MARK AND ALICE'S FAMILY Interfaith Outreach Poverty Simulation Scenario-Mark And Alice's family Imagine you are a family of four. Mark and Alice are the parents, Sarah is 9 years old and in the 4th grade, and Bryan is 3. Mark works full-time as a warehouse worker and makes $12/hour ($2,080 gross/month). Alice works part-time in the school cafeteria where Sarah goes to school. Alice makes $10/hour ($866 gross/month). Neither of your jobs are located on a bus line or in walking distance from your home. Your family's combined total income after taxes each month is $2,550, which is about $30,600 per year. The poverty level in Minnesota for a family of four is $26,200, which means your family makes too much to qualify for public assistance. Your challenge is to make a monthly budget with limited income to meet your family's regular expenses like housing, transportation, child care and household/food needs- and not to run out of money. Other considerations our client families think about as they create their budgets include: What size apartment can we afford? Is the location of our apartment safe? Will family members share a room with a sibling, sleep on a couch or have their own room? Are there restrictions on how many people can live in an apartment? . Do we own a pet? If so, will the apartment let us keep that pet? Are we able to have a car or do we ride the bus? If we are able to own a car, will we be able to afford unexpected repairs? If we need to depend on public transportation, how far are we from a bus line, and how much time does it add to get us to work or school? What if a parent gets sick and can't work, or loses their job?