I voted "no" -- mainly because of the # of children we have and the daycare we'd have to pay -- plus all of Lea's expenses to have someone caring for her one on one, transporting to therapies, etc.
KY min. wage right now is $6.55 and will be $7.25 by next July, so most definately with only one of us working like it is now. Our total amt of bills differ each month depending on season (electric & water) and we have garbage pick up that we pay for every 3mths. Going by this months bills, total is $1238 and then add on a mths worth of groceries, about $260, we'd have enough left over for gas, maintain vehicles, entertainment. Michael brings home $1924 a month now. I plan to start sub teaching in August just to get me out of the house lol
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^~^Angela^~^
Wife of 12yrs to Michael, Mom to Amber
I wanted to add that our minimum wage is going up from $8 to $8.75 on March 31/08. It's going up again March 31/09 to $9.50 and up one last time March 31/10 to $10.25.
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Emily ~ dreaming of owning a home (I GOT IT!!!) and finding a hunny ~
mama to Zackary 12
ok i need to spin off i guess, but HOW are your elec bills so ****ed low? Several of you have said less than 100. We are on budget billing and pay 150 for gas and 190 for electric. Water /refuse is 50-60. Just a regular phone line w no internet or anything would be around 30 a month.
How big is your house? Ours is just under 1200 sq feet, and we pay $60-$70 each month for electric, $85 for gas (monthly budget plan amount for our heat) and $55 for water/sewer. I don't know what the actual rates are though. But I would think that house size and age probably have a lot to do with utility bills. We keep our heat at 68 during the day, 62 at night and 60 when no one is home on workdays. We don't have central air conditioning for the summer either.
ETA: Now that I think about it herc, I would bet air conditioning for Alabama summers is what bumps up your electric bill. I think it's hard to compare expenses from one part of the country to another because our weather varies so much.
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Maryalene
Proud Mama to Madeline, Donny and Max
Our would work out to about 2400 with our state so yes we could make it
with the fed. 18something you posted, no we could not, after our house and car payment we would be pretty much broke
RIght. I voted housing food and utilities, but the other expenses could still force us into bankruptcy. Plus, I think the whole taxes issue is a big deal. And having paid for my own health insurance for so long and deeply understanding the costs involved in that with young children--in the end, no, I don't think we could make it.
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Alaska So proud of my 8th grader and 2nd graders My feedback
Using Ohio's min wage which is $7/hr with 2 of us working and pretending it's all take home and childcare is free we would make more than we do now. He makes more than $14/hr but after taxes, retirement, health ins etc it is less overall. I voted wrong though. I put housing only because I was in a zombie state last night when I did vote.
minimum wage here is $8 so if we were both working we would be fine. that would be about $2560 a month assuming no taxes which you stated in your OP. our car is paid for, we do not have any debt aside from our mortgage which is small. our home is pretty well HE considering it's age so our utilities are also low considering our climate.
our monthly bills look like this approximately. we keep our budget the same every month, and many of our envelopes are accumulating savings. whatever is extra in the bank, usually $6-700 a month goes into savings
mortgage $580
natural gas $90
water $40
hydro electricity $60
tv/phone/internet $120
food $500
entertainment $200
kids $80
adults $80
bus/bike $80
car maintenance $20
house maintenance $100
gas for car $80
all of that adds up to 1930, so we could still keep putting money into savings.
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erin
sewing mama to 2 sweet boys
I'm in Canada, so I believe at min wage of $8.00 per hour(it may of gone up), we would make $2560 per month. The only thing that would not cover is our van payment. Because we are in Canada a family of 5 kids making $30720 a year would get another $1014.00 from the govt per month, and if you have any kids under 6 you get another $100 per kid a month, then on top money from the Ontario govt for being a working family. You also would get 4 payments from the govt for paying goods and services taxes. All are benefits you get if you do your taxes, no special office to go into, just do you taxes and get money for being a low to middle income family.
gotta love that GA is one of the three states with min wage lower than the federal rate. SAD!
and i know chole said no childcare costs and no taxes taken out. when i mentioned feeling compassion for those living on min wage, i was thinking about the real situations...with taxes taken out and all of the real life things that would make living like that hard. and health ins...i mean, do min wage jobs usually pay health ins? i don't know. but i know the $600/month we pay for health ins is SO hard, and i understand, for the first time, how so many people are without it.
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Stephanie, wife to Tim and mama to Isaac (4) and Kendall (2)
spring 2010 
I marked everything but "extras." We've lived without "extras" for many many years.
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