Ahhhh why is life so expensive

My daughter is in college right now. We give her a limited amount of cash each month for living expenses and a bit of spending money, but she has to decide where it goes.
She is in grad school, year round. Next week, she starts 40 hours of clinicals, plus independent class work. She has to have ihigh speed internet access - it, along with her laptop, is required in her program. <insert grumbling mom who wishes it had been required when I went hrough>

It's really tough to find a safe job for a female, with the hours she can work. On her own, she started donating plasma. You have to qualify, based on your lifestyle. They had a promotion when she signed up, double the usual rate the first time. You can go up to twice a week, for 20 to 30 dollars each time. It does take around 2 hrs eac time, so be prepared.

I see your situation, I was also like that with my parents but it all stopped when they moved to another country and started earning 20,000K a year.

Maybe take a look at your resume` has anyone else proof read it? Is there any volournteer work that you can do to achieve credits?

Mind you i started with nothing i had never worked before and i was hired as a teacher, I was only hired because of one skill that not many people have which is signlanguage. Do you think you can move back home and be stable until you can get a job?

Originally Posted by algebrapro18

I just sat down and crunched the numbers for this month and it looks like I am spending about $1047.99 in bills. My parents are giving me 1200 a month to live on and its working but just barely.

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1st of all you have nice parents! Second of all life can be very expensive! I agree. I can't imagine how much more expensive it is with children.
I didn't have a job for some months, even with a grad degree, and almost lost the house, even though it is a modest home and our budget is nothing outrageous at all (pretty much just basics) and my significant others salary is pretty good. We had to cut expenses to make it work, we never cut the animals expenses but for us that meant no cell phone, no TV, never eating out, no traveling, only doing errands all together to save on gas, this is smart anyway, and stuff like that. This will make life not so expensive. If you are interested in making your dollar go a bit more google thrifty living and stuff like that.
Can you get another roomate? Do you have that option?

Laureen227, We will be renting when we make the big move to Austin. That all depends on how long it takes us to save up for it. He is going to go out and visit his brother, who already lives in Round Rock, TX very soon to check out the prospects. A good tattoo artist can go most anywhere and get a job. When we move cities, he goes first and finds a place to live, while I stay behind and pack up the house. Then he comes back for me and we get our stuff there.

My last two years of college, I had a paid job writing for the school newspaper, I was editor of the yearbook, I taught French I and French II, I worked nights in the library, and I worked afternoons at a cabinet factory.

Funny you should mention Round Rock. I go through there all the time, and in my first trucking job, 31 years ago, I delivered cabinets to a LOT of houses down there. Dell, of course, is the big business there, and there is a lot of growth going on. The have a pretty nice Harley dealership there, too.

$1047 a month sounds cheap! But it is all about one's reality.
At bare minimum I need $1850/mn. That does not include any savings or dental/medical emergencies, car repairs, etc. - stuff I need to save for in my emergency fund. I luckily have no car payment but my rent with parking alone is $950/mn. (which is reasonable for the area but a tiny place with no extras like dishwasher, a/c, laundry, pool, etc)

Since you are not having luck in your area finding employment are you willing to relocate? Or at least move back to your hometown and live with your parents awhile (if they are willing)? My parents would never support me after I was done college, but they would have allowed me to live with them rent free until I found a job and got back on my feet enough to move out.

I'm sorry for your troubles OP. It is v. scary hearing these kinds of stories and what ppl must be going through.

Unfortuantly my school is 180 miles away from my parents place so living with them isn't possible. I also got great news today I have an interview tomorrow at 1 for a possible job. Its probably only for about 7 an hour and it doesn't start until july 15 but at least its something. This means I will only make about 140 dollars a week before taxes but at least its something. Any more than 20 hours a week working and my dad will cut off funds for my car, so it kind of limits what I can do. He also doesn't want me having more than a 5 mile commute to work but when you live out in the country thats kind of unreasonable. I am trying to keep it under 30 miles though because I drive an suv so gas milage on a good day is about 20 mpg.

I am hoping this place will offer me the bartending job because, even though I have no experience, I think it would be pretty cool to do though i don't like dealing with drunks. But at 6'0 355 their aren't many drunks that can really bug me, if anything I can just give them the bumbs rush out the door.

Sounds like you've had some tough lessons recently.

