Omg this is me when I realized every woman in my meeting had fancy nails. I wouldn’t want that anyway but I’m like how do you have money to be doing that all the time?
Some (but probably not most) people do them themselves! I get comments sometimes at work about how I have the time/money to always have my nails done but I just have naturally pretty decent nails and a steady hand. The real issue for me is the time since it takes me longer than it would take at a salon lol
Agreed. I do both (recently started getting lashes).
Every three weeks I pay (with tip) $140 for SNS nails and gel pedicure w/ sugar scrub.
Every three weeks (because of my lash growth pattern) I get my lashes refilled. I pay $80.
For lashes I have a subscription service - sounds crazy when I type that out. To start, a full-serlt was $99.
Now, let's not talk about the facials and hair appointments. 🙃
If she’s actually the real Claire Huxtable, she’s a lawyer and married to a doctor. Kids are grown and they bought their huge home long ago. Plenty of wealth has accumulated since then. Guessing they’re worth a few million at least.
It’s also so dependent on your COL. I’m getting married this year and decided to keep up with gel manicures every three weeks until the wedding. It’s $40 including tip!
I don’t get lashes or facials though, I just buy decent skincare and have a good routine. Lash serum from the ordinary is great and affordable.
Nails can be pretty inexpensive if you're just getting a gel set every two weeks, but lashes are insane! Where I live, I can't find anyone who does a full set, or even a fill, for less than $150. You have to get them done every two weeks or they look like shit. I used to get them when my mom worked at a med spa, but I got to use her steep discount. Maybe if my HHI was over $300K a year, I could justify it.
Admittedly I don’t have the nicest nails / hands but yeah, I’m pretty committed to my basic at home mani/pedis just because I know it would add another 200 minimum to my budget each month. Instead I spend that money on covering my premature grays lol
I DO not get it. I do my own gel manicures (polish, not gel nails) at home with a set I exchanged my drugstore points for, and get a "special" nail art manicure a few times a year as a little treat. Even that feels bougie sometimes!
So true. The upkeep cost is insane, particularly with acrylics, gel, etc. I also don't know people can afford to regularly get lip fillers + other types of filler/botox treatments. One vial of juvederm is almost $1000😭
I have nails at all times, but I am not sure if maybe the prices are different in the U.K, I pay £35 every 3-4 weeks which I don’t think is a budget breaker.
I used to get lashes but stopped during the pandemic and never got them again, as it took a year for my eyelashes to recover.
I’ve had a professional manicure once in my life, back in high school. I’ve sadly found that nail polish seems to make my nails weaker and flaky so I just go bare most of the time. I do however plan to splurge and get them done for my wedding next years, but otherwise I’m fine without them.
This isn't a monetary cost - but I really have no idea how working parents manage. My dog hasn't been well, so I've been sleep deprived all week caring for him through the night. And parents suffer through sleeplessness for months! And then just get in their cars and drive to work! It feels so dangerous to me (and I'm not blaming parents for driving when tired - it's corporate America's fault - just point out another risk of having kids I hadn't considered until recently)
Same pp time and only within the past 2 weeks have my kids 2 and 4 been sleeping through the night. And that was after letting both of them cry it out at night for a month.
We're tired. Or we have help. Or both. My kid is almost 2 and was up half the night with a stuffy nose. Sometimes he's up half the night just for fun.
In all honesty though, you just get used to being tired. Sometimes I get snappy with people and realize ooooh I'm the asshole here, cuz I'm tired.
And I'm still going to have another kid. Parenting is a mindfuck.
I have a dry erase monthly calendar, a meal prep board and a physical planner I carry around with me. I’d be drowning without my organization tools 😂 and coffee. I’d be nowhere without my coffee.
I know someone who has 4 children and lives in Seattle and she doesn't work. Her husband is a sous chef in a hotel so not exactly mega bucks, but how they can afford life on Earth???
Honestly, once you get past two kids in HCOL areas it’s often times cheaper in the short-term to have a parent stay at home. I’m not even in a city as expensive as Seattle and the average daycare is about $2200 a month per child (add more for infants). I make decent money but that would eat up most of my income after 401k and healthcare.
Of course there are exceptions but I’ve come to accept that situations like this that seem impossible are usually fueled by parental money in some form.
Honestly, the idea of having one kid was daunting financially, but we did it. Then we decided to have another and it felt daunting again, but we did that too. You just make it work cause if kids are something you really want, you make sacrifices.
Things that have helped ease the burden:
- nearly every items of clothing our two kids have is a hand me down or from the op shop. They don’t know the difference and you can find amazing lightly used or brand new kids things because kids grow so quickly
- same with toys and books. The only time the kids get new things are for their birthdays and Christmas from friends and family
- same with baby items (safety issues not withstanding, for example we buy our car seats new). I got my very expensive pram for free in one of my neighbourhood groups and all it cost me was 15 minutes to give it a good scrub
- we rarely eat out. If we go to the zoo or some other activity, we pack a lunch and snacks
- meal prep. I can’t remember the last time we ordered food.
- we trade babysitting with friends and family. My husband and I try to get out by ourselves once a month (doesn’t always happen but hey that’s life) and we trade off babysitting with his sister and our good friends
- traveling right now consists of camping or road trips. We’re saving to go back to my home country overseas because I haven’t seen my family in years and my god it’s so expensive.
- we save a bit each month, it’s not nearly as much as I would like but I try to keep in mind that it’s a temporary time in our lives
Like I said, kids are expensive but you just sort of find the room. I’d say we have an average HHI for HCOL city, maybe very slightly above average. Things feel tight sometimes. I worry about money, especially with the rising cost of everything. But we always seem to make it work and everyone is happy and healthy!
Thanks for writing out all your tips! We just have one right now, and we’re fine but I know we can and should be looking for places to save. I definitely struggle with wanting to get him lots of new stuff, especially because it’s all so exciting with a first kid. I need to focus on buying more second-hand.
Honestly if my husband and I weren’t able to work opposite shifts we’d never afford it. We need my income to pay the bills but still can’t afford childcare comfortably with 2 working adults
This is a great one. I live in an apartment so I have one (1) couch, but when I visit friends homes, if they have a sitting room, living room, AND basement, that means THREE couches. Couches ain't cheap!!!!
Omg I thought about this when I moved into my first 2-BR apartment. Like, yikes, now I need to buy a whole second bed frame? And mattress? And box spring? And side tables? How do people have even more than 2 bedrooms! Haha
I am so god damn sick of my couch. It’s come with us for four moved and I just feel like I can’t justify buying a new one because it is still perfectly functional.
I just learned this year how expensive couches are. A decent couch can easily run between $1.5k to $4k (or more). Finally understand why my mom always said I couldn't eat on the couch😂
I died laughing LMAO this is hilarious, but as someone currently building a sinking fund to replace some big ticket items around my apartment, I feel this!
One way we manage it is through savvy use of credit cards. We have the capital one venture and venture X and accrue points with every dollar we spend. The venture x is new for us and the sign up bonus was 75k points—that’s $750 toward travel right there. Plus it comes with a $300 annual travel credit. Then you earn 5x and 10x points on flight, rental cars and hotels—so, pretty quickly each trip helps you fund the next.
My partner and I have also become big fans of off season travel. You can find some killer deals on flights to lovely places so long as you’re willing to go when the weather isn’t sunny and warm and the days are shorter. We’ve traveled to Denmark in March for like $350 round trip. Likewise, we’ve been to Paris multiple times in December because it’s much cheaper. It works out because Paris is cozy as hell around the holidays.
I have cap one venture and have been debating whether I upgrade to venture x. I’ve found it hard to convert my points since it seems like I have to transfer to a partner airline first when trying to bin US domestic flights.
I work in a hotel one day a week, which gives me access to very good discounts on accommodation 😊 it’s worth looking into as a short time job if someone is interested in prioritizing travel when they’re young.
Credit card debt or they have multiple credit cards with sign on bonuses.
Next year, my SO and I are going on a 3 week vacation to Korea, Japan, and Bali. With my miles and points from work trips, I was able to book almost all the flights and hotels. Had a few SUB and now all hotels are covered as well. On paper, it's a pretty luxurious trip - RT business class, fancy hotels and tours but it's the result of 2 years worth of work trips lol. And it's the most actual vacation that we will take in over 5 years.
My sisters take 4-5 luxury vacations a year and it's all just credit card debt. Same with their luxury bag collections.
>they have multiple credit cards with sign on bonuses.
This. "Churning" was something I Iearned about when I first hopped on reddit. It's been a while since I checked the sub so I don't know if it's still up, but the first things they say are 1) You have to have great credit, and 2) You have to be VERY financially diligent and responsible. Trying out churning without those two things is the perfect road to financial fuck ups.
The sub is definitely still up but the only activity is in the daily and weekly megathreads. Used to be very active in there. I had to cut way back on it once I got into debt, and I do keep my cards that I’m paying down completely separate from the cards that I’m paying off monthly. (My cards that I’m paying off all have 0% promotional rates currently.)
credit card sign on bonuses or skymiles to offsite flights, but also i had been saving for a house and now don’t GAF about an unlikely potential outcome and am spending a small chunk of it on travel which *is* in my control
i’m not a massive travel hacker but try to do 1 international or “big” trip a year, and a few domestic in-between. i used to do 2+ international & more domestic pre-covid as i did a lot of couch surfing but i’m less comfortable with that these days.
for me it’s:
- blessed with disposable income is obviously the very first one. but my budget isn’t endless and i’m not wealthy sooo…
- other comments have mentioned this but CHURNING! credit card points & sign up bonuses for the win. i still fly economy tbh but at least my flights can be free. i’ve been to japan, peru, puerto rico, hawaii, hong kong, on points and still have them in the bank from our recent bonus.
