So how do y'all do it? How do people survive on minimum wage?

Howdy. This seems like such a negative topic with which to come back from the abyss, but this is what's on my mind.

How do people survive let alone succeed? I'm about $350 short this month, and I thought I had been so careful. My best friend (who now lies in Texas and no longer Arizona) encourage me to contact those I could not pay ahead of time and make some arrangements. These four will make the difference.

I have some money coming in but it will be in pieces. About 125 extra with my paycheck; about 900 from my last IRA and might be paid in 3 to 4 weeks; and the insurance settlement for the robbery. I have almost 1100 in stolen items with a $500 deductible but have not heard from claims yet. I've never made a claim in 20 years of paying for the policy. I have no clue how this goes.

So how do they or you live? I'm not asking anyone to give away any personal information, but this is crazy.

FYI, I' still working part-time but need to work extra just to make ends meet. Regular pay meets monthly bills but foods, but extras such as yearly payments need to be earned with additional work. And being sick, too, adds to the bills.

With Love.

I'm sorry to hear that you're going through this.:( I don't have an answer because I make above minimum wage and I still find it very hard to make ends meet. This is one reason why I'm still in debt. Living in CA is very expensive unless you make a lot of money which I don't. Prices increase but my hourly/commission that I earn stays the same.:( I think that there are some people who live with a lot of people so they can make ends meet. Some are used to sharing 1 bathroom with 10 people. I couldn't do this. I hope that things will get better for you. Good luck.:)

You think it's bad while still working??, wait till you retire and get a measly monthly check from Social Security. I can barely make ends meet and need to use my credit card for groceries and other essentials which of course is going to max out eventually.

It's a terrible way to live and I know there are millions of other Sr's going through the same thing. Something is just not right. We do get a raise each year altho we didn't get anything for two years because of the economy. When we do get the yearly raise, it's so small that it really doesn't make much of a difference since everything else just keeps going up.

We Sr's have worked hard all of our lives and we deserve a check that doesn't worry us every single month. Luckily my bank doesn't demand that we must have a balance not to be touched because there are times I have only about $2 left in my checking account after paying all the bills.

So girlfriend, things don't get much better when you get older unless of course you win the lottery ;)