Quote:
Originally Posted by kane
Some friends and I did a version of the $29 a week challenge several months ago. I think $29 a week is the average of what people get. We looked it up and found out that the most a single person could get is $190 a month. So we decided to try to live on just that. We also lived with the restrictions of that meaning we wouldn't buy anything you can't buy with the food stamp card.
I came close. I ran out of money with about 4-5 days left in the month. My two friends that tried it with me didn't do as well. One just gave up after about 2 weeks and the other ran out of money with about 10 days left.
It was interesting and certain gave me some perspective on just how much we spend on food.
|
Yes, but food stamps are called assistance. They aren't meant to be the only source of income in which you eat from, this is what everyone seems to lose grasp of with this. ie they are not providing you with your food requirements but rather assisting you.
Lets also forget pretty much everywhere has food banks and then there are of course always soup kitchens if you are really that much in need.
Now even if you are making $7.25/hr and working only 35/hrs a week that is still over $1k a month. No it's not shit, but if you combine that with the $29/week or $119/month add in a food bank and yes it is possible to live on very little. Even if you spend $600/mth to rent a room which is high in most places, you would still have around $100/wk to live on) Can you not live on $129/week? It would be rough but yes it can be done. (lots of elderly people live on SS which is very often in the $900 to 1200 range)
(I used 35/hr week because many low paying jobs keep their workers under 40/hrs a week.)
No you aren't going to live in San Fan or New York on that kind of money but then again you also aren't going to be making min wage at those places either..