-cell phone service
-most types of consumer elecronics
-video services
-autos-there are some very inexpensive cars out there that are surprisingly great values
-cars are far far more reliable and more economical to operate
-cost of money has never been lower in my lifetime
-digital music and e-books are cheaper than physical counterparts used to be
-computers have come down steadily in price

-retailers like Costco which operate on low margin allow you to purchase same or higher quality for what often is the lowest price you will find.
-Amazon effect and price shopping apps allow you to find lower prices/greater value. We did not have such power at our fingertips pre-smart phones.

And what about capability upgrades, that could be a whole new thread.

 

[teetee]

Inflation is here, though still modest. But it is driven now mainly by supply chain disruption combined with pent-up demand. This shall certainly pass.

Higher prices attract supply. Retail sales were down last month, excluding big ticket items. It seems like people are doing the right thing and refusing to buy some items which have risen in price. Best tactic: avoid those high prices items. If we accept them, we will certainly get more!

I find lots of things have gotten cheaper over time:

-cell phone service
-most types of consumer elecronics
-video services
-autos-there are some very inexpensive cars out there that are surprisingly great values
-cars are far far more reliable and more economical to operate
-cost of money has never been lower in my lifetime
-digital music and e-books are cheaper than physical counterparts used to be
-computers have come down steadily in price

-retailers like Costco which operate on low margin allow you to purchase same or higher quality for what often is the lowest price you will find.
-Amazon effect and price shopping apps allow you to find lower prices/greater value. We did not have such power at our fingertips pre-smart phones.

And what about capability upgrades, that could be a whole new thread.

One word: competition
That is why any corp mergers is bad for the consumers.

 

[RAE]

I have not seen much of an increase in my grocery bill lately, contrary to what some others are reporting. I am selective in what I buy (look for sales constantly), and in some cases I am willing to buy an alternative product instead of the one I'd prefer, in order to save some $$. What I won't do is eat less protein, eat fewer veggies, or anything that drastic.............not gonna happen. I won't compromise my health/diet to save a few bucks.

 

[Fermion]

Producers have not raised prices yet on a lot of goods, but I bet it is coming. Just the fact that commodities are so high right now will cause either margins to shrink or prices to rise. Payroll seems like it will rise too and that will have to be passed on to the consumer.

Also you need to watch for the tricks, like changing the serving size from 4 to 3, putting 20 ounces in the box when it used to hold 24 ounces while changing the shape of the box to make it still look big.

Anything electronic though is getting cheaper for what you get, but that is just a side effect of automation.

Quality of some items is getting lower. A drill now might have plastic gears instead of metal gears as in the past and may only last 2 or 3 years of heavy use while the old one lasted decades.

 

[Chuckanut]

I jut returned from a road trip where I had four free nights in hotels thanks to points I 'earned' with a credit card.

I also got 4-5% rebates on gasoline (free money to me) thanks to my Costco and Discover credit cards.

There are lots of great podcasts that are free , if one is willing to listen to advertisements. Interestingly, the self proclaimed cheapskate and consumer guru Clark Howard, has podcasts that are free if one listens to the ads, or one can pay a monthly fee and avoid the ads. Recently, he commented that he would not be willing to pay to avoid the ads in his own podcast.

One loser is the low quality of the free sack breakfasts offered by many hotels. One hotel that usually offers a nice hot buffet breakfast, offered us the sack breakfast. After tossing most of it into the trash, we went to a local cafe. Note: we would have returned the food we tossed but that was not permitted by health laws. OTOH, I did appreciate those hotels that manged to put together a simple hot breakfast.

 

[teetee]

I jut returned from a road trip where I had four free nights in hotels thanks to points I 'earned' with a credit card.

I also got 4-5% rebates on gasoline (free money to me) thanks to my Costco and Discover credit cards.

There are lots of great podcasts that are free , if one is willing to listen to advertisements. Interestingly, the self proclaimed cheapskate and consumer guru Clark Howard, has podcasts that are free if one listens to the ads, or one can pay a monthly fee and avoid the ads. Recently, he commented that he would not be willing to pay to avoid the ads in his own podcast.

