How little could you make and still be ok?

[heartlikealion]

I “get by” now on less than $3000/mo but I don’t have real savings or a retirement plan right now so I hardly consider it getting by properly. New side job will start soon but it will only add ~$200/month to my budget and hope to put most of that into things like my auto fund. My kids aren’t here that many days a month so that affects my grocery needs. I haven’t been looking closely at my monthly grocery spending but I think I’m fairly frugal there. 

[Ann.without.an.e]

On 12/14/2022 at 10:35 AM, mommyoffive said:

Agree and same for me.  I was forced into it is the only thing you did after high school.  I am not doing that to my kids.  We have open conversations that college is not the only path forward. But we will also support them if they choose that .

Also @Carrie12345  I think it is unwise to make our kids feel like they must choose any one path. DH really wanted to go to college and he would've done well. His dad was so negative on it with his "real mean don't do that" mentality that he joined the Air Force instead. 

We never forced a path on our kids and never will. Because of that we have the spectrum so far lol. One went to to a top ten university on a full ride merit scholarship, the other was perfectly capable of getting into a good college but chose tech school and it has worked out really, really great for him. He didn't want to get stuck at a desk, he wanted to work with his hands. He made pretty good money right out of his 2 year degree program and truly excels at what he does. Third, genius level smart, wanted nothing to do with college options. She was hired without a degree right out of high school and she is doing well as a paralegal. Youngest wants to go to a four year college since he is leaning toward engineering or the medical field. I'm pretty sure he'll need college to accomplish his goals either way. 

I think when we pigeon hole them, we do everyone a disservice. 

Edited December 16, 2022 by Ann.without.an.e

[BlsdMama]

On 12/13/2022 at 9:23 AM, Quill said:

Well, I think this is a fuzzy line anyway unless/until you must live it. I didn’t include college costs in mine because if we were really scraping by, we would have to explore a different strategy for post-high school, whether that would be free community college, Pell grant, GI bill or pursuing a trade. However, so long as that’s not a contraint I have to abide, I’m paying for college. 
 

Food is similar, and clothing, and entertainment and everything. I have lived close to the bone in my life and I currently live with a good cushion of breathing room. My figure is not the barest of bare bones because I would not choose to live that way unless I was out of options. But my figure is also assuming I would not pay for college or buy the nicest food or take bus trips to Broadway if we were just scraping by. 

If I were advising a young person, I would not present them with the barest bare bones idea for what it takes to live; not as any sort of goal anyway. It takes a specific set of skills and temperament to live super frugally long-term and if you set the standard so low, it’s going to get old rather quickly. 

This.

For the survey to represent any meaningful end, it would need tighter perameters.
If my husband loses his job tomorrow and finds another at half the salary, a way to *live* must be found.
People downsize houses, change to an apartment.  Their version of healthy goes to dried beans, rice, bone broth, eggs, seasonal veggies.
If you're facing an income loss that is bare bones, college what? State college is $10K. Pell would kick in for half. Kiddo works to pay the rest. It can be done without parents.  Entertainment budget goes to $0. Internet is used at the library. 

Essentially I marked what we would need to maintain a similar lifestyle if we cut down our "extras" but maintained same basic needs expenses.

[lewelma]

NZ has had a duopoly for grocery stores for 20 years, so we have what looks to be collusion. The government is threatening to have forced sales to another operator, and is looking at subsidising a foreign store to come into the space until they can get established. Point is, our food prices in the entire country are crazy high compared to median income. 

[Arcadia]

One of my neighbors is a young married couple. Their landlord who is our former neighbor charges $2,500 for the one bedroom condo (we have gym, jacuzzi and pool as condo facilities). If they shop mainly at the asian supermarkets instead of at the more expensive supermarkets, they can eat very well for less than $500 including occasional takeouts/togos from places like Panda Express, Pokeworks. They work nearby and use only one car so gasoline cost is similar to ours at less than $200 even with California crazy gas prices (about $4/gallon). So for them $4k monthly take home (after tax, 401k, insurance) would be comfortable and they are dual income so earning at least double that.

When my husband first started working in the US in 2005, his take home pay was $5.6k monthly and we put any “leftovers” into emergency savings. Our mortgage was $2.7k then (home loan and HELOC) for our one bedroom condo.