Author Topic: "Basic Costs Squeeze Families" -> Splash photo of 3 iPhones  (Read 4679 times)

Calvin

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"Basic Costs Squeeze Families" -> Splash photo of 3 iPhones
« on: December 03, 2014, 05:51:17 AM »
I didn't read the article, but thought the photo they chose was funny. Apparently these days "Basic Costs" of living include at least 3 iDevices per family!

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/basic-costs-squeeze-families-002900254.html

NeuroPlastic

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Re: "Basic Costs Squeeze Families" -> Splash photo of 3 iPhones
« Reply #1 on: December 03, 2014, 06:26:41 AM »
Yowza! A $500 mobile bill!  And they keep the phones?  It's disheartening to me, but I think that, unfortunately, the "need" that drives the high mobile data usage is to escape from reality.

BPA

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Re: "Basic Costs Squeeze Families" -> Splash photo of 3 iPhones
« Reply #2 on: December 03, 2014, 06:51:33 AM »
Yeah.  $500 cell phone bill?  I guess there is nothing they can do to prevent that!  <eyeroll>

The Guru

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sabertooth3

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Re: "Basic Costs Squeeze Families" -> Splash photo of 3 iPhones
« Reply #4 on: December 03, 2014, 03:22:16 PM »
"The couple now eats out at Panera Bread instead of “tablecloth restaurants,” stopped buying season tickets at Madison’s Overture Center for the Arts and dropped their indoor club seats for University of Wisconsin football games."

I'm not sure how much indoor club seats for a Big 10 school cost, on top of the arts and eating out, but wow. I've never been to a college football game, but apparently it's a "Basic Cost". Guess I'm just impoverished over here...

RFAAOATB

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Re: "Basic Costs Squeeze Families" -> Splash photo of 3 iPhones
« Reply #5 on: December 03, 2014, 03:26:31 PM »
"The couple now eats out at Panera Bread instead of “tablecloth restaurants,” stopped buying season tickets at Madison’s Overture Center for the Arts and dropped their indoor club seats for University of Wisconsin football games."

I'm not sure how much indoor club seats for a Big 10 school cost, on top of the arts and eating out, but wow. I've never been to a college football game, but apparently it's a "Basic Cost". Guess I'm just impoverished over here...

Indeed, when you can jump over the line from working poor to middle class you get to choose whether to enjoy a large number of nights out as opposed to having your lack of funds choose for you.

It's more difficult to keep up with all the shiny ways to spend money these days.  Not desiring shiny items is one coping mechanism, but adjusting from being able to afford that to not being able to is devastating.

Scandium

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Re: "Basic Costs Squeeze Families" -> Splash photo of 3 iPhones
« Reply #6 on: December 17, 2014, 01:58:41 PM »
"The couple now eats out at Panera Bread instead of “tablecloth restaurants,” stopped buying season tickets at Madison’s Overture Center for the Arts and dropped their indoor club seats for University of Wisconsin football games."

I'm not sure how much indoor club seats for a Big 10 school cost, on top of the arts and eating out, but wow. I've never been to a college football game, but apparently it's a "Basic Cost". Guess I'm just impoverished over here...

Panera??! oh no the horror! How proletarian!

also:
"The data—drawn from 14,000 households that either keep diaries on their spending for two weeks or agree to quarterly interviews—"
Selection bias much? These are probably the people with more reasonable spending compared to most of the population.

TreeTired

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Re: "Basic Costs Squeeze Families" -> Splash photo of 3 iPhones
« Reply #7 on: December 17, 2014, 03:09:53 PM »
But some of the basics have gone down in price!  Everyone needs a big screen TV, right?  We paid $2000 for our 42" plasma back in ... 2004?  I don't remember exactly.   My son just bought a 50" TV for $350!     We bought a so-so laptop 5 years ago for $800.  It crapped out and I bought an all-in-one to replace it with a real nice 21" screen for $270!   And I paid $2500 for a serviceable desktop back in 1994,  and that was in 1994 dollars!   I am almost saving enough money to buy a smartphone, or basketball season tickets!

bomgd3

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Re: "Basic Costs Squeeze Families" -> Splash photo of 3 iPhones
« Reply #8 on: December 18, 2014, 04:43:21 AM »
Almost choked on my coffee when I read the segment about the cell phone bills going past $500 because of data overages.  I can't believe there are people out there who will simply accept overage charges as a fact of life!  Then again I can't believe people accept credit card interest rates either.