The Daily Money: Is inflation taming our spending?

Good morning! It's Daniel de Visé with your Daily Money.

Inflation finally pushed Mark Hawkes to a breaking point. So, a few months ago, he canceled his gym membership.

Hawkes also plans to downgrade his family’s cable TV service. He may even cut the cord, relying on over-the-air TV and streaming services.

At the same time, he’s spending $2,500 to remodel his bathroom, a project that wasn’t exactly a must-do.

Two years after pandemic-related product and labor shortages pushed inflation to a 40-year high, the American consumer has become a study in contradictions. Households are broadly cutting their discretionary spending and making a decided turn toward the practical. But they’re still buying things they really want, analysts say.

Paul Davidson explains.

Finally, some good news in the housing market

Mortgage rates are high, home prices are lofty and selection is slim.

There isn’t much to like about the housing market, except for one small positive: more affordable homes are coming onto the market.  

In May, the national median listing price inched up 0.3% to $442,500 from a year earlier, but price per square foot rose 3.8%, Realtor.com said. Since May 2019, the median listing price has jumped 37.5% while price per square foot soared 52.7%.

All of that sounds bad. Yet, if you dig through the data, you can find a lot more reasonably priced homes for sale.

Medora Lee explains.

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🍔 Today's Menu 🍔

John Oliver, an occasional critic of casual-dining restaurant chains, is using kitchen equipment that once belonged to Red Lobster as a bargaining chip to get his face on a cake.

On the June 2 episode of Oliver's HBO show "Last Week Tonight," the host announced that the show had bought the contents of a shuttered Red Lobster location in Kingston, New York, amid the company's bankruptcy filing. The show then rebuilt the restaurant inside the studio, serving only the restaurant's famous Cheddar Bay biscuits.

There's a long and typically weird story behind Oliver's Red Lobster play.

Gabe Hauari explains.

About The Daily Money

Each weekday, The Daily Money delivers the best consumer and financial news from USA TODAY, breaking down complex events, providing the TLDR version, and explaining how everything from Fed rate changes to bankruptcies impacts you.

Daniel de Visé covers personal finance for USA Today.