Sounds pretty comparable. Also sounds like maybe you don’t know how to shop very well. How many people does that $250 a week people feed and is that number your food budget alone or overall weekly spending?
I confess I’m also aghast that anyone would pay $4 for a head of lettuce when you can grow one in a PVC pipe in any apt. Please tell me that’s not basic Iceberg lettuce.
I live in Phoenix AZ. Rent and housing is pretty atrocious. Minimum wage is currently $12.80. That puts you around $450 a week after taxes if you work 40 hours.
In my case, once I decided I wanted a child, I busted my ass working 2 jobs and gigs where and when I could find them for 3 years before getting pregnant. I drastically cut my spending. I stocked up on baby and child necessities. I got as much from yard sales, closeouts, and thrift stores that I could. Stocked up on food. And payed ahead on rent and utilities. Stocked away as much cash and supplies as I could. My last day of work, I worked a full shift in full active labor.
When the Urchling was born I was prepared to stay at home for 3 years, then go back to work part time until she started school. We had some emergencies so I only made it 2.5 years before I was financially forced back to work.
I got a minimum wage job to tide us over until school age, as per the plan. Regardless, I was a single stay at home mom with a newborn, no job, and no assistance for 2.5 years due to planning, staying adaptable, being willing to live bare basics for over 5 years, and creating a child care pod and depending on myself instead of someone who’s just going to let you down.
In her infancy, during that time at home, I furthered my education some and picked up a trade. That too, took a long time because I ended up losing part of my pod to marriage, a mother who became an invalid, and a move for nursing school, so no child care.
I haven’t worked minimum wage since moving to Arizona from Alabama, Urchling was 9, I think. She’s about to turn 18, just graduated high school. So I worked a minimum wage job for half her childhood.
Of course, things were more stable then, and that’s still what it took. To be honest, if I found myself pregnant today, with or without a child I’m already responsible for and even if I was younger, I would abort.
If I really wanted to have a kid, I would mostly go the same route, but I would buy a small plot of land and build a tiny home and homestead instead of renting. And I would extend my prep years to 5 beforehand, and I would only ever have one. I would try for a bigger pod, or be more proactive about replacing pod members as necessary. I would homeschool from the start because school nearly killed me (they’ve gone crazy and at this point I absolutely refuse to deal with MAGA parent insanity as a single mom. You couldn’t pay me. Let the school system crash and burn and rebuild without the religious nutters.) I would make schooling part of the pod.
As I said, it’s not easy but it’s doable. I just don’t know of very many men willing to sacrifice the time, energy, and money that it takes to raise a kid. They all want to sit up and play, but then they start howling when shit gets real.
To be fair, I don’t know many women willing to either, but they sure expect someone else to sacrifice for them.
