Beat inflation: The financial fire drill.

I figured the words “beat inflation” might get your attention. Let me say upfront, however, that inflation isn’t 100 percent beatable. No matter how self-sufficient we are, we still have to pay taxes and buy certain things (any food we can’t grow, sewing materials, shoes).

Even if we ride bikes instead of drive cars, we need replacement parts. If we do our own home improvements, we need to pay for materials somehow. And we can’t meet all our needs through rewards programs and Buy Nothing Facebook groups (although I’m having fun trying).

In the novel “The Godfather,” mobsters would hole up in anonymous apartments in times of gang strife. They called it “going to the mattresses.” Right now we’re in times of financial strife, and we should all think about going to the frugal mattresses: How to make the smartest, safest decisions to beat inflation?

Here’s how to start: by doing what I call the financial fire drill, a kind of extreme budget makeover. The idea isn’t that you won’t pay your bills, but rather that you’ll look for ways to cut the number and size of those bills.

The financial fire drill is pretty simple. You build a baseline budget, i.e., the absolute minimum you need to survive). That means basic shelter, utilities, medical care, food, clothing and debt service (installment loans, child support). The idea isn’t to starve in an unheated garret. It’s to figure out how little you could spend without jeopardizing health, safety and solvency.

Congratulations: Now you know where you could cut your budget!

You don’t necessarily have to implement all of the fire drill. You just have to know how to implement it.

The day you learn to use a fire extinguisher the right way should not be the day your workbench catches fire. It’s the same with the financial fire drill: If inflation keeps kicking your butt, or if you’re suddenly faced with a major new expense, you’ll have the blueprint for “finding” the money to keep going.

How does the FFD beat inflation?

Knowing how much you spend is essential. The whole point of a budget is to know where your money is going and to make each dollar work hard. Very hard.

Lately, though, our dollars simply aren’t going as far. If things get worse, we’re going to need to know where we can cut. Here are a few examples:

Stop those extra payments

Putting an extra $50 or $100 a month on a mortgage can greatly reduce the total amount you pay. (Even an extra $25 can make a difference.) If push comes to shove, however, temporarily halting those payments would be another $50 or $100 you’d have available for spending.

That’s spending as in “not using plastic,” incidentally – not as in, “Yay, I have more money to spend!” If inflation threatens to derail your monthly budget, using that extra $50 or $100 to help cover the cost of new shoes for your fast-growing teen makes more sense than sliding slowly into credit card debt (which comes with ruinously high interest rates).

Would it be better to have the extra payments against the mortgage? Well, sure. But it’s also great not to put $100 on a credit card with 19 percent interest. Murphy’s Law being what it is, “need new shoes” might be followed by “Fido swallowed a corncob” and “car is making a funny noise.”

Look at food differently

For example, you’d nix most (preferably all) meals out in favor of food cooked at home. But you’d also make sure those meals were nutritious and tasty as well as cheap, since living on ramen and oatmeal won’t do you much good.

Sites such as BudgetBytes.com and 365 Days of Slow and Pressure Cooking are good places to start. Or just search for what you want, e.g., “easy recipes for leftover chicken” or “fast vegan dishes.” Best-case scenario: You find a few dishes everyone loves and start making them a few times a month, saving money right now instead of waiting for inflation to get worse.

Seek cheaper fun

Nights out, expensive hobbies and the kids’ extracurricular activities could be cut to a minimum, at least for a while. Replace some (or all) of them with cheaper/free alternatives: board game nights, potlucks, walks, geocaching, making music, learning a new skill or a new language (YouTube has loads of how-to videos).

My niece recently started volunteering for the “Ushering in the Arts” program, so she can experience plays and concerts for free. Maybe a local performing arts center, museum or nature reserve could use your help.

Or, yes, hit the screens. Download a free games app (not the kind you have to put money into in order to play). Stream free movies/TV or borrow a free audio book from your local library. With these, you might consider cutting cable (if you still have it) in favor of the free stuff and/or one or two basic streaming services.

