Poll: Living expenses

[DVK916]

I am willing to bet over 50% of you who claim under 100 a month on food are lying, hell a bet a lot of you are lying about under 200 as well. And I know 90% of the people who said under 50 are liars.

 

[digitalme]

i spent 91% of what i earned in 2005... budget FTW !

 

[cavemanmoron]

How much do you spend per month on power?


What about heat>?

I have an oil fired furnace,
even if I had Gas fired boiler,heat is not Power/??

If you combine electric; plus heat, over $300 a month this time of year.

 

[AMDZen]

Originally posted by: gigapet

Originally posted by: Akhen
I dont spend muhc being a college student

I pay 650 for rent
about 30 bucks for power
none on gasoline
about 150 for food a month
none on car insurance
40 for both cable internet and full cable tv
none on phone
clothes about 40 bucks
entertainment practicaly none.

you must be the man on campus or an extreme loser. I know what my money is on.

You must be a b!tch, or an extreme b!tch. Seriously, how harsh can you be?

 

[DCFife]

Mortgage - $1634
Prop tax - $200 (avg)
HOA - $60
Electric - $110
Nat. Gas - $80 (avg)
Water - $35
Cable - $39
DSL - $30
Cells - $90
Food - ~$450 (including dining out)
Gas - $200
Insurance $194 (homeowners + 3 cars)
Entertainment $800 (that's what we budget, whether we spend it or not is another story)

Total $3922

 

[notfred]

I spend:

$630 on rent
$150 on a car payment
$40 on cell phone
$90 on car insurance
$50 on internet/home phone service (which I only have so I can get DSL)

I'd guess maybe $75-100 on gas per month.
Power is between $30 and $60/month, depending on season.

I probably spend at least $20/day on food, but I guess some of that overlaps with entertainment.

Entertainment not including food is probably about $100/month, maybe a bit more.

 

[SampSon]

You can easily live off of $1600 net per month. Your expenses are a bit high and you can trim a LOT of fat.

 

[shortylickens]

Originally posted by: DVK916

Originally posted by: shortylickens
I notice you say you pay rent but dont have a poll for rent.
???
Mine is $525. 1100 square feet, my own garage, two patios, backyard of about 1000 sq feet.

EDIT: Did you want gas, water and garbage to be part of rent costs or power costs?

WTF when I rented an apartment my first year in college I paid 800 a month for 600 squarefeet.

I know people who are paying 1200 a month for 400 feet studio to in other parts of Cali.

Oh,yeah.
I forgot to say I'm in the Mojave Desert.

 

[tjaisv]

Originally posted by: EngenZerO
rent - 1275 (1 bedroom apartment)
electric - 35
gas - 100
water - 20
food - 200
car insurance - 150
cable and tv - 125
clothes - 150+ (i shop for two new shirts a month)
entertainment - 300+ (includes bar tabs, gamefly, easynews, dvd and video game purchases)

y u wanna buy dvds and video games when u got easynews?

 

[cavemanmoron]

You have a car/vehicle;
car insurance?
registration
parking
tires,oil changes/maintenance;

incidentals for the car, like wash it once every 3 months, a headlight bulb 2 times a year, wiper blades etc......


a/c for the house in the hot months,

telephone

water/sewer

trash collection

taxes unless renting;

income taxes

health insurance

401k/ retirement

toothpaste/toilet paper/ dish soap bath soap/shampoo,
razors/shaving cream etc........

paper plates/plastic cups,

Garbage Bags

soda/beer
orange juice,coffee

it all adds up.

ugh

house insurance/renters insurance incase.

 

[Bozono]

None of Your Beeswax:|

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
I notice you say you pay rent but dont have a poll for rent.

Rent varies too much. I know about how much I will spend on rent and I wanted poll results for things that are roughly the same everywhere.

EDIT: Did you want gas, water and garbage to be part of rent costs or power costs?

I hadn't thought of gas, but I haven't seen any apartments with gas in them. Water and garbage are small enough to be irrelevant.

Originally posted by: NiteWulf
Is it just me or is $100/month on clothes WAY too much? I haven't bought clothing in probably 3 months, and that was socks.

I spend like $0 on clothes now. I was just going off of what I hear people at work talking about.

Originally posted by: TheGameIs21
To hell with "Live Comfortably". Live within your finances.

Now this is a great, informative post. It's the kind I was hoping for, filled with advice.

My main goal with this thread is to find out how much I should be making. I am very underpaid for what I do, no doubt thanks to the fact that I'm still in college (I'm 23) and that we've recently had investors come into the picture at work and the grand "We couldn't have done this last project without you, you're going to be well compensated" has turned into "Our new HR manager said that we can only give 4% raises across the board." Like our new CEO loves to say, "It's cheap to have employees in the Southeast."

