re: Americans think they need to earn $233,000 to live comfortably, and $483,000 to be rich

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Then I need to figure out where the frick all my money is going because we make about that together, and all combined our total spend (mortgage, utilities, tuitions, credit cards) is $9,000 meaning we should have close to $87,000 a year left over, and we certainly don’t have that.

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Does your spend include taxes? Because if not that’s where a big chunk of that 87k is going.

Even with taxes (let’s say %30) I should have close to $60,000 or $5,000 a month and that’s just not the case. Again, essentially everything not the mortgage is on credit cards so I don’t have some super secret spend o don’t know about.

Looks like I need to really look at both of our monthly statements and figure where I’m blowing it.

I can’t even use the kids sports excuse as I haven’t paid a dime for teams or gear on like 5 months, which means I should be able to get the new Easton Hype Fire!

If housing wasn't so high, and taxes on that housing wasn't so high, and homeowner's insurance wasn't so high, then that number would come way down, but damn...

A lot of people are constantly making Target runs and Amazon orders, but they don’t count that in their bills so they can’t figure out where all their money is going. Is that maybe the case?

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A lot of people are constantly making Target runs and Amazon orders, but they don’t count that in their bills so they can’t figure out where all their money is going. Is that maybe the case?

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Those "one time expenses" never seem to stop.

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I had to replace my roof last year because the house was 20 years old. Have 2 years left of $400 a month to pay that off.

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You make 200k per year and you financed a roof replacement? What is your interest rate?

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Those "one time expenses" never seem to stop.

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Ain’t that the truth.

Random observation but people I know with major small spending habits that add up have PACKED fridges and pantries. Like far more than they’ll eat in the next week, or even next month. It always surprises me when I open someone’s fridge and there’s no space to place a drink even.

Have a feeling they’re making regular “grocery trips” to the tune of hundreds of dollars.

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Random observation but people I know with major small spending habits that add up have PACKED fridges and pantries. Like far more than they’ll eat in the next week, or even next month. It always surprises me when I open someone’s fridge and there’s no space to place a drink even. Have a feeling they’re making regular “grocery trips” to the tune of hundreds of dollars.

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This is definitely my fam’s biggest source of waste. We throw out a lot of food that expires uneaten or we just buy another pack of X, even though we barely ate the pack of X we bought the previous week.

Trying to get better about it but probably piss away at least 150 a month unnecessary grocery spending.

Every month or two we will go through and clean out the pantry and fridge and it’s shameful the amount of waste.

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Random observation but people I know with major small spending habits that add up have PACKED fridges and pantries. Like far more than they’ll eat in the next week, or even next month. It always surprises me when I open someone’s fridge and there’s no space to place a drink even.

Have a feeling they’re making regular “grocery trips” to the tune of hundreds of dollars.

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Interesting you bring this up. Would be a great separate OT topic. I always thought this was a product of the Boomer generation. My theory is that their parents (The Greatest Generation) always lived frugally because of frugal habits developed by the Depression, keeping very little in the pantries and fridges in the homes the Boomer’s grew up in. So “making it” in life to Boomers meant having stocked oversized pantries and refrigerators. To an unnecessary extent as you are describing, leading to a lot of waste.

But i’ve now noticed in the homes of friends/family of the Gen X and Millennials l, many of them waste a lot as well. Maybe it’s a just a lazy arse thing.

eta: I think a lot of people when they go grocery shopping, just going up and down every aisle grabbing things, instead of actually meal planning for the week and getting only what you need.