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Jim LaPointe knows that how the economy feels “depends on your perspective.”

Four years after Covid-19 lockdowns kicked off a home fix-up frenzy, the central New Jersey contractor’s business remains through the roof. While Home Depot said earlier this month that customers are increasingly holding off on big projects, LaPointe is seeing the opposite. He’s been turning some clients away to avoid being “booked up a year in advance.”

“They’re going nuts with this,” he said of homeowners’ appetite for renovations.

It wasn’t long ago when a stock market smashing records and unemployment at decadeslong lows were huge advantages for an incumbent president. But today, with voters heading to the polls in little more than five months, it’s less clear what role the economy will play in an electorate that’s also fractured by immigration and abortion rights.

An NBC News poll last month found cost-of-living concerns remain top of mind for voters. While presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump is seen — by a 52% to 30% margin — as better positioned to tackle inflation than his Democratic rival, President Joe Biden, 1 in 4 voters have yet to make up their minds about the race.

“We’re getting close to the period, usually in the summer, when public attitudes on the economy traditionally harden,” said Greg Valliere, chief U.S. policy strategist at AGF Investments, who so far sees Biden as “the clear underdog.”

The Biden campaign, which rejects that view, has been ramping up its economic messaging all year. It notes that the country dodged a much-forecast 2023 recession and weathered the Federal Reserve’s 11 interest rate hikes while continuing to add more jobs and small businesses.

The robust labor market and a Covid savings cushion mean many consumers continue to spend heavily, even those who face a budget squeeze elsewhere. That financial push-and-pull is still clouding — and in some cases distorting — many households’ view of an otherwise sunny economy, while leaving others more hopeful.

‘I can’t run on the hamster wheel fast enough’

Meg Thomann, a communications director for a pharmaceutical company, is one of Jim LaPointe’s customers. She and her husband, an architect, are renovating the historic home they share with their three kids. While they have the disposable income to do so, Thomann said it still “feels like I can’t run on the hamster wheel fast enough.”

In the middle of fixing her roof and preparing

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More businesses are offering financial incentives to consumers who pay with cash rather than credit card. Consumers may save 2% to 4% on their purchase by using cash. They’ll also often save with a debit card, experts said. Businesses charge more for credit card purchases due to fees they incur per transaction. Ryanjlane | E+ | Getty Images

Sometimes, it pays to pay with cash.  

More merchants are offering a lower price to customers who use cash rather than credit card for a purchase. That means opting for paper over plastic may save you money in some cases.

Just how much?

Typically, cash discounts run about 2% to 4% on purchases, though savings can be higher, experts said.

The share of cash payments with a discount is still low — in fact, only about 3% of all cash payments in 2022, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

However, that share is up more than 60% from 2015, when 1.8% of all cash transactions had a discount, Atlanta Fed data shows. While not yet the norm, cash incentives are likely to become more widespread, experts said.

Meanwhile, other businesses add a surcharge when customers use credit cards for purchases. In such cases, paying with cash would also yield savings.

Nearly 7 in 10 cardholders said a business has charged them extra for paying with a credit card, according to a recent LendingTree survey.

The trend comes as consumers have steadily shifted away from using cash for purchases: Consumers made 18% of payments with cash in 2022, down from 31% in 2016, according to the Federal Reserve. Meanwhile, credit cards’ share grew to 31% from 18% during that period.

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“Sometimes, it can make sense to just go ahead and pay cash,” said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree.

That may be the case even after accounting for credit card rewards, Schulz said. The largest general cash-back return on most credit cards is 2%, for example — a percentage often exceeded by cash discounts, he said.

“If the merchant establishes a discount that’s high

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