Living Expenses under $10k/year - can it be done?

[CROWNVIC4LIFE]

Originally Posted By: Chuck1986
Apartment rent: 749/month
Heating & Electric: 50/month
Food: 15-20/week
Car Insurance: 1200/year
Fuel: 5/week



My electric bll is 300 bucks a month 10 months a year...I guess you do not plan on ever turning on your a/c.

Food is no where near that...I spent more then 20 bucks on food just last night.

Car insurance here is 1700 bucks a year...Car insurance generally goes up every year like everything else.

You can not find an apt here [and in most places] for 749 bucks a month...Generally its over a thousand a month and goes up every year...I am sure your 749 buck apt will be a lot higher in the near future.

Plus there are always a ton of unexpected expenses which crop up all the time and generally at the worst time possible.

 

[Gary Allan]

Quote:
LMAO you must plan to be single your entire life.


That was my first thought of some monkey wrench that would be thrown in his lower maintenance machinery. Man rarely lives alone.

Now if you can find a woman that shares your interests in saving, and can avoid the nesting ritual behaviors for a decade or two, then you might manage the good life on a discount.

I would tend to look at investments as defensive measures in avoided losses. I would think Roth's would be something I would max out in.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Chuck1986

Food: 15-20/week

I'd like some more details on this please.

 

[Cutehumor]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: Chuck1986

Food: 15-20/week

I'd like some more details on this please.


he's on the ramen noodle diet

 

[xxch4osxx]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: Chuck1986

Food: 15-20/week

I'd like some more details on this please.
Lol, thats nearly a daily amount for me, Id starve on $20.00 a week!

 

[L_Sludger]

Originally Posted By: Chuck1986
Apartment rent: 749/month
Heating & Electric: 50/month
Food: 15-20/week
Car Insurance: 1200/year
Fuel: 5/week

Change this around:
Rent a room: 400/month, utilities included. ($4800/year)
Find cheaper insurance (800/year) or ride a bike/take public transport (200/year)
Food: More realistically 35/week ($1820/year)
Fuel: 10/week (520/year)
You see, it still comes to less than $8,000.

You'll have to sacrifice but you can do it. Good luck. I lived extremely cheaply for some time in a very expensive housing market, and saved money hand over fist while doing so.

 

[Chuck1986]

Originally Posted By: bubbatime

Food at $20 per week? I eat $20 worth of food per DAY!!
Electric and heat for $50 - Not gonna happen


Well, I make BOTH of those happen. I eat well and live very comfortably. I'll have to post my grocery list some time.

 

[Big_Ed]

Sacrificing and scrimping and saving lots of money can definitely be done, but depriving yourself while you're young can get old really quick. I like to live life. There's no way I'll ever have anywhere near a million dollars, no matter when I retire, but I'll get by, enjoying life as much as I want along the way. Who says you have to have a million dollars to retire, anyway?

I guess the one thing I'd advise is to at least not scrimp so much that you make yourself miserable while you're young. Enjoy life. It's much too short. Good luck and take care!

 

[Chuck1986]

I don't know how you guys spend so much on food. I am very well nourished and eat three square meals a day with several snacks in between, all for less than 20/week. I just happen to have last week's shopping list handy:
18 oz peanut butter 1.49
16 oz kidney beans 1.75
42 oz raw oatmeal 1.79
(4) 5-oz cans chunk lite tuna 2.76
8 oz cheese 1.99
2.5 lbs bananas 1.24
loaf whole wheat bread 1.69
(6) packs ramen noodles 0.99
1/2 gallon milk 1.60
(2) 16-oz spaghetti 1.38
29 oz tomato sauce 0.89
(2) 16-oz frozen veggies 2.00
1 can frozen orange juice 1.29

There ya have it. To be fair, I do have a 6-lb pack of lean ground beef sitting in my freezer that I paid about $11 for and that lasts several weeks.

 

[Chuck1986]

Originally Posted By: Big_Ed
Sacrificing and scrimping and saving lots of money can definitely be done, but depriving yourself while you're young can get old really quick. I like to live life. There's no way I'll ever have anywhere near a million dollars, no matter when I retire, but I'll get by, enjoying life as much as I want along the way. Who says you have to have a million dollars to retire, anyway?

I guess the one thing I'd advise is to at least not scrimp so much that you make yourself miserable while you're young. Enjoy life. It's much too short. Good luck and take care!


Good point but ya know what's funny? I enjoy life more when I don't splurge. It's so rewarding.

