I find it interesting that people worry much more about how much things cost than how much money they make. I would think these two numbers would be much closer together.
It’s a lot harder to earn more.
Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people
21–30 of 563 posts
Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people
#22I find it interesting that people worry much more about how much things cost than how much money they make. I would think these two numbers would be much closer together.
The cost of living has significantly outpaced salary growth. And given how quick companies are to do layoffs, even when things are going well; makes people a little less confident in a job switch. And that doesn't even account for the current state of the market which is brutal. I saw a thing the other day that said people can't even really budget for groceries because the costs are changing drastically week to week. You arent going to get a new job and feel the effects of (hopefully) the larger paycheck as quick as prices can and will change currently.
Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people
#23Protip: look for an Asian market in your area for food. I get an entire shopping cart full of food for $60-100 and that lasts for ~2 weeks. When I go to Publix (or any other grocery store), I get like 2-3 bags for $60... Discovering the Asian market has been one of the best financial things to happen to me. Although I'm not really sure how their prices are so low. If someone could answer, that would be awesome!
>> Protip: look for an Asian market in your area for food.
Second this! Especially for things like produce and herbs. You literally get 10-20x the cilantro, etc at an Asian market for the same price (I think they are loss leaders.) And oh the aroma....you dont know fresh herbs until you step into a Patel Brothers and get truly fresh cilantro.
We've gotten to a point where we know what to get where and shop accordingly.
Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people
#24Protip: look for an Asian market in your area for food. I get an entire shopping cart full of food for $60-100 and that lasts for ~2 weeks. When I go to Publix (or any other grocery store), I get like 2-3 bags for $60... Discovering the Asian market has been one of the best financial things to happen to me. Although I'm not really sure how their prices are so low. If someone could answer, that would be awesome!
I would love to learn more about the unit economics of groceries. How is it that a small grocery store can sometimes provide things (much) more cheaply than a megacorporation? [0] If the latter was functioning well in a competitive market, I would expect their play to be on lower margins but higher volume. [0] Mostly I'm referring to offal TBF, which I think most firms are happy to make any money on at all.
It is likely partly due to cost optimization (the shelf are rarely that organized in these stores) and the fact that they don't sell fresh produce.
Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people
#25The current financial system and various corporations see the majority of consumers like livestock - a kind of resource to be exploited. It's better to be free range organic though, in my humble opinion, but the majority seem to be trending towards battery/cage chickens.
Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people
#26I find it interesting that people worry much more about how much things cost than how much money they make. I would think these two numbers would be much closer together.
Median wages are nearly stagnant for decades and the jobs market growth is shrinking
Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people
#27Protip: look for an Asian market in your area for food. I get an entire shopping cart full of food for $60-100 and that lasts for ~2 weeks. When I go to Publix (or any other grocery store), I get like 2-3 bags for $60... Discovering the Asian market has been one of the best financial things to happen to me. Although I'm not really sure how their prices are so low. If someone could answer, that would be awesome!
> Protip: look for an Asian market in your area for food. ... Discovering the Asian market has been one of the best financial things to happen to me. Whenever I see this protip, I feel bad for struggling Asians getting validated that they and their extended family already fully optimized all their opportunities.
Asian always min maxxing their whole life, the moment you hit adulthood it hit you hard that you always been capped for life
Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people
#28Obligatory establishment and realist responses: https://x.com/ChamathWarriors/status/1712504415012208962
Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people
#29According to
https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/fo...
1 out of 7 US inhabitants have food insecurity. And this is a govt website likely to underestimate the statistic
Re: Food, housing, & health care costs are a source of major stress for many people
#30This does seem like "Sky blue and water wet" sort of reporting, but that's just because of the daft headline. When most people are challenged with affording the basics, that points to a severe economic risk. We've lived through a period of incredibly cheap credit due to where we are in the monetary cycle of the USD as a reserve currency. We sort of brought it on ourselves though, given the vicious cycle of buying che…
It's getting pretty bad, I wonder where the floor is. A growing number of people are using credit to purchase groceries — buy now pay later schemes are also resulting in people putting ubereats on credit https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/02/business/buy-now-pay-late... ( https://archive.is/Cmzis )
It's important to note that using credit isn't purely an indication of struggling. A lot of those payment programs offer 0% incentives, and from a purely logical standpoint, the correct thing to do is put everything you buy on a 0% loan for as long as possible.