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To the OP, why the desperate need to move to the City and is minimum wage your only option?
I don't plan on living in NYC I'm just seeing where and how one can live on minimum wage, particularly in cities. It didn't seem plausible to me to live in NYC on minimum so I asked here. It doesn't seem there are any cities in the north where one can live normally on minimum wage, and in the south it barely gets you a house in the ghetto.
There aren't any cities in the North because there more advanced and have more people then the south. You could go to Trade school and live off a unionized Job....or work for public Transit or safety which pays between 30-50k on average...
Sounds good if all you're doing is multiplying hours by wage, but you haven't deducted federal, state, and CITY taxes as well as SS, unemployment, medical, etc. If you're lucky, you're left with $1000 a month and we're not taking into consideration that most employers these days are not offering overtime, so your 45 hours a week is a pipedream.
If you live in one of the outerboroughs and work a "normal hours" work week, you will need to take an express bus - at least the folks I know do that - and those are $50/week. Otherwise, your commute time could be as long as 2 hours - and the folks who don't get home from work until 7 or later generally grab something to eat at the local bodega. That throws out your food budget. Then, if you're getting home that late, you probably won't be up to making a bagged lunch for the next day, so you'll again, grab something at the bodega. Woops, there goes the food budget again. Add to that the horrors of trying to grocery shop without a car at stores that have no parking anyway, so you wind up paying for delivery or hiring a car (there are no taxis outside of Manhattan, they are called "car service"). Then, the local supermarket does not double coupons so you don't get much savings there so you'll opt for the convenience of having your groceries delivered (oops, food budget again) and most times you're too tired from all the schlepping, so you'll shop at the local bodega where the prices are just a "wee" bit higher than the supermarkets.
Add to that, you haven't calculated the cost of laundry. Because of the amount of time you're spending riding the local buses and waiting for the next train or bus, you'll probably opt to send out your laundry, even having it picked up and delivered. So your $150 "spending machine" has just been spent down to maybe $50, if you're semi-frugal.
But you haven't even considered that working involves donating to "stuff" at the office, a lunch out; drinks after once a month; gift for a new baby, retirement, promotion. Hmmm, $50 leftover didn't go as far as you thought it would - you're down to nothing, saved nothing, and are probably apt sharing an efficiency for $500/mo.
Yeah, that's living!
Besides, we haven't even added in your utilities - and no, they are not going to be included in a $500/mo apt. So you're in the hole, by at least $500 every month and you're sharing a 4th floor walk-up efficiency.
The basic premise of your post is absolutely correct, BUT the details are a bit off!
The only w/b 2 hour commutes within NYC are for those living in 2 fare zones in the absolutely furthest neighborhoods of Queens, Brooklyn, The Bronx, and Manhattan. Staten Island is generally the most isolated borough, but is relatively close to downtown Manhattan. The average outer-borough commute is 1 hour or less! Though a lot of insular Brooklyn whites live a good bit farther
The overwhelming majority of NYers, do NOT take express buses! They take the subway. I would suggest to you that "Bodegas" are NOT found in the neighborhoods where the people you know apparently live. Express busses, generally, serve suburban type neighborhoods, and these areas have few if any "bodegas". Bodegas are most often found in quite urban lower income areas.
So, if the OP were to live in such an area, he would NOT do his grocery shopping at a bodega. Only idiot 'Transplants' do such a thing, anyway. NYers do not! People use bodegas to pick up suplemental items, in the same manner a suburbanite utilizes 7/11. The OP would shop at a supermarket like everyone else. Also, if he were to live in such an outer area, it is likely that he would live in a 'downtown' area of the neighborhood near public transport and shooping, which is where apartments are normally built.
So, though the overall money issue is right on. The specifics are abit non-NYC.
The basic premise of your post is absolutely correct, BUT the details are a bit off!
The only w/b 2 hour commutes within NYC are for those living in 2 fare zones in the absolutely furthest neighborhoods of Queens, Brooklyn, The Bronx, and Manhattan. Staten Island is generally the most isolated borough, but is relatively close to downtown Manhattan. The average outer-borough commute is 1 hour or less! Though a lot of insular Brooklyn whites live a good bit farther
The overwhelming majority of NYers, do NOT take express buses! They take the subway. I would suggest to you that "Bodegas" are NOT found in the neighborhoods where the people you know apparently live. Express busses, generally, serve suburban type neighborhoods, and these areas have few if any "bodegas". Bodegas are most often found in quite urban lower income areas.
So, if the OP were to live in such an area, he would NOT do his grocery shopping at a bodega. Only idiot 'Transplants' do such a thing, anyway. NYers do not! People use bodegas to pick up suplemental items, in the same manner a suburbanite utilizes 7/11. The OP would shop at a supermarket like everyone else. Also, if he were to live in such an outer area, it is likely that he would live in a 'downtown' area of the neighborhood near public transport and shooping, which is where apartments are normally built.
So, though the overall money issue is right on. The specifics are abit non-NYC.
