Ask HN: Is Inflation Affecting You? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is Inflation Affecting You?

33 pointshtml5web52 comments

I am struggling to make ends meet with 6 figure salary. Anyone else experiencing it after the inflation hike?

Yes, I had to move for a job this year and the rent is basically unsustainable. I went from paying $500 a month to paying $1500 a month. After taxes, that's half my pay. I know that it's not exactly all the fault of inflation. The town I was moving from is very poor, whereas this one is a little more well-off, but even two years ago a similar apartment would have been around $800. The real killer is cars, though. I'm driving a 20 year old car and I'm terrified of it not working, because I simply can't afford to buy another car with the way inflation has changed the price of cars. All I can think about is once this car dies, there's no hope. This is my first time having a middle-class $65k IT salary and I feel less wealthy than I was as a starving artist 10 years ago.

I almost told my job that I simply couldn't do it because of housing and suspect we are leading into catastrophic employment shortage. Similar to how the climate is cooled temporarily by short-term weather patterns, I think our society will be temporarily "saved" by the recession, but when the economy starts running back at full there will be regions where you simply can't hire people to do certain jobs and any executives who cut jobs now will actually bankrupt their entire business a few years from now. I resent the situation I'm in every single day and do not feel like the extra work and responsibility is worth the compensation. I dream every day of being laid-off and will gladly walk away from the whole thing once my contract is up. There needs to be incentive to continue and I just don't really see that any longer.

I’m in full agreement with you and this is something I talked about before the 2009 implosion as well.

I’ve received a couple of job offers in San Jose for positions that require a significant education and skill but won’t even cover a mortgage once everything is taken into account. I really think they will either be forced to raise their offers or hire a dwindling pool of already established locals.

> I went from paying $500 a month to paying $1500 a month.

Where were you paying $500 for rent?

We've always been frugal. If something is expensive we just don't buy. We don't buy junk/processed foods. Don't buy the latest and greatest electronics/gizmos/fashion etc. Eat out very infrequently (restaurant prices are up but not crazy up). Own my house. EV (that's where I splurged) so don't care about gas prices (around here electricity I think is pretty much the same).

One year of +8% (on average) after decades of virtually no inflation seems like a non-event at least so far. I would say for stuff we spend money on it's probably been a fair bit less than 8%.

I wanted to go somewhere on vacation, prices were higher than I expected, so I went somewhere cheaper.

+1 for frugality. I also own my home with a small mortgage, so I don't worry about rents increasing. I just got a job again after taking a break over a year ago... But I could have floated for years. I spent a lot of my career as a contractor, so I did a lot of cheap living and a lot of saving for a rainy day. After a while, it became habit.

I drive a 22-year-old car that gets 37 MPG. I ride my bicycle whenever I can. My home is 1100 sqft on a 5000-ft lot.

I can see prices that have gone up, but that hasn't impacted my buying habits. (One exception is international air travel... Scott's Cheap Flights helps there if you're flexible, but prices to where we want to go are still up 200%.)

It’s a good question, because everyone experiences inflation differently. For us, it’s been a bit of a non event

-Our mortgage payment hasn’t changed, so 0% inflation rate. That’s a big one.

-Both of us already worked at home, so we don’t drive a lot. One car a gas guzzler that takes premium, the other EV. We also did not buy cars in 2020-2022, a huge source of inflation.

-We did a bunch of nest feathering in 2019, so no household durables, which was a big source of inflation 2020-2021.

- We get our food at Costco and farmers market, and don’t eat out much. Costco really worked hard on food inflation. Prices at the farmers market are through the roof.

- I flew on 1 round trip since airfares and hotels skyrocketed, and we took a 2-day trip to Santa Barbara for my wife’s birthday, which was 48 hours straight of sticker shock.

This is the ultimate YMMV

I guess most answers up to now are from ‘across the pond’ or people earning very high salaries?

Inflation is wiping out my savings. I didn’t have much disposable income left after basic expenses, which was okay considering I’m in a EU country. But gas first doubled, and now tripled from the already high price. Electricity went up a bit. Food got a bit more expensive, but I mostly buy grains, fruit, and veg so I’ll live.

I’ve no major expenses left to cut after switching providers where I could and lowering the boiler. It’s not that bad though, it’s still a perfectly good middle class life, with enough comfort. Doctor visits are still 4€, the apartment is cozy, and everything will be okay; but I don’t know how the lesser privileged are going to handle winter.

A friend of mine in Belgium said their energy expensives have increases from $300 a month to $1000 a month just in the last 8 months.

