Guitar Gear Forum

Dave wrote:

Pepi wrote:I don't see how you younger guys are even making it My wife went to the local grocery and spent 30 bucks on one bag. Almost 10 bucks for a bottle of apple cider vinegar and it wasn't a gal either LOL Jezzbus

By trying?

The kids I see crying about shit these days have no idea what a budget is.

Every critique of their spending is met with smug bullshit like "a $9 cup of coffee isn't why I'm poor", "a new iPhone isn't a luxury", "I use grubhub to deliver my fast food because I don't have time to get it myself", "I just bought festival tickets YOLO"

I reviewed a 20 somethings financials the other day and it was straight absurd. Over $1500 in ridiculous dumb wasteful spending, and the girl was indignant to any sort of change. She sure bitched a lot about how everything is unaffordable. Never mind her new car payment, $600/month on UberEats, $150/month cell phone bill, every other day Sbux... Claimed going to the grocery store was more wasteful, justified her new car with dumb excuses, etc.

I have no sympathy. Maybe don't sign up for $140k in student loans to go fuck off at a bullshit university for 4 years to wind up with a useless generic degree.

A lot of this is true but its not the whole picture. I make what is supposed to be a decent amount of money annually but still find it pretty tight now with the substantial increase in essential expenses. I'm also not exactly crying but it does kind of suck to see... Yeah I'm still in So Cal too so I'm probably an idiot or whatever the spike in costs has been absurd to see.

Of course the… inflation… is hard to stomach but it was pretty obvious this is the direction things were headed starting in late 2020.

This is why it was smart to begin cutting expenses a while back and just manage the increases as they came. From my experience, I saw a lot of people start living beyond their means when the economy was artificially inflated, and now reality has returned. Hardly anyone saved and a lot of dumb purchases were made.

I certainly don’t have sympathy for those that voted for this mess.

I do look forward to seeing more and more gear/car/gun/whatever sales as people run out of resources and have to start fire selling their hobby items.

Agree on all points. And I’m definitely gonna be there to scoop up the gear and motorcycles and stuff when all the greedy morons figure out they actually poor

Holy-diver wrote:Agree on all points. And I’m definitely gonna be there to scoop up the gear and motorcycles and stuff when all the greedy morons figure out they actually poor

Already been doing that here lol. This "recession" has lots of dummies fire-saling around here. I've been at it for a bit now, and have done a few nice flips.

-bought a "non-running" 4 wheeler for $600, and did minor repair, sold for $3500
-bought a "non-running" jet ski for $150, rebuilt the carbs and sold for $2000
-bought a "non-running" fishing boat for $600, put a new battery in it, changed the oil, and sold for $1800
-bought an "undriveable" '07 honda civic for $400, redid the brakes, recharged the A/C, and sold for $4500
-bought an "non-running" '07 KX250F dirt bike for $900, replaced the stator and detailed it, selling for $2800
-bought a pontoon boat, lift, and trailer for $3000. Already presold the motor alone on it for $2500. Putting an older motor on it, and selling the lift, trailer, and boat separately.... will likely come out about $3000 up.




Going to pick up a "non-working" camper for $150 today with a broken lift cable ($100) planning to fix and sell for $2000.


Fix and flips are a fun hobby if you're handy. Most of the great deals are in "toys" like snowmobiles, dirt bikes, jet skis, and campers. Stuff that dummies buy, and immediately sell when they need money and don't know how to fix things. Most projects I take on are less that 1 day's work. Facebook Marketplace is a goldmine.

Agreed


Helping the Nuevo rich return to reality is one of my favorite hobbies lol

Loop Bizkit wrote:

Holy-diver wrote:Agree on all points. And I’m definitely gonna be there to scoop up the gear and motorcycles and stuff when all the greedy morons figure out they actually poor

Already been doing that here lol. This "recession" has lots of dummies fire-saling around here. I've been at it for a bit now, and have done a few nice flips.

-bought a "non-running" 4 wheeler for $600, and did minor repair, sold for $3500
-bought a "non-running" jet ski for $150, rebuilt the carbs and sold for $2000
-bought a "non-running" fishing boat for $600, put a new battery in it, changed the oil, and sold for $1800
-bought an "undriveable" '07 honda civic for $400, redid the brakes, recharged the A/C, and sold for $4500
-bought an "non-running" '07 KX250F dirt bike for $900, replaced the stator and detailed it, selling for $2800
-bought a pontoon boat, lift, and trailer for $3000. Already presold the motor alone on it for $2500. Putting an older motor on it, and selling the lift, trailer, and boat separately.... will likely come out about $3000 up.




Going to pick up a "non-working" camper for $150 today with a broken lift cable ($100) planning to fix and sell for $2000.


Fix and flips are a fun hobby if you're handy. Most of the great deals are in "toys" like snowmobiles, dirt bikes, jet skis, and campers. Stuff that dummies buy, and immediately sell when they need money and don't know how to fix things. Most projects I take on are less that 1 day's work. Facebook Marketplace is a goldmine.

I have been helping people sell large lots of music gear. Even helped clear out an entire storage unit. Takes me minimal effort and I keep 20%. Lately it has been middle aged men downsizing and moving somewhere cheaper.

