this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2026
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A Boring Dystopia
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Unable to save, or unwilling to? Even when I was earning £8k several years ago I was able to comfortably keep a few thousand in the bank. Just made sure not to spend more than I earnt.
A lot of those habits remained. Now I don't know what to spend money on, saving multiple hundreds a month and my only increased expense is that we bought a house. Give it a few more years of inflation and that won't even cost much more than renting a bedroom did.
I like cooking all my meals so why would I change? Costs like £10-15 a week each. Now that I have a house with a small amount of garden space I have also started growing herbs, if anything that is reducing my food bill. Unlimited rosemary!
That wouldn't even cover a year's rent with roommates where I live, never mind food, taxes, hygiene products, utilities, transportation, and all of the other basic needs for a single person to eek out a meager existence.
Now, maybe you weren't paying for those things because someone else in your life was, and that's fine... But that's also a huge privilege--not the kind of support system that everybody has access too. What about the people who have kids or other dependents?
The fact is that a lot of people in the USA are truly living "paycheck to paycheck", and they have little to no money to dedicate to savings each month.
No, no one else was paying those things. A lot of bills were included in my rent so I had very little expenses after paying rent. Landlord was still a wanker, but he died of ~~karma~~ cancer.
Heartbreaking: cancer diagnosed with landlord
Unless this was post COVID, you were working with a vastly different economy than the people of today.
I read an article a few months ago that two people out of university into average graduate jobs and renting in my (non capital) city, would not likely be able to afford to rent a flat together and have enough remaining for bills and food, let alone any discretionary spending, based on prices at the time. If they offset that by living away from the city and similarly priced suburbs, the costs just shift to transportation costs (fewer and fewer are offering fully remote jobs now). This is all while allowing for zero expenditure towards hobbies and social life, which are things that are pretty well understood to lead to mental health problems when we can't prioritise them.
Many people don't have the luxury of any garden space, let alone some with enough sun to actually grow anything. Those same people might also not have the luxury of a car to be able to drive to the big supermarkets with the best prices and bring back a big shop, so they're pushed towards the more expensive local supermarkets. IIRC people in that situation typically have to spend something crazy like 20-25% more on food than someone who has the means to go to a big supermarket regularly.
From everything I'm seeing, unless you're lucky enough to end up in a well paid job, saving money is very much a luxury for people younger than us.
Started living there and working in that job before covid, continued after. Never lived in a city though, that was a mid sized town. At the time I didn't have a car or garden. Still don't have a car.
In the United States (which I'm mentioning because that's the location of the survey we're discussing), something like 85%–90% of people live in places that are car-dependent. It's closer to 100% outside of cities. So a vehicle is an expense that can't be avoided. We're looking at loan payments (probably), insurance (definitely), gas, and repairs. The lower your income, the better the odds that all four of those expenses go up, as you're less likely to have a good down payment or buy in cash, and more likely to have your options reduced to older and lower-end vehicles. That typically means lower gas mileage and guarantees more frequent repairs. You're also likely to live in a lower income area with higher insurance premium rates.
Of course, despite the rate of car dependence, about a third of Americans do not have reliable access to a dependable vehicle. That's some very unfortunate math.
It's hard to be poor in the U.S.
A lot of people own cars here too and insist its required. Either way I don't have one. Scooters are pretty cheap to run if you actually need to drive around.
Most of the United States is designed to be so hostile to alternative transportation that scooters and bikes are mainly reserved for trail exercise and suicidal thrill seeking. It's simply not a practical recommendation, unfortunately; neither is public transit outside of a select few city centers. Many of us wish we had a way to ditch cars, but we don't.
125cc scooter, not a kids scooter.
I got a new job a few years ago doubled my pay, cut back on a bunch of monthly bills, and got good at cooking. I saved up a few thousand, and now inflation is taking it back. This month is looking to be a no grocery month as I needed to get the car worked on and I still have to pretend the budget works even the math hasn't checked out in the last few months. At least I been building up a horde of canned food and ramen for this exact situation.
Other than South Sudan I am not sure of anywhere that has seen that amount of inflation. Tbh over the past few years my bills have barely changed, the largest change is the mortgage getting cheaper by almost 20%. Council tax is up a little but that is nothing compared to how much the mortgage reduced. Food is a rounding error compared.
It's the changes from over the last few years. You don't notice till you look back. A $10 burger, medium fries and, 2 energy drinks pre COVID became a $12 then $15 lunch post COVID. As of Monday same lunch I like to get is now $19.09.
Pre/during COVID I use to survive off $200usd for a month of groceries, Its now $400 to barely fill the fridge and get a few basics. Electric Went from $150 to $200/$250 and my state put a rate cap on it. Heating bill hit $400 once this winter. Internet went from $90 to $150 my last renewal and Comcast is the only real option. Gas only goes up...
Is that a normal lunch to you?
We usually spend £10-15 each a week on food. Internet is £24/month, electricity about £100 a month averaged out over the year with no gas connection. Probably going to be cutting energy usage down quite a bit soon too.
Is that 10-15 each day or for a whole week?
If it's for a whole week, what are you eating?
Each week, between 2 of us, usually comes to around £25 but does vary with some things that are infrequent purchases.
Around £5 on cheese. Then everything else, typically some mix of: potatoes, onions, carrots, rice, beans, chickpeas, lentils, soy sauce, hoisin, frozen peas and sweetcorn, flour, chicken, sausages, honey to make mead, lettuce, cabbage, grapes, tinned chopped tomato.
That's crazy, your other expenses (internet/electricity) seem comparable, but your food must be so much cheaper than in the US. Where I am, chicken alone is like $5 per pound. I think a pound of any decent cheese is $8-10.
Probably get 0.5-1kg of chicken, or 400g of the finest sausages in Aldi. That along with cheese are by far the most expensive ingredients in that list.
I suppose living fairly near cheddar helps with cheese prices, doesn't have to be sent very far.
It's the payday celebration lunch, getting something expensive at work for lunch. I usually eat cheaper but the payday burger is the first thing that came to mind that I know the price history. I got stash of dry food in my office I can microwave for lunch.
Small chips from vending machine is $1.50, ~$10-20 would be cheap fast food, a sit down restaurant would be ~30-$60 +tip for one person (haven't been to one in a few years so I'm not quite up to date).
Normally if you cook at home you can make good meal that last you a day or 2 for $5-10. If your desperate you can scrape by on the college special of ramen, bread, and frozen pizza for ~$1-$2 a meal.
I'd boil my balls for internet that cheap, It's not possible to get anything for less than $60 where I'm at and it's cellular internet with a low data cap at that price. Average home internet would be about $75-100 I do also have more expensive contract as I would get charged MUCH more on a home plan as I use more than the 1.5tb a month of "unlimited" internet but it would still be $80-150 a month. I got the cheapest phone plan possible and root my phone to not get charged for tethering and to bypass the shady stuff phone carriers do to your phone to milk you for money.
I don't think I've ever seen an electric bill under $100 I know I'm higher than average as I'm on a computer all day.
Don't worry the US changes how we measure inflation every few years to keep the number looking politically favorable.