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[-] MissJinx@lemmy.world 78 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

never understood this. If you can't buy it now will you be able to.pay later?! You need groceries every month

[-] deceased@lemmy.ml 78 points 3 months ago

If you're living paycheck to paycheck, it takes one unexpected expense and suddenly you're hustling to get food on the table. The cycle then repeats itself.

[-] Landless2029@lemmy.world 53 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I've been there. It's expensive to be poor with little to no way out.

You need a car to work. Cars are expensive. You get a old clunker.
You work and live check to check. Maybe $50 or $100 left over after taxes and expenses. Not really possible to have an emergency fund.
A single injury or car breaking down and you need to borrow money. From family, friends or some shitty company.

Oh and then your yearly raise comes around at $1/hr that barely covers your rent increasing let alone inflation.

[-] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 25 points 3 months ago

Whoops some bill auto-drafted unexpectedly

Your account is negative now, oh and throw a $25 fee on top.

Looks like you're scrounging for dinner tonight. And the rest of the week. Maybe skip some meals because you have no choice.

Shit sucks ass.

[-] MangoPenguin 8 points 3 months ago

Getting a checking account with no overdraft fees is definitely a plus in those situations

[-] Confused_Emus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 months ago

Recurring charges like utility bills are often processed regardless of overdraft protection status - ultimately at the bank’s discretion, and you can be sure they’ll pick the option that gets them the most fees. Overdraft protection only seems to stop you from using your card for a new transaction with insufficient funds.

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[-] JustOneMoreCat 8 points 3 months ago

Once I bounced a check to our water company and they refused to take checks or credit cards from me for a YEAR as a punishment. It was a one-time accident after paying on time for around seven years. I literally had to drive my ass down there with cash. It's a small rural water service, not a big corporation - they chose to be complete assholes even after I explained the situation (we had a baby that month and forgot a monthly $ transfer in the chaos).

Same mistake probably cost us $120 in overdraft fees. Society financially punishes people who need money the most and rewards the people who have plenty. It's ridiculous.

[-] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I once had my electricity bill bounce, and they forced me to pay a deposit of $250. So the amount I owed went from $100 to $350. Plus a late fee. And they never return the deposit until I had paid on time for 2 years.

That was a bad time.

[-] Landless2029@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

Peanut butter and bread it is!

Food banks are a godsend in these situations. Don't donate money. Find a local community center that offers assistance and donate foodstuffs. Things like rice, canned beans and mixed veggies are always welcome.

[-] fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 14 points 3 months ago

From what I understand food banks would rather your money than those nasty old cans in the back of the pantry

[-] Mirshe@lemmy.world 14 points 3 months ago

Actually, yes. Donate what food you can, but I promise they have enough cans of beans, bags of rice, etc to last until Jesus comes. Especially because different areas have different people - one local pantry might just need a little bit of everything, while another one on the north side of your city needs a lot of vegetarian and halal options because of the people it serves in that area. Especially, donating money lets that food bank get things that aren't strictly necessary, but can make life that much more bearable - pastries, cookies, candy, snack foods, etc. Sure, it's not healthy and I can hear you all sighing from here, but imagine this is your sole source of food for the month. Having a package of shelf-stable Little Debbies or whatever can seriously make your day just a little more bearable, instead of going "oh boy beans and rice for the 23rd time this month."

[-] Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

Dog and cat foods are good things to donate, also sanitary items.

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[-] veroxii@aussie.zone 21 points 3 months ago

The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. ... A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. ... But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet. This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socio-economic unfairness.

[-] Landless2029@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago

Yep. This tracks.

My issue now with products is planned obsolescence. Any things aren't made to last like they used to. They also have extra technology in them making them harder to repair. Appliances, cars and more.

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[-] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 29 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Cost of living is too high, put it on credit.

Your alternative is starve now.

Either way, this is about to get a lot more bonkers in roughly the next 30 to 60 days as Just In Time delivery... kinda just, stops working, and grocery stores will have to both raise prices and ration items per customer per week to deal with shortages and try to minimize in-store injuries and deaths.

Go look up a compilations of black friday shopping stampedes.

Imagine that, but for groceries, every time a grocery store restocks.... for the forseeable future.

[-] dubyakay@lemmy.ca 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Can you elaborate on this? Just In Time delivery? Is this a US thing?

Edit: okay, I looked it up and I understand it now. The ripple effect already happened though when big box stores told Trump to fuck off with the tariffs, because their shelves are empty.

[-] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Yeah, put super simply:

Minimize needed actual storage space and time a thing spends in storage... by relying on very frequent and consistent logistics.

