Monthly Expenses, The Future, Etc.

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!

Our Time Broken Down

Hey friends. I'm feeling philosophical, so try and bear with me. I actually thought about this last night, thanks to an eruption of coffee-educed energy, but we'll see what I can remember.

Rob and I were on the topic of capitalism. I have a pretty big gripe with it. We spend such a huge portion of our life working so that we can afford to live comfortably. But what is living comfortably? In our society, living "happily" translates into a decent house, being able to pay all your bills, take two weeks of vacation every year (!!), and perhaps buy a few fancy gadgets every once in awhile.

This doesn't work for me. Not because I want a ton of wealth. And not because I don't want to work. It's kind of the opposite. I rather have very little as far as money or possessions go, but do what I love for a living. Doesn't that make more sense?

Going back to my last post, Lanark presents this issue in an interesting way. In the novel, characters can obtain things by giving up time in their future. At first this sounded like pure fantasy -- but it couldn't be further from the truth. That's how capitalism works.

If you get your money by working 40 hours a week, like most people, it's really just a physical representation of your time. For example, my time each week translates to around $600. With that, I can pay my bills, buy camera equipment, or take a train into New York. But I lose 40 hours of my life each week in order to earn these luxuries. [Don't get me wrong, I definitely don't hate my job, nor do I have it tough. I just would rather be exploring the world and taking pictures. You know, the "dream job" scenario.]

Wouldn't it be nice to spend the majority of our lives doing things that make us the happiest? But I guess that's just not how America works. [At least, for most of the middle to lower classes.]

I guess the moral of this story is simple. Time is all we really have. It's our truest possession. Spend it wisely. I wish I had the cushion of a religion to comfort me with thoughts of an afterlife or reincarnation. But that's another story.