That ad from Rent a Center for $19.95 a week tires
Last autumn I was pretty annoyed about the rubber shortage and how much more I had to spend on tires for my big jacked up truck then I had originally budgeted for with my truck getting old and rusty. To say nothing about burning up the wheel bearing in West Virginia and the strut links that needed replacing. It was big bucks but so is everything these days – especially for a truck that is going to be smashed, shredded into scrap and landfill material in a few years. Whether it’s rust, the engine or transmission failing, it’s going to garbage before long. I hate spending money on garbage but I like my big jacked up truck and new trucks are so expensive. Delays meant my truck was off the road for two weeks in December but I was able to cut a few big checks, bite the bullet and get it back on the road relatively unscathed.
I have a tendency to click on advertisements directed towards the working poor and lower middle class. So the internet assumes that I must be interested in such products and shows me more of them every day. I get constant advertisements for Amazon EBT food stamps, lifeline phone services, and HEAP heating assistance. At the same time my interest in homesteading and farming – and frugal, low consumption living reinforces the internet advertisers belief that I must be very poor. I’m a bit of a car geek – even though I’m not that bad besides my truck – but I get tons of ads for jobs in manufacturing, mechanics, truck driving and warehousing.
But when I see these ads I have to always browse through them for the fine print. Many of them are incredibly scammy, with high interest rates and fees often hidden from the unsophisticated. I’m no financial genius but certain products I know I wouldn’t want to touch with a 10 1/2 ft pole. But on the other hand, for some people, these expensive fee-laden products might be their best choice compared to the alternative. Renting tires might be a good alternative to loosing your job as you need a car to get to a job in the suburban office park. Often being poor and having no money can be very expensive. It’s often much cheaper to buy with cash, shop at the big box store or even own a car for many trips then take a taxi. And heck, the banks don’t charge me for money, they pay me for the privilege of holding my money for me.
Now that I make a good middle class income, I often get looked down at for my working class tastes and my choices not to live a higher consumption lifestyle. I’ve had the same run down apartment since college. I don’t have parking at work, even though I could have a spot in nice garage in a premium indoor garage if I wanted. I take the bus to work every day, I don’t have internet or television at home except for my phone. I do watch YouTube but usually it’s things like videos about farming, the woods, off grid living or sometimes technical topics like programming or building electronics at home. I keep my heat at 50 degrees except in very cold weather and don’t have air conditioning. I shop at Walmart for food, clothing and basic supplies. I like how Walmart is one stop shopping and often has good prices on basic and bulk goods. I prefer camping in the woods where I can have a fire and drink cheap beer to any fancy vacation. And I really avoid buying stuff if I can avoid it.
So much of this world these days is about high consumption and throwing away as much possible. If you don’t buy a lot of stuff and throw a lot away, you must be severely impoverished. The only way to be green after all is buy greenie branded electric cars, fancy bamboo tooth brushes, compost boxes and solar panels, not to consume less. Even though solar panels are made out of toxic materials. Living simple less stuff just isn’t considered green – just impoverished. But some day, hopefully not that many years in the future – I’ll have my own land. I’ll be able to heat with wood, make my own electricity, manage my own trash, raise livestock and produce my some of my own food. Not waste my money on compost boxes but feed food scraps to pigs and chickens or mix in with the manure to actually make the land grow food. Be actually closer to the land that I hunt and farm and not just spending my hard earned money pretending to be a greeny by buying the latest in disposable green products to soon be buried in a landfill.
As they say, we already know what the next recession will look like. Flooding the market with crappy junk people don’t need and can’t afford but are deceived by the easy-payments of Buy Now, Pay Later. Stuff that people will later on have to pay for get rid later on. Things often with little value, often with most of the value used up shortly after the product is delivered, and before it’s paid off. Stuff folks can’t afford and won’t be able to pay back. It just makes me sick.
I have never liked consumer credit for any purpose. If you can’t afford it now, then you shouldn’t go out and buy it. Instead, you should save money, put it away until you have the money to buy it. Don’t take advantage of zero percent financing, but instead take advantage of the interest you can get from FDIC-insured savings accounts, especially the higher-interest online accounts. And when you take your time, you can reconsider how essential the purpose really is.
There are a lot of people out there who are legitimately poor. I get it, I grew up that way too. But I also have always rejected credit — if I can’t afford something, I won’t buy it. If there is something I really want, then I will wait until I have enough money saved up to buy it. Time to consider the product more carefully before purchasing. And I have always learned to live with less, even if at times it’s less comfortable.
I have to think about how much black smoke and how smelly most of that junk would be once it’s used up and you toss it in a fire to get rid of it! The best thing to do for your own life is to spend less money and invest more.
If you've shopped online recently, you may have had this experience: You find an item, add it to your cart, and then when you get around to paying, the price has increased.
You can thank pricing algorithms.
These are computer programs that look at factors such as supply, demand and the prices competitors are charging, and then adjust the price in real time. Now, there are calls for greater regulation at a time when these tactics are expected to become more common.
You're buying the package, you're buying the dream. You pay for the ads, on the television screen. They sell you a story, They sell you a mood, but what they don't deliver is food.
