Inflation

[Rose]

I had to renew my gym membership and realized it went from 529 last year to  728 this year.

 

On the weekend I went to get highlights in my hair, last year I paid 300$, this year I paid $450..

 

They say the inflation rate is 8%, vs my gym price actually increased by 38%.
 

Isn’t this really insane that prices are growing so much? Where is the 8% coming from if the actual inflation seems to be much higher? 

[Reena]

Try to look for discounts during sales. 

 

Stock up stuff when they are marked lower than original price. 

 

Spend only on things you really need. 

 

Covid and Russian war made things doubly harder. 

 

Buy anything only after reading a ton of reviews, to avoid "regret buys." 

 

Make full use of your gym membership so it doesn't feel like wasted money. 

 

Don't buy too much clothing. We always buy more than we need or we can make room for

 

 

Avoid buying on a whim. 

 

Do something at home by yourself  instead of the salon, lots of DIY techniques You'll get those highlight dyes to use at home. Save up on the service charge. 

 

Never spend on takeaway food, restaurants and vacations. It's a farce and a money sink. Temporary pleasure at a huge price. 

 

Always keep a steady cap on your expenses.

 

Avoid thinking that you need something. 

 

Don't look at promotions and advertisements. They are always a money grab. Always meant to seduce your pocket. 

 

Money saved today will say thank you to you tomorrow. 

 

Inflation will keep rising like global warming 

 

Solution is to save as much as you can and forget the economy because economy was never made for us. It only benefits the mega rich. 

 

Even during Covid some mega rich got richer.

 

The economy is a bug for the average man, not a feature. 

 

Have a good day 

 

 

 

[Mandy]

More people have more money than ever. If there's a lot of demand for services, costs go up. Would you do someone's highlights for the same amount you did three years ago if all your living expenses have gone up since then and you have more clients calling than you can schedule? 

[Mandy]

Here's a couple great blog posts on the subject. 

 

https://www.actualityofbeing.com/blog

 

https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2022/01/11/inflation-should-we-be-worried/

[Blessed2]

52 minutes ago, Mandy said:

More people have more money than ever.

 

There's more money in circulation.

 

And all that money is someone's debt they can't pay back.

[Mandy]

@Blessed2 "Someone's" debt. The concept of money is the concept of debt, $1 is $1 debt. The stability of which depends entirely on belief or faith, which is the potential of it to flow. It appreciates, becomes more as people appreciate. It's a gesture of appreciation. 

 

We just went through a global pandemic and managed to mitigate it from becoming a far, far greater problem that could have potentially destroyed health care systems and costs millions more their lives than it would have been had we not shut down systems for a time, risking the economy. The fact that everything is doing as well as it is right now is absolutely unbelievable. 

 

Check out this blog post, there's a lot of good graphs in it that put things in a long term perspective rather than just what the news has to say about a snapshot in time. https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2022/01/11/inflation-should-we-be-worried/

 

[Phil]

On 5/16/2023 at 3:08 PM, Rose said:

Isn’t this really insane that prices are growing so much? Where is the 8% coming from if the actual inflation seems to be much higher? 

That isn’t per se inflation. That’s a gym and a salon raising their prices. 

Inflation is the change to the interest rate. 

But even that inflation isn’t per se inflation. 

That inflation (interest rate adjustment) is an adjustment to offset natural inflation, which is the apparent expansion of the universe. 

But yeah, is there a mass price gouge happening that started apparently with increasing the living wage… sure is. 

You’d be quite pleasantly surprised (to say the least) as to ‘where’ inflation is actually ‘coming from’. 

[Rose]

20 hours ago, Mandy said:

Would you do someone's highlights for the same amount you did three years ago if all your living expenses have gone up since then and you have more clients calling than you can schedule?

Idk if she is overbooked, she was able to schedule me on a Saturday without a problem, with short notice. I think she is quite struggling to find customers. 
 

I can see how her living expenses have increased though, but still, not at this rate.
 

Edited May 20, 2023 by Rose

[Rose]

17 hours ago, Phil said:

You’d be quite pleasantly surprised (to say the least) as to ‘where’ inflation is actually ‘coming from’. 

Where is it actually coming from?

 

17 hours ago, Phil said:

That inflation (interest rate adjustment) is an adjustment to offset natural inflation, which is the apparent expansion of the universe. 

Are you saying that universe’s rate of increase has increased? 

[Mandy]

3 hours ago, Rose said:

Idk if she is overbooked, she was able to schedule me on a Saturday without a problem, with short notice. I think she is quite struggling to find customers. 
 

I can see how her living expenses have increased though, but still, not at this rate.
 

Did you ask around at other places for prices? 

[Mandy]

@Rose I'm sometimes overly enthusiastic about DIY stuff, but these kits work really well, even though I find the photo on the box not very appealing, the results always look better because you get to chose exactly where you want them. 🤷‍♀️https://www.amazon.com/Professional-Techniques-Design-Caramel-1-Count/dp/B001EXJUTY/ref=asc_df_B001EXJUTY/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312075031673&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=12149110278804347645&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9002775&hvtargid=pla-624025987887&psc=1  It is a lot of work, but not $300 worth of work. 

[Phil]

6 hours ago, Rose said:

Where is it actually coming from?

If every person on earth took a picture of the stars every night for a year and then made a slide show out of those pictures, it would be seen is that all of the stars, the entire universe… is expanding outwardly from each point of view. 

6 hours ago, Rose said:

Are you saying that universe’s rate of increase has increased? 

It’s really more of an apparent expansion (vs a thing increasing in terms of speed or size). The rate is experiential, similar to how time seems to pass different making out vs waiting in a long line. 

[Rose]

7 hours ago, Mandy said:

Did you ask around at other places for prices? 

I really like that girl, over the years she’s been the only one who can give me the kind of hair that I want. But I think it’s all around the same price, I have a hair place close to my house and they have similar prices and they don’t even style your hair afterwards

 

6 hours ago, Mandy said:

enthusiastic about DIY stuff

Oh when it comes to bleach I rather not experiment. Sometimes even professional hair colourist can destroy your hair, you have to be very careful with it. Even my hair colourist says she struggles a lot to do her own hair. 
 

It also takes her 3-4 hours to do my highlights.

[Mandy]

@Rose I would look at it like she's an artist offering a luxury service that you greatly appreciate and are really happy to be able to afford. It can be helpful to write out categories in life that you really enjoy splurging on, then guiltlessly splurge (assuming you've got your financial situation covered) and those which you don't get a lot of value from the money. Some people love spending money on their vehicles, others don't care about them, same with hair. Then you can cut spending on what's not worth it to you, and appreciate more what you do. Things are really in flux since the pandemic, prices changing everywhere and people have to get more intentional, what you get intentional about is up to you. A lot of good stuff comes from getting intentional and aligning with our choices. If we are paying for services we feel over overpriced we rob ourselves of the appreciation of them that we are there for in the first place. 

[Pluto]

As above so below, as within so without 🙂