How Much Do You Spend On.....

Oh, dear lord. $24K/year per PERSON isn't enough to live like a homeless person around here, sadly. The median home price is around $400,000 (and that doesn't get you much - a condo with 2 bed/1 bath in a so-so neighborhood). Median income is $95K. If you do the math, San Francisco means an average expenditure of 46% of income to be spent on rent, on average. Cost of living is about 56% higher in Northern CA than in the rest of the country on average.

Aside from that, gas is around $3.89/gal. Milk is about $4.50/gal (more for organic). Wheat bread is $2.50 per loaf (at Costco - and about $3.50/loaf at the grocery store). $2.25/dozen eggs.

But hey, we have a GREAT view! ;)

3 moms found this helpful

Wow, livin' is cheap in Indiana! No way could a family of four live comfortably on $24,000 in So Cal. The average house is waaaaaay more than $84,000. Not sure how big your house is, but in my area, a 4 bedroom house is at least $750,000 and can just as easily be $950,000.

I'll admit, I don't really pay close attention to the prices when I buy food. I just buy what I need. But I know I spend more than you. I can't even fathom $20/week on groceries here. If I got frozen veggies, beans, rice, chicken, milk, eggs and bread all in one trip, I'd probably be looking at a $50-60 bill.

3 moms found this helpful

In my city in Hawaii:
Milk $5.00 and up
Bread loaf whole wheat $4 and up
Eggs $3
A bottle of bottled water $1.50
A carton of orange juice $4.49
Apples $2.99/pound

Groceries, for family of 4, per week $200. Which includes things like the occasional need to stock up on toilet paper/napkins/garbage bags, etc.

I do always shop sales.

Minimum wage in Hawaii $7.25

3 moms found this helpful

Not sure what part of Indiana you are in. I also live in Indiana and honestly can't imagine trying to take care of my family of 3 on $24,000 a year. Also I have no idea where you are shopping but wish you would share. for me to buy enough chicken and everything else you listed to feed my family for a week is way more than $20 .

I looked up the poverty level in Indiana just out of curiousity and the poverty level for a family of 4 is $28,813.00 gross. So congrats to you for being comfortable on your income. You could definitley teach me a few things on how to do it. :-) at least at the grocery store. :-)

2 moms found this helpful

we spend around $150 a week for a family of 4 on food. I think (but I could be wrong) that min. wage here is around $5. Which is crazy to me because even in CA where I am from it is around $7.50 (I think) and it costs more to live here than it did there in south OC! I wish I could move to a cheaper area.

2 moms found this helpful

Wow! Here on Long Island a 1200 sq ft house on 1/2 acre in a decent school district runs around $350K! And this is considered a STARTER HOUSE!

Not sure what min wage is in NY... but groceries can get expensive. I know I don't get the cheapest choices... but we spend about $80 per week on food, plus we of course have the sundries to go along and the staples (mayo, ketchup etc.) that we don't need to buy every week. Those and another $100 or so a month...

ANd property taxes... ugh Long Island is a tough place to live sometimes...

2 moms found this helpful

Wow! To live comfortable iin MD, $24k would not cut it for a single person. The area I live in is getting more expensive. A 1 bedroom apartment in a decent area can run almost $1k a month.

Our home is about 2300 sqft and runs us $2200 a month.

I think as long as YOU can afford YOUR life on what you make, it's all good :).

2 moms found this helpful

Reston, VA - Northern Virginia -
Milk is $3.79 a gallon (not Organic that's $5.89 a gallon).
Gas is $3.56 per gallon for regular
Bread - ON SALE $1.19 for white bread loaf
Chicken breast - on SALE $1.99 per pound
18 eggs - $2.19
1 bag of Mahatma rice (1lb bag) $4.25

3 bedroom 2.5 bath 2 car attached garage semi-detached townhome just sold for $479,000. Same house is renting for $1,900 per month.
ETA - sorry - didn't include SQFT - 2,000

5 bedroom 3.5 bath, 2 car CARPORT single family home sold for $699,999 (ETA - 3K sq ft).

So my cost of living is a lot higher than yours!!! Average income in our area (not including Section 8 housing) is $150K per year.

2 moms found this helpful

It sounds like your groceries are just a bit cheaper than they are here (if you buy the onsale or generic brands) but I also find it very hard to believe that you can feed an entire family for 7 days on 20 dollars. All you can buy around here for that money you cite as the cost of an average house is a trailer in a trailer park. Same minimum wage though, I think that is federal.

1 mom found this helpful

I notice my grocery prices going up up and up. We used to be where you are at but now milk is 3.69 (for the store brand), Eggs 2.39, Bread around 3 dollars, butter 4.39. A large package of chicken thighs is 8.99. I don't understand how people buy all organic. I already spend over 150.00 per week on groceries. I buy fruits, veggies, convenience foods like applesauce in the single serve cups, mac n cheese, lunch meats, cheeses, meats for dinner etc... I also pick up some soda and cookies and crackers and such. I don't buy chips but I do buy microwave popcorn.