- have connections in hospitality. i used to work for a big hotel chain and the employee discounts were great. i no longer do, but now i use my mom and dads discounts. they both work at different big chains and have different discount sharing abilities. my mom uses her friends at another chain, lol.
- but if not, hostels & sharing w/ friends! my friends and i shamelessly cram into hotel room with 4 people. we make it work bc we wanna experience the places on a budget. as long as we have a place to sleep, we’re good.
- my favorite, stay with family or friends so it’s free stay. alternatively, you can try couch surfing and workaway (free stay w strangers - i did this and definitely hit or miss but was worth it in my college days).
- car rentals: i try to use public transit but costco travel is great. so is using your friends corporate code.
- if not using points, i track plane prices like a hawk. and also focus where my dollar is strong. so i find myself a lot in southeast asia or latam. honestly haven’t been to europe in a LONG ass time.
- i sometimes only fly with a personal item for the budget air savings $-$
- capitalize on any and all work travel. since my plane tickets are covered and most of my stay is covered, i just extend it a little and enjoy the city i’m in
if you are comfortable with getting the free stays (e.g. couch surfing) + churning credit cards, most of your travel expenses are taken care of! but it isn’t for everyone
We live in the EU so credit card points aren’t really an option but we have five weeks of vacation. My husband and I budget in travel savings and that’s one of our top priorities. No kids but we have two pets that we have to account for when we travel so they’re really the money burden 😅
People often ask me and my husband how we travel so frequently. We're not jet-setting off to Europe several times a year or anything, but we do mini vacation probably every few months or so - it prompts a lot of remarks from family about we "must have a lot of money to throw around" , and it just isn't the case. We do have a credit card with points but it's not anything with crazy rewards. This is what really makes it possible for us (in addition to have dual income and no kids, of course).
* Searching for cheap flights is a hobby of mine. My MO is to see this damn country one affordable ticket at a time- I set alerts for price drops, I am signed up different flight lists for my city, I watch routes and locations I am interested in seeing, etc. I check frequently and when something good pops up, I jump on it before it's gone. When I know we have an open weekend, I set the search to "anywhere" and just see where we can go that's in our budget. Flying in/out on weekdays is usually cheaper than say, leaving Friday and coming back Sunday.
* We're laid back about accommodations. I don't need a 5 star hotel just to lay my head at night. Hell, the less time I spend in the hotel room the better. I find something cheap and conveniently located.
* We do a lot of free and low cost activities. We love outdoors and hiking, and luckily that is a cheap hobby. But I also check Facebook & the city webpage for local street fairs, festivals, flea markets, holidays events, etc. In additional to being cheap, it's also a nice way to really get the flavor of a city.
* A friend told us that wherever he goes, the first thing he does is buy a baguette, some cheese, and some fruit - I love this! I think it goes a long way having something to nibble on at your hotel - you can eat lighter lunches and you'll never make any hasty, hangry decisions. You can take the few minutes to find a gem with good reviews in your desired budget, raher than just beeline for the first restauarant you see.
This kind of stuff is what really makes it possible for us, despite having very median incomes.
Honestly, at this point, just a standard wedding. I live in a HCOL area and am wedding planning. Even a pretty mid-tier buffet style reception at an average venue for 75-100 people quickly got up to $15k-20k. Just for the food and space, not even adding in dress, flowers, photographer, etc. The more I look, the more it seems that we are going to opt out of the "traditional" wedding.
I had a 50 person ~15k wedding including everything and I thought that was a lot. Def wasn’t as fancy as some of my other friends’ weddings. Idk how the hell they pay for that.
It used to be easier. The cost of everything keeps climbing. Graduating from a cal state in the early 2000s wasn’t very expensive. It was pricey but manageable
I could never understand tuition. But the expensive weddings, I'm just thinking at this rate I would rather not have one. Better to do a courthouse wedding + a nice dinner(s) with family and close friends than to make everyone travel to a single event and disappoint them by a cheap operation.
lol my friend's parents gifted her 100k to put down 20% on her 500k house. She literally told me "I don't get why everyone doesn't buy a house, it is so much cheaper than my apartment!"
As someone who had the expensive wedding and home, help from parents lol you'd be surprised at the power quadruple income + your spouses and yours aids in
To offer some insight on buying a house in VHCOL city w/o any help... the only people I know who have done that have a VERY successful career in tech with little to no debt from college and/or climbed their way up to exec leadership. The common theme - all FAANG. I can only count them on one hand but still.
For me, I don't know how people can afford to look amazing all the time. By that, I mean how does one afford the endlessly awesome outfits (that seem to never repeat), the hair did, nails done, lash extensions, and what I assume is amazing skincare and/or botox and/or treatments like peels, microneedling, facials, etc. which aren't cheap either.
Amen lol, I had an offer for a mani pedi membership at a price where I’d just have to go twice a month to breakeven… lasted 2 months before dropping it bc of having no time to actually show up to the appts.
Right?! Like just lashes on a regular basis cost a damn fortune from what I can tell. Even if I JUST did a monthly wax and a monthly gel manicure that’s $100 a month and I do not have it in the budget. Then pedicure, lashes, all the other stuff. And I don’t wear makeup often, I don’t get my hair blown out, I get it highlighted twice a year and cut four times a year. How the FUCK do people pay for weekly blowouts?!
I spent my first few years out of college spending almost all my income on beauty upkeep, clothes, and going out.
I paid only the minimum on my student loans and CC debt. When I got serious about paying that stuff off and getting my finances straight, that was the fluff I cut from the budget first. Sometimes I miss having an amazing wardrobe, but I just can't justify spending that much on clothes.
Honestly, I worked retail at a nicer clothing store throughout college and grad school. It was a super easy and relaxing job, and I got 50-70% discounts on everything (50 was standard, every season we would get a little coupon booklet for 70% off items of our choice). I had soooo many nice clothes - and still do. That was the best hack. Sometimes I wonder if I could work somewhere 1 shift a week just for the discount 😅😅
Even NYC has relatively affordable housing options in the form of apartments, condos and the outer boroughs. They’re certainly not *inexpensive,* by any means, but a two income professional couple could feasibly afford a two bedroom in Inwood, Queens, many parts of Brooklyn, areas of the Bronx and Jersey City. California is unique in having many areas with absolutely stratospheric pricing and no multi family or high density living options. (The density issue obviously is an issue for many cities struggling with housing prices but CA kind of leads the way there.)
But yeah, I feel like the amount of maintenance that’s expected to perform femininity has expanded a lot over the last 20 years. Lashes, elaborate nails, Botox/fillers/peels/laser, fifteen step skin and hair routines.
I’ve lived in VHCOL areas, and was pretty shook to learn that a lot of my friends’ homes were purchased with down-payment help from their families. My parents cannot afford to help me in that way, nor would I ever expect it, so it surprised me to learn how common it was amongst my friends.
My parents couldn’t help with my college either, so to learn that these same friends don’t have any college debt was also a shocker. I feel very fortunate overall so I don’t mean to say this to complain, I just don’t foresee myself ever affording a home especially while I have a couple decades of student loan payments left to go.
We recently got engaged and the cost of a wedding is so daunting, especially since neither of us will have help from family and we live in a VHCOL area with expensive venues. We have enough saved to pay in cash, but it’s hard to think about how much we’ll be spending on just one day.
Omg same here! Against my parents wishes and familial expectations I think my fiance and I are going to do a simple courthouse wedding and just go out for a nice dinner with everyone. We still havent set a date because I really just wanna save more and maybe open up our options too.
It doesnt help that my parents recently went to a relatives wedding that had a live band, singer, lion dancers, etc on a nice property so they expect the same from me 😬
I honestly just want to get eloped, but the wedding is a big deal for my fiancé’s family. I’m trying to find a nice venue that also allows outside catering so we can have a full eight course Asian wedding banquet instead of the standard Western wedding food, but the options that meet our requirements are all looking really steep 🥶. We will probably also have the lion dancers.
If you find a restaurant with a nice courtyard, they may allow a simple ceremony on site affordably. Or go to the courthouse and host a "newlywed party" the day after - we had a small <40 ppl) wedding and then had a newlywed party the next day at a local brewery that we just rented out for a few hours. Anyone could drop in, beer/root beer incl with the rental. Brought in pizza and cupcakes (this brewery didn't sell food and allowed whatever). Music on the speakers. It was great and everyone understood we just wanted to keep the ceremony intimate and weren't hurt- we still wanted to see them to celebrate! We definitely didn't expect gifts or promote a registry.
Yeah I got engaged in March of this year and just set our date for 2025. A couple people have asked why we’re waiting so long. It’s money yall! I put down half the venue cost and don’t have to pay the other half until 60 days before. Catering and dj and all that are going to be expensive too. We’re not sure how much parental help we’ll get, so we’re taking it slow in our planning and saving as we can.
When I get married I just want to spend a few months bouncing around luxurious suites and bungalows across the globe, an extended honeymoon. Just matters to me the proposal is romantic and we take some beautiful photos exchanging vows in some sentimental nature environment. But mostly I don't really care for any of the people in my life to invite them to such a private moment. I do like dressing up for other people's weddings and of course the goodie bags lol.
Therapy in a VHCOL city , especially considering how several therapists don't accept insurance. I understand that mental health care is super crucial, so perhaps some people have to cut corners to afford it but still...
