Catching Stars in Butterfly Nets

Living on cash in america

In a particularly unpatriotic article bashing the way the America is set up, the writer noted that one of his goals was to live in a different city every year, for five years.  A commenter responded that it would be impossible to do so, as he would need jobs to provide the necessary cash flow.  I beg to differ.
    In my home state of washington, the minimum wage is the highest in the country at just shy of eight dollars an hour.  this comes out to roughly 1200 dollars monthly.  I don't think it's terribly hard to get a minimum wage job, so I'll ignore that and assume it takes one month per job to be employed.  So That is income. Now for perspective.
    I live in an apartment my father owns.  as such, I get the family rate of 350 dollars a month, roughly, which is incredible rent in any first-world country.  As for my income, I have a surprisingly stable income for having no "real" job:  I gross about 500 dollars a month.  less rent I have 150 dollars to feed myself and do whatever else I might want to do.  It would not suprise you to learn that i am living beyond my means.  What might suprise you is that I am doing so by only 50 dollars a month.
    Mind you, most of that goes to my food.  I eat around 5000 calories a day and stay at a stable weight because I cycle places rather than take a car, and am otherwise beefy-manly.  I rarely buy things because i don't need them.  I have The Internet to amuse, entertain, and inform, a PS2 for mindless recreation, a local library for mental stimulation, and plenty of friends.  so, living an inexpensive but healthy and happy life costs me around 550 dollars a month.
    Dert Pore Cheep rent in most smaller population centers is 600 dollars, if you're lucky.  say 800 dollars a month and no roommates.  food is around 200, assuming the spender is myself and that I go out to eat once a month, which isn't unreasonable.  set aside 100 dollars for bike repairs, bus fare, and cash for homeless people (I'm ever so charitable), and at washington wages, you have 200 dollars left to do watever the hell you want with, be that storing it away for emergencies, picking up a cheap health insurance plan (really, really cheap health insurance plan), or buying coke and hookers.
    If you happen to run an interesting website that receives donations, as the writer in question did, you would have yet more income, posssibly enough to balance out the lower wages in other, non-lewis-and-clark-related states.  and if you got a job that pays more than minimum wage, well, that's just peachy.

---
"My hand is not so great that showing it would make a difference." -persuader user from Kino no Tabi.