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Anyone have an example monthly budget for a single guy living on his own? (UPDATED)

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Not able to find a roommate is really not an issue.
You still can shave at least $400 from that list of yours.

You can save:

$20- cable
$150- food
$70- fuel(you should be spending only $100 for gas)
$50- laundry(do it at parents)
$50- car maintenance(this would be once in a while thing)
$40- clothing ?? cut down on that
$60- $10 on household is plenty

Thats $440 give or take off your expenses.

 
I refuse to believe your parents will not enjoy having you visit once a week or so.

Man, you make it like you live in Cali/NY or something.
Its Ohio, you should be able to live for less than $1500/month.

What car do you drive BTW ?
 
Originally posted by: QurazyQuisp
1) Your apartment doesn't have a washer and dryer?
2) Try for a cheaper webhost? How much of the space and bandwidth do you use? Buy a small plan and upgrade as you need it.
3) $70 is a lot for household stuff. Go to meijers and buy paper towl when it's on sale. (8 rolls for like $4, it will last you a while) Same with toliet paper. HINT: When meijers has a deal where it's like 2 for $10, you can buy one for $5.
4) Cable bill seems outrageous. My brother and his roommates are getting Digital Cable + Cable modem for like $75/month through comcast. Call up road runner and see how much it is. You could always go with Yahoo DSL or something.
Click to expand...

1. No, I don't own a washer/dryer, and it doesn't come with a pair. I could not find any apartment complexes in the area that come with them, or even that have shared laundry facilities on that campus. I'll probably either wind up with a public laundry, or I'll pay off a friend to let me use her's each weekend.
2. I'm satisfied with my webhost - I have fairly strict requirements, and use a lot of bandwidth & space.
3. Went to Meijer tonight, bought some of the household stuff that they had on sale. Figured it couldn't hurt to stock up...
4. I figure that $100 is a *tad* high. A friend of mine that's in the area pays something like $116/month, but he's got some extra digital channels on top of RoadRunner and basic cable. I've called Time Warner twice, but they were closed both times (who knows why the first time, it was the middle of the day; the second time was after office hours). I plan on calling them again tomorrow.
Yahoo DSL requires a basic phone line... ~$30 on top of DSL cost. Since I haven't yet gotten a solid price from Time Warner, I'm not sure whether it would be worth it or not to have phone+DSL when I want to have basic TV too. That said... Internet>TV/Phone, so whatever's cheaper...

 
Originally posted by: CTrain
I refuse to believe your parents will not enjoy having you visit once a week or so.

Man, you make it like you live in Cali/NY or something.
Its Ohio, you should be able to live for less than $1500/month.

What car do you drive BTW ?
Click to expand...

Dude, my parents have attempted to have me committed to mental institutions. Repeatedly. We do *not* get along.

Yeah I know I should be able to, but since I've never done it before, I just don't know where I'm wrong... and I'm receiving conflicting advice. 😉

I drive a '99 Buick Regal GS.

Originally posted by: CTrain
Not able to find a roommate is really not an issue.
You still can shave at least $400 from that list of yours.

You can save:

$20- cable
$150- food
$70- fuel(you should be spending only $100 for gas)
$50- laundry(do it at parents)
$50- car maintenance(this would be once in a while thing)
$40- clothing ?? cut down on that
$60- $10 on household is plenty

Thats $440 give or take off your expenses.
Click to expand...

$150 food... that seems like a lot to cut, but OK.
Fuel... maybe. I tend to drive a lot.
Laundry... I cannot do it at my parents.
Car maintenance... I've calculated brake changes, tires, oil changes, etc., into that. It's fairly accurate. Should I not budget for it on a month-to-month basis, and then consider needing to tires to be an "unforeseen expense"?
Clothing... it's because I need new clothes. It would probably be around $40 for 3-4 months, and then drop off to null.
Household.... OK 🙂

Thanks everyone, so far 🙂
 
Just make sure that if you get a roomate, he's gay, or a woman. Getting a straight roomate is asking for trouble.
 
How did you get rent so cheap...

do you have studio size apt or something?

