Do we REALLY need to quiz people to know this? Ffs.
I assumed it was housing.
I mean, you’re not wrong there either.
If we could afford housing, then that would be it.
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2024/04/16/generation-z-is-unprecedentedly-rich
Y’all are buying homes just fine compared to the last few generations.
Y’all
Rich = Full Time Employed?
You seem to mistake having a salary for having money.
America now has more than 6,000 Zoomer chief executives and 1,000 Zoomer politicians.
Also, what if you’re not a CEO or a politician? Also, plus, too, how on earth is “small town city councilman” or “part-time New Hampshire legislator” a sign of wealth?
I don’t get the point you’re trying to make with your graph. Obviously there wouldn’t be many Zoomers working full time; most are still in school.
Zoomers born after 2006 haven’t graduated high-school, and those born between 2002-2006 are in college. That’s leaves only a 5 year window of people you’d expect to be employed full time.
The line for millenials looks about the same as Zoomers.
The line for millenials looks about the same as Zoomers.
shrug
Take that up with the Economist, its their claim and their chart.
I’m trying to understand your argument against the article and what point you’re trying to make by using their chart.
That was one single indicator. I agree it’s not the best, to your point, unemployment, homeownership, and salary averages are the ones that show middle class wealth.
I don’t see any of that in the article. Is it hidden behind the paywall?
You just need an account for the first few articles.
The article doesn’t say that. It says that most arent spending above 43% on housing. It doesn’t dig into that, likely on purpose.
https://archive (dot) is/2024.05.08-164727/https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2024/04/16/generation-z-is-unprecedentedly-rich
People really love quizzes.
I’m food insecure and a hufflepuff! /s
Considering only 30% of the people in this survey from ages 18-34 are working full time, i’m going to go ahead and say this isn’t an accurate representation of independent young adults.
26% are in school and 16% are unemployed for a total of 42% not really making money / are using loans for housing or are living at home.
28% are working part time and are unlikely to be living on their own - it’s rare to find a part time gig that can afford housing.
So 22% think housing is the highest cost issue… and only 30% are employed full time… sounds about right to me! I’m guessing it’s not 30% because those 8% got mortgages during the 4% or lower interest rate era.
What do you mean by independent young adult. Is that even possible to be any more? Without being born wealthy or making a huge gamble in health and safey or finances or both?
Sure, get a job working in a construction trade, IT, sales (if you are good) and you are easily making 90-110k a year not long after. Independence isn’t difficult with 100k/year and not many obligations.
I remember having to spend $20 a week on groceries 15 years ago. Now I’m spending ~$30. It’s disgusting.
Honestly, how?
We can buy a few raw ingredients and easily hit $80 unless we only buy SNAP foods.
I’m going to real, I don’t know how. I thought that this was kind of normal. Usually I eat a lot of produce, yogurt, and dried beans. I also have a garden. I’m trying to avoid processes foods and breads.
I recently moved to the south and have noticed that food was 40% cheaper in the north where I originated.
We don’t have a garden but have started one in hopes to cut the costs a bit. And started our first sourdough this weekend so hopefully we can achieve the same.
… You’re spending $30 a week on groceries? That’s it? Are you being facetious, or have you been living on ramen, beans and rice for 15 years?
Not ramen, but rice and beans are definitely a staple. I figured it was a little low, but judging by the comments this is super low.
I spend about that if you exclude my splurge on Soylent for breakfast (substitute oatmeal, for example). I eat wraps that are 90% veggies for lunch and the premix Birdseye veggie/chicken dinners where I can get 2 meals per bag.
Soylent alone averages $3 each, so that’s already more than 2/3 of a $30 weekly budget on breakfast alone. Birds Eye Veggie Made Garlic Chicken is $7 for a 21 oz bag, if that’s what you’re talking about it’s (7*7/2) about $25 a week. So now we’re at $46, or more than 150% of a $30 budget, and we haven’t accounted for a single lunch.
I literally said in my comment that Soylent is a splurge that could be replaced with oatmeal. I don’t get it to be cheap, I get it because I like it and it’s pretty good nutritionally. Make that change and you’re under $30, like I usually am outside of that.
Here was this week’s cost, including splurging on a 1lb bag of nuts for snacking: https://i.postimg.cc/GmSJWVxp/Screenshot-20240509-111904.png
More importantly I was replying to your “only ramen or rice and beans” comment, because I don’t eat either of those. I could reduce my costs further if I did, but I like what I eat and don’t need to save money on my food budget.