Do a little legwork regarding free TV options, such as Peacock and Crackle. If you’ve already got Amazon Prime, take a closer look at the free entertainment options it offers. (As an Amazon affiliate, I may receive a fee for items bought/memberships purchased through my link.)

Change the way you shop

Speaking of Amazon: You’ll need to take a hard look at spending. Do you regularly buy little treats for yourself and others? That’s a lovely thought. It’s also an expendable one. (Or perhaps that should be an “ex-spending” one.)

Examine your shopping patterns and see if they’re triggered by depression, fatigue or guilt. Get in the habit of leaving that whatever-it-is in your virtual cart and signing out, so you can sleep on the decision. The next day you might not even remember why you wanted to buy it.

If after 24 hours you still need/want the item, think about other possible ways to get your needs met without spending. Chief among them is joining one of those Buy Nothing Facebook groups; while not every group is great, sometimes it’s astounding what people are giving away.

Hunt for better deals

This is a great time to start looking for better insurance rates. You might be shocked to learn how much you could save by switching providers. Services such as The Zebra will do the work for you, so ask them to run the numbers. And if you change companies, ask an agent whether you should raise your deductible, or how much you’d save if you dropped collision coverage on your hoopty.

Ditto your cellular phone bill. Just because you started out with Big Phone Company a dozen years ago doesn’t mean you have to stay with them. You might save a bunch by changing to a company like Mint Mobile or Visible. Now’s the time to start comparing costs.

And on the topic of phones: If you regularly upgrade, ask yourself why.

Test-driving the FFD

Again, it’s a good idea to try out different aspects of the financial fire drill right now. Show of hands: How many of you learned how to change a tire before you needed to, vs. trying to figure it out in the rain, in the dark, with a dimming flashlight?

The same holds true with the FFD: Learn how the different parts fit together before you start trying to drive it around the block.

For example, you’d join a Buy Nothing Facebook group now, not later. Follow along for a while, to get an idea of what’s being offered; if possible, give away a few things you no longer want, to feel like a part of things. Best-case scenario: You clear some clutter and maybe, just maybe, find a way to get things you need without unlimbering your credit card.

As noted above, you’d look for simple (yet still tasty) ways to cook at home with a minimum of hassle. Aim for one or two nights to start, or try batch cooking for four hours on a Saturday; if everyone pitches in, there will be food in the fridge and freezer for the rest of the week. When you come home tired, there will always be something ready to eat.

And with the winter holidays standing tiptoe in the wings, now is a very good time to think about how you will celebrate. Suppose you normally buy new décor and a few Christmas ornaments every year. That doesn’t mean you have to do it this year. 

Or perhaps you host an enormous family dinner and bear much of the expense yourself; now, right now, is the time to get on the family chat: “Guys, food costs are way out of control, so I will provide turkey, gravy and stuffing but I need some help with side dishes and desserts. So who’s bringing what?”

Not always easy, but necessary

Is all this going to be hard? Maybe. Change can be hard – and sometimes, change can be necessary. And it’s necessary right now, if you want to beat inflation.

Sure, it seems unfair that you work hard yet your money buys less and less. But we can’t wish it all away. Until prices go back to something approaching normal (and I’m not holding my breath), we have to do what we can to beat inflation.

Wail and gnash your teeth and rend your garments all you want, but then start looking for the best ways to use available funds. Continuing to live the way you always have is financial suicide, because those bills will keep coming whether or not you can cover them.

Here’s the good news: Doing the FFD can actually be quite freeing. Having done one myself, I can tell you that when you learn you could get by on as little as $X a month feels great. And you can always add the fun stuff back in, as financial pressures ease.

That is, if you want to – because when that time comes, you may realize you’re doing just fine with less. I’m no minimalist, but let me say this: Having fewer needs means more room in your life as well as in your budget.

Like all fire drills, this is an “in case of emergency” safety move. Relatively few schools (or homes) catch on fire each year, but knowing what to do if that happens is still a good idea.

Readers: Have you been running the budget numbers? Got any tips to share?