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How to live on $432 a month in America

(shagbark.substack.com)
526 points cactusplant7374 | 7 comments | 23 May 25 16:40 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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TrackerFF ◴[23 May 25 21:22 UTC] No.44076735[source]▶
I looked through those numbers, and immediately thought to myself - hope you don't need to see a doctor for anything serious, or go to a dentist for that mater.

FWIW, I grew up in rural nowhere (population 150, nearest town 45 miles away) - and I honestly don't know how anyone can live out in the boonies without a car. Taking the bus that goes 3 times a day is one thing, needing to move stuff is another thing. I mean, obviously there are plenty of people that do manage - but sooner or later you'll become completely dependent on others for certain types of transportation.

Also, there's clothes, house maintenance, and lots of other things.

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skyyler ◴[23 May 25 21:35 UTC] No.44076843[source]▶
The lack of a budget for heating in an article that uses the term "American Siberia" is so hilariously out of touch that it makes the rest of the article farcical.
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1. xp84 ◴[23 May 25 23:01 UTC] No.44077378[source]▶
Literally mentioned in the article. Their electricity is literally less than 0.1x what I pay in California.
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2. coolcase ◴[23 May 25 23:13 UTC] No.44077434[source]▶
Should be budgeted though right.
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3. lesuorac ◴[24 May 25 00:12 UTC] No.44077758[source]▶
It's mentioned as the article as free from using waste wood.
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4. shlant ◴[24 May 25 13:14 UTC] No.44080885{3}[source]▶
so people are just delivering free wood to anyone who chooses to move out to the boonies? Seems like a bad assumption to be making
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5. lolinder ◴[24 May 25 14:33 UTC] No.44081390[source]▶
Heat is mentioned in passing with literally no attempt at quantifying the cost:

> as far as heat goes, well, one could either pay a little extra in electric for that — or they could have the Amish deliver their scrap wood from their sawmills to burn in a wood stove, very cheaply.

That's it. The line in the budget for heat is there and was left intentionally blank:

> Heat:

You can't just hand-wave away the cost of electric heating at the temperatures they get in upstate NY, even if the 0.04 number is accurate year-round (which it almost certainly isn't), and wood-burning stoves use way more wood than the author appears to be imagining with their "scrap wood" comment.

[0] https://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/massena/new-york/unite...

6. ◴[24 May 25 18:04 UTC] No.44082772[source]▶
7. lesuorac ◴[24 May 25 20:32 UTC] No.44083631{4}[source]▶
well, specific people are delivering free _waste_ wood to people specifically near them.

Kinda like those people that got free _waste_ oil from restaurants to run their vans. It's not something you can replicate literally anywhere but it does exist. Industrial waste has to be disposed of somehow and often people are happy for you to accept it for free.