- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
- usa@lemmy.ml
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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
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?
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.
So you are telling me your food bill is $2-3k/mo ??
Wtf are you buying?
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.
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
Ngl, just had a kid and I spend less on food because we don’t go out as often. It’s more of a hassle. And when we do go out we don’t get drinks or at least one of us doesn’t because we can’t take cabs with a baby.
Even with the multiple kid argument, there are economies of scale. You could almost make an argument that it’s more justifiable to eat out when you are single since most recipes seem scoped for a family and you might waste more food if you aren’t diligent about leftovers
Maybe op has 16 kids?
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.
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?
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.
They should boycott.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
wish. : /
Sounds about right.
Let me rephrase it.
54% of young Americans struggle to buy food.
Would help if they learned to cook.
Vast majority of my under 40 peers, do not cook. Almost everything they eat is prepared meals or meal substitutes.
A lot of people don’t have the time nor the energy to cook these days. If you work long hours or have multiple jobs to make ends meet, things can and will fall to the wayside. It’s not always a matter of laziness like you’re implying.
Yeah, I routinely work twelves and am in graduate school. I try to cook, but when I get home at 10 pm and have a paper to write (because my career is now illegal for trans people to do where I live, and an MS is the only ticket out…), I’m eating Taco Bell.
personally I’d rather be poor yet able to cook a healthy meal rather than work long hours, be tired and unhappy with no time AND struggle to buy unhealthy food.
Everyone picks their own poison. I think the core issue is that our options are all poison.
Well I guess someone picked for me. Because I didn’t choose any of this.
We cook for a family of 4 and grocery prices have still basically doubled in our area. Doing a lot more beans and rice lately.
Look up Justin Wilson’s Louisiana cooking. They make beans and rice tasty AF
The number of young people with no money, but constant deliveries from Ubereats, Deliveroo, etc, astounds me.
Like, my brother in Christ, you are sending most of your food budget to Silicon Valley billionaires. No generation has ever survived entirely on delivered takeaways.
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.
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.
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…
Chicken tenderloins are $3.94/lb at Walmart in Central KY. Where were you shopping?
Is this Schnucks?
Price Chopper actually
Also from Missouri. I got Aldi near me and their chicken is cheap.
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.
hey rich people, ever heard the stories of what happens when the mass working class gets hungry?
In the US? I think they just die?
They vote for the very people that aim to make them poorer?
They eat cake? /s
Yeah no shit
Don’t worry though we solved inflation. We just removed it from our calculations. If we don’t count it: it’s not there!
Investment funds stocking up on US farmland in safe-haven bet
Investment funds have become voracious buyers of U.S. farmland, amassing over a million acres as they seek a hedge against inflation and aim to benefit from the growing global demand for food, according to data reviewed by Reuters and interviews with fund executives.
The trend worries some U.S. lawmakers who fear corporate interest will make agricultural land unaffordable for the next generation of farmers. Those lawmakers are floating a bill in Congress that would impose restrictions on the industry’s purchases.
Though their acreage is a small slice of the nearly 900 million acres of U.S. farmland, the pace of acquisitions by investment firms like Manulife Investment Management and Nuveen has quickened since the 2008 global financial crisis drove firms to seek new investment vehicles, according to Reuters interviews with fund managers and an analysis of data from the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF).
The number of properties owned by such firms increased 231% between 2008 and the second quarter of 2023, and the value of those holdings rose more than 800% to around $16.2 billion, according to NCREIF’s quarterly farmland index, which tracks the holdings of the seven largest firms in farmland investment.
Farmland offers steady returns even in periods of high inflation, and firms hope crop demand will remain steady as the United Nations predicts the world will need 60% more food by 2050 due to population growth.
You don’t want to confuse “inflation” with “economic growth”. One makes prices go up because the evil bad salaries are increasing. But the other makes profits go up because of the smart efficient business net revenues are increasing.
A prosperous nation needs big new investments in the future. And that means speculating in our domestic breadbasket, so we can maximize the price of inelastic commodities in an effort to optimize consumption habits. You don’t like waste, do you? Optimizing price reduces waste. Its all right here in the book Basic Economics by totally non-problematic and very smart guy Thomas Sowell.
Not really surprising.
yep. to anyone who is paying attention. and lives in a HCOL area.
but a lot of people aren’t/don’t.
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.
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
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.
People really love quizzes.
I’m food insecure and a hufflepuff! /s
As they’re living with their parents because they can’t afford an apartment of their own.
Yup. Rent and then food right now.
This is a serious point. I couldn’t afford a place until I was in a relationship. And that was a long time ago. I can’t imagine how difficult it would be with today’s rent.
Having a roommate turned an apartment from unaffordable luxury to merely 25% of my paycheck.
I honestly think having roommates is fun, particularly if you’re old friends anyway. But its crazy that a spot at the ass end of town was eating so much of my take home pay even after we cut the bill in half.
For one city in Germany there was an article reporting that moving in together became the new marriage, because giving up your previous accommodation means to be stuck together in the same place for six months or longer after a breakup.
I wish stores like Grocery Outlet had more attention. I’ve saved so much money there
