this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2025
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A Boring Dystopia
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When I was single I was comfortable with £11k which is adjusted for inflation from 2016. Maybe some of you are miserable because you think you need expensive things to be happy.
Or maybe you lived in an environment where some of those expenses were socialized via a broad social net - or you have connections via friends and family that you've underestimated the value of (a friend with a truck is cheaper to buy lunch for than renting movers). If I had reliable access to food shelter transportation and information at negligible costs (assuming ~$800/month constitutes low cost rent), I can totally imagine living within a budget of $15k/year (covering pounds to USD).
However, I used to live in Phoenix but moved due to the rental crisis. Simple clean 1 bedroom apartments are going for $1600/month, which blows your budget in rent alone. (The lowest rate I could find was $750/month, but you had to be officially poor ("restricted income") to qualify).
But before I condemn you in assumptions, maybe I'm wrong - would you be willing to break down your living expenses for those who would follow in your path?
Didn't even have friends when I moved, got a bedroom in a shared house. £425 and today with inflation you can find similar for £500-600 a month across most of the UK outside of cities anyway. That is bills included.
So the only essential spending left really is food. Currently that costs me about £60/month from Aldi but I am earning more now. If I had to cut back I don't know exactly how much I could reduce it to. £30-50 would be pretty easy to cut back to by cutting out meat and cheese while £10 would be high carb poverty food and possibly scurvy.
The rest I saved or spent on fun things. Life was pretty good as I made friends with some of the other guys living there. Moving house I did with a bag and a few bin liners, I barely owned anything in the first place so I just carried stuff and took a train.
All said, respectable - "live with almost no property at the cheapest rate available" is not terribly bad advice. But again, I think even following that advise would be a higher cost for lots of people in many places in the world.
But is that really the world we want to build? "Okay everyone, aim for the bare minimum?" I know I've been lucky in my life and haven't had to struggle often - but I don't think it's unfair to assume that everyone should be able to enjoy luxuries from time to time.
Nothing wrong with aiming for more but if you think you need 150k to be comfortable I think it says more about you.
It’s funny people are so anti-consumerist then downvote comments like this… hypocrites
When I lived in the US my biggest expenses were housing, healthcare and taxes. None of them were things I could reduce.
Only housing here as I live in the UK, healthcare is free. Tax exists but I earnt so little at the time I barely paid any.
Would love some proper anti-consumerism
There are a few expensive things I find necessary in the modern world. Those being food and a roof over my head. If you have suggestions for going without either of those, I’m all ears. Otherwise, fuck off with that nonsense.
Sure rent/mortgages are expensive, but not 150k expensive. Food costs fuck all in comparison to rent it may as well be a rounding error.
Clearly you haven't lived in any state that isn't in fuck all Wyoming.
Shits expensive as hell
My use of £ might be a hint to where I live. Housing costs like 20x the amount I spend on food.
sometimes eggs cost $1 each where i live
Then I wouldn't buy eggs