2/27 Foxtrot - careless thinking on Bill Amend's part?

[Lenona]

Given how scientific Bill Amend usually is, these percentages don't ring true.

https://www.gocomics.com/foxtrot/2022/02/27

I mean, according to one source, at least, the gross median salary for a high school math teacher is about $50,000, which comes to $4,166 per month. (Taxes get mentioned in the strip.)

So that would mean her food expenses are...$595 per month.

Excuse me?!

Seems to me the only way that would happen is if you do all your shopping at Whole Foods - and/or allow food to waste. Or, you might shop at a cheap place - and then blow a pile on restaurants.

And her heat and utilities would be: $520 a month.

Again, that smells of extravagance of one kind or another.

I admit that I don't have student loans to pay, but I checked my income and expenses for the first 17 months of the pandemic, which had cut greatly into my income.

Bottom line: my rent took more than half my NET income, but my food bill was 1/15 of my net income...and I had a full 30% of my net income left after all my utilities, transportation, health, food and rent had been paid for.

[Ted Nolan <tednolan>]

In article <62e13722-4315-482d...@googlegroups.com>,

Lenona <leno...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>Given how scientific Bill Amend usually is, these percentages don't ring true.
>
>https://www.gocomics.com/foxtrot/2022/02/27
>
>I mean, according to one source, at least, the gross median salary for a
>high school math teacher is about $50,000, which comes to $4,166 per
>month. (Taxes get mentioned in the strip.)
>
>So that would mean her food expenses are...$595 per month.
>
>Excuse me?!
>
>Seems to me the only way that would happen is if you do all your
>shopping at Whole Foods - and/or allow food to waste. Or, you might shop
>at a cheap place - and then blow a pile on restaurants.

That sounds low. Say 30 days at $25 a day and you're at $750 right there.

>
>And her heat and utilities would be: $520 a month.
>
>Again, that smells of extravagance of one kind or another.

I just paid $475 for gas & electric, plus $100 for phone & internet..

--
columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..

[Lenona]

On Monday, February 28, 2022 at 6:23:41 PM UTC-5, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:

>
> Lenona wrote:

> >
> >So that would mean her food expenses are...$595 per month.
> >
> >Excuse me?!
> >
> >Seems to me the only way that would happen is if you do all your
> >shopping at Whole Foods - and/or allow food to waste. Or, you might shop
> >at a cheap place - and then blow a pile on restaurants.
> That sounds low. Say 30 days at $25 a day and you're at $750 right there.
> >
> >And her heat and utilities would be: $520 a month.
> >
> >Again, that smells of extravagance of one kind or another.
> I just paid $475 for gas & electric, plus $100 for phone & internet..

OK, if you do ALL of your shopping at Whole Foods, $750 could easily make sense.

All I know is, I have never spent even $200 a month on food, and if I ever did, I would have had to have eaten at least two restaurant meals that month.

(Back in the mid-1990s, I know I was paying only $50 a month - not counting junk food or takeout, and I seldom bought either. These days, since I don't do takeout, it comes to about $100 - including junk food.)

And yes, I eat meat - and I even have a spoilage problem at times.

May I ask what your electric bill is, separate from gas - and why it's so high?

In my case, I'm pretty sure most of my electric bill is caused by the fridge. I don't have the internet or cable. I do have two phones. (No Smartphone.)

So, my monthly total for electricity and the phones is...$74. The split is about 50-50.

And this winter and two winters ago, I didn't turn my heat on at all. Yes, that was a bit uncomfortable, here in New England, but it really wasn't as cold as it was during the winter of 2020-2021. I expect that to happen more often in the future - hint, hint.

So my YEARLY gas bill was...$200. (That's $16.66 a month.)

[Blinky the Wonder Wombat]

It's great that you've ben able to keep you monthly costs down. But have you conisdered the possibility that she has a family four or more to feed? Throw in one or two teenagers and the food bill gets even higher.

[Lenona]

On Tuesday, March 1, 2022 at 1:07:30 PM UTC-5, Blinky the Wonder Wombat wrote:

> It's great that you've ben able to keep you monthly costs down. But have you conisdered the possibility that she has a family four or more to feed? Throw in one or two teenagers and the food bill gets even higher.

Yes and no.

It just wouldn't be like Amend to have her be a mother and not SAY so - or at least drop blatant hints. That reference to groceries really isn't enough to confirm that she's a parent.

I say she isn't. Everything else seems to suggest that these are "normal" percentages for a single, childless adult.

