Q1: Big Money Charts – Attempting to Live on Minimum Wage

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Amy

I’ve been firmly unemployed for a little over two months now. I have been thoroughly enjoying my free time. I’ve been able to work on many projects (including this one) that I wouldn’t have been able had I otherwise been gainfully employed. There is, however, one little question that I can’t seem to avoid.

Open scene: intimate gathering among friends, cocktails in hand, light indie music playing in the background, calculated ambient light focuses on two guests on the couch.

Guest 1: So, what do you do?
Amy: Me? I write and volunteer.
Guest 1: (confusion) Uhh. So that’s like your job?
Amy: Not really. I’m doing it because its what I want to do and I think its important.
Guest 1: OK, so then what do you do?

Picture pulls back then rockets towards Amy’s forehead symbolizing entering her inner dialogue.

Goddammit. Why do people ask this question if it’s not the question they want answered. Just come out and say it, “How do you make money?” At least that would be straightforward and honest. What exactly we are trying to suss out with this question still escapes me. Is this person happy? Are they rich? Do they enjoy their work? Can I date them? Are they successful? Can they fix my car?

I have to fight off the urge to say something like, “I work with a very tight knit group of wealthy individuals. My job is to eliminate people who know too much. Shall I go on?” Or perhaps, “Fine! You caught me! I sell my dirty underwear to creepy people on the internet,” and burst into to tears and run off.

But really, com’n, how do you make money?

Well, to be honest, currently, I don’t make any money. I have saved up enough to “pay myself” for hopefully a year or more. Some call it a gap year, I call it a project.

So, starting about one month before I quit my job, I decided that I would try an experiment to limit my expenditures and stretch out my freedom. I was and still am trying to live within the means of someone working minimum wage in the United States, which according to my calculations is about $1160 per month**.

At first, I kept my experiment a secret. It felt almost insulting to experiment with the reality of millions (arguably billions) of people. However, as I failed month after month, I realized that this was a story that needed to be told as well. Honestly, this is the graphic that broke this camel’s back:

After I saw this, I started to talking with people. I heard about a lot of frustration, shame and guilt related to the issue. As I was comically fumbling through the fringes of frugality, many people I care about very much were carefully navigating this world, and had been for quite some time.

Unfortunately, for some reason, its taboo to discuss money. I suppose if you had a lot if, it may be kinda awkward to tell everyone about it. I forgot, the rich make the rules. But back here in reality, if you’re working a standard week earning what we as a community agree is the value of a standard person’s time, you can’t afford to have two things go right or wrong in the same month. Maybe this is something we should be talking about more openly.

Fortunately for all of you, I routinely keep strict financial records and produce colorful graphs at the end of each month to detail my expenditures. What, doesn’t everybody? Whatever; I do that….and the chips are in for the first quarter of 2012.

In the spirit of advocacy and of just plain letting it all hang out, I present to you…

MY BIG MONEY CHARTS!

January 2012

Despite all my best intentions, in January I overspent by $238.44 or 20.56%. Daaamn! You’d think I wasn’t even trying.

To be fair, I needed to pay the dump & various trucks to free me of my possessions, aaaand it was my special friend’s birthday, but I could have done better. Since I was still employed for most of the month I felt like my lavishness was justified. Oh com’n, don’t look at me like that. I had a lot to celebrate. What? A girl can’t have a vices column without gettin’ the stank eye? Sheesh.

However, if you’re on the other end of the spectrum wondering how the hell I spent so little, I answer, “I hate shopping, live with roommates and ride my bike everywhere. That pretty much takes care of it.”

I would probably categorize this as my typical semi-frugal fully-employed spending.

Now onto February. This month I only overshot my target by 14.75% or $171.10. Come on, that’s not bad. It’s a 7.41% decrease in spending from the previous month. Sorry, my nerds showing.

Looking for “excuses” as to why I couldn’t keep my spending within the wages of your average minimum wage worker? Well, I went to the dentist.I needed a deep cleaning and a few cavities filled. I only went to the cleanings so far, next month is the heavy lifting. I want to make sure to avoid a root canal. Ouch!

February 2012

Other than that, I splurged on some Mac accessories to try and make the whole iPad thing work for me. Unfortunately, I don’t really like it as a work station. I’m debating getting something else. Not cheap. I’ll probably just make due. Finally, I spent a little extra on food, particularly groceries. We joined a co-op and bought a juicer, so we needed many tiny mountains of nice fruits and vegetables to experiment . So many tasty fruits and vegetables. Nom!

