- Rent: $500 (Moxie doesn't chip in for rent)
- Electricity: $100 avg
- Cell phone: $40
- Groceries (for me and Moxie): $200 (I know it seems like a lot but this is all of my meals for the month...assuming I three square a day it at home)
- Utilities: $20
- Credit card minimum payment: $150
- Health insurance: $100
Now if I work a full 40 hours a week at $7.25 my monthly take home pay (80 hours minus 20% for misc taxes and Social Security) is roughly $928.00. My monthly expenses are $1110. Hmmm...seems like I'm $182 short. Well...huh. I could stop paying my credit card debt. Shit, I'm still $32 short. Huh. Well, I never really get sick so...look I have an "extra" $68 by cancelling health insurance! Boo-yah Jack in the Box here I come!
I'm not exactly sure where I'm going with this exercise (besides being depressing). I guess over the last few years my opinions and viewpoints have shifted - some greatly, some not so much. I used to soapbox about exploiters of welfare and the damned lazy poor, etc. etc. but well I'm pretty much living my life on government handouts. Sure I could be smart and tighten my belt and budget and pull myself up by my bootstraps. It might not be a bad thing if I didn't have the internet or a phone, I might read a book or spend more time in the library (on the internet) or I might be a better person and spend my time helping those who are worse off than me. All of this is something I've had on my mind and it has played into my - admittedly ignorant - political views. I'm still thinking about stuff so please don't go troll on this post but I would love to hear some of your thoughts.
Hope you and yours are well, safe, happy, and had something good to eat today.
It's interesting that you post this. We're doing fine now, but what you're describing is how I lived as an undergrad. I never had one job - I had a minimum of 2 and a short time max of 4.
ReplyDeleteI was able to hack this mostly because I was in my early twenties with no responsibility for anyone else but me.
Waitressing helped - you could make a lot more on the right shift - even if you were crappy at it (I was!).
I think my view now is no longer black and white (I started at the liberal end). My view point now tends to shift based on the facts.
There are some folks out there that are lazy and irresponsible. I know a few. They're in the hole and complain about how they can't afford their property taxes, you offer to help them, and then you find out that they're going on a trip to Mexico to a resort with their girlfriends instead of paying their taxes (true story). They tic me off.
On the other hand, I know some folks that find themselves in the minimum wage hole and it can be extremely hard to dig out without extraordinary effort - sometimes a bit of luck.
Sorry for the long comment, but this is something I think about alot - when I make a student loan payment, when I *finally* paid my credit card debt, when I hear from my friends...
As for you, I know you will be fine.