Describe the EPI’s estimation of what it costs your family to live in your area
· Describe the EPI’s estimation of what it costs your family to live in your area.
· Describe what you or your family would have to give up to live within the EPI’s budget.
· Explain how easy or hard it would be to give those things up.
· Determine if the definition of what constitutes poverty is realistic.
· For example, is the poverty line too low? Is it too high? How would your life change, and is it plausible to maintain key aspects of your life when living below the poverty line?
Respond to two colleagues:
· Compare differences in cost of living between your colleague’s calculations and yours.
RESPONSE1
Describe the EPI’s estimation of what it costs your family to live in your area.
According to the EPI’s estimation on cost of living for a 1 parent 2 child household in Jackson County, Ohio, the annual total income must not exceed $60,214. This includes monthly housing at $735, monthly food at $517, monthly childcare at $1026, monthly transport at $1,002, monthly healthcare at $874, monthly necessities at $454, monthly taxes at $410, for a monthly total of $5,018 and an annual total of $60,214.
Describe what you or your family would have to give up to live within the EPI’s budget.
My family income is approximately $51,400 annually, which is $8814 under the budget. According to this calculation, I wouldn’t have to give up anything. However, I do not qualify for any sort of assistance. However, I do believe there are cuts that could be made to lower our overall cost of living. I believe eating out would be an appropriate place to start. The allotted budget for groceries is fairly close to what I currently spend. To lessen this cost it would require developing a menu, meal prepping, and really thinking out our groceries that are bought to eliminate waste. I believe this change could save us at least $200 a month. Another area to adjust is our electric use. This could be corrected by keeping items unplugged that aren’t in regular use, turning lights off (especially the LED lights in my teenage son’s room), and turning the television off when not in use. Finally, a third area that could be addressed to improve our ability to meet the budget would be minimizing our “want” buys. We do not live luxuriously by any means, but we could afford to cut some of our extra spending on unnecessary items.
Explain how easy or hard it would be to give those things up.
It would be rather difficult to initially give these items up due to being in the routine of habit. The food cut and budgeting would require a lot of discipline and thought before being able to hit the ideal budget. I believe this would be the most difficult change to implement. Saving on the electric use would more than likely be the easiest change. Simple awareness of this factor could make a big difference. The needless spending would be difficult at first to identify and then cut out, but I do believe once we could learn to delay gratification a couple of times, we would find it rewarding.
Determine if the definition of what constitutes poverty is realistic.
I do believe the poverty line identified on the calculator is realistic. However, as stated earlier this is not an accurate representation in regards to receiving government assistance. As a single mother who receives no government assistance due to my income, it has often been a struggle to balance money for groceries and other necessities. I have found ways to spread household items to last longer such as adding some water to fabric softener, adding oats to meals with ground beef to supplement “more” meat,” and buying clothing and other items on sale. Society has made name brands a must and this has affected my budget with my teenage son. While he does not get everything name brand, I do my best to supply him with his likes. The middle class, I believe, suffer the most when it comes to living pay check to pay check. We make too much for assistance, but not enough to live comfortably. Furthermore, as a single mother, if my children have appointments or get sick I have to miss work which cuts into the already tight budget.
References
Economic Policy Institute. (2016b). Family budget calculator. Links to an external site. Retrieved from http://www.epi.org/resources/budget/ Links to an external site.
Gould, E., Cooke, T., & Kimball, W. (2015). What families need to get by: EPI’s 2015 family budget calculator. Links to an external site. Economic Policy Institute. Retrieved from http://www.epi.org/publication/what-families-need-to-get-by-epis-2015-family-budget-calculator/
RESPONSE2
· Describe the EPI’s estimation of what it costs your family to live in your area.
EPI family budget calculator measures the income a family needs in order to attain a modest yet adequate standard of living. For Wayne county it is as follows:
HOUSING$827
FOOD$356
CHILD CARE$698
TRANSPORTATION$931
HEALTH CARE$771
OTHER NECESSITIES$428
TAXES$561
MONTHLY TOTAL$4,572
ANNUAL TOTAL$54,866
· Describe what you or your family would have to give up to live within the EPI’s budget.
In order for my family to live within the EPI’s budget I would have to give up other necessities,child care, and cut back on food expenses.
· Explain how easy or hard it would be to give those things up.
It would be easy to give up on child care expenses because I don’t have any small children. Cutting back on food expenses would be difficult but it would be doable. We would need to plan our meals and shop according to the meals listed.
· Determine if the definition of what constitutes poverty is realistic.
In my opinion the poverty line is too high. There are so many families I know personally, including myself that have been excluded from programs because according to the poverty line they make too much money. When you are a single parent of one or multiple kids there is no such thing as you make too much money.
References:
DiNitto, D. M., & Johnson, D. H. (2016). Social welfare: Politics and public policy (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
https://www.epi.org/resources/budget/
LEARNING RESOURCES
· DiNitto, D. M., & Johnson, D. H. (2016). Social welfare: Politics and public policy (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
· Chapter 4, “Ending Poverty: Is It an Issue Anymore?” (pp. 107–152)
· Chapter 5, “Preventing Poverty: Social Insurance and Personal Responsibility” (pp. 153–194)
· Economic Policy Institute. (2016a). Basic family budget calculator—Introduction, methodology, and data download.Links to an external site. Retrieved from http://www.epi.org/pages/budget_calculator_intro/
· Economic Policy Institute. (2016b). Family budget calculator.Links to an external site. Retrieved from http://www.epi.org/resources/budget/
For Discussion 1, you will use the EPI Family Budget Calculator. First, read this page.
· Gould, E., Cooke, T., & Kimball, W. (2015). What families need to get by: EPI’s 2015 family budget calculator.Links to an external site. Economic Policy Institute. Retrieved from http://www.epi.org/publication/what-families-need-to-get-by-epis-2015-family-budget-calculator/
Next, you will use the calculator on this page for Discussion 1, following the instructions found in Discussion 1.
· Fisher, G. M. (1997). The development and history of the U.S. poverty thresholds—A brief overview.Links to an external site. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).Retrieved from https://aspe.hhs.gov/history-poverty-thresholds
This article discusses the history and definition of the U.S. “poverty threshold,” which is sometimes called the “poverty line.” Technically, the poverty threshold is used by the Census Bureau for statistical purposes and the “poverty guideline” is used by the DHHS to determine program eligibility.
· U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Frequently asked questions related to the poverty guidelines and poverty.Links to an external site. Retrieved September 12, 2017, from http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/faq.shtml#differences
TO PREPARE
Visit the Economic Policy Institute websites listed in the Learning Resources. The EPI has developed a formula to determine what it takes for a family to “make ends meet,” taking into account family size and place of residence.
Begin by reading about the assumptions on which they base their calculations of a basic family budget.
Next, use their basic family budget calculator to find out what they would estimate it would cost your family size to live in your area.
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