Re: Living From Paycheck to Paycheck Gets Harder


"Rita" <Rita@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:td3qh39i6fpqh97bht13ceu7rl8jbq76gq@xxxxxxxxxx
On Mon, 22 Oct 2007 10:11:57 -1000, "Jerry Okamura"
<okamuraj005@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


"Rita" <Rita@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:cv1oh3d3eua7jmf61dtv2jjqispblnnoda@xxxxxxxxxx
On Sun, 21 Oct 2007 16:39:03 -0700, Islander <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Jerry Okamura wrote:

"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.

Don't forget, Jerry, that the assignment was for a family of four. Are
you going to feed your family only rice or are you going to attempt to
be a responsible person and feed them a healthy, balanced diet? How will
you provide Vitamin A and D to your children if you do not feed them
seafood? Where will you get protein if you do not feed them meat? How
will you assure that your children and wife get enough calcium? You
are not thinking this through.

But, you could do the assignment if you wanted to. Don't your local
grocery stores include a sales flier in your newspaper? You could
gather most of the information that you would need from the newspaper
and a few web sites.

I expect the poor know more about how to survive being poor than
Jerry does. But I thought the gist of the thread was how the middle
class is having problems making ends meet.

The government allots about $21 per week per person for those who
qualify for the Food Stamp Program.

I found a website where a number of people took the "Food Stamp
Challenge" -- spending no more than $21 a week.

By the way it is not necessary to eat either meat or fish to get
adequate protein. But to exclude these foods you have to work at it
to find cheap substitutes -- a grain and a legume together provide
a complete protein. But most vegetarians purchase protein rich
foods such as tofu or Boca Burgers and unless they are vegans
cheese and eggs and milk products for their protein requirements.
None of which are cheap.

These were adults and so the nutrition needs of kids was not an
issue. But the overall nutrition that can be purchased for $21
a week definitely was.

Here are a couple of entries --


Last night I made 2 burritos and ate some crackers. I baked 4 chicken
thighs and froze 2 for next week.

Okay, let us begin. In the first place buying a whole chicken is a whole
lot cheper than buying only parts of a chichen. Crackers not only do not
have a whole lot of nutrition, but are also too expensive, when compared to
buying bread for instance. And bread is a whole lot more filling.

Not cheaper in all cases. Supermarkets often run "specials" on
certain chicken parts. White rice, which you say you
ate as a large part of your college diet, isn't very nutritious
either. This person at least bought brown rice and beans to
constitute a whole protein.


Yes, but the advantage rice has is, it is cheap and it is fulling.

.

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