I make well over that, I am far from paycheck to paycheck, but that is an idea of a single persons living expenses where I live. Keep in mind I do at least 1 web template a month for a few hundred, I work >40 hours a week at >$15/hr pay, and I do professional design work for local bands and posters for a few hundred dollars a month. However, for a cart pusher at wal-mart making $10/hr, the ability to live alone is damn near impossible, and finding a stable and reliable roommate is just as much. Also your funds of 4 people are pretty damn abnormal. $100 is the lowest BASE health insurance I have been able to find, most of them are in the $120-150 areas around here, for my age group. Bills as $300 for 4 people are fairly reasonable. Car insurance for 4 people, that's 4 cars, no way are you making out of that with under $400/mo. Gas? There are dates, errands, shopping, etc. I alone spend $120/mo just going to work and back with a grocery store run once every 2 weeks and the fast food run every now and then, and everything to me is within a very close proximity as I live in downtown Denver (10 mile radius easily). Going on dates to good restaurants often times take me 20-30 miles out of my way (because I like going to places with better settings that aren't truly feasible in downtown), which for my vehicle is ~2 gallons of gas, gas being nearly $4.39 where I am atm, that's ~$18 just to go out and bring them back. Multiply that x4 and then your looking at nearly $400-500/mo for gas assuming 4 people. Groceries are reasonable, rent is semi-reasonable (where I am you would be hard pressed to find a 4 bedroom house or condo for anywhere near $1300, your talking more in the $1400 range, but its possible). Your looking at a few hundred dollars more than your approximations for 4 people, once again, averaging about $15/hr. That is the reasonable wages to make for my area to have a decently sustained life, using minimums and very few liberal decisions. I have been out on my own, or at least self sufficient for the last nearly 4 years of my life (given, from 16 to 17, I was at home, but paying rent, groceries, bills, etc. however you can efficiently quote me from 17 to 19, and nearly 20 now) and that is a very good and rounded budget. I never have had financial help, not because it won't be given to myself, but because I am too proud to ask for help. The only liberality I really have included in that budget is food, as 90% of the time I am too lazy to make food and insist on getting fast food, all others are necessities and averages for what I did / do pay.
in the scenario I mentioned there would have been two cards and two of the people would have been children and for them by the time dating is of concern those ------s can get their own job at 16. and I'm a cart pusher for $9.18 an hour in southern california. I more than break even and I live alone. and while my dad gives me 225-350 a month I save all of it. room rent and utilities $550ish, food $200ish, and I still have $100 left over from work as discretionary income or to get things I might otherwise need. I'll admit, living wastefully is a bit foreign to me though, I'm the son of a self made millionaire who is also the son of a self made millionaire and I've never seen all that much wastefulness - we're talking about a telecominication's worker who had neither cell phone nor computer until he was effectively forced to get them for business purposes in 2006, so making a budget scenario for someone who isn't thrifty just seems weird. as for me, I'll be damned if I'm not the third generation to also achieve the same. So yes, my estimates are more on the subsistence side of things, but I live more or less at the bare minimum myself, or at least close enough to. Heck after I graduate college I'll still probably be living about as cheap and will continue to until I am financially independent
Good, you listed rent and groceries as your only two responsibilities. Gas, auto insurance, health insurance, dating, bills, cellular, internet, etc? Living alone? You get help from daddy and you live in a shared living arrangement, by alone I mean at least renting your own 1 bedroom, alone, no help, usual of $900-1,000/mo rent, twice as much as your paying now. Believe me, I used to think the same way as you. Back when I still only payed $500 for rent and lived at home with mom and bought my own groceries, etc. and 'thought' I was living alone. The difference from living under a roof with a roommate and living under a roof without one is quite substantial. Also, without the money your getting from your dad, you would be barely breaking even assuming even other realistic important concerns (insurances for instance), if your car (if you even have one) were to break down, replace the ignition or anything of the sort, you'd pretty much be screwed. You can state you save up for a long period of time, blah, blah, but that money goes away really fast when a chain of events happen that force you to spend money (and I think we both know how my life's luck is, I could and will assume others lives have similar luck).
This did pwn Sony as i have heard from many sources that FF was the last known (big name) exclusives for Sony, which means, for years to come, games will be for PS3 and 360 with some 360 exclusives thrown in there.
Who cares? Sony said they will be supporting the PS3 for about 10 years. Now in that time, i'm sure there will be alot of big name exclusives that will suprise us all.
KILLZONE 2, SOCOM Confrontation, LittleBigPlanet, MAG? All of those are huge games that will combat Final Fantasy, hell SOCOM alone could probably match Final Fantasy here in America, not to sure about Japan. Even so the PS3 is doing just fine, and I really don't think losing 1 more exclusive is going to do 'er in.
Valve implemented a system which is arguably better... I'll simply state that I don't give a damn about it.
Playstation Home is hopefully going to be awesome. Especially how it will bring fans closer to developers, and easier way to communicate. Like Rockstar will be making there own home, has as a home for Warhawk, Resistance. And you will have a chance to talk to the developers.
Wow. Sony got owned. They lost Final Fantasy XIII. Wow. Now they're going to lose Versus, Ratchet and Clank, Uncharted, Gran Turismo, God of War, Home, LittleBigPlanet, WipEout, SOCOM, Heavy Rain, Killzone 2, InFamous, Resistance 2, MotorStorm, Shin Magami Tensei, Siren: Blood Curse, Tekken 6, White Knight Chronicles, the mysterious Team ICO project, and hundreds of PSN games. Wow. Sony is ------ed. Run for shelter.