Supporting a family on a teacher's salary? (Provo, Ogden: low income, rental)

[murena99]

Thanks for your comments and information people, its all helpful and appreciated. Can anyone tell me what they might be spending each week on petrol, utilities, school and medical expenses, car repayments, household shopping, etc? I'm trying to get a feel for the likely size of the gap between income and expenditure as we would be taking a huge salary drop to move to Utah.

[Love2all]

Hi Murana,


Those are tough questions since we have different family requirements. Buy a good used mini-van and pay cash ($5,000 should do). Car insurance is cheap here, I pay about $80 monthly for full coverage. Live and shop near your house like me and petrol is only about $40 per month, with 4 kids, you will drive more than me. Good medical insurance is provided by the schools here. I pay nothing for that. Groceries? depends on what you like. I have a family of two and pay about $150 per month, but we eat fast food alot. I guess you need to budget about $400 per month. We find that since Mormons are into storing food for a rainy day, there are some incredible sales if you are buying canned goods in bulk. I think food cooperatives are big here too. Your kids can go to school free of course. I hope this helps.
You can save money on clothing by shopping at Deseret Industries, it's a Morman ran thrift store. I find great name brand clothes that look new for next to nothing, I'll never pay retail for clothing again.


Any other natives please correct me on some of my estimates, I'm sure they are not perfect.

Cheers,

L2A

If it's any consolation: One of my fellow teachers has 4 years teaching experience, makes about $35,000 and supports a wife and 2 little kids, and owns his own 3 bedroom house in a nice neighborhood. The wife stays at home raising the family. They do alright.

[jazzlover]

If I might make a suggestion here, you might want to think about Wyoming. Wyoming's schools are generally very well-funded and teacher pay is pretty good. In many places, living costs would probably be less than Wasatch Front standards. Wyoming does not have a state income tax, either, which helps a little.

If you wish to be in a community that has a strong LDS presence, there are a number in Wyoming that fit the bill. Evanston could be a good choice, and it is only about 100 miles or so to SLC. The Big Horn Basin is pretty strong LDS, too, and has several nice towns there.

By the way, I'm not LDS, and I do like Utah very much (though I don't live there), but I haved lived in Wyoming and it is a nice area, too.

[Love2all]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

If I might make a suggestion here, you might want to think about Wyoming. Wyoming's schools are generally very well-funded and teacher pay is pretty good. In many places, living costs would probably be less than Wasatch Front standards. Wyoming does not have a state income tax, either, which helps a little.

If you wish to be in a community that has a strong LDS presence, there are a number in Wyoming that fit the bill. Evanston could be a good choice, and it is only about 100 miles or so to SLC. The Big Horn Basin is pretty strong LDS, too, and has several nice towns there.

By the way, I'm not LDS, and I do like Utah very much (though I don't live there), but I haved lived in Wyoming and it is a nice area, too.

Hate to disagree Jazz, but Wyoming (aside from Evanston), it is a nice place isn't the same or even similar). There is a dearth of housing in Wyoming and not too many teaching jobs. It's windy as heck, and the number of hard drinkin' miners and oilfield workers is high. Evanston, like Jazz said is a nice place, but not the rest of the state.
They want to live in a Mormon community. Idaho has many Morman communities, with reasonable housing costs. But I think the Cache valley area, in Northern Utah, would suit them fine, much cheaper than the Provo area, and strong Morman influence.

[GEMx3]

Cache valley is nice and cheaper than the Wasatch front. A little colder. Almost every school district has their salary schedule listed. Search Cache Valley School District, Logan School district, Salt Lake, Jordan, Granite, Provo, Alpine, and Davis. (I think I got most of the major ones.) You will pay a premium for health insurance no matter where you work, but the amount varies with each district.

Gasoline is nearly $3 per gallon right now for the cheapest octane level. Most people pay close to $50 on a tank of gas. A gallon of milk is hovering around $3. Everything has seen an increase with the price of gas rising. It affects everything!!

Good luck.

