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Could you live off of $438 a week?
What's it like to live in poverty? Unless you've been there, it's hard to know. But every day, millions of Americans have to make tough choices about how they will survive, what they will eat, and where they will live. When you have very little money, the financial decisions you are forced to make are not only difficult, but also life changing.
Marketplace Money -- in collaboration with the Wealth and Poverty Desk and KPBS in San Diego -- have focused on these important decisions in a special called "Tough Choices" airing this weekend on Public Radio stations and the Marketplace Money Podcast.
One story from the show explores how people who are not poor can experience what it's like to live in poverty. They take part in a nationwide Poverty Simulator, a real-life workshop that requires them to face the tough choices that people make when living at or below the poverty threshold.
The Poverty Simulator program is intensive, but we've condensed the experience into a simple interactive game above. Try it out above to see if you can get by supporting a family of four on just $22,811 in a year.
SPECIAL REPORT: Listen and read more stories and interviews from the Marketplace Money special report, "Tough Choices." Read more.
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This amount coincides the the weekly maximum in Oregon, where UI replaces up to 25% of your income (i.e., you would be making $94,000 or more to achieve this level). I can clearly see how acquaintences laid off from technology companies (e.g., Intel's largest R&D campus is in Hillsboro, OR) or a major law firm suddenly find themselves struggling and in a panic to downsize their lives. Some critics (who transfer their welfare-hating rhetoric to those who lost jobs for no fault of their own, a qualification for UI) don't understand that one can't just sell their home rapidly these days (and as of this date, there is a start to the housing recovery) to ditch the mortgage or recoup funds (not with so many still underwater, even as of today).
Even as a single professional, assuming that I can't relocate immediately and stuck with current housing costs, rapidly downsizing my life would allow me to just squeak by ... and that's as someone who lives a relatively simple lifestyle: my laptop is second-hand, retired from work; not a new gadget freak; don't eat out often, etc. Simplifying includes things like no more 401K contribution, no more investing, no flying home to Chicago for the holidays, etc.
I live on $891.00 a month disability and $120.00 food stamps. I live alone. I grow my own vegetables. Seedlings and seeds purchased with food stamps. I go fishing. I dry my clothes outside for free. I do NOT have credit cards, cable, cell phone or trash pick up. I have mortgage, car, car ins, lights,land phone/internet, water. My family are helping by buying my Rxs and non food stamp items. Each one is assigned certain items. That way it is a very small financial burden for each and they can look for sales and coupons for the items they contribute. For the months I have to pay for inspection sticker or license tag renewal, I receive assistance to pay my light bill thus freeing up the money for these annual expenses. If you have any more ideas please advise.
I live off about half of that right now. After earning a Master's degree in Educational Leadership 3 years ago, I have been unable to find a full-time teaching job here in Florida. Since I was in school, I am not eligible to receive unemployment assistance.
I survive by substitute teaching whenever I can. My car has been repossessed, but I was able to get it back by borrowing $1000 to catch up on the payments. I stopped paying credit card debts 2 years ago. Fortunately, the $50,000 I owe in student loans is on hold, thanks to government forbearance. There are many nights that I go to bed hungry. I lost my home last year to foreclosure, and now live in a tiny efficiency with utilities included.
I have heard friends suggest that I don't work hard enough, or that I should try cutting back. I don't know where else to cut. I need the car to get to work, and I've sold almost everything I own. I never go out, and I have no cable TV, although internet is included with the rent.
I hope to find a teaching job next year, but the prospects are dim, with so many teachers already laid off and looking for work. Sometimes I wonder whether I and the rest of society would be better off without a burden like me.
I, too, believe that this quiz is disingenuous. For the first decade of my marriage our family, which grew from two to six people, lived on an income that was only one to three thousand dollars above the poverty rate when the poverty rate for a family of four was at $18,500 for a year. We did not accept any form of government assistance - no food stamps, heat assistance, phone assistance or other such help. There were those who were worse off than us that needed the help more. Assistance is a limited asset. I knew elderly people, mentally ill, handicapped and physically disabled, and others who needed funding for their care.
My husband taught himself how to repair our cars. We didn't pay for our entertainment. We took walks, went to the beach, cross-country skied, visited friends and family, etc . About 90 per cent of our clothing was used clothing passed on to us. We ate many casseroles which stretched the food dollar. I stayed home and raised our children eliminating child care costs.
