How to Survive Inflation and Rising Prices in 2022

If you have noticed lately, the prices of everyday necessary items like food and gas have skyrocketed.  I’m going to give you my best tips for surviving inflation and rising prices in 2022. As a mom, sometimes we don’t realize our influence over how money is spent in our home. We are often the gateway between our family income and how it is spent. For example, we have control over whether a meal is prepared at home versus eaten out in a restaurant. This can greatly impact the family budget, and we also often make the majority of everyday purchasing decisions in our home.  While research shows that men spend more money, but less often, as in the purchase of a car or truck, women actually spend more money on everyday purchases.  So this is something to consider as you manage your finances.

This is the second time in my life that I have experienced inflation since becoming an adult, and here are my biggest tips for surviving these rising costs on a daily basis in your home.

1. Create a family budget. The only way to get control of spending of a family’s finances is to know how much is coming in and how much is going out.  We have a simple, printable budget you can print and use for free. There are also many budgeting apps, but many come with a price tag, and when you’re trying to reduce spending as much as possible, you may not want another monthly bill. We also have our seven step, Financial Freedom Plan you can print and use for free.
2. Analyze your bills. Once you have your budget set up, it’s time to start looking at what bills can be reduced or completely eliminated. For example, do you have more streaming services than you need? Are you paying too much for insurance? Now would be a great time to evaluate all of your current bills and see where you can start to save. One example is to talk with your insurance agent to reevaluate all of your insurance policies to see if you can lower your premiums.
3. Build an emergency fund. Having an emergency fund is necessary for financial survival.  So many things can crop up that we don’t expect, such as illness, hospital bills, car bills, etc. Check out our article titled Ten Tips for Building an Emergency Fund to build your fund as quickly as possible.
4. Reduce expenses. This is where you probably have the most control.  This can include everything from your grocery budget and meal planning to thinking about your daily Starbucks run. Creating your budget forces you to look at how much you are spending each week on expenses such as clothing, birthdays, vacations, Christmas, and every other area where your money goes.
5. Create “margin” or surplus. This is where you need to start trying to create a surplus in your budget by reducing your spending. Creating a surplus or “margin” as we call it, is key to paying off debt and saving money.  This is also how you can fund your emergency fund and begin to truly start saving money. This is affected by every spending decision you make day after day after day. This is the nitty gritty of saying no to yourself, your spouse, or your children.
6. Check out money saving apps. One of my favorite apps is Gas Buddy right now. I use it every time I fill up, and usually Walmart is our cheapest supplier in town.  Some of my other favorite apps are iBotta, I have earned over $493.00 with iBotta since I joined.
7. Cook at home. I used to teach coupon and meal planning classes in our local area, to help local residents save money.  Meal planning can save you an astronomical amount of money each month in your budget.  We have five growing boys in our home each night (our three sons and my oldest son’s two best friends). We feed all of them pretty much every evening by cooking at home and meal planning ahead of time.  Check out our Meal Planning 101 blog post to get even more ideas about how to save on your grocery budget.
8. Make it fun. One of the best ways to stay on track with your budget is to plan some way to celebrate with your family. For example, if my boys help by setting the table each night and cleaning up the dirty dishes, they fill in circles on a sheet and when they have colored five circles I take them to our local park.
9. Do all the free things. The library, the library, the library. We go every single week. It doesn’t cost us a thing and my boys learn so, so much. Local stores like Michaels offer free crafts from time to time, but you have to be very careful not to spend while you are there. If you don’t have the self-control for that, then my suggestion is don’t go. Many summers we go to the National Mall, Arlington National Cemetery, the National Zoo, and the Smithsonian as well, because these are all FREE and teach my children many things about history, art, biology, etc.
10. Build up rewards throughout the year. Did you know I scored our beach trip for free two years ago? We are going this same way this coming summer too! My recommendation is to only use your credit cards for rewards if you KNOW that you can pay off the balance each month and keep track of expenses.  If this doesn’t fit your personality, then my suggestion is to do it together as a family and allow the person who is the detail oriented person keep track to make sure it’s being paid off each month.
11. Garden if you have the time. My suggestion is plant indigenous fruits and vegetables that will save you the most money. For example, our  family eats a tremendous amount of blueberries and strawberries. So, this year I’m considering planing these fruits, because they can be very expensive at our local grocery store. However, I’m not sure that the offset in savings will be worth the time for me, because I can tutor students for $40 an hour, and I’m always vetting how I spend my time against what I know my time is worth.
12. Consider a side hustle. I’ve always been a proponent for creating more income by having a side hustle.   Several years ago I wrote an article about our side hustles that helped us get debt free, I also love this article with 50 Side Hustles to Help You Get Debt Free, as well as How I make $5,000 a month from Young Living.

These are just a few of the ways that I try to give my boys the best life while saving as much money as possible. I’m always looking for ways to save money for our home while investing the least amount of time as possible. Please comment any suggestions you have below as well! Beating inflation can be easier than you think, and always remember, this too shall pass!