Can Technology Ease the Cost of Living Crisis?

I saw an article in Innovation & Tech Today magazine that caught my attention recently. It was focused on the modern cost of living crisis and how technology is helping people to manage costs more effectively.

The cost of living varies from one country and region to another so this is not a uniform problem. In fact, the USA is doing relatively well at present with quite low inflation and low unemployment. In many European countries, such as the UK where I am originally from, there has recently been a combination of very high energy costs, high food costs, and high inflation.

This is not a partisan comment on European politics. Many of the issues that have caused these problems have been largely out of the control of the European governments that are now trying to find solutions. The Covid pandemic, Brexit in the UK, and the conflict in Ukraine have all contributed to economic instability in the region.

But the real issue for most people is when the cost of basic essentials such as food, energy, and housing increases at a much faster rate than incomes.

Surely there isn’t anything that technology can do to help, is there?

Unfortunately the magazine article doesn’t help a great deal. It suggests that vertical farming will make food cheaper, 3D printing will help by creating ready-to-assemble homes, robots by hospital beds will reduce healthcare costs, and our ability to easily take digital photos means that we no longer need to spend vast amounts of cash on film and development.

Talking about the cost of developing photos in 20204?

So although the subject of the article caught my attention, because it is an interesting idea, the content itself was extremely light on detail.

In my opinion, there are many ways that consumers can use technology to address the cost of living crisis. These include:

• Reduce energy use: use smart meters to always be aware just how much energy you are using, use smart thermostats to only heat your home when needed, use low energy LED lightbulbs, where possible use solar power to reduce reliance on the grid, pay attention to energy ratings when buying new appliances and only buy those with very low energy ratings.
• Reduce food costs: Use shopping apps to find deals, use meal planning apps to plan a week of meals and the required ingredients, search online for local farms that allow you to buy direct, use gardening apps to plan when and how you can grow your own vegetables, use food sharing apps to share your own excess food or find others sharing excess food that would just be wasted, use price comparison apps to compare grocery costs.
• Other general ideas: use basic tech in the kitchen like slow cookers or microwaves to avoid the energy cost of a traditional oven, use home automation systems to control lights and heating automatically, especially when you are not at home.

I’m not a consumer expert that is always advising on these issues, but it does seem that there are many specific areas of technology use that can help people to reduce their cost of living – especially food costs and energy use.

This might be a subject that is worth returning to as the European winter approaches as I have a strong feeling that smart meters and thermostats could be a very good case study for the internet of things – a subject that has been talked about for many years on this blog.

For examples of IBA projects and client success stories, please click here. Follow IBA Group on LinkedIn for regular updates and comment.