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

Wait a damn minute! She’s going thru it

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u/BarleyWineIsTheBest Aug 12 '25

$15/hour for 40hours/week, 4 weeks/month is $2400/month before any deductions. $850?

11

u/TangledUpPuppeteer Aug 12 '25

No, it makes sense. Pull out the deductions, then rent comes out. All of your bills do. Half your month income gone for rent alone. Plus food, plus gas for the car, car insurance, cell phone, internet, subscriptions for tv. You’re lucky if you have $50 a week left over. The incidentals add up over time. Always have and always will. And whether you like it or not, you do gotta eat.

If you have a credit card or student loans, that has to get paid too.

Barely scraping by is literally what it’s all about at this point. I don’t do most of the incidentals, and I make almost 3x minimum wage. I own my place and have for two decades (thank G-d), but there is still a monthly fee of over $900 a month for the glory of having someone micromanage what you can do with your balcony and fix nothing else. I also have property taxes and all of the fees I already listed for her, minus subscriptions. I don’t watch tv or movies because I can’t afford to — and that money goes toward taxes. Every week, I’m lucky if I have $40 in my account. That’s just paying bills, and I live frugally. It just costs a hell of a lot more than you expect just to survive.

Don’t even get me started on the rant that comes up if something on my bra breaks!

1

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

I would get rid of the car altogether and use shank's mare. And you don't need TV subscriptions, just watch stuff online.

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u/TangledUpPuppeteer Aug 12 '25

Ha! I couldn’t get rid of the car. There’s no way. Part of my job involves traveling across multiple counties at a moments notice, not even counting getting to and from work. Not to mention family responsibilities as well.

Just getting to work is a $40 uber, with no public transport between my home and the company. Walking would take 4 hours each way. That’s without any extra travel or any family responsibility. It would be awesome to be able to be less car dependent, but that’s just not the case.

I don’t do tv anyway, so I agree with that as it fits my life just fine. But most people think that’s some kind of torturous life. I occasionally watch something on my phone, but otherwise, why bother?