Real estate and housing are the real killers around here. My own house is valued at $1.3 million (crazy) and we owe about 40% of that after only 8 years.

The wife and I are about to start whittling down our student loan debt. We have a plan, but man, buckling down sucks.

linthat22 wrote:The wife and I are about to start whittling down our student loan debt. We have a plan, but man, buckling down sucks.

I gotta really get back on that. I paid through most of the payment pause and knocked one loan out and another down, but the last few months I haven’t. Took advantage of not having to pay for the summer. My payment amount is small enough I can comfortably put more on to knock out principal. I also got a promotion at work so I make substantially more than I used to. So I’ll just start doing that again.

Holy-diver wrote:

Dave wrote:

Pepi wrote:I don't see how you younger guys are even making it My wife went to the local grocery and spent 30 bucks on one bag. Almost 10 bucks for a bottle of apple cider vinegar and it wasn't a gal either LOL Jezzbus

By trying?

The kids I see crying about shit these days have no idea what a budget is.

Every critique of their spending is met with smug bullshit like "a $9 cup of coffee isn't why I'm poor", "a new iPhone isn't a luxury", "I use grubhub to deliver my fast food because I don't have time to get it myself", "I just bought festival tickets YOLO"

I reviewed a 20 somethings financials the other day and it was straight absurd. Over $1500 in ridiculous dumb wasteful spending, and the girl was indignant to any sort of change. She sure bitched a lot about how everything is unaffordable. Never mind her new car payment, $600/month on UberEats, $150/month cell phone bill, every other day Sbux... Claimed going to the grocery store was more wasteful, justified her new car with dumb excuses, etc.

I have no sympathy. Maybe don't sign up for $140k in student loans to go fuck off at a bullshit university for 4 years to wind up with a useless generic degree.

A lot of this is true but its not the whole picture. I make what is supposed to be a decent amount of money annually but still find it pretty tight now with the substantial increase in essential expenses. I'm also not exactly crying but it does kind of suck to see... Yeah I'm still in So Cal too so I'm probably an idiot or whatever the spike in costs has been absurd to see.

I'm with you. I make a decent salary but definitely still feels tight. Cost of living increases in Colorado have just been a non stop sky rocket to insanity my entire adult life with no real sign of stopping. Rents have no joke increased 3-4x in the last 12 years and home prices aren't much better. Good luck finding much more than a dilapidated shack anywhere in the front range for less than half a mil. Is what it is tho

Dave wrote:Of course the… inflation… is hard to stomach but it was pretty obvious this is the direction things were headed starting in late 2020.

This is why it was smart to begin cutting expenses a while back and just manage the increases as they came. From my experience, I saw a lot of people start living beyond their means when the economy was artificially inflated, and now reality has returned. Hardly anyone saved and a lot of dumb purchases were made.

I certainly don’t have sympathy for those that voted for this mess.

I do look forward to seeing more and more gear/car/gun/whatever sales as people run out of resources and have to start fire selling their hobby items.

I remember one year before Covid we decided to pay off our credit card (over $24k on it) and we did it, then we took that money and put it towards our only car payment.

So glad we got those gone, because man, if we hadn't groceries would be a tad tighter. Went today and spent $225 for a weeks worth of meals for a family of 3. Definitely isn't that $100 we budgeted for when we first moved out in 2000. Crazy.

idk we spend so much money going out to eat that $225 for a weeks worth of meals for the family sounds like a slammin bargain.

But a lot of the posts I've seen about groceries being expensive are kinda misleading.

This shit is dumb:



Garbage Kind bars, 18 mini bags of garbage chips, a single pound of beef, etc


This is the worst way to grocery shop, and if people can't understand bulk purchasing then they deserve the sadness they're experiencing.

Always got into fights with my ex about grocery shopping methods. I can go to the store with $300 and for the most part feed us full meals for a month, if she took the same shed come back with like a few days worth of juice and snack cakes



Even so, cost of basic staples at the grocery store is still way up

spawnofthesith wrote:Always got into fights with my ex about grocery shopping methods. I can go to the store with $300 and for the most part feed us full meals for a month, if she took the same shed come back with like a few days worth of juice and snack cakes



Even so, cost of basic staples at the grocery store is still way up

This is the mentality I'm talking about. I agree prices are up, but the people I see whining the most about it are also the people that waste money on the dumbest shit.

Dave wrote:idk we spend so much money going out to eat that $225 for a weeks worth of meals for the family sounds like a slammin bargain.

But a lot of the posts I've seen about groceries being expensive are kinda misleading.

This shit is dumb:



Garbage Kind bars, 18 mini bags of garbage chips, a single pound of beef, etc


This is the worst way to grocery shop, and if people can't understand bulk purchasing then they deserve the sadness they're experiencing.

Jesus Christ, how can full blown adults be this fucking clueless? I can buy 3x more groceries with 100 bucks.

So his man-baby chips were expensive? You don't say.

I buy Doritos and shit at Sam's Club and parse them out in to school lunch portions in zip lock bags.

I have no qualms spending money for quality, but I'm not about wasting money on laziness.

Yeah I use Costco but it's the same idea.

I could buy like 120lbs of rice for $100.