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Actually it isn't. A Box of apples that will keep for a month and last for a month, plus milk, cereal, bread, peanut butter and jelly. Then Rice, veggies, actual meat, bag of shrimp, etc.

Total cost about $50 a month. You can live on this and it is pretty healthy.

$50 is less than what most people spend on their cell phone. see my bit about the landline phone. or that whatchmacallit Magic Jack phone.. even less.

This frees up your money to buy essentials like food.

Fafnir wrote:Honestly, it's very important to get your recommended daily intake of RAMEN.

FTFY

I spend about $100 on food a month, and feel like I am splurging by buying Sirloin steak for making bulgogi with, and things like that. I find the best deals on fresh real food that I can.

I do not eat anything out of a box.

So I eat pretty "right"

I have lived on a food budget of $50 not that many years ago, and I ate real food. nothing from a box, barely anything canned either.

Shadowseer_Kim wrote:Actually it isn't. A Box of apples that will keep for a month and last for a month, plus milk, cereal, bread, peanut butter and jelly. Then Rice, veggies, actual meat, bag of shrimp, etc.

Total cost about $50 a month. You can live on this and it is pretty healthy.

What kind of magic meat are you buying that lasts a month and is cheap enough to buy all the rest of that and still be under $50? This is all assuming you are alone and have no kids to take care of either. A small bag of shrimp is going to be at least $5 and won't last a month, and probably not even more than a meal. Milk is, we'll say $2.75 a gallon so that right there is $10.50 a month. This of course isn't counting places like Alaska where milk can be $9.50 a gallon. Your numbers don't really add up, unless this is the 1970's. Living at starvation levels is not exactly healthy or something to aspire to.

Shadowseer_Kim wrote:Actually it isn't. A Box of apples that will keep for a month and last for a month, plus milk, cereal, bread, peanut butter and jelly. Then Rice, veggies, actual meat, bag of shrimp, etc.

Total cost about $50 a month. You can live on this and it is pretty healthy.

When I was in college, and not working, it used to cost me 110 USD for bread, turkey breast, cheese, ramen, and cereal (I eat dry cereal). That would last 3 weeks.

Granted, I lived in a city, and have a body that possesses more muscle than most, but that has to be considered when thinking of what people need for food.

There is this thing called a freezer. You bag up your meat products, and put them in, keeps longer.

A bag of shrimp I am referring to is usually at least 3 pounds, frozen, and about $6. This should last you way more than 1 meal.

Meat would not be an everyday thing. Other protein sources include peanut butter as listed, and beans which are also cheap.

There is always powdered milk if your milk.

Honestly though, I use at best 2 gallons of milk a month. Sometimes I only buy one, it is not an everyday item in my diet.

Your diet is up to you, most people overeat, or eat the more expensive options.

And yes, alone with no kids to support would be correct.

Shadowseer_Kim wrote:
A bag of shrimp I am referring to is usually at least 3 pounds, frozen, and about $6.

Again, where in God's name do you live?

That would be, at least, a 15 USD purchase here.

Shadowseer_Kim wrote:
Meat would not be an everyday thing. Other protein sources include peanut butter as listed, and beans which are also cheap.

Not at all healthy. Protein is not protein.

Shadowseer_Kim wrote:
Sometimes I only buy one, it is not an everyday item in my diet.

It should be if you're eating random protein.

Shadowseer_Kim wrote:
Your diet is up to you, most people overeat, or eat the more expensive options.

You healthy diet is not up to you. Your diet is healthy, or it isn't. What you like has no bearing on that.

Buy on sale, coupons, etc etc etc etc. I have survived on very little.

I have known people who ate nothing but Top Ramen for months on end.

It can be done, is it awesome? no. will it keep you alive. yes. The OP asked how people survive on minimum wage. This is how people do it.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
I live in Springfield Oregon..

No Sales tax state I guess helps, but last I knew, they never put the sales tax on food.

So you are using personal, anecdotal, single person, sustenance level feeding as a model? No, I don't think so. I also still don't believe you buy a months worth of all this:

Box of apples
Shrimp
Meat
Rice
Vegies
Cereal
Peanut Butter
Jelly

for only $50. You can have a starvation diet with so little you are buying, but not a healthy diet.

Also no, not everyone needs milk. Most people do not. a lot of people are lactose intolerant.

Shadowseer_Kim wrote:Buy on sale, coupons, etc etc etc etc. I have survived on very little.

I have known people who ate nothing but Top Ramen for months on end.

Survival isn't the argued point, that eating healthy costs more money than not eating healthy is the argued point.

