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Comment by scottLobster | Hacker News Reader

Great. All I know is I'm trading a lot more time for money this year. Way less takeout, avoiding toll roads unless it saves at least 30 minutes, fewer streaming services (will renew on a show-by-show basis), and food is getting so crazy I might start going to multiple stores to try and save money instead of my one consolidated trip to Wegmans.

I'm also stuffing my freezer with meat and have a year's supply of non-perishables, not because I'm a prepper but because I know it'll be so much more expensive next year as to be worth it.

Also my rent is up 6.9%, but that's because I locked it in for two years. Would have been 10.5% for a one-year lease, and that's on top of last year's comparatively conservative 4.5% increase.

And my salary is up a mere 4.5%, and that only because I took on stretch assignments at work.

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So I know I can make 65 an hour with side jobs. I've got a few side gigs where I can set my own schedule and work those hours at any time. I could probably push higher if I wanted (75-100 an hour).

When I need to pad my savings I cut some costs but mostly I just work extra hours in side gigs. I couldnt imagine its worth going to multiple grocery stores to compare prices. Shop at 1 store, pay more for some items, work an extra hour to make up for it. I'm building my career and getting paid instead of experiencing traffic, grocery stores at peak hours, check out lines, and loading/unloading food to and from the car/house for a second time.

Does it really make sense for you financially to do that?

I haven't fully priced it out yet, but Wegmans is middle of the road in terms of pricing for my area, depending on the item. Depends on what I'm buying week to week.

We have discount grocers nearby that sell a crap-shoot of stuff the bigger stores are trying to get rid of. If going there before heading to Wegmans can save me $50-100/month after gas, for maybe an extra 30 minutes - 1 hour of time, would be worth it these days.

Not everyone is interested in performing side jobs, and comparing weekly ads and sales prices can be a 'fun' optimization problem. It's a more productive use of time than whatever the alternative would've been (social media, watching television, etc). Moderately large grocery stores have real web apps these days so you can get pricing data and track it over time. Combine that with the personalized deals / digital coupons and you can create your analysis for what's the best to purchase.

The elephant in the room for any analysis like "It's a more productive use of time than whatever the alternative would've been (social media, watching television, etc)." is that, y'know, maybe people need to find good uses of their time other than working.

But that sounds elitist so nobody says it. Doesn't make it any bit less true.

That is fair. I don't enjoy being inside stores all that much so I didnt consider an enjoyment factor.

It does make sense depending on your situation. In a typical US car-dependent cities, yeah, maybe commute is a big productivity killer. Having said that, pushing work all the time also lead to burn out so at some point the mundane tasks become decompressing time (only if you can appreciate sitting idle in traffic; everyone is different).

I live in a city where multiple grocery stores exist within 5 minutes of each other and I do enjoy doing mundane tasks outside my professional life. Those tasks made me pause, clear my mind, and escape the bubble that we called "work" (yes, work itself is a bubble).

I've gone shopping at Grocery Outlet (discount West Coast chain) since I was in grad school and couldn't afford anything else. I could use higher quality stores now, but it's kind of fun to work recipes around their ever-changing (and incomplete) stock, so I tend to make one stop there and then drop by another store on the way home to fill in the gaps (usually just grapefruit juice and fresh bread). It only adds ~15 min. to the trip if I know what I'm missing before I walk in.

I think there's a difference in psychology - for lack of a better word - that makes some people have a much easier time managing the outflows than the inflows. For example, I know I have marketable skills - I'm a decent masseur for example - but I struggle mightily bringing in extra money with these kind of side gigs, despite finding them a lot of fun and not exhausting the way work is. I'm not sure if it's a matter of practicality or what, but whenever people explain how they up their income when needed, I don't get it. None of the steps explained seem difficult, but it's a difficult process to get through for me. Maybe the kind of cost-cutting I can do would be similarly difficult for others, I'm not sure.

There's a lot of friction to finding and landing side jobs.

Ones that let you hop in just whenever you feel like it and do one hour of work, with no commitment to minimum hours per week? And that you can put in a single productive hour every so often, without ramp-up time eating that entire hour with nothing to show for it? And that pays enough to make it worth it (i.e. not Mechanical Turk or whatever)?

