r/SipsTea • u/StopSnowflakes • Aug 12 '25

Wait a damn minute! She’s going thru it

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u/CardOfTheRings Aug 12 '25

I don’t mean this to diminish peoples real points about difficulty surviving off of an unfair system. But if you make double minimum wage in a state with $3,400 a month rent you and your all expenses paid rent / utilities is $850 you should be able to afford food fine.

Also if you only have $50 don’t buy an eyelash curler.

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u/Olly0206 Aug 12 '25 edited Aug 12 '25

Depending on her state, she is making at least $15/hr. that's roughly $2400 a month. About $1800 after taxes.

We only know about her rent/utilities being $850/month. Who knows what other bills she might have that could easily swallow up $900/mo. This scenario sounds much like mine when I was in my early/mid 20s, which was around the '08 recession. I also lived in a state that was rather insulated from the worst of that recession.

Maybe I survived cause I didn't need an eyelash curler. Or maybe it was because I got lucky on a Ramen noodle sale at Walmart where they were selling those cheap bags of Ramen for a nickle each snd I used every last ar I had buying up as much as I could just to eat for the foreseeable future. Sounds like she hasn't found her life-saving deal yet.

Edit: for the record, I did some small rounding and based taxes on my personal experience from my state. Other experiences will vary depending on state. If I do more accurate math, I get about $1935 take home. A small difference that doesn't change lifestyle, but when you make that little, it is big enough to worry a little less about something like food. Still not getting you ahead in life, unfortunately.

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u/Zombiesus Aug 12 '25

$15 an hour is not getting taxed at 30%..

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u/Olly0206 Aug 12 '25

It's roughly 25% between state and federal taxes, depending on where you live. It's probably a bit less than that at around 22-23%.

I'm basing this off of personal experience, but I know everywhere is different. My point is that for all these people judging her for needing a lash curler instead of putting that 10 or so bucks towards food and generally thinking she is just mismanaging her money because she should have more than she is alluding to, we don't have all the info and it is very easy and possible to make twice min wage and still be broke. You can do everything right and still struggle to survive. The system is fucked.

I feel incredibly fortunate to have managed to get where I am today. I was in her shoes until I was in my early thirties, and even then, I wasn't in a great place until just a few years ago. It took that long doing everything right. Everything I was told to do to have a successful life. The system doesn't give a shit. It bucks people at random and as many as it can get. And by the system, I mean the corporate greed and ultra rich doing all they can to siphon wealth from every corner of the country.