My take is some folks - like the woman in the article - tend to lump too many "luxuries" in their "necessity" bucket. The $80.00 dry cleaning bill is outrageous. I am a professional trade consultant and have to wear business dress daily. But my dry cleaning each month is about $22.00, primarily because I wash and iron my own shirts.
It is amazing what a lot of people consider NECESSITIES! I know people of relatively modest means who take two full vacations a year (a week each in great locales), have multiple cell phones, excessive spa treatments, eat out 75 of 90 meals each month, the biggest and best entertainment centers (plasma TV, CD systems, etc.), excessive clothes, etc. These are people who are living a porterhouse lifestyle on a pork chop budget.
Then they wonder why their credit cards are maxed out!
Add to THAT the fact a lot of people absolutely have ZERO concept of interest rates. Too many people are content to pay the minimum each month. That is a KILLER on finances; a waste of resources!
I fully recognize there are those who truly had to resort to using credit card withdrawals for basics. My brother and his wife is an example of that. But we were able to trace the spending patterns back to some earlier exorbiant and unnecessary expenditures that helped push them into that trap. They worked their way out of it with a LOT of sacrifice and support from family/friends.
My main point is a lot of this is truly SELF IMPOSED.
Some folks can't wash and iron their own "shirts", they just don't look right...