this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2024
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[–] Artyom@lemm.ee 122 points 2 months ago (12 children)

I literally had avocado toast today. You know what made me start? I did the math, and avocado toast costs about as much as a bowl of cereal. They've been gradually hiking the price of all the essential items like cereal and milk, but the luxury goods haven't gone up as much. There's no such thing as "cutting corners and saving up" anymore.

[–] myrrh@ttrpg.network 26 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

...well there's always rice-and-beans but with the way finance, insurance, and real estate are going these days you'll need rice-and-beans just to survive, not to save up...

[–] RogueBanana@lemmy.zip 16 points 2 months ago

What a rich guy mindset, have you tried skipping meals and save up for rent? Tip your landlords.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Costs and nutrition estimates

  • milk - $3-3.50/gallon
  • avocado - $1-1.50/ea
  • cereal - $0.10-0.20/oz @ Costco - so I guess $0.35-0.70/100g?
  • bread - $2.50/loaf, 22 slices per loaf

The internet tells me that 125ml milk to 30g cereal is the proper ratio. In freedom units, that's ~30 servings per gallon or $0.10 of milk per bowl, and 30g is a little over an ounce, so $0.10-0.20 cereal per serving, leading to about $0.20-0.30 per serving. For avocado toast, a slice is about $0.11-0.12, so avocado toast is about $0.61-0.87.

Looking at nutrition (taken from MyFitnessPal and Walmart websites):

  • 125ml whole milk - 81 calories, 5g fat, 5g protein
  • 30g honey nut cheerios - 113 calories, 2g fat, 3g protein, 2g fiber
  • 1 slice whole wheat bread - 60 calories, 1g fat, 3g protein, 1g fiber
  • 1/2 avocado - 117 calories, 11g fat, 1g protein, 5g fiber

In total for my area, for an average serving:

  • cereal - 194 calories; 7g fat, 8g protein, 2g fiber
  • avocado toast - 177 calories, 12g fat, 4g protein, 6g fiber

Normalizing for cost per calorie in my area, I get:

  • cereal (whole milk, honey nut cheerios) - $0.10-0.15/100 calories
  • avocado toast (whole wheat bread, medium sized avocado) - $0.34-0.49/100 calories

In other words, avocado toast is something like 2-5x more expensive than cereal, depending on where in that range your meal falls. If you're buying regularly priced cereal (more like $0.20-0.25) and if milk is more expensive in your area, then it's a lot more competitive, but still cheaper than avocado toast (something like half the price).

That said, neither is a particularly expensive meal, and you're not poor because you're eating avocado toast. However, if everything you do is 2-5x more expensive than alternatives, then we have an issue.

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[–] Gork@lemm.ee 61 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

We need the Rent Is Too Damn High guy to be in high political office to get this shit under control.

[–] Synthuir@lemmy.ml 25 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Eh, McMillan is a republican who endorsed Trump. We don’t need him.

[–] MisterFrog@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago

We want the legend, rather than the man, it would seem

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

good luck angering the rich real estate-owning people without a backup plan

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 months ago

At this point we need somebody who will just come out and say it: it's everyone else versus landlords.

[–] BakerBagel@midwest.social 8 points 2 months ago

Fuck them. You cant outsource an apartment building to China. Make their lives hell and if they decide being a landlord isn't worth it and sell their property at a loss then everyone is better off for it

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[–] thefartographer@lemm.ee 55 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's funny, my father-in-law repeats all the lazy and spoiled talking points about this weak younger generation. The one thing I've never heard him complain about?

Avocado toast.

Bro eats that shit every morning.

[–] jas0n@lemmy.world 34 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Ha, my boss gives me this one. "But I'm different," he says when I tell him about side project stuff like working on my house. I try to tell him.. everyone my age I know is like that. They fix their own car/house/electronics and also do some kind of side work. You know how much a contractor costs? Between friends and family, I could be a contractor tomorrow, but not because I want to be. It's out of necessity. I would love to pay someone else to install floors or do plumbing.

But yeah.. all the evidence in front of his face doesn't hold a candle to whatever Fox News tells him.

[–] orb360@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 months ago (4 children)

650$ to replace a 20$ shower handle cartridge. 500$ to spray down your AC 400$ to replace a 30$ capacitor in your AC 150$ to turn off your sprinkler system valve and blow air through it for a few minutes.

Yeah... I basically do 100% of our home maintenance myself. It's literally cents on the dollar compared to hiring it out.

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[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 33 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Ah, but Real Income is up 0.6% over the last fiscal cycle, so why are you complaining?

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[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 32 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] Asafum@feddit.nl 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Wait fucking wait wait fucking wait... That piece of shit owns real page?? I'm like 99.999% I had be reading about him giving gifts to supreme fuckbag Thomas but I don't think realpage was ever mentioned...

Ffs...

