Inflation has been running at high levels recently, with numerous things pushing up the cost of living disproportionately. These ‘one off factors’, as they have been described by politicians and economists, don’t seem to be going anywhere fast. The rate of inflation – currently around 5 percent, depending on how you calculate it – has been predicted to decrease for months now, but unexpected factors have kept it high. Cash Genie offers some thoughts for how to bring down your own personal inflation level.

Inflation is really a measure of how much your money is worth. If £100 buys you 100 loaves of bread in January 2010 but you need £105 to buy the same number in January 2011, then inflation is 5 percent. Five percent doesn’t seem like much, but if you multiply that total across all your spending for the year, it could end up equalling £1,000 or more for the average worker. But it’s worth noticing that the inflation figures are one-size-fits-all numbers that don’t look at much of what goes on under the surface. There’s some difference between RPI and CPI indexes – one takes into account mortgage payments, the other doesn’t – but apart from that they are pretty blunt instruments. Cash Genie argues that inflation is more complex and personal than this. After all, no two shopping lists for the month are the same, which means that a month-to-month comparison of how much more you are spending than the same time last year will be different for everyone.

So, think about your personal inflation figure and how you can bring that down. What are the types of spending for you that have added disproportionate expense? Fuel is one typical one for many people, since oil prices have been driven up by problems in the Middle East. However, other categories like household equipment, cleaning products and furniture pulled down the average. In other words, Cash Genie argues that to make the best impact on your spending, find the categories that have bumped it up the most. You will be able to save far more by economising on fuel/travel, alcohol and tobacco than on other areas. If you want to get the highest bang for your buck without cutting back on every single area (which isn’t much fun) then it’s worth being a little more smart about which areas you try to economise on.

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