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an
ParticipantI did some digging on public assistance and if you’re a young couple with two kids each making $15/hr., it would make more sense you have one parent stay at home. If you do that and you contribute some of your income to a 401k to bring down your gross income a little bit, then you would be able to qualify for CalWorks, CalFresh, Medi-cal, and WIC. I think you’re much better off doing that than if you have two working parents.
ParticipantIf I read Covered CA correctly, a family of 4 making < $59,625 would only have to spend $196/month in healthcare. So, subtract that from the $2900 remaining from UCGal's budget and you still have ~$2700/month left. Even with the $300/month for a car (I think that's pretty generous), you still have ~$2400/month left for housing.
Participant[quote=harvey]
$2900 was the number UCGal posted in her hypothetical budget. It’s her number, not mine. You should probably redirect your “Holy molly”(Although I’m not familiar with St. Molly – is she the patron saint of spartan living?)[/quote]I meant to say holy moly. She’s the patron saint of guacamole.
[quote=harvey]I doubt UCGal was suggesting that anyone put the whole $2900 toward housing, but she did sorta phrase it that way.
Nevertheless, the budget is lacking a lot of real-world items that do add up. I already mentioned healthcare costs, which represents the biggest risk, but anyone with kids know there are lots of “miscellaneous” costs that are hard to avoid. Thus far, our hypothetical savers are bringing their free Craigslist furniture home on the bus and apparently don’t even do laundry.
And I’m definitely not complaining. Although I did grow up in modest conditions, I already said that I’m quite grateful that I don’t have to make these sorts of budget choices any more.[/quote]I read her post and take it as, you’ll be saving $2900/month, not spending $2900/month in mortgage and have no saving.
I was responding purely to the line item of grocery. You seem to think it’s not possible and I’m just disproving that statement. As for the rest of UCGal’s budget, I’ll let her debate with you on that.
Participant[quote=flu]What the heck are you going to do with 30 lbs of cabbage if you aren’t running a restaurant. I mean, it’s not like you can keep it for a long time..
Meanwhile, 5lbs of oranges at Vons this week… “Sale price” $5….
http://weeklyspecials.vons.com/customer_Frame.jsp?drpStoreID=2119&showFlash=falseLol….[/quote]Kim chi, lots of kim chi :-). It’ll last for a long while. You can also make cabbage soup, stir fry cabbage with your choice of protein. I love kim chi soup too.
Participant[quote=flu]Lol.. In that ad it says that the Cerritos store is selling 30 POUNDS of napa cabbage for 99 cents total….
I think if you go to Vons, 99 cents won’t even buy you one head of cabbage…I’m really disappointed they price discriminate between the stores. In San Diego, 99 cents buys you only 5 lbs of oranges, while as in san diego that 99 cents buys you 10 lbs of the same oranges. Sheesh, what a ripoff![/quote]
LoL. On a more serious not, I’m pretty sure you can make a lot of different dishes with cabbage if you do some research.Participant[quote=flu]Well, there’s a point of diminishing returns on excessive coupon clipping.. I mean, it doesn’t exactly make sense to save $2 extra on something that ends up costing you $4/gallon to get there unless you were going to be there to begin with…
I consider myself to be an opportunistic coupon clipper… But I almost never buy food things that are full price. I’d rather change my eating selection for that week or two and buy the stuff that’s on sale.[/quote]Exactly. That’s how people live on a budget. Either you make more money, then you can eat whatever you want whenever you want, or you learn to eat what fits in your budget. Even if it means you have to change up your diet based on what’s on sale.
Participant[quote=harvey]Thanks, I already know how to cook spaghetti and pour milk into a bowl of corn flakes.[/quote]Many people spend a lot of money on spaghetti, so you’re set.
[quote=harvey]Actually what I’m saying is that if this couple takes on a mortgage of $2950, they are going to spend an awful lot of their time sitting in an unfurnished home eating rice and praying that nobody ever gets sick.
