How Much (or Little) do you need minimum to live on each Month? Me...$1500

[masmdu]

Me (for family of 4)
Health Insurance: $640
Food: $440
Bills: $320
Misc: $100

Total (minimum): $1500

Just curious how much others spend per month/ or what the minimum is you need per month.

[Muttocracy]

1. no housing? and where are you geographically? nt

[masmdu]

19. Greensboro, NC

[Donnachaidh]

2. I take it you own your home outright?

Pretty low bills without rent or mortgage payment.

[NNN0LHI]

4. Still got to pay property taxes right?

Unless someone is living with their parents or something?

Mine are over $4000.00 per year for a small house.

Don

[Wcross]

50. I pay 350 a year for a small house on 15 acres.

Of course the level of services is low to match. I don't ask or need much though so I'm happy.

[Muttocracy]

59. wow, those are low taxes

Property and school taxes for the more rural areas outside the college town where I work (no way I could afford in the city itself) run 3-4% of the fair market value of the home per year. So a $100,000 property costs $3500 in property taxes a year.

I do like NY state but the taxes are a killer. Services are not as good as they should be at that price.

[masmdu]

9. Yes. Own home.

[girl gone mad]

49. no property taxes?

Your expenses seem pretty low for a family of 4.

[tachyon]

3. Pretty similar budget here:

Stuff $1400
Miscellaneous $100

[robinlynne]

5. I wish. start with rent, 900 per month.

[ngant17]

6. you have health insurance?

you must be awfully rich to afford that, and still keep a roof over your head.

Health insurance is a luxury I can't afford, it should be a necessity but I live paycheck to paycheck.

Your minimum needed per month is an average but what about the sudden unpredictable variances, such as illness, unemployment, emergencies, ect.? You can't just say that $X dollars is an average, you have to figure in emergencies, which will great effect the basic need per month. I have tires that need fixing, my car is in desperate need of repairs, the housing I'm living in needs work, leaking roof, ect., ect. Do you really need hot water for showers? Do you really need heat in the winter? It's a survival question.

[Speck Tater]

7. 1200 is more than enough.

I buy most of my food staples in bulk at a restaurant supply house and grow my own fruits and veggies. I only shop once every 2 or 3 months.

[Wcross]

52. How do you buy from a supply house? It sounds like it might save $?

I've been thinking about that but don't know how to go about it. Do you just show up like a grocery store or do you have to deal with a salesman? Could you point me in the right direction?

[JDPriestly]

72. Are you vegetarian? If not, what about milk, meat, eggs and butter?

[conflictgirl]

8. Based on our current bills its much higher than that

$2500 a month here for a family of five, but 1/5 of that is my student loan repayments. Honestly I am beating myself up for being unable to get it lower, but we don't even have car payments.

[Juche]

10. roughly 1200

thats for a 20 something single person in an area with low rent who owns his car.

I have no idea how you raise a family on $1500.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

12. Me neither. How does that work? nt

[CRF450]

73. Ha! I'm 21 and living with almost $2k in expenses, but another grand left...

For other things. See my post down below #67.

[Warpy]

11. I lived on $800 for three years

when the first $560 was still going to a mortgage. The best thing I can say about living that way is that it was boring.

I own my house now, so that $800 would be princely. In fact, it's about what I'm living on. Bills, especially taxes and insurance, have increased so much that $600 is probably the minimum for comfort.

[lligrd]

13. Yikes!

House Payment: $800
Gas $600
Food $500
Bills: $450 (Gas, Electric, Water, Trash, Cell Phone, Land Line, Cable TV, Internet)
Misc: $200
Pets: $1000
Auto Insurance: $500

Family of three total: $3450

California

[Donnachaidh]

14. a GRAND a month on PETS? I gotta ask -- WHY?

Do you have show animals? :wow:

[lligrd]

16. LOL Had A Feeling Someone Would

No show animals, and not a hoarder either. Just a sucker for the homeless (animals that is). Three dogs, one cat, 12 fish and a horse, the horse being the major cost. Seems you need to board, feed, trim and train a horse and since I am not particularly horse savvy I have to pay for the training of both the horse and myself.

