Could you live on $35 a day?

[lakhesis]

Yeah... New York, Los Angeles, Paris, London, etc are all substantially cheaper places to live than Sydney.

The housing in all those cities is substantially cheaper than Sydney. Melbourne is about the same. Brisbane, Adelaide & Perth aren't too far off. If you start getting outside the major cities costs go down substantially, but so do employment opportunities.

The government allowance in Australia is well below the poverty line, it's getting to the point where no normal person could realistically hope to live on it without deliberately moving to an area where their odds of getting a job are non-existent. Living on that much money becomes a full time balancing job unto itself. Unfortunately it doesn't translate well to other countries without going into detail on the costs involved.

[yurano]

Living alone, pretty much impossible, a cheap 1 bedroom place in my area would be $150-$180 a week excluding utilities. Plus food is expensive especially meat I would need to turn vegetarian and that would be awful lol.

Living in a flatting situation with expenses shared, it would be doable but a struggle. As most have said it should be a struggle as it is welfare.

Roomates. You can shack up 3 people reasonably in a 1 bedroom apartment.

I think its $35 a day per person so whether you're single or not is irrelevant.

To be honest, I believe its doable but its going not going to be a good life. Plus, you can augment the $35 with your own earnings: minimum wage in California of $8 results in an additional $45 a day (augmenting for weekends).

Even if you only consider $35, going off of Distorter's numbers of $180 per week per 1 bd and sharing with 2 other people, you'd pay about $9 per day for housing.

Food is quite easy to do if you're a smart shopper and you definitely don't need to give up meat. Lets use the assumption that you need to eat 4 pounds of food a day, 2 pounds grain, 1 pound vegetable and 1 pound meat. Rice ($0.50/lb) and pasta ($1/lb) are brutally cheap if you buy in bulk (20lb) or on sale. Grains aren't exactly perishable so you can always stock up on that stuff. Vegetables are actually quite cheap as well. If you shop smart you can get some cheap vegetables. Onions, tomatoes, carrots, celery, lettuce and the like are actually pretty cheap and can be cheaper if you buy in bulk (eg. Costco, although you're sacrificing quality a bit; Costco membership is $50 a year or $1 per week). Lets assume here. Meat is definitely the easiest as long as you're not picky. Ground beef, bacon (on sale), stew meat, chicken and the like can be generally found for quite cheap. Then add a little bit of money for seasoning whether it be salt or store bought stuff like Hamburger helper. I skipped fruit because I don't like that stuff but apples and such are generally pretty cheap ($1-2/lb on sale).

Here are some sales I found in this week's Safeway advertisement:

Meats:
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts with Rib Meat - $1.99/lb
Boneless Whole Pork Loin - $2.49/lb
Fresh Foster Farms Chicken Thighs or Drumsticks - $1.99/lb

Vegetables:
Safeway Farms Russet Potatoes 5 lb bag - $1.99
Broccoli Crowns - $1.49/lb

So for food, you'd need about $2 grains + $2 vegetables + $3 meat + $1 seasoning or $8 a day.

I used to live alone and I had an electric water heater which was quite the power hog. I used to consume $45 of electricity a week for $1.5 of electricity a day. Water, sewage and garbage together was $1 a day.

So for rent, food and utilities we've clocked in at about $18 a day, leaving $17 for general use, entertainment and transportation.

The most difficult aspect of living on a budget is affording transportation (and probably medicine if you get 'unlucky'). If you purchase a $5000 car over say 5 years, you'd need to allocate $3 a day for the car itself. If you drive 20-30 miles a day you'll need to pay about $4 in gas (California gas prices). On the otherhand, you can always go via bus which I think should be ~$3 a day if you get the year pass.

Living on $35 a day (13K/year):
Doable? - Yes
A good life? - Probably not but you can still eat relatively healthy.

TL;DR - If you spend your money wisely, $35/day is doable

The housing in all those cities is substantially cheaper than Sydney. Melbourne is about the same. Brisbane, Adelaide & Perth aren't too far off. If you start getting outside the major cities costs go down substantially, but so do employment opportunities.

Commute to work. People, both rich and poor, commute every day.

[muto]

I could if I chose to live in a tent.