 

[Chuck1986]

Originally Posted By: Cutehumor
Chuck, your going to be a pharmacist. So why the penny pinching? if you move in with your parents for free, you can bankroll a ton of money (no expenses for rent/electric/food if your lucky) but your Dad will kick you in the can if you live with him for free on a pharmacist salary. I did the same when I was in nursing school and graduated with no student loans/debt. I drove beaters. When I think about it, I'm ashamed on how long I stayed with my parents but I did what needed to be done. Now, I'm stylin and profilin but that's another story

I thought about living with my parents for a couple years after pharmacy school just so I could save up a good sum of money for a house or whatever..I haven't ruled it out yet.

Your nursing school story sounds like what I'm doing right now...did you get your BSN or ADN?

 

[Gary Allan]

A minimalist existence has its rewards. It doesn't mean that you have to go without fun experiences, nor without some of the finer things in life. It just means that you don't fall into the trap of living at the razor's edge of what you can afford. I wish I could have avoided it for the front half of my life. Now it's kinda a mandate and, naturally, adopted too late to get full benefit out of it.

We live in a culture where your first rule is to chase a buck. The second is to hold on to it for the shortest time possible. In the middle of that is a whole lot of squirrel cage spinning.

 

[eljefino]

Consider the trauma of moving, even across town. One's own castle that they never need move from again has intangible rewards. I made it my goal to get set up relatively quickly... even paying stuff like PMI for a lower-down mortgage. The head start it's given me to tweak my house the way I like it has been useful; even most of a decade later it's not done.

 

[msparks]

Retire at 40? I'll be 40 next month. I just can't imagine retiring EVER!!!!!!

Trying finding something you enjoy doing, and doing it until you die. You will live longer, happier and become more "wealthy" not just in monetary terms but in the fruitfulness of your life.

And you 1.2 mil won't buy you squat in 20 years if you can even get that far. Lets see, you invested in the stock market 20 years ago you you wouldn't be very far ahead.

Oh and BTW, all those simulations on historical returns need to go back a little farther than the 80 or so years they always show.

100% of all fiat currencies have failed in the past. This one is going to do the same.

Good luck with you "pipe dream".

I'll be content living mine, and not living on peanut butter and Ramien for the rest of my life....yikes (you probably won't live to 40 eating that stuff.

 

[dishdude]

Wait, isn't this the guy a few weeks back that was too cheap to buy a new drain plug for his oil pan and wanted to use a bolt from Home Depot?

 

[GROUCHO MARX]

When I was his age I spent 90 percent of my money on women and booze, I wasted the other 10 percent.

 

[mechtech2]

Why did you neglect to mention the Gym fees?

 

[uc50ic4more]

Here's a manual for minimizing domestic expenses

: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden

 

[fdcg27]

Finally, what is life without a spouse?
Two really can live as cheaply as one, and it would be a very lonely life without someone about whom you care without reservation who feels the same about you to sleep with every night, particularly as you grow older.
On a practical level, if your wife also makes a decent living, and you live without constant extravagance, you can have a nice house, drive nice cars, take nice vacations, and eat food you really enjoy, and still end up banking nearly one entire salary.
So, you can have a nice nest egg, a life partner, and a lot of enjoyment and satisfaction along the way, without making a pauper of yourself.
Incidentally, I have an uncle who had a good job, but not an exceptional one.
His wife never worked, and they had two kids, both of whom they sent to college, as well as a paid for house.
With all of that, he was worth five million dollars when he retired.
My parents raised five children, all of whom they sent through at least undergraduate school, a three thousand square foot house, in which I grew up, on which they septupled their money when they finally sold it, as well as a very comfortable life along the way.
They retired worth comfortably into seven figures.
So, being miserly to the point of living as a pauper is not the only route to personal wealth.

 

[01rangerxl]

I could live off less than $10K a year, but honestly I wouldn't want to.

Do you need full coverage on the car? $1200 is a ton of money to insure a 9 year old Mitsubishi. I have liability and uninsured motorist coverage on my truck, and it's $180 for 6 months of coverage. It's just not worth dumping money into full coverage after a certain point.

Your rent is really high. It may be typical for the area, but maybe consider getting roommates. I live in a 3 br/2.5 bath house with two other guys. Our house/bills expense is about $425-$450 per month per person, which I think is pretty reasonable for what we have.

The $5 per week fuel cost seems optimistic, even if you are close to the grocery store. I probably use close to $5 a day in gas.

Props for planning though. As demar said, most of us in this age group are just planning for next weekend. I'm guilty of that. I spent as much on alcohol this weekend as you are planning to spend on food for a week.