Its very efficient in the sense of minimizing operating costs...

But it is also extremely fragile, a minor perturbation can fuck shit up for weeks or months.

... And we are getting... well basically the most major disruption in the history of JIT as a logistics paradigm.

[-] hazeydreams@lemmy.ca 10 points 3 months ago

Really thought we would have learned that JIT is a horrible strategy after covid... That was only a few years ago...

[-] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

America follows Seinfeld rules:

No hugging.

No learning.

... Larry David is even writing poignant political satire pieces just right in the New York Times now!

There was an episode of Comedians in Cars like a decade ago now, Jerry just muses something like... God, is NYC just gonna be nothing but corporate coffee shops and banks?

Yes. Yep. That is what happened.

[-] chilicheeselies@lemmy.world 29 points 3 months ago

If you are at the point where you are buying grocoeries in installments, who cares about paying it back. What good is a good credit score if you cant afford to buy anything anyways. Just survive any way you can at that point

[-] bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 26 points 3 months ago

Some people don't have the option, and end up relying on these services. It's similar to the payday loan trap. Being poor is expensive.

[-] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 15 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Then you've never been poor and living paycheck to paycheck.

There are times when it's either find a loan from someone or not eat for two weeks because something in your house broke and that's unfortunately a reality for many Americans including myself at one time.

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[-] fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 14 points 3 months ago

Capitalism isn't paying enough for workers to live off of and they system is papering over it with debt. Problem is debt isn't a sustainable way to do it since it has to get paid back. We've been seeing sketchier and sketchier things happening in finance and when these loans don't get repaid (and this article is a sign we're getting close) the whole house or cards comes tumbling down

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[-] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 4 points 3 months ago

The idea is that if you are throwing a party or buying something big, then this will be useful for those purchases.

It isn't a good idea, though.

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[-] HubertManne@piefed.social 63 points 3 months ago

I keep on wondering who the fuck has the money to be using things like grubhub. I realize its a non sequitor for this article but I really don't see how these businesses stay in business.

[-] markovs_gun@lemmy.world 24 points 3 months ago

Credit card debt is a pathway to many abilities some would consider unnatural

[-] FenrirIII@lemmy.world 15 points 3 months ago

My neighbor gets everything delivered, but I have no clue what he or his wife do. If my spouse made the same as I do, we could afford to do all that delivery stuff. But it still makes no sense

[-] HubertManne@piefed.social 6 points 3 months ago

Same. If my spouse made the same as me and did not have all the medical issues I guess I could but we would not. Likely would just live in a nicer place.

[-] Agent641@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago

People who don't really understand credit cards or have a cognitive disconnect between cost and value when fulfilling their sustenance need.

When people get hangry they don't make good choices.

[-] Spacehooks@reddthat.com 5 points 3 months ago

Roaring 20's pt 2

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[-] endeavor@sopuli.xyz 39 points 3 months ago

Literally what russians were doing while being loud on internet about how sanctions don't work. You can look foward to anti theft tags on bread soon.

[-] Goldholz 11 points 3 months ago

And butter locked up

[-] altphoto@lemmy.today 9 points 3 months ago

What about shaving items and deodorant?

....yup done already.

[-] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 34 points 3 months ago

Odd to think if you can't afford food now you could afford it later plus interest.

[-] Monstrosity@lemm.ee 44 points 3 months ago

Also odd to think people can put off eating until they have the proper funds.

[-] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 13 points 3 months ago

I am talking more about the people lending the money, not sure why they think this would be sound lending. People will do far worse then default on a loan to keep eating.

[-] Monstrosity@lemm.ee 4 points 3 months ago

Oh, I guess I was assuming the vast majority of these folks (I'm one of them actually) are using credit cards, so the loaners don't really know ahead of time.

[-] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 6 points 3 months ago

I can't open the article (forbidden) but I am also assuming this is about the new DoorDash and others eat now pay later crap.

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[-] Laser@feddit.org 12 points 3 months ago

First off, I fully agree with you. But how people are lured in is that there is no interest if you pay on time, so it's advertised as interest-free. But obviously the business model is built upon people not paying on time, and as such one should calculate that cost into it…

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[-] guyoverthere123@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 3 months ago

Putting food on layaway?

So much winning /s

[-] WhatSay@slrpnk.net 9 points 3 months ago

And people have an issue with dumpster diving. Fools

[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

The only time I've used these was on Black Friday, and ultimately, it was worth it.

But they are 100% predatory.

[-] DicJacobus@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

Steve Carrell: HEY... THERES A BUBBLE!

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this post was submitted on 27 Apr 2025
549 points (100.0% liked)

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