I guess they could cut their cable bill, since there’s no budget for a TV.[/quote]Holy molly, $2950/month mortgage? A 2 bedroom PITI + HOA in Mira Mesa can be had with a mortgage of ~$1400/month. You can get a condo in other part of San Diego for less than that. Spending $2950/month on mortgage is a luxury. Your complaints are like those who complained that they can’t afford to live in La Jolla Farms on their engineering income, so life must suck and you can’t afford to buy a home.
Participant[quote=flu]The first step to saving a lot of money off or your groceries is shopping at places like Zion Markets off of clairemont instead of places like Vons or Ralph’s at full price.
I think the last time I was there at Zion, I bought 3lbs of peaches for like 89 cents total, when Vons and Ralph’s were selling peaches for like $1.50 per pound…
And yes folks, they were USA peaches, not grown in China…
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/jun/25/zion-market-san-diego-relocation-clairemont-mesa/%5B/quote%5D
Exactly. Here’s Zion’s sale for this week:
http://www.zionmarket.com/sale/store1.htmYou can get 4.4lb box of Korean grape for $7.99, 7lb of lobok for $0.99, 3lb of Fuji apple for $0.99, 4lb of Kabocha squash for $0.99, 2lb of persimmon for $0.99.
As for those who say, you can’t have steak and potato and live with that budget. Of course you can’t. That’s like saying I can’t afford a house in Carmel Valley while making $100k/year, so it’s impossible to buy a house. There are many ways to live with your budget. You just have to open your eyes and your mind.
Participant[quote=CA renter]Would you mind sharing your recipe, AN? 🙂
We still struggle (a lot) with the grocery bills. We are nowhere near $500/month with our family of five. Does this include things like paper towels, toilet paper, soap, shampoo, deodorant, etc., etc.? Sometimes, our grocery store has a better price than places like Target, so we sometimes buy these items at the grocery store.
You and UCGal were really inspiring me to become more thrifty with groceries, but it’s just not happening in real life. It might not help that we often have other kids here for dinner. We love having others over to eat, so won’t give it up, but it does affect our bills a bit. I still think that our family is the main culprit, though; we really like good food.[/quote]It’s all about the type of food you eat. Of course when we eat steak and potato, it’s quite expensive. I don’t think it’s possible to stay within my budget if our daily staple is steak and potato. Luckily, our daily diet is not steak and potato. You can look at the many different noodle dishes from various Asian countries for examples. Besides noodle dishes, which are quite cheap to make, here’s another example of a dish that we eat: http://gastronomyblog.com/2007/03/20/thit-kho/. Then we would buy fresh vegetable like Ong choi. A big bunch would only cost a few $. You can stir fry some and make soup with the other. That’s typically how our meals would be broken up. You have some kind of meat dish, when you make it very flavorful, you don’t need a lot of meat. Then we would have some kind of veggies, then some kind of soup. Rice would tie it all together. The meal I just described probably will cost you about $10 and would feed about 10 people.
As for paper towels, toilet paper, soap, etc, I buy from costco. We don’t go through those stuff too often, but I guess you can budget about $50/month for all of those.
I have family parties quite often, but we still eat Asian food at those parties. An example would be eating the chicken pho that I stated earlier. It feed a party of 15 people for $15.
Here are a few more example of the kind of dishes you can make for very cheap:
http://www.food.com/recipe/rau-muong-xao-made-with-spinach-7756
http://www.food.com/recipe/vietnamese-fish-simmered-in-caramel-sauce-ca-kho-to-56112
http://www.food.com/recipe/vietnamese-beef-stew-bo-kho-108893
http://www.food.com/recipe/bun-bo-hue-spicy-hue-style-noodle-soup-with-lemongrass-113776
http://chinese.food.com/recipe/stir-fried-asian-vegetables-254752
http://www.food.com/recipe/canh-chua-ca-hot-sour-fish-soup-w-pineapple-284254
http://www.recipe.com/spicy-szechuan-noodles/
http://www.food.com/recipe/goi-cuon-vietnamese-cold-spring-rolls-20445
http://deep-fried.food.com/recipe/vietnamese-spring-rolls-34488 (you can eat this with vermicelli noodle, fish sauce and lettuce)I can list many more, but you get the point. A lot of these dishes only about about 1lb of protein. So, it’s not that expensive to make. Also, where you shop for grocery makes a huge difference too. Checkout Zion and H-Mart for veggies and herbs and you’ll be shocked as to how expensive those same thing are at Vons/Albertson/etc.