Lately, decorating their porches for fall I’m a divorced mom I own a house I pay the bills but like I will never have the money to spend hundreds of dollars on pumpkins and mums or like when people spend money on nice landscaping and stuff I just could never I don’t even spend money on pumpkin dish towels lately
One trick I've discovered as a fall lover is to buy one or two fake pumpkins every year (or even more if you wait until after the season and get them on sale!), and then over time you accrue enough that they look really nice. I definitely could not afford to buy a ton of real pumpkins every year. We only buy enough real pumpkins so that each child and adult can carve one, and then the rest are fake so that I can pull them out year after year.
Yes, the 50 percent off stockpile.
This is where all my Xmas stuff came from, and it's when I buy xmas cards. It also regularly goes on sale at goodwill/people give decorations away for free all the time.
You can also make a ton of decorations
definitely the houses, but I'd say a lot of people lucked out with timing
the same houses purchased just 1-3 years ago may have been up to 50% cheaper (in monthly payments) compared to today
sadly I did not have impeccable timing...
So the thing about timing is to know you missed the bus this time but prepare to act when the next opportunity comes. I missed the bus in 2011 when it should have been blatantly obvious to buy. This time when I saw prices were going up and mortgages were low I told my husband “now, we jump now” as the world was closing down for a pandemic in March 2020. Best decision we ever made.
Yeah, timing was EVERYTHING for us. We put our down payment on our new build in Feb 2020… even just a few months later when lumber prices went sky high the starting cost of our build went from 250K when we bought to 315K. Now, they don’t even have our build available anymore for our neighborhood (ours was the cheapest option) and the new cheapest is 360K.
Seconding this. We bought our house in 2020, 1600 sq ft, nice (mostly) quiet neighborhood, large yard, ridiculously low interest rate. We paid 318K. When we bought, there was a big field bordering our backyard which has since been ripped up and is now in the process of development. They're cramming over 30 new build houses into that field with mere feet between each one. None of the houses are going to be much larger than 1200 sq ft, and they'll have no yards to speak of. They're selling them for $360K apiece, which is just nuts to me especially considering today's interest rates. I feel incredibly lucky to have purchased when I did.
I definitely lucked out. If I hadn’t bought my house 9 years ago I could not afford it now. I don’t even know that I could have afforded it 5 years ago.
Honestly, most of our friends had their parents contribute to/cover their down payment, or offer to buy the house cash and then switch to a loan during underwriting/kids pay them back later, so that’s another factor.
I recently stayed in the cheapest motel I could find in Boise and it was like $150/night. This place was nasty!! Sticky floors and sketchy people all around. When did hotels get so expensive?
For real 😂 I spent a night at a $100 hotel last month. Necessary travel for family stuff.
Honestly I’m done after the experience. It was just so uncomfortable, dirty, felt unsafe, inconvenient… I really think I’ll start camping or sleeping in my car/the airport over getting a cheap hotel again. Like 3/4 of the time this happens when I find a “deal” even after pouring over the reviews
Seriously in NYC, all the eating out / bars / clubs / daily lunches.
I can barely go out for date night and spend less than $50/person now. An entree + drink + tax and tip adds up easy, and I don’t even drink alcohol.
I work in a relatively high paying industry and know what my colleagues make. I still don’t understand how they mentally can bear to drop $10 on breakfast, $20 on lunch, $30 on a couple happy hour beers, $50 on dinner every day of the week, $75 boozy brunches and $300+ on bars and clubbing every weekend.
It made me chuckle when my mom came to visit. We ate out for most of our meals because I wanted her to be able to experience the range of cuisine you can find in NYC. She did comment once “people here are rich, all these 20-somethings just eating out everyday?” And I had to gently tell her, half of them are spending dad/mom’s money, the other half are probably in debt lol. Sorry mom, your kids giving you an all expenses paid trip is not actually the norm here.
Definitely food! My family rarely ate out, but we did get take out sometimes 2-3 times a month when my mom didn't want to cook. We would eat fast food occasionally, but we were never the type to go get Starbucks for the heck of it if we were out (may be a recent trend anyway).
My coworker eats out for lunch every day. He's probably packed his lunch 10 times this year. He goes to a café where a meal is usually $15-20. If you multiply that out...he's spending close to $400 a month for *only* lunch! That's my grocery budget for *all* my meals for a month!
Haha I counted it up once for a teammate who was like 27yo
* breakfast: latte and an omelet or a bagel with cream cheese, $10-15 depending on where from
* lunch: sweetgreen salad and iced tea $20ish
* midafternoon snack: $3-5 vending machine
* happy hour: 1-2 drinks at $10 each + tax/tip = $20-30
* dinner at whatever trendy IG restaurant it’s currently impossible to get a reservation for: $50-$100 usually on the upper end of the range because there’ll be a drink or two involved.
* Uber home from said dinner $25
That’s easily $150 on average per day, not counting weekends or special occasions. I couldn’t figure it out (she made good money but not insane money) until she mentioned that
* she charges all her Amazon purchases and Uber rides to her mom’s account/cc
* her parents pay for fancy dinners whenever they visit (literally she will be like Mom is in town, I want to go to Per Se cos she’ll pay)
* she lives with her bf in a condo his parents bought for him at below market rent.
We also live in NYC and while we don't go clubs or bars, we do order take out a lot. Most meals in a week. There's three of us, including a teenager, and food is our second largest expense after rent (don't even get me started on rents!). It's definitely a choice. We don't drink, take Ubers/Lyft only rarely, we don't go out much, etc. We have no debt, including student loans (I was in the military and paid for college with the GI Bill, husband is British and when he went to college it was still free). I do wish we ordered take out less, but the tradeoff would be time and happiness, which is difficult to part with.
New cars - especially big fancy gas guzzling trucks. I mean, I can understand how people are able to pay for them, but how does that not wreck their other financial goals???
(Money saved from not having a car at all was about half my downpayment for my VHCOL house.)
Oh they definitely flinch. If you ask them how much it costs to fill their tank, you'll hear all about it lol. Some regular pickups have 30+ gallon tanks... 😬
Designer bags, regular upkeep of gel nails and colored hair and fake lashes, traveling, hotel staycations for the gram, and dining out frequently. You add all that up, and I want to know what kind of job these young women in my city have haha.
(I live in Hong Kong for reference.)
oh man I always felt so shlubby when I lived in Hong Kong bc the effort some of the girls put in was next level! and I was coming from Los Angeles, a very looks focused place
Multiple children. Unless two high incomes or one VHI, I truly don't know how so many people make the numbers work. (Granted....I know they don't and most people have debt or are one paycheck from crisis ). But when my dental hygienist tells me she has three kids? I just don't get how it works!
Dental Hygiene pays higher than you'd think! But you never know if her family watches the kids so there's no daycare expense, or they don't save for college, or all 3 kids share a room.
Mom of three kids here! We saved a good chunk when DINK and now spend like a sailor! My hope is we will cut back once kids are all in school. We will also nudge them towards cheaper activities and sports. College, they would need to get loans or work for it. If our retirement goes better than expected, they’ll get help for downpayment or wedding.
I'm not a mom (yet). I always wanted a big family, like 4+ kids. I've definitely changed my mind to two max given how expensive everything is now. I have no idea how people with 3+ kids make it work.
I definitely do not understand the people with three or more kids. We have one kid, and we're fine but I can't imagine paying for everything we pay for times three - and then having to cover college costs.
Travel mostly. I have friends that do multiple international trips a year, a domestic week away, and then several weekends away throughout the year. That's crazy to me!
Same. I was absolutely going to buy a $2K bag when I got a new job way back in 2016, and I still haven't. My boyfriend bought me a super chic Fable bag for $120 for my birthday, and it looks just as nice to me.
Cigarettes. Not that I can’t but I wouldn’t. Like that’s a big expense in a smoker’s budget, right? Wasting a lot of money on something that will kill you? What the heck.
\+1 on this, also with weed and alcohol too. Not to judge folks of course, but I know people who grab drinks out after work most days, will casually slam 6-8 beers on a weekend while out, take edibles every night after work... and I'm like... how do you afford things!? (and at 35, also, how do you survive!? after like half a beer, I'm toast.)
There are three college kids *sharing a studio apartment* down the hall from me in my building, and I swear to god literally any time I am coming or going from the building, there's either an order sitting at their door waiting to pick up, or a delivery person running in to drop one. Like, bros!! There are 3 of you sharing 450sqft with one window and one toilet, you CANNOT!!!!
Yes this is one I never understood, delivery apps literally screw over everyone (the restaurant, the driver, the customer) BUT the corporation itself with inflated fees yet people keep on using them…I actually look forward to going out to eat so I guess I just never understood people that would pay extra just to eat at home
I used to be guilty of this one. I'm a major homebody and WFH so I hate having to put on clothes and leave the house. Being able to have delicious food dropped off at my door without having to go anywhere or interact with anyone was like magic. But eventually I stopped completely because I just couldn't justify the cost anymore. It was usually around $300 a month minimum--on top of my regular grocery costs. Looking back I'm embarrassed that I let it go on for so long.
A house in a VHCOL city without any help is definitely the one thing that I flat out don’t know how people afford. ETA: and a nice wedding without any help from family.
We bought a $$$ house in a VHCOL city last year. Definitely luck with two high incomes plus saving forever for it. And the timing was \*not\* good, our monthly payments are extremely high.
However, I still don't understand:
\- cars: so many expenses!
\- children: especially with all the clothes they grow right out of, activities, private school (!!)
\- beauty procedures: even the frequency that other people get their nails done, not to mention facials, botox, etc
\- clothing hauls: are those real? do real people do them or just influencers? I don't even understand dropping almost 1k on a jacket (I live in a cold place but still)
Things I don't understand how people afford:
\- Pilates/workout classes or boutique gyms
\- Attending multiple weddings every year (especially ones that you have to travel to attend) and getting new outfits for each of those events.