I would like to tell you that by March, I finally got the hang of it, and squeaked by heroically at the end of month. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Somewhere around the middle of the month I decided that being a stingy girl was no fun at all. I went on my Small Town Review, and drank coffee whenever I wanted. And then there were the birthdays, three in one month, and I may or may not have bought everyone a round of drinks on more than one occasion. Um, I do believe that there was also a delivery Chinese purchase for three in there as well. Oops.

March 2012

By the end of the month, I was truly frightened to find out how far I had strayed. I didn’t want to pull the final calculations together at all.

Thankfully, however, I didn’t do nearly bad as I thought. I guess I was able train myself to forego buying nearly anything, and to feel truly guilty for every splurge I make. Oh joy.

The kicker is that I’d have been one Chinese take out night away from success had I not paid taxes this month. Yup. Taxes. Now some may argue, that if I had, in fact, been making minimum for the last year, I wouldn’t have had to pay taxes, and instead I would be getting a refund. That may be true, and as it should be, but that means, my friend, that you are missing the point.

The point is: no matter what, something will happen. There will always be a cavity or a birthday party or worse, an illness or an injury, foiling any attempts to stay housed, fed & out of debt. This is a reality for millions upon millions of Americans.

Bummer, bra, bummer….

Yup. There you have it, I have bore my financial soul to the gods of the internet in the name of those less fortunate than myself. And yes, concerning this particular challenge, I am a failure. If this experiment were real, I would be out on the streets or just another couch surfer wearing out their welcome. Each month I got better, but I still wasn’t able to do it. Nevertheless, I refuse to reinforce the idea that one is a failure if they are not able to make ends meet on limited (yet socially acceptable) wages. I am not a failure. We are not failures. There is something else, very real that has failed us here.

Thoughts?

**Also, If you have a better idea of how much somone living on minimum wage in the US would make in take home pay, please let me know. I’d love to hear that it is more. Thanks!

Balance, Blogging, Money & Saving the World

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Amy

Have I always been an insomniac?

“Don’t you know what time it is?!” I mumble-yell to no one in particular. The sky was beginning to look like that big metaphorical painter in the sky blended together some blue & yellow, but somehow managed to never make green.

I hate it.

I groaned and rolled over, desperately trying to tuck my insomnia away from the daylight. From beneath my blanket cave, I could hear the neighbors getting ready for work.

Sigh. I certainly wasn’t the one embodying the spirit of 6:30am. I should be doing yoga or showering or something. Instead, I was just hoping, dare I say praying, that I would be able to get a few hours of sleep– just a few– I’m not even asking for the full eight. Sheesh.

By the time 9:30 rolls around, I feel like I been in bed for days. I need to get moving. Not working has really messed with my schedule, or perhaps it was working an 8 to 5 that was “messing with my schedule” all along. I can’t tell. I’m starting to think that I don’t operate in 24-hour days like most people or even the planet does. I’m guessing that my planet has 36 hour days–a slower rotation. That sounds about right.

And when did I become a “blogger”? Gross dude.

Though the frequency at which I update my blog may not suggest it; I’ve been writing a lot lately. Sometimes, going on 30+ hour binges of “creativity” that end in exhaustion & self-doubt. You see, I’m not actually cut out to be a “blogger.” I’m generally a pretty private person, and writing about myself and my escapades requires a certain wherewithal that I most certainly lack.

I make up for it with whiskey though. It seems to help me push that “publish” button.

Don’t worry, mom. I’m not drunk every time I write. Not by a long shot. If I were,we’d have far more blog posts to sift through by now. To be honest, I’m probably a more intoxicat(ed)ing than your average blogger, but not nearly as drunk as you average writer. Somewhere deep in my cultural consciousness resides a stereotype that writers are drunks, but I can’t be a drunk. I’m trying to save money. Of course. What round the world travel bloggers journey would be complete without talking about money?

first sunny weekday I've been able to enjoy in years

You mean, I still need money?

I have already done the part that most people write about. (i.e. How to Save Money to Travel the World) I already did that. I didn’t know so many people were writing about it while I was doing it either. So I did it without them and so can you. (Something else I learned from reading hella blogs: they like to tell/convince you that you can do it–whatever it may be. I most likely agree with them.)