[troubleinwinter]

20. Horse boarding and training for horse and yourself is not a typical expense.

[lligrd]

24. Not Typical But It Is Necessary

No way I am ditching the horse. I suppose we could move in with it.

[tachyon]

27. I could give you $1.95 a pound for it

if you'll wrap for the freezer

[lligrd]

31. Not The Least Bit Funny

:spray: And you could only get the cat for that price anyway.

[Name removed]

48. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[lligrd]

65. Oh My... Just don't Tell Spitzer

how over charged he was.

[Donnachaidh]

70. they become as much a part of the family as other critters.

And vets don't give any sort of breaks for treating them.

[Donnachaidh]

68. ahh -- gotcha on the horse costs

I kind of wondered. Being a former standardbred person I know EXACTLY what you mean by those costs.

[Mountainman]

18. I use to spend more than that on 4 hourses. Feed, vet, tack, medications ect.

I had my own facilities so I didn't need to board them. Also had 6 dogs and 2 cats. Total monthly costs about $6,700.

[lligrd]

25. Yep, Not Cheap By Any Means

But they are members of the family now.

[AlCzervik]

28. about $3,000 a month.

[elehhhhna]

15. 4 K. Plus about 8K for gas, lol

[conflictgirl]

22. Thank you for posting...I was starting to wonder if I was in an alternate reality here

Honestly I live in a fairly low income area and I don't know anyone who can get by on much below $2K. Actually considering the fact that most people I know have a mortgage payment of at least $800-$1000, 1-2 cars at $300-$600 payments each and the "thrifty" food budget according to the USDA for a family of 4 is like $150 a week, that alone would be about $2000 a month without even adding in gas, utilities, child care, health care, student loans, credit cards, etc. I think there must be a whole lot more people with way higher expenses than the responses so far would suggest.

(on edit: fix error)

[Lorien]

58. that's what I was thinking too. My mortgage w/ taxes and insurance

is about $1,300, my debt (mostly medical) is around $565 each month. About $120 for groceries, $150 for prescriptions, $80 for gas, Health insurance (which has never paid for a damn thing) is $189, pets- about $60, $130 for extra storage and office space, utilities (including internet service) around $400, misc. about $300. So that brings me to around 3,300 for the month-and I don't have a family! :-(

[Mountainman]

17. No housing?

[DFW]

21. Hmmm, well support a household in Euros in Germany, plus 2 girls in college in the USA

and I've been known to eat lunch on occasion.

I haven't tallied it up, but I don't see any point in
getting myself into a foul mood by doing so.

[Mike03]

23. I'm working on this right now, as I write this, trying to cut every single discretionary thing

I buy.

Food: $550 (overspending to get organics, nutritional supplements that probably do nothing for me, and OTC medicines like Aleve, Motrin, etc.)
Utilities: During the winter, $1,000 (mostly because of $500 propane heating bills--this is much lower during the rest of the year)
Credit Cards: $3,000. This is where I'm cutting drastically.
Discretionary: (DVDs, entertainment, etc...) $40

Other: $300 a month.

I don't eat out at all, which is one area where I save money.

I have just been very reckless in a few areas:

Books (had to cancel my Amazon account)
Nutritional Supplements (had to cancel an account with my vitamin provider)

[pitohui]

26. good for you but MOST families also need housing

there's clearly something wrong with your budget, you have zero dollars allocated for rent or mortgage

[AlCzervik]

if i backed out my mortgage i could live what the op does most likely. I think

the op represents a small minority.

