It’s because as conditions changed, they never lost that mentality.
My boomer parents make twice the food they need to eat for dinner every single time and then just throw out or freeze and forget the leftovers, they could literally cut their food budgets in half just by being more reasonable with their portion sizes.
They have coffee at home and a nice coffeemaker, they go out for coffee almost every day driving a round trip of ~50km for the exact same brand of coffee they have at home, and when I mentioned this to them the last time they were having financial problems they said something to the effect of “oh well it’s only a few dollars each” not even understanding that the gas they use and the wear they put on their vehicles is part of it too, and maybe it only costs a few dollars (plus gas etc) that when you do it every day it adds up.
It’s literally the same as talking to my preteen nieces and nephews, they just have no concept of the value of a dollar, and are completely unwilling to change a single aspect of their lives to save money, and then get confused as to how they keep running out of money before the end of the month. I know that sooner or later I am going to have to take them in, or put them in a home, because they can’t even manage their own finances and get angry and defensive any time I try to make suggestions to help them.
I still remember being really frustrated with an ex’s teenage brother and his inability to save money. It was like only the short term existed, and somehow inexplicably the short term always kind of sucked.
At least he was a teenager. A lot of adults never advance
I agree with what you said, but until your household jointly makes 75k+, it’s really hard to save money when just existing eats up most of your expenses. I felt like I could breathe at 75k when my wife wasn’t working, 100k was when I could cover all bills and still have enough to save up a bit of money. That’s with my being lucky in that I bought my house 5 years ago and my mortgage is only like $900/mo…(modest 2br home in not a great neighborhood ) total monthly bills ends up being about $3k(including groceries, gas, utilities, car insurance and car payment being about $600 for both cars) Wife started working again so with her 50k and my 100k I can finally have financial goals instead of thinking about just surviving. Rent in my city starts at $1500 and I have no idea how normal people are getting by.
One of the worst things about being poor is that it becomes a mentality. If you have spare money after your bills are paid, you get used to it disappearing by life’s circumstances such as an issue with your car, so people have the mentality of “I need to spend it before it gets spent on something else.” That’s why when people do their taxes and get money back for child tax credits and stuff and suddenly they go from a couple dollars in the account to $3000-$5000+ they go out and buy sofas or nice televisions.
It’s because as conditions changed, they never lost that mentality.
My boomer parents make twice the food they need to eat for dinner every single time and then just throw out or freeze and forget the leftovers, they could literally cut their food budgets in half just by being more reasonable with their portion sizes.
They have coffee at home and a nice coffeemaker, they go out for coffee almost every day driving a round trip of ~50km for the exact same brand of coffee they have at home, and when I mentioned this to them the last time they were having financial problems they said something to the effect of “oh well it’s only a few dollars each” not even understanding that the gas they use and the wear they put on their vehicles is part of it too, and maybe it only costs a few dollars (plus gas etc) that when you do it every day it adds up.
It’s literally the same as talking to my preteen nieces and nephews, they just have no concept of the value of a dollar, and are completely unwilling to change a single aspect of their lives to save money, and then get confused as to how they keep running out of money before the end of the month. I know that sooner or later I am going to have to take them in, or put them in a home, because they can’t even manage their own finances and get angry and defensive any time I try to make suggestions to help them.
I still remember being really frustrated with an ex’s teenage brother and his inability to save money. It was like only the short term existed, and somehow inexplicably the short term always kind of sucked.
At least he was a teenager. A lot of adults never advance
Do they also eat a lot of avocado toast?
I agree with what you said, but until your household jointly makes 75k+, it’s really hard to save money when just existing eats up most of your expenses. I felt like I could breathe at 75k when my wife wasn’t working, 100k was when I could cover all bills and still have enough to save up a bit of money. That’s with my being lucky in that I bought my house 5 years ago and my mortgage is only like $900/mo…(modest 2br home in not a great neighborhood ) total monthly bills ends up being about $3k(including groceries, gas, utilities, car insurance and car payment being about $600 for both cars) Wife started working again so with her 50k and my 100k I can finally have financial goals instead of thinking about just surviving. Rent in my city starts at $1500 and I have no idea how normal people are getting by.
One of the worst things about being poor is that it becomes a mentality. If you have spare money after your bills are paid, you get used to it disappearing by life’s circumstances such as an issue with your car, so people have the mentality of “I need to spend it before it gets spent on something else.” That’s why when people do their taxes and get money back for child tax credits and stuff and suddenly they go from a couple dollars in the account to $3000-$5000+ they go out and buy sofas or nice televisions.
That is definitely not their problem.