How to be a writer on $10,000 a year

I have been been reading Boswell's Life of Johnson, and it's quite fascinating. I'm up to Johnson going to London to try to make a living as a writer. Boswell records a hypothetical budget that one of Johnson's friends had explained to him:

Thirty pounds a year was enough to enable a man to live there without being contemptible. He allowed ten pounds for clothes and linen. He said a man might live in a garret at eighteen-pence a week; few people would inquire where he lodged; and if they did, it was easy to say, "Sir, I am to be found at such a place." By spending three-pence in a coffeehouse, he might be for some hours every day in very good company; he might dine for six-pence, breakfast on bread and milk for a penny, and do without supper.

Samuel Johnson in 1772

Let's break that down:

Item	Per day	Per week	Per year
Clothes		4 s.	£ 10
Rent		18 d.	£ 4
Food	7 d.	4 s.	£ 10
Coffee	3 d.	18 d.	£ 4

Now, this website tells me that £1 in 1750 would be the equivalent of £190 today, and this in turn equates to A$350. This gives us an annual budget of $10,000:

Item	Per day	Per week	Per year
Clothes		$70	$3,500
Rent		$30	$1,500
Food	$10	$70	$3,500
Coffee	$4	$30	$1,500

For a writer in Melbourne, the coffee works out about right. The food budget would be roughly equivalent – $2 a day will give you bread and milk for breakfast, while $8 will fill you up in Chinatown. Unfortunately, one would be hard pressed to find accommodation at even the most dingiest dive for $30 a week. The clothes budget, both then and now, is wildly disproportionate.