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As a college graduate, getting by on minimum wage is not easy. Pay wise we're looking at maybe 1200 a month, and that's if I can pull 40 hours every week. Well, after a breakdown expenditures...

Food - Average 7.50/day. 7.50*30 = 225
Rent - 400 (that's about average for cheap places I've seen in dallas)
Water - 30
Electricity - 70
Gas - 50*4 = 200 (filling up once a week)

Total - 925
Remaining Cash - 275

So, after all that you start adding in additional things like car payments, cell phone bills, student loans, etc. etc.

I don't think it's too unrealistic to say that you'd have less than a hundred dollars a month to pay for unneeded things, or save for emergencies.

With all that said, I've worked at placed while in college where people twice or even thrice my age are working, and getting paid little more than I did. These people surely have more things to pay for than I do. So how do people manage that kind of ordeal?

Wife/partner/room mates and state aid

If you have $100 a month to pay for unneeded things you are surviving quite nicely...

Working one full and one part-time, or two full-time jobs also helps.

corpsesarefun wrote:If you have $100 a month to pay for unneeded things you are surviving quite nicely...

Nerivant wrote:Working one full and one part-time, or two full-time jobs also helps.

Yes on both of those. Sad to say.

I dunno. Everyone should join the military. Free meals, free housing, free bullets to shoot, and cheap clothes!

If that's not your style, work two jobs, I guess.

Or more importantly, work on finishing your schooling so you have a better chance to get a better job. The wife is doing that currently. And in about a month or so Ill be producing various Cigarbox guitars for sale to add to the muneh.

Get rid of stuff you dont need. Get harder but better paying jobs that nobody wants to do (usually labor).

Before i started my own business, i didnt have a cell phone because its not needed unless you do.
I lived with people to split costs
Learn to cook instead of eating out
Dont have expensive hobbies
I bought a used car, etc.

Now that im more well off i still kept some of my old habits and therefore have tons of money left over every month. Id say 40% of my income goes to savings now.

I can agree with the above alot actually. Around here, we only have a few things we actually dont need, like TV. And in all honesty, if we absolutely had to cut spending down, we could drop around $200 a month in expenses. Thats a problem, for some reason, MOST people cant understand by not living beyond your means. I dont get it, because we live comfortably, more then alot of the people that live in our neighborhood, and we make ALOT less then they do.

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.

Get harder but better paying jobs that nobody wants to do (usually labor).

I've been trying to get into construction and other such jobs my whole life. I love labor intensive jobs. I'd rather be kneedeep in mud then sitting behind a desk from 8-5. Only problem is I can never find or get into such jobs. My father works pipeline, but he can't get me in. My family also seems to think it would be too tough for me (I really REALLY don't see where this is coming from. Guess because I'm the youngest?).

I really would prefer to go the military regardless of job situation, but a childhood of poor nutrition and limited play in sports left me with something of a gut. Been doing a lot of extreme sports post high school, but I'm not catching up to where I should be at all. I've heard different stories how they'll take you in if you think you can cut it, but I've also heard they'll just tell you to gtfo if you don't meet the requirements. I'd prefer to go marines btw.

Get you in? There are smaller businesses that hire without unions and all the politics that keep you out.
Worst care you can literally go door to door asking people if they need any house work done (if you are handy). My landscaper started out like that.

VanHammer wrote:Get you in? There are smaller businesses that hire without unions and all the politics that keep you out.
Worst care you can literally go door to door asking people if they need any house work done (if you are handy). My landscaper started out like that.

Think Imma start turning tricks on the corner. That market will never die

Keep looking. Look to businesses where you can get your hands dirty. But most of all, keep looking.

