I graduated from high school is 2009. My parents suck so they asked me to be out of the house by my 19th birthday, and since my college (I decided to start at the local tech school and then either pick a trade or transfer – the 2000s trend) didn't have dorms, I hit up craigslist adds for apartments.
I got a shitty 1 bed in the worst area of town for $365/month. Electric was like $40 except for January since my windows wouldn't close. Groceries were probably $50 for 2 weeks. No one had a password on their WIFI so I stole internet for 2 years. Cell phone was ATT Prepaid for about $10-15/month. So my bills were about $550/month with car gas, maybe $600 with car insurance. At one point I had a homeless friend move in with me. I charged her $50 in rent and we split groceries. My first car I bought in 2006 was $500, second car (2010) was $800 and the car I had from 2015-2018 was $1200. All were shitty beaters that drove well enough.
I worked at a call center for $10-$12/hour depending on how many calls I took. If you took lots of calls you got the $12/hour and if you were slow or called in you only got $10 an hour. I also worked some retail jobs for $7.50 an hour. Eventually I got an internship that paid $12/hour and as a senior I got an internship paying $14/hour.
I went to school part time and paid cash for my classes. in 2012 I started full time and when I was 24 I was able to claim myself for fafsa and my EFC was $0. I graduated in 2017 with $20,000 in debt – all of which will be forgiven by a teacher loan forgiveness program. I have already had $4000 forgiven and will have $16,000 forgiven in June. During that time my rent went up to $520 and food did go up a bit.
Let's say my student graduates in 2025. Rent in that shithole is now $700 and they still haven't replaced those windows. Groceries have went up. Electric is more expensive. Gas has went up. Technical college and four year college tuition has went up. That call center is still hiring at $10-$12 and I see that retail in the area is still paying $8/hour- if you are lucky you can get $10. Cars are more expensive too – especially right now.
I don't think I kid in my situation would be able to go to college. If they did, they're looking at so much money in loans, they better be in a high demand field immediately after graduation.