If so, your electric bill is super high
Maybe turn off some lights or get some of those
energy efficient spiral bulbs


Only thing I see weird is $70 on toilet paper and paper towels

and if you calculated your fuel to be $56.25
why is at at $ 168.75 in your budget



$100 cable is a bit unless thats also you're internet and house phone too


 
Originally posted by: Nebor
Just make sure that if you get a roomate, he's gay, or a woman. Getting a straight roomate is asking for trouble.
Click to expand...

I've lived with a straight male before, without an issue. That said, I'd definitely prefer a gay male. I really cannot see myself living with a woman at this point.

Originally posted by: deftron
How did you get rent so cheap...

do you have studio size apt or something?

If so, your electric bill is super high
Maybe turn off some lights or get some of those
energy efficient spiral bulbs


Only thing I see weird is $70 on toilet paper and paper towels

and if you calculated your fuel to be $56.25
why is at at $ 168.75 in your budget



$100 cable is a bit unless thats also you're internet and house phone too
Click to expand...

That rent is about average for the area. It's just cheaper than the other one-bedroom apartments that are available, because it's farther away from Columbus (or that's what the leasing company's excuse was).

I plan on getting some energy efficient lights, though I really doubt that I'll have lights on very much. Just one or two in my bedroom, when I'm in there and not asleep. And whatever else as applicable. The leasing company told me that the average electric bill is around $75 for most of their tenants.

Well, $70 includes soaps, all paper products, light bulbs, whatever else I might need to buy around the apartment. I had no idea what to put there, so I put down what I was told... I think my mom told me to use that figure.

The fuel difference I explained before... the detail chart is what I *have* to drive for work, and the difference is what I want to allocate in case I drive other places for whatever reason... and I'm sure I will.

Yeah, the cable will include roadrunner. I'm not planning on having a home phone.
 
Laundry should be at most $20.
The household expenses should be at most $30.
Food and fuel will probably be slightly less expensive than what you listed, but other than that, your estimates are fairly accurate. I'd definitely suggest trying to find a roommate to split rent and utilities. If you do that, you could probably get it down to about $1500 in total expenses per month.

I live in Philadelphia and my monthly expenses are about $900 a month, but I live with my girlfriend and my half of the rent is $400 including utilities (and phone/internet/cable). I also own a trusty 1990 Mazda 626 that has hardly ever required maintenance.
 
Since I'm living in your area, here's a good estimate for a really nice place

Rent: $650
Food: $150
Electric: $100
Gas: $150 (avg)
water: $30
phone: $24
cable: $45
DSL: $25
car(?): $400
Insurance: $130

Anything I missed? That's about $1700/month, which will let you live pretty damn nicely on a $35k-$40K income.
 
Originally posted by: Fritzo
Since I'm living in your area, here's a good estimate for a really nice place

Rent: $650
Food: $150
Electric: $100
Gas: $150 (avg)
water: $30
phone: $24
cable: $45
DSL: $25
car(?): $400
Insurance: $130

Anything I missed? That's about $1700/month, which will let you live pretty damn nicely on a $35k-$40K income.
Click to expand...

No home expenses at all? Like.... the miscellaneous stuff? Light bulbs, toiletries, etc? That seems low on food. I don't use any gas, everything is electric, and it's estimated to be at $75. Water is included. Combining your estimate of 24+45+25 = $94 for cable, since I'm planning on having it all together... so I'm not far off on that. My car payment is only $200, and insurance is $140 something... so yeah. We aren't that far off, I guess.

No laundry, clothing, or car maintenance, also?

Oh wait, was your "Gas" for car Fuel? I thought you were talking about gas as in heating and cooking gas.

Maybe I'm trying to plan more expenses than I should be. 😕
 
Originally posted by: GeekDrew
Originally posted by: Fritzo
Since I'm living in your area, here's a good estimate for a really nice place

Rent: $650
Food: $150
Electric: $100
Gas: $150 (avg)
water: $30
phone: $24
cable: $45
DSL: $25
car(?): $400
Insurance: $130

Anything I missed? That's about $1700/month, which will let you live pretty damn nicely on a $35k-$40K income.
Click to expand...

No home expenses at all? Like.... the miscellaneous stuff? Light bulbs, toiletries, etc? That seems low on food. I don't use any gas, everything is electric, and it's estimated to be at $75. Water is included. Combining your estimate of 24+45+25 = $94 for cable, since I'm planning on having it all together... so I'm not far off on that. My car payment is only $200, and insurance is $140 something... so yeah. We aren't that far off, I guess.