I don't even know what such an ultra-flexible, low-context (= near-zero ramp-up time even if you only do it an hour or two a week, and some weeks not at all) but still high-paid gig would look like, or how to go about finding it.

Meanwhile, you can value-shop if you feel like it, or not if you don't. Entirely optional and no commitment or outside expectations. You can do it very seriously one week, then not do it at all the next.

>I don't even know what such an ultra-flexible, low-context (= near-zero ramp-up time even if you only do it an hour or two a week, and some weeks not at all) but still high-paid gig would look like, or how to go about finding it.

There isn't a lot of daylight between low-paid, mostly uninteresting gig work and a real side job that takes some marketing, sales, avoiding time-wasting people who want to low-ball you, chasing payment, and some expectation of ongoing commitment.

I do have something drop in my lap now and then from someone I know, e.g. ghostwriting something. And that's fine. It's good money for maybe a day's work overall. But you can have tight deadlines and if you just wait for the phone to ring, you're probably not going to get a lot of that sort of thing.

Would you mind sharing some side hussle ideas?

C++ programmer by trade.

Sure. https://www.outco.io/careers | Outco is hiring for part time tech coaches. You help people prepare for interview. Set your own schedule. Decent hourly rate.

Buying extra meat when it's on sale and storing it in a chest freezer is probably the best "investment" that most families can make. It usually has a higher ROI than buying stocks or whatever. Even during inflationary times, retailers occasionally end up with excess supplies of some cuts of meat or advertise loss leaders to boost store traffic so you can buy a lot if you have freezer space to store it.

Just be careful that your freezer has a reliable electrical supply. The National Electrical Code has required GFCI protection on garage outlets since 2008 and those can occasionally fail and trip off for no reason. Ask me how I know...

You should also have a high-rated chest cooler ("marine coolers" are great for this) in case of power outages. Move the freezer contents to the cooler, pack with dry ice, place in a cool shaded area, do not touch. It will stay frozen for close to a week.

Or pull your generator out and power your cooler and other essentials.

Much easier than trying to get and find dry ice in an emergency.

Where does one normally find dry ice in the US, even when there's no emergency? Is it a commonly stocked thing?

Grocery stores usually have it, you just have to ask someone.

Fairly common in grocery stores. Regular ice also works just fine, but dry ice is arguably better in freezer applications because, while it doesn't last as long, it is much colder.

Costco or Walmart will often carry it. Many grocery stores (but definitely not all) will have it so it’s worth asking.

My favorite use is sparkling grapes. https://sciencenotes.org/how-to-make-fizzy-fruit-with-dry-ic...

Put (food grade) dry ice at the bottom of a bowl, then a clean cloth or towel (for insulation), then grapes. Ideally our a loose fitting cover over the bowl.

As the dry ice sublimates, it passes through the grapes which will capture some of the CO2 and carbonate the grapes.

Very fun, and much less practical, use of dry ice…

The next time you go into a grocery store, look at the front and see if you see a dry ice storage box

I get it all the time for camping trips

In my local grocery store it is the Fish / Meat department that has the dry ice.

Where I live the local power utility distributes dry ice in the summer during power outages.

A standard residential generator typically holds a gallon of fuel and will burn through that in about 8-12 hours, which is not the ideal way to run a refrigerator. If you run the generator constantly, you'll burn through substantial amounts of fuel, and if you run it only occasionally, you're going to get the kind of temperature fluctuations we're trying to avoid here.

I have a 1kW power station with solar charging, which won't fare a whole lot better; it'll run a fridge for maybe 2-3 days if it's sunny outside.

Low-tech solutions win in power outages of more than a day or two.

My generator holds 2.5 gallons and runs a bit over 24 hours, so that's about right, but I generally have a 15 gallon tank in the shed. That generator can power the A/C, fridge, everything, without having to open it and let cold air out and transfer items.

Power outages typically aren't more than one day, and dry ice is not going to help you for those outages.

I don't have any dry ice suppliers nearby (no the Walmart doesn't stock it), it's not a low-tech solution.

