Idk where your numbers are coming from. I know my rent is higher than average, but I'd like to know where you think you can find an apartment/house where rent is under $1k. My wife and I (DINK because everything's expensive) have a 2 bed, 1 + 3/4 bath apartment for $3k. Utilities (no cable) add up to about $200. We pay for HBO and Paramount but are cancelling Paramount because it fucking sucks. Groceries are ballpark $50/week because we go to Aldi and don't buy much processed crap. Giant would be easily over $100 for the same shit. We're on Google Fi for about $60/month but we're looking to switch to Mint because it's about the same cost but for unlimited data.

Starbucks and McDonald's are overpriced, but idk why you think it's impossible to step into either without spending $50+. Maybe that was a voice to text mistake and you meant $15+. My wife and I literally the other day went to a pretty nice sit down restaurant right by the mall and had a delicious lunch plus an alcoholic drink apiece and the bill was about $32, $40 after tip. If somebody finds a way to spend $50 for just themselves at Starbucks or McDonald's, then that's obviously an outlier.

We can only really swing this exorbitant rent because our cars are already paid off and I make us over $100k. Rent is only gonna go up, so we're actively looking to move, hopefully to own, but everything in our area under like $400k needs serious renovations. The housing market is fucked because of landlording. We will likely be buying a townhouse in a worse location and still pay like $2500/month.