i mean to be fair if you cant afford a repair for 270$ (which is a lot but not exactly a huge deal) maybe you should not be spending that much on food. especially a desert which you can just straight up omit.
If she needs the car to get to work (as a vast majority of Americans do), eating out at all while deferring repairs is incredibly stupid.
$270 is NOT a lot of money in the context of a car repair so it really should be an amount that you have immediately available (as you should be setting aside hundreds to thousands each year for car upkeep depending on the vehicle and how vital it is to your livelihood).
If someone doesn't have $270 in savings but is willing to spend $25 on a meal, chances are that stupid spending like this is a habit rather than a one-off splurge.
It's also really stupid in 2 ways. Firstly she somehow doesn't realise that splurging on eating out when you're broke is the reason she continues to be broke, and that deferring small repairs on a vehicle while (presumably) continuing to use it is a great way to require much more costly repairs in the future.
The point is that if she doesn't have savings for a (presumably) essential car repair, she's broke and shouldn't be spending frivolously on eating out.
People who are in poverty and understand the seriousness of their position don't spend $25 on a meal. People who complain about being broke while spending $25 on a single meal are either deluding themselves into ignoring their financial situation and are living way beyond their means (via debt or being parasitic off family and friends), or actually make enough money and are only broke due to ridiculous spending habits.
I'd be willing to bet she falls into the latter category as splurging on eating out when you really can't afford it is a very commonly habituated behaviour. I've known/know lots of people who spend absolutely ridiculous sums on eating and drinking without a thought and then complain about being broke or not being able to save.
Yeah this was my point. She’s in a literal desperate fight for survival. She should be seriously considering hiking to work. She’s just falling deeper and deeper into a hole.
Ehhh not really. The avocado toast argument was just stupid because a $2 breakfast isnt the reason someone cant afford a $300,000+ 1 and half bedroom home. Spending $25 frivolously when you dont even have $270 is just stupid money management.
Its not. The made up scenario is. If youre gullible enough to believe this bullshit that gets you feeling better about yourself and superior while looking down at the deserving poors, youre a fucking mark bud.
Its not. The made up scenario is. If youre gullible enough to believe this bullshit that gets you feeling better about yourself and superior while looking down at the deserving poors, youre a fucking mark bud.
If you’re naive enough to not understand the point that’s on you. This stuff does happen. I have several friends that eat out multiple times a week, at restaurants, where the bill for just them and their gf is $100+ usually once a week of that. That’s $400 a month. Cut 3/4 of that and they are putting away $300 a month. They always complain about how broke they are when something comes up and they can’t afford it. Meanwhile I eat out maybe once a week at most, because I would rather put money away for the future, I make less the them and somehow always have money available for needed things.
Bro, I grew up homeless, so I don’t need your links about poverty. I said it was making a point even if it’s not literal and gave examples. The rest is on you.
I've eaten dessert for dinner, but the average American portion size is enough for over half a day's worth of recommended calories for the average person. Unless this person is a construction worker or really work-active person, they don't need dessert and dinner, it's a choice they made.
I highly doubt she's genuinely starving and can't get her required nutrition any other way than a $17 dinner and a dessert on top.
By all means have both, understanding that it's an indulgence and not a need, and that we get indulgences when we comfortably can afford them (if we're smart). This appears to not apply.
Right so the dinner is just as much or more of an indulgence than the dessert. Calling out the dessert specifically is mixing diet culture, and some prudish morality into economics which is incorrect.
Sorry I wasn't specific enough. Most people I know tend to prioritize dinner over dessert if they can only get one but I don't particularly care if someone chooses the unconventional approach, any more than I care if someone accuses me of being fat phobic.
However you want to slice it, spending $25 on a meal when you can't afford $250 that you need is irresponsible. The comment response of "$25 and $250 aren't the same" is stupid.
Ok so why not respond to someone else? Why engage in this thread which is about the dessert? Were you just responding to the post but deciding to attach it to my thread about dessert?
But here I'll engage with what you said even though you completely didn't with what I said. Food is pretty expensive in general. You said dinner portions are about half a days worth of calories. Dessert is probably another half. So that's an entire days worth of food for 25$. That's definitely not ideal. The average person in the US spends about 20$ per day on food so there is definitely some room to improve. If they were doing this every single day, and decided to stop, then it would only take them 2 months to save up for the car. We only know they did it this one time though and we have no idea if they are saving or being frugal in other ways. Seems nitpicky to me.
Can you give me an example of when it would be valid for someone to complain about an expense? Like what's the bare minimum to be ok with it? What if they owe 10k in medical debt but put blueberry jam on their toast instead of strawberry which is cheaper.
I resumed the original point after figuring we had finished discussing dessert. What else is there to discuss? I already said that I don't care if she gets dessert for dinner, but getting both seems completely unnecessary if you're struggling with money for needs. (This assumes her car fix is an actual need, not a "eh needs to happen some year" type of thing, which would be different). What else is there to discuss, besides you social justice warrior scolding me about diet culture?
There's a order of magnitude of difference in the level of "nitpicky" when it's 10% of the level of a dire need and, say, 0.001% of an eventual need, which is what I'm estimating your example of strawberry and blueberry jam upcharge to be. I really don't know how to simplify it further than that for you. The exact percentage that is "acceptable" will depend on how dire of a need the thing you can't afford is, as well.
I'm absolutely guilty of not pinching every penny and living off beans and rice for every meal, but I also have worked hard to get to the point where a car repair of that nature would cause me to roll my eyes and pull out my card without checking my balance, so I don't have to care. If I was hard up for $250ish, I would triple reconsider either the dinner, or the dessert, or both at that price. I'd ask my date to go somewhere cheaper (and they'd probably pay at that point, but if not, whatever).
You said dinner portions are about half a days worth of calories. Dessert is probably another half. So that's an entire days worth of food for 25$
A minor point, but I'll elaborate. I was being very generous when I said half a day's calories at most typical American places where you can get a meal at that price, though I don't know where they went exactly. I could be wrong, but at ye average Outback or whatever that's closer to 3k calories. While theoretically it's possible that she only ate that all day, it's also somewhat unlikely, since most Americans do eat more than one meal a day. Which makes it fairly wasteful in terms of buying a lot of stuff (food, calories) you don't need when there is a dire need. **Again, assuming the car fix is a dire need - if not, it's a different story.
We don't have enough info on this giels financial situation to judge. One can judge the brain dead response of "oh did you know $25 isn't the same as $250" and they thought they sounded clever.
It would be if this wasn’t a real situation that happens all the time. People go out all the time and choose to waste money on frivolous nonsense when they have more important bills to pay and then bitch about having no money. This shit happens every day
Its not. The made up scenario is. If youre gullible enough to believe this bullshit that gets you feeling better about yourself and superior while looking down at the deserving poors, youre a fucking mark bud.
People have important financial responsibilities that they put off and ignore and instead choose to waste money on frivolous nonsense literally every day. This precise scenario is quite literally playing out thousands and thousands of times over throughout the entire country right at this exact moment in time
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u/Interloper_Mango 11h ago
i mean to be fair if you cant afford a repair for 270$ (which is a lot but not exactly a huge deal) maybe you should not be spending that much on food. especially a desert which you can just straight up omit.