Yes, everyone could. People who say no simply don't understand how. It's not supposed to be luxurious, it's supposed to be bare minimum.

exactly

[Afrospinach]

In NZ yes, yes you can. In Aussie I *seriously* doubt it due to the cost of living.

[Irisel]

LOL!!1 I currently DO live on $35 a day, more like 32, actually.

[Deleted]

No chance.

My monthly bills cost me £900~ I live with my other half who also pays out around £800~. It is of course our lifestyle choice to have such outgoings, and push come to shove I could cut out some of the novelties but generally speaking I couldn't live on $35 a day.

Mortgage
Home Insurance
Life Insurance
Gas & Electric
Water
Petrol x2
Car Tax x2
Car Insurance x2
Loan
Food
Mobile Phone bill x2
Broadband/TV Package(HD, Sports etc)/Phoneline
Gym x2
TV License
Council Tax
General spends

All of the above (apart from tv license & car tax) is paid monthly.

[shise]

that's around 870 euros / month.

Take 500 out for a rental and 110 out for electri/gas and water. (You wouldn't really turn the lights on if you had so little to live with)

That leaves you with about 260 euros to eat and buy other basic random stuff.


Sure you could live if you are one or two persons.. but I'm sure none likes that.

[Deleted]

AU$35 US$36.75 EU27.90 (EDIT: for families)

AU$18 US$19 EU14.50. (for single students)


FULL STORY (sorry it isn't the official report but it stats the facts well enough)

Recently in Australia there was an all around reduction change to welfare benefits in which parents were set up to lose up to AU$110 in child payments when the child hits 8, this plan is to get back the employment. The base payment to "newstart" has been reduced so that a person out of work would be left with $35 a day to live which includes everything the person needs to live.

The government has admitted living on this would be difficult but again stated it's designed to get people into the work force which can be very difficult here. The story is about a government official saying she could live on $35 a day. She current earns ~$6300 a week, 25 times the amount she thinks she could live on.

I was wondering how this would be possible with the other currencies and could you live for several years on these payments.

P.S Story is a few days old but search found nothing so sorry if it's been posted before.

EDITED: to include single people because I didn't factor in this is mmo

I'm swedish and I currently have to live on social security that I think is about 20 euro per day. About 700 Euro a month. No, it ain't easy to make that go around. I can't afford my 8mbit broadband on that, so my family helps pay. They know it means a lot to me. I get help with food and such as well whenever needed.
That's how I've lived for the last 6 years. I have a 36 square meter 1-room apartment. Luckily, it's one with a normal kitchen and my own bathroom. It would be great to be healthy and have a job.

[Reeve]

I currently live in fourth largest city, the 400-550$ is in the older neighbourhoods in the city, 2-4 rooms in the newer ones will go up to 700-1200/month.

The fourth largest city is Houston, where I live.

---------- Post added 2013-01-04 at 02:13 PM ----------

That's because Houston is a shithole. I was born there, but I have never once had any interest in going back.

The area inside the 610 Inner Loop isn't a shithole, but I definitely miss the mountains/beaches/culture of the Bay Area in CA.

---------- Post added 2013-01-04 at 02:15 PM ----------

Housing is particularly expensive. The average cost of a 1 bedroom apartment in a city is $425 per week, a 3 bedroom is $750 per week on average (much more in cities like Sydney i.e. where you want to be to find work), this drops to $325 per week for a one bedroom and $500 per week for a 3 bedroom out of the city.

Compare those with the amount you're being given, $35 per day/$245 per week as a family and $18 per day/$126 per week as a single. The simple fact is the support doesn't cover normal costs here. It's all very well for people to say 'sure I could do that'. But $35 Australian dollars is like saying $20 American dollars, or 15 Euros (to spend in Finland - just from looking at the costs you give for things), in terms of what it can actually purchase in the respective countries (not in terms of the relative exchange rates). Could you live on 15 Euros a day for a family/8 a day just for yourself?

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.

[Seegtease]

Are you fucking serious, man? How the fuck do you expect to get to work?

If you're poor, where do you come up with the $4,000-$6,000 cash you need to buy a non-junker of a car outright, without having to setup a car payment? What about the mandatory car insurance? Even some place like Safe Auto, which will basically take your money and tell you to get bent if you get into an accident, is expensive, probably on the order of $80 or more for your average piece of shit car.

