Can You Actually Live Off Minimum Wage? | Part One

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  • čas přidán 8. 09. 2024

Komentáře • 75

  • @joevarga5982
    @joevarga5982 Před 2 lety +8

    Many people ASSUME for some reason that minimum wage is meant to cover all living expenses like living alone renting an apartment, buying a car, paying for car insurance, utilities and food and everything else. It's just not. Minimum wage is for high school kids living at home with their parents and for people renting rooms, not apartments and for people using public transportation. Also, the cost of living varies wildly throughout the country, so results will vary greatly depending on location.

    • @captnkurt83
      @captnkurt83 Před 2 lety +1

      Exactly but we are in a increasingly entitled society. People expect to make 150k a year coming out of college with liberal arts degree.

  • @Mr12JETS
    @Mr12JETS Před 2 lety +7

    My whole city pays $7.25 to $9 .Sometimes you find $10 .All of my friends left the city for better opportunities and are away from family all year long.

    • @ItsMandy
      @ItsMandy  Před 2 lety +2

      Wow, that is very low even for a rural area. What state are you in? My sister is in high school and she makes $14/hr at McDonald’s in a small rural town.

  • @Szczurzyslawa
    @Szczurzyslawa Před rokem +1

    here rent for small crappy apartment is 100% of my minimum wage and it doesnt even include water electricity heating etc so cheers

  • @gordonpolk8848
    @gordonpolk8848 Před 3 lety +24

    Growing up po....yes po...not poor. We went without what many would consider basic necessities. We also ate a lot of beans and rice. A good portion of my life I lived at or near minimum wage, but I saved and invested even then. One can do what they have to do. Some of the roughest times in my life are when I learned the most valuable lessons such as what was a necessity and what would be nice to have. I learned to be very frugal and also to cook. Because of that I now own 7 rentals and my primary residence while making a lot less $ than many that I know. I am still frugal, but do take an occasional cruise to get away. We hurt others when we try to shield them from the harsh realities that life is trying to teach them. I thank God for the hard times, even now, and try to learn and grow whenever they come.

    • @ItsMandy
      @ItsMandy  Před 3 lety +5

      Thank you for sharing. I completely agree with you. I know it's not the same thing because I grew up in a house where I had everything I ever needed and more. But I decided to put myself through college and not accept any help from my parents. I worked two part time jobs during the school year and fulltime during the summer, but I still had to be really careful with money. The winter my roommate moved out, I was struggling to pay all the bills myself, I knew if I used too much heat I wouldn't be able to pay my electric bill so I heated my bedroom with a small space heater and left the thermostat on 50 for the rest of the apartment. I also ate a lot of lentil soup, you can make a big pot of that stuff for a few dollars. Anyway I'm really grateful for the whole experience. I had to be frugal to make ends meet and it never really went away. I also learned that you can be happy with what you have even if it's not a lot, most of the time buying more stuff doesn't actually add any value to your life.

    • @jessicah3450
      @jessicah3450 Před rokem

      How lovely to be able bodied!

  • @leoncharles1431
    @leoncharles1431 Před 3 lety +4

    Can you do a video next month what your morning routine is like? Exercise,meditation,cold showers,Reading? I’m excited to find out... You are very inspiring...

  • @amorelus
    @amorelus Před 2 lety +1

    If you have the space. Having a garden helps ALOT. Especially if you eat veggies/fruit that is not commonly sold in Groceries.

  • @Fill630
    @Fill630 Před 3 lety +7

    Can you post links to your recipe for pad Thai, red beans an rice, and that Indian dish? Always looking for new ways to cook lentils and beans. Thanks for the video!

