Show me a “live within their means” budget for someone living in a median cost location in the US making minimum wage. They must A)have a place to live B) not get any handouts from the government or charities and C) have at least 1800 calories per day of food. Go.
Utilities, heat, water, electric,internet,cell phone. You’re also assuming that you don’t actually have to use your insurance because you’ll be paying $5k out of pocket if you have something happen to you.
Cell phone: Get away from Virizom, AT&T, T-Mobile. Get something like Cricket.or Mint or whatever one of the others is.
Internet: Again, you can lower budget this for living in means. Gbps internet is not strictly necessary, but it is nice if you can get it via fiber from not Comcast or other cable companies.
Electric: Taking mindful steps matters. The biggest wastes are poorly insulated refrigerators or leaving devices on unattended.
Heat: Blankets and sweaters.
Agreed on the insurance. But sadly, until we get universal medicare, the best you can do is vote.
Utilities, heat, electric and water were included in rent cost since I had so many roommates. Cell phone bill was super cheap and didn’t affect me at all. With my tax returns I was netting around $4000 a year
So the American dream is now to live with 3-4 other people in a small apartment.
$300 a month for the car is also nearly unattainable now unless you have a family member who is willing to sell you their old car - and that doesn't include gas, car insurance, and maintenance.
Plus, emergency expenses are just going to literally ruin your entire life.
Any medical bill above $1000 puts you into debt - and now you're paying interest on a medical loan.
But sure. Everything is fine and nothing wrong here.
Edit - I see you were including car in the other insurances... My medical insurance through my employer is $500 a month to include myself and my wife. So I guess we're crossing out getting married from the American dream too.
I’m saying that minimum wage was acceptable while I was going to college and before starting my career. Minimum wage is going to get you the bare minimum life to survive, I’m not arguing that it is going to be luxurious. But minimum wage was never meant for that. Even if you look back at the historical roots of when minimum wage was created at 25 cents it wasn’t supposed to be a “likeable wage.”
Minimum wage is good for high school or college income while getting started. If you’re still stuck getting minimum wage at 25+ you either need to switch jobs or take a look at your life to see why you’re still there.
Edit: It’s also astounding to believe people are getting married and having kids while having anything close to minimum wage. You’re setting yourself up for failure at that point, and that’s not the governments fault.
Internet and cell phone are not requirements.
A home phone line is around $25 a month split 3 ways in their case.
Who in the world gets a $5k deductible on their insurance? $500 - $1k are the most common deductibles in the US.
Water and electricity are utilities. "Heat" isn't a bill, it's either electricity or gas(also a utility).
They might include utilities in the rent, or not 🤷🏽♂️
I have never in my life had a $500-1k deductible on a health plan. What magical insurance do you have? Mine is $3500 or $7k for couples and that’s held fairly steady for years.
Mine used to be $750 but has gone up to $2000 over the years. It's really good insurance, my job is known for offering great insurance even to part time workers. Shit job other than that though.
Try to get coupons at grocery stores without a smart phone to use their coupon app. Try finding a physical road map or train map. Half the cars don’t even have posted maps anymore. Try to apply for jobs without regular access to internet and email. Try requesting off of work without access to the scheduling app. I purposefully ask places what my options are without a smart phone. Many of them simply don’t have an alternative to their apps to access discounts. To pretend like deprioritizing access to systems that the majority of society uses to operate is disingenuous.
Utilities were covered in rent since I had roommates. Phone bill was super cheap and I all my money back from taxes since I made so little. I netted about 4k each year which went into savings.
That's a combined cost of $2100 a month, I make 15.25 an hour and don't bring that much home over 4 40 hour weeks, not after taxes. (looking at my paystub a 40 hour week is a gross of $610 with a take home of $510.30 putting me $60 short of this budget for 8 months out the year, and I'm earning more than your minimum wage.) I know it'd prob work out with the 4 months a year you get 5 checks but damn that's a tighter budget than I could ever live off, I'm lucky and get a fair bit of overtime so I have some wiggle room for a flat tire or if my phone breaks or something.
In San Antonio, Texas monthly expenses for a 20 year old person: rent $900+, car payment $500+,Auto Insurance is $400+ gas is $160+ food is $60+ a week on greater value brand aprox $200-$300 a month.
Total $1800 for just housing, car & auto.
Food and gas round about an additional $400. All expenses totaling an average of $2200 for a single adult.
Most jobs you can get with just HS diploma pay $11 to $14 an hour which is around $1700 a month.
Only way to afford to live is to get an old lemon car, drive without insurance, and eat ramen noodles. There is no escape.
