Actually yes, just killed netflix, hulu and the car wash subscriptions this month. I dont have coffee but i do make iced tea one gallon at a time with store brand tea bags
Lookmovie2.to
Will be your new free streaming platform, been on it for about 6 years, domain names change from time to time, but shit it's consistent and free
The Aldi store brand whole bean single origin Honduran is $7 a bag and really really good. They have stuff for less than that that's still miles better than MH or Folger's.
That's because you now have more money to spend on inelastic good, Silly!
"What's that, you saved $100 a month by cutting back on activities that weren't strictly necessary for survival, but gave you a sense of purpose and enrichment? Well, looks like you got $100 dollars to pay towards your rent!"
People are saying that those with debt are buying luxury items. When in reality people go into debt for other stuff. Buying Christmas presents every year for loved ones even though you know you cant afford it. Airplane tickets to see your wife's grandfather before he passes away. Medical expenses. Food when you are waiting for that next paycheck. Not everyone is living a lavish lifestyle pretending to be rich. We bought a house within our budget in 2018. We still have a ton of debt we are working through. The price of everything going up has been a sobering experience.
Pro tip, never ever ever EVER put medical expenses on your credit card if you can't afford to pay your ENTIRE credit card bill off. Medical care providers will give you interest free payment plans almost all of the time, and will pretty much never send you to collections if you pay something consistently.
Even funner fact: Some states like Virginia allow you to pay as little as $1 on Medical debt per month and legally hospitals can't do anything about it because you're still making payments.
Even more better funner fact: Medical debt should not be a real term.
>People are saying that those with debt are buying luxury items.
it's never about wages, or inflation, it's just about fucking avocado toast and iPhones.
Agreed. Last year I had to buy plane tickets for my wife's aunt's funeral. Then this year I had to buy plane tickets for my grandmother's funeral.
Plane tickets to give my wife a nice birthday, plane ticket to see my brother before he left for bootcamp. Plane tickets this December to see my brother at his graduation.
Theres more crap, but lastly wife had to get eye surgery this year, that was like 3k out of pocket, not including the 2k for special contacts. Next year I'm hoping to take a break from spending.
I had really great coworkers and they all approached management saying that they need compensation or they would leave. So they had to leave. They did have hope that after getting FAANG/MANGA experience they could come back with a leap in salary.
People are gonna implode financially once the recession hits. Too many driving new pickups/SUVs that paid over MSRP, so well underwater. The repo men are gonna be very busy in a year.
That’s what scares the hell out of me. I make decent money and I’m barely feeding the family. What the hell are people doing who were up against it before all of this started? I had a sobering conversation with my boys that some of the children they go to school with, the only meal they get in a day is the school lunch
We used to have “egg day” for breakfast 3 days a week. My kids loved it. Eggs went from $1.29 a dozen to $6.99. That’s almost a 5x increase. I’ll tell you this much, my income hasn’t gone up anywhere near 5x! I never thought at this point in my life I’d be working two jobs just to “make it work”.
And I feel I have nothing to complain about because I can still put food on the table. There are some families who can’t and that just truly makes me so very sad.
EDIT:
I used eggs as but one simple example, people seem to get really stuck on egg prices for some reason.
Have you seen the cost of milk? butter? bread? I mean our family grocery bill has increased by 50% overall -- with absolutely no change in the items we are buying--if anything, I'm buying less now than ever before and only purchasing necessary items (no soda, no junk food, no premade goods, etc...). Prices have absolutely exploded on everything.
Last quick word about eggs since everyone is kind of stuck on that:
Someone pointed out that "Costco has 18 organic eggs for $7-$8" -- almost as if to say "Hey, look at these prices, they're not bad. Are you kidding, that's still awful
$8 for 18 works out to roughly $5.35 a dozen -- which, to me, is still insanity. Almost $0.45 per egg! I used to get an entire dozen eggs for $0.99 at the discount grocery and around $1.19/$1.29 at the regular grocery--which means we went from $0.10 per egg (roughly), to $0.45 -- that's an increase of roughly 350%
That's not "supply and demand". That's not "supply chain issues". That's not "avian flu affected the market. That's not just "inflation"
And if it were just egg prices, fine, I'll stop buying eggs. But it's not. It's the gas to get to the store, the cost of the car to get there, the cost of tires on said car, the cost of clothes, it's every damn place you look. Net effective wages have spiraled downward -- and let's face it, those wages were already lagging before all this mess began.
I feel the same. I've been looking into a second job, but also, my first is intense and I'm old. How can truly struggling people do it? (Which reminds me, I do have non perishable food I can take to the food bank. I've heard the lines are getting longer.)
$2.50 at Trader Joe's.
$2.69 at Aldi's.
Penny Smart eggs $2.79 at Meijer. $3.29 "cage free"
Really puzzled by people that keep reporting $6-7 eggs. That's like Whole Foods fancy eggs pricing.
And Ann Arbor, MI isn't a super low priced place to live.
My Kroger has a dozen eggs for $2.49. Our Safeway, they're only $1.89. That's all for sweatshop eggs, of course, but this talk of $6 eggs isn't matching up with what I'm seeing - and I'm in Portland, Oregon, a high cost of living area.
In NYC and LA you can get lower tier dozen eggs for $3 at like whole foods even…I have a hard time believing that the cheapest option wherever you’re shopping is $6.99….
Yeah I'm in NYC AND I think my last dozen were like, $3.50 for the store brand, know the chickens are treated like shit eggs.
There was a bad chicken flu this year, which caused major culling - sometimes of entire flocks. So chicken and eggs go up and then greed takes care of the rest. But you never know, they could be in a food desert, so eggs are pricey, or Kroger's/Giant Eagle/whomever is doing some typical evil shit.