The low tech solution would be a bigger gas canister. 2 gallons a day is not bad at all.

In an apartment building or something I can certain see the use case for dry ice though.

You can also, not buy meat, and avoid the electricity cost of running an additional freezer!

You can also, live in a tent, and avoid electricity all together!

But for those who like protein packed meals in a comfortable environment an additional deep freezer is a great investment.

You can deep freeze extra veggies/fruit if you have a beef with meat.

Or you can buy beans and rice. More protein. More cooking options. No need for freezing.

Beans and rice are both great staples and it makes sense to store them if you have the room. However, saying that they're more protein than beef is absurdly wrong.

A dehydrator is another good option for preserving perishables. The shelf life is a bit shorter than most people would think, but properly packed and sealed you can get at least 3 months or so.

A freeze drier will preserve perishables for significantly longer than a dehydrator, but they cost an order of magnitude more. If you have a big garden or something though the three grand outlay might be worth it.

Rice and beans are tremendously more protein than meat... per dollar, which is what we care about, right? Also, they keep longer, also they are more nutritious.

Protein quality matters as much as quantity. I like beans and rice, but the protein in red meat is more digestible and has the optimal ratio of amino acids that humans need.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Protein-quality-assessme...

You should consider the following:

1. The human body can synthesize protein except for a few amino acids. These are called "essential" amino acids because we must get them from food.

2. Protein "quality" refers to the ratio of essential amino acids, specifically how close they are to the ratio of essential amino acids in our bodies. This metric is used to gauge the rate of absorption of proteins, not the overall amount of absorption.

3. Red meat is not ideal protein quality. Whey protein is actually a lot better because it consists of amino acids in ratios that are better for absorption. Also better than red meat is... rice and beans.

If we're just going to shift goalposts, then you should be eating eggs because they are the benchmark for protein quality and they're considerably cheaper than beans per gram of protein if you have hens. And long term storage of eggs without refrigeration or freezing is a solved problem too, so winter is no problem.

But honestly I think you have some kind of vegetarian agenda, and that's causing you to use some pretty tortuous reasoning to reach your desired conclusions.

They aren't more protein, but I eat beans and rice all the time. They are great.

I also love beef, tuna, shrimp and many other meats.

I like having a variety in my diet and to eat what I prefer.

See how quickly you hate beans and rice if you only have beans and rice.

Beans are tremendously more protein.

Navy beans on Instacart are currently $1.14 for 104 grams of protein. https://www.instacart.com/store/items/item_1807377332

Ground beef on Instacart is $5.23 for 76 grams of protein. https://www.instacart.com/store/items/item_1785250798

Beans have 91 grams of protein per dollar compared to ground beef's 14 grams.

As someone already pointed out, it's not the same quality:

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Protein-quality-assessme...

And you're comparing price per protein? Wouldn't this thread be based on amount as we're talking about storing it?

The thread is about the price of meat and storing it, so it makes sense to consider how much protein is in the food and how much it costs. To not do so would be like saying, "We need to spend less money on a car. Should we get a cheap car? No, it's not red."

Also, see my response about "protein quality". https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32417603

Well originally it was only about storing it, until you replied comparing prices, of course beans are cheaper. But the thread was about efficient long term storage.

But either way I recommend storing and buying both. Definitely not going on a crusade against beans, they're great! (and so is meat)

Another user recommended eggs if you're concerned about protein to price ratio, but it's harder to store efficiently without getting creative.

You could farm your own eggs as I do, but it requires a lot of space (and a love for chickens, they can be a hassle).

I have a friend that bought half a cow from a farmer. Fully butchered he spends approx. $5 a pound for the meat.

Putting it in a cool room with good insulation helps. Makes the freezer work less hard.

Just read about the inflation trimming. It is one of the ways the government make inflation to appear lower than it is, making people happy. In US, the 31% of the goods with highest inflation are excluded, but only 24% of the goods with lowest inflation, making the inflation appear much lower than it is.

Where do you get the lists of "goods with highest inflation" and "goods with lowest inflation?

The link at the top of the page is a good start.

Then that should hurt them when inflation reduces, no?

