How much do you need to survive in the Oakland area? (Curious!) (San Jose: apartments)

[ippi76]

Hey everyone,
This is more of a casual curiosity post.

As title says, I'm interested to know how much you need to make an hour to live by yourself in the Oakland area.

Assumptions:
Lives in Oakland or Alameda or Berkeley, or anywhere COL is similar (i.e. not Concord or Pittsburg etc.)
Single
Works Full Time
No health problems
Want to live in a safe area
No health insurance
No student loan
No CC payments
No debts
Will rent a room, not own place
If all above is true and the person Doesn't have a car, and can walk to work or bicycle for free, then my assumption is they need at least $9/hr FT, with paying 500 for a room for rent, eating cheaply etc.

If above owns a car, and assuming BEST scenario, the car runs fine, is paid off, is cheap to insure, won't break down and this person has a zero point driving record, basically assume the car is a 2000s Honda Civic which also gets good MPG, and this person has free parking.
My assumption is this person would need at least $12/hr FT.

Am I wrong? Am I right? Way off in either direction? Please feel free to tell me, again I'm more curious than anything, but I'm interested as to what people would feel a "surviving" or "living" wage really is in the Oakland area. If you want to, compare to SF or San Jose or Antioch or Sacramento etc.

thanks!

[mdwstrnkid]

I'm not sure that I can answer your question, but if you really only need $9/hr (which seems low to me), you can try to get a job over in San Francisco, where the minimum wage is $10.24/hr. Of course, you'd need transportation over to the City, but you could get an AC Transit pass keep your costs fixed.

[jade408]

Here's what I'd say your monthly expenses are:
Rent a room: $500-750 ($500 would put you in San Leandro, not much inventory in your desired area that low in a safe area. At $500 expect a basic area)
Food: $160/mo with a strict budget
Cell Phone: $60 if you use Metro
Saving: $50
Cable/Internet (splitting the bill): $50
Electricity (splitting the bill): $30
Transportation: $160 (this would cover either daily BART trips 5 days a week, 1 fill up per week, or a monthly AC Transit pass with Transbay access. $80 for the local only pass)
Entertainment: $100
Sundries/Toiletries: $60
Surprises: $80

So your costs are about $1250 a month. Without a lot of wiggle room.
If you made $9 for 35 hours a week, you'd take home about $850.
At $12/hr for 35 hours a week you'd take home about $1125. You could cut back on saving, cell phone or entertainment in my budget above to make that work. But I'd recommend keeping the saving.

(Sadly, many of these part time jobs aren't adding full timers to cut down expenses on benefits. Expect your hours to fluctuate and keep you right under the threshold.)

I think you'd need $14 an hour minimum, or to find a way to get 2 part time jobs to add up to 45 hours a month. If you made $10.50 and got 45 hours a month, you'd just get to $1266 in take home pay.

[ippi76]

Okay, maybe I'm not just curious lol. Interesting you said 14 an hour because that's exactly what I make in Emeryville (supposed to be 15 in March though) . I currently live in Fremont with family so it's way cheaper but the commute is killer.

[mayorhaggar]

I think $14 would be the sweet spot for just getting by. I'd definitely look into San Leandro for an area that is similar to Oakland and still cheap but has less crime in the cheap areas. If you're going to Emeryville I'd take BART from San Leandro Macarthur then the Emery-go-round, either that or take a bike on BART and ride to work from Macarthur. BART can take a while but at least you'd beat the traffic around downtown Oakland, and it would save you on gas/maintenance for your car.

Oakland will probably work, I'd look at the Temescal which is pretty close to Emeryville, about a 15-20 minute bike ride away. But Oakland doesn't have a lot of roommate shares compared with Berkeley and Oakland. Maybe look at Berkeley, you could probably find roommates for around $400-600 a month.

[Ultrarunner]

I was going to say $1200 because I know a student going to community college and she figures about $1200 is what she has to take home...

She does have some scholarship help for books and fees...

Don't know exactly what she makes but she makes all her money waiting tables three nights a week... Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Cutting out Cable and Cell would save most a lot of money or just getting a no frill cell plan...

Too many people I know spend more than a hundred a month ea for cable and cell... that's $2400 a year!

I've got rabbit ears and get over 40 channels when you count the foreign ones... never lived in home with cable... remember years ago there was an introductory offer from cable Oakland for $7.95 per month... dad said he had a lot better uses for $50 other than giving the money to them each year... something I never forgot.

[ippi76]

I hear you for sure, we don't have cable or a home phone at my house and my cell phone is 30 bucks a month through Sprint employee discount but also because it's a cheap dumb phone.

[mayorhaggar]

To be comfortable I'd say you want to take home about 3 times what you pay in rent, give or take 5-10%.

[Nineties Flava]

These are the neighborhoods in Oakland I would be looking at if I were on a budget such as yours:

East Oakland

- South Kennedy Tract (Jingletown)
- School (between Fruitvale and Coolidge above Brookdale Avenue)
- Frick (between 55th Ave and Seminary and above Kingsley)
- Maxwell Park
- Millsmont
- Eastmont Hills
- Toler Heights
- Lower Dimond
- Lower Laurel
- Lynn

Downtown

- Lakeside Apartments District (Gold Coast)
- Adam's Point

North Oakland

- Bushrod (between Shattuck and Telegraph above 56th Street)


You might notice that most of my recommendations are in East Oakland... given that I live here, that's the side I'm most familiar with. I'm familiar with all sides of town, but none as much as the East. So if you have specific questions about the ones in East Oakland, I'll definitely be able to answer them.

[honda250rracer]

$15*40(hours a week)=$600
$600*4(weeks in a month)=$2400
$2400-$500(rent)=$1900
$1900-$600(utilities and car insurance and other stuff)=$1300
$1300-$150(groceries)=$1150
$1150-$150(gas)=$1000
Minus probably $150-$200 for taxes

Total expenses:around $1600/month
Leaves like $800

roomates are the best!!!!

Dont be an idiot with your money and you are good.

Not that difficult,show up to work and do your job and you will be good complaining and getting fired/quitting will only mess you up in the end.
The biggest problem people have is that they dont underrstand what a job is,(for ex, if your boss tells you to do something do it better and faster than they expect no matter how rediculous the request. they will recognize sooner or later and it can only benefit you later.