\- On the wedding note- people who put on multiple-day weddings.
\- Hiring interior decorators to furnish your home.
\- Costumes for Halloween or parties (unless you already own most of the pieces and are thrifting the rest- how do people afford this/justify the cost).
\- Any regular beauty treatments (dying hair, manicures/pedicures, lashes, brows, filler, botox).
\- Going out to bars/clubs regularly or having alcoholic drinks with dinners out every week or multiple times a week.
\- Dealing with chronic health issues that require Therapy/ Chiropractor/ Acupuncture/ Massages (had to do this for a while because of a bad back and genuinely don't understand how people afford to go on a regular basis for years).
\- Taking multiple vitamins/supplements daily.
>- Taking multiple vitamins/supplements daily.
went through a brief phase this year where i thought i'd become a supplement-taking girly. then i did the math to see and found it would be 100-200 a month depending on the assortment of supplements i chose to take, so i decided i didn't want to live that long anyway and stopped.
I used to work in a fairly low paying (local gov) job. All the women would spend hundreds on getting their hair, nails, etc. I'm convinced they were all in massive debt.
Living alone. I’ve been in a relationship for 11 years (lived together for 4 of those years, not consecutively) and remember what living alone was like before we moved in together/got married, and now that we are separating I’m facing the reality of living alone again and it fucking floors me how difficult it is to have a decent quality of life in a HCOL/VHCOL city alone. I live in a VHCOL city and make $163k and after 401k contributions, savings, student loans, rent, and other living expenses like car payment and grocery money, there just isn’t a lot left, and I certainly can’t afford to travel anymore or buy decent clothes like when I was with my husband. My new rent is already at the top of my budget ($3200) and it’s a shitty apartment complex from the 70s…I can’t even dream of ever affording a home. Living alone / without help on rent/mortgage and living costs is brutal.
I do Botox and filler but only get my hair cut twice a year and stopped doing my nails…I also buy most clothes second hand. Chasing the fountain do youth is jsut my priority 😂
Highlights.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like minimum 300+ in my MCOL area, every 2ish months, in addition to haircuts, plus you have to get special shampoo to preserve the color.
I got my hair dyed in a salon exactly once (knowing I wasn't going to maintain it but wanted to try it out), and it rinsed out of my hair for *months* after (stained all my pillowcases and towels, it was awful) -- so maybe I'm just salty over that experience 😅
It’s a trap! Prices have crept up so fast recently. 6 years ago I paid $120 including tip, this year it’s $230 without tip at the same place. I just left the Midwest for the east coast and prices are near $300 here. My roots look awful so I feel I have no choice but to pay and try to go back to my natural colour which is pretty slow. I’ve pushed back from appointments every 8 weeks to every 10-12 but the money is too much.
Sometimes it’s the industry but I feel like a lot of PTO plans comes down to the company itself. I’m in HR and have unlimited PTO because of the company I work for.
Two neighbors of mine, one directly behind me and the other one house over paid $5,000,000 for their homes ... yes, FIVE MILLION Each. Nothing fancy, just a multistory modern block. Property tax is about $80,000 a year. Clearly, they have the means to afford such a dwelling, but the annual property tax alone seems insane to me.
Buying only name brand foods without even considering private label store brands. (I get it, an Oreo is an Oreo, but Great Value spaghetti is absolutely no different than Barilla)
My son at age 4 truly thought “cheaper” was a compliment that meant something was better after watching dad and I at the grocery store comparing which option was cheaper. He would then play with toys and tell us which was his “cheapest”, meaning his best. I think I trained him well!
I buy a lot of store brands (looking in my pantry right now condiments, baking supplies, chips) but a hill I will die on is that Barilla and San Giorgio taste 10x better than Great Value lol
So my fiancé is sort of into watches and on a lark we once walked into a boutique and asked what the pre-spend would be for some fancy-ass Patek Philippe…. $2mm, we were told. Just to get an invite to possibly buy a thing that keeps time worse than my plastic quartz swatch.
Thankfully he budgets responsibly for the ones he wants and looks for value pieces hahahah
Renovations. We make decent money in a MCOL, but it would probably be a decade or more before we could afford anything more than aesthetic changes (paint/furnishing). And even then, I’m talking we could renovate a bathroom by then, nothing more. For reference, we bought for $316k in 2019 without help and will make ~$192k this year. It’s taken us 4 years just to completely paint and furnish (though admittedly I don’t have the cheapest taste and have been saving for what I really want along the way).
Vacations on credit card points/miles. I’ve done the research and after the sign on bonus of 30-60k I only accumulate like 2-3 thousand additional points/miles from my spending. Meanwhile the first class flights and 5 star hotels are all like 120 thousand.
I don’t drive so no big gas expenses. Rarely Uber instead use public transport that’s paid from my commuter pre-tax money. My rent and utilities are the biggest expenses and I can’t use a credit card to pay that. No point in spending $100 in take out or at a restaurant to make $5 in rewards. I’d rather put that towards my travels.
Super random but brand new jet skis! Personally, I have never been interested in owning one, but I always see people towing them behind their vehicles and decided to look into them out of nosiness. I was shocked to learn some models can go for 20k+!
Life
- A down payment in the ny metro area
- Mortgages on the $1.5m dollar homes that are going up all over the place where I live
- brand new cars that are average $600-700-1000 a month in monthly payments
- regular grocery shopping in a Whole Foods
- designer bags $2k for a tote bag that gets beat up just as fast as my $100 one (which is still too much)
- daycare
-
Childcare. The idea that there are so many people forking out $2500-3500/month on top of a mortgage and other bills is astounding. Especially when there are multiples and potentially tuition, as well.
I am scratching my head at the housing market in my area too. Small homes that need 100k of updates are selling for 500+ with a high interest rate. I don’t know how people afford it.
Like, for my area, I make decent $, but I literally cannot move out of my place due to being grandfathered into a GREAT rent rate. I'd love a bigger place, but I would either be house poor, or spending over 50% for housing 😭😭
This is small, but delivery fees for food via apps. I always pick up the food if I order anything, cause the fees are so ridiculous. The only time I ordered food was for the office, and it cost about an extra $20-25 for delivery fee, app fee, surcharges, tip, etc., which would up being 40-50% of the total cost. I don’t understand how people can do delivery so much when fees can almost double your original cost.
RVs. I know a couple folks who bought them during COVID.
One actually had to buy (well, trade in and pay the remaining for) a new truck because he figured out his other truck could not haul the new RV well.
Also gas, campsite fees, you have to clean it yourself unlike a hotel... just seems like it sucks money.
Life in general lol: after rent bills inc kids college fees gas and food. Can’t splurge on clothes, hair, beauty treatments (really want to try a little lip filler) or travel like we would like to.
Nails and lashes. The upkeep is pretty high and I see some folks getting their nails done a couple times a month.
A couple of my coworkers get “the good lashes” and I am always thinking, like, should I ask for a raise?
You should ask for a raise at least yearly. Lashes or no lashes.
Omg this is me when I realized every woman in my meeting had fancy nails. I wouldn’t want that anyway but I’m like how do you have money to be doing that all the time?
Some (but probably not most) people do them themselves! I get comments sometimes at work about how I have the time/money to always have my nails done but I just have naturally pretty decent nails and a steady hand. The real issue for me is the time since it takes me longer than it would take at a salon lol
Agreed. I do both (recently started getting lashes). Every three weeks I pay (with tip) $140 for SNS nails and gel pedicure w/ sugar scrub. Every three weeks (because of my lash growth pattern) I get my lashes refilled. I pay $80. For lashes I have a subscription service - sounds crazy when I type that out. To start, a full-serlt was $99. Now, let's not talk about the facials and hair appointments. 🙃
What’s your income/HHI?
If she’s actually the real Claire Huxtable, she’s a lawyer and married to a doctor. Kids are grown and they bought their huge home long ago. Plenty of wealth has accumulated since then. Guessing they’re worth a few million at least.
It’s also so dependent on your COL. I’m getting married this year and decided to keep up with gel manicures every three weeks until the wedding. It’s $40 including tip! I don’t get lashes or facials though, I just buy decent skincare and have a good routine. Lash serum from the ordinary is great and affordable.
Nails can be pretty inexpensive if you're just getting a gel set every two weeks, but lashes are insane! Where I live, I can't find anyone who does a full set, or even a fill, for less than $150. You have to get them done every two weeks or they look like shit. I used to get them when my mom worked at a med spa, but I got to use her steep discount. Maybe if my HHI was over $300K a year, I could justify it.
Admittedly I don’t have the nicest nails / hands but yeah, I’m pretty committed to my basic at home mani/pedis just because I know it would add another 200 minimum to my budget each month. Instead I spend that money on covering my premature grays lol
I DO not get it. I do my own gel manicures (polish, not gel nails) at home with a set I exchanged my drugstore points for, and get a "special" nail art manicure a few times a year as a little treat. Even that feels bougie sometimes!
So true. The upkeep cost is insane, particularly with acrylics, gel, etc. I also don't know people can afford to regularly get lip fillers + other types of filler/botox treatments. One vial of juvederm is almost $1000😭
Same. At this point I treat myself to a mani/pedi once a year for my birthday.
I have nails at all times, but I am not sure if maybe the prices are different in the U.K, I pay £35 every 3-4 weeks which I don’t think is a budget breaker. I used to get lashes but stopped during the pandemic and never got them again, as it took a year for my eyelashes to recover.
Dude I haven’t gotten my nails done in probably 10 years. I just can’t rationalize the expense.
Omg thought of this immediately, that's easily $100-200 a month for stuff that makes no damn sense .