I have always been an advocate of teaching financial classes in junior high and high school. A part of that instruction should be the skills of living on less in case a person finds themselves living at a poverty level. I am shocked at what I see or hear people spending their money on when they do have a low income. There are many resources available for instruction produced by people who have chosen to live on significantly less money for a variety of reasons.
There is no way that I can take that quiz and make it work the way that my husband and I were able to make our family work on a "working poor" income. We didn't do anything exceptional; I think of the Amish, Hutterites, and other people who believe "a simple life is a better life" that live on much less than what we lived on.
I lived off $1600 a month when I was a single person out of graduate school. I lived in a nice apartment with a roommate. I used public transportation, which luckily, was 100% subsidized by work and robust in my city. I ate at home all the time as I had nobody to go out to dinner with and I ate vegetarian. I did not have TV or cable and did not pay for internet. No gym membership. I traveled (drove 200 miles) only once in 3 months and read a lot of books. My car got vandalized and had problems a few times, so it was close to a thousand dollars to get it fixed. I didn't save any money but always paid my credit card on time and donated $25 each month to charity. My expenses went up more than double when I got married and my husband became unemployed. I was supporting him. and my health insurance went up dramatically. He ate more than I did and my food bill tripled. He also cost more to entertain--wanted to go out for movies, eat at restaurants once a week, go on day trips. In addition, we were adjusting his immigration status and his fees to the government cost more than $2200. I paid for all these expenses on my take home pay of $2200 a month. I was not happy!
I use to live off $420 a month. No cell phone, no internet, no cable. Careful shopping, find a low cost place to rent. I had a car but it was paid for and only used for going to work and church. When I came off Active Duty, I had no job and two kids. We scrimped and saved and instead of going to school full time, it was part time at night. Took longer to get a degree, but it was cheeper. We did not have child care so I ended up taking night jobs (after school).
This "test" is set so you can't make the ends meet. You can always find ways to do this. (Come on, credit card bill? cable bill? cell phone bill? one of the most expensive hits for car use? High rent and home costs?)
I am a single person living in southeastern CT. I bring home about $1600 a month. I just barely get by. I have basic cable -- very basic -- for $12 a month. I use SpotTalk for my cell phone. It's a pay-as-you go so it costs only about $8 a month. But I own a mobile home and the lot fee, electricity, property taxes, insurance, and heat expenses are over $600 a month.
Having said that I am reasonably comfortable. I can't go out much or take lavish vacations and any "fun stuff" I want to purchase has to be carefully thought out and spread out over the year. I buy as much as I can from thrift stores. but I don't feel "deprived."
My real concern is that I have not been able to save. Nothing. I really need to find a living situation where I can share expenses with someone. It's too expensive to live alone.
Before listening to an interview on your program yesterday I hadn't realized how poor I am.
I work as a substitute teacher and make only $13 / hr before taxes!!!
I had to take early retirement from teaching and my monthly pension check is only $166 / month since the state deducts $641 each month to pay my health insurance premium (which btw has gone up 27% in the last 2 years!).
Being paid a mere $13 per hour as a substitute teacher is very insulting - I make more than that babysitting!
I've cut back on just about everything since retiring. I live simply but feel that I'm comfortable.
This quiz is disingenuous. For example, no mention is made of the subsidy offered for child care for parents who are working. There are referral agencies which will steer people to DCFS licensed day care. Many families receive a completely free subsidy. I know this because I teach at a program for which ALL our families are subsidized.
The choice to pay your electric bill, cable bill, cell phone bill and credit card bill doesn't allow for the possibility that you have neither a cell phone nor cable TV. The mythology that you have to pay for TV is patently false. I don't have cable and receive about 20 different stations with a $100 digital antenna. My credit card is paid in full monthly (most purchases are to the Goodwill, Salvation Army and grocery store) and so I have built up a good credit rating.
I do NOT at all believe that people can live in any basic way on the minimum wage, but a skewed and unrealistic quiz won't help to make this point.
One problem that poor people on section 8 have is finding housing in a decent situation. I own a small rental house (it was a fixer-upper we put sweat equity into) and when people ask whether I accept section 8, my response is "I take anyone with good credit history." People object by telling me that I can count on most of the rent because the city pays it automatically. Trouble is, I can't say to my mortgage company that I'll pay most of the payment each month.
Additionally, no one seems capable of addressing the socioeconomic pathology of our school system in which the kids who need the most (academically and economically) get the least and kids who already have the most get the best amenities.
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