[pitohui]

66. not if you actually used the health insurance (think deductibles)

this person claims that all misc. expenses are $100 per month, so the first time someone actually does get ill and they have to pay co-pays, buy medicine, taxi's to the doctor -- notice there is no car or fuel expenses -- and so on -- the budget is busted

there's just not enough "there there" -- no savings for emergencies or retirement listed either

basically they can only manage to keep going like this as long as absolutely nothing ever goes wrong

also in most families of four there is at least one person who wears CLOTHES, another item not listed in the budget -- you never get an entire family that size where everybody is lucky enough to be able the right size and shape to be able to dig through a neighbor's cast-offs for nothing

[Mike03]

29. You are the ideal, in my opinion

I would give anything to be able to cut my expenses to the level you are talking about. I'm trying to do that, but finding it difficult. Hopefully soon I will get there.

To me, this is an important thread. Maybe some of us here could learn something from the tactical approach others here at DU are taking to this spending crisis.

One thing I did do right, and still recommend (although it sounds bizarre) is hoarding essentials. In the 1990s I began stocking up on things like clothing, and in the 2000s I began stocking up on and rotating food, water, medical supplies, fire extinguishers. The bottom line is that, at least for now, the bulk of the "commodities" I have were purchased when they were much cheaper than they are now. For example, I have a lot of basic clothes like pants and shirts that have never been worn and that were purchased ten or twenty years ago when I was still in school. But I think it's still important to be thinking in this way, because inflation will continue, perhaps at an exponential scale.

[Donnachaidh]

71. Stocking up on clothes I would think would be easier for guys

Y'all don't get into that *gotta have the latest fashion* thing that women get roped into. I've managed to keep my evil half in some decent threads, because he's slim. But finding essentials like jeans is tough because he's 6'5", and slender. It seems as if all the basic jeans are being made for people with short legs. And our son is quickly reaching his height, but he's built like a footballer. There is no way he's going to fit in Dad's stuff.

One way for college kids to try to save money on clothes is consignment shops. They have one locally called Plato's Closet, and I'm able to find stuff my kid would actually want to wear, instead of barfing and complaining that my tastes in men's clothes suck. I've picked up some great stuff that is *gently worn* there. And if you hit the sales (yes, even consignment stores have sales) you can do really well.

I -don't- cheap out on shoes. That's one area that you should be careful about. Bad shoes can cause real problems, no matter how *trendy* they are.

Medical supplies are a MUST, as well as water supplies. After watching the fiasco following Katrina, I'm not going to be dependant on FEMA or even the Red Cross to cover us on stuff. It's always a good idead to keep an emergency supply of essential prescriptions in the house, in an easily accessible (but out of sight) area.

Also look for close-out stores in your area for other essentials. You can save some serious cash on shopping for cleaning items, etc., at close-out stores.

[seabeyond]

30. sheeeit, ... i did a rough est this morning. was curious myself. around 6k

lollol. didnt get it down on paper and perused the brain for expenses, so sure i didnt get them all, so rounded off high.

[Mike03]

33. That's closer to where I've been lately.

It makes me shiver.

[seabeyond]

35. i dont like it either. BUT.... things mean little to me, (different for rest of family)

and wouldnt hurt my feelings at all to downsize

further, ... we have little debt and are working down what we have

[Mike03]

36. For sure, one thing I do every month is pay off ALL the debt.

The past few months, I've spent an awful lot on medical text books, which are usually about $250 per book. And I've spent way, way too much on nutritional supplements.

I'm hoping that having cancelled my accounts for books and nutritional supplements, my credit bills should drop like a rock.

[AlCzervik]

32. don't you have property taxes?

[Mike03]

38. That's a once-a-year expenditure.

But I was also wondering the same thing.

Where do we put vehicle registration, car and property insurance, and property taxes.

[AlCzervik]

40. maybe the op counts that as "Misc". i included my car insurance and property taxes

and homeowners ins in my monthly figure.

[Mike03]

43. Good point. You maybe right. NT

[Muttocracy]

45. where I live it is built into your mortgage payment; and it's 3-4% of FMV per year.

I think until you have high equity in the house.

You also have to pay 14 months in advance to buy the house, which is one of the things holding me back from buying a house. Trying to save up the cash, though I also am trying to pay down other debts. It stinks to be paying half my landlord's mortgage instead of investing in my own future.

