How much does it cost you to EXI$T ?

I just got really pissed of the other day when I realized how much our entire lives and identities rely on the cornerstone of a 9 to 5 gig. I contemplated that any move I want to make in life depends on a bunch of green paper (I'm in the U.S.) which has an agreed upon value ....which I myself don't agree to.

Anyway, here's my cost break down on how much it costs me to exist on this forsaken ball of clay:

Per Month:
Rent: $1000 which I split half way so $500
Utilities (water, gas, electric, etc): $160
Cell phone required for work: $60
Vehicle paid off but insurance: $80
Food a month about $400
College loans a month about $200
Entertainment (purchase of book, movie theater, bar, out to eat) $250

So I'm looking at roughly $1600 a month, divide by an average 30 days in a month and I'm looking at it costing me:

$53.33 a day to Exist. My whole life is entirely reliant on 50 pieces of green paper. I have to work jobs that I don't really care for just to be able to gain these 50 pieces o I can exist in a way that is somewhat comfortable, and even my other peoples standards they call me a cheapo and a minimalist.

Now I'm sure I might of skipped a few expenses here and there, but this is just an average lay out.

Purpose of this thread is that it sickens me to have to live life this way and be reliant on government issued paper.

I have plans in the works to go of the grid, get solar ( all though I am waiting for quantum dot panels to hit the market or DIY them. (70% efficiency)) Of course thats all gonna cost more pieces of paper and then there is the inevitable land tax. Still i think I can eventually get to down to under $5-$10 a day, and then eventually down to a few dollars.

My wife and I are moving out of ca to a lower cost of life.
this is what I pay now.
2300 house

400. car.

200 insurance combined house and car.

300 gas.

400 Food.

300 utilities

150 misc. (cell phone internet etc.)

So 4050, 135 a day, god damn...no wonder we are always broke, good thing we have no credit cards, yeah thats why I am moving to oregon. Closing on the 16.

So should change to

400 house

00. car. we will be turning in our new car at the dealer, owe less than worth.

200 insurance combined house and car.

100 gas Oregon gas is 30-50 cents cheeper, and good public trans.

400 Food.

300 utilities

150 misc. (cell phone internet etc.)

1550, so 51

Thats much better per day, I never thought to look at it that way... So yeah we got fed up of So Ca, we are managing to move and maintain the same income level. We are making drastic changes, we dont know people in Org, we don't have family there.

We just sat down and made the choice to move, we researched and came up with that, its already turning it to the best choice as I was able to buy two properties, one house and a bare parcel of land in WA. Where I hope to do as you suggest, get solar live off the land, I have enough land at the home in Portland to experiment with Aqua ponics, Ive been doing that here on the small scale.

Extraordinary problems require extraordinary solutions.

reply to post by dominicus


I have my budget down to 30 per day. It wasn't easy!

All this crap makes me not want to live on earth anymore. I dont want to spend most of my life being a slave to my job. What's up with all this bs.

reply to post by dominicus


First off, you're paying entirely too much for rent, food, insurance, and entertainment. This isn't a criticism, but an observation. I suspect you must be living in a highly populated area... You should get away from there, even if you can't go off the grid. Just move to a place that's more affordable. And cook your own food from scratch. Not only will you save money, but you will enjoy being present in your life a whole lot more.

I have 6 people - 3 adults/3 children - and 2 pets for whom I provide.

Costs:
$620/mo mortgage

Another person sore they have to work for a living.

I wasnt born into money. I had to work damn hard to get to where i am, and years of hard work paid off. I have a wonderful family, a paid off house, two cars, one of which is a BMW and i vacation twice a year. How did i get there? Working two jobs to make enough money to educate myself.

I love my life.

Nothing, I still live by my parents..

About 2,000 a month, when you relize the fake money is a tool by which you are enslaved to their system, a wave of bitter anger takes hold.

Everyone is calling paper printed with green ink "fake money".

