Challenge::Live on $5.15 an hour::

[Elgin526]

Re: Challenge::Live on $5.15 an hour::

IL's minimum wage is $6.50 an hour, but I'll play along at $5.15.

Well, if I'm allowed to sell my house to pay off our debts, we'd wind up owning our two cars and have enough money to set us up in an apartment (1st months rent, security deposit, utilities set up, etc.) plus a bit left over for an emergency fund.

I'm married, no kids, and after taxes, if DH and I both work 40 hours per week, we'd have $1370 per month in income.

Lowest rent in the area for a studio apartment is $665 includes heat, gas, water, and internet (that's a really good deal, actually!).
Gasoline for both of us would be about $150, assuming our jobs are close by.
Utilites would be a land line phone $30 and electric at $35 and basic cable $10
Food, we could live on $200 I'd guess

Total expeses $1090, leaving $280 a month to save for things like car repair and other unexpected expenses. This apartment complex is located close enough to the local mall that we could also walk to employment, so if we had no car at all, we'd still be okay.

The wild card is health care, since most minimum wage jobs don't offer health insurance and DH is diabetic so we would have to rely on state aid for medical care for him. Since we'd gross $21,424 a year, I'd assume we'd qualify, but I'm not really sure. If we didn't we'd be up a creak, that's for sure!

Assuming DH would have free medical care, and we stay child free, we'd do okay. Add in kids or large medical expenses for DH, then not so much.

[JanH]

Re: Challenge::Live on $5.15 an hour::

I've been skipping through this thread. So interesting. It shows me how wasteful my family has become.....my family needs to examine how we live a bit more carefully and be more grateful and use our resources better.

[lrjohnson]

Re: Challenge::Live on $5.15 an hour::

A link to my 6 month totals is here.
My Half a Year totals are ready. On my Minimum Wage Challenge I have spent $5,947.13 in six months. I have $405.96 banked/budgeted for planned purchases. I have $5.54 set aside in by Emergency/Big Purchase Fund, and $117.00 set aside in “Savings.” I also was able to buy a freezer!

[amberfocus]

Re: Challenge::Live on $5.15 an hour::

But you are looking at that through the eyes of someone earning well above minimum wage. If you and your roommate were actually earning $5.15, your opinion might be different.

I... don't know. You've really got me between a rock and a hard place here.

Just so you have an idea of where I'm coming from, I just counted all of my open browser windows. 53. That's right, 53. Plus, I used to be a web developer, and one of my desktops is a functioning web server.

I could probably give up internet for a week or two, as a challenge. But to permanently give it up as a financial necessity might just make me snap. Without it, I can't IM my friends, find recipes to cook, update my operating system, read the latest news (remember I have no television!), check on my favorite bloggers, do my research, look up pictures of cute kittens, use bittorrent (again, no television, so this is how I watch my TV shows), read message boards (including but not limited to this one). If I can't afford the internet, I have serious doubts that I'll be in a position in life where I'm truly *happy*. I'd probably be stressed as hell and absolutely miserable.

If I get to a point where I can't afford internet, I might actually just move back in with my parents, save hell of a lot more than $25/mo on *rent*, and have my internet.

Is this a fatal weakness? You tell me. Do most people have an Achilles heel like this one?

Of course, that means you are actually on somebody else's plan, your parent's I suspect. If you had to get your own individual plan, it wouldn't be $10. It might still be the most economical way to go. You would just have to run the numbers.

Yes, I'm on my parents plan. If I were to get my own cell... it'd probably be in the neighborhood of $30/mo.

You know, I don't think I'd mind going with a pre-paid phone when it comes to that. Not sure how much I'd save, though. I think you reach a point of diminishing returns when you're already down to the proverbial wire. Because I really think the only expenses left to trim are... food. No more sphagetti squash, because spaghetti is cheaper?

Eek. I enjoy saving, but even I don't want to go there. I want to have sphagetti squash guilt-free.

best,
~mimi

[amberfocus]

Re: Challenge::Live on $5.15 an hour::

Some libraries offer the internet for free. Many more wireless hotspots are available for free if you have a laptop with wireles capabilities....