How? If they're always excluding 7% more of the goods whose prices rose more, the trimmed CPI will always be lower than the CPI-U, which some people say is always lower than what people actually experience.

The entitlement adjustments made based on trimmed CPI will always be less than the inflation even the gov't admits people are experiencing.

Trimmed inflation is a better measure than non-trimmed for goods with substitutes. Bacon going up 1000% in price is not as bad as all food going up 5% in price because you can just stop eating bacon, but you can't just stop eating.

Yes but now you don't get to eat bacon and you're eating tofu bacon instead. You're still alive, but are you really living?

More seriously, that quality of life decrease is now completely ignored. I think it's worth acknowledging that it's happening.

Yeah but so much of happiness is relative and pure mindset. If you never knew about bacon or forgot about it, you would be just as happy.

And at the end of the day, it’s more important to be happy

You will own nothing. And you will be happy.

- a popular quote in the internet

wrong, it's a shitty metric. consumers care about inflation bc it represe ts their quality of life getting more expensive. trimming is the equivalent of saying "lol just downgrade" which is not a good answer.

you can't watch people switch their crab and milk for krab and powdered milk then be like "oh we'll just trim that out of inflation lmao". inflation is not supposed to measure change in average cost of necessities, it's supposed to measure change in a basket of basic goods.

And that basket naturally shifts over time as certain goods which have reasonable substitutes rise sharply in price, as technology changes, as tastes change, etc. It would obviously be silly to compare against the same basket of goods as was used in 1970.

There is some truth to it if you want to think about purchasing power and quality of life.

A TV today is not the same as a TV in 1970.

The groceries a family buys today are not the same Goods or quality as someone would have bought in 1920

Its supposed to measure the effects of inflation on the wealthy, which is why substitutes are important, because it impacts their grocery stocks.

You can starve.

Trimmed inflation measures exist, but this one is not it. They’re not used in a sneaky way, they’re clearly named “trimmed CPI”, “trimmed PCE” etc.

Ahh that makes sense. The problem is in the real world, people are still feeling nasty inflation.

It's beginning to feel like a 'let them eat cake' moment from the wealthy.

If you live in the USA, a Costco membership is very worth it.

Definitely true, but I'll add that you still need to do price comparisons. Even supposed staples like pasta are often substantially more expensive than at nearby grocers.

I don't buy a lot of pasta, so can't speak directly to that example, but in many cases if you compare like quality, Costco will tend to be cheaper or equivalent, I've found. Although maybe for some of the staples there just isn't really that much difference in quality.

There is also the problem that some folks have (cough, me, yes, I'm talking about me) that even if I go into Costco for 3 specific items, I walk out with 5-10 at least. That's another place to watch for cost and try to be strict about sticking to a list.

Who doesn't need a bucket of guacamole? I jest, but Costco is awesome, they also have pretty good vacation packages.

Its tough when you live in an apartment with no storage. You often are paying more because you dont have room for bulk. Costco is great if you have a garage or basement though

What I do is buy meat in bulk from costco and marinate and preseason then cut it up and vacuum seal it with a $30 vacuum sealer and sousivide bags from amazon.

I can then stuff my freezer with ready to cook chicken, steak, fish, etc. I just take it out the night before to thaw in the fridge.

You probably know this, but sous vide will cook fine from frozen too. You just have to give it an extra hour or so. Heat baths are cool!

I do that sometimes but I started going for thinner cuts of meat and just grill them in 12-15 mins. Sousvide is nice but sometimes takes too long and you still gotta sear.

For nicer cuts of meat, sure, but for flank steak and such, I find it much easier to just let the meat marinate for 24-48 hours and then grill it.

Skip the thaw step and cook those things sous vide.

And eat microplastics? No thanks.

You can buy a Cinder Grill instead. Same basic thermodynamic concept, but with metal instead of water+plastic for the stable heat source

Do you think the steak is microplastic free? It's not: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/08/micropla....

That's a fallacy - microplastic contamination isn't a boolean, more like a floating point.

I find that grocery stores offer better pricing on occasion: ribeyes more than half off the ordinary market price, etc. If you have the vacuum sealing technology, you can be selective in your bulk purchases to maximize the financial benefits of timed purchases. Costco comes with a baseline level of quality but is less competitive on price. As you stock your freezer, you have the bandwidth to 'wait it out' until the next sale comes.