Even if it is, i couldnt care less. I can purchase "real" goods with this fake money. Doesnt seem to fake to me. If it was, last years snowboard trip must have been fake, im eatting fake food right now, my house is fake and my my new phone is fake. Oh yeah, and everything else ive ever bought. Works for me!

reply to post by nightbringr

your gonna get to a pace eventually, where you've done it and seen it all. I got there rather early in life.

Have had tons of money, lost tons of money, had some of the hottest gf's which other people were jealous of, some of the greatest sex, tried all sorts of different substances, i've seen at least 4 different continents and multiple vacations, houses, cars ....

at the end, through wisdom, its pretty much all empty, its a joke. The mind is insatiable and you just become done with this realm. It really is like groundhogs day here and we use materialism or vacations to break up the monotony.

reply to post by benrl


Noooo! Stay in CA! Us Oregonians are already too overrun with Cali folks coming up here raising our cost of living! You won't like it here. Many businesses say "Oregonians only" and refuse service to people coming from CA. Californians are easy to spot.

Our weather is also chit. It rains always. If you visited here in the summer and thought Oregon would be a nice place to live you'll be sad (literally) when you don't see the sun for months at a time.

Back in the day, the "Welcome to Oregon" sign on the northbound highway from California used to say "But please don't stay" or something along those lines.

And we have people running around all over with guns! I know how CA people hate guns. And "Gasp!" our guns hold more than 10 rounds too! I know how much CA people hate guns that hold 30 rounds.

You know you'll regret it! So do yourself a favor and just stay in safe, beautiful, sunny California! It's the best choice!

Hehe I'm just joshing ya, but be prepared for some friendly ribbing from the locals when they find out you moved here from California.

Anyway,

To the OP, I feel your anger about this issue. I too think it's not right to have the pay to live. That goes against our most basic right to life. I should be able to live without a job, without money. I'd be happy to own a plot of land out in the middle of nowhere, grow my own food, build my own shelter and be totally self sustaining. I'd be happy to never have to touch another dollar bill again. But nooo, I can't do that, because I'd still have to pay property tax, so I have to generate income somehow. And then I'd have to pay income tax on the income I was forced to generate simply to pay for property tax. We are forced to, by penalty of violence.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees something wrong with this picture.

For me, it's about $20 a day, I think.

Some months I have more money to spend than others (which obviously affects the quality of groceries and overall well-being), but the minimum I'd say is somewhere around $500 a month. I don't have money left over at the end of month.

Originally posted by dominicus
reply to post by nightbringr

 

your gonna get to a pace eventually, where you've done it and seen it all. I got there rather early in life.

Have had tons of money, lost tons of money, had some of the hottest gf's which other people were jealous of, some of the greatest sex, tried all sorts of different substances, i've seen at least 4 different continents and multiple vacations, houses, cars ....

at the end, through wisdom, its pretty much all empty, its a joke. The mind is insatiable and you just become done with this realm. It really is like groundhogs day here and we use materialism or vacations to break up the monotony.

Im sorry you have lost your desire to live. Im in my 40s now and have never been happier!

About $210,000 per year, I don’t take vacations often nor do I live in a mansion.

This is what it costs to live in a moderate house, have 2 kids a wife, one car and one cat in Sydney.

Where does the money go? Mortgage, taxes and living expenses……. Not much fun to be had.

Mickierocksman

I'm looking at roughly $1600 a month, divide by an average 30 days in a month and I'm looking at it costing me: $53.33 a day to Exist

Yes, we are slaves, thanks to corporations life is super expensive so we are all slaves.

This is why so many people don't pay income taxes, not because they're scammers like republicans claim, they don't have extra money for it.

Per Month:
Rent: $210 (rent is cheap in Buffalo)
Utilities: None (partner pays for it)
Cell Phone: None (job pays for it)
Vehicle: ~$5 (ride a bike so roughly $5 in repairs a month. Haha to all you vehicle owner suckers!)
Food: ~$600 (I eat out a lot!)
College Loans: $98
Entertainment: ~$100
Clothing: ~$50
Health: ~$100
Toiletries: ~$20


So it costs me about $1183 a month to live. Wow! That's a lot of money! So $39/day to exist. If I didn't eat out as much I could lower it down to $29/day.