1 mom found this helpful

It's really about how much I am willing to pay. Minimum wage is $7.25/ hour. There is a wide range of pricing where I live depending on where you buy. We are lucky to have a large wholesale-like store to buy fruits, veggies, deli items, and meat, so my costs are significantly lower than many. I also shop solely at an outlet store for bread, and stick with sale items for everything else. But for example:
milk 3.50
bread 1.00-1.80 including whole grain and specialty breads
eggs 1.00-1.30 doz
frozen veg 1.00/lb.
rice 1.00/lb normally, but much less on sale
chicken 1.00-1.30/lb
apples .89/lb
tomatoes /69/lb
lettuce <1.00/lb
deli meat and cheese 2.00-4.00/lb
I also don't buy paper napkin or towels, always get detergent BOGO, and except for the boys' special body wash they insist on (and I buy on sale with a coupon or they don't get it) I pay 1.00/bottle for shampoo and conditioner. An 8-pack of ivory soap in under 4.00.

I do pay extra for good sunscreen (we are so pale we are practically clear), and lotion for my daughter who has eczema.

1 mom found this helpful

Las Vegas NV - $8.25/hr

Gas 3.89/gal
Milk $3.35 per 1/2 gal
Bread $1.99 - 4.00
Cup of coffee $3.50
1 lb Ground Beef $4.99
Cheese 1 lb 1.99 - 2.50
Cold Cereal $3.99/box
Box of granola's $1.99 - 2.50
Average restaurant tab for 4 $100.00
Movie Tickets $12.00
Water bill $65.00
Power Bill Summers $200.00
Gas Bill Summers $35.00

Now I'm depressed!

1 mom found this helpful

I live in California which is considered one of the most expensive places to live, but I think people fail to consider that CA is large and there are lots of different places and COL varies considerably in different areas of the state. I pay 1,000/mo in rent for a 2bed/bath house in a nice neighborhood and I'm a student and we survive on my grants (not a lot of money!!) during school and my husbands makes 16hr. in construction, which seems like double min wage but not really b/c the work is sometimes slow and so basically at the end of the yr he makes close to min wage according to our taxes, lol. The food costs the exact same as you mentioned above. Our utilities are a expensive in the summer b/c its hot here (elec @ 200mo) but much cheaper during other months, but b/c we have gas heat it can be around 75/mo for two of our coldest months. NOW if I lived near the coast in Orange County or near San Francisco there is no way you could rent a house for that much or survive on those wages, thats why you really have to be rich to live in those areas. I know this b/c I have lived in Orange County and grew up near San Francisco. I spend around $60 (at the very least a week on food) and I think I'm being conservative, BUT we NEVER eat out and this is for all lunches and includes paper products, cleaning, bath, dog food, etc.
Also, you can buy a house here right now for 100K, but a "nice" house (new w/pool) will cost you $ 200K +. Also, before I had my daughter I worked FT and made good money but also paid more in taxes, its seems we got a good tax break after after having a kid, b/c before her I NEVER EVER got a tax return, I always owed!!!!

1 mom found this helpful

Our minimum wage here in WA is $9.04. A loaf of Franz bread typically runs about $3, eggs are just under $2, a gallon of milk I can get for just under $3 by buying generic. The prices aren't great but they've been worse as well so I'm not stressing it. :)

1 mom found this helpful

Here in the Kansas City area, I pay about 3.69 to 4.00 for a gallon of milk at the grocery store, but it is 1.99 at Sams or Costco. Eggs about 2.00 a dozen, bread you can get cheap for about 1.50 if you get the cheap stuff. I think minimum wage is 7.25 here but not 100% sure. Houses here can be what you mentioned, upwards to several hundred thousand dollars in some areas, just depends on which area you go to. The utilities are pretty expensive here too!! But no way in heck could i buy $20 worth of groceries and make it with our family of 4. We spend more than that per day. I'd bet we spend about $500 a month at the grocery store.

1 mom found this helpful

Wow, it's amazing how different things can be from place to place! This got me curious so I looked up the official numbers but those don't really cover everything. The min wage in Ohio is $7.70. The official median home price for my area is just under 90,000. But there is a lot of wiggle room in that number! Around here, you could see an old mobile home right next door to a brand new mansion. It's so strange! My parents live in a nice rural area, across the street from them is a 350,000 home that was built 2 years ago, and beside them is a falling-down, condemned 100-year-old house.

The official median income is 27,000. That surprised me, because we have a TON of doctors around here, I thought they would skew the average a lot higher.

We spend about $75 a week on groceries, but that's low, we are really watching our money lately. I do a lot of couponing, buying in bulk, and we get our meat from a local butcher. A few years ago when we were still a 2-income family, and we didn't pay much attention to our budget, we probably spent closer to $200 a week, even shopping discount grocery like Walmart & Kmart! A gallon of milk can cost as much as $4, but goes on sale sometimes for $2.70. Organic milk can be $6 to $10 a gallon!!! I usually get eggs on sale for $1/doz.

