Making less thatn 30K last year in the middle of charlotte I can tell you it is perfectly possible.....(for a family of 5)
This year life is easier, nice raise
(bout 40K expected this year)
anyway how..bills (house payment, utilities, car payment/insurance) comes to 1500, yep that was it, the rest is food gas and fun...
As for the exact numbers, well quick glance, gas costs less...we don't go out much (can't afford it anyway
.) matenence is less...newish car, no matenence really needed..except for oil, and levels of other stuff...which we change/ect. ourselves. Insurance is also less, I don't drive, so I have no insurance, just him, and it is 400 twice a year.
housing is more, though the insurance is tied in with car...good record helps. PMI is not it is tied with payment...we really need to work on that.
also retirement is less, sorry. no life insurance, yeah we know, sorry.
trash is zero, local recylce center/shared trash. hair is zero, I do our own if I do it....yeah well, we get rave reviews so I don't worry to much. electric is less, we just use less than average. gas is less, water is less than your number. internet is a bit less (no cable) we would drop it if we had to. Clothing is zero, if we need something we ask for it for a christmas present..but in general we have all we need, and then some (whoever has two coats let him give one to someone in need or something like that) Phone was less, but this year we have two phones (and used them in a recent emergency)
food on the other hand is more than your total, we spend the remaining 500 on it every month (well food and gifts and such)
Anyway, you would be amazed at what you can do if you need to, and we need to do some, other things..like not flushing, we don't do. And most of the time we remember to praise God that we don't have to! lable em luxuries....take pleasure where you can, and realize you don't need most of what you want.
oh yeah, no student loan, paid off his and I never had one.