[Sharpp]

My father in law is an elementary school teacher. To quote him directly "Teaching is one of the highest paying part time jobs there is." Home by 4pm, summers off, all major holidays paid and he still manages to live in a 300k house, several new cars. I think the trick to making it in Utah as a teacher is work a full year, I know that sounds harsh and I bet alot of teachers put in unpaid time into their part time job but its probably better spent trying to earn a salary. Most people can't make it on one salary anyways.

[murena99]

Thanks guys, I've found this to be very helpful, particularly Love2all's cost of living estimates. If anyone is interested in the Australian perspective, petrol here is bouncing around in the range between $1.27 - $1.42 per liter, (there's about 4 liters per gallon) and about half the price is actually state and federal taxes. Being a one car family the one car gets a lot of use and we spend about $100 a week on petrol. Basic hospital only insurance (no dental, optometry, physiotherapy, podiatirst, chiropractor, etc) for 2 adults and 4 kids is about $80 months (that's with a federal government rebate of 30%.) I'm not too sure how much our shopping bill is each week as my wife takes care of that, even though I go with her, but it would be about $220 a week, with takeaways about 3 times every two weeks, our phone and internet bill comes to anywhere between $120 - $170 per month (fixed line connection only, with broadband for the internet our cell phones are billed seperately). If we had cable tv with about 25 channels, it would cost about $40 a month, car insurance comes to $840 a year, car registration tax about $900 a year. We pay 7.3% per annum on our $260,000 mortgage but we are paying about $970 every two weeks which is more than the minimum. The cost of living is high here but so are the salaries, so its hard to work out how much better or worse off we would be if we move to Utah were the cost of living and salaries are low.

[goodoldfox]

I lived in Southeast Idaho (Lava Hot Springs) and the Church was very strong with a better sense of community that in the big city. Also housing prices were about 1/2 of Salt Lake and teacher salaries were slightly better.

[IdaClaire]

My father in law is an elementary school teacher. To quote him directly "Teaching is one of the highest paying part time jobs there is." Home by 4pm, summers off, all major holidays paid and he still manages to live in a 300k house, several new cars. I think the trick to making it in Utah as a teacher is work a full year, I know that sounds harsh and I bet alot of teachers put in unpaid time into their part time job but its probably better spent trying to earn a salary. Most people can't make it on one salary anyways.

Wow- things must be very different for teachers in Utah. My husband and many of our closest friends are teachers in Chapel Hill, NC, and there is no way they have the ability to walk out the door before at least 4:30 or 5:00 pm. There are faculty meetings, lesson plans to write, papers to grade, parents to call, clubs to sponsor, etc. Weekends are often spent doing work as well. And summers are for recertification, seminars, and conferences. I've often joked that being married to a teacher is like being married to a doctor, minus the big bucks!

Seriously- I can't imagine a teacher considering their job a "part-time job", leaving as soon as the kids leave every day, and being especially effective.

Otherwise, I second the vote for the northern part of Utah. Gorgeous scenery, low housing prices, and strong LDS influence.

I visited Pocatello, ID a few times when I lived in the Rockies, and it seemed to be reasonably inexpensive, with a reasonably strong LDS presence. Being reasonably close to Yellowstone would be, IMO, a plus.

[Blondie-Rabbit]

Originally Posted by IdaClaire

Wow- things must be very different for teachers in Utah. My husband and many of our closest friends are teachers in Chapel Hill, NC, and there is no way they have the ability to walk out the door before at least 4:30 or 5:00 pm. There are faculty meetings, lesson plans to write, papers to grade, parents to call, clubs to sponsor, etc. Weekends are often spent doing work as well. And summers are for recertification, seminars, and conferences. I've often joked that being married to a teacher is like being married to a doctor, minus the big bucks!

Seriously- I can't imagine a teacher considering their job a "part-time job", leaving as soon as the kids leave every day, and being especially effective.

Otherwise, I second the vote for the northern part of Utah. Gorgeous scenery, low housing prices, and strong LDS influence.

I visited Pocatello, ID a few times when I lived in the Rockies, and it seemed to be reasonably inexpensive, with a reasonably strong LDS presence. Being reasonably close to Yellowstone would be, IMO, a plus.

When my kids were in school I should have had us live in NC. Every state we have lived in including California and TN, have had the same kind of teachers that left at the same time the kids did, and one day a week at noon.