So today we are supposed to figure out, roughly, the minimum amount that a family of four would spend on things to meet basic living requirements. This family has two parents, a seven year old in school, and a three year old that needs someone to be around all the time.
Basics would be food, housing, transportation, childcare, laundry, clothing, medical care, entertainment and school supplies. Assuming that the seven year old does not go to a paid child care place after school, only one of the children needs to have child care.
The total that I came up with was $25,985, which is higher than the $22,113 that is the poverty line. That total is not including health insurance, or health care, because a quick query found that health insurance can be around three fourths of the poverty line. Included was food, if they cooked themselves, clothing, housing as a two bedroom apartment in the Twin Cities. Transportation, if they had on average two trips per day per adult on the public transit. Child care for the three year old, which came to about eight thousand dollars a year by itself, laundry, entertainment and school supplies. And a cell phone plan is also included in that cost.
Now one of the parents could stay home and take care of the three year old, cutting the cost of child care, but then that parent would also not be working and bringing income into the household, which could be problem, depending on how much that parent is making.
This family is not considered completely poor, but they do not have much money to save up, and emergencies, medical, family, natural or other people's bad actions would make the family's life quite a bit harder. Not having access to medical care will likely cause health problems down the road. Also, not having much money will cause a few other problems in regards to education, and getting anything higher than a high school diploma. As a family they will not be able to take vacations, as the parents likely do not have vacation time, and they have no car either.
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