How much does it cost you to live a day in your life?
Too_Many_Tools
And to do it every day.
So what is your minimum cost of living?
Considering today's events, you may need to answer that question
sooner than you think.
TMT
skar...@gmail.com
calculations. Based on my family's annual expenses, I think we spend
about $50 a day per person in the family. That is definitely not how
little we can live on.
rick++
answer is $73. Largest part was housing and utilities at $29.
Car insure, gas, maintain $7. Charity and gifts $7.
clams_casino
Best guess is we could likely cut back to $100/day (for two), but it
would take a significant, undesirable change in lifestyle.
James
For my household of 5, excluding retirement savings about 100. When I
was laid off, about 60 - without selling the house etc.
James
Rod Speed
Rod Speed
> Since I know exactly how much spent last year, the answer is $73.
Nope, thats not what you could exist on, thats what you chose to spend.
h
<skar...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:13f82ca5-e746-4ba7...@n20g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
I cost $30/day and DH costs $35/day, because he still commutes.
val189
Impossible to answer. There's are many levels of living costs between
my present living standard and taking my place under the overpass.
A better question might be - what did you spend per person per day
last year? And where could you cut?
I guess if I gave up all forms of insurance, car, sat in the dark,
rented something squalid and lived on beans, I could get by pretty
cheaply.
hchi...@hotmail.com
The toilet paper costs would kill you, what with all those beans and
not being able to see in the dark.
Scott Fargham
news:06beadde-6e13-4297...@q39g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
Living on beans would certainly set you apart from your friends.
Scott Fargham
news:4aaea014-c6d3-4fc0...@e23g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
Despite having just completed my daily browsing of various news-oriented web
sites, I'm unsure about which of "today's events" triggered your question.
Are you referring to the 300-point rise in the Dow and if so how does that
lead to the "minimum cost of living" question? You're surely not implying
that you think the global economy is on the verge of collapse, I hope.
Too_Many_Tools
> "Too_Many_Tools" <too_many_to...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
Try reading this.
The fun is just beginning.
TMT
clams_casino
>
>
>Living on beans would certainly set you apart from your friends.
>
>
>
>
On a similar note - we started a soup diet earlier this month after
hearing about such from a friend. He's lost 10 lbs, I've lost 7 and my
wife 5 since the first of the year.
Kind of gets old, but we now have soup every night. This week we
started with a basic Minestrone & added a new vegetable each night to
keep it interesting (last night was a can of navy beans). Last week it
was a chicken based vegetable (adding some escarole, one night, mixed
vegetables one night, elbows the next, etc). In between we had a few
nights of a sausage / chick pea. Tomorrow it will be a potato soup,
adding some bacon pieces, scallions, etc each night to keep it "different"..
Relatively cheap, frugal, healthy & so far, it's resulted in much
desirable weight loss without too much effort.
clams_casino
I'm a believer that both the 99-00 stock bubble & 03 - 06 housing bubble
were greatly due to Greenspan's excessive lowering of interest rates.
The first cheap money was as a precaution to the Y2K fears, but the
later was arguably a bailout for the poor Bush leadership. Much of the
excess money in 99-00 went into speculating in a few high tech stocks
and with little else to invest 03-06 cheap money, it went into housing
(not wanting to expand business, make stock investments nor spend
freely).
It'll be interesting to see what this week's historic interest rate
lowering does & how long the rates remain where they are.
Unfortunately, in the long run, it may simply result in a further
deterioration of the dollar / higher oil costs (the increased price of
oil over the past seven years can be traced / tracked almost indirectly
to the value of the dollar). The expected recession may temporarily
reduce oil pricing, but could hurt it even more in the long run.
Too_Many_Tools
> "val189" <gwehr...@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
>
> - Show quoted text -
"Living on beans would certainly set you afart from your friends"
Fixed your typo. ;<)
TMT
Too_Many_Tools
> "Too_Many_Tools" <too_many_to...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
And Scott...how much does it cost you a day to live?
TMT
Too_Many_Tools
I noticed that no one has mentioned their daily costs for taxes.
Property taxes, sales taxes, income taxes...they all add up.
Doesn't anyone pay taxes?
TMT
George
I don't, I called a backdoor number and asked for code "walmart" to be
placed on my SSN.
