Living In California On Less Than $1,000 Per Month
My mother recently hit age 65 and she started qualifying for social security and medicare at that age. Her working years were few so she barely accumulated enough credits towards SS payments. Her income from SS isn’t impressive but thankfully existent.
She moved to a somewhat less expensive town in California right around age 65 which helped her save on rent. She is paying $695/mo rent for a 600 sq ft place that’s something between a studio and a 1-bedroom apartment.
Utilities for her electricity, natural gas and home internet total $95 every month. Due to low income there are some small discounts which she qualifies for and I accounted for them in this subtotal.
She has a paid off car for which she pays $280/yr in order to insure it. The car gets about 36 mpg in the city and I would guess she puts about 2,000 miles a year on it. Registration comes out to a touch over $130 per year.
I don’t know how she does it but her groceries are around $50/mo. She makes coffee and tea at home and doesn’t really spend any money in cafe’s or eating out.
Her cell phone plan costs around $9/mo and she has an occasional dental or health expense but since she is overall healthy that comes out to very little annually.