Re: Living From Paycheck to Paycheck Gets Harder


"Islander" <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:ZsCdndiHY4MLXYbanZ2dnUVZ_sTinZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Jerry Okamura wrote:

"Islander" <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:pPOdndD5IbxYO4fanZ2dnUVZ_tOtnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Angelo Campanella wrote:
mg wrote:
The calculus of living paycheck to paycheck in America is getting
harder. What used to last four days might last half that long now. Pay
the gas bill, but skip breakfast. Eat less for lunch so the kids can
have a healthy dinner.

Some decades ago, it was touted that there are certain necessities of life:

Food,

Shelter,

Clothing,

Social structure.

Sum the costs of those, and I think you will find a few dollars left over.

But is that the end of the list for 21st century inhabitants?

Add:

Booze.

Auto.

Upscale furniture and owned house.

Vacations.

Eating out.

TV.

Cable.

Internat.

Lottery.

Taxes.

Impulse buying luxuries.

etc.

etc.

It's the latter, I think, that is running the tab out into the red zone.
\

Angelo Campanella


Perhaps, but I wonder exactly how much thought you actually put into this post. How long has it been since you had to live on a budget? Do you do the grocery shopping for your family?

You would probably be shocked if you were to repeat a high school assignment. Look up the median salary in your community and then see if you can make ends meet by putting together a household budget. Not just make-up numbers, but put together a menu for a family of four for a week and go to the grocery store to find out how much groceries really cost. Check the classified or check with your local realtor to find out how much it will cost you to rent a two bedroom apartment -- a little crowded for a family of four, but we are looking for minimum that you can afford to get by. Take into account that you will be raising your kids in the neighborhood that you pick, so make sure that you check out the apartment and the neighborhood. Don't forget health care and health insurance. Your job will probably not provide them. You will need transportation to/from work. Are you able to use public transportation or will you need to own a car with associated expenses. Also, don't forget to put something away for a rainy day.

If you aren't afraid to put a little effort where your mouth is, do the assignment and report back.

Okay, let me try to tackle what you just said. I do not know what your experience was like in College, so I will use my experience. When I attended college, most of my fellow students from Hawaii, did not have a whole lot of money to spend on what is a necessity, which was food. Smarter students than me, came up with a solution that worked. They rented a place were a large group of us could live. There were two such complexes, I lived in the smaller complex. Our individual food budget was $5 per person per week in each of the houses. How did we do on that amount of money. We did just fine. How did we do it? By being smart. We all took turns cooking. We found out, that "if" we combined our shopping, we could spend the total of $10 we were allowed to spend for two days of meals (there were seven people living in our house), worked a whole lot better than if one of us shopped on our own. No one starved. Everyone got enough food to eat. All on $5 per week. Same thing happened after I graduated and started work. Three of us rented an apartment. One of us, did not make a whole lot of money. We also had a budget of the same $5 per week.

Nice bit of nostalgia, Jerry, but that is not the assignment. I'll give you a second chance. Read the assignment and let me know where you went wrong.

First of all since I no longer drive, your request cannot be done. Second, for your request to be done, I would have to make sure my wife does not buy anything....not very likely. "If" I did drive, I would like to see how much I would actually need to spend to feed myself. It is something I would like to do. Because I am willing to bet that I can feed myself and not spend a whole lot of money. I already have a basic idea what I would do. Being a rice eater helps a whole lot I might add. Rice is not only cheap, but very filling, which is what we did when we were in college. Our seven people consumed I think around five pounds of rice per day. I WOULD NOT buy expensive meats, nor would I buy ANY packaged foods. No seafood....to expensive. I would buy things that were on sale, and not buy things that were not on sale. I would eat as little meat as possible...the more meat the more money it will cost you.

.

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