I had two roommates when I had a lower wage job in my early 20's. There is a saying about if you want to lose a friend move in with them....If that is not where you want to go it is all about trimming the fat so to speak. Cooking instead of eating precook food (meal in a box), and not eating out stretches your dollars more than you may know. Bike, jog or walk for short distances (distances will vary for each person, I used to go 10 miles on my bike to work several times a week, not bad on a bike) and carpool when possible. I still use a tracphone because it works out to about 5 bucks a month and I do not need internet access wherever I go. Meanwhile a family member o mine gets a new phone plan yearly due to not being able to keep up with the payments. His phone is way cooler than mine though. Aside from trimming the fat and doing without, sometimes even with all that you still need government assistance, or sell drugs. Choose wisely!

As for getting higher paying jobs with with little to no secondary education I always tell people go into wildland fire. 3-5k a month is pretty common in areas where fire danger is high. You work long hours, and the labor is pretty intense at times. There is a work rest ratio they must maintain but initial attack sometimes gets you a large sum of hours all at once. They take care of you, drive you home or to your sleep area so you don't fall asleep at the wheel, feed you provide your tents etc. The work is physically taxing, every fire season we have people make it a day or two then quit. Start of the season we would field 3 20, man teams, near the end of the season we would have 1. After a fire season you have cash, abs and a helluva farmers tan. Results may vary on the abs part, but you will jog/hike like a madman by the end. If you are competent there is room to move up in fire, they send you to classes and have programs to put you on course for an equivalent of a 2 year degree. There is work off season too with burning, layout and forest health (thinning/prevention work). With room to move up, traveling the country and pay/benefits it is a great job if you do not mind physical labor. Pay varies but up here as an EFF (Emergency Fire Fighter) pay is $13 an hour. There is a investment of boots which you must have to work. Before you can go on fires you must complete a course of wildland fire which they pay you for, they tell you it is a good idea to buy boots with that money.

Anyways that got a bit off of how to make it with a minimum wage job. I thought to offer an alternative to the usual retail type jobs that pay low and require people to put up with a lot.

J-Roc77 wrote:There is a saying about if you want to lose a friend move in with them

I very much agree. Although it's good to hear others say the same thing, for a while I thought it was because I'm just a rather loud and outgoing person that couldn't get along with people for extended periods of time.

J-Roc77 wrote:As for getting higher paying jobs with with little to no secondary education I always tell people go into wildland fire. 3-5k a month is pretty common in areas where fire danger is high. You work long hours, and the labor is pretty intense at times. There is a work rest ratio they must maintain but initial attack sometimes gets you a large sum of hours all at once. They take care of you, drive you home or to your sleep area so you don't fall asleep at the wheel, feed you provide your tents etc. The work is physically taxing, every fire season we have people make it a day or two then quit. Start of the season we would field 3 20, man teams, near the end of the season we would have 1. After a fire season you have cash, abs and a helluva farmers tan. Results may vary on the abs part, but you will jog/hike like a madman by the end. If you are competent there is room to move up in fire, they send you to classes and have programs to put you on course for an equivalent of a 2 year degree. There is work off season too with burning, layout and forest health (thinning/prevention work). With room to move up, traveling the country and pay/benefits it is a great job if you do not mind physical labor. Pay varies but up here as an EFF (Emergency Fire Fighter) pay is $13 an hour. There is a investment of boots which you must have to work. Before you can go on fires you must complete a course of wildland fire which they pay you for, they tell you it is a good idea to buy boots with that money.

Anyways that got a bit off of how to make it with a minimum wage job. I thought to offer an alternative to the usual retail type jobs that pay low and require people to put up with a lot.

That looks...AWESOME! I'm surprised I've never heard of it before, and now I'm def going to be looking into it. Thanks for the heads up!

Here in Chicago its a bit tougher to survive on minimum wage.

But eating in, and Having a room mate or two can help a lot.

One or two others to share the electric and water bill helps.

yea, minimum wage is tough! try for a room mate... if not you could always take up being a jigalo

Tech support brah. I make double minimum wage +benefits, and its super easy work.

Spend a lot of my time at work on these forums lol.