Just a thought. Your Mileage May Vary of course.

Libraries might work, but they're not really open much past work hours (most close at 6 pm).

Regarding free wireless hotspots... would someone making minimum wage be able to afford a laptop?

You even have to be rich enough to steal internet! What a world.

~mimi

[disneysteve]

Re: Challenge::Live on $5.15 an hour::

If I can't afford the internet, I have serious doubts that I'll be in a position in life where I'm truly *happy*.

Isn't it interesting how addicted and dependent we have become in just a few short years? Many of us (and I'm as guilty as you) have integrated the Internet so completely into our lives that the thought of removing it is like the thought of cutting off a limb. But no matter how useful it is, it is, in fact, a luxury. Folks scraping by on $5.15 probably can't afford it (or the computer needed to use it).

[Ima saver]

Re: Challenge::Live on $5.15 an hour::

I went all my life until the past two years without a computer, so i think I could give it up.

[Gruntina]

Re: Challenge::Live on $5.15 an hour::

I went all my life until the past two years without a computer, so i think I could give it up.

Ima - we would miss you too much!

[Broken Arrow]

Re: Challenge::Live on $5.15 an hour::

Libraries might work, but they're not really open much past work hours (most close at 6 pm).

Regarding free wireless hotspots... would someone making minimum wage be able to afford a laptop?

You even have to be rich enough to steal internet! What a world.

~mimi

Argh. There goes my plan for world domination with a shoestring budget.

[Ima saver]

Re: Challenge::Live on $5.15 an hour::

Well thank you gruntina, I would miss all of you too much too. I would have to go to the library every day, even if they only allow you one hour on the computer.
When we moved here, my husband and I made very little money. I made minimum wage, which was $3.15 and hour. My dh made $7.50 an hour building houses. So, we made $$10.65 an hour combined, about what we would both make if we both got minimum wage. We were able to live on that, but we had no house payment or rent.

[sarah]

Re: Challenge::Live on $5.15 an hour::

I would miss the internet very much. I am not so sure that the internet is a luxury anymore especially not for children. This is one of the reasons I support ad based public wireless zones.We have to deal with the digital divide.

[PRICEPLUS]

Re: Challenge::Live on $5.15 an hour::

In a wired world the computer and internet access will become far more ubiquitous than TVs and other forms of communication!

[disneysteve]

Re: Challenge::Live on $5.15 an hour::

I am not so sure that the internet is a luxury anymore

I know many people personally who do not have home computers or internet access and they get along just fine. Some are young, some are old, some are richer, some are not. It really doesn't matter. The internet is an incredibly powerful tool and I use it multiple times every single day to do a wide variety of tasks. But that still doesn't make it a necessity.

[lrjohnson]

Re: Challenge::Live on $5.15 an hour::

I am not so sure that the internet is a luxury anymore especially not for children.

When I was broke broke (getting the skills to prepare for not broke fake broke) my Dad, computer programmer since 1967, just really could not conceive of being computerless, let alone internetless. I explained how it just wasn't a financial option.....but to him, it was a utility, almost. He's not a big consumer at all, he understood the thrift store clothes and the no vcr no cab;e one channel black and white tv and the beans and rice and oatmeal. I think that internet/computer is becoming more of a necessity, and that we are in a transformational time. As we speak it may be a luxury, but five years...ten years...things are shifting.

[tinapbeana]

Re: Challenge::Live on $5.15 an hour::

having worked in telecom, i assure you the phone went through the same awkward phase of luxury vs necessity.

did you know that some doctor's offices refused to have phones installed because they didn't want patients calling at all hours of the night? in the age of 911, this seems absolutely absurd, but for a long while a phone was considered anything but a necessity. now, having a phone in your name can sometimes improve your chances of getting approved for credit. do you know anyone without a phone? if so, what was the first thought you had when you found out?

while i don't think the internet is a necessity with regards to communication (just a cheaper alternative!), i think the information, education, and networking capabilities it offers are making it more and more invaluable.