My experience is that the grocery stores around me with meats cheaper than Costco is not the meat you want to buy in bulk and save for later use. The quality is fine but the meat has been sitting on the shelf for a couple of weeks and is near or past the best by date, which is why it's marked way below market price. That being said the solution is to buy a whole bunch, cook it he same day and freeze that. Doesn't work well if you want cooked whole cuts (roast chicken, pan seared steak, etc.) but for the more processed recipes (stews, stir fry, etc.)

I'm in a pretty small apartment in Manhattan (albeit with an abnormally large kitchen). I can always get the value of my Costco membership in my first trip there, even without a car. Basic goods like Advil, laundry detergent and dishwasher detergent are miles cheaper than other options in Manhattan.

We find it difficult to use the Costco OTC drugs like Advil among two people before the expiration date.

Expiration dates on some OTC drugs like Advil aren't as important as you might think. [See this.](https://www.healthdigest.com/756305/does-ibuprofen-expire/)

Yeah, I've taken drugs years after their expiration date. It's just not super confidence-inspiring.

i have literally used 20yr expired medicines before and been fine

Many medicines simply degrade, so yeah, you won’t poison yourself, but then it’s just a placebo.

It depends on the medication. There are some that can last for 20+ years with the same effectiveness.

i have taken 15 year old ipecac after eating something i shouldnt have and can assure you it remained 100% effective.

Do you take an uber/taxi/etc? I always assumed that you'd need to buy in bulk quantities to make costco worth it here, which would require a car

I don't own a car and very rarely Uber (basically only to the airport and even that's purely out of laziness). I just carry two Costco tote bags back to the subway. It's not the most comfortable but it's much better than the costs associated with car ownership from my perspective. If I have a purchase too large for the subway, like a TV, it's cheaper to just rent a Zipcar.

1000 kg of potatoes is 1444 litres (1,44 m^3) and fits in a corner in any flat. YMMW if the floor can take it.

My point is that with less space you need to store less different things.

Unpopular opinion, Costco isn't that great.

- Too many items force you to buy insane quantities that don't make sense even for a 4 person family. The meat, for example, is great quality and value, but it's very hard to make steak or chicken taste good after being frozen, and in no universe should I be eating 4 huge steaks within the refrigeration shelf life. I can never use their giant tub of sour cream or shredded cheese before it goes bad.

- Related to the last point, Costco makes you pay for the square footage in your home to store their stuff, and to really utilize the membership you're gonna want a chest freezer, a whole extra appliance to purchase, run (electricity), and repair. Probably about $50/year in electricity costs.

- Too many of the items that are "great deals" are things most people would probably never buy in the first place when sold at the normal higher retail price. For example, Red Bull is barely over a dollar a can, which is unbeatable, but in no universe should I be buying a 24 pack of Red Bull for any reason.

- Similar to the point above, Costco's deals encourage consumption where the alternative is to not consume anything at all. For example, paper towels are an item where you really should just reduce your usage. Just use dish towels and cloth napkins, toss them in with your regular laundry. There are very few messes where you actually need to use paper towels.

- I know it's not supposed to be a replacement for a grocery store, but I think it's very hard to cook from scratch using whole and minimally-processed foods solely from what Costco sells.

- The low SKU count of the store has never not been infuriating to me. The entire health and beauty section is the worst offender here: good luck having any sort of preference.

- The store wastes your time by making you memorize aisle layout, this is done on purpose to increase aimless browsing time.

- The negotiation practices that Costco uses to keep prices low also causes their inventory to be incredibly inconsistent. One day there will be a pallet of Legos or an interesting brand of trail mix, the next it could be gone or replaced by something else.

- Costco is almost always packed with an uncomfortable amount of people.

- Am I the only one who thinks Costco doesn't have enough cat supplies?? It's all stuff for dogs!! You'd think I should be saving so much money by using Costco for cat litter but...nope, the stuff I buy at Target is about the same cost, they'll deliver it for free in two days, and Costco doesn't sell any form of unscented cat litter product.