One loser is the low quality of the free sack breakfasts offered by many hotels. One hotel that usually offers a nice hot buffet breakfast, offered us the sack breakfast. After tossing most of it into the trash, we went to a local cafe. Note: we would have returned the food we tossed but that was not permitted by health laws. OTOH, I did appreciate those hotels that manged to put together a simple hot breakfast.

Hotels got hammered hard in the past year. I would be thankful that they even keep provide breakfast. They probably only have half of the staff remaining to cut costs.

 

[W2R]

Inflation is right around the corner however some things are now less expensive than ever.
[...]
What are some of the great values that you guys are seeing?

Nothing? OK, restaurant prices have remained exactly the same, so far. But I don't expect this to last, because grocery prices seem much higher.

Maybe I would see more bargains if I spent more time outside of my home, shopping. I am still (unintentionally) somewhat in "lockdown mode", even though the mandates have been dropped here. I presently stay home so much more than I did before the pandemic. I guess staying home has become a habit at this point.

At some point I am going to need to make a rule for myself, to go walk around some store or other every day (for exercise, if nothing else). I did that during my first week or so of retirement, when I didn't know what to do with my time.

 

[SecondCor521]

Markola
Will you share the name of the online course on travel points . Sounds interesting.

Not Markola, but this one was good when I took it a few years ago:

https://www.travelmiles101.com/travel-rewards-course-registration

 

[SmallCityDave]

And what about capability upgrades, that could be a whole new thread.

What do you mean by that?

 

[RobbieB]

Electronics of any type.

For the price of an old CRT, you now get a high def flat screen 3 times the size and one third the weight that uses half the electricity.

How about computers? Two grand used to get a single core with a 10 gig drive that worked with dial up internet. Now you get 8 core, an SSD and a one TB drive at gig speed connect.

 

[SmallCityDave]

- Health insurance has been much cheaper for us since the ACA came along.

That's great about your insurance but I didn't include that because what the government is doing is charging some people more to give others a discounted rate, it's like me saying food is so inexpensive I only pay $20 a month using these food stamps.

 

[SmallCityDave]

Electronics of any type.

For the price of an old CRT, you now get a high def flat screen 3 times the size and one third the weight that uses half the electricity.

How about computers? Two grand used to get a single core with a 10 gig drive that worked with dial up internet. Now you get 8 core, an SSD and a one TB drive at gig speed connect.

I was just telling my kids that we have a lot more storage and capabilities on our $50 cell phones than the $1000+ computers in the 90's. My 1st computer had a 200mhz processor and 200mb hdd.

 

[Nick12]

NJ to Orlando, United , $137 non stop roundtrip.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

Taking a slightly longer view... Immediately after reading this thread I stumbled on this. Charts are interesting.

"Global resource abundance increased by 5.9 percent in 2020, according to the 4th annual Simon Abundance Index. The base year of the index is 1980, and the base value of the index is 100 percent. In 2020, the index reached 708.4 percent. In other words, the index rose by 608.4 percentage points over the last 40 years, implying a compound annual growth rate in resource abundance of around 5 percent and doubling of global resource abundance every 14 years or so."

https://www.humanprogress.org/the-s...0Fd45DA8HEm0HEG-YPJraUJJUWYJm8792VGW_fnUHplGE

 

[daylatedollarshort]

That's great about your insurance but I didn't include that because what the government is doing is charging some people more to give others a discounted rate, it's like me saying food is so inexpensive I only pay $20 a month using these food stamps.

You may not be on an ACA plan, but many forum members here are (check the number of threads on the topic), and none that I have read about are on food stamps. Since your audience for this thread is presumably forum members here, I think many have benefited from affordable health care costs with the ACA. Those with MAGIs below 400% of poverty level may receive tax credits. Before the ACA many of us could not obtain health insurances as seniors at any price.

Now many more people at higher income levels qualify, up to almost $300K MAGI, assuming $25K premium costs for a senior couple. From what I have read, this would be over 98.5% of households now qualifying. "The American Rescue Plan bolsters the availability of premium tax credits (PTCs) for millions of lower- and middle-income people and families. First, individuals whose income is above 400 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) are eligible for PTCs for the first time. There is no upper income limit on PTCs, meaning that all middle- and upper-income individuals who purchase their own coverage can access PTCs if their premiums exceed 8.5 percent of their overall household income." https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20210316.222833/full/