Editor's introduction: At the end of the year, the major platforms have launched annual summary reports, and among them, the annual bills are particularly eye-catching, these figures bring together the eating and wearing of migrant workers in a year, some people can't help but sigh, where did my money go? The author of this article introduces some real stories about annual bills that may resonate with you, so let's take a look.
"Shocking", "incredible", at the end of 2021, Alipay, bank, takeaway annual bills have been launched, workers after reading the bills are not calm, have asked themselves: "Where did I get so much money", "Where did my money go?" ”
On social platforms, in addition to posting annual bills, many workers began to watch others earn more, bury themselves and spend more, shout that the money earned can not be taken home, and silently set up a Flag of open source and cost-effective consumption.
Today, five workers from first- and second-tier cities chatted about the fragments of their lives hidden in their annual bills.
- Some of them have become "takeaway kings" and are ashamed to "eat" a large part of their income;
- Some people lament that the cost of eating a blind date is too large, and they begin to carefully screen the target;
- Some people are addicted to chasing stars to buy around and enjoy it;
- Someone indulges in material desires that lead to inability to make ends meet;
- There are also people who hoard health care products while beauty and fitness, while staying up late and working overtime to injure the body.
In the matter of consumption, there have always been people who continue to be deeply immersed in the pleasure brought by consumerism, and some people silently consume and downgrade, and tighten their pockets. The annual bill is not only a sense of ritual in life, but also to a certain extent, it can also remind more people to review and sort out past consumption and plan for the future. In fact, as long as you live within your means and have a good idea, there is no distinction between high and low consumption concepts, and enjoying the present and preparing for the rain are all attitudes to life. Here's their story.
One, 1 year ordered 440 takeaways, did not save money but could not stop eating
Little Coke | 28 years old spends 220,000 film and television industry practitioners
My WeChat annual bill shows that 133,000 was spent in 2021, and Alipay showed spending 90,000, adding up to 220,000, although this data is not completely accurate, not counting the income that I paid some money in advance, and then transferred to me, but in general, I spent nearly 200,000 this year, and my annual income is 150,000.
I didn't save money in 2021, and apart from spending on rent, the most I spent was "eating". I have no cooking habits, mainly by ordering takeaways, and I usually like to go out with friends to eat hot pot and kebabs. On the Meituan takeaway bill, I placed a total of 440 orders in 2021, spending a total of 28,000 yuan, an average of 63 yuan. In addition, I usually eat in the store, and in terms of eating, I have spent more than 50,000.
Ordered 440 takeaways a year from sources / cokes provided
I am a very food lover, I can buy clothes without spending money, but I have to eat. Others may be full 3 meals a day, and I often order 4 takeaways a day. I also love to eat fruit, cherry, strawberries are already very expensive, encountered fruit prices increased, resulting in me spending more. Hot pot, barbecue and other expenses, not to mention.
Take the first month of 2021, I spent 20,000, more than 7,000 is rent, and the rest is related to eating, such as going to Haidilao for 480 yuan, eating Korean barbecue costing 300 yuan. I also regret eating too much, and sometimes when I see something, I want to eat it immediately, which is more like the satisfaction of desire.
Once, I saw an advertisement for a small salted fish, the host of which ate so deliciously, I immediately ordered a takeaway of small salted fish, and also bought some dried apricots and raisins, which I ate all the time that day, and the next day because I ate too much, I really wanted to hammer myself.
The most meaningful and most humiliating sum of money spent in 2021 is to transfer more than 30,000 yuan to my mother. At that time, her business needed money and asked me to borrow it. The funds I could use in my hand were thirty or forty thousand, and basically all of them were transferred to her. My first reaction at the time was shame. I was thinking, oh my God, I've worked for so long, how can I only give her more than 30,000 when she needs it, and reflect on how much I usually spend. After this incident, I had the idea of continuing to save money.
There is a daily check-in on the takeaway platform that can receive rice grains, the rice grains accumulate to more than 700, you can exchange 30 minus 5 coupons, I now sign in every day, which is something I could not have done before. Sometimes brushing watercress, little red books, and frequently seeing everyone say that 28 years old has hundreds of thousands of savings, I will reflect on myself. But I still can't live a minimalist life like a lot of people do. These hard expenses such as food, clothing, housing and transportation are difficult to save in first-tier cities. In my concept of consumption, I still don't want to treat myself badly.
