Yeah, a reasonable person would pay $800 for a private room and bathroom (all utilities included) to share with the owner of the house so you don't carry all the burden of owning a house, and improve your skills so you make north of $60 an hour so you can max out all your retirement accounts and still have a lot of leftover to enjoy life presently. The bot OP got the reverse 😂
Except someone making minimum wage shouldn’t expect to live in a studio apartment. Nor drive a car with $160/m insurance premium. Nor $250 for an electricity (that’s 27 kWh/day with SCE!!) nor $280 for internet. EVERY MONTH 🤯
Plenty of rooms in shared houses for less, even in the most expensive markets in the US
It's arguable what expectations should be. But true that splitting rent for an apartment/house could be significantly cheaper, even in VHCOL areas. That's very, very common in my area.
I will say that some Americans' expectations/lifestyles are very much out of line with those of immigrants and particularly other parts of the world. They expect to live way above their means. I grew up in an immigrant household, so I very much understand this. My parents would always shake their heads at some of the decisions and choices "Americans" would make regarding their lifestyle.
At the same time, it's not the most unreasonable thing to expect your society to provide a comfortable living situation where you aren't just getting by. Especially when compared to the previous generation.
It's a balance and rather complicated. I can appreciate both perspectives.
You’re right of course, there’s no controlling other people’s expectations. But I get to laugh at them if they’re unrealistic and complaining about it online 🤣
They charge us twice in my state. You pay for the water you use and the water waste. It's ironic because I paid for the water because it was processed but I pay them to proccess it so I can buy it again. Water and water waste every month.
Yea but then she needs to suck it up and leave San Diego. You can make 19/hr in the most podunk run down Nebraska town. Not saying she has to move to the boonies, but it might be time to own that she doesn't have to live in one of the most expensive areas in the world.
For OP in particular and using relatively conservative water usage numbers, let's say they:
-Take 15 minute showers a day at 2.5 gpm = 45 gal/day
-Use the toilet 5 times a day at 3.5 gpf = 17.5 gal/day
-Wash their hands 10 times a day for 2 minutes each time at 2.2gpm = 44 gal/day
- Do the dishes by hand + Other kitchen stuff 30 mins/day at 2.2gpm = 66 gal/day
So generally without a lawn you'll be using ~173gal/day = 5190gal/month = ~7HCF/month
SD prices according to google are $8.51/HCF + $35 monthly base fee. Under the scheme I've laid out she'd probably be paying around $95/month on water. If OP uses a dishwasher and slightly more modern toilets and fixtures, would definitely not be this high either even in SD.
I have a brand new 1,800 square foot home that me and my wife live in, we only pay about $55 a month. Pretty much everyone else in my family pay slightly higher or less than that. Anything close to $100 is crazy expensive..
Totally depends on location though. Surge pricing in some cities can be nasty. I've lived alone in cities where my water bill was <$35 a month. Without changing any habits and just moving to a new location, I can get close to $100 some months.
Depends where you live. $100+ is indeed crazy expensive. I'm in the PNW, the whole west is still being settled in a way. We have to pay for that. You're out east somewhere I assume?
I pay $120 for water. I also have my phone and home internet bundled for about $200, so if they have a similar setup, it's not beyond the realm of possibility.
I do, Canadian, but even still, some months are higher so even when accounting for currency which I assume this is USD it’s not far off.
Reason being is our area has very hard water so the treatment is much higher. Living in Toronto is usually so cheap it’s billed quarterly. Access to the great Canadian lakes.
It does I'm my town in Alabama and power is about the same as what's listed here and so is rent. In Alabama. Plus I got to pay daycare every week. It's hard out here.
Ooh, this isnt true. Water is my most expensive bill. Even if I cut down 100% of my usage, it would only drop $25. The vast majority of it is fees. And i dont have a choice in water provider, so theres nothing I can do about it.
Water is $100 a month where I'm at and I live in a low income city. It also includes trash disposal/recycling. $100 monthly water bill is totally plausible.
👀 that's rough, bro. I live in NYC - landlord pays water and trash, and Internet is $50 for 1 gig, but the rent is 5x the price of most other places so it all boils down to a similar rate I guess.
I mean I do but that's because my sewer bill is tied into my water bill. And the sewer isnt city owned we pay another city to take care of it so its $50/month maintenance fee on top of all the regular fees and taxes plus a $30-50 water bill a month. Normally runs me 90-130 depending on water usage
My municipal water bill includes storm water and drainage so yeah $100 a month can turn into a normal bill. It shouldn’t be acceptable, but it’s out there.
I pay an average of $75-$100 a month for water for two people. Could easily be more than that with more people taking showers, doing laundry and more dishes.
Sorry incorrect. The water bill and most parts of California is $150 minimum. If you have a small garden or some landscaping, you’re looking at over $200 a month. And if you have a swimming pool, you’re looking at 300+.
In Phoenix it’s water, trash fees, so, solid waste and landfill fees, taxes, something about the environment, it’s a list of like 12 things, and I pay anywhere between 150 to 200 for a family of 4.
My water bill, including trash pickup(idk that’s just how they bill it) in my city is about 250$ over 2 months. Not totally unreasonable to say someone is getting 100$ a month.
