I know this topic is a very large deviation from my usual "discounts on my books" or "Fantasy commentary on my own fantasy novels" but honestly, I have had many people be in disbelief about how I live. I see "How to save money" articles all the time, but none of them are useful, because they always advise people to drink less coffee and go out to eat less often, and such things.
People get frustrated, because so many of us in the USA do NOT have money to do those things in the first place. I certainly cannot. So, how does one survive on so little? How can one save? And the real kicker, how can someone who makes so little, who has to manage survival month to month, be debt free and HAPPY?
Well, I do not know your situation, but this is how I do it, for everyone who has asked.
I grew up poor. Understand what it feels like to starve poor. I watched my parents go bankrupt, despite poverty, 3 times before I was 8 years old. I swore to myself I would never go into debt. I would gladly starve before losing everything like they did. The moves, the losses, the never being in a school more than 2 years in my entire life. I never got to see my dad, because he worked constantly. None of it was worth it.
I literally make under 1k a month. That is less than one thousand dollars. That means my yearly income is less than twelve thousand dollars.
I also have zero debt. I have never owned a credit card in my life. I have never taken out loans at banks. Ever.
How? on a budget of $933 a month?
Firstly, and this is huge, I do not have kids. There are many people I know who would never be able to live how I do for that simple reason. Kids change everything. Everything goes to them. I understand that.
For instance, my rent each month for a two bedroom duplex with a quarter acre back yard in Western Washington State is $450 a month. This means that the place is super old, has almost zero insulation, and you can hear every single passing car through the walls. This means that, yes, my car has been broken into in the last month, and there is a bullet hole in the glass of one of my front windows. I am a recluse, and almost never leave my house, so I can live here. The average rent for the 'poverty' area I live in is still 750 bucks a month. I lucked out, but that lucking out meant living in a bad area where drug dealers walk by and squatters constantly try to take over the vacant building near our place.
I realize for a lot of people, that this alone would make all the difference in the world to them. People would go into debt just to get out of the situation, but I have only felt scared for my actual physical self once, and it turned out the looming dark shadow at the front door was the man who lived across the street going around warning about a vicious raccoon. I actually like most of my neighbors, poor simple recluses like me.
One is an elderly man with a bum leg from being a veteran. One is a college student working her way through and trying to survive and study as best she can with everything on her shoulders. And, obviously, it turned out that the man and his wife across the street were kind people who even have offered to let me borrow their lawn mower before.
Poverty doesn't mean all bad people. Some are just broke. They aren't into violence or drugs, but they cannot afford the 'appropriate' sector of society to live. Like me.
Still, for those who don't have kids, who perhaps understand what it feels like to live in an area like this, who know what it feels like to never have anything of value in your car, because it will get broken into for ANYTHING. People who understand that having a car that is over 15 years old is a blessing, because it isn't likely to ever get stolen, and it was cheap to buy. There are those of you out there who get the 'danger' side of things and still are thinking about the math. 450 out of 933...
You are right. Rent is more than the 'average' portion of my paycheck. But it isn't a full half. That is what saves me.
The rest goes to these costs monthly-
46 dollars a month for internet (this area just sucks and this is what I can get that has any decent speed to it at all, which for me, is my splurge each month. Speed as in 5mps)
23 dollars every 2 months for renter insurance (This gives me up to 4k in coverage, which everything I own, period, besides my car, put together is worth less than 2k, but this was the cheapest, lowest coverage they had, because they expect people to have at least 4k worth of stuff...)
13 dollars a month for the heating bill for the majority of the year, 7 months of it (This is literally the cost of just leaving it hooked up and not used. Honestly, if the stupid ancient furnace wasn't so difficult to get the pilot light on in, taking over 5 hours of effort and almost breaking myself to do, I would save that money monthly too.)
65ish dollars for 5 months of the year for the heating bill (This keeps my house at 62 degrees. I wear lots of coats and robes in the winter, always am under a blanket, and drink a lot of tea. Cannot afford warmer)
31 dollars a month for electricity. (I keep only the computer and modem plugged in at all times, and the fridge. Even the stove is unplugged, the microwave, the tv, all of it. Nothing stays plugged in when not in use other than these, and honestly, the modem, if it wasn't so very hard to get the ancient phone line to work with to get internet to work at all, I would unplug these things too. Also, we don't turn on lights in the house at night. My pupils don't undialate, so this means that my eyes are very sensitive to light. Helps with the bill)
30 dollars a month for the phone bill (I use tmobile, and share a plan with other family members. Unlimited everything including to Canada on my galaxy s4. Phone is a little older, but it means I save on my bill. My wife and I share our phone.)
49 dollars a month on the car insurance ( Because we are so low of income, we are auto qualified to be on the medicare system in the state. This is a GIANT relief. It helps so much. Also, because of this, we don't have to include medical side of things for our own selves in our auto insurance. Also, with State Farm, they give us a discount for how little we drive. Helps too.)
60 dollarsish, sometimes over 80 dollars, for gas for the car ( We don't drive a lot, so this helps. For people with long commutes, this would be very different.
The rest is for our needs. Cat litter and food. Dish soap and toilet paper.
I always calculate 2 dollars or less per meal, if I can, and then try to make that into as healthy of meals as possible.
It isn't easy.
In the winter, with all the above costs at their worst, that is 170 bucks for not starving the cat or depriving us. That is all.
But we make it work. We don't eat a lot. We don't in portion size, nor often. We never go over budget. I am a stickler about it. Honestly, I will fast and not eat at all, and just have my wife eat, for a meal or few in the month if we are saving or getting too close. The food we have in the house when our food money runs out is the only food we have. We ration when needed.
Most people wouldn't think this was ok. So most people get credit cards and go into debt and end up bankrupt. And I do get it. It isn't that dream life you see on tv. It certainly isn't what most people think of Americans as living like. But this is our life.
Now, what I will say, is that I do not hate our life. I actually am grateful for it. I am so glad I get to spend the majority of my time with my wife. I get to hang out with her, instead of working super long shifts and missing her. I can go to family functions at my parent's house. I can take a walk if I feel like it.
Please understand, I did, at one time, make over 2k a month. That does equal out to 25k a year. I did it for years. I was not in debt then either. In fact, I could go out to eat twice a week, I had a much nicer situation, and clothes, and so on. But I was miserable, sick all the time, and never got to see my family, because I worked 13 hour shifts. It was actually far worse doing that, constantly exhausted, than doing this.
So, I live on less than 12k a year, stick absolute to my budget, save as much and as often as I can, which is usually only 20 dollars or less in a month, and manage just fine.
Our entertainment is cheap. We walk together. That costs nothing. We play free games, or ones with a one time purchase, as much as possible, for instance, right now, Guild Wars 2, and we play together. We do puzzles, play cards, watch internet streaming free, read books, and the nicest things we have, we either saved for and then bought when on sale, or else were given.
I do bing searches to get that 5 dollars amazon money a month to help with Christmas gifts. We use coupons. I have volunteered years of my life in hours since I cannot afford to donate money. I do donate clothes.
We are saving right now, for our dream home, which for most people will probably sound silly, but we'd love to have a trailer, and when we could afford it, save up, and drive and visit the rest of the country.
We actually like spending all our time together. We are both recluses. We actually like our life so simple, so uncomplicated. This is how we live on little, and live without debt.
I realize there are better ways. I realize that this would never work for many people. I even realize some people who read this will think I am crazy. :D But this is what works for us, and this is how we are happy.
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