Reply #156: Yep. My very first job as a nurse's aid

[SheilaT]

in 1965 was a sub-minimum wage job -- back then far fewer jobs were covered by the minimum wage laws -- and paid $1.10/hour. I still lived at home then.

About a year later I moved out and was paid minimum which was still $1.25/hour, and I could manage on it. Just barely. I lived within walking distance of work, which helped a lot. And I had a roommate. Then the minimum was raised to $1.65/hour, and I was noticeably better off. Then I went to work for Ma Bell as an information operator and I was making slightly more. I bought my first car, a '59 VW beetle convertible. Life was good.

In the many years since then my fortunes have fluctuated somewhat, but I've always been able to manage. I think it helps a lot that I grew up in a family that had very, very little, and in high school whenever I had a babysitting job I'd use the money to buy food for the family. So now that I'm once again less well off, it's not all that hard to live frugally.