She said "Grab a bite" at the bodega, not shop for groceries there. That's different. I would never get groceries at a bodega, but have grabbed a bite at one many times. It's cheap and always open.
San Francisco recently raised their minimum wage past $10. NY should do the same, considering it cost more to live here. If someone is living off minimum wage, they will most likely qualify for government assistant programs like food stamps and maybe welfare. The trick is to find a job that pays you under the table, so you can still get those government programs. A very unamerican thing to do, but people do it all the time.
Not being a native NYer, I have gotten my info on bodegas and shopping from friends who were born, raised, and will NEVER leave Brooklyn (so sad). Not one of my friends who live in Brooklyn shops at a grocery store - it requires too much transportation and time to get there. One friend in Bensonhurst has never stepped foot in a supermarket, preferring to shop in bodegas (her term for corner grocery store); another in Park Slope shops once a year in a supermarket. Both work in "the city" and only travel the express bus. The friend in Bay Ridge says she doesn't need a supermarket since her phone dials the take-out places and at 7 or 8 pm she is not about to cook.
As for Staten Island being 1 hour from midtown, I will meet you in Tottenville or Princes Bay or any other town and you show me any way that will get me to midtown in under 1.5 hours. Perhaps at 6 am, the express bus would work, but not any other time. It takes me a minimum 1 hour just to get to Battery Park. From the SI Mall to the Ferry is around a 45 min trip (didn't know there is no subway system on SI, didja?) and the ferry trip is 20 minutes, assuming the connections work just exactly right. Then there is waiting for the subway in South Ferry.
Bodegas (corner deli, whatever you want to call it) are on almost every other corner in the 4 boroughs of NYC. At least in every neighborhood I've been to.
She said "Grab a bite" at the bodega, not shop for groceries there. That's different. I would never get groceries at a bodega, but have grabbed a bite at one many times. It's cheap and always open.
San Francisco recently raised their minimum wage past $10. NY should do the same, considering it cost more to live here. If someone is living off minimum wage, they will most likely qualify for government assistant programs like food stamps and maybe welfare. The trick is to find a job that pays you under the table, so you can still get those government programs. A very unamerican thing to do, but people do it all the time.
Not being a native NYer, I have gotten my info on bodegas and shopping from friends who were born, raised, and will NEVER leave Brooklyn (so sad). Not one of my friends who live in Brooklyn shops at a grocery store - it requires too much transportation and time to get there. One friend in Bensonhurst has never stepped foot in a supermarket, preferring to shop in bodegas (her term for corner grocery store); another in Park Slope shops once a year in a supermarket. Both work in "the city" and only travel the express bus. The friend in Bay Ridge says she doesn't need a supermarket since her phone dials the take-out places and at 7 or 8 pm she is not about to cook.
As for Staten Island being 1 hour from midtown, I will meet you in Tottenville or Princes Bay or any other town and you show me any way that will get me to midtown in under 1.5 hours. Perhaps at 6 am, the express bus would work, but not any other time. It takes me a minimum 1 hour just to get to Battery Park. From the SI Mall to the Ferry is around a 45 min trip (didn't know there is no subway system on SI, didja?) and the ferry trip is 20 minutes, assuming the connections work just exactly right. Then there is waiting for the subway in South Ferry.
From my neighborhood (around Richmond Avenue and the SIE), you can get the X17J and get to Midtown in 45 minutes. Of course, between walking to the bus and waiting for it, you're close to an hour's commute.
And the ferry is 25 minutes to go across, not 20 (those extra minutes can make the difference between making your connection and missing it)
So you live near an express bus - and for those who have to take a bus to the express bus, you need to add on a half hour. plus waiting for a second bus.
You taxes will be low with the minimum income with one big exception, the POOR (Social Security, Medicare) tax which is heavily weighted on the poor. The rich get a free pass on SS after 100 G's.
So you will take home more than that $1000 estimate.
BUT we all need medical care and employer plans suck so there will be a expensive co-pays and deductibles and perhaps you maight have to toss in $100/month even if you NEVER see a doctor.
You will meed clothes, coats, shoes, sneakers.
You may need glasses, contacts.
The $300/ month ($10 per day) is possible for food but that means you'll have to use some of that valuable free time to shop and cook for yourself.
Booze? You can't fit it into the food budget.
Dating? Pretty much NEVER.
Furniture?
Haircuts?
Lottery tickets?
And I wasn;t joking about the dentist...saving ONE tooth can go to $2,000 EASY!
And I;ll bet I forgot a dozen more items.
I think it CAN be done, but the first unforseen big expense and you are sunk...and there are ALWAYS unforseen events. Even getting the flu and being without a paycheck for 2 weeks can be disastrous. These jobs don't pay you when you are sick. You are just too close to the edge.
One thing you can count on, probably almost ANYWHERE, living on minimum wage willl suck a lot.
Last edited by Kefir King; 12-18-2011 at 07:06 AM..
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