Surviving (and thriving) on $12,000 a year

[Broken Arrow]

Interesting article

Thoughts?

[JanH]

Wow, that was interesting. I like her attitude! Reminds me of when Hubby and I got married while he was finishing school. We had friends in married housing, a tiny black and white tv, food on the table, etc. Wish I had known about thrift stores back then. I don't think we even had a walmart. Parents paid for auto insurance, but we paid for school and living expenses. I felt stressed sometimes and deprived sometimes compared to other students, but we had midnight movie matinees, and a donut on the weekend for a treat! Then I found the used book store. The guy would sell me books for as little as 20 cents sometimes. Thanks for getting me to think about how blessed I was back then and especially now.

[PRICEPLUS]

It is interesting how little we need to get by with necessities. Maybe if we lived this way there would be a highter savings rate. It is a tough wayto live but this lady is a perfect example of how frugal you can be if you put your mind to it!

[pearlieq]

I remember being so scared for her when I read this. She's getting by, but all she needs is one stiff breeze to make the whole thing topple down.

I hope she comes out OK. She sure sounds like a tough and resourceful lady. I hope her schooling pays off.

[Ima saver]

Wow, that sounds tough, I don't think I could do it.

[Broken Arrow]

Originally Posted by pearlieq

I remember being so scared for her when I read this. She's getting by, but all she needs is one stiff breeze to make the whole thing topple down.

Yes, I agree. I hope she's got an adequate EF cushion before she started this venture.

[PrincessPerky]

On the one hand I think she is doing a good thing, on the other hand, her diet doesn't sound the healthiest.

And like you say, one niggling detail and the whole thing crumbles....I hope no one thing happens though....

[MonkeyMama]

I've done it. Through college - probably lived on less.

There is a big difference between doing this for life and doing it a few years to get through school. I am nost sure how long you can really thrive on that kind of income before an emergency sets you in a tailspin. & granted in school I Was so busy with work and school I did not have a lot of time to seek out free things and wasn't exactly focused on building savings, more like just getting through. So this lady does take it to another level that I Am not even sure I Could have done - found my studies far more important I guess so I didn't have to live like that every again! Definitely kudos to her though.

I enjoy now having the money in the bank for an emergency and such. Yet I still remember back to how tight the college years were, makes it very easy for me to retain a lot of frugality in my life. IT also makes me much further appreciate what I have. I say no to dinner out a lot and many friends see me as deprived. But I have a beautiful home, a great job, new cars, and I make 6 times as much as I did in college. Would hardly call it deprived!!!

I would do it all over again - beats coming out of college with a pile of debt plus I learned a lot.

I really prefer to live well below my means but find it a lot harder with bigger assets to protect, a family to support, etc. But I can also see very easily I am so much more well off than those years. Even if I Can no longer live on just $12k...

[tinapbeana]

according to my statement from the SSA, i had a taxable income of under 11k in 2001. sorry for the language, but there is no other way to put this: it SUCKED and i would never ever EVER do it again given anything that even remotely looked like a choice.

[Ima saver]

Well the most I have ever made in my life was $8000 a year, but I have always been married and had my husband's income. Years ago, I lived on $5000 a year, but that was back in the 60's and things were so much cheaper.

[Bookie]

There's more where that came from.

Another Donna Freeman article posted today.

[Snoopy2645]

I lived on that on my own with my baby when I was 18 a little over 10yrs ago things were a little cheaper at that time but not much!! I lived cheaply we spent $25 a week on groceries & lived in a trailer it was a nice big one though we had free cable & water & cheap lot rent thier. But I also had babysitter & insurance costs for my dd oh ya I went to school too & had to pay someone to watch my dd at night while I took night classes. I lived across the street from my job so not much spent in gas either.

I could probably do it again with my 3 kids well maybe I would need a little more but not much I can be super cheap now dh hes another story.

[MonkeyMama]

Another inspiring article...

As long as I had food and shelter (and could afford school to boot)I just don't even look back at those years being that bad, thankfully. I know far too many people worse off. Nothing in my life has made me stronger. But definitley would not choose to live my entire like like that if I did not have to, for sure...

[Snoopy2645]

I dont think back on that as being a bad time either that was a simpler time I would be super happy to go back to those good times. I just get so sick of well we only make this or that its more what are you doing & how are you spending what you have.

