For years, Emmy Byers, founder of Texas-based event company Poppy Planning, came home from the grocery store every week with fresh flowers.
“I work with florals all day for my clients, so having my own at home felt like a little non-negotiable. Now I buy them maybe once a month, and only on a real occasion,” she said.
“The moment that did it was a Trader Joe’s run back in late winter,” Byers said. “A bunch of eucalyptus and ranunculus I’d normally toss in my cart without thinking rang up higher than I expected, and I just … put it back. Nothing dramatic. I just didn’t want to pay that for something that would be dead in a week while every other grocery line had crept up too.”
“My husband noticed before I said anything,” she continued. “He asked one evening why the kitchen counter looked bare, because there’d been flowers on it for years. That one stung a little.”
Plenty of people are making cuts like Byers, small enough that only those closest to them notice. Some changes are just good budgeting, but many others are a sign someone is struggling to cover the basics. Prices across the United States rose 3.7% in the 12 months through September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. AAA put the national average for gas at $4.33 a gallon in mid-October, and groceries cost about a third more than they did in early 2020. Restaurant prices were up 3.5% over the year.
Oren Sofrin, a real estate investor in Ohio, has cut back on takeout to make up for the shift in costs. “My breaking point was $18.50 for a basic chicken burrito at a local fast-casual spot near my office,” he said. “I looked at the receipt and tapped ‘No Tip’ for the first time in my adult life.”
He also gave up the seltzers and iced coffees he used to buy during the workday, and now brings tap water from home in a steel tumbler. “At work, a colleague joked when he saw me washing out my tumbler in the break room sink instead of walking out to the corner cafe with the rest of the team, ‘Did you join a monastery or are you saving for a house?’” Sofrin said. “I laughed it off, but I refuse to pay $4 for a can of bubbly water.”
Tyson Schnitker, who owns Skaalvenn Distillery & Cocktail Bar outside Minneapolis, has felt the impact of customers cutting back.
“September was significantly slower than average for us, and at the end of the month, I reached out to some friends who own restaurants, and they said it was the worst they had seen. I even spoke to a friend who’s been managing new car dealerships for 20 years, and he had the same September,” he said.
Kiedra Tyson, a sales and marketing director in Miami, started spacing out her salon visits.
“I love my hairstylists and nail technicians, but every time I turned around, prices seemed to be going up,” she said. “I used to get my nails done every week. Now, I might go once every other month.” Her son, who used to get a haircut regularly, now goes about once a month.
People aren’t always cutting back because they want to. Sometimes they’re cutting back on the very things that are helping them get through difficult seasons.
– Stephanie Briscoe, licensed clinical mental health counselor
Stephanie Briscoe, a licensed clinical mental health counselor in Harrisburg, North Carolina, has seen patients stretching out appointments too, including one in weekly therapy whose employer switched insurance carriers.
“Suddenly, she was responsible for approximately $130 per session toward her deductible,” Briscoe said. “She knew she still needed the support, but financially, weekly appointments were no longer realistic. Rather than give up, she reduced her sessions to once a month so she could budget for them.”
“That is what financial hardship looks like in my line of work,” she continued. “People aren’t always cutting back because they want to. Sometimes they’re cutting back on the very things that are helping them get through difficult seasons.”
Consumers are struggling even with smaller expenses, said Gabe Anderson, who owns All Healthcare Careers, a company that sells online exam prep courses for aspiring certified nursing assistants.
“My customers are the people who have to decide between paying rent or buying groceries this month,” he said. “One case that sticks with me from this year is a request I received from a customer who asked for a refund because the $27 exam-prep charge to her debit card caused her checking account to be overdrawn, so she was also hit with an overdraft fee. I gave her a refund.”
Kella Price, who runs Pawprints of Hope Rescue, a nonprofit dog and cat rescue in Springtown, Texas, sees pet owners doing the same rent-or-groceries math.
“Some are being forced to rehome pets they can no longer afford to care for, while others are surrendering dogs to shelters or abandoning them on the streets,” she said. “This means animals are staying with us longer, our resources are stretched further, and we have less room to help the next dog in need.”
Taylor Kovar, a certified financial planner and founder of 11 Financial, sorts the money-saving tactics he sees into two buckets.
“A few of these I tend to see as sensible, like switching to store brands or trimming streaming services, because in many cases people are just matching their spending to what they actually use. Going longer between haircuts probably lands in that same bucket for most people,” he said. “Where I start paying attention is when someone mentions skipping the dentist or other healthcare, since that can trade a small saving now for a bigger bill later.”
“The cutback that makes me a little concerned is anything being put off instead of decided on, like not opening the mail or not looking at account balances, because avoidance often shows up before the bigger problems do,” he said.
That applies to gift shopping, too. “For the holidays, people often feel better when they pick a number early and talk about it with family, so gifts feel like a choice and not a scramble in December,” Kovar said. “If someone sees themselves in this, a calm look at where the money went over the last month can be a gentler place to begin than a full overhaul.”
Byers, who put the flowers back at Trader Joe’s, has already made that choice for Christmas. “I’m doing more greenery I can cut from the yard and reuse, and spending the saved money on the actual gifts instead of the table,” she said. “Funny thing is, after a career telling couples a beautiful night isn’t about the flowers, I’m finally taking my own advice at home.”