The prices listed on that page are per day not per month. So with that in mind 5cp per day would but you at the lowest category of Wretched. Though both level 1 slots would put you at Squalid.
I’ve never understood the argument for Peasant Railgun just because the argument is self contradictory. You take a very strict RAW interpretation of a mechanic that might be technically possible in the rules and then just abandon that adherence to interpret the results in a non-RAW way
I think you’re right, I also had the impression it was 1gp per month for normal people. Unsure if that’s a mandela effect or from an older edition.