Good luck with your bartending job. I was in the bar/restaurant business for a long time and I am very happy to be out of it, but it can be pretty lucrative short-term. In case it doesn't work out, have you considered tutoring? Judging by your name, Algebrapro18, I'm guessing you good in algebra.

Yes I have considered tutoring and every semester I apply for a tutuoring job on campus and every semester I get told no. The funny part is the guy that hires is one of my favorate Proff's on campus so you would think he would say yes one of these times.

I have also looked into other businesses that hire tutors but most of them want you to have a teaching degree which I don't have and won't have.

I have the same story of many others here; struggled through school working 30 hours a week. Mind you, I had a 0$ per month contribution from my parents. I live with my bf, but in a SMALL one bedroom apartment. Our basic bills run us $1350 a month, allowing for $50 to go out for dinner once. This does not include any entertainment, medical, or incidental expenses either. Yea, it seems a lot more expensive to live than I imagined it as a teenager at home.
For your situation...well, the 2 recommendations I would make are 1) consider roommates. When I was in undergrad I paid $300-$400 to share a house with 2 or 3 others, and when I moved out on my own, it was $650+...so theres a good amount of money to save. 2) As much as you think you need to, stop driving. Gas, insurance, car repairs etc etc add up so fast...its easy to think you *need* to drive to get to work/school, but Ive yet to see any significant school that is actually unaccessable by public transit. Make one of your other friends the "driver". Maybe with changes like these, you wont need a part time job as $1200 a month from mom and dad would be enough. In my shared housing days, $1200 a month would have given me close to $600 buffer a month....certainly better than $11
(on that note, i know having roommates can be crappy and Im thankful to not have one now. Still, at 1 bedrooms renting at over $1000 here in downtown Edmonton, its not out of the consideration for the future....splitting expenses is a fool-proof way to save)

There are no buses that run with in 20 miles of here so public transit is out. And I don't don't have to cover car costs at all my parents eat those with out even thinking about it. the 1000 I mentioned before was for Rent, Food(cat and mine), Cable, Internet, Phone, and Electric.

Cable/internet/phone is $200 a month and I am about to strangle the people at my phone provider because they are charging me almost 70 a month for services I don't want. They don't seem to understand I don't want them, I have called 10 times at least trying to get them to wipe off all extra costs. I don't even want the phone line, I have a prepaid cell phone, but they won't give me internet with out the phone so I have to get it. But just because I have to have the line I don't see why I need: Call waiting, 3 way calling, caller ID, voice mail service, or Conference calling. I maybe get 3 calls a week maybe on my land line and 99% of those are selisiters I wish would leave me alone. But the phone company insists on giving me a package with those things included. And their are no other providers servicing the area so I am stuck with them.

This is a TINY 1 bedroom apartment just big enough for me and Tom so their isn't any room for a roommate unless they want to live in the living room and have absolutely no privacy what so ever. And the bathroom is barely functional for 1 person. This place really belongs in the gang ridden neighborhoods of south Chicago not in Platteville.

Their is much cheaper and better up kept housing about 15 miles away but my dad refuses to let me live their. He wants me with in walking distance to the school. He doesn't seem to realize me living somewhere else would save him about 250 in rent per month.

I would suggest you call the phone company and have all those extra services terminated, and request (after all, you can REQUEST anything!) that they be reimbursed to you back to the last time you used any of them.

Have you shopped around for other cable/internet services or is it pretty much limited in your area? You may be able to get a better deal w/out a phone with another provider.

Also, until this other job comes through, have you thought about offering your services as a helper? If you live in the country, I'm guessing there are a lot of lawns to be mowed or handyman tasks that can be done. Belive me, DH and I are so busy we've paid people to mow our lawn, and even let them use our mower. It's worth a shot if your willing to do outdoor work. There's always something that needs done.

And, for the tutoring thing, maybe you should just put an add in the paper. This is summer and the kids are out of school. Parents might be interested in having a college math major helping their kids with a hard subject and they probably won't care if you have a teaching degree or not. It's an idea.

I'm lucky! Here in South America TRAVELLING my boyfriend and I usually spend about 6-800 dollars for the both of us per month.

Food, accomodation, gas, etc.

In Canada I spent over 1000$ for just myself. My studio apartment's rent was 675$ a month and it was TINY. The price of living in Canadian cities is skyrocketing, becoming almost ridiculous.

Come down here to live! A luxury apartment in the nicest neighborhood of Lima is about 500 dollars a month! On the ocean!