- Their lauded snack bar is trash food and I don't believe the common refrain that it's a loss leader. Costco brags about that as a PR exercise. It breaks even at the very least.

- If your Costco is able to sell beer/wine/liquor, that's a pretty nice perk that can pretty legitimately make up for the membership cost over a year, but anyone with a really legit liquor warehouse type of store (e.g., Binny's) isn't going to be massively impressed. Low SKU count is still a problem here, and I don't actually think Costco is that great at curating wines (another PR exercise they like to engage in).

- Don't forget that you have to pay $60 a year just to get in the door. You have to buy enough discounted things to make up for that difference. Sure, it probably makes more sense than Amazon Prime, but that's still a major point to think about.

I think the only reason to be a member is to buy diapers, you'll make up the membership cost very quickly that way. Still, if you can tolerate lower quality diapers, Target's brand is actually lower cost than Kirkland. There are a number of Costco products out there where other store brands offer something at a close-enough price and quality ratio, without having to shell out a membership fee. For many products it might not actually matter that "Kirkland is the best."

I think most of your problem points are for newer Costco shoppers.

I walk in and buy the same stuff every time. I never buy anything I end up tossing anymore. I know where everything is because they don’t change the store much.

Costco isn’t my main grocery store but I’m only in the Costco warehouse 1-2 times per month anyway.

And the lower price of gas makes up for the price of admission for me

The biggest reason I don't like Costco is that it really isn't cheaper than other bulk clubs, or grocery stores for that matter other than Whole Foods or other "premium" stores. Costco has higher prices because they slap organic/non-gmo/free range/etc. labels on most products and the markup isn't worth any perceivable quality increase. The low SKU and frequent rotation of products is also frustrating because I can't count on staples being available, so it also caused more trips elsewhere to find everything I actually need.

I'm riding my bike a lot more to get places, rather than just for recreation; and it seems this is true for many around me as well.

But when you think about it, what’s the benefit of driving? For reasonably short drives you don’t save much time with parking in cities and you don’t get any exercise.

Ah, in my case this is mostly replacing buses, so really not the biggest monetary impact either. Still, I will try not to let the excuse to be more active go to waste.

Rain

Solved by rain coat and rain pants

So you won't be wet from the rain, you'll be wet from your own sweat.

Modern rain gear is okay on that side but at great expense.

I ride like I'm getting paid for it, but that's just not really the case yet. Though it'll be amazing when some real innovation happens.

Even the highest end technical fabrics don't work very well when it's humid outside, which tends to happen a lot when it's raining.

If you're actually working hard, you'll be covered in your own sweat soon enough. Given the choice i usually just go with the rain instead.

Riding an ebike is a different matter, that's probably entirely doable with current tech.

What gear do you have? I use North Face futurelight and if I'm biking at reasonable to slower speeds I don't really sweat that much unless it's more than, say, 22C.

In Amsterdam rain, cold does not deter cycling.

The Dutch seem less interested in finding any excuse for their bad habits than we suburban Americans do.

Ssssssh don't let the car manufacturers hear you or you might disappear under mysterious circumstances.

Air conditioning

And shielding from the UV index 11 sun.

Damnit, don't tell the secret to car-people. We want our bicycle paths not too-overcrowded :p

Hah, speak for yourself! I want 20x as many bikes out there.

avoiding the literally 105+ degree weather

Your car is much less likely to be stolen while you're shopping?

A bike is so much cheaper than a car that even if it gets stolen every 2 months you are still saving.

I don't think this figure is accurate, but even so this isn't something I would want to accept - regardless of a convincing calculation that it is a net benefit.

Just an example:

https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/auto-loans/total-co...

"For vehicles driven 15,000 miles a year, average car ownership costs were $9,666 a year, or $806 a month, in 2021, according to AAA"

VS https://bicycleuniverse.com/how-much-does-a-bike-cost/

So the figure is accurate.

So what? The costs are kind of meaningless when you walk out of the grocery store with a cart full of frozen food, only to find your bike was stolen. Normal people aren't willing to tolerate that level of hassle and uncertainty just for the possibility of some minor cost savings.