Shadowseer_Kim wrote:Also no, not everyone needs milk. Most people do not.

There are 11 essential amino acids. If you're not consuming animal protein every day, then you need to drink milk every day.

Shadowseer_Kim wrote:
No Sales tax state I guess helps, but last I knew, they never put the sales tax on food.

To be honest, regardless of sales tax, I think you're lying. Maybe without intention, but still lying. Or, at least, failing to understand what a healthy diet entails.

Just curious, if you literally ate nothing but ramen and drank water you would die after like a month or so wouldn't you?

Necroshea wrote:Just curious, if you literally ate nothing but ramen and drank water you would die after like a month or so wouldn't you?

I don't know if you would die, but you certainly would feel...off.

Once again. eating healthy is not more expensive.

It just isn't.

An example. Carrot about 10 cents, Bell Pepper for about 60 cents, Cup of rice about 25 cents, Half an Onion about 10 cents, A serving of shrimp (about 6) 60 cents. Total cost = $1.65

Thats a good meal, and about 560 calories. Skip the expensive bell pepper, and the meal is about 530 calories and $1.05 If you get a good sale on stuff, buy onions in bulk etc, more like 75 cents.

Compare to say box of "Suddenly Pasta Salad" Which my housemate eats too often, cost about $2.50 plus 10 cents of Mayonaise, so $2.60. Serving size, 1/2 cup, which is 350 calories, and claim the box is 4.5 servings at that serving size. Likelyhood you will eat 1 serving at a time? yea right.
You still need to add something to get the protein. say a can of tuna, about 75 cents to a dollar. I will give you the lower cost. Total cost $3.35 for about what 3 meals if you if you serve yourself about 3/4 a cup of it. Equalling $1.11 each.

Even if you divide by the 4.5 servings they claim. Each serving will cost you 74 cents and be about 390 calories with the tuna added.

Cost is about the same, give or take a penny but for nutrition purposes, My meal beats it out everytime.

Which would you rather eat?


Actually I screwed up my math. My meal of rice, and fresh veggies also has more calories, on top of being better for you.

Most people, especially young men, have absolutely no idea how to grocery shop is the real problem I think.

It's easy in England. I had a month off the beer in September, I think i spent about £100. Living expenses would be what.. 500?

I could live off about 650, so minimum wage would be piece of cake.

Although.. booze aside I have a spartan lifestyle. I don't buy clothes, jewels or much technology.

Shadowseer_Kim wrote:
An example. Carrot about 10 cents, Bell Pepper for about 60 cents, Cup of rice about 25 cents, Half an Onion about 10 cents, A serving of shrimp (about 6) 60 cents. Total cost = $1.65

1.65 x 3 x 30 = 148.5

Shadowseer_Kim wrote:I will give you the lower cost.

Of course you will, it favors your argument.

Shadowseer_Kim wrote:...more like 75 cents.

.75 x 3 x 30 = 67.5

Good job.

And this is before I go into all the nutritional problems with what you'e outlined.

@dogma - don't be an itiot. No one is suggesting you eat that meal 3 times a day.

it was an example of 1 meal of crap compared to 1 good meal, proving that your theory of eating healthy is more expensive is simply wrong.

Also you used the most expensive figure, which suggests you have absolutely no idea how to do proper grocery shopping. See my comment above.

Use my 75 cents number and you get $67.50. If this is all you ate, 3 meals a day.

Now if you include my earlier suggestions, peanut butter, jelly, bread, fruit etc. You can get to $50 a month.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I was suggesting the lower cost of 75 cents on a can of tuna compared to $1.. which favoured you in my arguement. I still came out ahead.

Shadowseer_Kim wrote:
Now if you include my earlier suggestions, peanut butter, jelly, bread, fruit etc. You can get to $50 a month.

If you don't want to eat healthy. I can eat at McDonalds for less than 50 US per month if all I care about is not dying.

Shadowseer_Kim wrote:
I was suggesting the lower cost of 75 cents on a can of tuna compared to $1.. which favoured you in my arguement. I still came out ahead.

No it didn't. A lower cost of any foodstuff favors your, as my argument is "Eating healthy food is, in American, more expensive than eating non-healthy food."

And, even with the .75 number you come out behind, as it leads to a cost above 50 USD.

What are you even playing at?

I disagree with you for a change Dogma.. I definitely spend less when im living healthy. When I train through the week I spend feth all.. I have a protein bar and a glass of milk for breakfast, a tuna sarnie or something for lunch, a protein shake after phys and chicken and beans or similar for evening meal. It's easy and cheap to eat healthy.

