Why is everything so expensive (general rant)

[Anonymous]

I don’t mean groceries and gas and the things politicized and blamed on Joe Biden. I actually think groceries, gas, property taxes, my personal car payment and mortgage are not all that bad.

But I mean, the general annoyances of LIFE are so expensive. Home maintenance. Car repairs. Broken appliances. That sort of thing.

And then when you actually want to treat yourself with something that doesn’t even seem so extravagant, like an evening out, or ordering a pizza, or getting a cabin for the weekend (so I’m not even talking about overseas vacations and shopping sprees), those things are so expensive. I thought those kind of treats would be reasonable for middle class people to partake in from time to time. But all these fees, taxes, included gratuities, service fees and all that crap.

I know this board skews wealthy (reportedly) but it just seems impossible to accumulate any kind of meaningful liquid cash savings or an emergency fund when everything cost so much. Yeah I could just “do without” and just put off enjoying myself indefinitely, but what kind of life is that, I have relatives who died of cancer in their 40s, died in car accidents, so to a certain extent you have to live for the moment.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like you need to build up your emergency savings so that these non-recurring expenses don't wreck your budget.

Earmark separate savings for luxuries/treats. So they're not conflicting with each other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you need to build up your emergency savings so that these non-recurring expenses don't wreck your budget.

Earmark separate savings for luxuries/treats. So they're not conflicting with each other.

This isn’t a question about personal budget. There is no budget hack for simply not making enough money and things costing so much

The question is why do things cost so much?

[Anonymous]

I agree with you. Everything always costs twice as much as I think it should.

[Anonymous]

idk but EVERYTHING is so expensive! Our HHI is mid six figures but we are so thrifty bc everything is ten thousand dollars (to be fair we live in manhattan).
It's just NUTS

[Anonymous]

It is crazy, this is beyond inflation, the pandemic drove prices up and they haven’t gone down.

[Anonymous]

Never mind childcare, kids activities, pet care, veterinary services, and medicine if god forbid you don’t have the highest tier health insurance.

[Anonymous]

CEO's and their bonuses.

[Anonymous]

Agree.

[Anonymous]

inflation is much higher than stated. Things like car repairs, maintenance, etc have gone up astronomically and are hard to measure. Paying people to sit at home was incredibly disruptive to the labor market and was a failed experiment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with you. Everything always costs twice as much as I think it should.

Exactly. Even though I can afford things, they just cost more than I think they should. Things that I think should cost $20 cost $50, things that should cost $100 cost $500, things that should cost $800 cost $2000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:inflation is much higher than stated. Things like car repairs, maintenance, etc have gone up astronomically and are hard to measure. Paying people to sit at home was incredibly disruptive to the labor market and was a failed experiment.

Remember how the Biden administration kept using the term “transitory inflation?”

Biden’s government is incapable of being honest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:inflation is much higher than stated. Things like car repairs, maintenance, etc have gone up astronomically and are hard to measure. Paying people to sit at home was incredibly disruptive to the labor market and was a failed experiment.

I highly doubt that $2000 in stimulus payments three years ago caused this. Or the child tax credit. I’d even believe it if labor costs as in actual wages have gone up that much, but they haven’t. I’m more inclined to believe that the general chaos and discourse of inflation has just let companies set prices arbitrarily high and leaving the market hostage.

[Anonymous]

What’s happening is your income and spending on day to day needs isn’t leaving enough cushion for the categories that are less predictable.

You have to make more money or scale back on something like housing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:CEO's and their bonuses.

And profits to shareholders. The pandemic showed companies exactly what consumers were willing to tolerate, so they've doubled down to increase profits at the expense of consumers, and society in general.