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Thinking about Minimum Wage

January 4th, 2008 at 06:18 pm

I didn't do too well in the saving department last year so I had been thinking about it and how to do better this year. Then things got kinda crummy at work and I actually thought about quitting and getting a low stress low paid job.

Thinking about living on minimum wage made me think maybe that is a way I could save more. I think the problems at work are transitory but... it's pretty bad right now.

So I made up a new budget and with the exception of my Roth IRA contributions and my son's college savings I am going to try and live on $6.00 an hour this year. Even the lowest employers around here pay that.

I have an advantage in that I live in a fairly low COL area and I own a small (pretty crummy) home with a very small mortgage payment. It isn't a slam dunk though because my car is pretty old (1994) and said house is also pretty old.

Here's how it looks

$6 time 40 hrs per week=$240 a week or $960 a month

Tithe 96.00
House payment 165.00
Utilities 180.00 (est)
Food 150.00
Gasoline 40.00 (I don't drive much)
Life Insurance 32.00
CableTV/Internet 108.00
Phone 30
Misc (Clothing, Medical, Pets etc) 75.00
Car/Homeowners Ins 68.00
Property Taxes 44.00

Total=988, I think I can get this down with small frugalities, plus my Utiliies are estimated high. We will see. I may have to call the cable company about a discount. I'd hate to go back to dial up that would be a last resort.

Since it is one week until payday (Jan 11) I am giving myself $200 to pay for this weeks expenses. 2 Utilities are due on the 10th.

Let's see how it goes.

Posted in Budgeting | 2 Comments »

2 Responses to “Thinking about Minimum Wage”

  1. Broken Arrow Says:
    January 4th, 2008 at 08:36 pm 1199478974
    1199478974

    Welcome back. Hope things will be better for you this year. Smile

  2. denisentexas Says:
    January 5th, 2008 at 02:43 am 1199501019
    1199501019

    If your COL is low you can live on minimum or slightly above it. I did it for years. Yes, it's been tough but we've managed. I work retail because I like it but I also work it because it's fairly low stress as long as you aren't in management. I tried management and the stress just wasn't worth the small pay increase I got so back to non-management I went. Your expenses are low enough that living on $6 is doable. Maybe not always fun but very doable. Smile The biggest problem I run into is saving. It's so very hard to save when you live so close to the edge, already!

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