Only my experience, but I've worked both as a teller and as back office in financial institutions for over a decade. Out of all of the people who were chronically overdrawing their accounts, I honestly can't remember a single one who was doing so off of buying essentials, it was always frivolous luxuries.

Hell, over the years I've even heard a coworker talk about how they have no money until their next paycheck at the end of that week, and then later that same day, talk about what designer sneakers they want to buy when they get their tax return.

There are definitely people who struggle to make ends meet, but the fact is, the majority of the times ends aren't met, it's deliberate. People in the US are more likely to have a problem with overspending than underearning, on average.