How To Deal With Inflation?

With the recent whopping petrol price hike and rising cost of living, here are 18 ideas to tackle inflation and stretch your dollar to the limit...

1. Budget and Plan for your shopping and prepare a shopping list - keep to your budget and do not spend unnecessarily;
2. Monitor prices of shopping list among different locations and opt for the least expensive pricing;
   
3. Buy in bulk or bigger quantities - generally comes with bigger savings. However, make sure there is no wastage;
4. Buy generic or household brands - they are generally cheaper due to savings passed on to consumers due to zero advertising;
5. Buy local goods instead of imported goods, unless it's absolutely necessary due to for instance, better feature and/or safety;
   
6. Time your purchase during special promotion period - this is particularly applicable for non-essential items such as clothing and electrical;
7. Less dining outside and more dining inside - cook at home will save you money from dining at fancy restaurants;
8. Look out for loyalty programs and earn reward points while shopping - save on loyalty programs (such as petrol card where certain amount of rebates given in return for petrol pumped) and convert the reward points to free merchandising;
9. When dining out, try avoiding places which charge additional service charges and/or taxes;
10. Pick lunch over dinner when dining out is necessary - lunch time typically offers better set-lunch prices;
11. Plan your journey, especially when involving multiple locations - save on making duplicate trips and better planned journey;
12. Choose a nearer local holiday destinations where driving a car is necessary;
13. Choose an appropriate mobile phone call package that suits your lifestyle. eg., prepaid vs postpaid;
14. Consider to switch or replace your car with a fuel-economy vehicle;
15. Consider on-line banking and online utility payment - save on petrol and time;
16. Cut down on utility consumption such as gas, electricity and water;
    
17. Refinance your real estate property - take advantage of lower interest rates of repayment. For the more savvy investors or business people, the surplus cash (from refinancing) can be applied to investments with better return and/or working capital. Caution - this is only for people with the right discipline!
18. Choose wisely - Go for better alternative credit card debt instruments such as Balance Transfer and/or personal loan which carries a much lower interests. Do not go for the normal credit card debt that charges as much as 18% p.a.!
19. Make you money grow faster than inflation! There's no better than Save and Invest!
    

Do you have other ideas to tackle inflation?