Probably not buying pre processed garbage. I feed a family of 3, well not some rice and beans every night shit, for about $35 a week and I’m not out looking for ways to stay inexpensive.
For fuck’s sake, let a person have some ice cream…
I make my own I’ve cream. $2-3 dollars for a gallon of the best custard vanilla bean you’ve ever had.
Is this along with the 2 pounds of pork for $6 you claim you can buy that doesn’t actually track with real pork prices?
Edit: Also, “oh boy! Vanilla ice cream! My favorite flavor!” – no one
Make chocolate chip for all I care. It’s easy and delicious.
I see, so at one specific smaller grocery store chain, if you are on food stamps, pork tenderloin costs more than you said it did.
Honestly curious about what you’re cooking and what, if any, dietary restrictions you’re working with. I’ve got a family of 4 and we’re lucky to get out of a grocery run in less than $150-200.
Wife is celiac and so the house is 98% GF. Once in a while I might grab buns for a hamburger.
Lots of pork and chicken. I’m my local you can buy pork loin or chops in 3-4 lbs portions for like $7. Chicken, especially whole is inexpensive but breasts and thighs can also be bought in 4-5 lb quantities. Produce wise, nothing fancy onions or all types, green beans, ginger, peppers, broccoli, potatoes. We typically have beans of different varieties as well as jasmine and basmati.
You add 30 or so spices, oils, flour, and a few other pantry items as well and you have the ability to do a wide variety of food.
I did exclude gf frozen pizza and bread in my og pricing viewing it as an exception. Yeah that shit is fucking expensive and making your own is 40 different flours and praying to a god for success.
I’m also considering just buying a few pigs each year in bulk but you need space for that which I understand you ain’t getting in a small apartment.
Vegetarian, I edited by first comment explaining that and my grocery picks that week.
Thank you!!! I’ll save your comment and check it out after work. I definitely appreciate knowledge to try to curb these grocery prices
Feel free to hit me up. If there is a community here on Lemmy to post cheap recipes I’m down for sharing them there.
wish. : /
I don’t know why people find this hard to believe. Yeah prices are way up but if you take some simple steps you can keep your food costs relatively low. My partner and I spend about $50 per week but we live in California. We grow a lot of veggies, buy everything in bulk and eat simply - a lot of rice and beans, tofu and whole grains.
One of the key things is to eliminate or minimize processed foods. I.e. extract the value of your labor not add to some company’s profit margin. As a slightly extreme example, crackers are very expensive per calorie. We make our own for a tiny fraction of the cost. Or… as soon as you buy meat your costs are way higher. We do but e.g. we’ll buy a whole chicken instead of the cut pieces, and then make stock from the carcass (sorry vegans). Or instead of buying orange juice, buy oranges at a discount from road side stands and make your own. You can freeze it. And don’t buy things out of season.
Not to be critical, but when I see what people have in their carts I can fully understand why they find food expensive. And then they gotta constantly work more to cover the higher costs. No thanks…
People have nearly lost the ability to prepare a full meal it seems in this thread. I can fill an entire US sized grocery cart to the top and be under $300 and that’ll last a couple nearly a month.
You literally just need to buy unprocessed food. Yes it has gone up a bit, but not nearly to the extent processed shit has.
Yes it has gone up a bit, but not nearly to the extent processed shit has.
This is a great point. Big corporations always look to generate “value” out of nothing, and processed foods are a great example. And when they can take advantage of “inflation” (LOL) to pad their margins, they will go nuts. When margins are lower and the percentage of “value add” is lower, there is much less price to inflate. So to speak.
You could take an ingredient like potatoes, cook them and add flavoring and voila, huge markup. The potatoes only went up 1% 2022-2023 but the average price of a 16oz bag of potato chips went up 27% over roughly the same period.
shocked pikachu
hey rich people, ever heard the stories of what happens when the mass working class gets hungry?
They vote for the very people that aim to make them poorer?
They eat cake? /s
In the US? I think they just die?
They should boycott.
That’s why revolution starts with the bread
Especially burger buns, because they are round.
This fucking god awful economy is literally built out of strains on millennials finances.
Sounds about right.
You know chit don’t seem right when your groceries alone, not even including fast food / restaurant dining, is about the same if not more than your mortgage payment.
Now that AI tech is going full swing in implementation across multiple industries in the U.S., prepare for stagflation.
