What is it like to be poor? In spite of a lot of opinions about why poverty persists and attitudes toward poor people, most of us have been afforded the luxury of relatively little direct experience with the daily realities of being poor. This activity is intended to give you some indications of what it is like to live in poverty.

In 1999, the official poverty line for two adults and two children living in an urban area was $16,700. However, according to the 1995 Census Bureau data, the income for the typical poor family was $5,960 below the official poverty line. Furthermore, estimates suggest that 40% of the poor live at half the poverty line or less ($8,350 a year for an urban family of four.)

Assuming you are a typical poor family of four (you, your spouse, and two children), your yearly income would be $10,740. Your weekly paycheck would be approximately $207 before taxes. Given this scenario, write a report that includes each of the following.

1. Create one year of monthly budgets for your hypothetical family. You may assume that your children are in grade school, you are renting your place of residence, and the family shares one automobile. Create a budget that is reflective of the cost of living in your area.
2. Go to your monthly budget for today’s date. Take the budget for this month and break it down into monies spent for each week. In other words, make a weekly budget for this month.
3. Using yourself as a reference, record all your actual expenses for one week. Compare your real expenses with the hypothetical poor family that you’ve budgeted for. Discuss this comparison. If you were a member of this family, are there expenses you would have to cut? Are there changes in lifestyle that you would have to accommodate? Identify these.
4. Assess the budget you’ve created for the typical poor family.

1. Discuss the impact of regularly occurring additional expenses. What would holidays celebrated (i.e. Christmas, Birthdays, etc.) be like for this family? What happens when the television, stove, or washing machine breaks down? How does the family afford car maintenance? At the beginning of the school year, what kind of clothes, shoes, and school supplies do the children receive?
2. Discuss the potential impact of tragedy. What would happen if one family member had a medical emergency? Did you budget for health insurance? What would happen if one family member destroyed the family automobile? Is there money to replace it? Did you purchase automobile insurance?

5. Formulate conclusions on what life would be like if you lived in a typical poor family of four.