Could you live on $35 a day?

[Wikiy]

I imagine one wouldn't be able to live with that much in Australia, but in my country, 35$ a day (now I'm not really sure whether that means per work day or per day in general for the whole month, so either 22x35$ or 30x35$) is either 770$ or 1050$ a month. The latter is about the average net salary in Croatia. So yeah, I could probably live with the latter although I'm not sure I'd want to.

[PizzaSHARK]

As a person studying nutritionist theory that just made me cringe a bit, as a person who loves to cook and make good food, it made me cry :P
you poor poor thing, makes me wanna get to your place and cook you some good food

Dude, no kidding. Cooking's a favorite hobby of mine, and eating's one too. Every time I see someone talk about how their diet is just fast food and pre-packaged stuff I want to show up at their doorstep with a skillet, crockpot, and a bunch of food.

[semaphore]

Dude, no kidding. Cooking's a favorite hobby of mine, and eating's one too. Every time I see someone talk about how their diet is just fast food and pre-packaged stuff I want to show up at their doorstep with a skillet, crockpot, and a bunch of food.

What if I package my peanut butter sandwich myself? Does that make it post-packaged food = better?

[Palmatum]

35 dollars a day wouldn't even cover my electricity bill.

As for living... You might survive on that much, but you wouldn't have much of a life, not in most Western countries anyway.

[Azerox]

Dollars no, but euros yes > thats the minimum some1 in the Netherlands gets when hes/she is unemployed.

Its not nice, and u wont have a big house/vacation or extra money to spend > but u can easy live on that.

And if you do want more then nothing, get a job.

[semaphore]

35 dollars a day wouldn't even cover my electricity bill.

You pay $1,050+ a month? You got a server farm or ten at home or something? o.O

[Palmatum]

You pay $1,050+ a month? You got a server farm or ten at home or something? o.O

I breed snakes.

[dodonpachi]

I lived off it for a year and a half of my 5 year degree while at uni. The rest I worked part time and didn't claim benefits. Its tight but its livable.

Also the amount only makes sense in relation to the cost of living of Australia. I lived in Norway and $35 AU wouldn't cover the cost of food for the day let alone change as the cost of living is so high.

Also the $35 dollars does not cover rent assistance which boosts that a bit. Rent assistance does not cover the full cost of renting though.

[Voraliska]

I just worked up the math, and the minimum my household lives on in a month is 60$ a day, this includes all bills. Two adults, three children.

Oh and to add, we recieve no government assistance and this doesnt cover all the entertainment/extracurricular activites we participate in

[Fugus]

Where I live, you can not live off $35 a day unless you are also receiving low income housings, food stamps and low income healthcare to go with it.

The bad thing is I actually work for a living and only make about that much till I can get a new job..

[Filathorn]

I lived off it for a year and a half of my 5 year degree while at uni. The rest I worked part time and didn't claim benefits. Its tight but its livable.

Also the amount only makes sense in relation to the cost of living of Australia. I lived in Norway and $35 AU wouldn't cover the cost of food for the day let alone change as the cost of living is so high.

Also the $35 dollars does not cover rent assistance which boosts that a bit. Rent assistance does not cover the full cost of renting though.

$35 = 6 118.18NOK.
As a student living purely off student loan here in norway, which is aproximately 7k NOK, or 1200 australian dollars a month / 40 australian dollars a day, I have no problems with this number. of course, this means I don't go out drinking often, I don't buy myself new designer clothes ever, and only seldomly buy cheap brand clothing when needed. I also live in the cheapest apartment I could find (sharing combined kitchen / living room with 3 others, a tiny bathroom, and having about 12m² for myself), and we're only living off the cheapest kinds of food available.

And seriously? $35 AU doesn't cover food for a day? I can make myself food for a week easily with that kind of money, $20 AU is what I currently have per day for anything after all neccessary bills are paid. This is for food and any luxuries I could want.

And this is kinda how its supposed to be like when you're living completely off the state, when you could be working instead. If you're living on welfare with no chances of working due to some illness or special circumstances, this is way too little, but as a student, or a parent with children in school, you should just barely afford the base necessities, because anything more is just that, more than necessary. The state covers what you need to survive, you should cover luxuries and such yourself, if you have the ability to do so.

[poogle]

Just wanted to clarify a few things as I'm seeing some wildly inaccurate numbers being thrown around.

The base payment for a single person looking for work is $490 per fortnight. You can receive up to an additional $120/fortnight in rental assistance, or if you are lucky you can be assigned to a housing department property with low rent. In addition to this you receive concession rates on all prescription medication (fixed cost of $5-ish) and other items based on state, such as public transport fares and the like.