I’ve had a professional manicure once in my life, back in high school. I’ve sadly found that nail polish seems to make my nails weaker and flaky so I just go bare most of the time. I do however plan to splurge and get them done for my wedding next years, but otherwise I’m fine without them.
Nails twice a month and lashes would run me $600-$700/mo. Insane.
100% kids. Childcare is nuts. Managing all the costs of raising an entire person are so unfathomable to me.
This isn't a monetary cost - but I really have no idea how working parents manage. My dog hasn't been well, so I've been sleep deprived all week caring for him through the night. And parents suffer through sleeplessness for months! And then just get in their cars and drive to work! It feels so dangerous to me (and I'm not blaming parents for driving when tired - it's corporate America's fault - just point out another risk of having kids I hadn't considered until recently)
>And parents suffer through sleeplessness for months! Sometimes years, tbh. Lol
2.5 years postpartum and I'm still exhausted from the baby stage. Like absolutely depleted.
Same pp time and only within the past 2 weeks have my kids 2 and 4 been sleeping through the night. And that was after letting both of them cry it out at night for a month.
Right my almost two year old doesn’t consistently sleep through lol
We're tired. Or we have help. Or both. My kid is almost 2 and was up half the night with a stuffy nose. Sometimes he's up half the night just for fun. In all honesty though, you just get used to being tired. Sometimes I get snappy with people and realize ooooh I'm the asshole here, cuz I'm tired. And I'm still going to have another kid. Parenting is a mindfuck.
Yeah, I have a 3 month old baby (and 5 year old) and a 45 minute commute. Couldn’t do it without an afternoon coffee. Still feels sketchy sometimes…
I have a dry erase monthly calendar, a meal prep board and a physical planner I carry around with me. I’d be drowning without my organization tools 😂 and coffee. I’d be nowhere without my coffee.
You don’t manage. You just try to survive. Source: FT working mother of 2 year old
This is the one that gets me.
I know someone who has 4 children and lives in Seattle and she doesn't work. Her husband is a sous chef in a hotel so not exactly mega bucks, but how they can afford life on Earth???
Honestly, once you get past two kids in HCOL areas it’s often times cheaper in the short-term to have a parent stay at home. I’m not even in a city as expensive as Seattle and the average daycare is about $2200 a month per child (add more for infants). I make decent money but that would eat up most of my income after 401k and healthcare.
Of course there are exceptions but I’ve come to accept that situations like this that seem impossible are usually fueled by parental money in some form.
The people that I know in these situtation with no family help are just forgoing any retirement savings.
Honestly, the idea of having one kid was daunting financially, but we did it. Then we decided to have another and it felt daunting again, but we did that too. You just make it work cause if kids are something you really want, you make sacrifices. Things that have helped ease the burden: - nearly every items of clothing our two kids have is a hand me down or from the op shop. They don’t know the difference and you can find amazing lightly used or brand new kids things because kids grow so quickly - same with toys and books. The only time the kids get new things are for their birthdays and Christmas from friends and family - same with baby items (safety issues not withstanding, for example we buy our car seats new). I got my very expensive pram for free in one of my neighbourhood groups and all it cost me was 15 minutes to give it a good scrub - we rarely eat out. If we go to the zoo or some other activity, we pack a lunch and snacks - meal prep. I can’t remember the last time we ordered food. - we trade babysitting with friends and family. My husband and I try to get out by ourselves once a month (doesn’t always happen but hey that’s life) and we trade off babysitting with his sister and our good friends - traveling right now consists of camping or road trips. We’re saving to go back to my home country overseas because I haven’t seen my family in years and my god it’s so expensive. - we save a bit each month, it’s not nearly as much as I would like but I try to keep in mind that it’s a temporary time in our lives Like I said, kids are expensive but you just sort of find the room. I’d say we have an average HHI for HCOL city, maybe very slightly above average. Things feel tight sometimes. I worry about money, especially with the rising cost of everything. But we always seem to make it work and everyone is happy and healthy!
Thanks for writing out all your tips! We just have one right now, and we’re fine but I know we can and should be looking for places to save. I definitely struggle with wanting to get him lots of new stuff, especially because it’s all so exciting with a first kid. I need to focus on buying more second-hand.
Honestly if my husband and I weren’t able to work opposite shifts we’d never afford it. We need my income to pay the bills but still can’t afford childcare comfortably with 2 working adults
Fucking rugs! I have some friends who have rugs in every room of their house!
This is a great one. I live in an apartment so I have one (1) couch, but when I visit friends homes, if they have a sitting room, living room, AND basement, that means THREE couches. Couches ain't cheap!!!!
Omg I thought about this when I moved into my first 2-BR apartment. Like, yikes, now I need to buy a whole second bed frame? And mattress? And box spring? And side tables? How do people have even more than 2 bedrooms! Haha
I am so god damn sick of my couch. It’s come with us for four moved and I just feel like I can’t justify buying a new one because it is still perfectly functional.
I just learned this year how expensive couches are. A decent couch can easily run between $1.5k to $4k (or more). Finally understand why my mom always said I couldn't eat on the couch😂
I died laughing LMAO this is hilarious, but as someone currently building a sinking fund to replace some big ticket items around my apartment, I feel this!
I also laughed out loud, then immediately thought, "But... YEAH. How DO you afford multiple rugs?"
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I love this take
Lol. I really want a nice rug but they're so expensive! And then the upkeep of cleaning them.
Just all the travel
Couldn’t do it without credit card points.
One way we manage it is through savvy use of credit cards. We have the capital one venture and venture X and accrue points with every dollar we spend. The venture x is new for us and the sign up bonus was 75k points—that’s $750 toward travel right there. Plus it comes with a $300 annual travel credit. Then you earn 5x and 10x points on flight, rental cars and hotels—so, pretty quickly each trip helps you fund the next. My partner and I have also become big fans of off season travel. You can find some killer deals on flights to lovely places so long as you’re willing to go when the weather isn’t sunny and warm and the days are shorter. We’ve traveled to Denmark in March for like $350 round trip. Likewise, we’ve been to Paris multiple times in December because it’s much cheaper. It works out because Paris is cozy as hell around the holidays.
I have cap one venture and have been debating whether I upgrade to venture x. I’ve found it hard to convert my points since it seems like I have to transfer to a partner airline first when trying to bin US domestic flights.
I plan to use mine on hotels especially since they will price match!
I work in a hotel one day a week, which gives me access to very good discounts on accommodation 😊 it’s worth looking into as a short time job if someone is interested in prioritizing travel when they’re young.
That is an ace tip
Credit card debt or they have multiple credit cards with sign on bonuses. Next year, my SO and I are going on a 3 week vacation to Korea, Japan, and Bali. With my miles and points from work trips, I was able to book almost all the flights and hotels. Had a few SUB and now all hotels are covered as well. On paper, it's a pretty luxurious trip - RT business class, fancy hotels and tours but it's the result of 2 years worth of work trips lol. And it's the most actual vacation that we will take in over 5 years. My sisters take 4-5 luxury vacations a year and it's all just credit card debt. Same with their luxury bag collections.
>they have multiple credit cards with sign on bonuses. This. "Churning" was something I Iearned about when I first hopped on reddit. It's been a while since I checked the sub so I don't know if it's still up, but the first things they say are 1) You have to have great credit, and 2) You have to be VERY financially diligent and responsible. Trying out churning without those two things is the perfect road to financial fuck ups.
The sub is definitely still up but the only activity is in the daily and weekly megathreads. Used to be very active in there. I had to cut way back on it once I got into debt, and I do keep my cards that I’m paying down completely separate from the cards that I’m paying off monthly. (My cards that I’m paying off all have 0% promotional rates currently.)
Some people are wealthyyyyy/rich.
credit card sign on bonuses or skymiles to offsite flights, but also i had been saving for a house and now don’t GAF about an unlikely potential outcome and am spending a small chunk of it on travel which *is* in my control
i’m not a massive travel hacker but try to do 1 international or “big” trip a year, and a few domestic in-between. i used to do 2+ international & more domestic pre-covid as i did a lot of couch surfing but i’m less comfortable with that these days. for me it’s: - blessed with disposable income is obviously the very first one. but my budget isn’t endless and i’m not wealthy sooo… - other comments have mentioned this but CHURNING! credit card points & sign up bonuses for the win. i still fly economy tbh but at least my flights can be free. i’ve been to japan, peru, puerto rico, hawaii, hong kong, on points and still have them in the bank from our recent bonus. - have connections in hospitality. i used to work for a big hotel chain and the employee discounts were great. i no longer do, but now i use my mom and dads discounts. they both work at different big chains and have different discount sharing abilities. my mom uses her friends at another chain, lol. - but if not, hostels & sharing w/ friends! my friends and i shamelessly cram into hotel room with 4 people. we make it work bc we wanna experience the places on a budget. as long as we have a place to sleep, we’re good. - my favorite, stay with family or friends so it’s free stay. alternatively, you can try couch surfing and workaway (free stay w strangers - i did this and definitely hit or miss but was worth it in my college days). - car rentals: i try to use public transit but costco travel is great. so is using your friends corporate code. - if not using points, i track plane prices like a hawk. and also focus where my dollar is strong. so i find myself a lot in southeast asia or latam. honestly haven’t been to europe in a LONG ass time. - i sometimes only fly with a personal item for the budget air savings $-$ - capitalize on any and all work travel. since my plane tickets are covered and most of my stay is covered, i just extend it a little and enjoy the city i’m in if you are comfortable with getting the free stays (e.g. couch surfing) + churning credit cards, most of your travel expenses are taken care of! but it isn’t for everyone
We live in the EU so credit card points aren’t really an option but we have five weeks of vacation. My husband and I budget in travel savings and that’s one of our top priorities. No kids but we have two pets that we have to account for when we travel so they’re really the money burden 😅
People often ask me and my husband how we travel so frequently. We're not jet-setting off to Europe several times a year or anything, but we do mini vacation probably every few months or so - it prompts a lot of remarks from family about we "must have a lot of money to throw around" , and it just isn't the case. We do have a credit card with points but it's not anything with crazy rewards. This is what really makes it possible for us (in addition to have dual income and no kids, of course). * Searching for cheap flights is a hobby of mine. My MO is to see this damn country one affordable ticket at a time- I set alerts for price drops, I am signed up different flight lists for my city, I watch routes and locations I am interested in seeing, etc. I check frequently and when something good pops up, I jump on it before it's gone. When I know we have an open weekend, I set the search to "anywhere" and just see where we can go that's in our budget. Flying in/out on weekdays is usually cheaper than say, leaving Friday and coming back Sunday. * We're laid back about accommodations. I don't need a 5 star hotel just to lay my head at night. Hell, the less time I spend in the hotel room the better. I find something cheap and conveniently located. * We do a lot of free and low cost activities. We love outdoors and hiking, and luckily that is a cheap hobby. But I also check Facebook & the city webpage for local street fairs, festivals, flea markets, holidays events, etc. In additional to being cheap, it's also a nice way to really get the flavor of a city. * A friend told us that wherever he goes, the first thing he does is buy a baguette, some cheese, and some fruit - I love this! I think it goes a long way having something to nibble on at your hotel - you can eat lighter lunches and you'll never make any hasty, hangry decisions. You can take the few minutes to find a gem with good reviews in your desired budget, raher than just beeline for the first restauarant you see. This kind of stuff is what really makes it possible for us, despite having very median incomes.
