What have I got to worry about the cost of living ?

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chris1989
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22 Jun 2022, 2:29 pm

I seem to think the doom-mongering surrounding covid is starting to be replaced by the doom-mongering over the cost of living. The reason I get upset by it when they talk about fuel prices rising, food prices rising, etc it conjures up these images of life I saw in pictures of the Great Depression with millions out of work and queues of homeless and jobless people waiting for food and a bed with a roof over their heads or images from less developed countries such as in Africa like Zimbabwe when prices there were doubling every hour to the point where ordinary people were unable to afford even the most basic essentials and supplies under Robert Mugabe. I have been reassured by people in my family that we are a wealthy country and that stuff like that won't happen but I still have the inner demons in my head telling me the opposite and that things will get worse and worse even though its not something that threatens my life and kills me. The thing is I don't drive my car all the time as I walk to work and I don't spend so much on petrol anyway, I've always saved money and still able to afford on occasions things even if they maybe just a bit more expensive and I don't go around wasting my money every day on things I don't really want anyway. If I am being given these reassurances, why is it being treated in an ''end of the world'' like-manner? I seem to think things will just never get any better whether its with covid, the war in Ukraine, cost of living etc. At some point there will be something else to doom and gloom about and get sick and frustrated with hearing about it. It will just be an endless cycle of one doom after another. Also I heard today that the Polio virus has been spotted in a London sewage system and parents are being told check that their children are up to date with their Polio jabs. I was like ''What another one ?'' We've had Covid, Avian Flu, Monkeypox and now Polio. Is there a virus tournament going on ?



kraftiekortie
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22 Jun 2022, 2:36 pm

You probably got the polio vaccine when you were a young child. I wouldn't worry about polio.

There has always been crap going on in the world. And there will always be crap going on in the world.



babybird
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22 Jun 2022, 3:01 pm

chris1989 wrote:
I seem to think the doom-mongering surrounding covid is starting to be replaced by the doom-mongering over the cost of living. The reason I get upset by it when they talk about fuel prices rising, food prices rising, etc it conjures up these images of life I saw in pictures of the Great Depression with millions out of work and queues of homeless and jobless people waiting for food and a bed with a roof over their heads or images from less developed countries such as in Africa like Zimbabwe when prices there were doubling every hour to the point where ordinary people were unable to afford even the most basic essentials and supplies under Robert Mugabe. I have been reassured by people in my family that we are a wealthy country and that stuff like that won't happen but I still have the inner demons in my head telling me the opposite and that things will get worse and worse even though its not something that threatens my life and kills me. The thing is I don't drive my car all the time as I walk to work and I don't spend so much on petrol anyway, I've always saved money and still able to afford on occasions things even if they maybe just a bit more expensive and I don't go around wasting my money every day on things I don't really want anyway. If I am being given these reassurances, why is it being treated in an ''end of the world'' like-manner? I seem to think things will just never get any better whether its with covid, the war in Ukraine, cost of living etc. At some point there will be something else to doom and gloom about and get sick and frustrated with hearing about it. It will just be an endless cycle of one doom after another. Also I heard today that the Polio virus has been spotted in a London sewage system and parents are being told check that their children are up to date with their Polio jabs. I was like ''What another one ?'' We've had Covid, Avian Flu, Monkeypox and now Polio. Is there a virus tournament going on ?


Well the cost of living crisis is very real unfortunately. Your relatives are correct in saying that we are a wealthy country but unfortunately this wealth is distributed around the wealthiest people and that is not a very large percentage of the population.

The rest of us have just got to do what we can to survive.


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Joe90
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22 Jun 2022, 3:25 pm

I worry about the costs of living, but then I still see crowds and crowds of people everywhere shopping and the roads are still always congested with cars, so it hasn't really affected people where I come from, and most people in my area are just average working class folk.


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goldfish21
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23 Jun 2022, 11:00 am

Not much, don't worry. Help others calm down by teaching them to be frugal, too.

My spending habits also make me a little bit recession proof. I barely spend anything I don't Have To so have built up significant savings. Most expensive thing I pay for is a personal trainer - I'm about 2.5 months into that and while it's very expensive, the physical benefits of training my body to be better are worth the $ for now. Getting into better shape, balance/coordination etc training muscles to work properly that I've never really used properly and didn't know it or know how to do it. I consider the large expense an investment in myself - for now & my future, so will continue.

Other than that.. fortunate to have cheap rent, I buy groceries vs. restaurant meals, drive a fuel efficient car and ride my motorcycle when I can to save even more gas money. Don't really buy "things," or clothes and crap much at all. And I work to pay bills and keep saving vs. deplete savings.. only thing that changes much with my income is how much I'm able to save per month. When I earn a lot I save a lot, when I earn a little, well, I save a little. Rinse and repeat.

Even if this looming recession kills some forms of work, I'll go do different work for whoever's hiring at whatever rate they're paying vs. do nothing. A lot of construction guys are starting to do that now.. there's a massive concrete industry strike right now that's shutting the entire city's construction projects down and it's said it could last until October. No concrete ? no building anything.. and our primary industry is real estate, soooooo, if this carries on a while it's going to absolutely decimate the working class that are barely hanging on by a thread in this insanely priced place. Might see a lot of families load up a vehicle and pull a midnight move out of province - dip out on their high rents etc and go seek work wherever they can find it kind of thing. It Could get that bad.. but I'll be here, doing something to keep busy.


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shortfatbalduglyman
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23 Jun 2022, 10:27 pm

Joe90 wrote:
I worry about the costs of living, but then I still see crowds and crowds of people everywhere shopping and the roads are still always congested with cars, so it hasn't really affected people where I come from, and most people in my area are just average working class folk.


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I work at in retail and earn minimum wage. Nobody that works in that building earns that much. The slave plantation is in the middle of a homeless encampment. I live in a ghetto.

Plenty of coworkers drive cars, have children, smoke cigarettes, and waste a lot of cash on unnecessary recurring expenses. The coworkers only earn about minimum wage.

I am 39, zero children, no car. And I am still worried about grocery prices. The only bills I have right now, are the utilities and credit card. Zero debt. Zero rent.

I have been saving cash, but "at will" employer. If the slave plantation has the nerve to make my worthless corpse redundant, I am paranoid nobody will ever hire my worthless corpse again, and then I will be homeless.

unemployable

Government benefits not guaranteed, permanent, or even sufficient.

I have been applying for jobs, but zero prospects.

"Extreme cheapskates" a tv show, has some ideas of how to waste less cash.

or you could google "how to save cash on groceries"


earn more cash or waste less cash

unearned income

stock market investments

win lottery

get married



Sweetleaf
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23 Jun 2022, 10:39 pm

chris1989 wrote:
I have been reassured by people in my family that we are a wealthy country and that stuff like that won't happen but I still have the inner demons in my head telling me the opposite and that things will get worse and worse even though its not something that threatens my life and kills me. ?


When I was around 7 and talking about climate change, because of science magazines and books I read...my family told me not to worry and that I would feel differently in 20 years. No, if anything it is even worse now because no one listened about that kind of stuff in the 90's. But yeah this is a wealthy country but still stuff like that can certainly happen here...look at all the homeless people sitting on the side of the road begging for change people can spare?...Things can get worse like that here. Your inner demons are not totally wrong.


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RetroGamer87
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26 Jun 2022, 6:26 pm

Cost of living? I've got the solution for that.

Image


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