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  1. #361
    Quote Originally Posted by Palmatum View Post
    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

  2. #362
    Quote Originally Posted by semaphore View Post
    You pay $1,050+ a month? You got a server farm or ten at home or something? o.O
    I breed snakes.

  3. #363
    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.

  4. #364
    High Overlord Voraliska's Avatar
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    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
    Last edited by Voraliska; 2013-01-05 at 01:05 PM.

  5. #365
    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..

  6. #366
    Quote Originally Posted by dodonpachi View Post
    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.

  7. #367
    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.

  8. #368
    Deleted
    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.

  9. #369
    Quote Originally Posted by Filathorn View Post
    $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.
    Last edited by dodonpachi; 2013-01-05 at 02:51 PM.

  10. #370
    Quote Originally Posted by semaphore View Post
    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.

  11. #371
    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.
    Last edited by Cephilia; 2013-01-05 at 04:11 PM.

  12. #372
    Deleted
    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.

  13. #373
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Palmatum View Post
    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.

  14. #374
    Quote Originally Posted by Whitey View Post
    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

  15. #375
    Elemental Lord Reg's Avatar
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    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.

  16. #376
    $35 a day is plenty. I probably spend $30-$40 a week on groceries and $30 on gas so I would have $175-$185 left over.

  17. #377
    Quote Originally Posted by Reeve View Post
    Do Australians generally measure these things by the week or fortnight? The article was using fortnights, and I've seen Australians in this thread use weeks several times, but I'm accustomed to thinking of expenses in monthly increments.
    Generally we measure by week in terms of paying rent/home payment/expenses (which is always our biggest expense), houses are advertised to rent by their weekly rent regardless of when rent is actually paid, house payments are discussed similarly. Government support (and most paychecks in general) are paid fortnightly, which is why it references fortnights in the article. Most other bills are quarterly, which we tend to break down into a per week amount when we think about them, force of habit I guess, certainly when I was taught to budget I was taught to think of things in terms of weekly.

  18. #378
    Yes:

    1st: Find a shitty apartment that rents for $500/month = ~$17/day with water expenses covered
    2nd: Get a job within walking distance that pays ~$4/hour (?)
    3rd: Electricity for $30/month = ~$1/day
    4th: Natural gas for $20/month = ~$1/day
    5th: Get cable TV/internet for $100/month = ~$4/day
    6th: Grocery bill @ $28/week = ~$4/day
    7th: Clothes money @ $2/day = ~$60/month
    8th: Spending money @ $2/day = ~$60/month
    9th: Savings @ $4/day = ~$120/month
    TOTAL: $35/day


    Many of these values were fractions, so I rounded up, which means I can use the difference for laundry lol.
    EDIT: No cell phone I guess... it's a luxury however you slice it.
    Last edited by Destruktion; 2013-01-05 at 07:34 PM.

  19. #379
    Old God endersblade's Avatar
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    That's almost exactly half of how much I make now, and I'm barely surviving lol. That equates to about $589 US (single) per month; my rent is $475, my electric bill is about $65. On top of other miscellaneous expenses, that would basically mean I'd have to survive on ramen lol.
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  20. #380
    Please wait Temp name's Avatar
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    In my current situation? I'd welcome 15€ a day. It's about 105€ a week more than I get atm.

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