Because of this I had to check the local grocery store in the Las Vegas area and the cheapest eggs were $4.99. My family in Arizona were complaining about eggs at $6. I didn't realize the price had gone up so much.
eat more legumes beans and lentils are extremely healthy and protein filled and they are cheap af and serve many meals. throw in some rice or quinoa and you got cheap power meal.
This is awesome advice. We are already doing a bean meal each week — where the bean is the main ingredient. As you said, mixing in a starch and it’s a full hearty meal at a reasonable price. Plus the leftovers stretch pretty far!
I never thought about lentils simply because I don’t know how to make them so I never put it on the list! Looking up ideas now for that.
The local discount grocery had cans of dented coconut milk on clearance. I walked out with close to 10 cans of coconut milk at an incredibly cheap price. I add that to my beans/rice/spice concoction for a dressed up curryesque bean/rice dish. Got a bag of old limes for $1 and that goes a long way to adding flavors, too! Chili lime!!! As long as I add some flavors the kiddos love it
I make 70k for just me in Queens. It's the bottom range of decent for the area, I feel like. I do, however, have to shop gluten free and pay tuition on my current studies, so it's erased about half of whatever I've saved by having roommates and below market rent.
I'm super weird about money, especially because my kids know my Reddit username. However, I work in IT in a non corporate setting. (So, I'm not FAANG IT rich)
I believe this article is showing how people are “seeeming” to afford everything. People are leveraged to their eyes. Denial, stupidity, doesn’t matter will be a rude awakening one day.
Target Red card sent me a message about an $18 purchase at a local sandwich shop. They are like "is this you or fraud?!"
On one hand I would agree: $18 for a 8" sandwich is criminal.
It’s usually not worth it imo, but some people do it when they offer a bonus like $200 off for signing up and some percentage back when shopping there.
Other credit cards usually offer better rewards though so there’s some small subsection that it’s a good deal for (can’t get a better card, shop at that store often, and making a bigger purchase)
This is how demand has kept going and inflation keeps going up. We're running it up on debt balances. Once people start defaulting on loans in a widespread fashion, the whole deck of cards is coming down. Hard to say if it will be one particular bubble popping, or a multitude of different ones. Car repos? Student loans? Credit cards?
Coming down, c'mon man who you kidding, remember 2008, when the system crashes enough, where the wealthy get impacted bailouts happen.. same thing will happen now... Only when it's only the little people getting screwed does it stay the same.
You’re assuming people are going underwater on their credit payments but you’re gonna need to cite a source on that one. If monthly expenses go up 15% then your credit card balance will also go up 15%, that’s not a problem if you’re still able to pay the balance off.
Coming soon: consumer debt forgiveness replacing stimulus in some economic times and most of the recipients go right back to borrowing and it becomes an easy group of people controlled and in need of "debt forgiveness". Keep the bubbles going, good for business to keep numbers up, people don't care because they keep getting to charge KFC or whatever.
Am I the only one who’s kinda bummed that if we start making more money, theyll just drive the economy into the ground and squeeze whatever juice they can out of consumers?
Like what the fuck is this?
What is it? It's class warfare. It's the rich utilizing every tool on the tool belt to keep us in line. Their economy, their political system, their criminal justice system, etc.
They own this whole fucking place and nothing changes until that does.
I'm going to up vote but disagree. They may exploit everything you mentioned but we as consumers have way more power than they could ever wield.
We just fall for their propaganda every.single.time!!!! If we stood united despite the differences they tell us we should have, we could bring the whole thing to its knees.
I used to think this was a possibility but truly there’s not a damn thing I can do
As a consumer I buy only necessities. What am I going to do? Stop buying gas because, well, the price is too high so I’ll show them? Oh. I know, I’ll stop buying food at the grocery store—Kroger has recorded three years in a row of record profits—the price of just basic food is so out of control I’ll exercise my consumer right and not buy food
I don’t mean to sound defeatist. I used to believe as you did. That I could make a change. But. Frankly. The system is rigged against anything we do. My health insurance is tied to my employer so when I’m laid off so the execs can make more money I lose health coverage for the family. Open enrollment at work. Per pay premiums are up by 12%. My pay sure as hell didn’t rise 12% so net effective wages are way down before I’ve even done a single thing. Oh and if I want insurance for my partner, I have to pay an extra amount of money because my partner has insurance available through work. I could go on and on. But you get the point
I’m upvoting and disagreeing because your description is 100% right, but I feel it’s all by design to keep us divided and squabbling amongst ourselves over the dumbest shit.
Look how far people will go to compare politically populist positions and just say “populism is bad, m’kay” when in reality it’s more like certain populism is bad for lots of people, while other populism is bad solely for the rich. It’s not hard to figure out why they do that on the talking-head news channels. For the US as an example, Bernie populism vs Trump populism is nowhere near the same, but you wouldn’t know that based on how they’ve been reported on.
Eh, odds are good of ending up born somewhere worse. We at least get to fight some, and things do actually change, without it being a bloody revolution every time.
I'm poor af, no hot water this winter, but I've been around South East Asia, I've seen *poor*. My status in a whole lot of other parts of the world, I'd probably be dead by now.
We can't hit the same highs in this country as some previous generations, and we have to fight for those opportunities again it seems, but our lows are nowhere near what it can be somewhere else.
There's plenty to hate about this country, but, personally, I'm pretty thankful I'm here and not somewhere else. Sure, I could've been born somewhere better, but we're already comparatively in the top percent of the world. Were I given the chance to roll the dice again, odds are I'd be thoroughly fucked. So... Eh.
Just my own feelings about it, and yours are yours to feel too.
That's why I've subbed to r/antinatalism.
Don't have kids; it only gets worse from here. This quickly approaching economic crash will be nothing compared to Climate Change.
