Could you live on $1000/month?
 

Hello everyone,

I came across an interesting article a few weeks back suggesting that it is possible to live on $12,000/year. Keep in mind, the person who wrote this article is single, but does seem to have a homesteading philosophy in some areas:

http://w4.telcen.com/simpleliving.html

This prompted a search for others living on $1000 per month. I came across this blog of a family of five which makes the claim to "thrive on less than $1000 per month." Unfortunately, it is no longer being updated:

http://under1000permonth.blogspot.com/

Here we are at the beginning of 2013. We've trimmed our family of 3's budget back some for the new year - we are well under $2000/month, but not anywhere close to $1000.

For those of you who are living "off the land", is $1000/month income doable for you? If so, can you share some of the secrets that make this possible?

I look forward to everyone's responses.

QuietInTheLand

I would feel rich on $1,000 a month. My current monthly expedatures are less than $500. No payments of anykind to anyone except electric. My phone costs $15. My air card for the puter cost me $50. Less than $100 a month for food. Normally $100 for gasoline.

Really depends on how much debt the person/family has incurred especially mtg. payments and insurance on the property.

Yep a thousand a month :icecream: that is close to our income now . Key thing get everything paid off. No cable tv fancy phones we use magic jack :shrug:

Couldn't do it with children home they could play me like you wouldn't believe .Last one at home had a nice car and all the gas she could burn . :whistlin:

I sure would like some ideas because my sister will be retiring soon and that is about what she will have. She also has a 26 year old son with asbergers who is dependant on her.

I use to do on less then 10,000 for family of three was lacking a bit but we got by.
after a few years I was making more and added another to the fold.
that was a good few years ago and I continued to make a bit more with each year.
But something always came up to eat the extra.

As a single guy now well I could do very well on a thousand a month, 1200 would be better.

My monthly bills are less than $125. Another $25 or so at the grocery store. Real estate tax, Homeowners insurance, and automobile insurance are paid out of a fund I set up specifically for that purpose, and amount to around $1500 a year, or another 125 a month. So, everything all told, under $300 a month. I make a 4 or 5 mile round trip into town about twice a month, and grow most of my own food, and make all my own alcohol products.

browser glitched double post.

I can, or zero depends on what I can earn.

I lived on $600/month for about 3 years on a small farm where the forage had gone wild. Half the plants growing wild on the property were something edible and the rest was chicken fodder. I didn't feed my chickens march through nov and kept a freezer full of roos. Which also fed the dogs.

Nope no way our grocery bill alone is $1200 a month, tack on another 2200 in just rent and utilities, which if we could get out of our cracker box urban home we could cut it in half.

Once we move to the new property, it can be done. :3 Barely, but it could be done. I might challenge myself with that. If I cut my expenses down to that much I could save... enough. Yes, enough. Eeeeexcellente. *steeple fingers*

If the wife lost her voice and became incapacitated, I could, though just my USCG pension is higher. She will testify that I can pinch a penny into a dime. I am heating the house with a wood stove, which does well. She is unhappy because I am not maintaining a temp of 80 degrees in here with the electric coils. To hear her tell the story, you would think that water freezes solid at 84 degrees F.

If a person had no mortgage, could grow most of their own food, and didn't drive too often, I think it's highly possible for most people. Another way of looking at is would be to simply count discretionary expenses, utilities, and food ~ and then see if that dollar amount could be scrunched down to $1000. Far more manageable I'd think?

We could. But I think it would be hard for young families with children.

Now? No way. Too many things to pay off: vehicle, student loan, mortgage. Give me a few years to pay everything off, though, and then it would be doable.

$1000 would be tough for anyone. I've been making 1200. for the last 6 months. The first few months were rough till I could get a handle on things. Finally was able to save a 100. a week till I had enough saved for downpayment of 600. on a 2200. truck, now I'm paying 200.a week till its payed for. Got 3 weeks left and its mine.
Then baseball season starts, both my boys will have signups the 1st wek of Feb.
It comes in, and goes out real fast.
But yeah,, it can be done. Can even be dome better with a mate than can also be in tune. And can cook a big pot of chicken and noodles that will last a week.
And on and on
GH

Very easy for us and save half of it. Everything is paid for. We drink water and juice we can, no smokes, coffee or pop. Our quarterly food bill and paper products is less than $50.00. No pets, unless you count Sweeties pet rabbit but she works hard, last litter was 13. Last months electric was $35.00 and it was a little cold. Phone and internet is $19.95 a month. I barter or help harvest for our animal feed. Pretty tight ship here....James

Property payments alone (including taxes and insurance) are real close to $1,000 a month.

