NYT Article on House Spending Habits

[CJ]

I thought this article would appeal to this group in particular- it's a month in the spending life of some American families.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/05/18/magazine/money-diaries.html

As a reader of various frugal/finance blogs, certain items definitely stand out as easy ways to cut expenses (300+ dollars for cell/internet service? 500+ for restaurants? And you're behind on bills?). It also shows some of the personal elements, too—the things that people buy whether they need them or not because it fits a deep need or happiness, that places some of the spending in real context.

[NumberJohnny5]

There's two other threads going on about this article (one in Mustachianism Around the Web, the other in Antimustachian Wall of Shame and Comedy). FYI, when reading your title I thought maybe it was going to be about a different article regarding spending on houses, or even how houses spend their money (doubtful it'd be the latter, but would be an entertaining read if so).

One of those photos was definitely staged, there's no way it makes sense any other way. But eh, it was all staged anyway so I won't nitpick.

I couldn't relate much. I mean, there was one family that I was nodding along with...they had a decent savings rate (not as high as ours, despite them obviously having a lot more money coming in, but still)...until I got to their grocery spending. AND they also had restaurant spending on top of that??!!

I think a look at a family's average monthly budget for a year would be more useful. Heck, I'd even be making fun of us if you picked out very specific months and presented it as though that was just normal. Nearly $1k for three days at Seaworld (only vacation so far this year, plus we only took one vacation all of last year...as an average monthly cost it's not unreasonable at all but as a one-off it can look so). Nearly $4k for car expenses (if we look at March, we bought a car for a bit under $4k all-in). Heck, we bought a not inexpensive car last year, if we look at just that specific month...oh my gosh! But we didn't have a car payment the month before, or after, or two months before or after, or...you get the idea. Heck, our housing expenses look really low (about, oh, $0 most months) except when the HOA and property tax and other property tax and don't forget the third property tax comes due, then it's not near as low as you would think if you looked at say, April.

My takeaway from these types of articles is more and more "I can't relate to normal humans anymore" as time goes on. We're saving much more than those with obviously higher incomes. We're spending less on most line items than people who are making less than us.

[CJ]

Thanks for the heads up, @NumberJohnny5 - I missed that one, and I'll move my conversation over to the "On the web" post.

[HenryDavid]

Reading this article I just felt sad for people seemingly working so hard for seemingly not great quality of life.

There are better ways . . .