Historically, stagflation occurs when high unemployment, slow economic growth and high inflation all happen at the same time. Powell compared today’s economy, with both inflation rates and the unemployment rate below 4%, to that of the 1970s, the decade when most economists consider stagflation to have taken root. May 1, 2024
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It’s crazy. I’m spending like 500-800 max and I’m not really tryharding. No idea how anybody can spend like 3k and complain about how the whole system is wrong.
they have kids and/or buying prepared foods/takeout
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Maybe op has 16 kids?
All that avocado toast shakes fist
No, just over $1100 for the month. This of course includes, ever so often things like cleaning supplies, and toiletries.
Average US mortgage is over $2k which is why people are confused.
My total food bill is almost a $1000. I’m single and live in a city.
65% of it is groceries. Nothing fancy. It costs me $150 a week for the basics. Veggies, few lbs of meat, dairy etc.
Could I cut back and only eat rice and canned/frozen foods? Yes. But I want to eat good fresh food. I drop about $50 in produce a week alone.
So you spend $400/month on restaurants?
$150 x 4 = $600/month.
That lines up with the ‘65% of it is groceries’ part. 35% of almost $1000 is a bit shy of $350.
That’s a lot of take out.
Honestly, if food was as much as mortgage, that’s not too bad. It’s bad when those combined are more than 3/4 the average income.
The real problem is pay is extremely low for the productivity.
Assuming you’re in the US, that’s either a really cheap mortgage or a huge family. Where are you seeing grocery expenses exceed mortgage payments?
Wait, what? If you’re hungry, nutritious food (canned beans and such) will cost less than $5 a day. And that’s without cooking. If you can boil water, you can save some money and increase the variety of food available to you.
When milk of $5+ a gallon in most of the country, the solution isn’t as simple as “cook at home” for those of us with a family to feed. Young Americans don’t mean just 24 year olds.
I have a toddler and cook at home. What exactly is your point here, I don’t understand. Rice, beans, meat, produce call all be had for cheap. Milk IS one of the more expensive foods but it’ll last two weeks, is probably a poor example when you can also buy 2lbs of pork for $6.
Your claim of two pounds of pork for $6 does not line up with Kroger’s meat pricing.
Your claim of two pounds of pork for $6 does not line up with Kroger’s meat pricing.
You could easily do this if you buy on sales or close dated and freeze. Last time I bought pork it was pork loin on sale from a Piggly Wiggly at $1.89/lb. Buy several, ask the meat dept to cut them into chops if they will (or do it yourself if they won’t) separate into single meal for the household portions, bag and freeze. They’ll last even longer if you use a vacuum sealer.
We do basically the same with ground beef - buy a bunch when there’s a sale, pre-prep some of it into taco meat, meatloves, chili, etc then portion, bag and freeze.
I guess that’s true. I don’t think we should be buying so much meat (if any) to begin with… I wouldn’t ban it or anything, but Kroger or whoever selling nearly-expired meat for very low prices is not going to help matters. The only thing I can say for it is that at least they’re attempting to avoid just throwing it out.
selling nearly-expired meat
For most things expiration dates are bullshit that’s more about profits or product flow than safety. Most things are usually more than fine for at least a few days after, and freezing meat extends it’s safe life by months.
To give you an idea how much expiration dates are bullshit, if you’ve ever been to a Sam’s they sell these enchiladas, pasta and the like that are just throw in the oven for a bit and eat and they’re all made with shredded chicken. They make these things in house, and they’re all chicken because the chicken comes from unsold rotisserie chickens that have been out too long that they pick all the meat off and shred. Because the expiry on them isn’t actually about food safety, and pulling them off the shelf, shredding and repackaging as chicken enchiladas or chicken pasta alfredo or whatever lets them invent a new mostly bullshit expiry date for the same chicken.
Yeah the price of food for one person is easily doubled now. If you are single it’s hard enough but if you have a family of 4 it’s insane
I’m so excited for my new all-canned beans diet.
What if I told you that you don’t need the processed foods you’ve been eating your whole life? Shocking I know.
You “I can’t afford food” Them “here’s food you can” You “no not like that! I need muh Doritos to be happy like the commercials tell me!!”
Most people in Mongolia eat one thing their entire lives and are fine.
I like how some Americans aren’t even pretending to strive to be the best nation anymore but just saying “eat like people in impoverished countries”.
Like, people in Mongolia or for example my parents when they lived in El Salvador didn’t eat beans every single day because they wanted to or enjoyed it - it’s because there literally was no upward mobility and the oligarchy kept it that way.
You’re the person who centuries ago would be defending the king as you ate only oats for the 10th day in a row because some other kingdom had minor starvation.