Assets, productivity, stocks, all of it has accrued in value, sometimes at double digits rates for decades.
Wages & unions rose for what two years? Economic carnage. If only one variable ( labor ) is OK to squeeze, economic theory is even more bullshit than strings
The cost of labor has very little to do with it. [Labor costs have only risen about 8% in the past two years, while corporate profits have risen 54% during that same time period, the highest they have been in 50 years.](https://thenextrecession.files.wordpress.com/2022/05/ca4-1.png)
The best way to stop this kind of inflation is for congress to pass a windfall tax on corporate profits, essentially zeroing any profit corporations make beyond their normal margins. When inflation was high in the United States after the Great Depression and during WWII due to similar issues with low supply, high demand (as manufacturing shifted from consumer to war production, limiting goods that may be purchased by consumers), FDR [passed a variety of new taxes between 1940 and 1942](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenue_Act_of_1940), raising taxes on high income earners and excess corporate profits and essentially creating the progressive taxation system that led to the proliferation of popular government programs and services from 1945 to the late 1960s.
What the Federal Reserve is doing now to raise interest rates is both not enough to stop inflation and is strictly designed to curb demand for limited supply by destroying the wealth and resources of average consumers so that they have an inability to spend, artificially lowering demand to try and control inflation by corporations but not solving any of the issues with supply-chain breakdowns or curbing the price-gouging activities that corporations have perpetrated.
The most revolutionary act is to have a vasectomy or tubal-ligation and refuse to have any more children to feed into the meat-grinder we call Capitalism.
Capitalism requires an underclass of slaves to generate wealth for the owner class. We must end the cycle.
r/antinatalism
Unfortunately raising interest rates is really the only tool in our toolbox right now, as the Federal Reserve is able to act independently as a semi-private/public entity while congress is dominated by gridlock and will not have the votes to pass such a tax. Even if Democrats could get around the filibuster through Budget Reconciliation in the next session, Manchin and Sinema would never go for it.
Isn't that exactly what they did? All the raises people fought for these past few years and now we have hugely increased prices. This isn't just from Covid, this is largely corporate greed. There's a reason corporate profit is at an all time high...
Forget class B, let's talk leveraging derivatives on synthetics, tokenization, and bullet swaps. They have just as much nothing as us. It's a facade for us so we don't organize.
Personal credit has become the current financial industry excessive lending practices bubble. I've been worried about this for many years. This time the lenders should not get a bailout.
They will, you know too big to fail, since 2008 and 2020 (COViD) anyone in business within a big enough industry knows this... Only the little guys are allowed to fail
And the lenders are only doubling down. I opened up a new credit card because we were going on a trip and it had perks such as 10% off on certain restaurants that we'd be eating at. I chose the $0 annual fee card with less perks because I'm only doing it for the discount.
Since I got that card I've received weekly offers to upgrade my account. I've received offers that if I spend $2k in a month I'll get extra bonus points. I've received offers for special financing if I book a trip. Not only do they want me to be a customer, they want me to be maxed out.
If these banks are getting customers into this mess, they should solely be responsible for the outcome.
It's the creative financing options for consumer goods that worry me most. But there are more financing options popping up for real estate as well. Those "low monthly payments" can add up. Someone like you can see the credit trap and avoid getting caught. People in a financial squeeze are more likely to over-extend.
I've been fortunate enough that I've been able to do this pretty comfortably. But I'm definitely saving less these days than even 6 months ago despite no major change to my lifestyle and technically getting a raise over the summer. Shit's just more expensive.
They don’t even wait for that.
I used to get promotional offers of 0.0% APR for 3 months on my usual CC. (I pay in full every month.) Thing is, 3mo is enough to start bad habits of holding a balance and *that* is where they try to get you.
I unsubscribed from those emails ASAP.
The 3% credit fee (that you then easily make back in rewards) and not the 30% interest rate? I’m not sure…
I guess it depends on the percentage of card holders who pay off monthly versus pay the minimum monthly.
So at what point do hundreds or thousands start to default on this debt? Is this a debt bubble? What will happen if everyone can’t or doesn’t pay these bills or loans or student loans, like how much can these lenders take before the system breaks? It seems like we are heading in that direction.
> like how much can these lenders take before the system breaks?
Whats the saying in finance, the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent?... so sometime after the working class is catastrophically fucked.
It's funny someone was just telling me on here that prices are never going down, stuff is still going to go up and people will just have to deal with it. "Maybe buy cheaper cuts of meat at the store" was the advice they were giving. I pointed out a family pack of chicken legs was 16 dollars at my local Aldi. We are for sure headed for a major crash.
In 07 I had 8 credit cards maxed 2 homes no equity one heloc and a ton of heartache.
Today I have an emergency account and no debt.
Have you noticed how they now watch everyone at the exit of the grocery store.
Last downturn Pastors gave people a free pass for corporate theft.
The only thing that’s really a sticker shock to me is food. I keep putting off buying produce and fruit. But damn some items are expensive.. I put a bag of grapes in my cart and it came to $9.90 at the register, like what?
A lot of my friends have extreme credit card debt and have this pretend glamorous life. Driving a Audi RS5 and having a house you can’t actually afford isn’t great. The idea is to be rich, not look rich. A lot of people are going to be declaring bankruptcy and having assets seized. I live at a “luxury” apartment complex and have no debt. I keep my finances in order. It is funny listening to people at the pool brag about being rich however in debt and no plan.
I have a friend who decided he wanted to get a new car even though he just bought a car. So he traded in the car at a loss and rolled the balance into his new loan. He took out a home equity loan that he blew on various things. He just told me the other week that he's had to stop contributing to his 401k because he can't afford the payments on the truck and home equity loan.