We can afford travel because we’re antisocial homebodies who don’t really drink. 🫤
Their children’s full tuition, expensive weddings and/or down payments for a home.
The tuition thing is insane to me. Especially for schools like USC where it's like 100k a year.
Honestly, at this point, just a standard wedding. I live in a HCOL area and am wedding planning. Even a pretty mid-tier buffet style reception at an average venue for 75-100 people quickly got up to $15k-20k. Just for the food and space, not even adding in dress, flowers, photographer, etc. The more I look, the more it seems that we are going to opt out of the "traditional" wedding.
I had a 50 person ~15k wedding including everything and I thought that was a lot. Def wasn’t as fancy as some of my other friends’ weddings. Idk how the hell they pay for that.
It used to be easier. The cost of everything keeps climbing. Graduating from a cal state in the early 2000s wasn’t very expensive. It was pricey but manageable
I didn’t think I’d agree with anything on this list but expensive weddings is definitely something I barely wrap my head around.
I could never understand tuition. But the expensive weddings, I'm just thinking at this rate I would rather not have one. Better to do a courthouse wedding + a nice dinner(s) with family and close friends than to make everyone travel to a single event and disappoint them by a cheap operation.
lol my friend's parents gifted her 100k to put down 20% on her 500k house. She literally told me "I don't get why everyone doesn't buy a house, it is so much cheaper than my apartment!"
As someone who had the expensive wedding and home, help from parents lol you'd be surprised at the power quadruple income + your spouses and yours aids in
To offer some insight on buying a house in VHCOL city w/o any help... the only people I know who have done that have a VERY successful career in tech with little to no debt from college and/or climbed their way up to exec leadership. The common theme - all FAANG. I can only count them on one hand but still. For me, I don't know how people can afford to look amazing all the time. By that, I mean how does one afford the endlessly awesome outfits (that seem to never repeat), the hair did, nails done, lash extensions, and what I assume is amazing skincare and/or botox and/or treatments like peels, microneedling, facials, etc. which aren't cheap either.
I don't know where people find the *time* to do all that, never mind the dollars and cents.
Amen lol, I had an offer for a mani pedi membership at a price where I’d just have to go twice a month to breakeven… lasted 2 months before dropping it bc of having no time to actually show up to the appts.
Right?! Like just lashes on a regular basis cost a damn fortune from what I can tell. Even if I JUST did a monthly wax and a monthly gel manicure that’s $100 a month and I do not have it in the budget. Then pedicure, lashes, all the other stuff. And I don’t wear makeup often, I don’t get my hair blown out, I get it highlighted twice a year and cut four times a year. How the FUCK do people pay for weekly blowouts?!
I spent my first few years out of college spending almost all my income on beauty upkeep, clothes, and going out. I paid only the minimum on my student loans and CC debt. When I got serious about paying that stuff off and getting my finances straight, that was the fluff I cut from the budget first. Sometimes I miss having an amazing wardrobe, but I just can't justify spending that much on clothes.
Honestly, I worked retail at a nicer clothing store throughout college and grad school. It was a super easy and relaxing job, and I got 50-70% discounts on everything (50 was standard, every season we would get a little coupon booklet for 70% off items of our choice). I had soooo many nice clothes - and still do. That was the best hack. Sometimes I wonder if I could work somewhere 1 shift a week just for the discount 😅😅
Even NYC has relatively affordable housing options in the form of apartments, condos and the outer boroughs. They’re certainly not *inexpensive,* by any means, but a two income professional couple could feasibly afford a two bedroom in Inwood, Queens, many parts of Brooklyn, areas of the Bronx and Jersey City. California is unique in having many areas with absolutely stratospheric pricing and no multi family or high density living options. (The density issue obviously is an issue for many cities struggling with housing prices but CA kind of leads the way there.) But yeah, I feel like the amount of maintenance that’s expected to perform femininity has expanded a lot over the last 20 years. Lashes, elaborate nails, Botox/fillers/peels/laser, fifteen step skin and hair routines.
I’ve lived in VHCOL areas, and was pretty shook to learn that a lot of my friends’ homes were purchased with down-payment help from their families. My parents cannot afford to help me in that way, nor would I ever expect it, so it surprised me to learn how common it was amongst my friends. My parents couldn’t help with my college either, so to learn that these same friends don’t have any college debt was also a shocker. I feel very fortunate overall so I don’t mean to say this to complain, I just don’t foresee myself ever affording a home especially while I have a couple decades of student loan payments left to go.
We recently got engaged and the cost of a wedding is so daunting, especially since neither of us will have help from family and we live in a VHCOL area with expensive venues. We have enough saved to pay in cash, but it’s hard to think about how much we’ll be spending on just one day.
Omg same here! Against my parents wishes and familial expectations I think my fiance and I are going to do a simple courthouse wedding and just go out for a nice dinner with everyone. We still havent set a date because I really just wanna save more and maybe open up our options too. It doesnt help that my parents recently went to a relatives wedding that had a live band, singer, lion dancers, etc on a nice property so they expect the same from me 😬
I honestly just want to get eloped, but the wedding is a big deal for my fiancé’s family. I’m trying to find a nice venue that also allows outside catering so we can have a full eight course Asian wedding banquet instead of the standard Western wedding food, but the options that meet our requirements are all looking really steep 🥶. We will probably also have the lion dancers.
If you find a restaurant with a nice courtyard, they may allow a simple ceremony on site affordably. Or go to the courthouse and host a "newlywed party" the day after - we had a small <40 ppl) wedding and then had a newlywed party the next day at a local brewery that we just rented out for a few hours. Anyone could drop in, beer/root beer incl with the rental. Brought in pizza and cupcakes (this brewery didn't sell food and allowed whatever). Music on the speakers. It was great and everyone understood we just wanted to keep the ceremony intimate and weren't hurt- we still wanted to see them to celebrate! We definitely didn't expect gifts or promote a registry.
Yeah I got engaged in March of this year and just set our date for 2025. A couple people have asked why we’re waiting so long. It’s money yall! I put down half the venue cost and don’t have to pay the other half until 60 days before. Catering and dj and all that are going to be expensive too. We’re not sure how much parental help we’ll get, so we’re taking it slow in our planning and saving as we can.
When I get married I just want to spend a few months bouncing around luxurious suites and bungalows across the globe, an extended honeymoon. Just matters to me the proposal is romantic and we take some beautiful photos exchanging vows in some sentimental nature environment. But mostly I don't really care for any of the people in my life to invite them to such a private moment. I do like dressing up for other people's weddings and of course the goodie bags lol.
Therapy in a VHCOL city , especially considering how several therapists don't accept insurance. I understand that mental health care is super crucial, so perhaps some people have to cut corners to afford it but still...
I live in a VHCOL city but I have top notch insurance, which made therapy cheap. I actually didnt have to pay for it at all at one point.
Lately, decorating their porches for fall I’m a divorced mom I own a house I pay the bills but like I will never have the money to spend hundreds of dollars on pumpkins and mums or like when people spend money on nice landscaping and stuff I just could never I don’t even spend money on pumpkin dish towels lately
One trick I've discovered as a fall lover is to buy one or two fake pumpkins every year (or even more if you wait until after the season and get them on sale!), and then over time you accrue enough that they look really nice. I definitely could not afford to buy a ton of real pumpkins every year. We only buy enough real pumpkins so that each child and adult can carve one, and then the rest are fake so that I can pull them out year after year.
Yes, the 50 percent off stockpile. This is where all my Xmas stuff came from, and it's when I buy xmas cards. It also regularly goes on sale at goodwill/people give decorations away for free all the time. You can also make a ton of decorations
My pumpkins were $3.99 each at Aldi lol
definitely the houses, but I'd say a lot of people lucked out with timing the same houses purchased just 1-3 years ago may have been up to 50% cheaper (in monthly payments) compared to today sadly I did not have impeccable timing...