So it’s either ‘bag of doritos’ or ‘eat all canned beans for the rest of your life.’
Most people in Mongolia eat one thing their entire lives and are fine.
This is just utter horse shit and it also sounds based in bigotry.
https://www.travelbuddies.info/mongolian-foods/ https://www.viewmongolia.com/mongolian-food.html
Etc.
I buy vegetables and meat mostly. are those luxury foods now? Last I checked that was just food.
fresh food is a luxury in the usa, yes.
i was grew up in a bottom 50% household. most of my childhood diet was sugary snacks, canned/boxed foodstuffs, and frozen meat/vegetables. fresh food was largely reserved for holidays. my mother used to spend about 60/week to feed a family of four, and this was after coupons and in the 1990s
Ah yes, surely the issue must be that people aren’t eating enough poverty meals of canned beans and rice. Meat is obviously only for wall street investors
Meat is obviously only for wall street investors
When you need to cut your food budget and still want meat, you watch for meat sales, buy a bunch and freeze it. A vacuum sealer is fantastic for this since it lets you split stuff into single meal portions and seal it. Most grocery store meat departments will also willing to cut roasts and the like into pieces for you if you ask and that doesn’t change the price - usually buying a pork loin and asking them to cut it into chops will be cheaper than just buying chops, for example. For quick meals pre-prepping a bunch of taco meat, meatloaves, chili or the like and freezing it is a great time saver.
Around here ground beef and pork loin go on sale pretty often, just a few weeks ago we had pork loin for $1.89/lb and discounted 85/15 ground beef.
Sardines are a great (and cheap!) source of protein and they’re super nutrient dense. Tons of vitamin d, b, fish oils. This has little to do with the topic at hand, I just got turned onto sardines as someone that wrote them off my entire adult life and they’re awesome!
On topic though, I love threads like these because we get to see all of the middle/upper middle class nepo-babies come out with their advice on how to manage living with a level of poverty they have clearly never experienced. Always such a special time.
they also have a fuckload of sodium
Nope! I have hypertension, so I’m extremely sodium conscious, out of necessity. The king Oscar tins we buy have 350mg of sodium in them, which is around 15% DV. That’s not much compared to pretty much all red meats…
Havent you heard? You’re not supposed to eat meat anyway.
This but unironically.
Shit’s bad in Canada, and our grocery store megacorps are taking us for all we’ve got. Five boneless skinless chicken breasts for $28 is insanity. Yet here we are.
I went to get chicken for some meal prep a couple of days ago (Missouri, US) and a 1lb container of just chicken breast tenders costs $13, I figured it was a “labor” cost for cutting the tenders off before the customer buys it, like how a container of diced onion costs an order of magnitude higher than just buying a whole onion, but nope, the pack of 2 breasts right next to it cost basically the same, maybe only 50 cents cheaper, and I wasn’t in anything expensive like a whole foods, just a generic lowcost midwest regional store. It’s absolutely ridiculous. Not to mention 2 orange or red bell peppers costs $5…
Is this Schnucks?
Price Chopper actually
Also from Missouri. I got Aldi near me and their chicken is cheap.
Chicken tenderloins are $3.94/lb at Walmart in Central KY. Where were you shopping?
Tyson announced several months ago that they were cutting back supply, just so that they could charge more. They’re one of, if not the largest chicken supplier (and they are fully vertically integrated) in NA, so them raising prices affects prices across the board.
Prepare for more pain as bird flu seems to be spreading in US cattle populations.
Five boneless skinless chicken breasts for $28 is insanity. Yet here we are.
The fuck.
Here in the Netherlands we apparently have the opposite problem. Lots of complaints that meat is too cheap, mainly by animal rights organizations who oppose the conditions under which the animals for this cheap meat are held.
Yeah no shit
Yeah, sorry, no. Even if I had the space, when I get home from work at 1900 the last thing I want to do is more work. It’s not like you can just plop some seeds into soil and do nothing until the harvest is ripe—I know, we had a decent family garden when I was a wee lad. Took a lot of work to keep it going.
If I worked 4 or even 6 hours a day—sure, I could add some homework to my day. But not when working 8 hours+commuting. And many people are working even longer days.
Gardening has its own associated costs with supplies and requires space
It’s the cost of supplies and garden maintenance and see requirement vs the cost of food at the supermarket
It needs to cost less than the growable food you can buy at the store
You can get away with very little supplies, actually. Basically just a small shovel, the rest be salvaged.
