This article below got me thinking. We go to the movies about 4 times
per year for special shows, *if* I buy a card instead of making it I
buy one from the co-op or health food store, I hate jeans, I don't
drink, I use cloth diapers, I don't go toStarfucks, I don't eat Oreo's, I don't smoke, I've had two Krispy Kremes in my whole life and someone else bought those, and I don't have an iPod.
What does my family spend our money on? Other than rent, basic bills (power, phone, internet), and reinvesting in our home businesses, here's are top expenses....
1.
Food, we spend about 50-100 per week on food. $27 for our local farm
share and then another 50 or so on organic grain, raw milk, rice milk,
butter, cheese, beans, etc.
2. Gas, at 3.33 per gallon it costs me $8 for a round trip to the biggest city near us, Ukiah, which is only 14 miles away.
3. Homeschool supplies, from our local craft shop.
4 and 5 Would be Netflix and our sponsor child, Anjali, in Nepal
7. Laundry
8. Toilet paper, shampoo etc.
9. Going out to eat. Seth get's
Taco Bell regularly (BLAH!). When I'm too busy to cook I might swing by
the organic fast food place here for a Burrito about once or twice a
month.
10. Clothes and stuff at the thrift shop
NEED OR GREED ??
Daily U.S. Consumption for 12 Items
by the editors of Publications International, Ltd.
Living
in the United States has its perks. If you want to brush your teeth,
you can buy a toothbrush. If you outgrow your pants, you can shop for a
new pair. If you need a soy latte and aTwinkie, you can get those pretty easily, too.
America
is definitely "the land of plenty," and the statistics that follow
offer a glimpse of how many goods U.S. consumers use every day and how
much they spend on them. The numbers may surprise you.
Americans spend $14
billion annually on
denim pants.
1. Movie Tickets -- 3.8 million
If
the average cost of a movie is $7, Americans spend about $26.6 million
a day at movie theaters. Take that number times 365, and the industry
rakes in $9.7 billion annually, which doesn't include profits from
popcorn, soda sales, or DVDs.
2. Greeting Cards -- 19.2 million
There's
a card for every occasion -- heck, there's a card for occasions you
didn't even know existed! Between birthday, holiday, and "just because"
cards, Americans show loved ones they care by spending $7.5 billion a
year on greeting cards.
3. Denim Jeans -- 641,000 pairs
Since
Levi Strauss invented blue jeans in 1873, Americans have loved the
fashionable pants. Whether you're buying a pair of generic jeans at a
discount store or plunking down $300 for designer denim, the blue-jeans
industry is big business in the United States. Today, the average price
of a pair of jeans comes to about $60, which means Americans spend
about $38.5 million on denim pants every day, or $14 billion annually.
4. Domestic Beer Kegs -- 975,000
Where
there's a big celebration, or a bar, there are kegs of beer. Kegs of
premium beer can get into the $200 range, but we're talking about goodol
' American macro-brews. These average $60 per keg, so Americans spend
about $58.5 million on them. Consumers down around 356 million kegs per
year, which works out to more than $21 billion per year.
5. Pampers -- 300,000 packs
Pampers
has the market cornered on the needs of new parents and sells its Jumbo
pack (56 diapers) for around $13. Americans spend $3.9 million a
day -- $1.4 billion a year -- keeping baby bottoms dry.
6. Cosmetic Procedures -- 20,000
Liposuction alone boasts about 1,000 procedures a day, and Botox
injections have hit the 5,000-a-day mark. Whether you're going in for a
tummy tuck or an eye lift, you can expect to pay an average of $1,700
for an appointment with a plastic surgeon. This means that the American
cosmetic surgery industry makes about $34 million a day or $12.4
billion every year.
7. Axe Body Spray -- 28,876 cans
Priced
around $5 per can, this deodorizer for frat boys and jocks pulls in
approximately $145,000 every day. Guys are spending about $53 million a
year to smell nice -- and the ladies thank them for it.
8. Starbucks Coffee -- 153,424 pounds
The little Seattle coffee shop that could is now an internationally
recognized
trademark that rivals McDonald's when it comes to brand identification
and customer loyalty. Americans like their Starbucks so much that the
company orders around 56 million pounds of coffee beans every year.
WHAT
IF THEY ONLY ORDERED FAIR TRADE ORGANIC COFFEE ?? IMAGINE THAT '? COULD
THEY JUST STOP PUTTING THESE LIL FUCKERS ON EVERY CORNER & JUST
SETTLE ON EVERY OTHER CORNER ??
9. Oreo Cookies -- 205,000 bags
An
18-ounce package of the iconic chocolate cookie filled with vanilla
frosting is going to set a person back about $3.99. That means
Americans spend nearly $818,000 every day, or about $300 million each
year, on their belovedOreos.
10. Cigarettes -- 1.1 billion
With huge campaigns by antitobacco
activists and health organizations across the country, Americans smoke
a lot less than they did in the past. Still, the tobacco industry is a
juggernaut, selling more than 400 billion smokes a year. With the
average cost of a pack at $3.50, the U.S. spends $70 billion a year on
cigarettes.
11. Krispy Kreme Doughnuts -- 1.9 million
This statistic refers to the Original Glazed variety of Krispy Kremes, served piping hot at various spots along the daily commute. If each doughnut costs 79 cents, Krispy Kreme
businesses pull in more than $1.5 million a day on Original Glazed
doughnuts alone. That's not including crullers, jelly-filled doughnuts,
or coffee.
12. iPods -- 88,163
The iPod is essentially a
portable hard drive with headphones. Apple CEO Steve Jobs and his team
of savvy engineers revolutionized the entire music industry with theiPod. A 30-gigabyte iPod
that holds 7,500 songs and 40 hours of video costs $249. The price goes
up from there, depending on added features, or skip the video and the
price goes down. Still, on average, that's about $18 million a day and
more than $6.4 billion a year -- music to Apple's ears.