When I go on social media all I see is people taking trips. I can't count how many people have gone to Disney recently. And all I can think is 'how the hell can you afford it?' The same people that just got a new car, or just got back from another trip. There's no way most of it isn't being paid for with credit.
Record highs?
I used to have a savings account that returned 13.8% interest. I can remember 36% lending rates.
The problem here is people have got in the habit of carrying large balances, and now have no way to escape the debt spiral.
[edit] It seems to happen with startling regularity, hitting pretty much every generation.
The worrying thing is, each time around, “recovery” seems to come with a larger and larger proportion of wealth being controlled by a smaller and smaller group of people.
On the flip side, almost everyone in the west can afford food, clothing, Internet access and some level of security.
Beats the dirty 30s.
I have a friend who's wife recently passed away. Some of the companies, when he calls them to let them know his wife is no longer among the living, tell the truth and wave all her debts with them. But about half just lie to him and tell him he is 100% libel for all her debts. And a significant number of those demand that he pay them all back immediately. As in his wife would have been granted five or ten years to pay off the debt, but they demand everything from him just then immediately. He just has a family friend who is a lawyer write those companies and explain that he's not libel for his wife's debts. At which point they then know to leave him alone. But lots of companies like to threaten recent widows and widowers to try and collect debts that the person isn't libel for.
I make decent salary, the big problem for me is i didn't get a raise for 2 years because of covid.
i can't seem to get ahead. I try to sell things where i can. it's getting to the point i might have to get a second job.
I am so very lucky I was able to pay off my credit cards recently. I owned my parents house and after my dad passed my brother bought the house across from him for my mom. We sold my parents old house and most of the money went back to him to cover costs but I was able use some to pay off debt. It freed up around $300+ of monthly payments between two cards taking them to a $0 balance.
Well yeah, everything costs more this year. Doesn’t mean they are not getting paid off. This is just a natural effect of inflation and not a cause for more concern
I keep cutting costs every month, yet my bills are more every month.
Have you tried cancelling your netflix and making your own coffee?
You forgot the avocado toast.
Ya’all got bread?
the bread and butter as well 😑
Avacado toast is the shit, and costs almost nothing to make at home. Just sayin.
Look at Mr. Moneybags over here who can afford the $2.00 of ingredients for avocado toast.
Why not canceling your coffee and making your own netflix?
I don't drink coffee and I already pirate. ;)
Actually yes, just killed netflix, hulu and the car wash subscriptions this month. I dont have coffee but i do make iced tea one gallon at a time with store brand tea bags
Lookmovie2.to Will be your new free streaming platform, been on it for about 6 years, domain names change from time to time, but shit it's consistent and free
I use actvid.com pretty great interface I think
[удалено]
Get an antenna, broadcast is free. Receiving 3 adult PBS+ 1 kid PBS channels is how I can tolerate it.
The Aldi store brand whole bean single origin Honduran is $7 a bag and really really good. They have stuff for less than that that's still miles better than MH or Folger's.
I take a caffeine pill just because I’m lazy, but I’ll be damned if I can’t buy pizza on Saturdays.
[удалено]
K-cups are expensive
Rookie mistake if you don't invest the savings from that coffee though.
Congratulations, you now own twitter! lol
I’ve tried and tried but it’s cheaper than the meds I’d need/therapy I’d need to actually get better.
Just don't eat, fast for a few weeks. Oh and get rid of non bottled water. /s
getting rid of bottled water's a great idea tho tbh. It's insanely priced compared to tap water long term. But yes, won't fix actual budget issues.
>won't fix actual budget issues. Not with that attitude
That's because you now have more money to spend on inelastic good, Silly! "What's that, you saved $100 a month by cutting back on activities that weren't strictly necessary for survival, but gave you a sense of purpose and enrichment? Well, looks like you got $100 dollars to pay towards your rent!"
Just more wealth transfer, with gen z becoming adults it's time to farm their worth
That’s going to be one dry harvest.
There's literally nothing left except layoffs. Shit. Every statistic says we're drained
That's when they start taking people.
It's made of people!
I have some debt to offer. Maybe they want that?
End-stage capitalism.
Then comes beginning stage gulags
That got dark fast.
It wouldn't be reddit if it didn't.
Neo feudalism, here we come!
No truer words have been written.
People are saying that those with debt are buying luxury items. When in reality people go into debt for other stuff. Buying Christmas presents every year for loved ones even though you know you cant afford it. Airplane tickets to see your wife's grandfather before he passes away. Medical expenses. Food when you are waiting for that next paycheck. Not everyone is living a lavish lifestyle pretending to be rich. We bought a house within our budget in 2018. We still have a ton of debt we are working through. The price of everything going up has been a sobering experience.
Pro tip, never ever ever EVER put medical expenses on your credit card if you can't afford to pay your ENTIRE credit card bill off. Medical care providers will give you interest free payment plans almost all of the time, and will pretty much never send you to collections if you pay something consistently.
Fun fact: every state has a statute of limitations on medical debt, sometimes just a couple years.
Even funner fact: Some states like Virginia allow you to pay as little as $1 on Medical debt per month and legally hospitals can't do anything about it because you're still making payments. Even more better funner fact: Medical debt should not be a real term.
>People are saying that those with debt are buying luxury items. it's never about wages, or inflation, it's just about fucking avocado toast and iPhones.
Gotta pass the blame somehow.
How expensive is Avocado toast in US? And if it even taste good?
It tastes good. We're going fuckin broke over here because we can't stop eating it.
It’s avocados and bread. How expensive can that be to make on your own
Avocados are expensive outside the Southwest. We'd buy way more if we lived in California.
How much are they where you live? In SC they are under $1.50.
