Many Americans say their household expenses are outpacing earnings this year, AP-NORC poll shows

Lee Duna@lemmy.nz to News@lemmy.world – 281 points –
Many Americans say their household expenses are outpacing earnings this year, AP-NORC poll shows
apnews.com
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I believe it. I'm doing OK financially, but I'm cutting back. Killed my Prime and Disney+ accounts before the rates went up. Did the same for Max when I realized all I watched was John Oliver, and finally got everything out of a storage unit I had rented a few years ago, and shut that down. Saving over $100 a month now.

Prime and Disney and Max and storage unit all totaled only $100? Seems like that would be a few hundred dollars.

"Over $100 a month..." On a monthly scale, Prime, Disney+ and Max aren't that much, just a lot if you pay a year at a time.

Amazon Prime = $139/year / 12 = $11.58/mo.
Disney+ = 139.99/year / 12 = $11.66/mo.
Max = 199.99/year / 12 = $16.67/mo.

So, yeah, of the "over $100/mo." the bulk of it was the storage unit. The services pushed it over the top.

Household expenses are flying past my earnings on a motorcycle, flipping them the bird

We're getting really close to that point with our finances. Fingers crossed on some of the jobs I've been interviewing for.

In the mean time my current place is starting the rumbles of unionizing. It's about ducking time.

Wouldn’t unionizing mean an almost immediate increase in wages and other benefits?

After getting enough people to agree to do it, then pick a leader, then get the company to negotiate instead of fire everyone, then agree on a deal. Immediately after all that would you see a pay increase, again if the company doesn't just fire everyone

Well, they can't just fire us. We're on some serious contracts and trying to replace us on mass would be nearly impossible.

The biggest hurdle is that the courts have ruled that people in our roles can't legally unionize in the US, so it'll be ugly for a while.

That said, we're starting a series of union training sessions and trying to fire that up because the alternatives are not good.

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But there were some other headlines that said "people think the economy is bad but they're spending lots of money so that means it's good hahaha people are so dumb."

ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ

We just had to go down to a single income. I am really glad my wife has a pretty safe job and we can afford to keep up with bills, but things will be tight.

I was a DINK until October last year.

I kept the house because I can swing the payments. But just barely. It’s been a tough year adjusting to having a slim budget again, but I’ve made it. Not without worming a second job and denying myself a lot of small luxuries that would have made my mental health.

I’m asking for a raise, but am guessing it’s not going to come.

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