Monday, January 7, 2008

That's My Budget And I'm Stickin' To It!

Now that I'm done with my minimum wage dreams post, let's get down to my actual real-life budget.

Income
Job 1 $1500/month after taxes and maxing out the 403b (woohoo!)
Job 2 $500
Total $2000


Expenses
Housing $365/month
Utilities $0 (gas, electric, internet, laundry included above)
Gym $45 (I love my gym and I will get $300 of this reimbursed over the year)
Health Insurance $0
Transportation $80 (for gas)
Groceries $200
Save to spend $100 (includes savings for annual/quarterly payments like car insurance, car registration, home maintenance etc.)
Student loans $85
Other debt $1,000
Wiggle room $125
Total $2,000

By the end of the month I will have moved some money out of old investments to fully fund a Roth IRA.

I already have $4K in my emergency fund.

By December all of my non-mortgage debts should be paid off if I stick to this budget. I mean, they will be paid off because I will stick to this budget!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

In your listing out of expenses I can't fathom where you live that is so not expensive, $350 for a house ? Nobody pays that little for a house mortage.

The average I would guess is from $2000+ monthly just for mortage. I suppose if you have room mates then that would explain it.

I don't think it's a realistic representation of thriving on minimum wage if you are in a room mate situation.

One person living on minimum wage now that's a realistic model. Having outside assistance with expenses is cheating if you ask me.

If you are receiving outside assistance then I can't take this blog seriously.

moneychallenge said...

Anonymous, the details of how I'm paying $350 for my house are in numerous posts on this blog. I DO have roommates and I DON'T get public assistance.

And if you can only fathom paying $2000+ for a mortgage then you have a LOT of research ahead of you! It is very very possible. The mortgage and interest on one of my houses (bought for $60K in 2006) is under $400 every month.

This particular post is not about living on minimum wage. This is my ACTUAL budget... and if you read ahead you'll see that I've posted updates on how it worked out in reality.