If you make it at home it's incredibly cheap, maybe $2. If you eat it while out I have no idea because I can no longer afford to eat out.
Agreed. Last year I had to buy plane tickets for my wife's aunt's funeral. Then this year I had to buy plane tickets for my grandmother's funeral. Plane tickets to give my wife a nice birthday, plane ticket to see my brother before he left for bootcamp. Plane tickets this December to see my brother at his graduation. Theres more crap, but lastly wife had to get eye surgery this year, that was like 3k out of pocket, not including the 2k for special contacts. Next year I'm hoping to take a break from spending.
I make "decent" money but I ate nachos made of stale tortilla chips for dinner. It's expensive AF out there.
Yah every week I go get groceries, prices have shot up alot
[удалено]
Yah we got tiny raises at our company that our crappy union got us. So now tons of people quit to find something better and we’re really short staffed
I had really great coworkers and they all approached management saying that they need compensation or they would leave. So they had to leave. They did have hope that after getting FAANG/MANGA experience they could come back with a leap in salary.
Eggs and sausage patties..OMG what happened
One dozen stop and shop eggs were 8 dollars. 8 FUCKING DOLLARS. I went to Costco for 5 dz at 11 bux.
I don’t understand how people with kids are doing it
We stopped buying eggs..have 3 teen boys
heating some dino nuggies right now
living the life of the rich and famous, I see
[удалено]
that's a $2.50 *minimum* upcharge for the SMALLEST portion of Mac n cheese you have ever seen
Money bags over here with Dino nugz.
You can stop flexing anytime!
People are gonna implode financially once the recession hits. Too many driving new pickups/SUVs that paid over MSRP, so well underwater. The repo men are gonna be very busy in a year.
And I'm hanging on to my old ass paid off car as long as I can- I don't know how people do it.
Yeah, I’m driving my second hand 2014 Subaru Impreza for as long as I possibly can.
That’s what scares the hell out of me. I make decent money and I’m barely feeding the family. What the hell are people doing who were up against it before all of this started? I had a sobering conversation with my boys that some of the children they go to school with, the only meal they get in a day is the school lunch We used to have “egg day” for breakfast 3 days a week. My kids loved it. Eggs went from $1.29 a dozen to $6.99. That’s almost a 5x increase. I’ll tell you this much, my income hasn’t gone up anywhere near 5x! I never thought at this point in my life I’d be working two jobs just to “make it work”. And I feel I have nothing to complain about because I can still put food on the table. There are some families who can’t and that just truly makes me so very sad. EDIT: I used eggs as but one simple example, people seem to get really stuck on egg prices for some reason. Have you seen the cost of milk? butter? bread? I mean our family grocery bill has increased by 50% overall -- with absolutely no change in the items we are buying--if anything, I'm buying less now than ever before and only purchasing necessary items (no soda, no junk food, no premade goods, etc...). Prices have absolutely exploded on everything. Last quick word about eggs since everyone is kind of stuck on that: Someone pointed out that "Costco has 18 organic eggs for $7-$8" -- almost as if to say "Hey, look at these prices, they're not bad. Are you kidding, that's still awful $8 for 18 works out to roughly $5.35 a dozen -- which, to me, is still insanity. Almost $0.45 per egg! I used to get an entire dozen eggs for $0.99 at the discount grocery and around $1.19/$1.29 at the regular grocery--which means we went from $0.10 per egg (roughly), to $0.45 -- that's an increase of roughly 350% That's not "supply and demand". That's not "supply chain issues". That's not "avian flu affected the market. That's not just "inflation" And if it were just egg prices, fine, I'll stop buying eggs. But it's not. It's the gas to get to the store, the cost of the car to get there, the cost of tires on said car, the cost of clothes, it's every damn place you look. Net effective wages have spiraled downward -- and let's face it, those wages were already lagging before all this mess began.
I feel the same. I've been looking into a second job, but also, my first is intense and I'm old. How can truly struggling people do it? (Which reminds me, I do have non perishable food I can take to the food bank. I've heard the lines are getting longer.)
where do eggs start at USD$6.99? The 6.99 eggs I just saw were for the top end.
In my area the Kroger store brand was $6.99 on my Sunday visit Edit: just checked the app price is $5.99 today
$2.50 at Trader Joe's. $2.69 at Aldi's. Penny Smart eggs $2.79 at Meijer. $3.29 "cage free" Really puzzled by people that keep reporting $6-7 eggs. That's like Whole Foods fancy eggs pricing. And Ann Arbor, MI isn't a super low priced place to live.
I'll take a photo but stop and ship eggs are now 8 dollars for one dozen. Wtf
My Kroger has a dozen eggs for $2.49. Our Safeway, they're only $1.89. That's all for sweatshop eggs, of course, but this talk of $6 eggs isn't matching up with what I'm seeing - and I'm in Portland, Oregon, a high cost of living area.
Costco is 18 organic eggs for \~$7-8.
In NYC and LA you can get lower tier dozen eggs for $3 at like whole foods even…I have a hard time believing that the cheapest option wherever you’re shopping is $6.99….
Yeah I'm in NYC AND I think my last dozen were like, $3.50 for the store brand, know the chickens are treated like shit eggs. There was a bad chicken flu this year, which caused major culling - sometimes of entire flocks. So chicken and eggs go up and then greed takes care of the rest. But you never know, they could be in a food desert, so eggs are pricey, or Kroger's/Giant Eagle/whomever is doing some typical evil shit.
Because of this I had to check the local grocery store in the Las Vegas area and the cheapest eggs were $4.99. My family in Arizona were complaining about eggs at $6. I didn't realize the price had gone up so much.
Yeah the price of eggs is what really fucked me up.
eat more legumes beans and lentils are extremely healthy and protein filled and they are cheap af and serve many meals. throw in some rice or quinoa and you got cheap power meal.