[Samurai_Writer]

34. Here's mine

Mortgage+Lot Rent: $850 (only for another 2 years, then drops to $465)
Utilities: $250 (electric, gas, water, sewer, and trash)
Internet: $60 (need for work)
Phone: $70
Food: $300
Gas: $120
Medical Bills: $300 (that's not my insurance, it's what I pay after insurance for my medical bills)
Car Insurance: $40
Car Maintenance: $100
House Maintenance: $100
Miscellaneous: $100

Total: $2290

[Mike03]

37. Kick and Rec

These very timely posts are always helpful, therapeutic and fascinating to me, as are the replies.

We are in difficult times, and it's good to share and read what others are saying and thinking.

[Mike03]

39. How can you subsist on that amount for food, for a family of

four?

[masmdu]

53. We shop well and garden

For example a loaf of 9grain bread at the local supermkt is $3.04. The exact same brand a the discount baked goods store is 2 (two) for $1.09 or six for 1 compared to the local supermkt.

Eggs at the supermkt (cagefree w omega3)$2.39 ....at the farmers mkt same eggs are 36 for $2

No meat except for occasional fish

Bulk purchase of dried goods, lentils, beans, rice

Rarely eat out

It all adds up

[nonconformist]

41. What about housing costs? Mine is about $3000

Let's see... we're a family of four, which includes two growing boys of 10 and almost 13...

Mortgage/home owner's insurance: $900
Food: $600
Car/insurance: $450
Internet/TV/Phone: $200
Electricity/Water: $250
Pets/School expenses: $100
Gas: $300
Misc: $200

Total (minimum): $3,000

There's probably something I forgot, but we have no debt outside of one car and our home.

We could live without the internet and TV, but that is really our only recreational spending outside of books.

[Muttocracy]

42. Living Wage calculator website

http://www.livingwage.geog.psu.edu/ - fun to play with

others if you google living wage (term usually for getting by in reasonable living standard - bus or cheap car, shared but decent housing, decent but simple food, etc.

Living wage in my area of upstate NY calculated by my local credit union is $20,450.21/yr for a single person living in pretty basic situation except luxury of living alone, employer providing part of health insurance coverage. That assumes no debt payments; I could live under that except for paying off student loans and credit card debt (now in cheaper installment loan) from a period of unemployment, and I have dogs so have fewer choices of apartments and pay more for housing.

[Muttocracy]

47. also shows living wage vs. minimum wage; you can search by state or city

[Xenotime]

44. We are getting by.

Home Mortgage $1,496
Other Mortgage $830
Gas $400
Student Loans $172
Credit Card $401
Groceries $500
Car Loans $222
Other $200
Phone $200
Insurance $70
Utils $320

Total $4811

[Mike03]

46. Maybe some of us could benefit from a forum that is about

how to exist on as little money as possible. There have been some fantastic threads about this lately. The forum could be called "bare bones" or something like that.

Maybe I'm alone, but maybe not, when I say this topic has been very much on my mind lately.

[Lorien]

62. There's already a couple of forums like that

The economic activism and progressive living group is for those who want to live simply and cheaply but not patronize GOP owned businesses. The frugal living and energy efficient group is for those who want to live simply and cheaply but still shop at Wal-Mart.

[Muttocracy]

64. thanks for pointing those out

:hi:
I hadn't explored that set of forums yet

Mike03, here's a link to the list of them:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=352

[Muttocracy]

63. Maybe you could suggest a new forum?

I'm not sure if it would fit under "economics". Maybe a "frugal living" forum? Tips from the forever frugal and those of us who have learned some things the hard way (I'm a mix of both!)

Actually now that I look there is a "poverty" forum but I don't know if it's policy or individual discussion. Off to check it out...

[Roon]

51. I live on 789.00 a month

400.00 rent
100.00 cable and broadband
55.00 phone
100.00 gas electric

The rest I spend on food, kitty food and litter, and toiletries.
I also get food stamps and go to a food bank once a week, I get my bus tokens for free and don't have a copay on my meds. So I make it.