In 2022, since it is difficult to reduce expenditure, I plan to open source and do some side business, hoping to go smoothly.
Second, the cost of blind dates is too large, I choose to filter the conditions and then make an appointment
Ge Xiaotai | 26 years old spends 120,000 algorithm engineers a year
I am a programmer, and last year WeChat Pay plus Alipay accumulated more than 120,000 yuan, accounting for one-fifth of my income.
This cost to me, compared to other friends and colleagues is not much. My annual expenses are still covered by basic food, clothing, and housing, of which rent accounts for the majority. I can get a Beijing hukou in the middle of next year, and I am planning to buy a house in two years, and now I only rent a small room with 3,000 yuan per month around the company, a total of 36,000 yuan a year. I'm single now, so I'll live alone.
Spend less on eating. Breakfast and lunch can be eaten in the company canteen, dinner will basically stay in the company, on weekends will order takeaway and buy some fruits, snacks, etc. Daily meals cost less than 20,000. However, after breaking up with my girlfriend in July last year, I felt a crisis in marriage and love, and throughout the second half of the year, I began to frequently date others, with additional expenses of about 10,000 yuan.
At first, if it was a peer introduced by friends and colleagues, I would generally invite guests to dinner, and if we could talk, I could go to a movie, and it cost at least 350 yuan on a date. However, after a few encounters, and most people did not have the following.
Later, I began to summarize the rules, and before the appointment, I would screen the portraits. My standard is that if a girl is a happy middle-class family in a second-tier city or above, it is best to have an only child, with a degree of 211 or above, an income of not less than 60% of mine, an age of 96 years, a height of 165+ centimeters, and a weight of no more than 60 kilograms. If this standard is met, I will make an appointment to see if it is possible.
However, some girls have a particular bright spot in some conditions, and I will relax the conditions. Once, I met a primary school teacher on a blind date social network, their family can buy a house in Beijing, there are many properties in second-tier cities, and after a few days of chatting, I still asked her out.
However, after meeting, I found that the girl was fat and was not interesting to talk. At that time, I only ordered fried sauce noodles, and the two of them plus the transportation cost less than 150 yuan, and I felt that the other party was not dissatisfied. Because there are many people in the photo, the cumulative cost is not a lot, I uphold the principle of "saving if you can save".
Sometimes, the other party will take the initiative to choose a restaurant, and the consumption is a bit uncontrollable. Last Christmas, I asked out a girl, she said she was going to eat Japanese food, and it cost 500 yuan for a meal.
To be honest, I think it's a bit expensive, but her family conditions are good, and people are very beautiful. I decided to wait and see, and if I couldn't talk later, I would find a chance for her to invite guests to eat a meal and come back.
I don't like to travel, I don't have any hobbies to spend money, every amount of money I spend is still relatively large, and the overall consumption is under my control. In 2022, I will mainly make money, will do some side business, and now the environment is not good, in addition to the necessities of life, I will not buy consumables.
Third, the expenditure is higher than the salary, and in 2022, we will begin to control materialism
Zhang Tianze | 38 years old spent 770,000 yuan a year in the film and television industry practitioners
I rarely use WeChat Pay, the main two payment tools are bank cards and Alipay. Looking at the annual bill in 2021, the total expenditure of bank cards exceeded 580,000, and the expenditure of Alipay was nearly 190,000. The moment I saw the annual bill, I was shocked, I didn't expect the total expenditure of the year to be so high, higher than my salary income in 2021.
Annual expenditure of 770,000 sources / Provided by Zhang Tianze
In the past two years, I really haven't particularly controlled my material desires, neither wronged myself, but also tried to meet the needs of my family as much as possible.
For example, eye creams, lipstick, these skin care products, cosmetics, etc., I basically want to take it, and I have a lot of hoards at home. Two kids who got good grades in exams or were in a bad mood would take them out to eat and buy something to relax.