Yep, that’s the country I’m in too. We’re energy dependent, so it’s to be expected. In a way, it will expedite improvements in efficiency where possible. Some won’t be able to afford that, which is the more concerning part. But all in all, we know most of the EU is under the same pressure and there’s things in motion to be helpful about.

Of course then you look at our nuclear neighbor and it’s hard to forgive the rhetoric that made us energy dependent in the first place.

Your nuclear neighbor that has a ton of their nuclear plants offline because of excessive heat preventing adequate cooling?

And where energy inflation is sitting around 20% instead of 80%… Gas went up 600% for me, by the way. I know their reactors are offline, but come winter, they’ll be reliable again.

How can you have issues on a 6 figures salary??? It is uncanny! I live in southern France (family of 3) on a “average” EU Software Engineer salary (plus my wife salary as an accountant)and can’t really say I not much change in prices (besides the energy bill that went up from 100 euros to 130)… but I never bothered checking prices when groceries shopping. My savings keep going up so no worries there either.

I've noticed it mostly at the supermarket. E.g., Coca Cola products are much more expensive than they were at the beginning of the year, and they're never on sale anymore. Certain meats and vegetables are noticeably more expensive too. Aside from that, I luckily haven't been affected too much (yet), as my energy and fuel consumption is relatively low. I'll be surprised if my HOA fee doesn't get raised again next year, though.

Pepsi/Coke soft drink prices are insane here. Local grocery store chain is now as high as $2.99 for a 2L. Meanwhile 7-Eleven always has them on sale at 2/$3.50.

Anything that makes me drink less of them is better shrug.

Yeah, soft drinks will kill you. I used to drink Coke and I don't miss it at all. I'm amazed that my former self could drink that.

In certain parts of the US, there's a somewhat under-reported food grade CO2 shortage.

Luckily, Pepsi products are much cheaper in my area; 2L bottles regularly go on sale for 3/$5, or even 4/$5. Coke seems to be the super premium brand around here for some reason.

I earn well as for someone in my country, and I earn ok as for someone my profession.

Inflation is 16% here and of course it's affecting me - I have quite a lot savings, so I can take a longer break because I'm having burnout issues for few years now and now my savings are worth 16% less. It's like I throw away two months of my yearly earnings.

Wait until winter. I’m in the Midwest with gas heat. Years ago I signed up for the budget plan, where the monthly payments is fixed for nine months of the year. My budget payment reset for the next 8 months 2.5x higher. Cost per therm has gone from $0.30 to $1.20. When the first customers start getting $900 bills people are going to be pissed off

Mostly feeling it in the necessities: groceries, household items, etc.

It’s meant we’ve diverted funds from wants to needs to continue hitting our budget targets, so we are fine so far but it’s noticeable.

This is in a HCOL area, low six figures, single income.

I have a 5 figure salary and I notice it hard. Everything went up like crazy and the amount of work went down. Usually after summer vacation it picks up as it's been doing for the last 15+ years, so I'm hoping it does that again this year - but I definitely notice it.

from my notes" all amazon prices

"rapsberry pi zero 2 w $50 christmas day pi 400 125-140"

currently Raspberry Pi Zero W (Wireless) ( 2017 model) $89.99 Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W (Wireless / Bluetooth) 2021 (RPi Zero 2W) $122.99

pi 400 seeed studio Raspberry Pi 400 Personal Computer in Keyboard Form Cortex A72 CPU Dual 4K HD - (Only Keyboard) $135.99

Raspberry Pi 400 Computer kit,4GB RAM,with Raspberry Pi 400 Keyboard, Wired Mouse, Micro HDMI Cable, Type-c Power Supply,16GB Card Preloaded with Raspberry $188.99

Waveshare Accessories Compatible with Raspberry Pi 400 Keyboard Computer (Included) (7items) $149.99

OP wasn't looking to discuss the prices of toys.

That’s a bit harsh, but this is definitely a very Raspberry Pi-focused take on inflation. Besides, electronics were already going up pre-war.

US inflation overall is not a war thing. It's been going on since early 2021, just made slightly worse by the war: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=TmiV

Here's a refresher:

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It materially changed how I approach the food portion of my budget. I stopped dining out, and began dining at home. When I shop, I buy what is on sale, and on some sale items, I'll buy extra and freeze the rest (so I have enough of the item, to last until it's on sale again). I meal plan around what's in my pantry, freezer, and whatever is on sale that week. Most dinners are a protein, carb, and a vegetable, so I'm eating a more balanced, healthier diet with less processed ingredients.

I see these as positive lifestyle changes

I wouldn't say we're struggling to make ends meet. But we have to think about our budget more. Before we could eat out a couple times per week, give all the extra curricular activities our kids wanted to them, we were able to save for our kids' future college, and have a decent sized discretionary spending amount that we could spend on random stuff in any given month.

