How much to LIVE.  

oh my gosh we paid twice that for rent here and now its even worse and my son is still out of work. I think that he is going to have to take whatever he can get, accumulate enough money to move us to a different state with more jobs and cheaper housing. we paid almost 1300 a month just for rent, then light bill was high.oh wow, this is making my poor head ache.

Most of my life my budget for entertainment was more like 0/week, but now that I'm retired and having continuous fun, I do put away exactly $50 week (US$) for travel, which is a separated category not on your list, but if you include restaurant meals as entertainment, then I spend just about $45 on entertainment in addition to the travel but more like $5/week on clothes. So I am right on your average except that my groceries and fuel are far less, but I have other expenses not on your list that are far more, such as utilities. For example the cost of my internet and cell phones GPS and that sort of thing run at least $100/mo.

I've been thinking about how much it will take me to live on my own lately. I'm going to graduate from college next May so I feel like its time for me to start figuring these things out. I'm not sure what my living situation will be but I will guess that rent might be $500-600 a month if I get an apartment. I feel like I could probably spend less than $100 on food for a week for just myself. I would have to pay for gas, so I'm going to guess that would be $100 each week for just me, depending on how far I live from my job. I know there will be bills for utilities and such but I'm not too sure how much that would be. I have no idea what else I would need money for, but I'm trying to think about these things. It seems like prices on everything are going up and wages are not going up to match rising prices.

If I'm right about the minimum wage here, the average worker would make about $315 per week, that' $314.00 a week. It costs twice as much as the expenses, which are about the same as your country.

That's when we start cutting--no entertainment, food cut down to $60-70 a week by buying cheap macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets which are cheap but full of fat, calories and preservatives. Cheap sausage for meat, cheap fatty cuts of beef and chicken on sale for under $1 a pound. Store brand ice cream and potato chips, frozen vegetables on sale, frozen dinners for about $.75 each that are also full of fat and calories but cheap---see, there you have the answer why so many people in America are fat. Because it's cheap.

Then they can also cut on clothing by shopping thrift stores. No medical expenses, they wait it out or go to the emergency room. Children have their teeth pulled instead of fixed because it's cheaper that way. They double up with relatives or live in a really bad, ratty neighborhood full of crime and maybe Dad or Mom or even an older sibling will start dealing drugs to bring in some extra money. The cycle of poverty and addiction starts and the entire family is sometimes pulled down for generations.

Is that weekly? Gross or net?

I have a cousin who recently migrated to Canberra with his entire family. After four months of job-hunting, he finally landed a job and would earn about $4000 (Aus $) a month, gross. With your calculation, that would mean that they only have enough to get by.

Here in the Philippines, the minimum wage is about 380pesos, at about 8000pesos a month (about US$200). But cost of living here is really low. You can eat lunch or dinner for less than a dollar and transportation is like a quarter. Clothes too are cheap. A US$6 shirt here sold in the mall is considered expensive.

hic,

I suppose this is why married couples are both working and bringing the bread home nowadays.

Though, this may alleviate the financial problems for the family, it has brought consequential problems to and for the family where children are being neglected and forced to be independent at an early age.

I tried to look up the averages wages here and got this big old confusing page based on location and occupation. Rents are at least double that here, and probably more like triple or quadruple. Fuel is a lot less.

I don't honestly know what the average wage in our country is right now, but I can tell you that my husband's base wage in a week is 760 dollars. However, he does get overtime on a regular basis.

Mortgage (4 bedroom in suburbs)... $150 week
Groceries (2 adults/2 Children)... $150 week
Fuel for car (if you have two).... $75 week
Medical........................... $40. week
Entertainment,.................... $50. week
Cloths for family (average out)... $35. week

Total............................. $500 week

We are lucky that we are able to come out a little bit ahead every week. My husband's typical bring home is a little over $600 a week with overtime and I get about $80 a week keeping my nieces.

I wish my house cost me as little as $220 per week. At the moment our mortgage is around $600 per week! I can remember in the late nineties panicking about paying the high cost at the time of $190 per week.

Our groceries probably cost at least what you have there but our fuel costs are fairly low seeing as we do not have to travel to work. We do not spend much on entertainment per week. We do not have chemist needs either. Where did you find that figure?

The last time that I worked for a wage was in 2006 when I took home $1000 per week after tax for a 50 hour week, not sure what I would be getting now as I am self employed and it is difficult to work out, but it feels fairly similar, just less hours.