I'm guessing you've never been poor.

I've been nothing but poor. I've had two cars that cost about $1,000, bought private party. They ran great. You can get a lot of miles out of "junkers", but that also sounds like a term that people who have never been poor like to throw around.

Car payments are for people who like to waste money on things that lose half their value when you drive them off the lot. These are the kinds of things that keep poor people poor.

[Armond]

For a single student, $19/day? Yeah, my monthly rent is $688. Do the math.

I grant you, I could possibly find a cheaper place, but then I'd probably also end up paying utilities (which I currently do not).

That said, San Francisco is an expensive place to live. $29.30/day rent + $10/day food here equates to a lot less anywhere else.

[Kujako]

For a single student, $19/day? Yeah, my monthly rent is $688. Do the math.

I grant you, I could possibly find a cheaper place, but then I'd probably also end up paying utilities (which I currently do not).

That said, San Francisco is an expensive place to live. $29.30/day rent + $10/day food here equates to a lot less anywhere else.

I'm just north of you and have a mortgage of 2,900 a month. So no, can't live on less then I make now. Its already borderline some months.

[FourEyesMoniker]

It seems like some people are reading this differently than I am, or perhaps from the intent. I believe the intent is asking is it possible for someone to live off that amount, not can you do it with your current lifestyle.

Realistically, yes, anyone could survive on $35 per day. I could get a small 2 bedroom with a roomie, and with utilities including electricity, basic cable, phone, internet, etc. and everything pay $500 a month, leaving another $500+ for food, transportation (which can be bus/subway/etc or even just a bike). Heck, I could live by myself in a dump of an apartment for $500-600 per month in some areas. I could cut coupons and be frugal, and I could even save an $200 a month of that money after paying for all necessities.

That being said, I could not do it with my current lifestyle. My rent alone is more than that (1200+), let alone paying off car payments, loans, etc. But, if the worst possible thing happened to me, and I lost my job, and just had to survive on that, it would be possible. Sure, I'd have to move and my credit rating would crash once I couldn't make payments and such. But I'd survive, and wouldn't be starving.

[Porcell]

My commute is around 35 miles one way. I've been averaging around $425 per month is gas cost. My condo is around $450 per month. So just gas and mortgage eats up all but $150.

So no, in my current work and living situation I could not live on $35 per day. I stress the "my current situation" can not be supported by $35.

[Felicia]

I guess I'd count in the families department since I'm married. But the 36 dollar thing kinda goes away because I'm a type I Diabetic. I have to take my bloodsugar 4 times a day, and my test strips are 1 dollar per. But I'm insured, and my husband is in the Navy. So... I'm grateful I don't have to pay for either. That negates my insulin costs, too. And since he's active duty, we don't have to pay a dime for Tricare. So I can negate that out of it, too. Yay!

Food wise, my husband and I don't eat a lot. He tends to eat at the galley (until dinner), anyway, and he doesn't have to pay for that. The Navy tacks that money on to our BAH, and then takes it away each month. Makes no sense to me, it doesn't hurt us negatively or positively. I didn't even know the money was there :P My apartment alone costs me 18.30 to live in daily. I can walk everywhere, even to the base. So I don't really even count gas (live in Pensacola, FL). I also have a German Shepherd for 'home security', and I usually just buy a 50 lb of dog food for 20 bucks. That'll last a month. He doesn't eat a lot, and that'll up my total to 19. I'm also really good about turning lights off, and not using a lot of water. Our gas/garbage are also already paid for by the apartment complex. So no charge on that either.

We also only have internet. We don't watch TV at all. I can get all my shows online. Also have to pay for my car (thanks Navy Fed!), 84 dollars a month, and have to pay 240 dollars a month in credit card bills. Car insurance is also 70 bucks a month (thanks to Geico), but I'll be reinsuring with USAA shortly. So no telling where we'll be at in a month once my husband classes up.

I'd say that we couldn't live on 35 dollars a day, but it's lifestyle choices. I could give up my car, and drop my bills... but I really don't feel like having my credit score tanking further. We just managed to get out of a craphole town in Texas, and get back on our feet..

[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.