If you are disabled / have a long term illness or injury you can receive the disability allowance, which is close to $800 per fortnight and gets increased very regularly.

I have a friend who does live on the unemployment allowance, lives by himself too so no rent sharing. $150 a week rent for a small single bedroom flat, $120 a month for power, phone & internet. That leaves around $250 a fortnight for food, transportation & whatever else. For a single person it's completely fine if you spend sensibly and don't expect to rent a place in the middle of a major city. If you share with 2-3 other people you can afford a very nice place and have plenty of cash to spare.

But the point isn't if a single person can do it, the comment by the minister was made in regard to the single parents changeover. You get a whopping $40 a fortnight extra for having a kid while on unemployment benefits, but will likely be facing at least an extra $30-50 rent per week for the additional bedroom needed, on top of increased power, food etc. It makes it extra hard because the overall payment drops by $110 or so, leaving people having to deal with a sudden 15% drop income.

[Whitey]

For example finnish welfare is 440'ish euro a month, excluding rent, though the rent has some limitations to it which are outdated. Was part of a government issued group of professionals in process of renewing the outdated social law, since for example our capitol city which has the most welfare recipients has the biggest rents that often are way more than the allocated socialsupport. Anyhoo, for some countries that amount would be huge and enough to support a whole family easily, we just have very high living costs over here.

For the question, yes I could rent aside, but I'm glad that I don't have to.

[dodonpachi]

$35 = 6 118.18NOK.
As a student living purely off student loan here in norway, which is aproximately 7k NOK, or 1200 australian dollars a month / 40 australian dollars a day, I have no problems with this number. of course, this means I don't go out drinking often, I don't buy myself new designer clothes ever, and only seldomly buy cheap brand clothing when needed. I also live in the cheapest apartment I could find (sharing combined kitchen / living room with 3 others, a tiny bathroom, and having about 12m² for myself), and we're only living off the cheapest kinds of food available.

And seriously? $35 AU doesn't cover food for a day? I can make myself food for a week easily with that kind of money, $20 AU is what I currently have per day for anything after all neccessary bills are paid. This is for food and any luxuries I could want.

And this is kinda how its supposed to be like when you're living completely off the state, when you could be working instead. If you're living on welfare with no chances of working due to some illness or special circumstances, this is way too little, but as a student, or a parent with children in school, you should just barely afford the base necessities, because anything more is just that, more than necessary. The state covers what you need to survive, you should cover luxuries and such yourself, if you have the ability to do so.

I am sorry. The idea that you can afford a weeks worth of food in Norway on $35 is crazy. Just as a comparison, a beer costs around $4 AU here but in Norway you are paying around $12 AU. I am only using this as an example not that people should be buying beer.

EDIT: I remember when I can from Norway to AU I was rich just because the Norwegian currency is so strong.

[Rukentuts]

You pay $1,050+ a month? You got a server farm or ten at home or something? o.O

Yeah, I find that extremely hard to believe. I could deck every acre I live on in incandescent Christmas lights and not even come close.

[Cephilia]

435 e for a student? I guess I could somehow make it with that, currently I'm getting ~460 (including rent), and it if weren't for some bad luck that'd be enough to survive. Cutting it by 25e would make it a lot harder though, but 1.5e is enough for noodles and some soups. Not healthy, but doable.

[reve]

It's important to realise that this money is just a very temporary solution until you find a job. You aren't supposed to live comfortably on it, you aren't supposed to be able to afford anything more than the necessities. You are supposed to just barely avoid starvation while finding a new job as quickly as possible.

And yes, the money is more than enough for that.

If it were significantly more then you'd see people mass abusing it.

[Whitey]

I breed snakes.

Heh yea I figured it's either reptiles and their lights or plants and their lights. I feel your pain man, it does get expensive beyond reason.

[Palmatum]

Heh yea I figured it's either reptiles and their lights or plants and their lights. I feel your pain man, it does get expensive beyond reason.

It has been a hobby for years but then it started to pay for itself and now it's incredibly good money

I do keep a few as pets but most of them are bred to sell on so they aren't sat around costing me too much.

Do you have any yourself?

I have about 300 breeders + their hatchlings at the moment lol. Had 74 Lavender Albino Ball Pythons hatch the other day

[Reg]

At $35 a day, it would take 6 months to pay for 1 month of my current rent lol So as it stands currently, no I could not. Living in NYC off $35 a day is probably impossible.