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Out of Reach: 15 Everyday Items the Middle Class Can’t Afford Anymore 

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With each passing day, billion-dollar spending bills passed, and the dollar deflated, the middle class feels more like the lower class. This effect has led the “middle class” to make hard decisions, including what is no longer affordable.

Last year’s “everyday item” has become today’s luxury. If you feel you fall between the lower class and the white-collar class, you’ve undoubtedly noticed that some items have leaped by leaps and bounds from their original value. 

When faced with the ever-rising cost of these once-affordable items, consider whether they are essentials or wants. If they fall in the latter category, they may be one of the first items you excise from next month’s budget.

1. Children

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We firmly believe that those who want children should have them. There is ample anecdotal proof that a child can be the greatest motivator to earn the kind of living you didn’t know was possible.

That being said, there is convincing evidence that people are prolonging and abandoning their dreams of kids because of economic constraints. It’s increasingly difficult to blame these adults as their living costs rise indefinitely.

2. Homes

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The term “middle class” used to be synonymous with “home ownership.” Having a stable (if not lucrative) job provided entry to the homeownership ladder—no longer.

The numbers just don’t add up. A median household income of $74,580 in 2022 compared unfavorably with a median listing price of $410,00. Banks and would-be homeowners themselves see that home ownership constitutes an unsustainable financial proposition in 2024.

3.  New Cars

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A Chevrolet Bel-Air cost $1,987 in 1955. The current price of the same vehicle would be nearly $50,000. 

The inflation of the cost of motor vehicles has officially hit the middle class. You will find plenty of people willing to take on 20% interest rates for a new vehicle, but prudent middle-class occupants will not mortgage their future for a Kia. Most are scoffing at new car prices and sticking with their beaters.

4. Insurance

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Policyholders and potential policyholders have had to break out the calculators lately. Does the annual cost of premiums justify the benefits that insurance would provide? For many in the middle class, the answer is a resounding “no.”

For many, auto insurance is not optional, as is home insurance and health insurance. In 2017, the middle class began abandoning certain types of insurance due to higher costs and worse coverage, and that trend has only continued as the value of insurance has diminished.

5.  Childcare

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As of 2021, 60% of parents said childcare was a financial stressor. It’s fair to assume the middle class accounted for a significant portion of that percentage, and hiring a babysitter or enrolling in daycare has become no less affordable.

They say it takes a village to raise a child, and it is apparently charging a per-hour premium. 

6. College

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Colleges have paid attention to a marked decline in middle-class students. Who knew Georgetown would be so concerned with high schoolers raised in Chevy’s and Ford’s?

College enrollment dropped 13% in the handful of years before 2022, and rising living costs have only made would-be collegians look harder at alternative paths to well-paying careers. High tuition has turned into the middle-class quittin’…their collegiate dreams.

7. Leisure

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When paychecks are shrinking due to inflation, who has time (or money) for Disneyland or the Bahamas? Not the middle class, that’s for certain.

After a post-pandemic vacation boom, Americans once again cut back on vacations in the summer of 2023. Even paid time off feels better spent driving for Uber or blogging for money rather than engaging in leisure. This is the soul-crushing reality the perpetrators of inflationary policy impose upon those who badly need a break.

8. Transportation

Public Transportation
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There is always a predatory vehicle dealer ready to take rights to your firstborn in exchange for a new car. However, debt-averse Americans have scoffed at the average vehicle price of $40,184.

While Kias and Toyotas remain somewhat attainable, brands like Tesla, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW have gone from vehicles an upper-middle-class USAmerican might drive to vehicles relegated to the upper classes.

9. Organic Food

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Many middle-class Americans are willing to spend the extra several dollars for organic tomatoes and olive oil in the name of their long-term health. The organic food boom of 2020 proved this truth, but even the most health-conscious middle-classers are finding healthy eating to be untenable.

As a constant reel of X videos notes the dangers of non-organic perishables, the cost of organic fruits and vegetables rose by more than 13% between 2022 and 2023. The price of organic strawberries more than tripled during that time. 

10. Gas

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The open road used to be a refuge for stressed-out, wanderlusting Americans. Now, it is yet another reminder of the ceaseless rise in the cost of living.

With the petrol price sitting around $3.70 per gallon and constantly threatening to rise higher, 40% of Americans have said they’ve cut back on driving to pinch pennies. That Sunday drive has become a Sunday sit-at-home, which is downright depressing.

11. Home Decor

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Have you noticed your living room walls looking conspicuously barren? Sick of those five-year-old drapes that become ever more outdated by the week? Tough luck because home decor has become one of the first cuts in an inflation-riddled economy. 

When essentials like groceries and insurance are hardly affordable, a new rug is impossible to categorize as anything but a luxury. Consider that we’re in a civilized country that used to be defined by prosperity for almost everyone. A rug being a luxury is a pointed indictment of those tasked with fiscal policy.

12. Active Entertainment

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2024 has shown acute signals that Americans are tightening the belt. Once a middle-class person might go to the movies, hit the arcade, zipline, or engage in other forms of active entertainment, they’ve abandoned such activities in droves.

Reading books already on hand, watching streaming services you’ve already paid for, and even staring at the wall have become far more affordable alternatives to paying others for entertaining experiences. 

13. Furniture

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Retail spending is down almost across the board, but furniture stores saw a particularly marked decline in sales in 2023

Furniture tends to be a large purchase and is often a luxury purchase meant to spruce up a room or replace an item one has grown tired of. Most US Americans lack the financial wherewithal for either large or luxury purchases, so I guess that metal folding chair will have to do for now. 

14. Self Care

Junk Food
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How important is personal appearance, really? 

This is a question middle-class Americans have had to ponder long and hard as insurance payments swell, rent climbs and climbs, and groceries that once cost three dollars now cost nine. It’s only expected that Americans would go longer without haircuts, do their nails at home, and generally neglect themselves when money is tight.

15. Shoes

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Nike is among the many retailers hit by declining consumer spending. While Nike does not only sell shoes, footwear constitutes a significant portion of the company’s consumer-driven revenues.

Collecting Air Jordans or even replacing beat-up New Balances can seem unreasonable when more pressing financial concerns arise. Worn tread and frayed laces have become signs of frugality at a time when frugality is not an option but an imperative. 

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Gas
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Summer means travel, and all those cars, trucks, SUVs, cargo haulers, and other vehicles on the road plow through gasoline like water. In 2021, Americans spent an average of $2,148 on gasoline, and with inflation hitting in 2022, that number has only risen.  Thankfully, the summer months this year are bringing a bit of relief at the pump for travel-weary road warriors.

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Millennial
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Each generation has its share of likes and dislikes, which impact their shopping habits. Millennials are no different. As consumers, they have collectively rejected numerous things that appeal to other generational groups, especially Generation X and baby boomers. 

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