Now we eat out 0 times per month. Kids are limited to 1 recurring activity at a time. Our discretionary budget is basically $0.

(UK) My shopping expenses, groceries, etc have increased significantly in 2022 vs 2021. Fortunately my rent wasn't increased in many years (and doesn't seem like it will). I also don't have a car so I'm not directly affected by petrol prices.

My energy bill, however, is predicted to jump from £150/month to £1500/month in February (my fixed rate ends 31st Jan).

All in all my disposable income has decreased by ~20% (before energy increases)

I live in Argentina so it's been affecting me for my whole life as far as I know :(

Yes.

My grocery bill is like a Costco bill.

My Costco bill is like a rent payment.

My rent payment is like a down payment.

Every other week my dad and some of his friends go out to dinner on thursday. Each time a different person picks the restaurant and buys. This week was my turn. I picked a nice steak house that recently changed owners and completely remodeled. It is local to where I live and has been getting good reviews. It was expensive and on the upper end, so the ~$350 bill for 4 people didn't really come as too much of a surprise.

One of us ordered steak and what surprised me most was that his plate came completely bare with just a lob of steak on it. Not even a tiny bit of garnish to decorate the plate with. I tried a bit of the steak and it was delicious, so maybe they just expected it to speak for itself, or was that a result of inflation? You tell me.

Steak houses charging separately for sides has always been a thing.

Isn’t that how high end steak houses always organize their menu? The sides are typically separate from the steak itself and ordered a la carte. (I’m no steak house expert, but had a similar experience a couple of times and learned how it works.)

Yea... the a la carte came on a separate smaller plate. I just have never seen a big plate with nothing else on it.

There’s normally a piece of kale for garnish…

To start, I pay more for food and gas. I expect to pay more property taxes. Also, going out to eat is much more expensive. BUT, and it's a big but, I may bitch about it but I'm lucky and thankful that it hasn't impacted my standard of living too harshly.

No, I inflation-proofed my lifestyle as soon as I could with a house, solar panels, a cheap hybrid car, and a taste for cheap, healthy, basic food (rice, beans, salad, water).

My grocery bill has increased, but otherwise I've been lucky enough to not notice inflation yet.

groceries have definitely been pushing the limits of my budget a lot more. even at the height of the covid shortages i could pretty comfortably get a month's worth of food & necessities without breaking 200$ now it easily takes around 350$ to cover the same lifestyle. the largest negative is that i feel like i'm being pushed towards unhealthier dietary habits both by price hikes and by the need to work more hours to compensate. i can get about a week's worth of ramen and toaster strudel for the same price as 2 days worth of chicken breasts.

>I am struggling to make ends meet with 6 figure salary.

How is this even possible. My expenses vary between $500-700/month, I don't pay rent, but rent is for sure not 90% of your salary.

A close relative lives on a 400€/month pension in a northern climate. Close friends, a family of five, live frugally, but comfortably on a high _four_ figure income, as in sub-9999€. Wouldn't be for me, but they do it and they're really happy.

Ill health - yourself or someone dependent on you- might be the reason, or extremely bad luck, not-so-smart decisions, living and working in a VHCOL area, or ...

Something other than inflation might be the reason you are struggling financially.

I notice that stuff is more expensive, particularly eating out, but I would say it is not affecting us, at least not yet.

Yes. Work company doubling down, refusing to give higher raise ever since covid; unless it’s a new hire.

Everything, from food to gas to toiletries to clothes to utilities, is more expensive.

And the middle class just gets beat over the brow with it. The highest taxes paid relative to income while not making enough to withstand inflation and rising taxes easily. And the lower class just gets slaughtered by these things. Meanwhile, the ultra rich literally just get richer.

cat food is up 30%

If you're struggling with 6 figured, be it 100 or 999, your problem isn't inflation.

This really depends on where they live and how big a family they are supporting.

I’m not struggling but I feel it on six figures with a family of four in a HCOL area with a special needs child and one income.

Op doesn't have a child with special needs, or he would've said that. You know, bring the most important factor.

You’re essentially saying someone on a 100k salary can’t complain, as it’s their fault if they’re feeling inflation. Why are you defending a system that is punishing the majority? Stockholm Syndrome?

You missed my point.

My point is that spending in stupid shit is a much bigger factor than inflation. So Op blaming his problems is just blame shifting. His actual problem is he's shit with money.

No, not Stockholm syndrome. I'm also on 6 figures in one of the most expensive cities in the us, but I stretch my money to the absolute limit. Instead I don't spend in stupid shit.

Think I'm wrong? Notice how OP didn't tell us where his money is going.

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