Budgeting for the Working Poor

[Greenday]

How? In Texas ours is routinely 200-300, and that's very common in this city. Did California all of a sudden get low utility costs?

Sounds odd to me. I don't pay electric in my house, but during brutal months, it goes over $200 because of the AC. And it's definitely $100 or more on a normal month.

[Andara Bledin]

Ten years ago, we had a waterbed, and even in the dead of winter, when the waterbed heater was working full time to keep our bed from freezing us to death, in a 4-person household that was also a 4-bedroom house, our electricity still never hit more than $180. Without that, and without an air conditioner, our electricity runs about $80.

It's worth noting that in both cases, we also have gas hooked up, so the other heating and cooking is a separate utility, that generally runs about $30. Gas is much, much cheaper for heating.

So, our utility bill generally runs a little over $100 for both.

And our car payment is $180, so $160 isn't fanciful, but it is unrealistic.

[Kheldarson]

How? In Texas ours is routinely 200-300, and that's very common in this city. Did California all of a sudden get low utility costs?

As Andara pointed out, if you run a gas heater, even on a budgeted bill, your electric costs stay pretty low. Kabe and I run about $60 a month in electric with gas ranging from $20-$50 a month depending on month/season.

[crashhelmet]

Here in Vegas, living on my own, my electric bill is about $60 a month without running the AC. I have 2 ceiling fans and a few oscillating fans to circulate air and keep it reasonable. When I had roommates, our electric bill would be between $300-$400 a month from running the AC, TVs going, etc. i think it all boils down to personal use and consumption.

[violiav]

I don't think it's usage or a gas/electric thing (200-300 in summer is low end for many houses in the area I live in). It's more of a regulatory thing. I'm sometimes surprised at rates at other parts of the country. Here, we HAVE to go through the city for electric and water (same bill, but my water has never topped 40, even with filling and emptying a big pool several times in a month). In my county there is also ONE gas company, a separate entity from either cities utilities. The gas bill can even be less than 30. They charge a customer fee and a meter read fee. During winter the old place topped out around 50.
The lowest utilities I see are in the 60-100 range from a specific set of apartments my company manages. That accounts for just electric, since my company picks up the water.
The highest utilities I've seen is over 400 for a newer (built within the past few years) house with top of the line insulation and no pool.
Even when I lived in an apartment here mine was in the 150 range.
The city next to us has much lower electricity rates. Even though electricity for both cities comes from the same place.:/

Many of our less affluent residents work multiple jobs, those that don't are on housing. The second number gets higher all the time because cost of living continues to climb (apartments get refurbished for "prime student living").
One example: my boyfriends family has a house in the Sacramento area that they rent out for less than 2000 a month (I think 1800, maybe less). It's 2200 sq foot, garage in an HOA. Here? That same house would be no less than 2200 in prime leasing season (drops a bit in September). And it would get leased.

[DGoddess]

And let's not forget $20/mo health insurance, when the lowest version of McD's insurance costs $14/wk. I have what I consider to be a decent job with decent insurance, and I pay appx $300/mo for the "cheap" insurance plan.

We have ONE insurance plan at work and I'm paying (for not just medical but also vision and dental) around $100/biweekly. So $200/month just for that and I still have to pay 20% roughly for any medical bills I incur.

This budget also suggests an ability to work two full-time jobs with appx 40 hours at each job. Because it's just oh so common to find two perfectly flexible full-time jobs with super-cheap insurance.

In my area, most folks are doing good to have ONE job, let alone two. So there goes that theory about 2 jobs right there, in addition to the fact that there's very few who will be flexible enough to accommodate a 2nd job.

I don't expect McD's to suddenly change their operation, but this "budget" is so out of touch it's offensive.

Their figures, IMO, are out of touch. 650 for rent is cheap in my city - 750 is about average. And having roommates don't work for everybody (my mom tried renting out a room after her hubby left 20 years ago and we soon saw it wasn't working out at all - took us a while but we finally run him out.)

I guess phone/internet, cable (or satellite) and electricity aren't considered necessities either along with food, medications, car insurance, and water (which those rates in municapal areas have a tendency to go up every so often.)

I'd like to see the birdbrain who came up with those figures live off that for six months and see how they like it.

[mikoyan29]

What gets me is when I see this bumper sticker, "Instead of sharing my money, how about sharing my work ethich". As if people are poor because they are shiftless and lazy.

[Kheldarson]

What gets me is when I see this bumper sticker, "Instead of sharing my money, how about sharing my work ethich". As if people are poor because they are shiftless and lazy.

Yet how many times on CS do we note the families that we know are gaming the system?

[Duelist925]

Yet how many times on CS do we note the families that we know are gaming the system?

And how many times do those posts contain something along the lines of "while most of the people who *insert system here*, the ones that cheat really tick me off".

The cheaters are, far more often than not, the exception, not the rule.

[hinakiba777]

So I am going to assume that things like "Groceries" and "clothing" are suppose to be part of the "Spending Money." As obviously, groceries are a luxury or entertainment item.

[Duelist925]

So I am going to assume that things like "Groceries" and "clothing" are suppose to be part of the "Spending Money." As obviously, groceries are a luxury or entertainment item.

Of course hina! Peasents are suppose to survive by basking in the warm knowledge that their hard work benefits their betters. Like plants in the sun!