A Budget for Bull

I read an article today in the May edition of San Diego Magazine regarding homelessness. It seems that a reporter posed as a homeless person for two weeks to gain an understanding of how the homeless live. He hung out a lot with a guy named Bull. Bull bitched and moaned about how unfair the world was and how badly he was treated.

My problem with Bull is that he's an admitted meth addict, and he had a disability income of $800. a month. The unsaid facts of this case are that Bull spent all his money on meth and so had nothing that he might have spent on improving his lot. $800. a month is nothing to sneeze at. His problem was not that he was homeless, but that he was a meth addict.

If I found myself in Bud's situation, I would still choose to be homeless. Why spend $400-$600 a month for a room when your income is $800? However, I wouldn't spend any money on meth or on cigarettes which he also did. Here's a sample budget and strategy for a person with an $800. a month income.

1) Get a storage locker. San Diego Public Storage has a 5' x 5' storage locker for $83. a month. That will do. You probably can find cheaper. You could team up with a buddy and pay half this much.

2) Get yourself a transit pass for $60. a month. This allows you to get anywhere in San Diego County by trolley or bus. If you're a senior, it's only $15. a month.

3) Join the YMCA so you can shower and excercise every day. $36.50 a month. $27.50 for seniors.

4) Get a cell phone. You can get a T-Mobile plan for $29.99 a month.

5) Get a library card. Free. You then have access to the internet where you can get all sorts of useful information. Get a web based email address on Hotmail or Gmail for free.

6) Get a free meal every day, 365 days a year at Father Joe's Villages of St Vincent de Paul.

7) Scout out a safe place to sleep away from downtown or the obvious places homeless persons sleep. You now have transportation. You can get anywhere. You won't be hassled by the cops if you're discreet.

8) Get a Post Office box. About $5.00 a month

So far we've only used up $214.50, about a quarter of our income, and we already have transportation, sanitation, communications (mail, phone and internet including email), access to books and excercise facilities and storage. This is a great start and we still have almost $600. discretionary income to spend. We've taken advantage of free food and lodging, free email and internet access. We're clean, healthy (if we excercise), in touch by phone, mail and email, don't have to tote our stuff around in a shopping cart, can get anywhere by public transit. This is all the basic stuff anyone needs.

Now we can afford to spend $5.00 every day for coffee and a muffin at Starbucks ($150. a month), $5.00 a day for Mexican food at Alfredo's or Chinese food at Rice King or a $2.99 complete breakfast at IKEA. So for another $300. a month we are well fed along with our free meal from Father Joe's. We can afford to spend $20. a month for laundry. Now we still have over $150. left to buy stuff. What else do you need?