For over a year now, I’ve been living with my parents — well, sort of. I’ve been living in the lower half of their duplex-ish house. I say “ish” because it’s not legally a duplex, and we have rooms in our portion that my parents still use. No big deal, my parents are very cool. Plus, they only charge me for my share of utilities, so I’ve been able to save a ton.
Despite all the perks, I’ve been very eager to get my own place. There are a lot of silly reasons (like I want to decorate and buy my own furniture), but also some legitimate ones (like how I want to feel like an adult). After looking for months and months, I think we’ve finally found the perfect place. I don’t want to jinx it, so I won’t write too much about it yet — but it seems the landlady really liked us, so our fingers are crossed.
I do want to write about my current lifestyle, and what will change upon moving out. Like I said, right now my expenses are minimal. I pay my dad $150 to cover the utilities I use, along with $90 for my car insurance and $60 for my cell phone (we’ve got family plans for both, so it’s just easier to pay my share directly to him). After those bills, I spend around $150 on groceries each month, plus about $50-100 in pet supplies (the summer costs more because of Dexter’s flea and ticket preventatives). I usually spend around $60 on gas each month, and I’m not sure if this will go up or down once I move. I’ll be working from home, but I’ll be driving a little further to see friends, so I expect it’ll be around the same. Oh, and I pay $8 a month for my web space.
After what I have to pay for, there tends to be a few things I enjoy spending money on. Primarily going out to eat; a budget I set and regularly go over. I could easily spend $200 a month eating out — but I’ve been keeping it at about $75 a month as of late. Then I budget myself another $75 for random fun, like going to the movies or seeing a concert.
So all in all, my monthly budget is low. Right now I can get by on under $1,000 a month — however, I usually end up spending around $1,200 to $1,300. It seems each month I have a $100-200 unexpected expense (car trouble, sick pet, doctor’s appointment), so I usually factor that in when I do my monthly planning.
That being said, I will have some new expenses upon moving out. Of course, first and foremost will be rent. I’m prepared to pay up to $700. Then utilities are an add on, however, the house we’re looking at has everything but electricity included — so that’s a huge bonus. Electricity and internet will probably cost me around $100 a month (since it’s split between house mates).
So all in all, I can expect my monthly expenses to look something like this:
If I keep up my current trend of spending an additional $400-500 on top of this, I’ll be spending roughly $1,900 a month. Since I get paid around $2,400 a month, I’ll still be able to save about $500, which I’ve set as a goal saving mark for myself. However, I think I can cut back some of my spending and keep my monthly expenses around $1,700. The more I can save, the better, since I’ll have a lot of big expenses coming up soon (new car, laptop).
Lastly, I should apologize — this post is extremely boring, I know. It’s really just for myself, so I can ease my worries about moving out. I cling to the money I make, so it’s going to be tough to drop a bunch of it on a security deposit, furniture, etc. But it will be very exciting. I love change!