    • @ItsMandy
      @ItsMandy  Před 3 lety +1

      Yes! So the Indian dish I was referring to is actually not Indian at all, it's Middle Eastern. littlesunnykitchen.com/mujaddara/ It says that the Baharat seasoning blend is optional, but I think it is way better with it - here is the recipe for that thishealthytable.com/blog/baharat-spice-mix/ Then I like to add cilantro, avocado, and hot sauce.
      I don't really use a recipe for red beans and rice, but this one is pretty similar to what I do. I don't mush up my beans though or use the vegetable broth (just because I usually don't have any). www.emilieeats.com/cajun-style-vegan-red-beans-rice/
      I don't have a recipe to recommend for Pad Thai. I think I've use a slightly different recipe every time I've made it. It's always been good but never as good as restaurant pad thai.
      I also make this recipe a lot and really like it. domesticsuperhero.com/one-pot-spicy-thai-noodles/
      We also eat a lot of tacos. Black bean tacos, kidney bean tacos, chickpea tacos... With kidney beans I just add taco seasoning. With other types of beans I usually look up recipes and just go with whichever has the most ingredients that I already have on hand.

    • @Fill630
      @Fill630 Před 3 lety

      @It's Mandy wow, thanks for the detailed reply! I’m totally making the lentils this week.

    • @Fill630
      @Fill630 Před 3 lety

      We’ve now made the mujadara twice and just made the spicy noodles last night. They’re both amazing!! I really love those noodles; going to add that your rotation. Good call on the avocado and cilantro on the mujadara, really steps it up. Will try the red beans and rice next. Thanks so much!!

  • @jessicah3450
    @jessicah3450 Před rokem +1

    No companies that pay close to minimum wage give full time hours. And try juggling multiple jobs when every retail and fast food establishment will want to available to their company on the evenings, holidays, and weekends.
    Plus, you aren't adding in the cost of feeding your dog, or any hygiene products?

  • @rarestudio8921
    @rarestudio8921 Před 2 lety +4

    GOD PLEASE LET HER & EVERYONE PROSPER & GIVE THEM EVERYTHING THEY NEED RIGHT NOW , & EVERYTHING THAT THEY HANDS TOUCH/ PUT THEY HANDS ON AMEN🙏🙌💕💕🎊🍰

  • @freyastar4399
    @freyastar4399 Před 2 lety +2

    You should do one with a one person household. No not everyone gets a roommate. (Add a kid just for fun) most times a kid will be a no go for a roommate. Not only will that income cut in half but then we will add the taxes you cut off due to “your” location. (We have to be reasonable and not assume everyone is where you are) even without the kid it is not possible on that minimum income.. not everyone has a “we”. Two person income can work but that is not the case for many. So…. This is doable for you and a two person household with zero kids /pets..

    • @ItsMandy
      @ItsMandy  Před 2 lety

      When I was in college I paid for all my living expenses myself including some of my college expenses that my scholarships didn’t cover. I lived on way less than minimum wage and I had a roommate in order to make that work. I have known many single young adults who have had a roommate at one point or another. Just because you can’t afford to live with a house to yourself, doesn’t mean you can’t live off minimum wage. I could have done this experiment in Arkansas where there is income tax, but the cost of living is lower and minimum wage is higher. I can actually live off minimum wage much easier in Arkansas and have done so for most of my adult life.

    • @Razeagram
      @Razeagram Před rokem +1

      ​@@ItsMandy bro this is such cap lmaoooo

    • @donaldlyons17
      @donaldlyons17 Před rokem

      @@Razeagram What does this is so much cap mean? He is saying the truth. I had multiple people making super close to the legal minimum where I lived and they could not even pay their bills in full with me paying the other 1/2 and the 3 of them splitting the rest!!!

  • @Property_Matters
    @Property_Matters Před 3 lety +5

    Interesting idea! Can't wait to see how it turns out. Are you managing your rentals long distance? Do you think you will invest in Real Estate in Tennessee?

    • @ItsMandy
      @ItsMandy  Před 3 lety +1

      I will keep managing them long distance and I will probably go back to Arkansas once a month or so. I do not think I will invest in Tennessee though. So far I really like Tennessee, but we only plan to be here for three years (the length of my husband's residency) and then hopefully move back to Arkansas. Plus, I think we want to buy a personal house before buying anymore rentals.

