Scarred by two years of high inflation, this is how many Americans are surviving

Two years of high inflation has many Americans shopping in places they wouldn’t normally, scouring for coupons and discounts and learning to do without.  

The hit to the average budget is huge: The typical household spent $202 more in July than they did a year ago to buy the same goods and services, tweeted Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi. "And they spent $709 more (in July) than they did two years ago."

People, especially those with annual earnings less than $100,000, are trying multiple strategies to stretch their dollars, according to the Dallas Fed - from delaying major purchases and medical treatment to decreasing the use of utilities and tapping charities.

Savvy shoppers we talked to offered some of their best strategies to help cope with the ever-increasing costs of everyday life:

• Deals groups: Rachele Sossong, 34, North Carolina married mother of two, belonged to a handful of deals groups on Facebook before starting her own – The Frugal Mom – to earn some money for herself. Deals groups like hers help people track items on sale. Thousands of items are discounted daily, she said. Some items are even free.   

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“Saving as much money as you can in this economy will not only ease the burden on your wallet, but the stress that comes with the high costs we are all trying to get used to,” Sossong said. 

• No more convenience: Marvinette Hale, a 48-year-old mom of three and couponing blogger from Pennsylvania, says no more grabbing paper towels on Amazon.com for convenience, for example. Instead, she scours the aisles at Dollar General and Target for the lowest prices. 
• Forget "premium": Americans waste more than $2.1 billion annually on premium gas in vehicles designed to run on regular fuel. AAA found no benefit to using premium gas instead of regular-grade fuel. Most vehicles only require regular gas, it said.
• Track your gas: Use a gas app like the one on Gasbuddy.com to track your everyday gas usage, estimate how much gas will cost for a trip, find gas stations and get deals.
• Discover new activities: Brenda Anz, 50, mother of three and wife of a San Antonio, Tex. police officer, has slashed discretionary purchases like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and other streaming services.  And while her family enjoys weekend picnics and barbecues, they haven’t taken a vacation in three years.  
• Stockpile: Fighting the inflation war can sometimes mean we need a bunker. Anz says whenever she finds name-brand products deeply discounted, she buys multiples and stockpiles them on long neat shelves in a back room of her home. 

“The struggle is still real,” Anz said. “We are not out of the problem yet. We are nowhere near.” 

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