Why Avoiding Fancy Coffee Doesn’t Fix Your Budget

It’s easy to place the blame of tight budgets on the individual and their personal moral failings. It’s certainly easier than pointing out the systematic problem that leads to an epidemic of tight budgets. Even if someone was to cut out all their personal and self-indulgent expenses, it wouldn’t solve the problem of high rent, expensive insurance, and low paying jobs. Cutting out indulgences is a scapegoat for the real problem.

Needing Systematic Solutions

When an issue stems from high fixed costs and low income, it can feel reasonable and logical to look at a budget and tinker with it until it’s considered “fixed.” However, if a full-time job isn’t enough to pay for basic amenities, especially when those amenities have become increasingly expensive, ignoring the small pleasures of life isn’t going to fix things in the long run.

What Happens When There’s Nothing Left to Trim

Consider this scenario: you’re unable to pay rent this month because your landlord has increased your rent in compliance with local and state laws regarding rent hikes. Your budget starts to get tight and you’re unable to save as much as before. Time to find things to cut back on. Maybe there’s a few subscriptions you don’t need anymore, and you can probably stop buying the kind of dessert you like. You’re not really contributing the same amount to your savings, but it’s not as bad as it could be. Then your car breaks down, and it’s an expense to either fix your car or get a bus pass. As the cost of living continues to get higher and wages stay the same, the method of cutting back may not be enough.

Indulgences as a Scapegoat

The problem the majority of retail and service employees face isn’t one of self-control. The problem is too big to be solved by individual choices. Though workers can keep cutting back, it doesn’t fix the larger picture at hand. In fact, it could prove to hurt the economy when the majority of workers are forced to only purchase the bare necessities. Many businesses rely on customers to want to buy their services and products, from fancy coffee to movie tickets to streaming subscriptions.

Why Coffee Was Never the Problem

To permanently fix your budget, you need to address the root of the problem — securing higher wages and beefing up an emergency fund as much as possible. After all, if cutting out fancy coffee fixes your budget, did you really have a budget problem to begin with?