    • @Property_Matters
      @Property_Matters Před 3 lety +1

      @@ItsMandy that makes sense! It'd be interesting to hear if/what difficulties you face managing long distance.

  • @ronanc5914
    @ronanc5914 Před 2 lety +1

    The day a person begins to become an adult is the day they leave their parents home ( permanently ) .

    • @ItsMandy
      @ItsMandy  Před 2 lety +2

      Ok, but my dad requires fulltime care and he's not that pleasant, which makes it a lot harder to care for him. Me coming home gives my mom a break. Caregiver burnout is real.

  • @larrysmith2655
    @larrysmith2655 Před rokem

    These people are trying to raise a family of 3 on minimum wage jobs, many of them have children and are unwed. Plus most of these low income jobs are meant for kids not adults who never strived for anything in their life

  • @yearight1205
    @yearight1205 Před 2 lety +2

    See the problem really is how much does rent cost where you live. Where I am you're gonna spend at least $1300 a month on rent. Want something cheaper? Gotta drive well over an hour away to not good areas. I had considered moving to a place 3 and a half hours away and transfer to that office for my company, since rent down there's $800 a month. But with rent being so high, it's just insanity.

    • @trinitygrau4978
      @trinitygrau4978 Před 2 lety +1

      *cries in California*

    • @yearight1205
      @yearight1205 Před 2 lety +2

      @@trinitygrau4978 living in California or New York is the quickest way to destroy your future. You will spend every paycheck just paying for where you live. And that's not living. Better to grab a van and live out of that than to have a place in California I'd reckon.

    • @trinitygrau4978
      @trinitygrau4978 Před 2 lety +1

      @@yearight1205 To be fair, that's ignoring the reasons why one might be in California. For starters, there's more work here (especially in creative fields) due to it being a higher populated area. Secondly, it can be just as hard to leave as it can be to stay, especially for younger couples and families. Thirdly, living in a van isn't really much more ideal than living very frugally in California. Most of what people count as not living is simply not having luxuries.

    • @yearight1205
      @yearight1205 Před 2 lety

      @@trinitygrau4978 creative fields? I work in film and animation. So if you are talking about acting, sure, but if you're talking about the computer stuff, you can do that remotely. I get offers from movie studios to work remotely. I work in Blender, Unreal Engine 5, After Effects, Premiere Pro, etc.

    • @trinitygrau4978
      @trinitygrau4978 Před 2 lety

      @@yearight1205 I'm speaking regarding things that require more on-site content. Post can easily be done regardless of the distance, sure. I'm in wedding filmmaking and the fact is there's just more happening here - it's a younger demographic who's more likely willing to pay for all the extras. Same goes for anything where you'd need to be on location. I'm not saying there's not valid reasons to leave California or never choose to live here. Simply saying that there's also reasons people stay. I wouldn't ever choose to move here though if I hadn't been born here, which is the difficulty for many who (like me) are children of immigrants who can't afford to leave.

  • @ricklucas6216
    @ricklucas6216 Před 3 lety +4

    Interesting experiment! Don't forget health insurance.

    • @ItsMandy
      @ItsMandy  Před 3 lety

      Yeah, health insurance will be tricky.

    • @Dee_Dee794
      @Dee_Dee794 Před 3 lety +1

      People don’t even have health insurance.

    • @jessicah3450
      @jessicah3450 Před rokem

      Which just having insurance, you also still pay for healthcare out of pocket. The smallest cost of my healthcare is the monthly premium to be insured. The most expensive cost is prescriptions, and I am fortunate to have very "good" health coverage compared to many Americans.

  • @audreymichelle2087
    @audreymichelle2087 Před 2 lety +3

    Not everybody has a husband to help with the bills

    • @ItsMandy
      @ItsMandy  Před 2 lety

      Yes of course, but I explained why I choose to do a two income household. When I was single I always had a roommate. So it's essentially the same thing. I could have called my husband my roommate and split the rent and utilities in half, but the numbers would have worked out the same.