No laundry, clothing, or car maintenance, also?

Oh wait, was your "Gas" for car Fuel? I thought you were talking about gas as in heating and cooking gas.

Maybe I'm trying to plan more expenses than I should be. 😕
Click to expand...

Gas was for cooking/heating type gas. Car included fuel (I'm assuming you don't have a new car).
 
Wow living in the US seems to be quite expensive I always thaught Europe would be
Our Budget (for 2)
Rent: ?600
Electr: ?66
Nat Gas ?75
Phone/Inet ca. ?45
2 Cells ca. ?40
Food etc. ca. ?400
Gas ca. ?50 (bike to work car is used only for shopping and travelling)
Insurances ca. ?50 (personal liability, household, car insurance, car tax...)
car maintanence ??? some years more most years almost nothing

total ca. 1400 (including some upside margin)

Add clothes and other unregular occurring not quantifable things
 
Yea.
Me:

Rent 250? (inc. water elec. DSL TV roommate)
Food 150?
Random 100? (inc. everything else)

total 500?/month

First of all. House hold items are pretty cheap and durable. How many light bulbs do you think you use during a month? Id say 15$ should be enough for one person per month.

If you dont have particularly expensive taste for food, 250$/month should be MORE than enough.

Why dont you buy your own machine for laundry? Youll get your money back easily within a year and it much easier.

Everything else seems about right...
 
Originally posted by: KrazyBabaGanoush
What about taxes? Medical? Savings? Emergency?
Click to expand...

My estimated net income of ~$1900 should be after taxes.

As for medical, savings, and emergency... dunno what to do.

Hopefully I don't have any emergency/medical expenses until after I'm off of probation at work. I'll save what I can, here and there, but I know that it'll be very little, at least at first.
 
Originally posted by: Mardeth
First of all. House hold items are pretty cheap and durable. How many light bulbs do you think you use during a month? Id say 15$ should be enough for one person per month.

If you dont have particularly expensive taste for food, 250$/month should be MORE than enough.

Why dont you buy your own machine for laundry? Youll get your money back easily within a year and it much easier.

Everything else seems about right...
Click to expand...

Light bulbs last quite a while. I'm not worried about them being a huge expense. 😛 But soaps, paper products, etc., add up, or so I'm told.
 
Originally posted by: senseamp
I guess I spend about 2200/month
RENT: $900 (1 br)
Car payment: $220
Car Insurance: $100
Gasoline:$100
Utils: $100
Cell: $40
Cable Modem: $30
Food/drink at home: $300
Restaurants/Bars: $200
Clothing: $100
Necessities/miscellaneous:$100
Click to expand...

mortage 1k
homeowners insurance 30
utils (gas/electric/watter/phone) 150
dsl 20
property tax 250

health insurance 200
car insurance 100
food/entertainment 250

= 2300

add 20% for misc = $2500/month
 
Originally posted by: senseamp
I guess I spend about 2200/month
RENT: $900 (1 br)
Car payment: $220
Car Insurance: $100
Gasoline:$100
Utils: $100
Cell: $40
Cable Modem: $30
Food/drink at home: $300
Restaurants/Bars: $200
Clothing: $100
Necessities/miscellaneous:$100
Click to expand...

good god, a 1br apt out here is $350/mo

(NW Pennsylvania)
 
You'll probably exceed that budget every month. You made no room for entertainment. Every time you go out to do anything(to drink, watch a movie, buy a book to read, etc) you'll go over the budget. Food budget can be higher or lower depending on your lifestyle. If you can't cook and don't like to eat well, then your food budget makes sense. If you like fine dining it's a little low. If you're willing to cook lunch and dinner, it'll probably be lower.
 
I think that after reading all of these replies that the answer is simple.


For whatever reason you are on probation and that is supposedly cutting your salary back quite a bit. You need to wait this out until after your probation is overwith and you are making enough money to be able to handle all of this responsibility. Take however many months that is to try to calculate realistic numbers of what you spend a month and try to save up as MUCH money as possible so that you actually have some form of reserves. If you are going into this just hoping you dont need to go to a doctor you're just asking for trouble.

It sounds like you need to deal with your parents and the issues you are having with them before you think about moving out and avoiding the real problem.
 
