Looking at Budgets

Today we are having a class discussion about budgets and building a "Hard Times" budget using the absolute minimum amounts for rent, car insurance, food, utilities, etc. We will also calculate monthly income based on a minimum wage and will discuss how tight our budgets might be.

Homework:  Another "Ask Someone Who Knows" assignment where students are to ask someone who owns a house *and* someone who rents an apartment/house for a general budget.  [Forms Will Be Here]

We will be using this data on Tuesday in a spreadsheet, so make sure you get it done.

After Our Discussion

We went with the absolute minimum that we thought we could survive on and these are the numbers we went with:

Monthly Expense	Amount	Explanation
Housing / Rent	$ 400	Studio apt.
Food	$ 100	Eating only Ramen / Mac&Cheese
Car Payment / Insurance	$ 60	No car payment / budget insurance
Gas, Oil & Auto Maintenance	$ 100	Economical car / minimal driving
Utilities (PG&E, Water, Garbage)	$ 150	Basic utilities
Phone / Cell / Internet	$ 35	Cheapest service possible
Cable / Satellite	$ 0	None.
Health Care / Medicine	$ 0	None -- need to regular medication.
Clothing	$ 6	Shirt, pant & budget shoes per year.
Entertainment	$ 10	One event or maybe Netflix.
Pets	$ 0	No pets.
Sundries (TP, Soap, Shampoo, etc.)	$ 50	Budget products (dollar store TP)
Furnishings & Kitchenware	$ 20	The basics (pillows, dishes, pots)
School Expenses	$ 0	No school (or scholarships/grants)
Credit Card Payments	$ 0	No credit cards... EVER.  :)
Child Care	$ 0	Hopefully not yet.
Savings	$ 0	Hard times -- no budget for savings.
Laundry / Dry Cleaning	$ 20	One load per week.
Energy Drinks, Soda & Candy	$ 0	None.

That comes to a total of  $951.00 per month.

So how much can you make working full time (no days off and no vacation days)?

Well, with minimum wage being $8.50 per hour, if you worked full time (40 hours per week) every week for 12 months (no vacations or sick days)... you would make around $1473 per month ($8.50*40*52/12).  But wait... there are taxes and other things (Social Security, Disability, etc.) that come out of your check.  You will likely bring home more like $1105.  That gives you a surplus of $150 each month!  That means if you actually ever want to eat something besides Ramen noodles... or buy a pair of shoes... or pick up a candy bar... you can probably do it.

Remember, though... that things like a flat tire, a car repair, a broken tooth, an injury, breaking your phone, etc. can eat up months of your "extra" money.  The smart move is to put "extra" money into savings for those kinds of emergencies.

The other thing to remember is that you may [some day] want to go out with friends... or see a movie... buy a birthday present... or buy a video game.  That money has to come out of somewhere.