Just our health insurance is $800+.

I think it is very doable in the right situation even with a family. If you want to live like a regular american than no its not. I have lived on much less than that in the past and I didn't suffer. I didn't have a nice car or TV and didn't eat out often. I still don't have TV and don't eat out often.

I kind of/sort of, live on a small amount of money. My only dependable income is from a school bus driving job and I bring home right about $830 a month. I am a single father with 3 daughters at home. I have no major payments on anything. I own my own house and I basically just have my electric bill which runs anywhere from $72 to $125 per month. A landline phone/with internet for $58. per month. No vehicle payments but I do have liability insurance on two vehicles for a total of $125 per month. And one credit card payment which I pay $50 a month on. I don't buy anything with it till I've got my last purchase almost payed for.

I heat with wood in the winter and I play in the creek or river nearby during the heat of the day during the hot summer days. That saves me a bundle of money. I hunt and forage for a lot of my food and I usually raise a big garden for most of my vegetables. However, the last few summers we've had heat droughts and insect infestation something terrible and I have not been able to raise much. Therefore, right now I am collecting Snap (foodstamps) benefits which is helping a lot.

Seems my biggest expense is gas for two vehicles. Although I don't have to drive to work since I park my school bus at home, I still go through some $200 gas for both my vehicle and my kids vehicle that they drive back and forth to school. They go to a different school then who I drive for. Then theres household stuff,,laundry soap, dishwashing detergent, hygene essentials, etc,. and the rest of the money goes to school needs and if there's anything left, my personal needs. I put myself last on the list to get anything. Sometime I might go several months before I have enough money to by myself anything.

If we need to replace any major appliances, get new tires, or have a vehicle worked on, we do it when we get our tax refund. The tax refund has been a life saver for us.

Not being updated because they had to give up Internet and their house!!

yes, we did --927 a month- morgage 599.51 second (cost of bringing ele to land--not a boat or cc) 105 per month-- ele usage limited (turn off at the breaker boxes to control cost) 65 - 89 dollar most everything came from neighbors or the dump. Six year it suc'd no internet only at the lib. Got birds to eat free but they laid eggs and they were free ranging for thier own food got DEC approved to sell broke even but I had to collect tax and turn it in and the taxes collected was more than the profit---

We needed help so often soap, toothbrushes, ---gas I did drive when I was with out insurance I hated it. A need to mail a letter meant a stamp a rotten stamp cost freaked me out. Now, remember I live in a state were cost are higher than normal.

What helped was finding this site. Learning and volunteering to help others
got my mind out of our issues
and secondly it got me meeting people and just sharing what we had exess of with someone and trading for what they had exess of. I hated living in fear of the times when shoelaces for my son became a major exspence.--Note 2 adults and one child and it was durring the childs growth spurt period. The church was where I went to learn to sew-- I did what I could. Shoes were had it killed me to smile when I hearn a mom saying to her kid --- well toss those shoes in the garbage they are dirty we we get new ones for school. I need shoes for my kid. Yes, I did retreave those shoes ==yes they were too big but in a year he had them to wear.

I am being blunt because it can be done but it is hard and not with out hardships.

Not a chance. Not even close. Not responsibly at least. Responsibly meaning being properly insured, etc. Our property taxes would be almost 1000 a month. And with 4 kids, it is more complicated.

Nope, at least not currently. Our rent alone is $1250 before utilities. Although it is just the wife and I, we could easily downsize if we could find a place that would accept us despite my credit rating.

I just ran the numbers...if my house was paid for now (less than 8 years to go), then yes, we could live pretty good on $1000/mo and have money left over.

Now, ask me again in 2020 if I could live on that same $1000/mo and I'm quite sure you'll get a much different answer. Prices aren't going anywhere but up and that gives "them" almost 8 whole years to figure out new and inventive ways to take even more than they do now.

Easy. When you don't have any bills a person can live on a lot less.
If I thought I would need the money I could even save half of that.

We could, if we ditched the cell phones and cut out any extra expenditures, and we are a family of 6. We have no debt, but have a child with leukemia. Even with monthly medical bills it's possible. Our utilities account for around $200/mo and with the gardening I've managed to feed us on less than $60/week in the past. It wouldn't be any fun, but we have been there before.

Just depends on what you would be willing to give up.