Originally posted by: lather164
I think that after reading all of these replies that the answer is simple.


For whatever reason you are on probation and that is supposedly cutting your salary back quite a bit. You need to wait this out until after your probation is overwith and you are making enough money to be able to handle all of this responsibility. Take however many months that is to try to calculate realistic numbers of what you spend a month and try to save up as MUCH money as possible so that you actually have some form of reserves. If you are going into this just hoping you dont need to go to a doctor you're just asking for trouble.

It sounds like you need to deal with your parents and the issues you are having with them before you think about moving out and avoiding the real problem.
Click to expand...

I'm on probation at work because I'm a new employee. It's a formality. The appropriate people have already cut my probation time from 2 years to 6 months, based on what they've seen me do. I have no way to calculate what I would realistically spend on food or household stuff, since I don't but that while I'm living with my parents. I agree that saving money is always a good idea.

The issues between myself and my parents are irreconcilable, as concluded by myself, my parents, mediators, an unknown number of social workers, countless lawyers and legal aids, and most of my associates that know both my parents and myself. I'm gay, and work in IT. My parents and biological family believe that homosexuality is equally bad as murder (and have no qualms about reminding me of that on a daily basis), and they think that computers are "the devil's work". We'll never get along. This issue isn't going away. At this point I would honestly rather see them killed in a tragic car accident than have to put up with them for another month. I'm tired of their BS.

<edit> Oh, and I agree that just hoping that I don't need to go to the doctor is stupid. </edit>
 
Looks like a very realistic budget to me. As mentioned the household and laundry seem high. Sure you could live like a broke college student, but why would you want to at this point? My suggestion to save money is avoid eating out and going to bars as much as possible. Spend a little more at the grocery store so you're less tempted to eat out. Also, you could pay off your car and get rid of a $200 a month liability. Try shopping around for a better insurance price, you might be able to save $30-40 a month. Get Quicken or Money and download your transactions directly into the program. This will help a lot towards seeing where your money is being spent. Get one of the 5% cash back credit cards if you don't already have one (ie., Citi Dividend Platinum Select.)

Be sure to budget for the move. There's the obvious cost of renting a truck or movers. Also, you've got a security deposit and fees to turn on the utilities. Than you've got all the supplies to stock the apartment. This could easily total $1000 when all is said and done.
 
Originally posted by: Dunbar
Looks like a very realistic budget to me. As mentioned the household and laundry seem high. Sure you could live like a broke college student, but why would you want to at this point? My suggestion to save money is avoid eating out and going to bars as much as possible. Spend a little more at the grocery store so you're less tempted to eat out. Also, you could pay off your car and get rid of a $200 a month liability. Try shopping around for a better insurance price, you might be able to save $30-40 a month. Get Quicken or Money and download your transactions directly into the program. This will help a lot towards seeing where your money is being spent. Get one of the 5% cash back credit cards if you don't already have one (ie., Citi Dividend Platinum Select.)

Be sure to budget for the move. There's the obvious cost of renting a truck or movers. Also, you've got a security deposit and fees to turn on the utilities. Than you've got all the supplies to stock the apartment. This could easily total $1000 when all is said and done.
Click to expand...

:thumbsup: Thanks!

I don't plan on eating out and going to bars all the time. Yes, I'd love to have a fairly active social life & spend some on entertainment, but if I don't have the money, then otherwise living comfortably takes priority.

Nope, I'm already receiving several discounts on my insurance. I'm with Nationwide... I shopped around a couple of months ago, and none of the other companies could come close to my current rate.

I already use Quicken... have for years. The data, however, isn't that useful at the moment, since my spending habits will be dramatically changing, and I have no past period of time similar enough to which I could compare the future to my projected expenses.

I don't have *any* credit cards at the moment. I'll consider applying for one that has a cash-back advantage.

Movers and truck are free (advantage to having family & friendly coworkers with trucks, that don't mind helping you move. I've received more offers to help me move out of my parents house than I could possibly recount, and I haven't asked a single person for help yet). Security deposit is already paid. I'll have to pay the fee to turn the utilities on, and for whatever further supplies I'm going to need for the new apartment. I figure that'll cost me a few hundred dollars total, if that.

Thanks for your advice! 🙂
 
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