The victim mentality of many bothers me- anyone else?

amother

Steel

Fri, Jul 14 2023, 12:36 pm

amother Daphne wrote:

Another thing. When we realized we could buy a house a few years ago, we lived on 2.5k per month, max 3k.
Rent 1410
Phones 80
Internet 20(we split with neighbors)
Car insurance 195, maybe less
Gas ~$100
Renter insurance 35
Mikvah 36
Diapers/wipes $80
Kids were home and I worked a bit in between caring for them, from home.
Had no Medicaid or food stamps
About $40/wk in food (we also shopped online)
There were tons of give outs - weekly and some larger ones.
Clothes - stretched them out as far as possible

Brooklyn

We never felt lacking. Just needed to save big time and our income was small!!
In fact our biggest income ever untill this past years income was unemployment pandemic benefits. That was the majority of our down payment.

$40 in food a week?? Even assuming you had 2-3 little kids who ate basically nothing it's not possible to feed an adult on $20 a week unless you don't even have chicken on Shabbos

amother

Begonia

Fri, Jul 14 2023, 12:38 pm

amother Steel wrote:

$40 in food a week?? Even assuming you had 2-3 little kids who ate basically nothing it's not possible to feed an adult on $20 a week unless you don't even have chicken on Shabbos

$40 a week is literally rice and beans or plain pasta. Maybe oatmeal. No fruit, no vegetables, no cheese, no (canned) fish, or chicken.

amother

Steel

Fri, Jul 14 2023, 12:49 pm

amother Begonia wrote:

$40 a week is literally rice and beans or plain pasta. Maybe oatmeal. No fruit, no vegetables, no cheese, no (canned) fish, or chicken.

You could probably get a little more than that... at Walmart, a bag of carrots is $1, can of tuna $1, dozen eggs $1

amother

Begonia

Fri, Jul 14 2023, 12:54 pm

amother Steel wrote:

You could probably get a little more than that... at Walmart, a bag of carrots is $2, can of tuna $1, 1.5 dozen eggs $2

Probably not. If you need 3 meals per day, 7 days a week (that's 21 meals), you really have to stretch out the food. One can of tuna is not going to go far, if you have 5 people eating the meal. And carrots on their own aren't filling. Even making a basic soup calls for some kind of filler besides carrots, whether split peas or barley or what have you.

Anyone who says they are feeding their family on $40 a week obviously has another source of food and/or money.

amother

Steel

Fri, Jul 14 2023, 12:57 pm

amother Begonia wrote:

I checked prices and they were actually cheaper than I thought (I edited my post)

Regardless, I agree that it's not realistic

amother

NeonBlue

Fri, Jul 14 2023, 2:02 pm

amother Steel wrote:

$40 in food a week?? Even assuming you had 2-3 little kids who ate basically nothing it's not possible to feed an adult on $20 a week unless you don't even have chicken on Shabbos

What is give outs? Maybe the Covid food boxes? Or a food bank?

amother

Sapphire

Fri, Jul 14 2023, 2:06 pm

amother Steel wrote:

$40 in food a week?? Even assuming you had 2-3 little kids who ate basically nothing it's not possible to feed an adult on $20 a week unless you don't even have chicken on Shabbos

you really never know. Maybe the husband works in a food/takeout place and bring s food home every day.... Maybe they go to these places or work at these places which give meals for very cheap like 1 dollar or two. (Ahiezer senior center does so as I have gotten in the past from them )
Shabbos is a big question but as you know BH there are many organizations that help with shabbos food these days....

amother

Daphne

Fri, Jul 14 2023, 2:23 pm

amother Steel wrote:

$40 in food a week?? Even assuming you had 2-3 little kids who ate basically nothing it's not possible to feed an adult on $20 a week unless you don't even have chicken on Shabbos

Food packages were distibuted weekly + some more community distributions. That was plenty. All we needed were some more fruits and veggies. Pantry items we had from the distrubutions. We didnt make anything fancy. Worked iwth what we had. Food was supplied at my husbands work so no need to worry about breakfast or lunch for him.

BTW do you know how cheap lentils and beans are?
So doable to do proteins on a budget.

amother

Daphne

Fri, Jul 14 2023, 2:29 pm

amother Sapphire wrote:

It's just very interesting here the attitude of some posters who get mad that someone else survived on less or pennies. Either they had way more and wasted their money on luxuries and are upset or they also had little but didnt survive as much. Never the less no reason to get angry. Be inquisitive and curious like me but that poster did nothing wrong. I personally have learned a lot of insight from amother daphne and hope to gain some insight in how I will budget my spending..