Also to all you vehicle owners out there, check out this car cost calculator. It'll tell you how much you spend a day for your vehicle per month:
www.gobuffalo.org...


Calculate how much you purchased the vehicle / how long you planned to keep it - resale price + monthly insurance + registration fee every 2 years + inspection fee every year + cost in gas + parking fees + tolls + cost of tires + cost of oil changes + cost of car washes + cost of repairs + parking or traffic tickets if you ever get them = big whopping bill!

reply to post by dominicus


It's time to do something different, Dominicus.

Maybe get outside more often?

Read more? Unplug? I don't know what your life is currently like, but it seems like you're suffocating.

Find somewhere you can go to just look at the sky and breathe.

Originally posted by nightbringr
Another person sore they have to work for a living.

I wasnt born into money. I had to work damn hard to get to where i am, and years of hard work paid off. I have a wonderful family, a paid off house, two cars, one of which is a BMW and i vacation twice a year. How did i get there? Working two jobs to make enough money to educate myself.

I love my life.

Not a very fair assessment of what the OP is saying, if you ask me. I don't believe this person is sore about having to work for a living it's the type of work they have to do to stay alive is what the OP is saying. Either way, in order to live an individual needs some basics requirements: food, shelter, water (air--but it isn't something we have to pay for, at least not yet). And this system we have here, at least in the USA, basically makes it nearly impossible to require those needed things without having a job to earn the paper money to purchase those things.

Someone else mentioned that they would love to have a good piece of land and basically try and be self sufficient which I think would be awesome too. However, in order to get said land one needs the paper money which isn't easy to come by without a job. Now I know it wouldn't be easy to have that kind of lifestyle but I think many can agree it would be more satisfying then working at some miserable job just to get the basic necessities while the owners of the company are raking in the dollars off of our labor and time.

I'm glad that you are happy and have had a great life so far, but there are many people who aren't satisfied working at a job they despise just to have enough money to buy food, have shelter and transportation just to get back and forth from home to work. I don't know what the answers are but it doesn't take a genius to know that what we got going on here in the USA isn't working.

reply to post by dominicus


Don't be too worried Dominicus,

Fiat (by government decree) currency is nearly at an end.

Get use to living by your wits. This will be of the most value, post collapse.

If you're not prepped by now, it's too late - hold on to your socks !

Peace * Ned

Originally posted by taccj9903
Not a very fair assessment of what the OP is saying, if you ask me. I don't believe this person is sore about having to work for a living it's the type of work they have to do to stay alive is what the OP is saying. Either way, in order to live an individual needs some basics requirements: food, shelter, water (air--but it isn't something we have to pay for, at least not yet). And this system we have here, at least in the USA, basically makes it nearly impossible to require those needed things without having a job to earn the paper money to purchase those things.

All fair, but i firmly believe if you do not like the job you are working, the best way to get to where you want is you work your ass off, save, and make your dreams (or dream job) come true. And again, paper money is not fake. It buys real, tangible items. Saying money is fake is simpy untrue.

Originally posted by taccj9903
Someone else mentioned that they would love to have a good piece of land and basically try and be self sufficient which I think would be awesome too. However, in order to get said land one needs the paper money which isn't easy to come by without a job. Now I know it wouldn't be easy to have that kind of lifestyle but I think many can agree it would be more satisfying then working at some miserable job just to get the basic necessities while the owners of the company are raking in the dollars off of our labor and time.

And bravo to anyone who can make thier dream of living off the land happen. But, as you mentioned even that requires hard work and paper money in order to get your land and start your dream. So again, you must work for it. I see no problem at all with working your ass off for 10 years in order to make your next 50 a joy.

Originally posted by taccj9903
I'm glad that you are happy and have had a great life so far, but there are many people who aren't satisfied working at a job they despise just to have enough money to buy food, have shelter and transportation just to get back and forth from home to work. I don't know what the answers are but it doesn't take a genius to know that what we got going on here in the USA isn't working.

Then why not work two jobs they despise, all the while knowing they are working towards a better future? Yes, its hardship up from, but the long term payoff is worth it. I dont think people these days understand the value of hard work.