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The cost of being: A high school teacher dreaming of life without checkout anxiety
(thespinoff.co.nz)
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Given the numbers; I don't see how she is having trouble.
At ~$750/week to cover phone/internet/insurance etc..I would guess that is less than $250/week.
Where is that $500/week going?
One other thing I noted: when you earn $113k, $1k is not an emergency fund...an emergency fund should be minimum 3 months of after tax income...so like $18k for her. This is to cover unexpected large financial shocks, like losing a job or a car crash....$1k is a mechanics bill (says so in the article). If it takes a few years to build it up that is fine....but 3 months should be a minimum; preferably 6+. If she lost her job, she has less than a week of "emergency money".
I hate to sound like I'm "blaming the victim" here, but something doesn't add up.
Saving up for you kid, doesn't equal not living at all; because the kid is also living the same life.
I agree, the whole thing makes no sense.
Well yes but "being poor is expensive" and in my experience some low-income people try to cushion children from that by saving up so that there are always funds for things like emergency healthcare or even big ticket items like braces, rather than letting them do all the middle class stuff and have no safety net.
Edit, but thinking about it, that doesn't make any sense given her emergency fund thing (which as you say is weirdly low).
The Boots Theory of Economic Unfairness; it is a little limited, but quite cool.
I'm familiar with it; I think it's a really great illustration! I guess some of the low income parenting examples like boots would be things like dentistry.