THank you. this is the vibe I was getting as well and whew.
You know, when you have $40 cash, you absolutely cannot spend over $40. So you learn to maximize that 40 to the best of your ability. You dont NEED meat, you want it. There are plenty alternatives. We actually only buy red meat for Tishrei chagim and Pesach. If we have leftover, we use for Shavuos.
You want salmon? Aldi has for $7.99/lb. Buy a small piece, make skewers and look - you have salmon for two meals. Stretch it.
So many ways to stretch food.
We grow some of our own now too.

SOme people make lots of money and are left with nothing.
Others make little and have extra.
Thought for life.

amother

Steel

Fri, Jul 14 2023, 2:29 pm

amother Daphne wrote:

OK sounds like you were getting help which is fine. Groceries for my family of 3 used to run about $80, now with inflation it's more like $100. This is with careful budgeting.

We actually do eat beans about 2 nights a week for supper.

amother

Daphne

Fri, Jul 14 2023, 2:32 pm

amother Begonia wrote:

$40 a week is literally rice and beans or plain pasta. Maybe oatmeal. No fruit, no vegetables, no cheese, no (canned) fish, or chicken.

Oatmeal from Costco - lasts a LONG time. Dirt cheap in long run.
Rice - you got it - distributions - had a case! Lasted a year.
Lentils, WIC
$9 of veg per kid, WIC - per month
Fruits and veg were so cheap at aldi and walmart. we bought enough and it was cheap. Didnt ever feel like we didnt have food.

Yes, we had WIC then. We did not have Medicaid or SNAP. If we did, we would have spent some more on convenient foods to use other than $40ish a week.

amother

Daphne

Fri, Jul 14 2023, 2:35 pm

amother Steel wrote:

Nowdays we dont spend $40 on avg. This was a few years ago.
When we need to, we spend as little as we could and MAXIMIZE our potential with whatever amount.
Beans and lentils - cheap

Im a very concious spender. When we are tight, we can spend $30-40, provided that we have some frozen stuff and pantry items available too. Kids eat in school. We eat lunch at work, for the most part.

amother

Begonia

Fri, Jul 14 2023, 2:37 pm

amother Daphne wrote:

Im a very concious spender. When we are tight, we can spend $30-40, provided that we have some frozen stuff and pantry items available too. Kids eat in school. We eat lunch at work, for the most part.

Not all schools provide lunch, and most workplaces don't either. (Although I thought you said at the time your husband was in kollel and you weren't working? Unless I mixed that up with another poster.)

amother

Daphne

Fri, Jul 14 2023, 2:40 pm

amother Begonia wrote:

Not us. unless you mean over a decade ago

amother

Sapphire

Fri, Jul 14 2023, 2:42 pm

amother Begonia wrote:

if her husband was in kollel then the lunch issue could be way less of a problem.
Could be was a yeshiva kollel which provides breakfast lunch and supper and they give to take home etc....
You never know how things work out for people but they do....

amother

Begonia

Fri, Jul 14 2023, 2:42 pm

amother Daphne wrote:

Not us. unless you mean over a decade ago

The poster who said she quit working and her husband was in kollel not bringing in a penny? Or maybe that was the person living on $400 a month.

amother

Daphne

Fri, Jul 14 2023, 2:47 pm

amother Begonia wrote:

The poster who said she quit working and her husband was in kollel not bringing in a penny? Or maybe that was the person living on $400 a month.

Not us.
My husband never went to Kollel. First year of marriage didnt have work most of the year though.

amother

Begonia

Fri, Jul 14 2023, 2:58 pm

amother Daphne wrote:

Not us.
My husband never went to Kollel. First year of marriage didnt have work most of the year though.

That presupposes some other form of income then, whether parental support or wedding gifts or prior savings or even programs etc. Because without that it's not possible to be housed and fed without without employment for the better part of a year. Just like, not actually feeding a whole family on $40 a week, but rather supplementing other main sources of food. Without that context, it's deceptive to say that $40 was enough to feed a family of 5 (or even smaller). Even a decade ago.

amother

Sapphire

Fri, Jul 14 2023, 2:59 pm

amother Daphne wrote:

btw what do you mean we grow some of ut own too ? You grow salmon ?