    • @jessicah3450
      @jessicah3450 Před rokem

      Exactly! Like heating the apartment costs the same, no matter how many people live there. Adding a person doesn't double the cost, so halving costs with a roommate is cheaper.
      The problem is then finding a reliable roommate who won't ruin your security deposit, default on payments, ruin or mess up your belongings, etc. If you're the "responsible one" out of the pair, the other person can definitely take advantage of that and leave you with higher costs than if you had just lived alone. Seen some roommate situations go very wrong.

  • @sanjiop494
    @sanjiop494 Před 2 lety

    i really like these type of videos!!

  • @rickzepeda4403
    @rickzepeda4403 Před rokem

    different states have different minimum wages

  • @Goldie-kw5ju
    @Goldie-kw5ju Před 2 lety +3

    Homeless people on skid row eat better than that

  • @freese271
    @freese271 Před 3 lety +1

    Welcome back.

  • @sideofglam
    @sideofglam Před 3 lety

    Yay!! Love the new video Mandy!

  • @rwatson4
    @rwatson4 Před 3 lety +5

    I could only bare listening up to 3:15 at the time of me typing this comment. You had a husband, and prior to that a roommate. Take those 2 factors away. Add in the cost of transportation from either car maintenance for a used car, or car payment for reasons being for only being able to find full time work in an area where public transportation doesn’t go, part is enough to survive with but not secure. Will show a realistic example of the best scenario of living on minimum wage

    • @ItsMandy
      @ItsMandy  Před 3 lety +4

      If you are only making 7.25 an hour you almost have to have a roommate, so I don’t think that is unrealistic. But I have lived on less than minimum wage without a roommate for one year during college. My rent was only $500 then. It’s not possible to rent for $1,100, making $7.25 without a roommate.
      My husband and I both have older used cars, but aside from regular oil changes we haven’t had any expensive maintenance. He got new break padslast year, but he and his dad changed them out themselves so it wasn’t expensive. Neither of them work on cars regularly they just learned from CZcams and reading about how to do it. I got new tires close to the beginning of the year, but that’s literally it for maintenance on our cars in the last few years. If you were to average the cost for maintaining our cars out over the year it would still be less than we spent this month on car tags and drivers licenses. I think what I presented in the video represents my normal spending habits very well.
      Maybe you should watch the whole video and then see what you think. I talk about the stuff I never spend money on that a lot of people do spend money on every month.

    • @ronijr4918
      @ronijr4918 Před 2 lety

      You sound silly

    • @donaldlyons17
      @donaldlyons17 Před rokem

      @@ronijr4918 Well he is telling the truth. Roommates are not a thing where everyone can afford to pay even 1/2 the rent in many cases. How is it silly to tell her to run the fuc*ing experiment without those factors? There is a thing called roommates with too little or no money and when that happens her numbers will likely not work!!!!

  • @leslielajaeee
    @leslielajaeee Před 2 lety +1

    Hell I make ALMOST 17/hr , how are y’all doing this 😩

    • @MyNeonBubbles
      @MyNeonBubbles Před rokem +2

      I make 16.75/hr, my boyfriend makes $17/hr. We will be living with my parents for years at this rate lol

  • @naomiv7133
    @naomiv7133 Před 2 lety

    Before u do the experiment I hope you took out taxes and health care. Thats the part that changes things and make it so hard. When people say to "live" they mean on their own or with a child.
    So on paper you may make 7.25 but you really aren't getting 7.25. Gross vs net

  • @anitaprudnikow2088
    @anitaprudnikow2088 Před 3 lety +3

    Your saying its not real estate related?? Id say oh yes because what you do now is building your furure.

    • @donaldlyons17
      @donaldlyons17 Před rokem

      No her leaching as* is using her renters to build her future. She is literally dealing in blood but unlike the gun companies she can't be sued for doing so. I had roommates and I was only "hood rich" because of them. The wealth came from the blood of other people!!!!

