Advice for living on a low income

I'm making $20,000 USD a year at Walmart. I live with my parents, and I want to move out sooner rather than later, but it scares me how close to the edge I'm living even with low expenses. I barely spend any money beyond essentials like fuel, food and loan repayments. I didn't even pay any rent until last month. How am I supposed to survive on my own when I inevitably have to move out? The world is a scary place.

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Apply for a new job or promotion ASAP. Stay at your parents until you’re at least making 30k.

You should have taken advantage of your rent free days while you could to save up for a cheap house to pay a mortage on. You are fucked and will be stuck in poverty if you continue the way you are. How much do your essentials cost not including food. Food can always be adjusted so its less of a cost. Consider foodstamps for instance.

You're right. I was just wondering how fucked I'd be if I lost my parents' support for some reason.
>buying a house
I don't like making big investments like that unless I'm sure about them. So, expenses.
>gas
I don't keep track, $40-60 a month max
>student loans
$192 a month, but I might be able to lower that if I ask
>rent
$500, pretty much as cheap as it gets

I'm sure I'm forgetting something though.

Roommate honestly. It sucks but splitting a housing bill when you're only making 20K is the only viable option

My first job I was making 9.70 working 40 hours a week overnight stocking at Walmart. I estimate you’re doing about the same. I moved out fine. I had roommates to split the cost of rent, and I learned to budget and what were necessary and unnecessary expenses. It was an important skill-building life lesson for me.

The downside is I didn’t save any money before that. Save your money while you can. Buy a car, and start saving for a house and retirement. These things are going to be a lot harder to save for once you already have to fend for yourself.

How old are you OP?

I’m an overnight stocker working 40 hours a week too. I make $12 and change an hour before taxes. I already bought a car. I have $7,000 in the bank. Should I start a 401(k)? I know it’s always best to start as early as possible, but I’m not sure if the benefits outweigh the lost money at this stage.
I’m 21

I can’t believe your country allows your wages to be so low
Our minimum wage is $18

The fuck is wrong with you? I make almost half that and I'm living with roommates. Are you living in some high-tax commie state?
Yeah but how many loaves of bread can you afford per hour?

I get paid $40 an hour to pick up litter, loaf of bread is $2.

You’re living on $10k? I live in NY, but that’s hardly relevant because I paid triple the amount of state taxes in federal taxes this year. What *is* wrong with me? I’m not sure what you mean.
I make more than minimum wage, which is currently $11.10 in my state.

Yeah NY might be trickier. You should move to Cincinnati, rent is cheap as chips here. If you split a nice house between three people you all could work part-time and break even.

I'm in Cincy! Rent's not that cheap bruh my 1bd is 650 because I lucked out but Northside/OTR/nice housing rent is $900+

America is in dire straights thanks to the racist white Bois running the gov

>Advice for living on a low income


- Always have a good coat if you skimp on anything else, don't skimp on this.
- Never use a heater or CAC unless you live where it reliably snows or heat stroke is a common occurence
- Poop at work whenever possible, if you poop at home it should come as a surprise
- Get used to monotonous food, buy one large sack of potatoes a month, eat potatoes for a month.
- Never eat out if you can avoid it
- You can always avoid eating out
- If for some reason you can't always order from the kids menu and a glass of water
- If you have to eat meat use your discount to buy discounted rotisserie chicken at Walmart, it's literally cheaper than buying a whole bird and cooking it yourself
- At every single possibility mooch off the company (responsibly)
- At every single possibility mooch off other people (responsibly)
- Buy in bulk whenever possible
- Make sure whatever you buy has a long shelf life
- Never use air conditioning in your car save for the defogger, if it's cold you have a good coat, if it's hot roll the window down
- Don't have pets
- No srsly, they're friendly but you're poor as fuck, cut it out, no pets.
- Invest in yourself. Your car, your home, your clothes, your gf, none of it matters, you matter. Your limited funds are best used improving yourself and thus improving your situation. Education, experience, independence, investment, this is what you do.
- Learn to fix things yourself, YT videos and free classes at Home Depot are your friends.
- Learn to haggle. Some people can't be haggled with, everyone else can. Never pay more than you have to and what you have to pay shouldn't be more than what it's worth.
- Hang out with rich people whenever possible and see what they do.
- Find out when brand names matter and when they don't, example:
>Chemical components (drugs) are the same whether they're generic or brand name (they literally legally have to be), when it's about electronics you get what you pay for.

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That is incredibly reasonable though. Sure Lexington is cheaper but Cincy is a proper city with an actual opera house instead one that calls itself one but only shows musicals.

Stick with your parents for as long as you can and save up while you do. It may suck, but don't just rush out for self-dependence.

Also remember to at least buy a decent mattress to sleep on. Cutting some corners is fine, but that isn't one of them. People spend 1/3rd of their lives sleeping and bad sleep forces its way into any other aspect of life.

Yeah, that's a good one to add to - Get a decent mattress

>save up for a cheap house to pay a mortage on
boomer pls go, buying a house is the worst fucking investment anyone with only nickels to rub together could make. OP you can still live rent free in a van.

>boomer pls go, buying a house is the worst fucking investment anyone with only nickels to rub together could make.
Not necessarily. Depending on the state houses foreclosed on for delinquent taxes can be a good investment. With homes sold well below their actual market values. If you're not completely destitute a property worth $10K can be bought for $2K and you can turn around and put it on the market for $6K and make your money back handily and relatively quickly.

>20k a year at Walmart
>investing in anything but immediate needs

At least try to relate to OP

I am, but saving up is an option depending on the specifics of his stay with his parents.

Honestly, I wouldn’t move out in your position. You need to figure out how to make more bank first. The second you move out, you will have the expense of paying rent or similar. That shit will drain your savings and will vary depending on where you’d actually live.

>pooping at work
To save precious time?
>no A/C/heat
I can live without it, but why? Touching the steering wheel is painfully cold on cold days before running the heat for ten minutes. I didn’t think it cost anything to maintain that function.
Thanks for all the tips!

Gloves.

if you ever do save up enough money make sure to buy yourself a plot of land to always be able to fall back on.

You don't. You get an education and a real job.

It's a shitty situation. I'm in the same one. I have half a mind to disappear and go move to the mountains. Be a hermit.