DAYTON — The cost of inflation impacts everything from groceries to housing to transportation and retirement.
And, household budgets are feeling the pinch, too. News Center 7’s Consumer Advocate, Clark Howard, explains how people are changing where and what they spend money on.
Consumer Huey King said, “Everything is so much more expensive. You know, it’s way harder to live.” Leah Jones said, “A lot of us need two jobs. You make it hard for us to get this, get that.”
Jones continues by saying, “ Eggs should not be $5, $10, almost $8. It shouldn’t be that high.”
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However, it could get even higher, according to the Consumer Price Index in 2026. Prices for all food are predicted to increase 2.7 percent.
There’s one simple change you can make to keep your costs down: buy store brand. Name-brand rice is $4.28. The Great Value brand at Walmart is $1.68. That is $2.40 you can keep in your wallet.
You’ll save $4.30 by skipping organic eggs. And, follow my reverse shopping list rule, build your list using the weekly coupons, and shop the deals.
Speaking of deals, Charis Brown of clarkdeals.com said, “We’re seeing a lot of people that really respond to deals that are under $10.” Brown continued by saying, “I think everyone’s feeling a bit pinched with their budgets, and so are the retailers because they are dealing with the tariffs.”
She expects to see big discounts this holiday season.
“84% of people now would prefer to get a better price than stick with the brand. So, that’s going to be really important for retailers, I think, to think about because if they want to keep their customers with them, then they’re going to think about really meeting them where they are with the price,” Brown said.
When it comes to inflation and your retirement, Wes Moss, investment advisor, said, “So, inflation will ebb and flow, and it will happen pretty quickly from year to year. It’s really difficult to try and adjust your 401K, thinking I’m just going to get out of the market when we have high inflation and then get back in when inflation is better.”
Moss said while the headlines can be scary, keep saving.
“So, if money is sitting under the mattress not earning something, inflation is clipping away at the power of that money, no matter what. So, one of the very few elixirs in order to protect our purchasing power, meaning that we can be able to afford retirement in 10 years and 20 years, is to have our money grow along with inflation,” Moss said.
The bad news is that inflation has been so ugly for the last six years. But there is good news. A lot of prices are not going up like they were before.
We are over the next few years going to get a chance to catch our breath on prices.
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