Anyone else living paycheck to paycheck?

  • Thread starter Thread starter gravenewworld
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AI Thread Summary
Living paycheck to paycheck is a common struggle, with one user detailing their financial situation, leaving them with only $145 for two weeks after essential expenses. The discussion highlights the challenges of managing a low income, with many participants noting the high costs of living and the burden of student loans and car payments. Suggestions include downsizing expenses, such as switching to used cars and reducing utility costs, to alleviate financial strain. The conversation also touches on the disparity in starting salaries across different fields and locations, emphasizing the impact of cost of living on perceived income. Overall, the thread reflects a shared experience of financial hardship and the search for practical solutions.
  • #101
I agree, 50k should set you up if you are single. But the cost of living where you work brings down that 50k. If you made that where you live now, you would be sitting pretty. Car payments and fuel eat up a good chunck of your take home. With someone with your eductation you are at the low-end of the pay scale in the city you are working. With more experience, that should go up. What is your position, graven?

I work in Redmond, WA. Just as expensive a town to work in. I also live 300 miles away and just come to town to work during the weekdays. I use my cheap 97' Neon (I bought used for $2500) to commute to keep my fuel cost down. But this town pays twice as much as the same position would pay in my home town so it works out.

Something else to think about, if were able to work as a contractor through a professional placement agency, you could get a significant per diem on top of your salary that would more than cover your travel and lodging expenses. This is what I am currently doing (per diem is $1600). So I get the Redmond salary while living in a town with a lower cost of living.
 
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  • #102
drankin said:
I agree, 50k should set you up if you are single. But the cost of living where you work brings down that 50k. If you made that where you live now, you would be sitting pretty. Car payments and fuel eat up a good chunck of your take home. With someone with your eductation you are at the low-end of the pay scale in the city you are working. With more experience, that should go up. What is your position, graven?

I work in Redmond, WA. Just as expensive a town to work in. I also live 300 miles away and just come to town to work during the weekdays. I use my cheap 97' Neon (I bought used for $2500) to commute to keep my fuel cost down. But this town pays twice as much as the same position would pay in my home town so it works out.

Something else to think about, if were able to work as a contractor through a professional placement agency, you could get a significant per diem on top of your salary that would more than cover your travel and lodging expenses. This is what I am currently doing (per diem is $1600). So I get the Redmond salary while living in a town with a lower cost of living.


I'm medicinal chemist on the very bottom rung, i.e. a "research assistant". My boss said that I would be getting a promotion after this year though. In the line of work I am in employers definitely have the upper hand. Finding jobs in the pharmaceutical industry for chemists has been brutal recently. Right now there are literally 1000s of chemists out there scrambling for jobs since all the big pharma companies have had massive layoffs. You have Phds now filling up labs taking slightly above entry level positions because finding jobs are so hard for them.
 
  • #103
gravenewworld said:
I'm medicinal chemist on the very bottom rung, i.e. a "research assistant". My boss said that I would be getting a promotion after this year though. In the line of work I am in employers definitely have the upper hand. Finding jobs in the pharmaceutical industry for chemists has been brutal recently. Right now there are literally 1000s of chemists out there scrambling for jobs since all the big pharma companies have had massive layoffs. You have Phds now filling up labs taking slightly above entry level positions because finding jobs are so hard for them.

Ouch, sounds very competitive. My wife is study biochemistry right now and I wonder if she realizes how it's getting.
 
  • #104
gravenewworld said:
I'm medicinal chemist on the very bottom rung, i.e. a "research assistant". My boss said that I would be getting a promotion after this year though. In the line of work I am in employers definitely have the upper hand. Finding jobs in the pharmaceutical industry for chemists has been brutal recently. Right now there are literally 1000s of chemists out there scrambling for jobs since all the big pharma companies have had massive layoffs. You have Phds now filling up labs taking slightly above entry level positions because finding jobs are so hard for them.

It's like that in Canada too. PhD guy across the hall couldn't even get an entry level analytical job. Chemists around here make less than entry level warehouse personnel.
 
  • #105
all these grim tales are absolutely absurd.
 
  • #106
yea me I am on disability and live on only $640.00 a month
 
  • #107
turbo-1 said:
BTW, hitch-hiking with long hair and a knapsack wasn't all that safe here in 1970. I've dodged beer-bottles on the road and have hit the woods trying to avoid car-fulls of rednecks. Luckily, I ran cross-country all through HS, and could outrun practically anybody intent on making an example of me. One night at the Madison Legion hall, I was surrounded by most of that town's football team after the quarterback's girlfriend and I hit it off. I chose the most likely target, stomped on his instep, and ran over him. The last pursuer gave up at about a quarter-mile, and I only had to walk home about 20 miles. She was REALLY cute!

Well, to be honest with you, I've spent my fair share of time living pay-check to pay-check as well. When I started out in college I was at the rare age of 18 with nothing but lint and napkins in my pockets. I started working in the local gymnasium as a janitor cleaning out toilets and garbage cans in order to pay the bills. Unfortunately I still wasn't hardly making enough to pay for my books and tuition at the same time. So I moved to wee little dungy place that sat in a back alley several miles from the university. The apartment was little more than a coat closet. In fact, I heard it was renovated from an old mustard cooler that the restaraunts used to use back in the grand 40's. So I slept in this tiny room which was just barely big enough to hold a single (3 ft wide) bed. My legs couldn't stretch out all the way so I actually put a board slanted up against the wall, that way, if I slept on a slant I could get an extra foot or so of leg room. Unfortunately this created huge problems where I'd wake up in the middle of the night with a pounding headache from all the blood rushing to my head. Couple of times I woke up screaming my lungs out and all the nearby cats and homeless men in the alley would just go berserk.

Anyways sorry I'm losing track here friend but don't worry you'll make it through! Just take those janitorial jobs like none of them other suckers want to take. If I made it this far I promise you will too!
 
  • #108
I've slowed my spending on art, most paintings and other types of art, due to higher heating, electric, food, etc costs.

budget, budget, budget
 

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