Then I get to a weekend.. knack a few pizzas, a couple pints of ice cream and a loaf of bread and I've spent in two days what i did in the five prior!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Although this may be due to volume.. but either way I think the price is about the same.

I mean, I'm the same, but my "not healthy" is "Take 20 shots and eat a large pizza." not "Eat ramen once a day." or "Subsist on McDonalds for 1 month."

And even then my large pizza and 20 shots would cost ~85 USD where I live, whereas 85 USD will buy you a godawful amount of ramen.

There is an awful lot of wacky suggestions here. Don't have car payments, just go buy a car outright? Laughable. First off, it's going to really tough to even find a drivable beater for less than $500. I agree with the thought, but it's just so disconnected with reality. Go to the supermarket and buy a month of food for $50? Beyond math that is so preposterous it doesn't require debunking, it ignores the fact that many poor people live in urban or rural areas that do not have supermarkets, and so you're limited to the expensive, unhealthy crap they stock at the bodega or convenience store.

How do people live on minimum wage? Poorly. They eat lousy food that costs more than it does for the middle class, they pay rents on tiny apartments at rates that would pay off a house in most of the country inside a decade (subsidized by the government, so no one's a winner except the landlords), and get screwed at every possible avenue, be it higher interest rates on everything, fees to pay bills in person, opportunity costs of being limited to jobs that the bus goes near, and so on and so forth. They live poorly, and they hope not to get any kind of illness that requires more than a single trip to the emergency room.

No car or private motorised transport of any kind.
No boozing (or at least very little).
No clubbing.
Join the "bridge and tunnel crowd" (commuters).
Live with parents until you can afford to move out or get a better job.

Been there, done that.

Food - Average 7.50/day. 7.50*30 = 225

Nothing you can do about food. It's a necessary expense.

Rent - 400 (that's about average for cheap places I've seen in dallas)
Water - 30
Electricity - 70

Get a roommate and cut these costs in half! 2 people can share a 1 bedroom apartment - someone gets the couch.

Gas - 50*4 = 200 (filling up once a week)...car payments

Don't get a car. Take the bus or split the cost with a friend. The amount of time you actually use a car is negligible. Two (or more) people could easily share a vehicle. Also, $50 to fill up the car every week is pretty high. That's at least 14 gallons a week. I have an old Honda with a 10 gallon tank that I fill up twice a month, about $30 every two weeks.

cell phone bills

Don't get a cell phone. Or get a cricket phone for $25/month if you absolutely need a cell phone.

student loans

If you've got student loans you shouldn't be working minimum wage. Or go with income based repayment - if you make less than $15,000 per year you don't have to pay anything.

Shadowseer_Kim wrote:Actually it isn't. A Box of apples that will keep for a month and last for a month, plus milk, cereal, bread, peanut butter and jelly. Then Rice, veggies, actual meat, bag of shrimp, etc.

Total cost about $50 a month. You can live on this and it is pretty healthy.

$50 is less than what most people spend on their cell phone. see my bit about the landline phone. or that whatchmacallit Magic Jack phone.. even less.

This frees up your money to buy essentials like food.

Box of apples - Small Gala @ 1/day - $10.23 (I'm referring to the really small ones meant for kids lunches.)
Milk - $1.50 average, if you hunt for sales @ 2/month - $3.00
Cereal - $2.50 per bag of cheap gak that's bad for you @ 3/month - 7.50
Bread - $1.25 for cheap store brand that will make you really fat @ 1/week - $5
Peanut Butter - ~$9.00 for the big 40 oz. jar @ 1.5 a month - $13.50
Jelly - More than peanut butter, but let's pretend it's the same - $13.50

We're now at 52.73 pre-tax. This post is extremely hyperbolic :/



To answer OP, roommate is the only real way to work it. Find someone of like mind and of similar economic status to prevent one of you from moving out too early. As someone who has gone from being homeless in 2010 to being well enough off to have voluntarily gone to the doctor on his own tab yesterday for the first time ever, you really, really need to just put up with living with someone else. Be honest about your shortcomings and avoid petty disputes, though they're somewhat inevitable. If you want cheaper bills, sleep with people. If you spend the night at their place they'll often feed you and will feel the need to accommodate you as a guest to some degree (heater/ac, entertainment); become a regular and you'll get less of a red carpet treatment but then have fridge-raiding rights. If anyone ever gives you something for free, act super grateful, way over the top as they'll give you more free stuff. Ask for gift cards. Walk places if it's within 3 miles. Go to your local Mexican supermarket to buy meat in bulk (I prefer these places now). That's the best I've got.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Shadowseer_Kim wrote:
An example. Carrot about 10 cents, Bell Pepper for about 60 cents, Cup of rice about 25 cents, Half an Onion about 10 cents, A serving of shrimp (about 6) 60 cents. Total cost = $1.65

Carrots and bell peppers are cheap but you're undercutting. Onions cost way more than that. Where are these 10 cent shrimp coming from?