Necroshea wrote:

That looks...AWESOME! I'm surprised I've never heard of it before, and now I'm def going to be looking into it. Thanks for the heads up!

I live in eastern Washington, pretty good fire danger here. Where you live it may not be such a big deal, it is very much regional. Places like California have great opportunities with the CDF, they do not often ask for assistance from 2 teams, only type 1 (in wildland fire type 1 is a higher degree than type 2, opposite in structural fire). I think it is a better alternative than oil fields due to being out in the woods and travel. Only reason I quit is because I had a kid, I didn't want to be gone 4-6 months at a time and not see him during these younger years.

Samus_aran115 wrote:I dunno. Everyone should join the military. Free meals, free housing, free bullets to shoot, and cheap clothes!

If that's not your style, work two jobs, I guess.

Grocery ads come out on Tuesday and Wednesday. We watch them like a hawk for deals. Rice is cheap, those $5 rotteserrie chickens are too, if you know when they mark them down to $1 late at night that helps too. Extreme sales are a time to stock up...like couponers...oh yeah don't forget coupons. Use your bicycle to get around when you can... Being poor is a lifestyle.

Budgeting and looking over your priorities.

Right now most of my money goes to my car because I'm an idiot and bought a 47 year-old pony. *sigh* all the hard work will pay off eventually.

Horst wrote:Tech support brah. I make double minimum wage +benefits, and its super easy work.

Spend a lot of my time at work on these forums lol.

Nods wisely.

/Brofist

You can always try canvassing, most people wash out, but if you're any good you can make ~20 USD/hr.

Its a pretty easy gig too, if you can take rejection and activist co-workers.

Ouze wrote:

Horst wrote:Tech support brah. I make double minimum wage +benefits, and its super easy work.

Spend a lot of my time at work on these forums lol.

Nods wisely.

/Brofist

Not if you work in the Casino industry.

J-Roc77 wrote:Pay varies but up here as an EFF (Emergency Fire Fighter) pay is $13 an hour.

That does not seem that good to me.

Out of interest, what is the minimum wage, and how does it compare with the cost of living in the US

Minimum wage here in texas, and central US for that matter (with a couple states to the east) is a whopping 7.25

Average cost of living is 46,742

Minimum wage is supposed to be tough to survive on. It should make people strive to better themselves through increasing thier skills, then they can find better paying work.

People making minimum wage should not have things like car payments, cell phones, or cable tv.

Buy a cheap car outright. Get a land line for your phone. Watch free video online for entertainment, or get Netflix instead of cable if you must watch tv/movies.

Live like every other young minimum wage earner has in the past. Find the best rental housing deal you can find and enough housemates to fill it.

Quad apartments are not ideal, but since they are small and have a kitchen shared with 3 other people. You get a big room, your own bathroom and fridge. They are cheap. It is basically like having housemates you only have to share a kitchen with. Quads and apartments also tend to have the garbage, water and electricity bills included in the rent.

Eat right, cook your own meals, pack your own lunch, save for things you want.

Not rocket science. If you get married and your spouse also works minimum wage, your living conditions can vastly improve.

@VanHammer - nicely done, sounds a lot like me. I can not afford to put as much into savings as all that, but then I have a mortgage and car payment and other debts to pay off. Once my credit cards and car are paid off, I will be looking at the same sort of thing. More money into my IRA/savings.

Shadowseer_Kim wrote:Minimum wage is supposed to be tough to survive on.

I'm fairly sure that's not its purpose.

Shadowseer_Kim wrote:
Eat right...

Is actually really difficult if you have little disposable income. Well, unless your definition of "right" is flexible.

Necroshea wrote:Average cost of living is 46,742

Median Household Income: $26,364

dogma wrote:

Shadowseer_Kim wrote:
Eat right...

Is actually really difficult if you have little disposable income. Well, unless your definition of "right" is flexible.

Honestly, it's very important to get your recommended daily intake of MSG.