"I don't know what, they want from me
It's like the more money we come across
The more problems we see" -- Notorious B.I.G
The biggest concern our generation and our parents generation right now is the economic struggle to just survive. The cash that used to flow isn't coming out as smooth as it used to. Right now it's sputtering and getting worse -- the cheapness of the past is gone and on it's way is a more expensive and a broke lifestyle. What was once middle class where you could actually have a social life and put money away for a rainy day now means having to get on your knees and scrape for change to pay the minimum balance on a credit card bill.
Let's be honest: It costs to be cool -- everything is expensive and if we want to do anything aside from sit home on a Saturday Night with a bag of cheese curls and Netflix, we either have to use our credit cards and rack up a huge bill or finagle a loan from someone (our parents usually which is more painful than going to a loan shark because they don't charge as much interest and don't use guilt as an added bonus). When you think about it, there is really no such thing as freebies anymore, except for going to the bookstore and sitting on the floor reading, but eventually we won't be able to do that once bookstores going official out of business.
Even a simple trip to the movies is a 50 buck deal -- if you don't hit the grocery store for sneak-in snacks, the only way to actually get your money's worth in the movies is to theater jump which is seeing two for the price of one movies which is, someone would say, the equivalent of stealing, but I think 11 bucks for a cheaply made film that I can buy on iTunes a few hours later is a bit of a rip-off.
Looking for a decent job that doesn't involve pushing fries is nearly impossible especially when you've been forced to take a major medical sabbatical and when you try to explain a chronic illness, you feel a little bit like a Typhoid Mary, spreading plaque with every breath you take. It's a constant feeling like your never going to get to a level where you'll regain the independence you lost.
It's a funny thing: When you're a kid, you think you'll get everything you ever wanted because you'll be an adult and have access to all this money because you naturally assume you'll either win the lottery or became this major executive with your dream company -- we don't really know how life quickly spins out of control and how costly everything is.
JLO once said "Love don't cost a thing," but she must have been kidding herself because in the end, all that matters is the dollar amount. Everyone is after something and it's amazing the standards people are willing to go to.
I'm a huge concert buff. Last year, I went to nearly a dozen, but this year, it won't be nearly as much because the tickets are so high and parking is even more ridiculous so I have manage to find entertainment that is cheap and I mean free -- which is nearly impossible when you live 20 minutes outside a major city where all the action happens.
What are some of the things that you are being frugal about? Is there something you had to give up that meant the world to you?