Unemployed man takes budgeting class to survive, leaves stunned as teacher decries 'coffee expenses'

For some seriously weird reason, a lot of people are attributing the younger generation’s unemployment and financial struggles to a cup of coffee. Gen Z and others are fed up with hearing that they need to stop buying coffee every day to become financially stable because it’s far from realistic. A man who goes by u/Grimmelda revealed that he took budgeting classes to manage his expenses better and was shocked to see the presenter deliberately mention the coffee issue. It got to him and his simple realization made him want to leave immediately. 

The man mentioned that it seemed to be a meme, or at least had been viewed as such until his recent experience. Sharing context, he mentioned that he has been unemployed since 2024 and gets $825 a month from social assistance. "An article just came out stating that 50% of the people working in my province are working under the living wage. And it's a huge gap. Living wage is over $24.77/hour and minimum is $15.65/hour,” he explained. He further noted that to improve his skills and manage his lifestyle better, he decided to take up a course and that day’s presentation was about budgeting. 

According to the New York Times, younger people of the present generation are suffering way more in the job market and income status than ever before. It was revealed that people between 25 and 34 years were earning slightly less in 2017 than people in that same age group did in 2000. And these numbers keep dropping. Another report noted that given this low income, it is no wonder that we’re struggling financially. It’s not the coffee, it’s the economy. In fact, to level things out, when Tara Siegel Bernard, a personal finance reporter for The Times, was asked, “Will skipping coffee make me a millionaire?” she said, “No.” 

The woman explained that while one should be cautious about spending, it is not the reason why they’re struggling. “It’s silly. Or maybe it’s just easier to blame people for overspending on coffee because it’s a lot more difficult to advise on the many things they cannot control: wages not keeping pace with the cost of living, the high cost of health insurance, housing, child care, paying for college, etc,” she explained. What got to this unemployed man was the fact that he didn’t even have a job and was being told to skip the daily coffee. “Today. An employee for a credit union presented a course for Budgeting, and it legitimately included a slide telling people to ‘Bring coffee from home,’” the man recalled. 

“How can you go into a group of people who already aren't working and try to make them feel bad about needing caffeine — a literal drug people need to make it through the day?” he mentioned. It seemed bizarre that people who can’t afford basics would be splurging on coffees and yet, it was the highlight of the first half of the session. “A lot of the course has been good so far, but I was flabbergasted to see that used unironically,” the man wrote. Being more straightforward with why he was so affected, he mentioned, “We can't afford proper groceries. Let alone a $5 coffee every day. This person went into a group of poor people who can't afford FOOD and said, ‘Just don't buy coffee every day.’ THERE IS NO COFFEE. THAT IS THE POINT. The advice is useless! It's not realistic.” 

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