Rod Speed
> Too_Many_Tools wrote:
>
>> On Jan 23, 7:42 pm, "Scott Fargham" <scotty...@mindspring.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>> "Too_Many_Tools" <too_many_to...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>>>
>>> news:4aaea014-c6d3-4fc0...@e23g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> So how little can you live on..$1000...$100...$10...$1?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> And to do it every day.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> So what is your minimum cost of living?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Considering today's events, you may need to answer that question
>>>> sooner than you think.
>>>>
>>>>
>>> Despite having just completed my daily browsing of various
>>> news-oriented web sites, I'm unsure about which of "today's events"
>>> triggered your question. Are you referring to the 300-point rise in
>>> the Dow and if so how does that lead to the "minimum cost of
>>> living" question? You're surely not implying that you think the
>>> global economy is on the verge of collapse, I hope.
>>
>> Try reading this.
>>
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/business/23leonhardt.html?em&ex=1201237200&en=9f7ec2c4c66a7084&ei=5087%0A
>>
>> The fun is just beginning.
> I'm a believer that both the 99-00 stock bubble & 03 - 06 housing bubble were greatly due to Greenspan's excessive
> lowering of interest rates.
Sure, but thats better than a full depression, stupid.
> The first cheap money was as a precaution to the Y2K fears,
Nope.
> but the later was arguably a bailout for the poor Bush leadership.
Nope. Prezs dont have anything like the effect that the mindless claim they do.
> Much of the excess money in 99-00 went into speculating in a few high tech stocks
Hell of a lot more than just a few.
> and with little else to invest 03-06 cheap money, it went into housing
Utterly mangled all over again. The real effect of the cheap money was that
it allowed those who chose to borrow at something like the limits of what would
be loaned to them to buy a lot more house than they could otherwise borrow for.
> (not wanting to expand business, make stock investments nor spend freely).
Utterly mangled all over again.
> It'll be interesting to see what this week's historic interest rate
> lowering does & how long the rates remain where they are.
Thats always the case when there is any change.
> Unfortunately, in the long run, it may simply result in a further deterioration of the dollar
Utterly mangled all over again. Not doing anything would
certainly do that if the economy is allowed to implode instead.
> / higher oil costs (the increased price of oil over the past seven years can be traced / tracked almost indirectly to
> the value of the dollar).
Wrong, as always. Pity that even countrys that havent seen their currency
sag like the USD has, have seen a similar problem with the cost of oil.
> The expected recession may temporarily reduce oil pricing, but could hurt it even more in the long run.
It aint about oil pricing, its about ensuring that there isnt a full depression, stupid.
Rod Speed
No thanks, just the usual mindless journo hype.
> The fun is just beginning.
Nope, you watch.
Rod Speed
Few have a clue idea about how much taxes they do pay per day.
skar...@gmail.com
> Property taxes, sales taxes, income taxes...they all add up.
>
Your gross income minus all savings will give you total annual
expenses that include taxes, donations, pet maintenance, and
everything.
Divide that amount by the number of people in the family and divide
that by 365 and that gives your daily expense.
Calculating how much you really need depends on yourself alone. (That
should be apparent with all the responses in this thread.)
William Souden
and property taxes do not apply to you.
clams_casino
According to Faux News & the Rush sheep, only the wealthy pay taxes.
val189
> "val189" <gwehr...@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
Well, fer shur - entertainment would be eliminated entirely in my
barebones existence.
Anthony Matonak
>>> A better question might be - what did you spend per person per day
>>> last year? And where could you cut?
>
> barebones existence.
There are all kinds of entertainment and they don't all cost money.
Certainly things like drinking, drugs, hookers and bad Hollywood
movies are all expensive forms of entertainment but dancing,
singing off-tune and watching the neighbors fight are all free.
Anthony
Logan Shaw
> Few have a clue idea about how much taxes they do pay per day.
I'm always perplexed when people from the UK complain about what
a hassle it is that in the USA, sales tax (or VAT, in rightpondian
lingo) isn't automatically included in the listed price, and you
have to do the arithmetic yourself. To me, including the tax in
the listed price seems like a great way to reduce the visibility of
the taxes, so that you eventually almost forget that you're paying
taxes at all[1]. This is such an odious idea to me that I can't
comprehend why anyone would think it better than having to do math
in your head.
It would be entertaining to get a grant (paid for out of tax money,
of course!) to study this. One could ask a number of residents of
various countries what their sales tax rate is, then find the
average time to give a correct response, as well as the percentage
of people who do give a correct response eventually. It would be
interesting to see if there is any quantitative evidence of a
correlation between whether or not taxes are included in posted
prices and how aware residents are of the tax rate.