Looking at the expenditure on the bill, the food and beverage consumption is the most, and the bank card and Alipay add up to 106,000, in addition to often taking the family out to eat, which also includes inviting customers to dinner. Secondly, it is online shopping, buying daily necessities, cosmetics, etc., the two children's snacks, clothes, and daily necessities for pets at home, which cannot be broken.
In addition to what can be seen on the bill, I have the impression that in 2021, I also enrolled two children in interest classes, adding up to sixty or seventy thousand. I estimate that it costs at least $5,000 a month to go out and buy clothes, shoes, toys, etc. for my children. In 2021, one of my most regrettable expenses is to get a fitness card and buy a personal training class, which cost about 40,000 or 50,000 yuan, but after buying a class with a card, the number of times to go to the gym is not frequent.
Before the epidemic, our family traveled abroad every year, spending 200,000-300,000 yuan each time, which was equivalent to saving this money in these two years. However, the total annual expenditure has not been reduced by this large reduction. But money is getting harder and harder to earn. I've been working in sales since I graduated, almost 20 years.
In the middle of this, I went abroad to study and bought two apartments after returning home, all of which I earned by myself. I earned more in previous years, but the credit cards in the first few months of 2021 were not paid off with income, but with deposits. My insecurity about money has been growing recently.
Moreover, our boss will go to junior high school in 2022, and the cost of our family will only get higher and higher. Therefore, in 2022, I will also look at my own expenses and put the matter of saving money on the agenda.
In order to save money, I also read some minimalist-related books, and I felt more and more that material desires would "destroy people", originally to improve the comfort of life, but in the end I spent all the money, but I may be crushed by society.
I also talked to my friends about how they saved money, and found that some of them earned more than 10,000 yuan a month and could still have a certain balance every year. I think it is still very necessary to throttle, and I also told my children that in 2022, we should try to control and buy less clothes and shoes.
Fourth, chasing the stars to buy dolls, I bought "503 pounds of cotton" a year
Niko | 25 years old Annual cotton doll consumption of 4530 yuan Media industry practitioners
I began to chase stars in 2019, entered the "peripheral pit" in 2020, and bought babies throughout 2021. Cotton dolls (a kind of star derivative peripheral, generally there will be a star more obvious facial features) are basically sold in the micro store, at the end of the year the micro store generated a "2021 my cotton record", showing that I spent 4530.97 yuan, 79 dolls / doll clothes back home, equivalent to 503 pounds of cotton.
Bought 79 dolls/dolls in a year source /courtesy of Niko
My doll consumption is average in the circle, and everyone is basically this number. Less than 5,000 yuan a year, equivalent to about 400 yuan a month.
I have a friend whose cotton bills are in the tens of thousands in 2021. I didn't deliberately count how many dolls I had, because the dolls were still circulating in my hands, and I would sell them on idle fish if I wasn't interested in playing. About 80 were bought in total, 10 were sold, 30 or so were left in the family, and there were still 30 or so on the road.
In December 2021 alone, I bought 9. Dolls are available in 10cm, 15cm, 20cm and 40cm, and I will buy several sizes for some dolls. The price of a single doll is between 51-65 yuan, and a set of doll clothes ranges from 30 yuan to 128 yuan, and sometimes dolls are more expensive than dolls.
And our circle of dolls are very valuable, even premium, there is a very famous doll, now in the idle fish are sold to 1500 yuan up, but also need to "distribution", with other peripherals to buy. Buying dolls basically relies on robbery, because they are all made by the mothers (who design dolls and sell dolls), and the number is limited, plus there are no two sellers, so the competition has always been fierce.
Some of the famous dolls also have to find friends to help grab. Therefore, buying a baby is not only as simple as spending money, but also nervously fighting for hand speed, and the harvest is not as simple as a few dolls, but some sense of treasure, rarity and hard-won feeling.
The reason why I buy more and more is because the dolls are so beautiful, each baby mother has its own characteristics, the baby is done carefully, and the clothes are designed to be particularly exquisite. My principle is to buy what you like, and buy it when you can grab it.
