No. of Recommendations: 2
Patterns of spending are changing.
People are posting about here and on other social media.
Restaurants and even fast food places are too dang expensive.
People are and will be cooking at home more often in the aggregate.
Health insurance went up an average of 26% for 2026. That's not discretionary for most people.
If you have to pay $500-1000 (maybe more) per month for health insurance coverage for your family, that's directly coming out of some other part of the budget.
Health insurance is an intangible non physical "good." So you cut back on unnecessaries like all of the convenience food items that are highly profitable for the manufacturers and stores but cost the consumer a lot of money and have a negative nutritional value.
Things like junk food, sodas, chips, candy, ice cream, alcohol, convenience foods--all of that crap is completely unnecessary to good health and nutrition, overpriced, and if need be can be cut out of the family budget. Bluntly, all anyone really needs as a beverage is water. (I mean I gotta have my coffee/tea for sure but I don't need it to survive.)
That's just one example.