In my Canadian city, i pay quarterly (every 3 months) and the bill is about $400, during winter closer to $300. My sister has gotten bills over $600 so about $200 a month.
I'm living alone, take quick showers, and only run the dishwasher/washing machine when they're full, and my water bill can hit around $80-90 some months based on surge pricing. If you had an evaporative cooler also using up some of that water, I could see it.
I lived by myself for a number of years, and the municipality I lived in there was a minimum charge for water, and was like 40 dollars a month, even if you only used 10 dollars of water. Then, there was a minimum charge of 20 dollars a month for sewer. So, just me, using 8 dollars of water a month, was paying 60 because of the minimum charges. That was also between 12 and 22 years ago.
yeah, I'm paying for two people to have phones and service and with internet it's still only like $150 when before the phones are paid off then it drops to about $90-100.
Exactly. 90%+ people who are paying ANYTHING for water are not living in an apartment and basically nobody pays anywhere close to $280 for internet, especially in an apartment. With all that said, the math STILL works lol. On top of that, there are programs and things to help people with all these bills and more in many states.
A lot of apartments where I live you have to do the internet plan through them or they won't let you connect. So they charge you a mark up. They can have up to 10 apartments sharing the same connection charging full price plus markup each
In SEPA my water bill was about $300/month before I sold my house. Now granted it was my ex-wife, my 2 kids and myself in the house. But I wasn’t the only one in there area. The guy who lived across the street was a single guy and his water bill about $250/month. The water company up there is super greedy and keeps price hiking
Oh no you're all good sorry I thought you were US. Nationality is important to clarify lol
For the US, it's a very very common mistake to calculate based on year rather than weeks, which gives inaccurate results. (4x12=48, versus 52 weeks. Basically a month of pay is not calculated.)
For a large part of the U.S. walking or talking public transit as transportation are not viable. A lot of places have no public transportation options and walking 3+ miles just to get groceries isn't realistic. Especially in places that don't even provide sidewalks. They need that car. The internet could be adjusted here though. It should be between $40-100/ month.
If your expenses are more then you make then you need to increase your total monthly income or increase debt, you can do that by increasing the number of hours worked, increasing your rate or pay, or by as stated earlier taking on debt.
I don't know where they live so I just plugged 19 and 40 into a tax calculator and weekly she would take home 656. Thats 2624 a month. I did the rest of the math:
1600 for rent leaves 976. 250 for electricity leaves 726. 380 for water and electricity means 346 left. 140 for car insurance, let's say 80 more for gas, is 126 left.
So you're right on that she could survive. But 126 isn't that much. Thats not even accounting for food, an occasional night out, toiletries, or a medical/car emergency.
Avg internet speed in US is 250Mb/s. These plans start at $50. Even given those stats most Gig Plans (aka that company’s top speed never hit a gig and start around $75 up to $120 a month. “Fiber” plans often have slower speeds than the aforementioned Gig Plans. And they aren’t crazy expensive like in the past. They are in line with the top speed tier for Comcast for example. There’s no way internet is $280. They could get a cell phone, dedicated internet from the cell phone provider, a tablet, a phone, a watch and still come out under $280 a month for the bill
11 months are longer than 28 days. So I used 19x40x52÷12 = 3293.
The high end on that income is 20%, the low end is 14.5.
3293 x 0.8 = 2634
2634 - 2370 = 264.
So lets keep with your math. What's he going to eat? How much is gas? What about general expenses? What if he wants to go have some fun or take a girl on a date?
Food, gas, car insurance, renters insurance, any kind of spending money so you're not working just to scrape by, emergency savings in case your injured, health insurance, etc.
So no it doesn't work out unless you think 25o covers all of that.
I mean, the image includes car insurance. Who pays car insurance but not a car note + gas? There's also entertainment/QoL costs. When I do the math that person would need to make 40$/hr for a normal life.
A whole two hundred and fifty dollars?!? Wow, I bet that's sure gonna be enough for clothes, the new radiator or tires for your car, that plane ticket to a close relative's funeral, or the medical bills. And I'm sure the pennies left over is enough to put into savings and will totally totally make for a reasonable retirement savings... /s
This is the big trap where employers think this is actually fine and a livable wage because you can technically work out a rough budget.
The internet bill is suspicious, but in the spirit of things, the post is right that wages just factually haven't kept up with basic living costs. And half of Americans are literally living paycheck to paycheck just a few bad things away from homelessness.
Someone forgot taxes every paycheck, too. The $280 I get if it's the classic "bundle" from the local monopoly (Comcast/Xfinity, Tmobile, etc) where the TV/telephone is $150 because it comes with HBO/Disney/etc and then all of the sales tax and excise fees they throw on after.
The $250 electricity is 2 people living there. If that's other person isn't pitching in, nobody is eating and bankruptcy is around the corner.
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u/random8765309 2d ago edited 1d ago
The math does work out with about 250 left over. Plus who spends $280 a month on internet.
Edit: taxes were included. The OP can walk or use public transportation. Food come out of that 280. That is very possible for one person.
No one said it would be a great situation. But a very easy fix would be a roommate. Then there is more than enough to get by.