Rising Costs in 2015

Your guide to goods and services expected to increase in price in 2015.

Abraham Lincoln once said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” Budgeting and being organized with your money is the foundation for creating more money.

This year, 2015 brings with it rising costs that could negatively impact your budget if you’re not prepared. Here’s a list of what’s going to get more expensive this year:

• Food & Drink: With droughts in California, agricultural development has been impaired which has also impacted beef and pork livestock.  A drought in Brazil has resulted in less supply which is raising the cost of coffee. Bourbon is becoming a much more popular beverage and is used more in more in cooking recipes as well. And since, it takes years to make, there’s simply not enough to meet demand. Chocolate is also supposed to rise in cost due to higher demand.
• Travel: Folks are traveling again. This means there are fewer flights with empty seats and empty seats are what drives deals with airlines. With fuel prices being much lower than they have been in a long time, airlines don’t seem to be dropping any fees they added when fuel rose in 2008. Additionally, Hotels are expected to increase rates by a little over 2%.
• Debt: The Federal Reserve is doing away with a mechanism they put into place during the 2008 financial crisis to stimulate the economy. This will likely result in higher rates on interests.
• Health Care: Costs for health care is expected to increase by almost 7% next year. It’s projected that many employers will raise deductibles and/or have employees pay more out of their paychecks.
• Shipping: USPS has not announced an increase in postage for 2015 although, FedEx and UPS both have announced an increase. Also, online companies have been raising minimums on purchases for free-shipping as well as charging more for subscriptions that include free shipping.
• Electricity: Many utilities across the US are planning on the steepest increases since 2008.