According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the government agency responsible for tracking inflation, prices rose by 8% in 2022, the highest annual increase in prices since the first year of the Reagan administration. This compares with 4.7% in 2021 and 1.2% in 2020. All told, something that cost $1,000 on January 1, 2020 cost $1,150 as of January 1, 2023. The memes don’t lie; the price of those incredible, edible eggs rose from an average of $1.93 to $4.25 per dozen last year [1].

But your own, personal rate of inflation is not doomed to mirror the rise of the government’s measure of inflation. The government measures inflation by tracking the cost of a static basket of goods and services; the exact same items each month. However, what you buy and when you buy it is not static. By challenging some assumptions and with a little creativity, your monthly basket of goods and services can be manipulated to your advantage. With minimal impact on your lifestyle, you can mute the impact of rising prices on your family’s finances by reducing your personal inflation rate.

The easiest way to combat inflation is to…wait for it…not spend money. Ground breaking advice, I know. For necessities like food and shelter, this is not an option. But for long lasting items (known as “durable goods” in economics), at a time when the prices of many things are increasing weekly, deferring purchases could save you thousands.

Vehicle purchases are a prime example. Inflation related to motor vehicles reached a peak in February 2022 when the price of a used vehicle was 40% higher than a year earlier. Since then, prices have steadily declined. In December 2022, used car prices declined 9% compared to December 2021 [2]. According to Edmunds.com, the average cost of a used vehicle in December 2022 was $29,533. This means if you had been in the market for a used vehicle in December 2021, but delayed that purchase for one year, you saved nearly $3,000. With vehicle prices poised to continue to drop through 2023, you can still save thousands by postponing a vehicle purchase.

Many people replace cars at a certain number of years, mileage or when the note is paid off. If one of these triggers describes your car buying philosophy, consider why this is. If you typically replace your car at 100,000 miles, why? What would be the impact of waiting until 130,000 miles, 150,000 miles, or even 200,000 miles? The most common reason given for replacing vehicles at one of these milestones is reliability; the increased cost and hassle of repairs justifies the purchase of a new(er) vehicle. I suggest that it would be to your benefit to take on the risk of additional cost and hassle for the upkeep of your current vehicle when every month that the purchase of a vehicle is deferred saves you hundreds of dollars.

On the topic of repairs, when inflation is raging, repairing, rather than replacing, household appliances can save you hundreds of dollars. My wife and I received a KitchenAid mixer for our wedding almost 24 years ago. Recently the mixer stopped performing its eponymous function, rendering it a useless domestic decoration. My wife found a local repair shop that diagnosed the problem as stripped silicone gears in the motor. Fifty dollars later, those gears were replaced and we had a mixer operating as if we had just taken it out of the box. This repair saved us over $600. After 24 years of use, sure the enamel has chipped, but the chocolate chip cookies are just as delicious.

Dishwashers, washers, dryers, A/C units, refrigerators, mixers…if you can repair and squeeze an additional year or more of useful life from these items, you’ll find the replacement cost in the future will be much more affordable.

If you purchased groceries in 2022, you know eggs weren’t the only staple to zoom higher in the last year. Milk finished the year at $4.28 per gallon, up 11% from a year earlier. Bread was up 20%. Bacon, however, was the crispy, golden-brown lining of the breakfast game in 2022. Bacon prices finished the year down 4% [2].

Unlike vehicles or mixers, you can’t defer the purchase of groceries until prices decline. Husbands, wives, and kids eat everyday. Multiple times. You can, however, adjust what you buy.

Store brands are typically cheaper than name brands during times of stable prices and this is no different when prices are on the rise. A quick check of your favorite shopping app and you’ll see. Prices of store label items are 35%-60% less than their name brand counterparts.

Store brands have a reputation for being of lower quality than name brands. Rather than assuming this to be true, when savings of 35%-60% are on the line, verify this for yourself. When it comes to grocery items, quality is often in the eye of the beholder. You may find you and/or your family prefer certain store brand items over the name brand alternative.

Gamify the process of evaluating store brands and involve your family. On your Notes app, a piece of paper, or even a piece of poster board, list the items you will be testing. Make two columns next to each item labeled something like “Buy again” and “Never again.” Make a third column for comments. Purchase a few store brand items each time you buy groceries and document you and your family’s evaluation on your form. The goal is not to replace every name brand item in your cart with the store brand equivalent. The goal is to find those items which you and your family agree are “good enough” and, in the process, reduce your monthly grocery spending by 5%, 10%, or even 15%. Gamifying this process will change your perspective from “We are settling for less” to “We are conducting consumer research.”

Why do you buy what you buy when you buy it? Challenging purchasing assumptions and making changes to your purchasing habits like deferring large purchases, repairing rather than replacing, and buying cheaper alternatives can dramatically reduce your personal inflation rate. Beyond the current inflationary period, these changes will reduce your cost of living throughout your life. Spending less today for the same standard of living will free up cash to invest in your future.