"Affordable" Housing - Page 2

[p1gg1e]

sorta off topic - " nickled and dimed" I read that book last month. Wasn't my favourite. I preferred Morgan Spurlock's "30 days" living on minimum wage to her book. She choose furnished apartments every time ( they are more expensive ) and felt her "living low" was really not reflective of living without as you can get an unfurnished apartment for at least $100 cheaper and thus adding to your disposable income and lowering your housing costs...

Anyway I found it interesting that you brought that book up because that part of the book bugged me and I found it really not that well thought out of a book/experiment....

[pumpkin]

That is why we left CA. We have found that even if your income is lower, the money goes much further elsewhere. We try to stay around 25%. In CA that meant we lived in some truly awful apartments.

[ambersrose]

We are right around 30% for the house BUT we have a car payment too

[Proxi]

We pay 65% of my DH's take-home pay towards rent. I am not working (just graduated, waiting for job to start), but we generally lived like that for the last 3 years. Sometimes it wasn't easy, but most of the time we were stable. I am up in Alberta in a city, but we do live in the WORST neighborhood in the city (avoiding dirty needles while we walk type thing). However, we have a one-bedroom with a dishwasher and in-suite laundry and a dog living with us and no kids *yet*, and my husband does not earn very much at all.

It did annoy us though when we tried to move to a nicer neighborhood, where we would be paying $100 bucks less in rent and they wouldn't accept us because our income was too low... even though we had never been late on a rent payment in the last 2.5 years... and before that when we were late it was by 2 days lol.

However, once I get a job we are going to be moving again, and our housing cost will be about 30% of our gross pay or else we can't get the apartment we want to move to.

[basje]

Housing, yeah 30% sounds like a good place to shoot

My rent is $500 for a one bedroom apartment inclusive of utilities, trash and wireless internet. My income is $579, I am currently unemployed. I have $250 in savings. Beyond that I get $200 a month in food stamps, about $35 a week in WIC and no-cost medi-care for myself and my baby once it's born. So there isn't any extra money but honestly I don't do too bad.

I eat well on the food stamp budget 100% organic and dumpster dive fresh flowers weekly from the local florist. I spend $37 a month on public transport that gets me around the city. I have people over for brunch and dinner regularly so I don't have to pay to eat out. I do work trade with a local yoga studio. I attend art gallery openings with friends and hike around my neighborhood.

If you need to make it work you will. And how much money you have coming in every month last little to do with the quality of life that you have.

[Chamomile Girl]

Originally Posted by basje

My rent is $500 for a one bedroom apartment inclusive of utilities, trash and wireless internet. My income is $579, I am currently unemployed. I have $250 in savings. Beyond that I get $200 a month in food stamps, about $35 a week in WIC and no-cost medi-care for myself and my baby once it's born. So there isn't any extra money but honestly I don't do too bad.

I eat well on the food stamp budget 100% organic and dumpster dive fresh flowers weekly from the local florist. I spend $37 a month on public transport that gets me around the city. I have people over for brunch and dinner regularly so I don't have to pay to eat out. I do work trade with a local yoga studio. I attend art gallery openings with friends and hike around my neighborhood.

If you need to make it work you will. And how much money you have coming in every month last little to do with the quality of life that you have.

I've got to say...this is damn impressive!

[Chicky2]

Originally Posted by p1gg1e

sorta off topic - " nickled and dimed" I read that book last month. Wasn't my favourite. I preferred Morgan Spurlock's "30 days" living on minimum wage to her book. She choose furnished apartments every time ( they are more expensive ) and felt her "living low" was really not reflective of living without as you can get an unfurnished apartment for at least $100 cheaper and thus adding to your disposable income and lowering your housing costs...

I saw that 30 days show.... I like every one that he does.

I got to thinking that we really spend less than 25% of dh's take home pay on housing. I forgot to add his side jobs, so that really puts us at about 16%.

[JTA Mom]

Originally Posted by basje

My rent is $500 for a one bedroom apartment inclusive of utilities, trash and wireless internet. My income is $579, I am currently unemployed. I have $250 in savings. Beyond that I get $200 a month in food stamps, about $35 a week in WIC and no-cost medi-care for myself and my baby once it's born. So there isn't any extra money but honestly I don't do too bad.