[fed-up]

54. need monthly-$652, earn-$150-200, food stamps=$162, borrow-$40-100,don't pay-$250

I just got my 1st disapproval from disability, apparently they think I won't leave a trail of bodies in my wake if I find a light duty job that isn't around people. I earn money by selling my unneeded crap at the very slow flea market (seems no-one else has money either)

I will be contacting a disability lawyer next week...

Right now my monthly expenses should be $652:

Home: ($250)
$0 roof--I own my toxic non-disclosed to me former meth lab home (can't get a room-mate to help with expenses once I tell them)
$200-Prop tax-(not paying as I plan on rescinding contract and getting out of this toxic hellhole when I find a lawyer-f*ck the county that did nothing to stop these homes from getting sold to unsuspecting buyers)
$50-Ins-don't have as was expecting help from renter-see above

Utilities ($127.50):
$60 - Internet/phone-my lifeline to family/friends/world/news/diversion from pain etc
$33 - PG&E - (discounted-went without heat this winter so I could have internet-)
$32 - Water/Sewer - (this will go down as I just discovered they have a low income program)
$2.50 Garbage- (I buy a green bag once a month and they pick up my can when I put it out-I also take some trash to BF's)


Transportation: ($113)
$0 -car-own 1985 Toyota
$33 -Insurance (very limited coverage, plus excellent driving record)
$5 - Registration (cheap because the vehicle is old)
$25 - gas
$50 - repairs/maintenance-I borrow from BF when these are needed

Food: ($162)
$162- (I get food stamps for food expenses)


edited to add that if my boyfriend wasn't letting me run a tab with him I probably would have od'd on some of the anti-depressant medications I was given. It is horrific and humilating to have to ask each month to borrow when I need to. I had a few plans for things I could to do earn money in addition to getting a room-mate while awaiting disability approval, but my body is not up to it. My memory problems leave running a CSA out of the question and I am just not up to dealing with the public full-time. At the flea market at least I can not show up, show up late, lay down, walk around as needed. At least there is some benefit to very few customers. :)

Edited again to add the most important category:

ENTERTAINMENT-that would be covered under internet and DU, thanks, ya'all for being here!!!


and one more category I forgot:
Medical Insurance-after Blue Cross denied me coverage 9 years ago because of an error in my chart, they are finally covering me through the county version of medi-cal

[Wcross]

55. My confession.

Rent/mortgage = 0 (Paid off my house two months ago)
Property tax = 30.00
Homeowners insurance = 41.00
Car payment = o.oo
Car insurance = 39.00
Internet 80.00 ( Only option is satalite for broadband)
Television 80.00 (Direct TV)
Utilities = 70 to 120 a month depending on the season.
Gasoline = 200.00
Car/home maintenence = 60.00
Pet care = Whatever it takes.

My before eating minimum is 650 bucks.

[Muttocracy]

61. Congrats on the house payoff!!

That must feel great. I just paid off my car loan and now I can double up on my student loan, so I can only imagine the mortgage!

[Maggie_May]

56. wow must be nice you must tell me how

family of 4 here
800 food
1200 house payment and tax's and insurance
350 car payment
217 car insurance for 3 cars
400 bills gas electric water cable phone
right now about 400 gas for cars so me and hubby can get to work
No credit card payments yay!!!

So you have no car payment food at 440 a month eat a lot of hot dogs milk is 4 bucks bread is 1.50 eggs are 2.49 and doz.
Just of little curious what your menu is in a day breakfast lunch and dinner so I could add it up.
what is your gas and electric mine is at least 100 bucks each just wondering with a family of 4 you must not have a water bill.

[kineneb]

57. about $1000 for two

housing (incl. insurance, tax) =$350! (paying off very small equity loan)
utilities= $360
auto= $180
food/sundries= ~$200

We have to stay within the $1200 that Hubby gets for SSDI.