  • @anitaprudnikow2088
    @anitaprudnikow2088 Před 3 lety +1

    Tip to keep your nuts fresh longer, keep them in the freezer

  • @invisibleman4472
    @invisibleman4472 Před 3 lety +2

    yes when your living with mommy and daddy

  • @dizralph.c
    @dizralph.c Před 2 lety

    Do it on a single income. Dont double it.

  • @DFRKR
    @DFRKR Před 2 lety +2

    You know that no peanuts or nuts of any kind go into fried rice/stir frie like you can use nut oil or peanut oil to cook it in but you do know nuts go into fried rice you're supposed to take some day-old rice and one way to do it is to let the rice get a little bit Brown and then add some eggs into it or another ways you can mix rice a and a little bit of water makes that together with some seasoning whatever seasoning you have and then you put in some oil and you cook the whole thing and now you have fried rice no peanuts of any kind like you can make bean fried rice but there is no nuts fried rice really you're just wasting you can make fried rice without it biggest waste of money that I see that I stopped doing real quick is buying ingredients but you refused to use it for anything other than a specific recipe those cashews you can be using those with apples in between meals like maybe I one apple and then half a handful of those peanuts and that's like you're in between meals you can split that in half again and having it in between lunch and dinner like and I know for a fact how expensive getting peanuts and things like that it are these days that's why I haven't bought any in like a year-and-a-half

  • @Globaler
    @Globaler Před 2 lety

    I see how there is no meat in your grocery :-)

  • @unridio5012
    @unridio5012 Před 2 lety +1

    carrots are cheap everywhere in the world, apple also mostly cheap everywhere, so those can fill ur stomach in good price :D remember that

    • @jessicah3450
      @jessicah3450 Před rokem +1

      For how long do they fill you up though? Not long until you are hungry again. Protein and fiber fill you up.

  • @NYATAVIRALSPORT
    @NYATAVIRALSPORT Před 3 lety

    GRATIS

  • @freyastar4399
    @freyastar4399 Před 2 lety +1

    So basically you were ignorant to the situation.. got it.. in situations where you haven’t walked in someone’s shoes yet make assumptions, that’s called being blissfully ignorant. Not many ppl admit it. This is coming from a home owner who lived in government apartments.. I’ve seen both sides .. good you took the time to experience it..

    • @donaldlyons17
      @donaldlyons17 Před rokem

      Well she also only helps herself but well she is the only person who will take care of herself too so....

  • @michaelcanada6583
    @michaelcanada6583 Před 2 lety

    Minimum wage should be at least 12 to 13 dollars.

  • @thebrightside7015
    @thebrightside7015 Před 3 lety

    are you counting your income and your husband's or just yours alone?

    • @ItsMandy
      @ItsMandy  Před 3 lety

      Both, two minimum wage incomes. To do one income I would have just halved all the expenses so it would have been the same thing. So if you are single it would essentially be the same thing as having a roommate.

    • @donaldlyons17
      @donaldlyons17 Před rokem

      @@ItsMandy Your either good at finding people who pay or your lucky. I lived with a guy and his girlfriend and both of them did not work at the same time for the majority of their time with me.

  • @ItsMandy
    @ItsMandy  Před 2 lety +1

    I did a better job with part two of this experiment. To watch that video click here: czcams.com/video/v7WO4ka28l8/video.html

  • @Jakemkee
    @Jakemkee Před 2 lety

    Very misleading title.

  • @gsftom
    @gsftom Před 3 lety +1

    Whatever u do, please don’t go woke.

    • @ItsMandy
      @ItsMandy  Před 3 lety +6

      lol, I was raised by a family who's investment strategy is land, gold, and bullets so I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon.

    • @donaldlyons17
      @donaldlyons17 Před rokem

      @@ItsMandy You were also raided by people who did not tell you not to take advantage of others since you went out and bought more houses....... People got to eat but your trying to get fat!!!!! I will only ever rent out rooms because I want others to have a cheap place to live. Buying a house when someone else might need it to live in while I don't seems totally selfish!!! 🤮🤢