So the school had an open house-type event a couple days ago to explain the school's and state's budget problems. They got into how the rules/laws that dealt with the recession haven't been revised which has limited school funding, how the marijuana money is leaning heavily towards the schools that are straight falling apart, and to better illustrate what a 12% budget cut for the school district looks like they showed an example household budget for our area.
"Average family monthly income for our school district"
Income: $4840
Housing (including tax/insurance based on $200k home): $1250 I pay $1500 for renting a $200k home including insurance
Utilities (water/sewer/gas/electric): $250 my average utility bills total about $150 regardless of time of the year
Federal/state income taxes: $1100 not even close. I gross almost double this income and pay half of this number in withholding
Health insurance: $500
Groceries (2.68 member family): $720 During a not-paying-attention kind of month we spend $500 on groceries for three
Car payment: $250
Car/life insurance: $100
Vehicle repairs/gas: $250 That's a hell of a lot of driving. You're either driving a Hummer and/or working outside the city.
TV/Phone/Internet: $300 Someone got the sports package and a Verizon contract with all the trimmings
Miscellaneous: $100
The point was to show how difficult it is to cut 12% from your own budget. The point got lost on me real quick looking at these numbers. They didn't reference where these numbers came from, but I can't imagine them coming from an actual academic source.