This is the answer. There's no equivalent of "grand theft auto" for bicycles, in fact... law enforcement simply doesn't care most of the time despite usage of things like AirTags or video evidence.

If bikes could park like cars and be safe, a lot more people would use bikes for errands. As it is I only use my bike (even my cheap one) when I can keep eyes on it from the store.

Yes, exactly!

I live in an area where I can very easily and quickly bike to just about anything. But I never do because there's nowhere to store the bike while I'm there so it will get stolen. So I either walk (if I have the extra 15-20 minutes) or feel silly driving a mile or less. I'd rather bike.

The other day I saw somebody go past on a cargo bike, with a big box on the front that in this case had 3 child seats in it. It looked pretty damn usable, and if I could get something like that with an e-bike, even Costco trips (with the steep up-hill return) become feasible.

But if you buy a $5k electric cargo bike and it gets stolen two weeks later, or you have to spend 10 minutes finding a secure place for it everywhere you go...

I'm planning on getting a bike to commute to work. I don't have a car right now and also don't really want to buy one because it's a huge expense. My only regret is that it's much harder to get groceries with a bike so I might end up walking instead for that.

Just get panniers

Or a bike trailer if you need to carry more. Some can detach and be used as a hand cart too, so perfect for grocery shopping!

I have a double kids trailer from Thule. Even with kids it has a ton of storage. It detaches easily and has 4 wheels. The shocks are also adjustable to make it easier on the kids with heavy loads.

Yeah this might be a good idea. Haven't looked into it yet but I might end up doing something like this. A sibling comment mentions a trailer and I like that idea as well

I used to do that, trying to load anything reasonable on a bike makes it handle like serious crap. It jackknifes and good brakes become very important.

A trailer would probably be a lot better.

Yeah and don't forget that buying the car itself is just the start. Even if you don't get a loan you need to pay for registration, insurance, maintenance and gas.

I’ve started riding a bike for transportation during the pandemic; I think the desire to get outdoors more turbocharged cycling during the pandemic, and now people are probably realizing it’s a good way to get around too. So maybe a combination of both.

In any case, I think that’s a good thing! The oil crisis of the 1970s was one of the contributing factors to the Netherlands getting their now-excellent bike infrastructure.

If possible, spending a few years without a car can be a great way to save a lot of money.

https://twitter.com/jessefelder/status/1557405859986038785?s...

'Grocery prices were up 1.3% in July from the prior month and rose 13.1% in July from a year ago, the fastest annual pace since 1979.'

I'm doing the same (mostly just to buy a house) and I've been using YNAB to budget money:

https://www.youneedabudget.com/

It's really good, knowing where you're money is going ahead of time removes so much guilt and anxiety.

Oh yeah, I use Mint for the same. It's really fun watching my cost-cutting measures getting eaten alive by inflation in real-time :) I also find myself slowly sliding down Maslow's hierarchy. I used to be focused on achieving my dream job, now I'm strongly considering work I don't like because it pays more (being the sole income for my family is a major factor there as well). "Good enough pay for awesome work" is not a viable objective at the moment. And I'm lucky to even have that option.

Something's got to give. Thankfully we're starting to see some actual government investment in US industry for the first time in forever, but it'll take years for any results to bring down prices.

Yeah it's amazing how much you can accomplish just by minor things like not using DoorDash constantly and having caps on spending on electronics on Amazon.

YNAB is much nicer than Mint IMO. Mint feels more like a toy.

With YNAB you do something called "envelope budgeting" (just a digital version) https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-envelope-budgeting-129368...

I've found being obsessive with tracking expenses is a good way to lose motivation (like going to the gym) so it's good to have a simple pattern to get used to.

I'm feeling that Maslow slide too. Expect a really clever money-making idea to come along any time now.

Have you not heard of the wonders of NFTs?

Yeah its been wild seeing my grocery budget max out before the end of the month, despite having a good buffer a year before. YNAB has a great "cover overspending from" feature that got a good workout this year. Fortunately I got a raise so I used that to bump my food budget.

