Huindekmi
The game did provide the worst possible scenario. Anything that could go wrong, did go wrong.
– The car breaks down
– The pet gets ill
– There’s a leak in the bathroom that the landlord won’t fix and I’m unable to kludge a temporary fix (like shutting off the water supply when not in use) until the landlord gets off his butt or I have the cash to fix it.
– I get pulled over for traffic violations (or routine stops?) twice in one month.
– Apparently, I’m a very bad driver because I get into an accident too. Maybe I should be riding the bus since I’m such a hazard. Oops! Not an option!
– Even though my hours at were have been cut in half, I keep having to take time off work to meet with people.
With all this happening in just one month… Wow. It had to be the absolute worst month of my life! Not exactly realistic, but probably done to make a point. Life throws curves at you and your budget has to be flexible at times.
I’ve lived on minimum wage in the past (way back in ancient history) and it wasn’t easy. We had to make tons of sacrifices and live on a very strict budget. There was lots of noodles and generic cereals in our diet. We made our milk supply go father by cutting it with powdered milk. We walked or rode our bikes more than we drove. We volunteered at the local church garden so we could have some of the food grown there. The kids did odd jobs around the neighborhood and any money they earned went towards the family bills. When people offered help, we gladly took it and offered something in return – be it cleaning their house or doing yardwork or caring for their pets/house while they went on vacation. Recreation was anything free – luckily there are parks and public libraries. Not that there was much time for recreation. Seemed like we were always doing something for someone – shoveling sidewalks for a box of old clothes, some light accounting for access to a washer and dryer, anything. The only thing that didn’t get cut back was the kid’s education.
It wasn’t fun. It wasn’t easy. There were times when it seemed we were a month or so away from living out of the car, and had to take the time to contemplate how we’d make that work. Somehow we did make it work.
But through it all, I never had a month as bad as the one portrayed by the game.