Posted by moosep on 10/21/2011 11:35:00 PM (view original):
Posted by MikeT23 on 10/21/2011 4:22:00 PM (view original):
The point is that we(as a people) can get by on a lot less. But we have to be "comfortable" so we spend way more than we HAVE to. My beer, which is not a necessity, bill is almost the same as my grocery bill.
We don't need cable, HDTV, mobile phones, two cars, steak dinners, etc, etc, to live, we just want those things. $500 a month with living space taken care of, is plenty to live on.
It sounds good but you are ignoring heat and electric bills, garbage bill, taxes, insurance. How about a car. Please don't tell me anymore about how you are going to eat chicken and rice for 10 years because you are full of sheetz.
No, I'm not. I have a pretty good handle on what my bills are. Removing my $200 cable bill and $70 phone bill from the equation(which is what I'd do if I had to live on $500 a month) puts my household expenses(including taxes/insurance) under $500 a month without a house payment. I'm not factoring in a car because I don't need one. There's a grocery store about 3 miles from me. I could get everything I need by walking/bike.
As far as eating chicken and rice for 10 years, I think it beats starving or eating dirt. If you're not some liberal tree-hugger who believes everyone NEEDS steak dinners, cable TV, a mobile phone and a nice car, you do what you have to do. I have squirrels in my back yard and fish in a pond. If I was hungry, there would be less of both.