[Mike03]

60. You have definitely inspired me to do better with my expenditures.

Thanks for posting this, and I think these kinds of posts really help people.

[CRF450]

67. hhhmm, lets see...

house: $900/month (durring the summer I'll be putting in more than that, I want it paid off FAST!
satallite tv: $60/month
DSL internet: $50/month
utilities: $280/month
food: $200/month
truck payments: $295/month
phone:$40/month (cellphone that is, I dont have a land line nor do I see a need for one)
other stuff: well, it depends. I already got a bunch of "guy" toys that I want. $6,000 hometheatre/stereo setup, $2,000 gaming computer, $5,000 dirtbike, $18,000 car (01 Trans Am WS6), a $14,000 truck (04 Dodge Dakota), just over a grand in an aftermarket stereo system upgrades in each vehicle. The T/A is paid off and so is the dirtbike, but I still owe 11 grand for the truck becuase of having the house now. Normally, stuff I buy is just a game or two for the computer, a few new clothes, tools. Right now, I just wanna save my money and pay off my house as fast as I can. Most people my age (at 21) would keep spending, and spending, and spending...

So my grand total of monthly payments is close to $2k/month, I dont have health insurance, but I REALLY should get it. I make around 3 grand a month so I can afford it, but I absolutly HATE scrapping by paycheck to paycheck.

I live by myself BTW in a 1800sq/ft house on a 2 acre lot, but I may have a friend move in and pay me rent.

[Breeze54]

69. I want half a million minimum a month but

I survive on about $##### a month.

But I could use a helluva lot more!!!

:hi:

[Honeycombe8]

74. What's missing are annual expenses, like medical care (Rx, co-pays, what the

ins. doesn't pay), clothing (the kiddies need school clothes, shoes), school events (band trip, band instruments, or whatever), school physed uniforms, school lunches, auto insurance, homeowner's insurance, house repairs, car repairs and maintenance.

Reminds me of a friend who asked how much I'd need to retire on, and he was shocked at how much I said, as a minimum. He said he'd need half that. He recited the basic expenses of food, gasoline, etc. But then I reminded him that there are all sorts of bills that come up annually, or occasionally, like the ones above.

You take the annual estimated expenses, divide it by 12, then add that to your monthly income needs.

Mine before the annual expenses is okay. But it doubles after I add the annual/occasional expenses.

[SoCalDem]

75. about $2200..including house payment

we have no credit cards or car payments..
and could trim it down considerably if we gave up our entertainment/eating out 3 or 4 times a week, and downsized our Dish TV service..

If the housing market ever rebounds, and we can buy something outright, by selling our house when my husband retires in a few years, we could keep the goodies and make it on about $1k a month :)

[Tunkamerica]

76. 900$ a month

the rest is on restaurants/fun



durham nc/ rent for $525

utilities $100
food $100
car $150 everything except gas
cell $20



maybe $1000 if i buy something else


on edit: with about $2000 for emergencies, hopefully I won't have one till I find a better job

[Vinca]

77. I'm too depressed to respond to this thread other than to ask -

where the heck do you people buy food so cheaply?

[durutti]

78. I'm currently a VISTA volunteer...

$850/month -- before taxes. No food stamps because I'm "voluntarily impoverished", apparently.

Needless to say, it sucks.

[Th1onein]

79. About $3000 a month

But, then, I pay a LOT of other people's bills for them.

[B Calm]

80. Everything I have is paid for. Just my wife and I now, so I can get

by probably on less than a thousand a month. I'll have to continue to cut firewood for heat, plant my yearly vegetable garden, hang clothes out to dry, etc etc. . . but, I always have been fiscally conservative and socially liberal.

[lumberjack_jeff]

81. Me $2500. Family of five.

house pmt 730
groceries 500
fuel 450
insurance 150
utilities 200
other bills 300
school expenses 50
household 100

"minimum" is a spectrum depending on the magnitude of the crisis.

[leeroysphitz]

82. For my family? I don't know and I hope I never have to find out. n/t