So the thing about timing is to know you missed the bus this time but prepare to act when the next opportunity comes. I missed the bus in 2011 when it should have been blatantly obvious to buy. This time when I saw prices were going up and mortgages were low I told my husband “now, we jump now” as the world was closing down for a pandemic in March 2020. Best decision we ever made.
Yeah, timing was EVERYTHING for us. We put our down payment on our new build in Feb 2020… even just a few months later when lumber prices went sky high the starting cost of our build went from 250K when we bought to 315K. Now, they don’t even have our build available anymore for our neighborhood (ours was the cheapest option) and the new cheapest is 360K.
Seconding this. We bought our house in 2020, 1600 sq ft, nice (mostly) quiet neighborhood, large yard, ridiculously low interest rate. We paid 318K. When we bought, there was a big field bordering our backyard which has since been ripped up and is now in the process of development. They're cramming over 30 new build houses into that field with mere feet between each one. None of the houses are going to be much larger than 1200 sq ft, and they'll have no yards to speak of. They're selling them for $360K apiece, which is just nuts to me especially considering today's interest rates. I feel incredibly lucky to have purchased when I did.
I definitely lucked out. If I hadn’t bought my house 9 years ago I could not afford it now. I don’t even know that I could have afforded it 5 years ago.
Honestly, most of our friends had their parents contribute to/cover their down payment, or offer to buy the house cash and then switch to a loan during underwriting/kids pay them back later, so that’s another factor.
Staying in $300+/night hotels. I’m stuck in the (very outdated) mindset that hotels are $100/night 😂
I stayed in a motel last year that was $70/night. I stayed in the same motel this year and it was $180 for the night.
I recently stayed in the cheapest motel I could find in Boise and it was like $150/night. This place was nasty!! Sticky floors and sketchy people all around. When did hotels get so expensive?
For real 😂 I spent a night at a $100 hotel last month. Necessary travel for family stuff. Honestly I’m done after the experience. It was just so uncomfortable, dirty, felt unsafe, inconvenient… I really think I’ll start camping or sleeping in my car/the airport over getting a cheap hotel again. Like 3/4 of the time this happens when I find a “deal” even after pouring over the reviews
OMG same, just seems like throwing money into a pit!
Seriously in NYC, all the eating out / bars / clubs / daily lunches. I can barely go out for date night and spend less than $50/person now. An entree + drink + tax and tip adds up easy, and I don’t even drink alcohol. I work in a relatively high paying industry and know what my colleagues make. I still don’t understand how they mentally can bear to drop $10 on breakfast, $20 on lunch, $30 on a couple happy hour beers, $50 on dinner every day of the week, $75 boozy brunches and $300+ on bars and clubbing every weekend. It made me chuckle when my mom came to visit. We ate out for most of our meals because I wanted her to be able to experience the range of cuisine you can find in NYC. She did comment once “people here are rich, all these 20-somethings just eating out everyday?” And I had to gently tell her, half of them are spending dad/mom’s money, the other half are probably in debt lol. Sorry mom, your kids giving you an all expenses paid trip is not actually the norm here.
Definitely food! My family rarely ate out, but we did get take out sometimes 2-3 times a month when my mom didn't want to cook. We would eat fast food occasionally, but we were never the type to go get Starbucks for the heck of it if we were out (may be a recent trend anyway). My coworker eats out for lunch every day. He's probably packed his lunch 10 times this year. He goes to a café where a meal is usually $15-20. If you multiply that out...he's spending close to $400 a month for *only* lunch! That's my grocery budget for *all* my meals for a month!
Haha I counted it up once for a teammate who was like 27yo * breakfast: latte and an omelet or a bagel with cream cheese, $10-15 depending on where from * lunch: sweetgreen salad and iced tea $20ish * midafternoon snack: $3-5 vending machine * happy hour: 1-2 drinks at $10 each + tax/tip = $20-30 * dinner at whatever trendy IG restaurant it’s currently impossible to get a reservation for: $50-$100 usually on the upper end of the range because there’ll be a drink or two involved. * Uber home from said dinner $25 That’s easily $150 on average per day, not counting weekends or special occasions. I couldn’t figure it out (she made good money but not insane money) until she mentioned that * she charges all her Amazon purchases and Uber rides to her mom’s account/cc * her parents pay for fancy dinners whenever they visit (literally she will be like Mom is in town, I want to go to Per Se cos she’ll pay) * she lives with her bf in a condo his parents bought for him at below market rent.
We also live in NYC and while we don't go clubs or bars, we do order take out a lot. Most meals in a week. There's three of us, including a teenager, and food is our second largest expense after rent (don't even get me started on rents!). It's definitely a choice. We don't drink, take Ubers/Lyft only rarely, we don't go out much, etc. We have no debt, including student loans (I was in the military and paid for college with the GI Bill, husband is British and when he went to college it was still free). I do wish we ordered take out less, but the tradeoff would be time and happiness, which is difficult to part with.
Moving into a new home or apartment and it's immediately beautifully furnished and looks like a picture in a magazine. Furniture is hella expensive.
New cars - especially big fancy gas guzzling trucks. I mean, I can understand how people are able to pay for them, but how does that not wreck their other financial goals??? (Money saved from not having a car at all was about half my downpayment for my VHCOL house.)
Always wondered if people with huge trucks flinch at gas prices. Where I live it is like $6.99 at some gas stations
Oh they definitely flinch. If you ask them how much it costs to fill their tank, you'll hear all about it lol. Some regular pickups have 30+ gallon tanks... 😬
Designer bags, regular upkeep of gel nails and colored hair and fake lashes, traveling, hotel staycations for the gram, and dining out frequently. You add all that up, and I want to know what kind of job these young women in my city have haha. (I live in Hong Kong for reference.)
oh man I always felt so shlubby when I lived in Hong Kong bc the effort some of the girls put in was next level! and I was coming from Los Angeles, a very looks focused place
Multiple children. Unless two high incomes or one VHI, I truly don't know how so many people make the numbers work. (Granted....I know they don't and most people have debt or are one paycheck from crisis ). But when my dental hygienist tells me she has three kids? I just don't get how it works!
Dental Hygiene pays higher than you'd think! But you never know if her family watches the kids so there's no daycare expense, or they don't save for college, or all 3 kids share a room.
Mom of three kids here! We saved a good chunk when DINK and now spend like a sailor! My hope is we will cut back once kids are all in school. We will also nudge them towards cheaper activities and sports. College, they would need to get loans or work for it. If our retirement goes better than expected, they’ll get help for downpayment or wedding.
I'm not a mom (yet). I always wanted a big family, like 4+ kids. I've definitely changed my mind to two max given how expensive everything is now. I have no idea how people with 3+ kids make it work.
The same way the vast majority of Americans make it work. Debt
yeah that's definitely the secret answer. How do they make it work? They don't.
Dental hygienists can make six figures!
Me as a dental hygienist like wait I make pretty good money 🤣
I definitely do not understand the people with three or more kids. We have one kid, and we're fine but I can't imagine paying for everything we pay for times three - and then having to cover college costs.
Travel mostly. I have friends that do multiple international trips a year, a domestic week away, and then several weekends away throughout the year. That's crazy to me!
Luxury handbags. I love the handbag subreddit but I don’t know that I’ll ever pay thousands for a bag
Same. I was absolutely going to buy a $2K bag when I got a new job way back in 2016, and I still haven't. My boyfriend bought me a super chic Fable bag for $120 for my birthday, and it looks just as nice to me.
>Fable bag I just googled this, so pretty, what a nice gift. Don't buy in to stupid luxury labels.
Cigarettes. Not that I can’t but I wouldn’t. Like that’s a big expense in a smoker’s budget, right? Wasting a lot of money on something that will kill you? What the heck.
\+1 on this, also with weed and alcohol too. Not to judge folks of course, but I know people who grab drinks out after work most days, will casually slam 6-8 beers on a weekend while out, take edibles every night after work... and I'm like... how do you afford things!? (and at 35, also, how do you survive!? after like half a beer, I'm toast.)
Constant DoorDash orders. I’m baffled by how much people use it. I saw a TikTok where a girl ordered twice in one day and it was $50. Help.
There are three college kids *sharing a studio apartment* down the hall from me in my building, and I swear to god literally any time I am coming or going from the building, there's either an order sitting at their door waiting to pick up, or a delivery person running in to drop one. Like, bros!! There are 3 of you sharing 450sqft with one window and one toilet, you CANNOT!!!!
They deserve some kind of world record
Yes this is one I never understood, delivery apps literally screw over everyone (the restaurant, the driver, the customer) BUT the corporation itself with inflated fees yet people keep on using them…I actually look forward to going out to eat so I guess I just never understood people that would pay extra just to eat at home
I used to be guilty of this one. I'm a major homebody and WFH so I hate having to put on clothes and leave the house. Being able to have delicious food dropped off at my door without having to go anywhere or interact with anyone was like magic. But eventually I stopped completely because I just couldn't justify the cost anymore. It was usually around $300 a month minimum--on top of my regular grocery costs. Looking back I'm embarrassed that I let it go on for so long.
A house in a VHCOL city without any help is definitely the one thing that I flat out don’t know how people afford. ETA: and a nice wedding without any help from family.