I eat well on the food stamp budget 100% organic and dumpster dive fresh flowers weekly from the local florist. I spend $37 a month on public transport that gets me around the city. I have people over for brunch and dinner regularly so I don't have to pay to eat out. I do work trade with a local yoga studio. I attend art gallery openings with friends and hike around my neighborhood.

If you need to make it work you will. And how much money you have coming in every month last little to do with the quality of life that you have.

May I ask where you are renting? We are looking for less expensive rent and yours is like half of the cheapest we've found. Pm me if you don't want to post online. Thanks!

Ami

[Magelet]

We are looking for lower cost housing, and I think perhaps it's just a matter of giving it more time to increase our income. Right now, we're just starting out, and not making that much.

I would NEVER buy a house here, definitely, we'll move someplace else when we get to that point, for now, we're renting a studio apartment. It's not a matter of 66% not being a lot, but our income being so little. and while it's true that it's a bit precarious, we are living pretty comfortably on it. (and also, due to DP's business, our income isn't steady, so some months, it's less than 66% I think.)

oops lol, JTA mom, I pmed you, for some reason it didn't pop up that you were responding to a quote. ignore that please....

[basje]

Of course! I live in Berkeley, CA near Ashby and College about twelve minutes walk from the Rockridge Oakland BART station. It's a really nice area, which has some advatages (really good trash, I found so much furniture!) and drawbacks (people keep to themselves more). As for the apartment I lucked out, it is above a retail space of a really old building (athough I have that to thank for my french doors) and I share a kitchen with one of the other renters hence the low, low price. I have seen some simularly priced rentals nearby mostly at co-ops. I looked in those apartment renter things at one point and couldn't find anything less than $1000 without utilities. I think the trick is to find the houses that don't have ads put out on them, online groups, church boards, walking the area and looking for signs. Cheap housing options don't usually make it to Apartment Finder. Might I also suggest that you post something on Craigslist? Who knows it possible that you may even find something under the tribes section on MDC.

[justmama]

If it makes you feel any better, my rent is 63% of my income each month. We are in a high cost of living area and live below the poverty line. We barely break even every month even with AGGRESSIVE frugal strategies to cut costs. And because I don't have a job(we live on child support), there's no chance of moving anytime soon to cut down. But honestly, anywhere within about a 30minute drive to my children's schools and their dad's house would be AS expensive. Where I live is considered not a GREAT area and the rent cost is pretty low.

[justmama]

Originally Posted by basje

My rent is $500 for a one bedroom apartment inclusive of utilities, trash and wireless internet. My income is $579, I am currently unemployed. I have $250 in savings. Beyond that I get $200 a month in food stamps, about $35 a week in WIC and no-cost medi-care for myself and my baby once it's born. So there isn't any extra money but honestly I don't do too bad.

I eat well on the food stamp budget 100% organic and dumpster dive fresh flowers weekly from the local florist. I spend $37 a month on public transport that gets me around the city. I have people over for brunch and dinner regularly so I don't have to pay to eat out. I do work trade with a local yoga studio. I attend art gallery openings with friends and hike around my neighborhood.

If you need to make it work you will. And how much money you have coming in every month last little to do with the quality of life that you have.

this is fabulous. kudos to you. you really inspire me!

[rainbowmoon]

We pay 32% for housing in south central Vermont. (that figure is based on my income alone) and I thought that was steep!

[ArtsyMomma]

My housing is currently about 40-50% of my income. I make do pretty well, but have nothing left over to pay of debt usually. I live in a very reasonably priced 2 bedroom apartment - I've looked (a lot) and prices don't get much better than what I'm paying. It's more a 'lack-of-income' issue.

[SoCaliMommy]

We live in a high cost of living area in CA

not sure of the %, but lets just say one weeks check goes straight to rent roughly $1,000, the following weeks check goes straight to my van payment roughly $650.

If dh was to get laid off we'd still be able to make our bills and my van payment and rent.

for the area we live in a very low priced 2bd 1bath little house with a small backyard.