Participant[quote=harvey]Ok, but that’s still $1/meal for one of the cheapest options possible. The budget I’m skeptical about is $1.38 average.
No doubt there are inexpensive dishes, but it would be tough to eat them exclusively, three meals a day, 365 days a year. All while working two full time jobs. And, like CAR said, there’s more to grocery bills than just food.
Are there holiday meals or an occasional celebration? Those could easily break the $1.38 average.
Another challenge with maintaining such a tight budget is medical costs. The $250/month estimate is for insurance only. That policy likely won’t cover all costs. The only way to maintain that budget is to never be sick.
There’s also no fun in that budget. Do the kids play sports?
I suppose the budget is theoretically possible, but this is a good week to be thankful that I don’t have to make it work.[/quote]As I’ve stated, I can give you a big long list of all the dishes you can make with that budget. This is just one of the many. But I didn’t feel the need to do so.
The rest of your post is essentially saying, you can’t afford luxury on a bare bone budget. Of course you can’t. But that was never the point of UCGal’s post or mine. All we’re saying is, it’s very doable. You can stay within that budget and be fully fed.
What’s the point of bringing up fun budget and sports?When you have limited income, you have to prioritize and food is much more important than sports or trips. If you make more money, then you can afford to do those other luxury things.
BTW, I’m not talking about theory here. I’m talking about plain old facts. My grocery budget on average for a family of 4 is between $400-600. My parents’ budget is much lower than that. So, it’s not just theoretically possible. It’s realistically possible.
Participant[quote=harvey][quote=UCGal]Food – if you eat a decent amount of beans, rice, lower cost meats (chicken wings/drumsticks vs steak) – you could easily feed a family of 4 on $500/month.[/quote]
$500/month for four people is a little over $4 per person per day, or about $1.38 average per meal. Possible, but not easy. Even harder when both parents are working full-time jobs. Finding bargains at the grocery store and cooking meals takes time.
A family of four living in a high cost city making $60K per month and saving 40%+ of their gross income would be an impressive display of thrift.[/quote]It really not that hard. We not pinching pennies by a long shot. Yet, our family of 4 spend between $400-600/month on grocery. If we really must pinch pennies, I’m confident we can easily cut that spending down to $200-400/month, just base on the food that we currently eat and compare to the food I used to eat when I was little.
There have been many threads on here about food cost. I’ve brought up the fact that Asian food tends to be very economical to make. Here’s a prime example. We can make a big pot of chicken pho that can easily feed 15 people for about $15. It tastes better than anything you can buy at the restaurants and it’s a lot cheaper. I can list many other dishes that are just as cheap to make.
ParticipantI know many 20s and 30s who have some form of cable TV. 5 years ago, before I experienced whole home DVR, I think it would have been much easier to cord cut. However, today, I would hate to have to deal with rabbit ears not have my shows recorded to watch later. I rarely watch things live anymore. I have all the shows I want to watch recorded and watch it later.
November 20, 2014 at 10:17 AM in reply to: Daily Compounding of HELOC…. And daily versus monthly payments #780217ParticipantLoL, flu, you have too much time on your hand.
ParticipantIn the beginning, the objection to Keystone was because of the environment. However, how, it’s more symbolic. That’s because the oil from Canada are being shipped by train today instead of pipeline. Just because you prevent the pipeline doesn’t mean that will stop the extraction oil from the oil sand. So, by objecting to Keystone, it’s actually more damaging to the environment than building the pipeline. Since train are more prone to crash and spill oil than pipeline.
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