I had a very good job before I started this whole project. I made enough. I never felt like I needed more money. Granted, I don’t have children or a mortgage or a shopping habit or anything, but I never felt like I needed to save up for anything. If I wanted something, I could have it, but it didn’t always work out that way. For example, several times over the years, I convinced myself that I was going to buy a car.

Every October–give or take a good rainfall– I would give myself a speech that went something like this, “Amy, you’re an adult now. You have a 401k and health insurance. You pay taxes and go to galas. Its time for you to get a car. You could go to the beach whenever you wanted! Buy large items without a second thought! You could arrive to work well-dressed & dry. People your age are having children and buying houses, you can get a goddamn used car.” I’d look at cars, ask car people, price out new car-friendly budgets, but I never ended up getting a car. Each year, I would continue to ride the same bike in the same rain pants to the same job and never actually level up and join the carbon emitters.

A cyclist I shall remain.

“My problem lies in reconciling my gross habits with my net income.” – Errol Flynn

Since I no longer have to challenge myself to save exorbitant amount of money to make my dreams a reality, I have instead been trying to limit my spending to lengthen this experience. Therefore, my most recent monetary obsession has been to live within the wages of an average minimum wage worker in the United States. According too my calculations this amounts too approximately $1160 per month. Yikes!

I’m not sure how people do this month after month after month. I’m sure its possible, but it must be extremely boring. I was never really an extravagant individual, but these financial constraints are just plain suffocating.

I have failed at my attempts for January & February, but each month I’ve been getting better. Here are some things that I am used to that I have already had to give up:

Coffee. I used to be able to have coffee when I rolled into work. I’d sip it luxuriously while I conversed with my fellow food bankers. I loved it. I love coffee–nice coffee. Buying your own coffee, however, adds up. They call it the “latte effect.” Who knew? If I wake up and brew a cup every morning I would need to buy a $10.00 bag of coffee at least once a week. Plus cream. If I went to a coffee shop every morning, I would need to spend approx. $2.25 per day on this habit. Done with that.
Sushi. My favorite! My little Iowan roots knew nothing of sushi before I arrived on the left coast. I don’t think my parents have ever even had sushi. But I must confess, that I have probably eaten sushi an average of once a week for the last four or five years. Yikes! That’s about $20 a pop. I cringe thinking how much I would have saved if I had never discovered those damn lil’ fishies.
Microbrews. Portland Oregon is the land of strippers & microbrews (and coffee & bikes & hipsters & cliches & whatnot). It is customary in local culture to bring a six-pack of microbrews to every potluck, BBQ, movie night, etc. Whenever you go meet your friends at a bar, another popular local custom, there is a diverse selection of microbrews on tap or in bottles from which to choose. They’re usually smooth and brewed within the city limits. Irresistible. Generally, they cost $4-$5 per pint. In my “past life” I would not think twice about spending 10-15 dollars a couple nights per week on these delicious drinks. Now, not so much. I’m avoiding these scenarios as much as possible, and if I need to show my face for a birthday/going away/my bands playin’ type occasion then its cheap lagers for me.
Health Insurance. Going without health insurance makes me nervous, but the sad thing is: most people I know don’t have it anyway. Harsh reality. I would like to get some before I go do anything too stupid, but we’ll have to see where all the chips fall. Keeping my insurance from my job (COBRA) would cost me $426.23 per month. That is more than I pay for anything. That is more than I have spent on anything ever, besides a ticket to the Philippines and my current freedom.
Anything New. Almost nothing I wear is “in style.” All of my pants have holes in them. I don’t own any sandals. I can’t find my loofah, so I’m washing my face with my hair. I wish I was kidding, but I’m not. I don’t need anything new. There isn’t anything that I don’t have that I think I should go out and buy. Its taken a long time to get my mind to this place. I don’t necessarily recommend it.

Each time I spend any money, I record it in an excel spreadsheet and classify the expenditure so that I can make pivot tables & pretty charts that accurately describe that nature of my spending. If you haven’t already figured it out. I am a giant nerd. I even wrote an entry that included my shiny monthly charts, but I’m not sure if I want to share them. Seems kinda personal doesn’t it? But lots of travel bloggers do it, and they admit that they get the most e-mails from people curious about budgets & saving money. hmm.

Wait, I thought you said something about “saving the world”?

Oh yeah, I did do that, didn’t I? Well, who do you think I am? A super hero? Sheesh. I’m a volunteer. I’m just going to try to save the world.

PS. If anyone has suggestions how to best go about saving the world, I’m all ears.