more realistically for most people than private schooling and expensive vacations are day care and routine medical bills (as opposed to debt). Day care costs some families nearly what I spend on rent, and that's just for standard run of the mill understaffed day care services, not private/in-home or specialized care. Medical expenses get insane very quickly, with many people spending hundreds every month on medications alone, but add recurring costs like dental, vision, and mental health services to that and you can blow through huge amounts of cash every year.

Most people in the US were already living paycheck to paycheck before the pandemic which ate into what little savings they had or forced them into credit card debt and now sky-high prices are putting even more pressure on people's budgets. It'd be crazy if the number of people living paycheck to paycheck wasn't expanding.