Reply #10: you left out the costs of cigarettes [View All]

[jafap]

Or was that part of your $50 a week in groceries? Who spends that much on groceries for one person? Why underestimate the income and over-estimate the expenses? Monthly income is $1386, not $1280. It is $320 x 52/12.
Since I graduated from college in 1986 I have lived in Utah, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and now Kansas - without a car. I bought one in 1986 so I could goto my brother's wedding, and I bought one in 1996 because I hoped it would improve my love-life. There's $4,000 I wish I had back.
I currently make $3,000 a year less than your hypothetical example, and I have all kinds of unnecessary expenses - 3 dogs, internet service, ancestry.com, phone, kiwanis club, a sponsored child, and I just bought a new Trek 7100 (okay, it's on my credit card. I have not paid for it yet. (The pay in full to avoid finance charges date is the 20th of Oct)).
I have saved at least $1300 since May, and I have always figured that if I can do it, so can anyone else. True, I cannot figure how anyone can live in California, nor why anyone would want to, but since people are not trees, living in California is a choice, just like buying a car. Don't do it if you can't afford it.
Of course, there is also the point that our economy is built around unnecessary spending. A big surge of frugality would destroy millions of jobs. A cousin of mine wrote economics textbooks where he quoted a sociologist from 1908 who said that our struggle was about jam, not about bread. I am pretty sure that the book in question is aimed at the 2nd to the fourth quintiles and not so much at the 5th. People above the median income need to hear a non-materialist message because it will leave more for the rest of us if they stop taking more than they need.