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yarp, been fucking every working class person in America for years. Yayyyy

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[–] Greyghoster@aussie.zone 29 points 2 months ago

And when Bill Shorten proposed to change the tax system to slow down speculative capital gains that are driving house prices, the people voted for Robodebt Scotty Morrison.

[–] P1nkman@lemmy.world 25 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Say it with me: Line. Must. Go. Up! - millionaires who don't give a fuck.

When do we eat ^the rich^?

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[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 24 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

My rent has gone up 3.4x in the last 14 years. 2010 I was paying roughly $800/mo for a three bedroom house, now I'm paying roughly $2700 for a smaller 3 bedroom apartment.

[–] todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee 23 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Let's do the math. At a nice brunch place, avocado toast costs $14.

To make up for the $1,500 increase in rent, you would need to eat 3-4 fancy avocado toasts per day, for an average of 107 avocado toasts per month.

Given these numbers we can assume that you exclusively eat avocado toasts at restaurants for all sustenance. This would negate the need for a grocery budget, which usually trends at about $300/month, giving you the budget for an additional 21 avocado toasts per month, for a guaranteed minimum of 4 toasts per day (128 per month).

So as long as you're consuming avocado toast below this level, it's probably not the cause of your financial issues.

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

You forgot to account for lattes, which are a critical part of the equation.

[–] Creddit@lemmy.world 19 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Have you seen the price of a decent piece of avocado toast though?

1990: "We don't do that, do that yourself at home. GTFO"

2024: Starts at $11.95 just for avocado, addons are extra

[–] bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 15 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I can get 4 avocados for $5, a loaf of good sourdough for $5, and a dozen aggs for $8. $18/week ($3/day) and I can eat a healthy breakfast of avocado toast with 2 eggs every day.

That $72/month is what's breaking the bank, not my $2500/month rent.

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[–] myrrh@ttrpg.network 19 points 2 months ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

...in `98 i was paying $500 to rent a 650sf one-bedroom apartment at $30k salary; in 2008 i was paying $750 to rent a 650sf one-bedroom apartment at $45k salary; in 2018 i was paying $1250 mortgage on a 1500sf house at $85k salary: today i pay that same $1250 mortage at $105k salary and thank god i managed to save that down payment within twenty years, before the real estate speculators completely overran my local market...

...not sure what that illustrates other than 2024 is brutally expensive relative to pay: we bought three nectarines last night for six dollars at the local discount grocer, which would have cost less than a dollar thirty years ago...

[–] WolfLink@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Where I live 2K is at the low end for a 400sf studio (I am in a big city where rent is particularly high though).

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[–] MrNobody@sh.itjust.works 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

First moved out in the early 00s, rent was anywhere 75-150/w depending. Friends had 2 room units in complex for 95/w. Not even 2 or 3 years later rents were at 200-250/w. Now those same units wont be under 400.

I know airbnb and such arent the sole reason, but when they can rent out their house where nightly prices 350+ where rents are at least 400/w they can rent the place for not even 2 months a year and get the same as if they were renting it out the traditional way. So, naturually there are less longer term rentals available, pushing prices up. We have whole towns which are tourist areas where people cant get a house to live in because of airbnb shit. I'll liikely never own my own home because im paying at least 65% of my income on rent, how the fuck can i save. Fuel, food, energy. Everything going up except wages.

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

The answer is simple, but not easy. We need to get rid of the greedy capitalist fuckers who are ruining it for the whole world. By ANY means necessary.

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 15 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Where I live, rent has almost quadrupled since 2010 while wages for many jobs have stayed pretty much the same.

[–] Aussiemandeus@aussie.zone 11 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Yeah 10 years ago a qualified tradesmen in my industry was paid average 45 an hour, now that same level of experience is about 48 an hour.

In that time the cheap bread went from 50 cents to 3 dollars.

I told my boss I would need a raise years ago when bread went to 85 cents he laughed.

I struggled like fuck as an apprentice then thought I was doing well, now days I couldn't imagine being an apprentice living on your own etc.

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[–] Fox@pawb.social 14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Median income for a single worker in the USA in 2024 is so far $59,228 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In large cities it's significantly higher. Rent and property values are definitely out control though. There wasn't nearly enough housing built after '08. I feel even worse for our neighbors to the north.

[–] mp3@lemmy.ca 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Then you have these financially obese oligarchs skirting their social responsibilities to fund the system however they legally can. Who's the freeloader now?

[–] Emmie@lemmings.world 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

My rent has doubled since the last time we met

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Even being homeless got more expensive.

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[–] OpenStars@discuss.online 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I mean... yeah? Kinda late to the party though - this has been true for a minute now...

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[–] penquin@lemm.ee 8 points 2 months ago

It's DEFINITELY the toast. Have you seen how expensive those fucking avocados have become? Holy shit, man.

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Heck mine quintupled in 6 months at the last place i rented

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