[anotheracc88]

Ooh. Lesson: if you are out of work go bare bones. You don't need a entrepenerial flat in the city. You need a shitty room in the suburbs where you can commute to the city by train or bus ideally (dont have a car). Call it runway and it sounds better. If you spent 20k/y then the 60k becones 75k in the market and you are doing better.

[sahmeepee]

Yes, I'm not sure how helpful it is in TFA to compare living costs against average living costs in the area and then call it a win if you're anywhere below.

If I was unemployed my living costs would be far, far below average, even allowing for the "it's expensive being poor" factors. Even when I've been in low pay jobs I've lived on very little and definitely didn't feel like I had budget for "travel" or other non-essentials.

As an employable person without work, before I reached negative bank balance I'm pretty certain I would have found a crappy job to at least slow the decline and buy more time. I can't see from this story why that hasn't been deemed necessary here.

[jlarocco]

I was thinking the same thing.

The average person has a job and income. What's the average for a person taking extended time off?

[anotheracc88]

The median would be zero or close.