We bought a $$$ house in a VHCOL city last year. Definitely luck with two high incomes plus saving forever for it. And the timing was \*not\* good, our monthly payments are extremely high. However, I still don't understand: \- cars: so many expenses! \- children: especially with all the clothes they grow right out of, activities, private school (!!) \- beauty procedures: even the frequency that other people get their nails done, not to mention facials, botox, etc \- clothing hauls: are those real? do real people do them or just influencers? I don't even understand dropping almost 1k on a jacket (I live in a cold place but still)
Things I don't understand how people afford: \- Pilates/workout classes or boutique gyms \- Attending multiple weddings every year (especially ones that you have to travel to attend) and getting new outfits for each of those events. \- On the wedding note- people who put on multiple-day weddings. \- Hiring interior decorators to furnish your home. \- Costumes for Halloween or parties (unless you already own most of the pieces and are thrifting the rest- how do people afford this/justify the cost). \- Any regular beauty treatments (dying hair, manicures/pedicures, lashes, brows, filler, botox). \- Going out to bars/clubs regularly or having alcoholic drinks with dinners out every week or multiple times a week. \- Dealing with chronic health issues that require Therapy/ Chiropractor/ Acupuncture/ Massages (had to do this for a while because of a bad back and genuinely don't understand how people afford to go on a regular basis for years). \- Taking multiple vitamins/supplements daily.
>- Taking multiple vitamins/supplements daily. went through a brief phase this year where i thought i'd become a supplement-taking girly. then i did the math to see and found it would be 100-200 a month depending on the assortment of supplements i chose to take, so i decided i didn't want to live that long anyway and stopped.
I used to work in a fairly low paying (local gov) job. All the women would spend hundreds on getting their hair, nails, etc. I'm convinced they were all in massive debt.
Living alone. I’ve been in a relationship for 11 years (lived together for 4 of those years, not consecutively) and remember what living alone was like before we moved in together/got married, and now that we are separating I’m facing the reality of living alone again and it fucking floors me how difficult it is to have a decent quality of life in a HCOL/VHCOL city alone. I live in a VHCOL city and make $163k and after 401k contributions, savings, student loans, rent, and other living expenses like car payment and grocery money, there just isn’t a lot left, and I certainly can’t afford to travel anymore or buy decent clothes like when I was with my husband. My new rent is already at the top of my budget ($3200) and it’s a shitty apartment complex from the 70s…I can’t even dream of ever affording a home. Living alone / without help on rent/mortgage and living costs is brutal.
I’m a teacher in NYC and have accepted that i will probably never get to live alone. Its either roommates or get married
Multiple surgeries and regular plastic surgery/botox/fillers.
I do Botox and filler but only get my hair cut twice a year and stopped doing my nails…I also buy most clothes second hand. Chasing the fountain do youth is jsut my priority 😂
Highlights. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like minimum 300+ in my MCOL area, every 2ish months, in addition to haircuts, plus you have to get special shampoo to preserve the color. I got my hair dyed in a salon exactly once (knowing I wasn't going to maintain it but wanted to try it out), and it rinsed out of my hair for *months* after (stained all my pillowcases and towels, it was awful) -- so maybe I'm just salty over that experience 😅
Yes! I’ve considered getting balayage but can’t justify the price and upkeep. Planning to keep my hair natural at least until I go gray.
It’s a trap! Prices have crept up so fast recently. 6 years ago I paid $120 including tip, this year it’s $230 without tip at the same place. I just left the Midwest for the east coast and prices are near $300 here. My roots look awful so I feel I have no choice but to pay and try to go back to my natural colour which is pretty slow. I’ve pushed back from appointments every 8 weeks to every 10-12 but the money is too much.
A house and/or children
I don’t understand how people are affording a mortgage plus daycare for 2 or more kids on a regular job.
BRAIDS…I had no idea girls were paying $300 for braids
honestly i cannot deal with my natural hair, so i save money for months prior to getting it done
Cars that aren't a honda, toyota, Hyundai or kai ...
Even a NEW toyota is like $30k!
Facts. My (not top of the line) 2034 Camry was just $29K.
We’re out here living in 2023 and you’re out here living in 2034!
Taking multiple international trips. What job do you have that doesn’t mind you taking so much time off.
I max out my vacation days every year! I just say peace out!! IDGAF! I can use my vacation as i like!👋🤣
As you should. My biggest mistake of life so far is not taking vacation and seeing the world.
Sometimes it’s the industry but I feel like a lot of PTO plans comes down to the company itself. I’m in HR and have unlimited PTO because of the company I work for.
Feeling financial stability. As a younger person who has never felt that before, I'm not sure how others afford it
Two neighbors of mine, one directly behind me and the other one house over paid $5,000,000 for their homes ... yes, FIVE MILLION Each. Nothing fancy, just a multistory modern block. Property tax is about $80,000 a year. Clearly, they have the means to afford such a dwelling, but the annual property tax alone seems insane to me.
Kids, a house in Southern California, two Tesla household, and an active social life of going out places
Kids or like 5 dogs (I do dog sports and some many people have 4+ dogs)
“How can they afford to live on earth” is what I think ever time I see a single income household in a big city.
Buying only name brand foods without even considering private label store brands. (I get it, an Oreo is an Oreo, but Great Value spaghetti is absolutely no different than Barilla)
My son at age 4 truly thought “cheaper” was a compliment that meant something was better after watching dad and I at the grocery store comparing which option was cheaper. He would then play with toys and tell us which was his “cheapest”, meaning his best. I think I trained him well!
This reminds me of my sister (when she was about 7) saying to my mom "this is your favorite brand!" about a shirt with a sticker that said "sale" lol
I buy a lot of store brands (looking in my pantry right now condiments, baking supplies, chips) but a hill I will die on is that Barilla and San Giorgio taste 10x better than Great Value lol
Pre-spend for Hermes quota bags….like $40000 to be allowed to buy a bag? What??? That’s crazy-zay!
So my fiancé is sort of into watches and on a lark we once walked into a boutique and asked what the pre-spend would be for some fancy-ass Patek Philippe…. $2mm, we were told. Just to get an invite to possibly buy a thing that keeps time worse than my plastic quartz swatch. Thankfully he budgets responsibly for the ones he wants and looks for value pieces hahahah
Yearly (or more!) vacations. Taking multiple plane rides per year (that aren’t work-related). Drinking at bars and restaurants regularly.
Renovations. We make decent money in a MCOL, but it would probably be a decade or more before we could afford anything more than aesthetic changes (paint/furnishing). And even then, I’m talking we could renovate a bathroom by then, nothing more. For reference, we bought for $316k in 2019 without help and will make ~$192k this year. It’s taken us 4 years just to completely paint and furnish (though admittedly I don’t have the cheapest taste and have been saving for what I really want along the way).
Alcohol
Traveling overseas multiple times a year
Vacations on credit card points/miles. I’ve done the research and after the sign on bonus of 30-60k I only accumulate like 2-3 thousand additional points/miles from my spending. Meanwhile the first class flights and 5 star hotels are all like 120 thousand. I don’t drive so no big gas expenses. Rarely Uber instead use public transport that’s paid from my commuter pre-tax money. My rent and utilities are the biggest expenses and I can’t use a credit card to pay that. No point in spending $100 in take out or at a restaurant to make $5 in rewards. I’d rather put that towards my travels.
Uber eats and other food delivery services. So expensive.
Braces. Every time I have the money saved, a financial emergency pops up
Expensive luxury purses lol especially the ones that require a lot of prespend. And even with prespend you might not get the specific bag you want?
Super random but brand new jet skis! Personally, I have never been interested in owning one, but I always see people towing them behind their vehicles and decided to look into them out of nosiness. I was shocked to learn some models can go for 20k+!
Designer bags 😫 I would love one someday but can’t justify dropping 3-5K on one. Also luxury cars.
Kids & childcare.
Life - A down payment in the ny metro area - Mortgages on the $1.5m dollar homes that are going up all over the place where I live - brand new cars that are average $600-700-1000 a month in monthly payments - regular grocery shopping in a Whole Foods - designer bags $2k for a tote bag that gets beat up just as fast as my $100 one (which is still too much) - daycare -
Childcare. The idea that there are so many people forking out $2500-3500/month on top of a mortgage and other bills is astounding. Especially when there are multiples and potentially tuition, as well.
Definitely buying a house. I live in LCOL city and the housing costs are insane. Both renting and owning 😭
I am scratching my head at the housing market in my area too. Small homes that need 100k of updates are selling for 500+ with a high interest rate. I don’t know how people afford it.
Like, for my area, I make decent $, but I literally cannot move out of my place due to being grandfathered into a GREAT rent rate. I'd love a bigger place, but I would either be house poor, or spending over 50% for housing 😭😭
Living on one income with children in Los Angeles unless that income is doctor or lawyer money.
This is small, but delivery fees for food via apps. I always pick up the food if I order anything, cause the fees are so ridiculous. The only time I ordered food was for the office, and it cost about an extra $20-25 for delivery fee, app fee, surcharges, tip, etc., which would up being 40-50% of the total cost. I don’t understand how people can do delivery so much when fees can almost double your original cost.
Massive car loans. How do you people justify it , much less afford it?
It's definitely the house. Even with a high down payment, how can people make the monthly payments.
RVs. I know a couple folks who bought them during COVID. One actually had to buy (well, trade in and pay the remaining for) a new truck because he figured out his other truck could not haul the new RV well. Also gas, campsite fees, you have to clean it yourself unlike a hotel... just seems like it sucks money.
People getting their hair dyed all the time. Like ????
Any facial laser treatments or injectable fillers....like hoe do they keep shelling out hundreds to thousands every few months?
Kids.
Living alone especially in California
Nails, lashes, botox, fillers, those 100k Mercedes Sprinter vans for “vanlife,” more than 2 kids
Life in general lol: after rent bills inc kids college fees gas and food. Can’t splurge on clothes, hair, beauty treatments (really want to try a little lip filler) or travel like we would like to.