Anybody who doesn't demand a raise in this environment is a fool.

i honestly hate when everybody's answer to inflation is "just make a budget lol". i haven't used one historically bc i'm a pretty thrifty person but i decided to take somebody up on it and actually make one. you know what i found that could easily be changed? not a damn thing. like i'm a 20 something bachelor so basically my only luxury is buying new guns (which i don't do unless i have a lot of extra cash) and going out with friends (does not eat up much $). so am i supposed to cut like my 1 luxury and just be a machine who goes to and from work? aint like i got a bunch of streaming subscriptions or whatever to remove instead. i make my own coffee at home instead of starbucks and don't eat avocado toast... your move boomers, what's your solution now?

anyway sorry for the vent/rant, but what we need to do is stop loose monetary and fiscal policy that transfers wealth to people who got assets like real estate and stock (boomers, the rich) from people who don't (young people, the poor). but nobody wants to do that...

Hunt a deer or buy a cow, have a butcher process it, then store the processed meat in a freezer. You can have meat for a full year for your entire family at a low cost.

You can grow hydroponic lettuce, indoor tomatoes, strawberries, carrots, etc. There are many good resources to learn. It's also a past time that will teach you one thing or two.

Then, if saving time is what you are looking for... robot vacuum, mop, and a all-in-one cooking appliance (e.g.: Thermomix) can help.

> not because I'm a prepper but because I know [meat will] be so much more expensive next year

Want to take that bet? There's absolutely no reason to expect inflation borne of energy costs and trade disruption to continue. Remember (and so, so many people fail to understand this) that inflation is a year-over-year metric. The report today showing a drop in the "inflation rate" is actually showing an instantaneous decrease in absolute prices (fuels, primarily, like the ones needed to ship the meat you bought because you thought it was going to be expensive).

To wit: It is very likely that what you've done is stuffed your freezer full of meat you purchased at a price maximum.

Also, just because I have to ask: you're so concerned about prices that you're willing to make major changes to your lifestyle. But... you didn't even consider things like "eating less meat"?

>Want to take that bet?

GP literally did when he bought the meat.

Don't even think about trying to buy a car.

> fewer streaming services

Pessimist's take: When thinking about what we trade our time for, TV shows (and films, to some degree) have always been to me an endless source of a time sink for relatively little return. Games, slightly better, more social in some ways, certainly more mentally engaging, but also parasitic of time. To concurrently pay for multiple streaming services is unfathomable to me, moreso right now where, as you point out, your expenses have ballooned and your salary can't keep up. You aren't the only one, and yet it's highly likely (anecdotal experience here) that your friends know more about the last season of a show than they know about how to prep for the looming days, as you are prepping. One would think there's better ways to have downtime than to tune out in front of a box, but these habits are difficult to break.

(Cue the "They'll tell you" jokes.)

That seems a rather judgmental take on the "right" way to have downtime. I'm sure some people subscribe to too many streaming services. I try to keep my eye on how much I use a given service. But I'm still paying way less per month than I did when I had cable TV.

On the flip side, it's a relatively cheap form of entertainment. $5-30/month and you get access to hundreds or thousands of hours of quality entertainment per service. And there are some awesome shows that my family legitimately enjoys watching together.

It was nice having multiple options on a Friday/Saturday night without the overhead of having to think about subscriptions, because the services combined were the equivalent of one or two hours of my hourly rate a month, and we were in the black month-to-month. So who cares? Now my hourly rate doesn't cover nearly as much as it used to what with everything else through the roof, so I have to care, and I'm lucky to be in that position. Fun times.

I found having 3-4 streaming subscriptions is still quite a bit cheaper than cable tv or satellite. Also I get to watch what I want to watch when and where. Like many others, I cut the cord 3 years ago when I was paying $100/month for just basic cable with mostly useless channels or content that didn’t interest me. Now my total cost is under $50/month for a family of 4 for streaming subscriptions.

I did the same about 18 months ago. I found shows were just piling up on my TiVo and I hardly ever watched them. I miss access to live TV now and then but I rarely want to watch sports and it's just not worth it to me to pay for that access. Of course, I could always add a live streaming service if I change my mind at some point--and I'd still probably be paying less than I did for cable TV.

Value is in the eye of the beholder.

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