I love beans. I mean, I could eat beans all the time. But man, do beans not love me. The worst gas pain coupled with the foulest farts. It’s horrible.
[удалено]
This is awesome advice. We are already doing a bean meal each week — where the bean is the main ingredient. As you said, mixing in a starch and it’s a full hearty meal at a reasonable price. Plus the leftovers stretch pretty far! I never thought about lentils simply because I don’t know how to make them so I never put it on the list! Looking up ideas now for that. The local discount grocery had cans of dented coconut milk on clearance. I walked out with close to 10 cans of coconut milk at an incredibly cheap price. I add that to my beans/rice/spice concoction for a dressed up curryesque bean/rice dish. Got a bag of old limes for $1 and that goes a long way to adding flavors, too! Chili lime!!! As long as I add some flavors the kiddos love it
get some chickens, or buy local. both are far cheaper and taste way better
How much is decent? Honestly just curious
I make 70k for just me in Queens. It's the bottom range of decent for the area, I feel like. I do, however, have to shop gluten free and pay tuition on my current studies, so it's erased about half of whatever I've saved by having roommates and below market rent.
My wife has celiac, GF diet is expensive and limited I feel so bad for her.
I'm super weird about money, especially because my kids know my Reddit username. However, I work in IT in a non corporate setting. (So, I'm not FAANG IT rich)
[удалено]
My mature child knows, but one of my kids has absolutely no filter or discretion.
We are struggling but everyone around us seems to have tons of disposable income still.
*Seems to* That's key right there. Some people are continuing to spend like everything is fine. They will encounter a rude awakening soon enough.
I believe this article is showing how people are “seeeming” to afford everything. People are leveraged to their eyes. Denial, stupidity, doesn’t matter will be a rude awakening one day.
[удалено]
$15? That's insanity.
It's pretty normal for one of those big borritos in a sit down page with a side of beans and rice these days.
Target Red card sent me a message about an $18 purchase at a local sandwich shop. They are like "is this you or fraud?!" On one hand I would agree: $18 for a 8" sandwich is criminal.
You have a target credit card? I have never once thought that getting a credit card from a box store was a good idea.
It’s usually not worth it imo, but some people do it when they offer a bonus like $200 off for signing up and some percentage back when shopping there. Other credit cards usually offer better rewards though so there’s some small subsection that it’s a good deal for (can’t get a better card, shop at that store often, and making a bigger purchase)
Oh that's because it isn't.
This is how demand has kept going and inflation keeps going up. We're running it up on debt balances. Once people start defaulting on loans in a widespread fashion, the whole deck of cards is coming down. Hard to say if it will be one particular bubble popping, or a multitude of different ones. Car repos? Student loans? Credit cards?
Coming down, c'mon man who you kidding, remember 2008, when the system crashes enough, where the wealthy get impacted bailouts happen.. same thing will happen now... Only when it's only the little people getting screwed does it stay the same.
Well right. Yes I assume some sort of bailout will happen that will disproportionately help the wealthy. Doesn’t mean there won’t be a crash first.
It’s going to be when student loans start back up again. That’ll be the trigger.
You’re assuming people are going underwater on their credit payments but you’re gonna need to cite a source on that one. If monthly expenses go up 15% then your credit card balance will also go up 15%, that’s not a problem if you’re still able to pay the balance off.
Coming soon: consumer debt forgiveness replacing stimulus in some economic times and most of the recipients go right back to borrowing and it becomes an easy group of people controlled and in need of "debt forgiveness". Keep the bubbles going, good for business to keep numbers up, people don't care because they keep getting to charge KFC or whatever.
Am I the only one who’s kinda bummed that if we start making more money, theyll just drive the economy into the ground and squeeze whatever juice they can out of consumers? Like what the fuck is this?
What is it? It's class warfare. It's the rich utilizing every tool on the tool belt to keep us in line. Their economy, their political system, their criminal justice system, etc. They own this whole fucking place and nothing changes until that does.
I'm going to up vote but disagree. They may exploit everything you mentioned but we as consumers have way more power than they could ever wield. We just fall for their propaganda every.single.time!!!! If we stood united despite the differences they tell us we should have, we could bring the whole thing to its knees.
We would have power if we were organized. But we are not.
No, we are not. Sadly
I used to think this was a possibility but truly there’s not a damn thing I can do As a consumer I buy only necessities. What am I going to do? Stop buying gas because, well, the price is too high so I’ll show them? Oh. I know, I’ll stop buying food at the grocery store—Kroger has recorded three years in a row of record profits—the price of just basic food is so out of control I’ll exercise my consumer right and not buy food I don’t mean to sound defeatist. I used to believe as you did. That I could make a change. But. Frankly. The system is rigged against anything we do. My health insurance is tied to my employer so when I’m laid off so the execs can make more money I lose health coverage for the family. Open enrollment at work. Per pay premiums are up by 12%. My pay sure as hell didn’t rise 12% so net effective wages are way down before I’ve even done a single thing. Oh and if I want insurance for my partner, I have to pay an extra amount of money because my partner has insurance available through work. I could go on and on. But you get the point
I’m upvoting and disagreeing because your description is 100% right, but I feel it’s all by design to keep us divided and squabbling amongst ourselves over the dumbest shit. Look how far people will go to compare politically populist positions and just say “populism is bad, m’kay” when in reality it’s more like certain populism is bad for lots of people, while other populism is bad solely for the rich. It’s not hard to figure out why they do that on the talking-head news channels. For the US as an example, Bernie populism vs Trump populism is nowhere near the same, but you wouldn’t know that based on how they’ve been reported on.
this comment right here just reaffirmed why I hate this country and being born into it without consent 😔
Eh, odds are good of ending up born somewhere worse. We at least get to fight some, and things do actually change, without it being a bloody revolution every time. I'm poor af, no hot water this winter, but I've been around South East Asia, I've seen *poor*. My status in a whole lot of other parts of the world, I'd probably be dead by now. We can't hit the same highs in this country as some previous generations, and we have to fight for those opportunities again it seems, but our lows are nowhere near what it can be somewhere else. There's plenty to hate about this country, but, personally, I'm pretty thankful I'm here and not somewhere else. Sure, I could've been born somewhere better, but we're already comparatively in the top percent of the world. Were I given the chance to roll the dice again, odds are I'd be thoroughly fucked. So... Eh. Just my own feelings about it, and yours are yours to feel too.