Pots can be made from old plastic bins/containers, soil/fertilizer can be made from food waste using worms, seeds can be made from surprisingly many fruits/vegetables. Pumpkin seeds are right inside the pumpkin, potatoes and beans can be put right into the soil, even tomatoes can be grown from store bought ones.
And while it’s a really cool hobby: you’re right regarding the cost effectiveness. Unless you happen to have a significant plot of land, it won’t make a dent in your grocery bill.
Plastic can leech plastic into your food, I know this personally from getting headaches from using soda bottles as water bottles
And my aunt gets headaches from 5G.
You’re not getting headaches from water bottles. It’s placebo (or nocebo, in this case).
Toxic effects of plastic on human health and environment: A consequences of health risk assessment in Bangladesh
Ram Proshad, Tapos Kormoker, Md Saiful Islam, Mohammad Asadul Haque, Md Mahfuzur Rahman, Md Mahabubur Rahman Mithu
International Journal of Health 6 (1), 1-5, 2018
Plastics are used widely everywhere in our life and without plastic, modern civilization would indeed look very diverse. This study focuses on the toxic effects of plastic on human health and environment and possible consequences of health risk assessment in Bangladesh. Plastics are essential materials in modern civilization, and many products manufactured from plastics and in numerous cases, they promote risks to human health and the environment. Plastics are contained many chemical and hazardous substances such as Bisphenol A (BPA), thalates, antiminitroxide, brominated flame retardants, and poly-fluorinated chemicals etc. which are a serious risk factor for human health and environment. Plastics are being used by Bangladeshi people without knowing the toxic effects of plastic on human health and environment. Different human health problems like irritation in the eye, vision failure, breathing difficulties, respiratory problems, liver dysfunction, cancers, skin diseases, lungs problems, headache, dizziness, birth effect, reproductive, cardiovascular, genotoxic, and gastrointestinal causes for using toxic plastics. Plastics occur serious environment pollution such as soil pollution, water pollution, and air pollution. Application of proper rules and regulations for the production and use of plastics can reduce toxic effects of plastics on human health and environment.
This is just a paper citing plastics affects on health in Bangladesh but it does demonstrate that plastic can have these effects
You are wrongly comparing scientifically proven effects of plastic with misinformation
Nope, you’re simply wildly exaggerating the effects of the dosage you’re actually getting.
That’s like saying water causes cancer, because everyone with cancer drank water at some point.
You are not getting the minimum doses needed to get from a water bottle. And again, if you’re getting headaches from a water bottle, that’s your imagination. Period.
This is not great advice. Using random crap for planters can leech chemicals into your fruits and veggies. Also, you need seed-potatoes to grow potatoes you can eat. You cannot grow edible potatoes from what you buy in a grocery store.
“Random crap” is what’s used in agriculture as well, if you buy a big plastic tub, it won’t leech more into the soil than your coke bottle already did. There’s only so much plastic that can leech out and planters can be used for years, the plastic you’re using around your house gets thrown out in a week or two and replaced. Much higher chemical content there.
And you can absolutely use store bought potatoes, they are clones, there’s no difference between seed and regular potatoes. At most, there might have been something done to prevent sprouting for a bit, but that’s it. You can simply wait for them to sprout, if that’s a concern. You know how I know? I’ve been growing “old” food potatoes in pots for years. Works just fine.
While I like gardening, unironically advising people to grow their own food to cut costs is just bonkers.
It takes months to grow anything, and given the limited space, you can’t grow much anyway. You’ll be lucky to grow 20€ worth of food on your balcony while spending hours doing the gardening. That’s not cost effective.
If your balcony could support the load you could grow quite densely with hydroponic towers, but you won’t ever recoup the costs. That method is also very little work beyond the initial compared to soil.
And that doesn’t even count the cost of materials to get started.
Definitely not against gardening, me and my partners are in the process of getting our garden going in our new place, but dirt alone could easily eat up the cost savings if you have to build out your planters.
Yeah I’ve had gardens all the way up until covid when prices went bananas because it wasn’t feasible anymore. I can buy from a farmers market for less than the materials/time/water. I need to build a gray water capture system.
Now I just grow herbs and tomatoes.
I make way more than I did in my 30s (53 now) but I feel way poorer. Of course my mortgage payment is more than 3x what it was back then … that might be a reason.
The fact you can afford mortgage and a home blows my mind and I’m 40. I have no hope in hell of ever owning and I make decent money
If I lived in someplace like Silicon Valley California and making what I make I’d be homeless. Someplaces are better than others. But the system is definitely rigged for sure.
High COL area?
