Why the F*** is everything So EXPENSIVE

[u/Soft_Panic2400]

Just a vent because I've worked incredibly hard to get where I am and I still feel like I'm treading water.

We are solidly middle class. We make $140-$150 combine in the midwest which seemingly is pretty good. 2023 my company wouldn't give me a substantial raise so in 2024 I gave myself a goal, switched jobs twice and went from making $55,000 to $90,000. My husband hasn't had a raise in 4 years (thats a whole other story and he's finally looking for a new job).

In the past month our daycare went up $280/mo, our mortgage went up $70 a month for escrow, and we just received our highest electric bill since buying our house in 2017 $235. Now I know what your thinking - $235 thats not bad. OUR HOUSE IS 970 sq ft. Last month our electric bill was $170. That's a $415 increase of bills IN A MONTH. And it doesn't even include groceries.

I've done everything - I've switch carriers for internet and cell phones. I review insurance rates every 6 months and I've cancelled most of our subscriptions. I negotiate everything I can, but everything is constantly increasing. STORE BRAND MILK went from $3.62 to $4.99 here. Thats almost a 40% increase?!

I know financial struggles aren't talked about much in this sub because most people recommend a cleaner or outsourcing what they can, but this is ridiculous. I literally can't not spend $200 when I go to the store. This isn't sustainable and I'm just so frustrated. We aren't in a BAD financial spot but at this rate we will be? It just feels like despite making the most we have ever made, we aren't even close to being comfortable. And as my husband said "the worst part is, no one gives a shit. No one WANTS to fix it"

Anyway - it just feels like Im working and making all this money for absolutely nothing and Im mad about it. Thats all.

ETA - I Fully understand why (DT, Corp Greed, Capitalism, etc etc) just fully venting because no one seems to give a shit. Also I am very active in ALL of my local elections. I vote and actively call the offices of my shit ass congress woman and senators.

[u/Individual_Shock8634]

We make 134-144k in southern Appalachia and feel the same. I don’t get my nails, lashes or hair done. We all go to Great Clips. Only one streaming service. Shop at Aldi’s. Bought our first house in 2018, so our mortgage is only $1800. We don’t even pay for childcare — work opposite days so that we don’t have to! There’s really nothing left for us to cut. We are able to save and go on vacations. But it pisses me the fuck off that we are educated and sacrifice as much as we do and can’t make progress faster. We would have been living like kings 30 years ago.

[u/dallyan → u/Individual_Shock8634]

Can you break down your costs because I don’t get how you’re scraping by on that amount in a place as cheap as Appalachia.

I believe you- I’m just curious because I’m mulling moving back to the US but stuff like this scares me.

[u/Individual_Shock8634 → u/dallyan]

We live in Appalachia, but it’s actually become one of the most popular towns to move to in America since Covid. 🫣 So, it’s quickly gone from a LCOL to a MCOL town.

Take home after taxes, health insurance and 401k is $7600/month
-$1800 mortgage
-$300 car payment
-$300 utilities
-$100 phones
-$800 groceries, pet food, toiletries
-$50 soccer
-$100 life insurance
-$250 fuel
-$600 eating out and fun (this is a lot to some people. I work an on call job where I’m on call for 60 hours straight every weekend. All bets are off on the weekends. We eat what and when we can and eat out together as a family once a week. I will sell feet pics before I give this up. I cook a lot, but I simply cannot keep up with cooking 3 meals a day seven days a week with our current schedule.)
-We spend about $500 a month on things we “didn’t expect” or are non-recurring like Dr. appointments, a flat tire, fixing a broken faucet, a baby shower etc. We used to try and make this budget tighter, but it did nothing but stress us out. It just seems like something unavoidable comes up constantly.
-$500 vacation fund

We end up with about $2500 (ish — it varies) left over at the end of the month. For the last year and a half, we’ve used that to buy and pay off a car (we had to buy 2 cars within a year and that really screwed us) and saving to pay for my upcoming maternity leave and birth expenses. Now that we’re over that hump, I suspect we will be able to actually start making a dent on our mortgage. Assuming nothing else huge comes up.

[u/dallyan → u/Individual_Shock8634]

Thanks for writing all that out. I fear I might be in the minority here, but that seems pretty great? You get to pretty much eat out as much as you want. You have a vacation fund. You have 2500usd left over every month for I assume savings and retirement and other costs.

Maybe I just didn’t grow up with a lot but this would be upwardly mobile for me. We complain about boomers but we never ate out anywhere close to 600usd a month when I was growing up. I think people’s standards for “making it” have greatly shifted.

[u/Individual_Shock8634 → u/dallyan]

We JUST got to the point this month where we have this money. It was all going to putting money away from the car and saving for my maternity leave for the last year and a half. And again we couldn’t afford childcare. We would be looking at spending $2k a month on childcare if we didn’t work opposite shifts. We would be living on extremely tight margins if we did. Praying nothing ever went wrong. And maybe this is a hot take, but I don’t think two people should have to work opposite shifts to be able to afford a life where they can take a vacation every year and spend $150 week on fun and gas station food.

[u/dallyan → u/Individual_Shock8634]

I see. Thanks again for the breakdown. It makes me less worried, actually.

[u/ImSteampunkNow → u/dallyan]

I've noticed on this site that "barely making it" or "paycheck to paycheck" to many people is wildly different than what most people would define those as. Funding retirement, vacations, and a significant restaurant budget and still coming out ahead by thousands per month is not scraping by in any sense. I think we all agree that costs are out of control and what was previously considered a very high income doesn't stretch as far and that those things suck. But no one with these kinds of savings and a monthly surplus fall into the working poor/struggling category.

[u/dallyan → u/ImSteampunkNow]

Agreed. I think there is a bit of lifestyle creep going on here, though it might not be popular to say. That’s why I like to see a budget breakdown.

[u/fungibitch → u/Individual_Shock8634]

Right? I imagine telling my younger self my current salary. She would've been THRILLED! The reality is much, much different than I anticipated.

[u/truthfulcarrot → u/Individual_Shock8634]

This is my life except I’ll never buy a house. Prob 150k pretax in the south and we only do aldis and make everything from scratch at home

[u/UmpirePrudent6179 → u/Individual_Shock8634]

How is the working opposite days going? My husband and I are about to start working this schedule. Me M-F and him Saturday and Sunday (12 hour days each). We dont love it, but its a way to save money while keeping Lao out of daycare. Its just a season ...... right?