Besides, anyone who doesn't have children gets taxed a good deal more than those who do. Amend should have simply moved her grocery bill to the fourth panel where it would get lumped in, then separated the taxes and student loan payments from the other expenses, and then said that taxes/loans equal 1/5 ($833 per month). Hardly anyone would accuse him of exaggerating THOSE costs. If the other four expenses aren't likely to equal 1/5 as well, Amend could have lowered the latter and raised the former - for a total of 2/5 or so.

Bottom line: I want to know why any adult who isn't too lazy to shop the sales - and avoid take-out - would have to spend even $300 a month on groceries, unless that adult lives in, say, Manhattan. (But even there, I've been able to ferret out bargains pretty often, starting with the fruit/vegetable carts.)

Just because most Americans aren't frugal and weren't TAUGHT how to shop around - and do it, over and over - isn't an excuse to whine about high costs.

(On the other hand, I found the new, popular book by the Washington Post columnist Steven Petrow - born in 1957 - called Stupid Things I Won't Do When I Get Old - and one essay in it doesn't make sense. It starts on page 160 and it's called "I Won't Whine About How Much Things Cost." In it, he tells how his grandmother lived through the Depression and was super-frugal and kept track of every penny - and Petrow tells HIS peers to stop complaining about modern prices. While it's true that no baby boomer lived during the Depression, that doesn't change the fact that plenty of boomers are just as good at scrimping and saving as their parents were, because those boomers were scared of becoming homeless when they got old - and DESPITE all those decades of scrimping, some of them ARE facing poverty. So, why SHOULDN'T they complain when their frugality skills don't pay off? What else can they do if they need help?)

[Rink]

Op 28-2-2022 om 22:27 schreef Lenona:

If you count all the costs, it's more then what Mary Lou earns per month.

Total costs are:
(x/3 + x/8 + x/7 + x/6 + x/4) =
= x(2/6 + 1/8 + 1/7 + 1/6 + 2/8) =
= x(3/6 + 3/8 + 1/7) =
= x(1/2 + 3/8 + 1/7) =
= x(28/56 + 21/56 + 8/56) =
= x(57/56)

So the costs are more then her salary.

But I do not know the answer at the question....

Rink

[Timothy Chow]

On 3/13/2022 2:36 PM, Rink wrote:
> If you count all the costs, it's more then what Mary Lou earns per month.

Yes, this is the calculation I think Amend wants the astute
reader to do. So he probably constrained himself to come up with
a simple Egyptian fraction that sums to slightly more than 1.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_fraction

Lenona claims that the fractions are unrealistic, but costs of
living and salaries vary greatly across the country, and we
don't know other circumstances of Mary Lou's life. The fractions
are all in a reasonable ballpark, it seems to me.

---
Tim Chow

[Lenona]

On Thursday, March 17, 2022 at 8:17:24 AM UTC-4, Tim Chow wrote:

> Lenona claims that the fractions are unrealistic, but costs of
> living and salaries vary greatly across the country, and we
> don't know other circumstances of Mary Lou's life. The fractions
> are all in a reasonable ballpark, it seems to me.

How's this for a slightly MORE reasonable ballpark?

Housing & utilities = 2/5
Taxes & student loan payments = 1/4
Car expenses = 1/6
Health, clothing, food = 1/5

Or, you could set the first category at 45% and the second at 20%, if you think that would make more sense. In both cases, that would add up to 65%.

Also, I don't understand why Amend mentioned furnishings. Even if he had said "yearly" instead of "monthly," why does anyone need to buy furniture every year, once the basics are covered? (Not to mention that, in my area at least, 90% of the freebies on Craigslist consists of...furniture and other household items.)

[John W Kennedy]

“Furnishings” and “furniture” have not been synonymous for about 200
years, now.


--
John W. Kennedy
Algernon Burbage, Lord Roderick, Father Martin, Bishop Baldwin,
King Pellinore, Captain Bailey, Merlin -- A Kingdom for a Stage!

[Lenona]

On Thursday, March 31, 2022 at 6:13:45 PM UTC-4, John W Kennedy wrote:

> “Furnishings” and “furniture” have not been synonymous for about 200
> years, now.

I guessed they weren't QUITE synonymous, but they're still pretty close.

From more than one dictionary:

"The furnishings of a room or house are the furniture, curtains, carpets, and decorations such as pictures."

Again, one can find those items for free on Craigslist.

[Lenona]

And again, why does anyone need to purchase such things even yearly, once the basics have been bought?

[John W Kennedy]

On 4/1/22 8:18 AM, Lenona wrote:
> And again, why does anyone need to purchase such things even yearly, once the basics have been bought?

We would have to inquire of Mr. Amend just what he intended, but kitchen
gadgets and many other things are also “furnishings”.