Don't mess with the Produce guy

Also just remembered, a couple of cheap meals:

Cheapest ground meat you can find (usually pork or turkey). Go for the biggest pack for best deal so you can freeze the extra and pre-ration it.
Bag of frozen veggies or fresh ones (peppers are ultra cheap if you can deal with the spiciness)
Rice for filler, preferably brown as white is absolute gak for you.

Make patties on the stove top and cook. Barbecue sauce is cheap flavor, build up a collection of those $1.00 spices, have fun

Cheap tortillas (I prefer to minimize the carbs and multigrain if you can splurge)
Store brand pizza sauce in the jar
Fresh veggies of your choice
Optional - Canned meat (splurge only)

Make like pizza. Toss them in the oven for a few minutes and you're set. Mushrooms/cheese are amazing too!

@dogma and others I am sorry for getting cranky on this thread last night. I was pretty tired, should have been in bed, and had just had a discussion with my housemate yesterday about why she spends $300 or so a month on groceries compared to my $100 or so.

I crossed the line implying you were being an idiot. again I apologize.

biccat wrote:
Get a roommate and cut these costs in half! 2 people can share a 1 bedroom apartment - someone gets the couch.

I think that the 400 number is for apartments with roommates. I certainly have never lived in any major city in which you can rent an apartment for that price.

biccat wrote:
If you've got student loans you shouldn't be working minimum wage.

That sentiment caused the revolution in Egypt.

Shadowseer_Kim wrote:@dogma and others I am sorry for getting cranky on this thread last night.

Meh, worse has happened. Just go back and read the thinly veiled hostility between biccat and myself, or further back and read the completely unveiled hostility between myself and Fraz. Or type "Gailbraithe" into the search bar.

No worries.

Necroshea wrote:

KingCracker wrote:Or more importantly, work on finishing your schooling so you have a better chance to get a better job.

In my case, I was a rather thick headed chap coming out of highschool with a parent mentality. I wanted to get a degree and not be an uneducated dredge of society. Well a bachelors in Business/HR later I'm back where I started. My degree takes me no where, and I'm left with a ridiculous loan because I made a bad decision on which college to go to.

Hey dont feel bad. My oldest brother has a 4 year degree in Psychology and Criminal Justace and a 2 year in....something else Anywho, he has all that, and works for a company that are basically the middlemen in approving loans. So.................... Im not saying its GOING to be better, but it will certainly help

DFW has lots of apartments for 400 or just a little over at least, FWIW (several under but they're pretty ghetto). I know housing is drastically different in other places.

dogma wrote:

biccat wrote:
Get a roommate and cut these costs in half! 2 people can share a 1 bedroom apartment - someone gets the couch.

I think that the 400 number is for apartments with roommates. I certainly have never lived in any major city in which you can rent an apartment for that price.

While it's been a few years since I've lived on my own, I paid less than that when I had to have my own place. Any area with a decently sized university will have inexpensive housing available. Even so, $800/mo for a one-bedroom apartment is high outside of New York.

dogma wrote:

biccat wrote:If you've got student loans you shouldn't be working minimum wage.

That sentiment caused the revolution in Egypt.

I'm not sure what you're getting at, and I'm pretty sure that among the causes of the revolution in Egypt, that particular sentiment would rank pretty low.

Then again, my personal theory is that anyone who isn't independently wealthy (or from a wealthy family) should go to college for job training rather than "expanding their horizons" or whatever.

biccat wrote: Even so, $800/mo for a one-bedroom apartment is high outside of New York.

I paid $600 to live with 5 roommates (against city code) in a house in St. Paul, Mn.

Where my parents live, in an, admittedly wealthy, Chicago suburb a 1 bedroom apartment would run upwards of $700 a month.

My one bedroom, college town apartment cost me $1000 a month. It had many amenities, but the lowest price I saw on market was $600.

biccat wrote:
I'm not sure what you're getting at, and I'm pretty sure that among the causes of the revolution in Egypt, that particular sentiment would rank pretty low.

Not really. In fact, many analysts have cited dissatisfaction with the Mubarak government, stemming from high rates of education, but low rates of proper employment, as a key factor in the revolt.

Anyway, I'm getting at what I assumed was you making a comment about poor major choice.