- Logan
[1] and wouldn't be able to easily distinguish between the
vendor raising prices and the government raising taxes
Rod Speed
> Rod Speed wrote
>> Few have a clue idea about how much taxes they do pay per day.
> I'm always perplexed when people from the UK complain about what
> a hassle it is that in the USA, sales tax (or VAT, in rightpondian lingo)
A VAT is quite different in detail to a sales tax.
> isn't automatically included in the listed price, and you have to do the arithmetic yourself.
Yes, most prefer to see what they will pay in total.
> To me, including the tax in the listed price seems like a great way to reduce the visibility of the taxes,
Corse it is.
> so that you eventually almost forget that you're paying taxes at all[1].
That last is pure fantasy. No one who operates in a system like that is
ever stupid enough to forget that they are paying lots of money in taxes.
> This is such an odious idea to me that I can't comprehend why anyone would think it better than having to do math in
> your head.
Maybe its because that last is just your fantasy and no one ever
is silly enough to think that they arent paying any taxes at all.
> It would be entertaining to get a grant (paid for out of tax money,
> of course!) to study this. One could ask a number of residents of
> various countries what their sales tax rate is, then find the average time to give a correct response, as well as the
> percentage of people who do give a correct response eventually.
Different matter entirely to your mindlessly silly idea that anyone
but the village idiot would ever forget that they're paying taxes.
> It would be interesting to see if there is any quantitative evidence of a correlation between whether or not taxes are
> included in posted prices and how aware residents are of the tax rate.
Pity that the USA has exactly the same system with renters
who arent aware of exactly how much of their rent is going
in property taxes that the landlord has to pay to the govt etc.
> [1] and wouldn't be able to easily distinguish between the
> vendor raising prices and the government raising taxes
There's always a massive stink when any govt raises the VAT rate.
Too_Many_Tools
>
> - Show quoted text -
And according to Faux News and the Rush sheep, the universe revolves
around Bush.
TMT
Lou
> On Jan 23, 8:37 pm, "Scott Fargham" <scotty...@mindspring.com> wrote:
> > "val189" <gwehr...@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
> >
> >
news:06beadde-6e13-4297...@q39g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
> >
> >
> >
> > > On Jan 23, 10:12 am, Too_Many_Tools <too_many_to...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > >> So how little can you live on..$1000...$100...$10...$1?
> >
> > >> And to do it every day.
> >
> > >> So what is your minimum cost of living?
> >
> > >> Considering today's events, you may need to answer that question
> > >> sooner than you think.
> >
> > >> TMT
> >
> > > Impossible to answer. There's are many levels of living costs between
> > > my present living standard and taking my place under the overpass.
> > > A better question might be - what did you spend per person per day
> > > last year?
That's a pretty tough call as well. For instance, under that criterion, the
year we bought our current house, our per person per day spending was in the
neighborhood of $450. We've been paying for that house ever since (mortgage
ya know), but we spent the money all at once. If we take the stance that
the interest on the mortgae was spent that year as well - after all, that's
when we agreed to incur the bill - our per person per day spending that year
was somewhere around $1,100 - $1,200
Maybe I didn't spend anything in dollar terms, just exchanged one asset for
another. After all, when I sold my first house, I got back all the dollars
I'd laid out for mortgage payments over the time I'd owned it, and the same
thing could happen with this house. I won't know until, when, and if I
sell.
I think that unless you are living under that overpass, figuring out your
daily cost of living is pretty difficult. Large but infrequent costs don't
usually just spring up suddenly out of nowhere - if you need a new roof
tomorrow, it's because you've been living under the old one for 20-odd
years, slowly "spending" that asset just as surely as you've been eating the
food in the refrigerator. Counting the cost of food in your daily expenses
and not the eventual cost of a new roof is somewhat inconsistent. And if
you've prudently put money aside during those years to pay for the eventual
new roof, that money isn't "savings", you're just buying the new roof a
shingle at a time instead of all at once.
Adding up the grocery bill and the gas bill and the electric bill and such
is trivally easy, but most of my (and probably your) spending isn't so
obvious, and determing how much it costs per day may not be possible for
years.
Too_Many_Tools
>
> - Show quoted text -
Good points.
And this is the very reason why I said that some of the amounts
reported were too low.
From a survival standpoint, if you can't cover these costs you are
sunk.
TMT
AllEmailDeletedImmediately
"Scott Fargham" <scot...@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:bZRlj.113$%x.57@trnddc06...
only for a bit until your bowels got used to them.