How do low income people survive? (employed, job openings, jobs, paid)

[prim2007]

Originally Posted by fierce_flawless

If you have a computer (laptop) with wireless capablities, there are plenty of 24 hour options for free WiFi or whatever.

There are a lot of people leeching internet services from others via wireless. Don't kid yourself that it's rare. I don't have a laptop, but I know a ton of folks who do, and they mostly don't pay for internet.

Furthermore, there are a lot of folks who still have dialup (my mom is one)... so if you have a basic home phone (in some cases under $10 a month) then you can have dialup internet, for free.

I think you've made the point that these folks aren't in dire straits if they have laptops, can get to places with free wi-fi (I'm not thinking there are many in the "hood"), or can afford dial-up at any price; though $10 a month is to good to be true. What service is this?

[Colddiamond102]

Originally Posted by fierce_flawless

I repped you for this post, but what's with number 8?

lol thank you.

#8 was kind of a joke for all of the college students out there.

This semester robbed me of about 400 bucks just for books alone. They were all new editions, so there were no "used" ones to be had. Whats more, you cant get back your money for them entirely either.

Example, I paid $150 for one book. I can only get about 50 of that back on re-sale at the end of the semester.

[20yrsinBranson]

Originally Posted by gardener34

Oh yeah, and NO pets - even if your kids beg you for one. Buy them a goldfish. I can't tell you how expensive they are. They are really a luxury. Even just the minimum shots a year and heartworm is expensive. And just forgettaboutit if they have chronic disease which means thousands. Or they have an accident or swallow something they shouldn;t have.

SO many people get these free dogs or cats and then have to give them up or worse yet, deadbeats just leave them when they have to move or they get foreclosed on. And they don't neuter them, so then they have more animals.

Well, I take exception to this philosophy. My pets add so much to the quality of life I can't imagine being without them. Aside from ONE very expensive trip to the Vet in July of 2003 (or 2004, I forget) to the tune of $1500 emergency surgery for one of my cats, they are relatively inexpensive. I pay about $9 in cat litter and $20 in cat food monthly. Since they are exclusively indoor kitties, it is not necessary to get shots for them, and *knock wood* they have been very healthy for their 10 and 8 years respectively.

20yrsinBranson

[fierce_flawless]

Originally Posted by prim2007

I think you've made the point that these folks aren't in dire straits if they have laptops, can get to places with free wi-fi (I'm not thinking there are many in the "hood"), or can afford dial-up at any price; though $10 a month is to good to be true. What service is this?

The $10 month is a basic home phone (landline with no call waiting or any of that)... don't know what it's called where you are but here it's "life line" or something and you can qualify for it based on being low income. Last time I checked into it for an elderly neighbor w/no phone, it was around $10 month with the local phone company. Maybe it's $14 a month now?

The thread was titled "low income people", i.e. with low wage jobs. Not people with zero income.... most low income folk are still going to try to keep a home phone line going for emergencies and such.

The internet is the free part: Juno and NetZero are the two that pop in my head right off the bat. I'm sure there are others depending on where you live.

I had internet for YEARS for free, back in the day (90s). I had a basic home phone line, an ancient computer given to me by a friend of the family for using for writing school papers and such, and free dialup. It's not something new.

And actually, I live in "the hood", and there is an internet cafe a mile away, and it was started precisely because most residents here didn't have this in their homes... but I don't know if they're open past 11pm. I doubt it.

Do you have any idea how cheap an old, obsolete, slow, crappy laptop is?

Yeah I suppose they could sell it for whatever they could get for it.

As for getting around... if you use public transpo and buy a monthly bus pass, there's no limitation on using it 3, 4, 5, or a thousand times a day. I could get on the bus any time before, say, 10 pm and go wherever i wanted, even to one of those 24/7 free wi-fi places "out of the hood".

I'm just saying in a different way that yes, "where there's a will there's a way" and sometimes it doesn't involve bumming off friends and family and neighbors or other socially frowned-upon methods.

