Reaction on official measures of poverty
The following table is a budget for a family of four, that’s two adults and two children, 6-year-old and one year old. It basically that there are expenses that will cuter for the upkeep of a one-year-old child and six-year-old child who have to join early developing school. The number of items that are essential for the sustainability of such family is; foodstuff, diapers, wipes, daycare for kids, housemaid salary, school-related expenses, home mortgage, health and car insurance,
Part 2
Reaction on official measures of poverty
The measures are higher than what I expected, and this indicates that most people are stretching hard to meet the threshold that is set to as scale to rule out poverty level. Generally, my budget estimate was lower.
What I learn from the activity
I learned that there is power in planning and budgeting for your expenses. This enables on to avoid overspending on items that don’t take our priority position. After the identification of all the crucial costs, I realized that I could save some amount of money.
Did you make it through the month without running out of money?
I managed to settle all my bills and sustained myself through the month. Fortunately, I was able to have some amount to save after handling all my expenses.
How much longer I could have made it after a month
The amount that remains after planning for the month will not sustain me over the next month. It will only support foodstuff over the month; rent and transport to the workplace won’t be maintained.
What were some of the challenges of trying to succeed for a month?
The distance between the workplace and residential area was a little bit far; transport became a problem at some point. On some occasion, my house was too small to accommodate all my properties, and I had to sell them. My car had mechanical problems that hit upon my saving this was a challenge and needed rectification on my expenses as it indicates that my salvation will not be saving but money set aside for causalities that may come in-between a month.
Morally tricky decisions and how did you resolve the choice
There was a house being rented next to my workplace; this could have saved on my transport. On the other end, it will mean that my kids will change their schools for easy accessibility. I will have to buy new uniforms for the new institution. These are unplanned expenses, and it will strain me financially. Thus, deciding to remain in my original place, as transport cost will be less as compared to shifting to the new house. On my working locality, there was a local community college offering an online course in computer science, which could be my ticket to a higher paycheck. But the class costs were too expensive. Even though I was very willing to learn, I had to forego because it will train my financial plans.
What surprised you about this exercise? (Both creating the budget and playing play spent)
Budgeting is seen to be an overall key takeaway in these two scenarios, and the main aspects that surprise is that if I plan well on my financial spending, all my plans will run smoothly. Enough money will be left out for investment and saving. When I plan on my spending, there is no incidence of misuses of cash.
What specific examples of role strain did you face in this simulation? What specific examples of role conflict did you face in this simulation?
The school that my kids enrolled to had no transport coverage so I had to drop my kids to school every day and I pick them home every evening. At the same time, I was supposed to be at work on time. This was a training role. There is an incidence that I failed to be at the workplace due to the transport problem; this led to the deduction of my salary. There were breakages at the place I had rented, and this resulted in a misunderstanding between the landlord and me since it was due to a massive hurricane that those breakages occurred.
What specific things did you learn about poverty and society after playing this simulation?
Poverty is a challenge that is being faced by many individuals, either working or not. Poverty is something that we all try to evade, by all means, thus making proper money management and saving will ultimately propel on out of poverty circle.
What was your original estimation of how much money it would take to care for a family of four per month successfully? Do you feel you need to revise your estimate? Why or why not?
The original speculation of my monthly expenses stands at $850. With the increasing cases of casualties all along the month, there is a need to increase this amount to cuter for other mid-month arising expenses. Thus, the need to revise this amount is quite essential for monthly sustainability.