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Budget Me!
dispatch.o
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So, I'm making a pretty drastic change in the sometime near future, I am moving from the San Francisco Bay Area to someplace substantially less expensive to live. The problem I'm facing is that the pay scale is crazy fucked and I can't for the life of me figure out what I need to budget.
What percentage of income should I expect to spend on rent/groceries/utilities/insurance/etc?
I will be renting a room while I learn the area but at some point I will snag an apartment, my goal is to live like a spartan in a studio apartment and finally attend college (I'm 29, little late).
I'm going from a job that pays 25$/hr to something closer to 10$/hr. I've grown up in California though so my sense of scale is fucked to all hell when it comes to income and requirements. Though it's taken time, I've come to the conclusion I cannot both afford to pay rent and attend school in my current situation, as living requires every bit of money I can manage, and school is only getting more expensive. Plus my commute is stupid long and it leaves me feeling disconnected from pretty much everything around me. It's time to hit the reset button.
Furthermore, I have gathered around 9,000$ for the move, this will go half to paying off everything I currently owe in credit card debt and buying a used vehicle where I'm going to get around. I suspect there wont be a whole lot left after I get settled in the way of "emergency money", so I need to do my best to figure it out now.
What I plan on:
400$/rent
100$/cell phone (iphone, so email etc, can't drop this)
100$/utilities
45$/car insurance
I'm pretty flexible on food, and until I've figured out the rest I wont be getting internet or home phone service.
What costs am I forgetting?
By comparison my current rent is around 1100$/month with utilities well over 200$ due to Bay Area fucked uppedness.
Are there any websites with cost of living comparisons that also allow you to form a budget?
Edit: I plan on probably getting a second part-time job when I move, as the one I'm currently in the process of getting is 3 twelve hour shifts and I need a bit of time to get settled before school enters the picture.
What percentage of income should I expect to spend on rent/groceries/utilities/insurance/etc?
I will be renting a room while I learn the area but at some point I will snag an apartment, my goal is to live like a spartan in a studio apartment and finally attend college (I'm 29, little late).
I'm going from a job that pays 25$/hr to something closer to 10$/hr. I've grown up in California though so my sense of scale is fucked to all hell when it comes to income and requirements. Though it's taken time, I've come to the conclusion I cannot both afford to pay rent and attend school in my current situation, as living requires every bit of money I can manage, and school is only getting more expensive. Plus my commute is stupid long and it leaves me feeling disconnected from pretty much everything around me. It's time to hit the reset button.
Furthermore, I have gathered around 9,000$ for the move, this will go half to paying off everything I currently owe in credit card debt and buying a used vehicle where I'm going to get around. I suspect there wont be a whole lot left after I get settled in the way of "emergency money", so I need to do my best to figure it out now.
What I plan on:
400$/rent
100$/cell phone (iphone, so email etc, can't drop this)
100$/utilities
45$/car insurance
I'm pretty flexible on food, and until I've figured out the rest I wont be getting internet or home phone service.
What costs am I forgetting?
By comparison my current rent is around 1100$/month with utilities well over 200$ due to Bay Area fucked uppedness.
Are there any websites with cost of living comparisons that also allow you to form a budget?
Edit: I plan on probably getting a second part-time job when I move, as the one I'm currently in the process of getting is 3 twelve hour shifts and I need a bit of time to get settled before school enters the picture.
dispatch.o on
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Well, I also need to know what people in the rest of the world who aren't living in the worlds most ridiculous economy (bay area) set aside for each cost. I didn't know that mint did percentage based budgets though, thanks.
edit: If you haven't lived in the bay, I'm not sure you would really understand what it's like, I know it sounds like a simple request but having no experience in what most consider a normal market for cost of living, I'm pretty lost.
WHERE
ARE
YOU
GOING
It matters.
I live in GA and costs in my area are pretty similar to those in Huntsville:
-$4.5k is a pretty good nest egg (as you said $9k-50% for debts+car). Living in the South is fairly cheap on most fronts, especially for gasoline and groceries. Not sure how far it will go once school costs creep up, though.
-$100 for utilities seems a tad low, depending on what you have to pay for. Most apartment complexes will bundle your water bill into the monthly rent, pro-rated. The problem there is that the South in general has been in a drought situation for a couple of years now and Alabama has been hit very hard by it. In the summer and winter, you'll pay more for electricity because of needing the AC/heat running. If you've got gas heating then expect to pay a LOT more during the winter.
-$400 for rent seems low if you're living alone, studio apartment or not. Unless you want to live in a rough neighborhood, anyhow. $550-600 (before previously mentioned water bill being added) is probably a little more realistic unless you can work out a deal with the management.
That's all I've got for now. Take with a grain of salt and maybe try to find someone that lives in AL itself to ask.
In the Netherlands you would be looking at 400-500 euros rent.
150-200 euros for food.
40-50 euros for the car + 120 euros for gas
30 euros for Iphone (unlimited internets)
90 for water/lights/gas
80-100 euros health care
something like that, times 1,4 to make it dollars.
Im aware I'll have to monk it pretty hard, but it's something I think I need to do in order to finally get ahead. Theres also no way I can afford 600$/month in rent on 10$/hr.
Nope. It would be nice, but there's not room for something like that. Especially not 100$ worth.