Handmade soaps are a luxurious product that has become popular in recent years for their natural ingredients and beautiful scents. However, due to inflation, the prices of some handmade soaps may be on the rise along with so many other items that people regularly purchase for their households. In this blog post, we'll take a look at what inflation is and how it's affecting the price of handmade soap. Keep reading until the end of the post to look for a few tips for saving money on handmade soap even when inflation is high.
What is Inflation?
Inflation is the rate at which services and goods prices increase. It is typically measured by how much the cost of a basket of services and goods rises over time. In the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) measures inflation using the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
The CPI is a measurement of the average change in prices over time of a market basket of a fixed assortment of consumer-purchased services and goods. The BLS releases data on the CPI every month. The CPI can be used to calculate inflation rates for different periods, such as month-over-month, year-over-year, and more.
It's important to note that inflation is different from a one-time price increase; inflation happens when prices continually go up over an extended period.
Inflation rates were relatively low from 2009 through 2020 in the United States of America. The U.S. annual inflation rate was 1.4% for 2020 and 4.7% for 2021. In August 2022, the inflation rate for the previous 12-month period was over 8%.
How Inflation Affects Handmade Soap Prices
Since handmade soap is made with natural ingredients like vegetable oils, its prices are especially susceptible to inflation. For example, let's say that the price of olive oil increases by 10%. This will likely cause the price of handmade soap to increase by a similar amount since olive oil is one of the main ingredients in most artisanal soaps. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has projected that for 2022 an increase will occur in the wholesale prices of oils and fats that will range between 16 and 19 percent. Some ingredient prices may have even doubled. So some soap makers may end up increasing the prices that they charge for their handmade soap bars.
As a result of these rising prices, some people who love buying handmade soap may have to consider cutting back on their purchases temporarily or looking for ways to save while still buying. But if your finances allow, do not deprive yourself of this little luxury. Until inflation subsides, it looks like we'll have to learn to live with higher prices for our favorite luxury items as well as everyday items that we need for our household.
How do you lessen the effects of inflation when buying handmade soap online?
So you're looking to buy some soap online, but are worried about the price and how inflation has affected the prices of homemade soap? There may be a way to buy homemade soaps from small businesses that have been around long enough that they can offer discounts when it comes time to purchase their products.
One way when buying online is to check for sales, to look for any opportunity to get a discount code in exchange for signing up for an email list, or to see if there are any other ways you can get a discount code. Even a small discount helps.
Another way to lessen the effects of inflation as it relates to the prices of handmade soap is to buy soap online with free domestic shipping so you are not paying for shipping on top of paying for the soap itself. When you are looking for handmade soap for sale, for even more savings you should buy your soap from a soap maker that does not require a minimum purchase to get free domestic shipping.
One final way is to buy soap samples. Look for free soap samples or even soap quarter samples for as little as $4.00 each with free shipping, which ends up being more cost-effective than buying them for $2.00 to $3.00 and having to pay $4.00 to $5.00 for shipping on top of that. Your soap will be smaller than full size, but you will still have the joy of being able to get handmade soaps.
Conclusion:
Inflation is a problem that affects us all in one way or another. For those of us who enjoy buying products like handmade soap, it can be especially difficult to keep up with rising prices. However, until inflation rates go down, we'll just have to find ways to save money while still buying the handmade artisan soap that we love.