About 53 million paycheck-to-paycheck consumers say they have no room left to reduce essential spending.

Food prices were unchanged for the month, while prices fell for furniture, appliances and several other goods.

September gave consumers lower prices on appliances, furniture and some food categories. It also gave them a 9.1% increase in gasoline prices.

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The Consumer Price Index rose 0.6% in September on a seasonally adjusted basis and 3.7% from a year earlier. During the third quarter, prices rose 1.1%, the largest increase for the period in three years.

For about 53 million paycheck-to-paycheck consumers, the latest price increases are arriving after they have already exhausted what they believe they can remove from essential spending.

The September PYMNTS Intelligence report “The Five Financial Realities of Paycheck-to-Paycheck Living” estimates that two-thirds of U.S. adults, or about 180 million consumers, live paycheck to paycheck. Our data show that about 28 million were “knocked down with no room,” meaning an external shock such as a job loss or medical bill left them with nothing more to cut from essential spending. Another 25 million were “locked in by daily spending,” with everyday spending patterns leaving nothing further to cut.

About 40 million consumers believe they have room to reduce essential spending and have tried unsuccessfully to do so. About 45 million have room and report having successfully reduced those expenses.

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