Living on Minimum Wage

The minimum wage in Massachusetts is $7.50 currently up from around $6.50. Not bad considering other states are still below the six dollar mark. If i were to work forty hours a week at my states minimum wage I would be grossing $300. Now $300 is grossing, this excludes all the taxes that i\I would have to pay, but I will still use the gross amount. If i were to work forty hours a week for the whole month I would gross $1,200. The cheapest house I could locate in my town goes for around $145,000, not too bad for a two bedroom one bath. So if I were to put down $14,500 as a down payment and have an interest rate of 30 years fixed at 6.5% a monthly payment would be around $825. So from my monthly $1,200 i'm down to $375. This leaves me with a little less then $100 dollars a week for expenses such as food, gas, laundry, bills, car insurance and much more. I don't think with only $100 dollars a week I would be able to afford all the expenses that I would need to survive. Car insurance alone would run me more then $25 dollars, food at least $25, gas another $25 and this leaves $25 dollars for my bills. Unless I wanted to live in a dark, cold house with no utilities this would not be a possibility for me. Id either need to find a cheaper house or apartment, work more hours or obviously get a higher paying job.