Originally Posted by Colddiamond102

lol thank you.

#8 was kind of a joke for all of the college students out there.

This semester robbed me of about 400 bucks just for books alone. They were all new editions, so there were no "used" ones to be had. Whats more, you cant get back your money for them entirely either.

Example, I paid $150 for one book. I can only get about 50 of that back on re-sale at the end of the semester.

Oh yeah I hear ya. I complained on another thread about my Sociology "book" that was just a bunch of hole punched, shrink wrapped pages that I had to get my own "cover" (binder) for... plus a CD that we never once used for the course, all at top dollar, of course. Oh, and pages so thin you could see through them, and they tore constantly!

The college used bookstores don't pay diddly from my experience. I've heard recently that people do better re-selling them on Amazon.com and the like though.

[Colddiamond102]

Originally Posted by fierce_flawless

Oh yeah I hear ya. I complained on another thread about my Sociology "book" that was just a bunch of hole punched, shrink wrapped pages that I had to get my own "cover" (binder) for... plus a CD that we never once used for the course, all at top dollar, of course. Oh, and pages so thin you could see through them, and they tore constantly!

The college used bookstores don't pay diddly from my experience. I've heard recently that people do better re-selling them on Amazon.com and the like though.

I had a Marketing book like that. Po'd me royally. I plan on burning it when I graduate, along with every Math book I own.

[fierce_flawless]

Originally Posted by Colddiamond102

I had a Marketing book like that. Po'd me royally. I plan on burning it when I graduate, along with every Math book I own.

I'll gladly join you in the math-book-burning (says the possible future librarian! )

[Colddiamond102]

Originally Posted by fierce_flawless

I'll gladly join you in the math-book-burning (says the possible future librarian! )

LMAO. I said I was going to burn them to my bf's mother ( who is, coincidentally, a librarian) and she was horrified.

[Cinnabunz]

Originally Posted by Colddiamond102

lol thank you.

#8 was kind of a joke for all of the college students out there.

This semester robbed me of about 400 bucks just for books alone. They were all new editions, so there were no "used" ones to be had. Whats more, you cant get back your money for them entirely either.

Example, I paid $150 for one book. I can only get about 50 of that back on re-sale at the end of the semester.

I just got "got" on that this sememster too...NO REFUND on this particular book and it cost me $75.00!

[TKramar]

Originally Posted by Jesse69

Low income - $15/hr to minimum wage. I met one guy who was a burger flipper and asked how he afforded living. He said, "are you good with women? How up with one and live with her!" But let me guess, many $7/hr workers have multiple jobs, probably get food stamps, public aid, SSDI, or Section 8. Otherwise, I heard they gang up together and live in an Apt - probably little privacy.

Ok, if you're a low earner - how do you survive?

How dreary is life when you can't afford many things?

I was thinking about getting a PT job to supplement my unemployment checks which I haven't gotten my last 5!, - so I'm suffering. Maybe working $7 / hr isn't worth it but like I'd get a 20% employee discount at Ross. I am able to get contract $30 - $35 / hr Proe jobs, but I haven't gotten one in 7 weeks. But I did get a 2 day $60 /hr job that messed up my unemployment check situation! - I should have never taken it!

$10 an hour. She budgets the money, and she always has enough to buy a few cartons of smokes. I myself only go through a pack in two to three days, she smokes more. Yep, support two people on $10 an hour. Basic groceries, no eating out. Her car was paid for with cash...but I took a loan on my 401K to get it for her. We drive maybe 10 miles a week(well, she does--I don't drive), so gas lasts quite a while. Work is a few blocks away, and I live in a trailer park. Pay about $625 a month, and get about that much in just two weeks.

[CA central coast]

Oh boy, college textbooks, what a scam. I remember paying $50-$90 for just about every book, never less than $40. That was 20 years ago. It took me two full days of work to buy one math book. A lot of those were used. The worst was buying four books for one class and not even opening two of them. That used to kill me. Maybe there is justification for the cost, but to me, it's borderline criminal.