<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBuy less\u201d is the most obvious answer. Yet often this isn\u2019t possible. In Mexico, one quart of Haagen-Dazs vanilla at my supermarket now costs $15.00 US, almost what it costs in the USA<\/a>. That outrageous price certainly won\u2019t keep me from buying it. Only if the price goes to $20 would I perhaps reconsider.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll bet most of you are like this with items you lust after. You cut back on things like socks and underwear, making do with holey old stuff. Beer, for some, is another non-negotiable. What do people do in rural red states, forced to buy gas to commute to their uninspiring jobs? Hard to figure that one, when there ain\u2019t much budget left to cut.<\/p>\n

Maybe that\u2019s why the hard right is making such headway. If Biden does manage to get through Congress his billions to help these folks, they will piss it away on gasoline or beer, and then what? You bite the hand that feeds you.<\/p>\n

I am just as bad. The pickup cartridge on my lovely vinyl-playing setup<\/a> is going south after many years of usage. It is of course an essential link in getting the music to my ear, and a new one of equal quality will cost about $500, plus shipping here (maybe another $100). Not buying it renders my whole collection mere wall decoration<\/a>. Buying a cheaper one is cutting off one\u2019s nose to spite the face. How many quarts of Haagen-Dazs is that worth?<\/p>\n

These kinds of quandaries are of little concern to people with real money. Instead they complain about the stock market dropping and worry about what they should do\u2014as if there were any choice but to just hang on. Suzie Orman<\/a> was interviewed on CNN the other night. Actually she looked pretty good for a 70-year-old dispensing commonplace advice. Her counsel on the stock market? Just do nothing and hang on; the market will come back; it always does (like it did in the 1930s?).<\/p>\n

For the rest of us, my uncalled-for advice is like Suzie\u2019s: just hang on. Or you could try one of the four tips from a popular Google site: \u201cask for a raise<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cBuy less\u201d is the most obvious answer. Yet often this isn\u2019t possible. In Mexico, one quart of Haagen-Dazs vanilla at my supermarket now costs $15.00 US, almost what it costs in the USA. That outrageous price certainly won\u2019t keep me from buying it. Only if the price goes to $20 would I perhaps reconsider. I\u2019ll … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “How to Beat the Inflation”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[7,11,12],"tags":[1275,1272,1270,1271,1273,1276,1277,1274,1220],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n