Nope. Our mortgage is $710 a month, I spend on average $120 per week at the grocery & that is with me growing our meat & canning a lot, I also have feed for the animals, insurance on the property/house & vehicles, plus gas. My oldest can't drive so I have to take him back & forth to work 5 days a week. I spend about $50 a week just on gas & he only works about 7 miles away. Our electric averages $175 per month, phone/internet/cell phone is a bundle package for $120 per month. We need a phone so my son can call when he is done working. His hours vary. Could do without internet, but it was actually chepaer to bundle everything together. I like to have my cell phone when I am driving in case of an emergency or if the kids need to get ahold of me. We do not do much extras as far as eating out or such. Seems no matter what we do, the electric bill doesn't change much. We also have a water bill each month of around $70.

now days with a family of 7, I can only say that I could do it for a short period of time (three to five months tops) I have lived through it with all of us, and it was no picnic! No phone (not even a land line) no internet, wood heat from a fireplace, things got so bad that our electricity was turned off for over a month. We survived by cooking in the fireplace and burning rendered fat in the old oil lamps we keep for emergencies, and taking cold baths. About twice a week I had to deal with child protection services. Thank god for my dad and his inventive battery bank to run a camper fridge off of after they got nasty. He would take them to his house and charge the batteries every other day transporting a new set when he would bring me fresh meats from our freezer that he graciously plugged in at his house.
Talk about an eye opening experience! My faith in the Military's ability to pay their incapacitated soldiers (those not yet on disability but unable to work due to on the job injury) on time got a reality check, as did my budgeting! To ensure that we never have that problem again, we have enough cash stored away to live 6 months with out current spending. We also have an extra large pantry of non perishable foods. I became the disputable queen of cuponing as well! Yes, I am one of those people who can get 3 baskets of groceries valued at over $500 and walk out paying around $50 ... but you do what you got to do to feed five kids and keep them healthy. Over time have we been able to go from $300K in debt (without a home loan) to less than $1000 in debt, and two months from now should be debt free. This is the only way we have been able to get a place that is large enough to grow a garden and have chickens and horses, let alone grow more than just a flower box in a window. Through frugal living and dramatic changes to our former lifestyles, I think we could stay afloat for a short period of time on $1000 a month. I'm just glad that We won't ever have to thanks to building steady residual income.

I figured out my bills are only 300.00 a month. But with the prices of food and feed for the animals going up. This year I will need about another 100.00. I can only live this way because there is no house payments. Im telling my boss this year I can't afford to work for them anymore because of the gas and insurance that I have pay on my van. I will save 300.00 a month to get rid of my van and phone that I need for work. I'm a Visting Nurse. I only make 9,000 a year.

It can be done if you are debt free, including mortgage. That is why its so important to become debt free. Once you leave the debt treadmill you are no longer a slave to your job.

I have sat down and figured out what I could live on if I have to. Bare bones $550 a month - that does not include health insurance. But if your income is that low your going to qualify for the tax credits in Obamacare. My property taxes are relatively low compared to most also, and if my income dropped drasticly I would qualify for a homestead property tax credit too.

Food purchases would be only things like coffee chocolate and some fruits "luxuries" I couldnt grow on my own. Instead of raising a lot of livestock which I would have to feed I would do some hunting and trapping for most protein needs. Veges I can raise and sell/barter the excess. The Amish can raise a dozen kids on less than ten thousand a year. So yes it can be done

i live on 1200 amonth.no bridge card or ssi.all i have i own outright.after my rent,cs,phone bill,and grocery shopping,i have roughly 250-300 left for me to "blow" on what i want.now mind you its just me here.one person could do it.im currently looking at buying a small house because what i pay in rent could be a house payment.
just my two cents.
tom

I think it also depends on where you live too. Some areas of the country a thousand dollars wont get you far. Living in the city is as far as I can deduce is more expensive. A garden and a few animals go a long way in feeding yourself, plus having woods and heating with the free wood makes a big difference too. Transportation is certainly more expensive in rural areas although.
I hope I dont have to find out how little I can live on - like my perks. But its comforting knowing I could meet my basic needs on very little if I had too.

It would be impossible to do considering health insurance runs over $1700 a month.

We can and do live on less than a $1000 a month. No debt is the key.

Interesting......
Within a 15 mile radius of me there two apartment buildings filled with people who's income are well below the $1000 figure. Most all of them are on SS only and if'n it wasn't for Subsidized Housing and a couple of other programs I'd say would be homeless or worse.
So to answer the broad question can you live on less then 1K - I'd have to say yes.... I know many of those that do.........

Not where I live now. It costs us over $500 a month in property taxes and that's with our 30 acres in the agricultural exemption. Definitely not the place to live cheaply.

Marshloft: always easier with a partner that shares the goals and the effort it takes to get there! Until that time comes, you could figure out how to make that big pot of chicken and noodles, etc. It will be so fragrant as it cooks, it just might help to bring her around.