Can you afford your job?

An odd title, but an important question that I never thought much about.

So way, way back in 2011 I wrote about debt & controlling mothers... By the end of that summer we got into another argument and this time she said "fine! then you can do it!". I haven't grabbed anything so fast in my life. ((Small recap, my mom wanted to be, and was in total control of my finances because blah blah blah and I was lazy & trying to do too much at once.))

After all was said and done I know have savings. Mostly because I finished paying off my card. I would have more if I have done my credit card balance transfer a hell of a lot sooner.

I transferred two credit card balances into one credit card bill. I had two bills that my mom had insisted on paying more then the min on. $275 each was what she had been doing before I got control of it. After? I'm paying $200 because that is the amount that works and is slightly over my minimum.

Unfortunately I chose to do a little math and looked into what was the minimum I would have to make per hour if I wanted to get a new job. I'm using really bad math but it makes for a nice cushion when planning.

Example:
$11 hr x 40 hr = $440 x 52 wk = $22,880 - 40% = $13,738

I played with my pay check and found that 40% was pretty close to representing taxes and health and 401k crap.  I should have just gone with 50% and made my life a tad easier.

My old job? didn't pay anywhere near that. In fact, my bills were $3,000 over what I was making. Not counting the trips my mom encouraged me to go on and starting a jewelry thing. All the while saying I could afford it.

I was very lucky that I am so boring or it could have been much, much worse.

From a financial point, this was a very bad situation. Emotionally? Nah, I'm good. Yes we argue and such but it's a 'normal' thing. She has stopped asking if I want her help because I was mean and laughed evil.

Personaly I would be much better off if I could move out. But that is slowly in the works (p.s. the first time home buyers club is evil) but I don't know if I can scrounge up the closing costs. Closing costs are the devil.