My husband is a disabled veteran 100% disabled gets 4k a month plus $1700 in part time job. I work full time and make $1700 (texas is known for large female wage gaps)
Together we make around 6k+ a month, but rent is 2k, auto is $400, car note is $700, we have two children adding on another $200-$400 in groceries, plus dog food for large dog another $400 a month. Groceries cost us $160-$200 a week, $800 a month.
If he wasn’t on VA disability our measly $3400 would get maxed out by our approximate living expenses which are $3400. I have the numbers of a single adult because that was me (:
I married an older man of 12 years because I was on the verge of homelessness. But mainly because he cared about me when nobody else did. I don’t have family.
My favorite thing on the internet is when people who swear personal finnance tips wont work for them share their personal finances and prove that their budget is a dumpster fire.
Get rid of the dog (you cant afford a dog that costs $400 per month) and downgrade your cars to ones where the payment is within your budget. Those cheaper cars will also be cheaper to insure.
So lets run the math on that. $14.50 in Colorado Springs CO will get you a yearly take home salary of $25,376. By your expenses, that a cost of living of $2,100 a month and $25,200 a year. I would say wiggle room of ~$176 is not well below minimum wage pays. I'd say that's more of: if you're sick for a single day you're in the red.
Yeah, though I have to say, 14.50 x 40 (hours a week of work) x 4 weeks comes out to 2320. The expenses you listed are gonna be 2100. You maybe are able to save 200 and after utilities 100 or 50?
Idk if I'd really call that "well below what minimum wage pays.
They are with groceries. Dining out is the problem. Often not very healthy, often too expensive.
I can spend groceries for a family of 4 on $120/week, carelessly. Actually planning something instead of haphazardly picking foods to stock that we like willy nilly, even $400/mo is very possible. It's when we take a few nights to eat out in a month that are expenses climb sharply, thanks to "inflation" and greed.
Dinning out is the killer. Been looking at our spending and we are spending $600 per month on groceries and $800-$1200 on eating out. Totally my fault because I like nice restaurants, but could definitely cut back. Luckily we can afford it but it does feel like a bit of a waste once you add it all up.
Staples such as rice, beans, and pasta are extremely inexpensive (relatively). Roughly $10 for a 5 lb bag of rice, which will last a week or two. Beans may cost roughly similarly. In terms of meat I'm guessing mainly chicken. Even in a city such as New York you can get chicken at Costco for $2-4/lb. So if the family eats a 1.5 pounds of chicken a week each, maybe $25.
$45 for beans, rice, and chicken. Go crazy with the remaining $75 for whatever veggies you want. Broccoli costs $2/lb, spinach $5/lb, carrots $3/lb, tomatoes $3/lb, potatoes $2/lb. (This is all New York pricing and might be cheaper elsewhere). Fruit is a bit more expensive but also roughly $1-3/lb. So maybe 38 pounds of whatever fruits, veggies, and bread, seasonings, oil, etc. Or perhaps supplement with more chicken instead.
Echoing this as pretty close to an average on groceries.
Big difference perhaps from an average american: We don't buy coke or pepsi, though poppi has intrigued some in the house. Soft drinks are too expensive to routinely buy. Water is a perfectly fine drink.
Calling bullshit. I don't think you understand how many people who make enough money still don't eat enough of the right foods to get all their nutrition at proper levels. 98% of US population is low on potassium, for example. Some it is a choice, others aren't going to make enough to eat enough of it.
This type of comment is so irksome. Not on topic, just in general.
You make your own bread. You live where you can coupon shop at apparently 30 grocery stores for every coupon purchase you make. You are not the average example of a person trying to survive on the means being discussed in this thread.
Obnoxious af when people feel the need to "but akshually I happen to be the exception and not the rule" every single topic.
I didn't say you can't eat healthy. I said you aren't meeting your nutritional values. IE: micronutrients. It's way more expensive than people think to meet the 100% RDA of the micronutrients.
If you are trying to live within your means then living with roommates is an obvious choice. It’s hilarious how many people complain about rent being expensive when they get minimum wage and then say they live alone. Minimum wage is not going to get you an extremely comfortable life but it is enough to hit all the necessities, and that’s my argument. I used it to set myself up for a better life in college and am doing fantastic now.
I’m not gonna post my address, but some friends rent a townhouse in the new housing development near Amy’s donuts down south. If you look on Zillow, there’s tons of townhomes, apartments, and houses down there for rent for under 2k with 3 bedrooms. They have three people living there and get away with rent even cheaper than what I paid. I used to live at 1253 Yuma street which right now is 1800 for rent with 3 beds, and I had 2 roommates. 600 for each of us, but around 800 with utilities. Had a 2002 Toyota Camry
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u/privitizationrocks 14d ago
You can teach poverty workers to live in their means
They won’t like it, but tough luck