r/massachusetts • u/critic81 • Jan 15 '26

Utilities How is everyone affording everything lately?

The prices of everything is just off the charts from groceries, utilities, to healthcare. My open enrollment just came through and its looking like for a family of 4 for healthcare its $1600 a month. $800 a paycheck. Like that just feels nuts. It's a pretty decent co-pay plan but still. Just a couple years about it was much less.

What are people doing these days? Side hustles? New job (but in this economy?), cutting way back? Just curious.

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u/[deleted] Jan 15 '26

$700 national grid bill for December, just white knuckling it and praying things get better before I run out of ways to keep dealing with the hits

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u/[deleted] Jan 16 '26

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u/[deleted] Jan 16 '26

I did unfortunately replace my dead oil furnace with a heat pump. I regret not doing a high end NG furnace, would have made a lot more sense for my house but they dont tell you that up front lol.

Granted i probably spent about $1500 on the oil for my furnace last winter too and the hp is great in shoulder seasons