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How do you survive on minimum wage?

wtf?
in england i made 1600 dollars a month and free room and board, working in a fancy pub.illegal immigrants who dont speak english get those jobs in Europe.
WTF is wrong with america? canada isnt better enough from you guys. WTF
 
marsmellow said:
I was wondering how is it possible to survive on minimum wage. How does somebody do this?

Okay, here's a budget

$700 for rent and utilities
$150 for food
$100 for car insurance
$100 for gasoline
$250 for health insurance
$150 for entertainment

That's like $1500 a month. I think people who get the minimum wage earn about $900 a month. So how is it possible to live on such a small amount of money?
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Crime, quite possibly.
 
ThaiDie4 said:
Dude, I get like all my money from my family. I think when you are in school (I'm in college too) it's not really "mooching".... school is like your full time job. I look at it like this... being able to devote your full attention to school enables you to get good grades and get a degree, which in turn will land you a better job- then you can truely be independent.
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As you age it becomes more uncomfortable to be dependent on your parents in every sense, especially financially. I'm really looking forward to the day when I can be providing for them, and like you said with a good education leading to better employment oppourtunities, you can treat your parents better later in life.
 
In Ontario, Canada, I can't see how people don't survive on minimum wage. Minimum wage full time job gives just over $1500 Canadian after taxes.
Necessary things
$500 rent
$250 food
$150 phone/internet/cable (guesstimating, since my cell bill is waaaaaaaay less than most people I know)
$120 transportation (bus pass, can be used to get around town and in to Toronto from where I am)
The rest is extra, or funmoney, or go to savings/things that come up.

The rest is extra. And yet I have friends who are thousands of dollars in debt, never went to school after highschool (no student loans), don't have a car, etc. I literally do not know what they do with their money since they work fulltime (or close to, I think they work 35 instead of 40 hours/week) and get paid MORE than minimum wage.

Though Canada != US, so it's evidently quite different. But some people just can not budget and blow money they don't have on things they don't need.
 
As of the 31st of this month, min. wage in Ontario will be $10.25hr.

I am appreciative of a government who recognizes how to align cost of living with min. wage.
 
EFC18 said:
Crime, quite possibly.
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yarh. I'm a try to make it this year without doing crime. I'll report back heh.

But it is about competitive individualism. How do I feel better about eating trash and shoplifting than other people?

I make it look good. Rather, I used to (hopefully).

One more tip: Quit tobacco.
 
^ quitting tobacco saved me over $500 Since 2010 began.

sell weed for extra money
 
Roomates? I know they're a pain but it greatly helps out.
Certain electrical and cable companies have low income programs you can enroll in and get discounted utilities. Food stamps, carpool, coupons. There are millions of people out there surviving on minimum wage. You just have to use your resources and your head.
 
Bedhead said:
It isn't possible. Read Nickeled and Dimed: On not getting by in America. The author travels up and down the east coast working minimum wage jobs.

The people I know who work minimum wage either have a few room mates or live at home with their parents.
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yea i saw sumthing like that...its easy to live on min wage when your doing it for a book...alot more depressing when its your actual life..which leads you to drinking and drugs and thats wasting money...but whatever i live in queens, ny make about $650 a week take home and live with my mother.. after all the BS i cant seem to save a decent amount of money.. i pay my own bills..i truthfully would have a pretty hard time living alone...rent over here is around $1000 a month for a small one bedroom..nevermind bills...my car insurance is about $200 a month...truthfully unless your making alot of money living in NY sucks...nevermind manhattan
 
trainwreckmolly said:
it obviously depends on where you live. splitting rent with my gf for our apartment in Greenville NC was only $285 each. I actually did survive making minimum wage for a while.
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me and a friend couldnt get a cardbored box in NY for $285...i envy other states
 
RedLeader said:
Use your imagination. This is Bluelight afterall.
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use your imagination...????.....profit!

You need roommates or to find a dump ( I got lucky enough to happen upon a run down efficiency that was $250 a month when I was living off a little over min wage).

You need a job that provides food, but 5 dollars a day is enough to eat to survive. You could even do it veggie. You'd be missing a lot of the nutrients you need and eating tons of pasta, but 11lbs of pasta can be bought for $24 bucks. Thats 50ish servings at just under 50c per serving. Lima beans $7 for 5lbs. Corn is $12.50 for 12.5 lbs. Rice is cheap... You can find dried items like this in bulk extremely cheap and not have to eat meat. If you simply can't handle drinking water, tea is diiiiirt cheap. Grocery stores put stuff on sale sometimes where they double up on coupons or have it like $2 off and the item will be marked 2.32 or something ridiculous. If you're serious about eating cheaply, it can most certainly be done. Most people can't handle eating the same thing over and over though.

You need not spend 150 dollars on entertainment. Cheaper car insurance, and wayyyy cheaper health insurance. Bike when you can, where you can.

It may not be the best living situation to be in, but you can indeed live extremely cheaply.

350 -500 rent/utilities ( I know people with 350 total rent/utilities. it takes roomies)
$100 health insurance (I had a plan under Bluecross/Blueshield that was 80)
$125 food (this is if you're getting no food from your job *not stealing, but eating for free as a part of your pay... recognized by the owner*)
$100 gas (you really need to cut this down to absolute necessity. if you can get to work within 20 minutes on a bike, then thats what you should be doing.)
$cheap car insurance, you can make yourself legal for a lot less than you can buy something that will actually do you any good : /

$700 - 950 a month.
 
In U$A U can get on Section 8 Program but it may take a coupla years, then U pay 30% of Ur income on rent, the rest is subsidized. U might hafta live in a Section 8 ghetto unless U can find a landlord willing to go along with the Program.

I ate lotsa lentils & rice (in U$A U can qualify for Food Stamps, they give U quite alot of FS), took vitamins. Bought sacks of potatos, peanut butter, bananas, apples (fruit in season), ate corn & soybeans (ground it up in a grinder to cook 'em faster).

I lived in a VW bus for several years and traveled to where there was work . . . like canning factories (camped out on a rancher's property with his permission), railroad (camped out in little towns we worked in), day labor in Portland OR (camped out in an industrial area near the Willammett River.

This was 25-years ago . . . it was fun! :) Saved up $$$ from the railroad & didn't hafta work for two years!
 
Cyc said:
As of the 31st of this month, min. wage in Ontario will be $10.25hr.

I am appreciative of a government who recognizes how to align cost of living with min. wage.
Click to expand...

I, too, am somewhat baffled by this.

My very clumsy and dyscalculic balance sheet looks something like this:

$475 rent for a house I don't live in.
$0 rent for my parents' house.
$0 for bus pass that I retained from a college I don't attend anymore
$30 or so on food or snacks outside the house
$400 or so for wine, codeine, and Rxed meds.
$[uncertain number] sporadic debt repayment, almsgiving, and treating friends or parents.
$[whatever is left] into my Travel Savings account ;).
 
Get a roommate, split that fat rent bill in half, even if ur splitting a room... i think 700 is pretty high for someone trying to make it on minimum wage.
 
Kanada also sucks, because it's just that much more American than Europe. Hopefully the next PM's gov't will change this. Especially the Maritimes - it's really like a log they're letting float down south. Don't flush us out, you fuckers Westies
 
roomates, don't own a car, don't smoke, don't drink much. Seems like that would be a winning recipe.
 
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