• Inflation is picking back up, stretching household budgets.
• High prices are pushing many to get creative with grocery and restaurant spending.
• Business Insider wants to know: How are you balancing your food costs?

"What's for dinner?"

For many Americans, the nightly question is often as much about taste preferences as it is about economic realities.

My own family's mealtimes invariably require tradeoffs of time, money, and skill that we must navigate every single day.

Now, rising inflation is once again squeezing families' finances across the US.

Food costs have so far held relatively steady this year, with increases and decreases mostly offsetting each other in a basket of goods. But soaring gas prices and other consumer expenses are eating up a larger share of household budgets, according to the latest consumer price index.

For some families, that might mean cutting down on restaurant dining in favor of home-cooked meals. For others, it's swapping out beef for a less expensive protein.

Time-strapped shoppers may find themselves increasingly eyeing their grocery store's prepared foods options as a lower-cost alternative to getting delivery.

At Business Insider, we want to know how our readers are navigating these decisions, and how that has changed in the past year.

In my family of four, for example, my wife and I decided to sharply reduce restaurant and delivery spending. By cooking more meals at home, we have basically stopped ordering delivery, and we eat out at restaurants about once a week. According to our budgeting app, we've cut our spending in that category in half.

How have you been balancing food costs with other expenses over the past year? What changes, big and small, have helped you feed yourself well and save money?

We also want to see the receipts.

What have you stopped buying? What do you now spend more on? What do you splurge on? How have gas prices affected you?

Please get in touch via email or share your info in the survey below:

• Walmart took a $175 million hit to profit growth last quarter because of fuel expenses.
• The retailer's CFO said it took the hit to preserve "trust" with customers rather than raise prices.
• If costs remain high through this year, the company said it would need to increase prices.

Walmart says it managed to keep prices steady in the face of rising fuel costs last quarter by taking a $175 million hit to profit growth.

That might not last.

Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said the company is facing hundreds of millions in new energy costs this year, which would lead to price hikes later in the year if fuel costs don't come down soon.

"We're confident this was the right approach to reinforce customer trust and support share gains over the long term," Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said Thursday on the company's first quarter earnings call. "That said, these are real impacts to cost of goods sold for us and our suppliers."

Walmart reported $177.8 billion in revenue for the first quarter, up 7.3% from the same period last year. US stores saw comparable sales growth of 4.1%, beating Bloomberg analyst estimates. Its operating income of $7.5 billion was up 5% year over year, with the fuel impact accounting for a quarter of a percentage-point drag.

The company also said its growth in other revenue streams, such as e-commerce, memberships, and advertising, helped it hold the line on prices during a challenging quarter for energy costs.

The cost pressures led Walmart to set adjusted earnings per share guidance of about $0.73 for the coming quarter, below the expected $0.75. The full-year outlook remained unchanged but was below expectations.

Walmart's stock fell about 7% after the market opened on Thursday morning.

"We're not bulletproof to some of these things that are happening in the economy," Rainey said.

Walmart has passed other costs along to shoppers in the past. Rainey said last year that tariffs were "too high" and the company would raise prices. It was one of the first major retailers to do so. Rainey said this year that any tariff refunds it receives from the government would be invested in lowering prices.

Last quarter, US drivers turned to Walmart's warehouse chain, Sam's Club, in a big way for relief on gas prices, lifting that segment's comparable sales growth to 5.9%.

"That tells you that customers are coming to us looking for value," Rainey said of Sam's Club gas purchases.

But Sam's Club also flashed affordability warning signs.

"The number of gallons that customers fill up with when they come to our fuel stations fell below 10 for the first time since 2022. That's an indication of stress," Rainey said.

• The Federal Reserve will announce its March interest rate decision on Wednesday afternoon.
• It's likely the FOMC will hold rates steady, especially as the Iran war has sent oil markets into chaos.
• The Fed will also release its first economic projections of 2026.

It's been a tumultuous few weeks for the US economy, and the Federal Reserve is paying attention.

The central bank will announce its second interest-rate decision of 2026 on Wednesday afternoon, with CME FedWatch predicting a near-total chance of a rate hold based on market moves. The Fed cut rates three times in the second half of 2025, and has penciled in at least one rate cut for the new year. For consumers, these policy decisions affect inflation, the job market, and borrowing costs.

At the March meeting, Fed leaders will consider the dismal February job growth report, steady inflation rate up through last month, first-quarter business outlook, and the budding energy and oil crisis in Iran. This is also Jerome Powell's second-to-last meeting as chair. He's set to be replaced by ex-Wall Streeter and Trump appointee Kevin Warsh in May if Warsh is confirmed by the Senate.

