Can You Live Off Of $7.25 A Hour? 

I have no idea how that is even still the federal minimum wage, just absolutely wild.

The US is absolutely a sweatshop. Incredible

I was making $12.35 a hour in my home area before I went to school and let me tell you - there were most definitely months I couldn’t pay everything in one month and I was on HUD with 3 kids. Thirty percent of my income went to Rent and I did have a car payment after I fixed my credit. I paid 233 a month for my car before we did in fact ride the mass transit system. I worked at a retail store and she gave me 29-32 hours a week to keep me from loosing my befits so she didn’t have to give me any. Sickening 😢

NC minimum wage is $7.25 hr you wouldn’t even find a place to live for 550.00 unless you have rental assistance….i live on SSDI which is a little more then the need based disability payments.. but I can live on mine…. My rent is 875.00…plus water, plus valet trash every month..Do I save anything? $50 a month goes to savings no matter what? Do I use food banks No, I don’t receive welfare assistance at all…….do I have a $1000 emergency fund? Yes it took me a year to build it but I did it I don’t drive so public transportation is a must.. So yes friends I started my ef fund with a goal of $500 in 2023- and I slowly continued to add and I’m still adding monthly.:

I was making $7.50 a hour working in retail-2004-2007 2013-2014 all I had to pay was my phone bill and transportation- bus and train . Hell no I can't go back to that!!!

We dont have a sales tax in Oregon but are taxed to death on bicycle registration fees, DMV fees, car buying tax fee, house buying tax fees, state mandated .001 fee out of your paycheck to pay for roads. The list goes on and on. Amandas journey for trying to stay afloat is very common in our state with Outrages prices and fees.

(1) This is the federal minimum wage, and that means the States must follow it or pay more. They can't pay less. (2) Such a low-wage earner should apply for cash assistance, food assistance, housing assistance, Medicaid and whatever benefits.

My first job was working in an office and I made £17.30 a week - I had to give half to my parents for room and board (I have lots of siblings and only my dad worked!!!) I’ve been very careful with money all my life, but never earned big money - I’m disabled now but get by. Most of my adult life has been spent in shared houses, although at the moment I live on my own in a partly adapted bungalow, that is council owned and subsidised. My parents always said spend 1/3 of your money on housing, 1/3 on everything else and save 1/3 for emergencies. I estimate that currently I save about half and spend half of my money. Doing this has meant that I have been able to buy a very expensive wheelchair and power add on. (I love it - it goes 20 miles an hour, but my eyesight isn’t good enough to be able to go at that speed most of the time 😂!) We are only allowed to save £6,000 before our benefits are taken, so I had to find ways of spending money - hence the lovely wheelchair, but it has made a massive difference to my life. My floor (a wheelchair friendly vinyl) has just cost £1,500 too. Hopefully a shed will be next when I save enough :-)

I like the budget breakdown. I make quite a bit more than the federal minimum wage being an engineer but a lot of the spending categories are right in line with my current ones. Just finished paying off my credit cards. Getting ready to pay off my car early, but have some maintenance and property taxes first. Then time to tackle the mountain of student loans & full emergency fund.

Wow, this brings me back to my 1st job as a housekeeper for Holiday Inn in 2002. Except you didn’t get 40 hours, more like 20 which is how I ended up at Kroger shortly after for less money, but more hours.Then worked as a dishwasher for a mom and pop restaurant for $6.50/hr for 2 years with no raise. Landed my now job of 19 years in October 2005 starting out at $8.00/hr. Now make $16, but even that’s been like pulling teeth to get as raises have been inconsistent.

Nice breakdown. It might be possible but it is challenging, I would also consider to get food from food banks.

Also dont forget... bi weekly has 26 pays (2 months have 3 pays) so it would be 1300/yr saved... but those extra checks could be useful for those things you talked about like emergency fund or maybe car maintenance.

just hubby and myself (seniors)...our budget is 400.00 per month including non-edible items 😀 sbout 85% of our groceries are from dollartree/dollar general...the rest from our local grocery or walmart.. the only other shopping we may do is thrift store for clothes or shoes...under clothes are purchased new and only 1 time each year.

I cant even live off anything less than $10 an hour! I am around your age and feeling so behind in life. Even had second thoughts about posting my first video - I just show my basic living expenses and have been able to somehow scrap by. But made the video bc I really didn't want to feel like the only one struggling. 😢

Great video 😊

I'm Australian, my first job other than paper rounds, I made 7.49 AUD an hour (this is about 5 USD), this was 16 years ago when I was 15, but at the time you could get a lot more for that and that was obviously not the adult wage. The minimum wage in Australia for an adult is now 24.10 AUD per hour but with how expensive things are you would be struggling on that. I would barely be able to make ends meet working 40 hours a week minimum wage here. As it stands I make about 40 an hour(though the government takes a big fat chunk so it's really only 32) just under full time and still can't save as much as I used to working less. The whole world is rooted.

I've been a cna for 29yrs & $7.25 was the pay for us but I managed to get by thank god!!

They restrict our hours at work except for summer time so I basically make min wage 😔

Had to use all my change for food

Absolutely loved this 18:34

Enjoyed the video Amanda.

Hey hey hey watching before getting out the house. I don't see how the fed min is that amount vs 15 or 17 dollar's

Minimum wage isnt ment to be lived on, its for kids in highschool...

my neighbors in the mobile home park make fed minimum wage and I think the husband works 2 jobs

When I was in my 20s which was 30 yrs ago I got 9.25 an hr and that was good money back then I also was raising 5 kids now I make 15.61 an hr it's harder to live today then back then great video😊

I work 6 days a week to pay 700 monthly rent 300 for food a month electric and natural gas 300 month and water bill 70 monthly and 2 cats 180 month and still help my family out sometimes no going out ever for me

Can't get an emergency fund too many bills to take care of

I make near 16 an hour & can barely do it 😢

Internet can potentially be shaved down if your cell phone plan offers unlimited data and hotspot. I get by on that or head to the library. Saves me hundreds a year, thousands for the years I've done it now.

Nobody could.

Manufactured homes seem so unfair, you get to deal with the worst parts of a mortgage AND still pay rent for the space? What is this place??

Library dollar tree has some delicious dumplings tmobile is so worth it set up temu envelope for a few items

Hi Amanda. I hope you have a great day.

Most definitely you can live off 7.50 an hour I’m from Texas live in Cali went to Texas last year gas was $1.89 a gallon and groceries were cheap as heck bought a nice stroller for my niece for 3.00 and that was regular price min wage is 7.50 an hour in Texas the cost of living in Texas is so cheap plan to retire there

2 sec in...the answer is no

Car insurance rent =1400

😊

You’re making $7.25 an hour and your husband spends his time gaming???? What the heck? He should be getting a second job!!!!

I now make $10 an hour at work

❤ good morning how are you doing today ❤

$7.25 an hour (post tax) is livable depending on where you are. The federal minimum wage is ridiculously low but makes sense for certain occupations (like starter iobs for teens). There's a living wage calculator & according to my area, $16.73/hr (~$34k/year) covers "basic necessities". The more rural part (a 20-30 minute drive away), $7.25 isn't even enough. I think the minimum is $9. That's not even considering the insurances, taxes, & transportation (too many bridges). Crazy work/times. 🥲

Great video ❤