heh. but this wouldn't be that hard to do. Assume that his pay was $10/hr working for a moving company. I assume this because that's what my son did working for a company that hauled shit out of people's hurricane destroyed multi-million dollar homes by the beach.
He'd need to save ~500/month. Assume he's taking home, what?, 400. That's about 1700/month after taxes. You can find a dive apartment in a place like he lived for $500. Utilities will cost ~70/month (no phone, no internet, no t.v) You can get yourself groceries for $300-400. He can get himself a broken down pick up for $1000. it is possible to get into an apartment, especially a dive, for no money down. Furnishing is often as simple as picking up stuff off the side of the street. Salvation Army, Goodwill, etc. -- you can pick up the basics of household furnishings for $200: mattress, sheets, pot, pan, plate, bowl, cup, mug, flatware, lamps, etc.
The issue, of course, is: should people have to give up so much, constantly, for not 10 months but for years and to never, ever encounter hardship or needy relatives or needy friends or getting lured into stupid investment schemes, etc? No, it's not right to expect people to live on rice-a-roni (!!! plain rice is cheaper dude!) and chicken with no fresh fruits and vegetables for months and years. It's not right to expect people to get their furniture all broken down and often ugly from a dumpster. It's not right that they should have no access to television, movies, internet, or have a phone. it's not right that someone should have to constantly deny themselves anything at all and live on hovels and drive broken down heaps.
I did it. I bought myself virtually nothing. With a kid and 2000/month take home, I managed to save $500/week. No foodstamps, not even reduced price lunches. I went to the 70% off sales at Walmart and Target when I did spend money. I didn't get cable. I washed my clothes in my bathtub and hung them up to drive in oddball places around the apartment. I spent money only on my son, and then it was always calculating, calculating, calculating how to spend my money the most efficiently. If I spent any money at all on anything that might be frivolous, it burned a hole in my gut with worry. What if I end up needing that $10? $50? Should I have bought chicken at $2.28/lb this week. if I just wait, it might be on sale for $1.89. What happens if, someday, I need that money? Will I have regretted subscribing to Harper's when I could have kept it in the bank and it could be used to buy groceries if I get laid off?
Re-use the coffee filters and coffee grounds to save 5cents week. Slow down past every dumpster or pile of trash left on the side of the road when someone moves. Clip coupons, scour the scratch and dent, haunt the salvation army. When the spaghetti spills on the floor, waste none of it. when you are shopping and thirsty or hungry, tought. You'll be home in an hour and you can drink water and eat there: no take out, no bottled water. look for a fucking fountain. Want some coffee? suffer. Wait 'til you get home. And next time you leave the house, remember to bring food and water dummy, so you won't be thirsty and hungry. Duh.
never throw anything away. not stained clothes, not ripped clothes. you can fix 'em or maybe some miracle will remove the stain. and anyway, if you ever are homeless again, at least you will have stained shirts and slacks. when you *do* go to the fastfood joint or get a coffeee at work, make sure to steal extra packets of ketchup, mustard, mayo, sugar, salt, pepper. Why? Emergency food supply for hurricanes and when you have nothing again. Keep some in your car in case you break down. Pick up every fucking penny you see.
that burning hole in your gut about whether you should spend money or not, I can attest, doesn't ever go away.
In 5 years, I managed to squirrel away $15k living like this - having started out from a position of zippo and considering hooking for some cash. About $5000 of the savings came from tax refunds -- EIC. I was terrified because I had no insurance and couldn't afford the $5k/year price for insurance I'd been quoted. About $2000 I spent to move and $2600 down for first/last/depost in order to be closer to the wealthy school district where sonshine was recruited to play ball and, thereby, eliminating the need to truck him around to early morning practices and home from practices and games. It was all gone in a flash of a layoff, illness, car accident, and an ex-employer's idiotic lawsuit.[1]
Whoever said it was right: it's no hard to go from nothing to poverty or, as Katherine Newman and Victor Chan callit, the "missing class." But that is hardly what anyone is talking about when they're talking the American Dream.
fuck the Horatio Alger asshole who besmirches the good name of Ehrenreich with every breath of air he takes in.
shag
http://cleandraws.com Wear Clean Draws ('coz there's 5 million ways to kill a CEO)
[1]I laugh now, how I bragged to some friends about how proud I felt that I had saved that money. It was piddly squat, I realize now, compared to what people can save/spend when they earn two and three times what I earned. Which is also why, funny enough, whereas I used to have sympathy for people who earned good money and couldn't seem to pay their bills etc., I no longer do. Now, I understand how much money they actually have. Then, I didn't. Because I couldn't fathom it. As a result, I have no fucking sympathy when some 90k a year fucker whines that he can't keep up -- especially if said fucker has a spouse and two incomes.