Here's what you need to know ahead of the decision.

The Fed has a near-total chance of holding rates

It's likely that the Fed will take a conservative approach to monetary policy in March. Holding rates steady could help control inflation. The ongoing Iran war has raised the price of gas and oil — something that's likely to impact everything from plane tickets to grocery costs over the next several months unless the situation improves. The February consumer price index, released March 11, increased 2.4% year over year, the same rise as in January. However, this figure doesn't yet reflect the spike in energy prices, as the overwhelming majority of the data predate the start of the conflict.

The Strait of Hormuz — a major trade throughfare between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman — has been largely closed by Iran's leadership since early March. The move is cutting off about 20% of global oil production, causing market volatility. Oil prices recently surged past $100 a barrel, and while they've calmed slightly, the key commodity is still far more expensive than it was before the war.

Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate, told Business Insider the oil shock "creates a real problem for consumers in the broader economy at a time when affordability challenges have already been first and foremost in terms of the major issue that voters and consumers have been railing against."

Oil isn't the only commodity choked off by the closure of the Strait — the hit to fertilizer prices could soon cause food costs to rise if the war continues.

The job market, meanwhile, is showing clear signs of weakness. The disappointing February jobs report showed that US lost 92,000 jobs that month. The unemployment rate also inched up to 4.4%. This is a contrast from January growth and the central bank's optimistic employment outlook at their last meeting.

"The January report saw a really stark reversal from the slow movement in 2025, and there was a lot of expectation that this momentum would continue and keep pace. And that was not the case for February," Nicole Bachaud, an economist at ZipRecruiter, said.

Cory Stahle, an economist at Indeed Hiring Lab, advised people to look at the broader job market trend after the US got one good January report and a bad one in February. Still, as Stahle pointed out, the US basically hasn't created jobs in the past six months.

The Fed will also release its quarterly economic projections on Wednesday, offering a window into its rate decisions for the remainder of the year. With a recent track record of policy disagreements among Fed leaders, it's possible there will be a wide range of predictions.

What the Fed's decision means for consumers

Fed decisions impact mortgage and credit card rates, auto loans, inflation, and job market churn over time. Lower rates may juice a sluggish job market, at the risk of pushing consumer prices higher. Powell and the Federal Open Market Committee will weigh which side of their dual mandate to prioritize. The bank's inflation goal is 2%.

If the Fed holds rates, Americans' finances will remain largely unchanged. Mortgage, auto, and credit rates tend to fluctuate alongside the federal funds, though it takes a pattern of decisions before interest rates change noticeably for consumers. Businesses and job seekers hoping for cheaper borrowing and a hotter labor market might have to wait until later this year.

Powell said at the last Federal Open Market Committee press conference in January that America's economy is coming into the year "on a firm footing," but "policy is not on a preset course, and we will make our decisions on a meeting-by-meeting basis."

Leadership changes are imminent

Trump has nominated Warsh, a former bank executive and central bank governor, to succeed Powell as Fed chair. Warsh has a reputation for hawkish monetary policy and for being tough on inflation, and it's unclear whether he will follow through on Trump's request for more rate cuts.

Matt Colyar, an economist at Moody's Analytics, said the inflation story will be interesting to follow.

"You got a Fed chair tapped because he got the job because of his stated intention of lowering interest rates, and now you're going to get an inflationary shock that's going to push up prices with no real clear end game in sight," Colyar said about the oil shock and spillover effects from the Iran war.

Warsh's nomination is shadowed by tensions between the central bank and the White House. Fed Governor Lisa Cook's case was heard by the Supreme Court earlier this year after Trump accused her of mortgage fraud, which her legal team denies. Powell also announced in January that the Department of Justice launched a probe — which is still ongoing — into the Fed's handling of construction at its Washington, DC, buildings.

The probe sparked major concerns about political pressure on interest rates and Fed independence. Last week, federal judge James Boasberg squashed two subpoenas from the DOJ as part of the probe.

"A mountain of evidence suggests that the Government served these subpoenas on the Board to pressure its Chair into voting for lower interest rates or resigning," Boasberg said.

Senators from across the aisle, including retiring North Carolina Republican Thom Tillis, who sits on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, have signaled that they will oppose a confirmation vote for Warsh or any of Trump's Fed picks because of the DOJ probe. These confirmation hearings have not yet been scheduled, though Powell's term ends May 15.

The president hopes to see a rate cut sooner rather than later.

"Where is the Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome 'Too Late' Powell, today?" Trump posted on March 12. "He should be dropping Interest Rates, IMMEDIATELY, not waiting for the next meeting!"