[tinapbeana]

while it's easy to reminisce about the good old days and simpler times, i think the whole 'living below the poverty line' thing depends on the circumstances.

i.e. when i was in college i made 9-15k per year and had no issues with it. student loan paid for housing, and therefore utilities. i was still covered under my parents' insurance, plus i got free healthcare from the campus med center. life was actually very good.

in 2001, as mentioned in my earlier post, i wasn't in school. i worked 6 months out of that year and looked for a job the rest of the time. i got turned down by several grocery stores and walmart, among others, because i was 'over qualified'. averaged out over the course of the year, my monthly take-home was $640. $350 went to rent, $75 to utilities, $50 to car insurance, and $100 to gas. that left $65 every month for food and to cover emergencies. i had no health insurance.

would i go back to 96-2000 when i was broke and in school? probably. would i go back to 2001? not on your life. it's not a matter of learning to want less and buy generic and reduce, reuse, recycle. in '01 i could have become homeless from an infected ingrown toenail, and that is just too scary a place for me to live.

[puppypal]

I have my single motherhood days as the best days ever. Mainly because I was making around 600.00 net yes, net a month! totals 7200.00 a year adding only an extra nights worth of babysitting money here and there. No child support and I had a trailer note insurance and all the other bills. I made a bit too much to qualify for food stamps and we managed. This time in my life was a huge learning experiance. Taught me how to budget, save, be a tightwad and manage money down to the penny!
It was tough no doubt but......I learned more about money and not NEEDING THINGS that ever before!

[frugalmomof1]

I got partnered for a project with a guy in college that went back to shcool his late 30's for a Mechanical Engineering degree. Over the 2.5 years that we had classes together we became very good friends (he was an usher in DH's and my wedding)

I don't have a clue about how much money he made during those years, but I would bet it wasn't close $12k. He lived in a dirt cheap 3rd floor apartment (shared), and did not have health insurance. I know he took tutoring jobs, worked construction on weekends and summers...he even did some work on my house and charged us (no kidding) 2 sandwiches/hour. I would make a huge batch of sandwiches on the weekend and bring them to school on Monday. I continued to make him sandwiches for the rest of the semester even when my debt was paid in full.

He got his teeth cleaned for $10 at the vocational school down the street from the campus, probably cut his hair 2x's/year. I actually wish that I was into frugal living back then...I could have learned a lot from him.

He almost managed to avoid student loans, but needed them for his last year of school.

I couldn't have been easy, but he did it. He was committed to earning his degree and did what he had to do in order to get it. He now has a good job for a good company. We visited him 3 weeks ago in his house with a brand new addition that he built himself in CT.

I hope it works out for the woman in the article.

[rusty@saving]

3 years ago i made $7,997 in one year($11,000 the next)....i had my own apartment($300/month)(cruddy, obviously), my parents paid my auto insurance, but i scraped by on my living expenses. i had $2/day for food, and shopped at the local aldi's everyday, eating sandwiches, cereal, tuna, milk(repeat, repeat), ramen. i put $2 of gas in my car every other day(worked within 2 miles of home)(30 miles to the gallon), and was SO excited when the amount of gas i put into the car exceed to miles driven and then i would not have to fill up for a week!!(then i would pay the extra $ in advance for the next electirc bill, or if a bill was behind, pay it up)
during this time i met my wife...i know for a fact that she loves me for me and not my $....i was a broke, sorry individual.
the thing is...before that i spent $ like it was nothing. no plan, no savings, just blew it all partying and being a jackass.
now i have control over my $, and an appreciation for life and how to live life without spending a lot of $.
i used to always freak out about losing jobs and $....now i know i CAN make it on a very little $. i would not want to lose my job, but i know i can do it, would i again? i pray not!
i am TRULY thankful and full of gratitude for what i have in my life now, and that is why i come to this sight. i don't EVER want to be in that position EVER again!!!

[jodi]

Ok, if no one else caught this, then I'll just shut up...

But no one else sees anything wrong an apparently able-bodied person making a conscious decision NOT to work, then going to a food bank on a regular basis? That food could be going to someone elderly, disabled, or who cannot make ends meet with their job.

[LuxLiving]

Jodi - I didn't get that she wasn't working from the article - it doesn't really say that does it? It does say she's going to uni and is doing freelance writing, and perhaps she has a student loan or a part time job or both, or maybe even a low paying full time job - it just wasn't clear to me from the article. It does say she's tired, but doesn't say from what.