Americans outside the wealthiest 20% of the country have run out of extra savings and now have less cash on hand than they did when the pandemic began, according to the latest Federal Reserve study of household finances.
How did people not lose money during the pandemic, besides being stupid rich? The one piddly payment and unemployment I got from being laid off was way less than my normal earnings, so the cost to survive had to eat into savings and go onto credit cards. I still haven't recovered.
Personally, working from home provided huge cost savings. I was also able to drop my personal phone to a bare minimum since I was always home and on wifi.
Spending less than you earn isn’t a realistic prospect for A LOT of people. In many areas the cost of living has increased so dramatically that even those pinching pennies, eating simple cheap meals like chicken and rice every night are feeling it. The inflation numbers being distributed by the government are at this point, a straight up fabrication, with no relation to how the economy is actually functioning. In terms of actual costs real people are paying, things have doubled or tripled in cost across the board since 2020 at the grocery store, not to mention how outrageous rent has become. Unless you are also doubling or tripling your income every few years, it’s easy to see where all that money is going.