When I was single and hadn't finished college, I couldn't afford to have my own place. I worked a 40 hour week and made less than 10,000 a year. I lived with my parents and paid for my own expenses, and didn't have any college debt, but I still didn't have any money leftover for luxuries or savings. That was about 8 years ago, and the minimum wage then I think was $5.50, so I was doing better than some.

Here in Iowa MW is $7.25.

We have taxes on our food. Since I live right on the corner of IA/ MN/ WI we grocery shop in Wi since they don't tax on food and clothes shop in Mn since they don't tax on clothes.

I get our bread ( walmart brand) for $1. Milk is $3 something. Eggs I get at Kwik Trip ( convience store) for $1.09. veggies and canned fruit from Aldis for around a dollar. Chicken is pretty cheap as long as you buy it whole and cut it up yourself. I don't remember what I paid for it last time. Banana's, onions and potatoes from Kwik Trip are pretty cheap also, its cheaper to get it from there than any other store and the quality is just as good.

We have a family of 7 and I do buy mostly store brand name food ( some I will not because of the taste) and make most of our meals from scratch and I can easily spend $100 a week to feed us all.

Summer when all the kids are home for lunch and then want snacks during the day is when our bill goes up to about $150.

I'm just happy that the gas prices are DOWN to $3.49 in Pittsburgh.
My husband was traveling in Texas recently and it was $3.2something.....

There are the typical high cost of living areas: NYC, Boston, LA, San Fran....

Frozen chicken breasts in a 3 lb. bag---5.99 on sale.

I usually shop about every 3 days for me and my husband. It's usually between 50 and 80 bucks a pop. I reckon it costs us about 20 bucks a day to eat when I'm being conservative.
Min wage here is 8 bucks.

we live in a small town about <2 hours out of St Louis. A starter 3 bedroom home can be bought for under 100,000. A slightly better home will run $150,000 & up. Conversely, the same home in St Louis will run anywhere from $200,000 & up. There's still a few areas below that, but the schools/area are not as nice.

Our utilities & groceries run close to St Louis, but our taxes are much lower. Our wages are also much lower. When we moved from St Louis, my DH's salary was still StL-based. We knew it would not last, & after his job shut down....he took a paycut of $9/hour to stay in our small town.

Milk <$3 at Aldis...<$3.50 at Walmart....& +$4 at the local grocery store.
Bread <$2 at Aldis.....<$2 at Walmart....& + $2 at the local groc store.
Eggs....don't know...I rarely buy them.
& we buy our meat at the local butcher shop....no preservatives!

These are certainly not what I pay, when I shop sales (although milk and gas don't go on sale...), but just some regular items that might be on anyone's list...

Milk $3.59/gal (this is regular store brand milk, not organic, not brand name)
Gas $3.25/gal today
Bread (any "brand" not store brand) $3.79/loaf
Bread (store brand, plain white) $1.79/loaf
Eggs, large Grade A, $1.89 dozen
1 lb ground beef $3.99; ground chuck $4.29, ground round $4.99
Cereal $4.29 box average full price
Kashi granola bars $3.79/box
Zone bars $4.29 box at Target, at the grocery store they're $4.99
Frozen Lean Cuisine $3.29-$3.79
Can of Campbell's condensed soup $1.33
18 lb bag of Purina One Dog food $21.99
12 pk of Miller Lite $10.29
1 whole chicken cut in pieces (I forget per lb cost) averages $7.50-$10.00
1 deli rotisserie cooked chicken, whole $7.49 (or $5.99 on sale)

Ahhhh... these Q's make me sad :( :( :( Gack. Okay.

2b/1ba starter home = half a mil
3b/2b 2500sqft ish home = 600-700k

Low Income Apt = $1200
Student sub Apt = $1600
Regular apt = $1800-2200
(all 2b/1ba in normal areas... posher areas are moe along the lines of $2000 for a studio)

These prices are the 'normal' ones. You can find them for less if you schlep, or more very very easily.

Milk = $4 per half gallon
Eggs = $3 per dozen
Cereal = $5 per box
Bread = $5
Lunch meat = $12 per pound
Cheese = $10-18 per pound
Hamburger = $5 per pound
Pork = $4 per pound
Bacon = $7 per pound
Steak = $15 per pound
Salmon = $20 per pound
Frozen Veg = $4 per bag
Rice = $3-$10 per pound
Chicken Breast = $9 per pound

For a family of 4 the extreme poverty line is 22k, but a family of THREE also qualifies for full funding (FoodStamps, WIC, aid, housing, etc) at 44k.

Min wage = $9.04
Firefighers make = $62k per year to start
Police make = $64k-$84k

Daycare costs $1600-$2500 per month per child and up.

A family of 10, me and hubby, 4 'adult' children and 4 littlier ones cost about 1,000 a month. Less in the summer since we grow a lot of our stuff, and true into about winter where what I can runs out.