Facing Higher Grocery Prices, Shoppers Change Habits
About 71% of Americans said they feel their paycheck is not able to keep up with inflation, a report by Experian found.
In addition, 29% of respondents said they expect they will barely be able to make ends meet this month and roughly the same number predicted that their spending will likely exceed their budget in the months ahead.
“People are struggling to figure out how to meet those challenges,” said Rod Griffin, a senior director at Experian. “It’s a huge concern.
Roughly 62% of the U.S. population is living paycheck to paycheck, a separate survey by LendingClub found.
Even wealthier Americans are having a harder time getting by. Half of workers earning more than $100,000 said they have little to nothing left over at the end of the month, according to LendingClub’s poll of 3,250 adults.
“The challenge is that this requires them to deplete their savings and their safety net and that can cause other problems,” said Simon Blanchard, an associate professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.
“They become financially vulnerable,” he said.
A hot job market, low unemployment and a historically high rate of savings gave many Americans a boost heading into 2022, making them more willing to pay higher prices for goods and services.
But while wages have grown, they have not kept pace with inflation, which is now rising at the fastest annual pace in about four decades.
Real earnings were up 5