C'est la vie, I suppose.

I should be making around $15-16/hr base.

-Rent will be $700 no matter what, unless I can get a roomate. The post-Katrina market is rough.
-Power will be high because it is warm here year round.
-I need internet for research and such in school.
-Clothes and entertainment were just guesses.


I made the budgets a bit chunky to cover small things that I didn't think of.

 

[Svnla]

This is the guide I am using: <roughly>

Housing 25%

Utilities 10%

Transportation 20%

Food/meals 15%

Insurances 10%

Entertainment 5%

Clothes 3%

Misc. 2%

Saving 10%

TOTAL =100%

OP, since you live in the South <me too>, you can **get by** with what you make by:

Cut back on your entertainment, clothes, cable <see if you can get broadband only>, turn thermostat a bit so you won't have to pay so much in electricity, get cheapest gasoline for your car, lower the cost of food <I spend about $150 a month>.

Your rent is a bit high, $500 would be average in the South, even in big cities like Dallas, Houston, and the likes.

 

[EngenZerO]

Originally posted by: tjaisv

Originally posted by: EngenZerO
rent - 1275 (1 bedroom apartment)
electric - 35
gas - 100
water - 20
food - 200
car insurance - 150
cable and tv - 125
clothes - 150+ (i shop for two new shirts a month)
entertainment - 300+ (includes bar tabs, gamefly, easynews, dvd and video game purchases)

y u wanna buy dvds and video games when u got easynews?

i mostly use easynews just for music or tv shows i forget to dvr. i just like having the original dvds or games (gamefly has really been saving my butt as of latley).

honeslty most of my entertainment is spent @ the bars... it is real easy to line up a $150 tab.

 

[jlbenedict]

Originally posted by: dullard
1) Just about everyone here lies about what they spend on food. I don't know why, but they do. I think it is not on purpose, they simply are in denial. So don't trust your poll answers at all.

2) Create a spreadsheet with those categories (as well as a couple more for things like cleaning supplies, health, gifts, or even just misc purchases). For the next 6 months, enter every cent you spend into that spreadsheet. Then you'll know EXACTLY what you spend and how to budget yourself.

3) Learn from it. I did that myself for 2 years (not back-to-back). I learned many interesting things. For example, I thought I spent too much on gifts. But the numbers denied that. I was spending ~1% of my income on gifts. Even if I doubled the amount I gave, I still wouldn't notice it in my budget. I was a scrooge. I have since changed my ways. The opposite goes for food. Even though I rarely ate out and I ate lots of ramen, I still spend lots more for food than I expected. This relates back to #1 above.

I agree on the first comment.. you got people coming in here claiming they only spend $100 per month of food, for two people.... I call BS on that..
you can't get much for $100 these days..
My wife, myself and two dogs consume about $400 per month on foods, cleaning supplies, and other misc items.. and we budget shop as well.. buying generic items on certain items we know are good..

 

[Chaotic42]

I just checked Salary.com to find the median income for my job...

$39K. :|

I talked to my boss yesterday and she said she would see what she could do. I also might have a roomate lined up for the end of the semester.

Thanks for all of the replies. Keep them coming!

 

[TheGameIs21]

Originally posted by: TheGameIs21
To hell with "Live Comfortably". Live within your finances.

Now this is a great, informative post. It's the kind I was hoping for, filled with advice.

Assuming your statement is sarcasm... What other advice do you need? You know exactly how much you make. You control exactly how much you will spend on a few of the items you mentioned like Entertainment and new clothes. Do you really need someone to sit with you and make your budget for you? A budget is how you determine what you are looking for. You have a good start and I gave you all the advise in my post that you need. If you need more, visit a Consumer Credit Counseling Service (I was a counselor for them) office in your town and they will help you create a budget at no cost. Don't sign up for their debt service... just the budget assistance.

If you want me to answer any more specific questions from you feel free to send me a PM and I'll do what I can.

 

[Rubycon]

Nothing for everything.

 

[KMFJD]

Originally posted by: AMDZen

Originally posted by: gigapet

Originally posted by: Akhen
I dont spend muhc being a college student

I pay 650 for rent
about 30 bucks for power
none on gasoline
about 150 for food a month
none on car insurance
40 for both cable internet and full cable tv
none on phone
clothes about 40 bucks
entertainment practicaly none.

you must be the man on campus or an extreme loser. I know what my money is on.

You must be a b!tch, or an extreme b!tch. Seriously, how harsh can you be?

QFT