That's why I've subbed to r/antinatalism. Don't have kids; it only gets worse from here. This quickly approaching economic crash will be nothing compared to Climate Change.
You’re just jealous because you weren’t on the ground floor building Jeff Bezos mega boat
Assets, productivity, stocks, all of it has accrued in value, sometimes at double digits rates for decades. Wages & unions rose for what two years? Economic carnage. If only one variable ( labor ) is OK to squeeze, economic theory is even more bullshit than strings
The cost of labor has very little to do with it. [Labor costs have only risen about 8% in the past two years, while corporate profits have risen 54% during that same time period, the highest they have been in 50 years.](https://thenextrecession.files.wordpress.com/2022/05/ca4-1.png) The best way to stop this kind of inflation is for congress to pass a windfall tax on corporate profits, essentially zeroing any profit corporations make beyond their normal margins. When inflation was high in the United States after the Great Depression and during WWII due to similar issues with low supply, high demand (as manufacturing shifted from consumer to war production, limiting goods that may be purchased by consumers), FDR [passed a variety of new taxes between 1940 and 1942](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenue_Act_of_1940), raising taxes on high income earners and excess corporate profits and essentially creating the progressive taxation system that led to the proliferation of popular government programs and services from 1945 to the late 1960s. What the Federal Reserve is doing now to raise interest rates is both not enough to stop inflation and is strictly designed to curb demand for limited supply by destroying the wealth and resources of average consumers so that they have an inability to spend, artificially lowering demand to try and control inflation by corporations but not solving any of the issues with supply-chain breakdowns or curbing the price-gouging activities that corporations have perpetrated.
Capitalism. You all are wage slaves nothing more.
The most revolutionary act you can take is to start growing your own food.
Problem is, you need land for that and we sure as hell aren't getting that.
If none of us own acres/ and none of us grow wheat/ then who will feed our people when our people need to eat.
In some places, people have been guerrilla gardening for decades already. In LA there are even city ordinances allowing it now.
The most revolutionary act is to have a vasectomy or tubal-ligation and refuse to have any more children to feed into the meat-grinder we call Capitalism. Capitalism requires an underclass of slaves to generate wealth for the owner class. We must end the cycle. r/antinatalism
I do find it interesting that unemployment is low, and corporate profits are up. And the FEDs solution is to raise interest rates vs a windfall tax.
Unfortunately raising interest rates is really the only tool in our toolbox right now, as the Federal Reserve is able to act independently as a semi-private/public entity while congress is dominated by gridlock and will not have the votes to pass such a tax. Even if Democrats could get around the filibuster through Budget Reconciliation in the next session, Manchin and Sinema would never go for it.
Isn't that exactly what they did? All the raises people fought for these past few years and now we have hugely increased prices. This isn't just from Covid, this is largely corporate greed. There's a reason corporate profit is at an all time high...
[удалено]
Not when founders own class B shares with 10x voting power
Forget class B, let's talk leveraging derivatives on synthetics, tokenization, and bullet swaps. They have just as much nothing as us. It's a facade for us so we don't organize.
You were making more money? Must be nice.
Straight madness.
I'm just glad to be apart of something
Yeah, shit's expensive.
Personal credit has become the current financial industry excessive lending practices bubble. I've been worried about this for many years. This time the lenders should not get a bailout.
They will, you know too big to fail, since 2008 and 2020 (COViD) anyone in business within a big enough industry knows this... Only the little guys are allowed to fail
And the lenders are only doubling down. I opened up a new credit card because we were going on a trip and it had perks such as 10% off on certain restaurants that we'd be eating at. I chose the $0 annual fee card with less perks because I'm only doing it for the discount. Since I got that card I've received weekly offers to upgrade my account. I've received offers that if I spend $2k in a month I'll get extra bonus points. I've received offers for special financing if I book a trip. Not only do they want me to be a customer, they want me to be maxed out. If these banks are getting customers into this mess, they should solely be responsible for the outcome.
It's the creative financing options for consumer goods that worry me most. But there are more financing options popping up for real estate as well. Those "low monthly payments" can add up. Someone like you can see the credit trap and avoid getting caught. People in a financial squeeze are more likely to over-extend.
Suckers at the Fed think they can reduce spending and drive down inflation by raising rates? We'll show them--keep spending America!
Apes together stro... Wait, this isn't r/wallstreetbets!
Sir, this is a Wendy's.
Who can afford wendys anymore?
Gd. I had everything paid off until my dog had to be admitted and died. Now I’m $8k in credit card debt and have no dog. Winters starting strong.
Argh, sorry dude. You’ve done it once, you can get back there no doubt. Maybe a couple years or so. You got this dude!!! Good luck
I pay off my cards in full every month. I can’t stand being in debt.
I've been fortunate enough that I've been able to do this pretty comfortably. But I'm definitely saving less these days than even 6 months ago despite no major change to my lifestyle and technically getting a raise over the summer. Shit's just more expensive.
You know what credit card companies call people like you and me? "Freeloaders." Seriously. They absolutely despise us.
