$8.72 is a living wage in Austin....at least this institute says so

[inthecut]

Originally Posted by Latsabb

Actually, a good chunk of companies offer medical insurance. Now, yes, if you are scraping the barrel, you may not get any sort of coverage, but every time I am job hunting, I see a LOT of places offering medical and dental. Now, true, it sometimes means eating it in the paycheck department, but if that institute claims that you can make it with 8.72 an hour, and you have medical included, then you are set. It is very possible. If medical is not included, then you will need to trim your budget by an extra 150-200 a month, which is easy enough, trust me. As others have stated, you can get a room mate. You can also skimp on the food budget a bit until something better comes along, or until you get a raise.

If you spend a dollar a day on drinks, then you can go with water, and save 30 a month. Trim 5 dollars a day from your food budget? That is 150 a month. Cut down on the heating/AC in the house? More than likely a good 10 a month. And so on, and so on. The budget I listed was by no means a "barely making it, eating nothing but ramen" budget. We ate well, still had snacks, still lived in a nice apartment (we could have gotten one for 500 a month easily) still drove a car that only got 18 miles to the gallon, still had some candy and treats, and still had the AC on 24 hours a day, with it set to 75 degrees.

How about paying for A/c in the long/hot Austin summers, this in a city with higher utility rates than the national average? What is there to trim?
Unless you keep it off, anything resembling comfort, when it is 90-108 outside for months, will cost a big buck.....ceiling fans just blow hot air around without A/C as well, so that is no option.....

Per trimming food budgets, I would suggest cooking your own food 100% of the time....the mark-up in fast-food and eating out is huge...heck, even anything from the supermarket short of basic ingredients you would use to make something from scratch is a rip-off.

I realize that much of the charm of Austin is eating out at restaurants, per the weather and cool places to do the same outdoors, but indeed that can be done away with.......you can make your own fun eating-out per potluck get togethers, family picnics, and such....

How about gas/transportation?.....Austin essentially has no public transportation. Even efforts to build light-rail projects collapse due to lack of interest/funding...people here just prefer to drive cars everywhere....but that can be one of your top 3 expenses....even just getting around locally can eat up 5 bucks a day, and there is no cutting back on that at all, unless you can ride your bike to work(in all weather), or work next to your residence......most couples need two cars, if they work in two different places/areas/times......it would be quite impossible to cut back from the same....

[twange]

Originally Posted by Latsabb

Do you honestly think that a socialized medicine plan would be so nice?

Let's throw out the word "socialist" for a second. It is polarizing and seems to create a reaction similar to the way "communist" did 50 years ago. Remember, police, fire, libraries and public education are also "socialist" programs.

Do you think the system as it is currently construed is adequate? Let me put it this way: in my opinion, heath care should be a right not a privilege. Driving and owning a car, owning a big house, traveling at will, having the latest and greatest technologies, going out to eat, buying nice clothing - these things are earned privileges that hard work, determination and even luck can afford us. Getting medical treatment when your body fails you (and it always does at some point), should be accessible to everyone regardless of income. Anything less is unbalanced and second-rate in my opinion.

How do we pay for that? I don't get paid to make those decisions but I will say this: Right now in my life, I am fortunate in that I have good healthcare, a good job, a wife, family and friends who care about me and decent health. I don't mind paying out some of my income in taxes to make quality health care available to the millions who can't afford it. In the wink of an eye, I could find myself unemployed, alone and/or sick. I would hope that my society had enough empathy to help me.

[Latsabb]

Originally Posted by inthecut

How about paying for A/c in the long/hot Austin summers, this in a city with higher utility rates than the national average? What is there to trim?
Unless you keep it off, anything resembling comfort, when it is 90-108 outside for months, will cost a big buck.....ceiling fans just blow hot air around without A/C as well, so that is no option.....

Per trimming food budgets, I would suggest cooking your own food 100% of the time....the mark-up in fast-food and eating out is huge...heck, even anything from the supermarket short of basic ingredients you would use to make something from scratch is a rip-off.

I realize that much of the charm of Austin is eating out, per the weather and cool places to do the same outdoors, but indeed that can be done away with.......you can make your own fun eating-out per potluck get togethers, family picnics, and such....

How about gas/transportation?.....Austin essentially has no public transportation. Even efforts to build light-rail projects collapse due to lack of interest/funding...people here just prefer to drive cars everywhere....but that can be one of your top 3 expenses....even just getting around locally can eat up 5 bucks a day, and there is no cutting back on that at all, unless you can ride your bike to work(in all weather), or work next to your residence......most couples need two cars, if they work in two different places/areas/times......it would be quite impossible to cut back from the same....

My budget with the AC was for the summer. In a modern 1 bedroom apartment, 75 a month in electricity is enough for 24 hour 75 degree AC, plus anything else unless you run stupid things constantly. You can trim the cost by upping the temp to 80. Or 85 with a fan.

I almost always made my own food to save money, but not always. These days, 5 dollar footlongs make a 2.50 lunch easy. Buy one today, and eat half today, and half tomorrow. Or, a 39 cent cup of noodle. Not enough? How about a 39 cent cup of noodle, and a 50 cent microwave burrito? Always buy in bulk, like at Sams Club. Chicken for 1.88 a pound (for boneless skinless chicken breat) and same cost for pork line. Round Steak for 3 dollars a pounds, max. You plan to make your own subs for lunch? 2 dollars for 5 sub breads, head of lettuce for 90 cents, and buy a ham, and cut it yourself for about 2 dollars a pound in lunch meat, and it is SO much better than pre-packaged. You can make 5 subs a week for about 2 dollars each, meaning 10 dollars for 5 foot long subs. Add a bit more for other condiments.

Also, as you could see, gas and car insurance were included in my budget. True, we only had the one car, but my wife did not work, so I did not need a second car. If she also worked, then the budget would not have been a problem, because it would have made us a LOT more money. If you don't go driving all over the place in a gas guzzler, or live semi-close to home (10 miles ish) then it is not a huge problem. I lived at the 35 and 45 connection, and worked at Mopac and Duval, and also in the Tech Ridge area for a while. Not on top of my house, but still close. Just as close as many other Round Rock locations.

[inthecut]

Originally Posted by twange

Yeah, with all due respect Latsabb, I was going to say the same thing. Healthcare besides the point? I tend to think that having access to quality healthcare might be the most important thing for anyone, next to food and shelter. Without your health, there's no real need for much else. A higher level of public health is better for all of us and IMHO, one of the most distinguishing characteristics of an advanced society.

And twange can add education to that triad as well....without quality, affordable education, including higher education, our nation will fall father behind per country rankings each year(right now we are #28, just ahead of Poland).....and without opportunities due to lack of skills, you create crime, which can cost more than the education deferred in the first place......

[Trainwreck20]

This is way off of the orginal topic and is no longer an Austin topic. This is discussed at length in the Politics and other forums.