However, I am also gradually restrained, after all, I have also lost some, leaving those that are more hot, expensive, and my favorite. In addition to dolls, there are also standing cards, photo frames, hanging cloths and other forms around, in the pit for two years I have taken off the pit of standing cards and photo frames, and will not buy it again.
But I will definitely continue to buy dolls, dolls are different, cute and fun, dressup games are also very healing, just rush this game experience I am willing to keep buying, has been collecting.
Fifth, rush the most expensive beauty and fitness card, stay up the deepest night
Xiao Xiao | 30 years old annual cost 546,000 yuan Internet practitioners
In 2021, I will spend a total of more than 540,000 yuan, and the biggest expenditure direction is personal consumption.
For example, I spent 50,000 yuan on light medical beauty, 50,000 yuan on 100 yoga classes, more than 80,000 yuan in clothing, 25,000 yuan in electronic products, 13,000 yuan in beauty salons, and tens of thousands of health care products bought, which cost more than 200,000 yuan.
Investments in health and aesthetics are mainly due to age anxiety.
After I gave birth to a child and was busy at work, my work and rest, diet was extremely irregular, and my skin state dropped a lot, so I found some solutions that seemed to be able to solve the problem quickly, and to a certain extent, it was also to alleviate my inner anxiety.
But in fact, beauty and fitness are long-term persistence to see results, because the work is busy, often stay up late overtime, the current fitness class is only about 10 sessions, light medical beauty has only done a few times, often the skin just turned, a stay up late and go back. However, these money is spent without regret, and in the future, if time permits, I hope to regularly skin care and fitness.
The annual expenditure is 546,000 yuan Source / Courtesy of Xiao Xiao
The cost of the pit is on health supplements. I often watch the live broadcast room, and when I encounter the anchor introducing products for staying up late or eating irregularly, it is easy to place an order.
I have bought most of Swisse's health supplements, like some gummies, protein powders, vitamins, etc. But now it is found that almost all of them have been eaten regularly, and many have expired. Health supplements are the ones I regret the most in my 2021 consumption.
I think that the most important and valuable of all consumption is to eat and wear. If I had to exercise restraint in this regard, once in restraint, once in pain.
I buy a lot of clothes and accessories because I don't have much time to shop, most of them are bought online. I go out to dinner or call my meal home on weekday evenings or weekends when I'm not busy.
In 2021, I have more than 80,000 yuan of clothing and more than 30,000 yuan of food and beverage expenses. There is also a big item is the cost of children, the bill shows that my expenditure on education and training is 48,000 yuan, maternal and infant products more than 20,000 yuan, culture and leisure more than 7,000 yuan, this part is about 70,000 yuan.
I reported to the children sports, thinking, music, English, reading and other early education courses, some of the course content is similar, but the children like, they all report. It is said that children are crucial before the age of three, and I brainwash myself, and this part of the cost is priceless. Coupled with the fact that I have very little time with my child, it is also a little to make up for it, thinking that at least I will create rich conditions for her.
The family spends about 200,000 yuan, including more than 100,000 yuan for parents on both sides, in addition, because of living with in-laws, a family of five big and one small, family expenditure of about 40,000 yuan.
I belong to the category of people who stay up late and are crazy about beauty and fitness health care, work without thinking too much about the body, enjoy both the efforts and results of the work, and also enjoy spending money on themselves and their families. It can be said that consumerism has turned me into a workaholic, and high-pressure work has turned me into a consumer.
I am a person who needs high-frequency consumption, and I will be happy ten times a day when I consume it ten times a day. I don't have a habit of saving, but I also don't spend ahead of time. After reading the annual bill, I think that there are a lot of unnecessary expenses, and I should still save some money for my children in the future, although I don't know where to spend it in the future, but I know that it will be an unknown bottomless pit, and I still have to be cautious in consumption in the future.
At the request of the interviewees, Coke, Ge Xiaotai, Zhang Tianze, and Xiao Xiao were pseudonyms.
Author: Li Qiuhan Wanqi Wang Min Zou Shuai Tang Yahua, Editor: Tang Yahua; Public Account: Deep Burning (ID: shenrancaijing)
This article was originally published by @ Deep Burn and is not reproduced without permission.
The title image is from Pixabay, based on the CC0 protocol.