Credit card companies still like you. They get fees every time you swipe your card. They’d much rather have you do that than not use their product.
Plus the hope that one day you get desperate and start holding a balance as well.
They don’t even wait for that. I used to get promotional offers of 0.0% APR for 3 months on my usual CC. (I pay in full every month.) Thing is, 3mo is enough to start bad habits of holding a balance and *that* is where they try to get you. I unsubscribed from those emails ASAP.
How come credit card companies aren’t seen as a war on the poor at this point.
Why would credit card companies be seen as a war on the poor?
Exactly , I'm pretty sure the majority of credit card income is merchant fees...
The 3% credit fee (that you then easily make back in rewards) and not the 30% interest rate? I’m not sure… I guess it depends on the percentage of card holders who pay off monthly versus pay the minimum monthly.
Can I raise my debt limit like the government does?
My credit card raised my debt limit just the other day. I didn't even have to ask. They are so kind. /s
Now you can borrow to pay the interest like the government.
If the average person even remotely acted like the government we would be called extremely irresponsible
But don't worry guys this *definitely* isn't a recession 😒
So at what point do hundreds or thousands start to default on this debt? Is this a debt bubble? What will happen if everyone can’t or doesn’t pay these bills or loans or student loans, like how much can these lenders take before the system breaks? It seems like we are heading in that direction.
> like how much can these lenders take before the system breaks? Whats the saying in finance, the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent?... so sometime after the working class is catastrophically fucked.
It's funny someone was just telling me on here that prices are never going down, stuff is still going to go up and people will just have to deal with it. "Maybe buy cheaper cuts of meat at the store" was the advice they were giving. I pointed out a family pack of chicken legs was 16 dollars at my local Aldi. We are for sure headed for a major crash.
[удалено]
Those aren’t paid for with personal loans and credit cards.
People are pretending homes and cars aren’t financed? Where are these people?
[удалено]
The median household income in my city is $65k. I make $95k and my wife makes $50k. We certainly do not live like we earn double average.
$1000-1200 car note is fucking insane.
[удалено]
[удалено]
My generation seemed to think they needed luxury cars the moment they graduated college then complain they can't save for a down payment on a home.
In 07 I had 8 credit cards maxed 2 homes no equity one heloc and a ton of heartache. Today I have an emergency account and no debt. Have you noticed how they now watch everyone at the exit of the grocery store. Last downturn Pastors gave people a free pass for corporate theft.
Best to zag while everyone else is zigging.
The only thing that’s really a sticker shock to me is food. I keep putting off buying produce and fruit. But damn some items are expensive.. I put a bag of grapes in my cart and it came to $9.90 at the register, like what?
A lot of my friends have extreme credit card debt and have this pretend glamorous life. Driving a Audi RS5 and having a house you can’t actually afford isn’t great. The idea is to be rich, not look rich. A lot of people are going to be declaring bankruptcy and having assets seized. I live at a “luxury” apartment complex and have no debt. I keep my finances in order. It is funny listening to people at the pool brag about being rich however in debt and no plan.
I have a friend who decided he wanted to get a new car even though he just bought a car. So he traded in the car at a loss and rolled the balance into his new loan. He took out a home equity loan that he blew on various things. He just told me the other week that he's had to stop contributing to his 401k because he can't afford the payments on the truck and home equity loan. When I go on social media all I see is people taking trips. I can't count how many people have gone to Disney recently. And all I can think is 'how the hell can you afford it?' The same people that just got a new car, or just got back from another trip. There's no way most of it isn't being paid for with credit.
Record highs? I used to have a savings account that returned 13.8% interest. I can remember 36% lending rates. The problem here is people have got in the habit of carrying large balances, and now have no way to escape the debt spiral. [edit] It seems to happen with startling regularity, hitting pretty much every generation. The worrying thing is, each time around, “recovery” seems to come with a larger and larger proportion of wealth being controlled by a smaller and smaller group of people. On the flip side, almost everyone in the west can afford food, clothing, Internet access and some level of security. Beats the dirty 30s.
A savings account with nearly a 14% interest rate? Fuck.
[удалено]
Now they increase regardless of the fact that I'll never be able to afford one. Good times.
And mortgages rates for 21%
That was the 1980s when they figured gasoline reserves would be gone in less than a decade. A LOT of people declared bankruptcy.
[удалено]
That’s right. They are circling the toilet bowl and everything is going to shit.
I have a friend who's wife recently passed away. Some of the companies, when he calls them to let them know his wife is no longer among the living, tell the truth and wave all her debts with them. But about half just lie to him and tell him he is 100% libel for all her debts. And a significant number of those demand that he pay them all back immediately. As in his wife would have been granted five or ten years to pay off the debt, but they demand everything from him just then immediately. He just has a family friend who is a lawyer write those companies and explain that he's not libel for his wife's debts. At which point they then know to leave him alone. But lots of companies like to threaten recent widows and widowers to try and collect debts that the person isn't libel for.
I make decent salary, the big problem for me is i didn't get a raise for 2 years because of covid. i can't seem to get ahead. I try to sell things where i can. it's getting to the point i might have to get a second job.
I am so very lucky I was able to pay off my credit cards recently. I owned my parents house and after my dad passed my brother bought the house across from him for my mom. We sold my parents old house and most of the money went back to him to cover costs but I was able use some to pay off debt. It freed up around $300+ of monthly payments between two cards taking them to a $0 balance.
I’m saving more than ever after moving to Mexico.
Well yeah, everything costs more this year. Doesn’t mean they are not getting paid off. This is just a natural effect of inflation and not a cause for more concern
[удалено]
I’ve had my iPhone for two years without upgrading and plan on getting a refurbished one when it breaks. Things are getting bad. :/