Help me with my budget please!

**disneysteve** · 03-10-2009, 04:18 PM

One person shouldn't be spending anywhere near $300/month on food. That would be $10/day. I'd cut that in half, and a lot of folks will tell you to cut it even more than that.

As for utilities, that will vary based on where you live, what type of heat and appliances you have, even where in an apartment building your unit is located (first floor, second floor, sunny side of building, shaded courtyard, etc).

Internet around here is $30-$40/month. Not sure if it is the same in Canada.

**red92s** · 03-10-2009, 04:59 PM

Originally posted by disneysteve View Post

One person shouldn't be spending anywhere near $300/month on food. That would be $10/day. I'd cut that in half, and a lot of folks will tell you to cut it even more than that.

I'm a young professional living on my own, and I easily spend $300 a month on food. But, I make $0 in debt payments, and can save roughly 40% of my net income . . . so I let myself slide on food. I'm also trying to gain weight (harder than it sounds), so I eat a lot (~4,000 cal/day).

Here is some of my other "fixed" expenses:
Rent: $850 (nice studio apartment)
Cell: $42
Power: $220 (electric heat, live in New England . . .should drop fast now)
Laundry: $3 per load (wash/dry), 2 loads/week + detergent
Internet: $0 (several unsecured networks nearby)
Gas: $22 per fill, average 4.5 fills per month
Gym: $49 (no contract)
Cable: $62 (HD with DVR service)
Household Consumables: about $5 week (TP, paper towels, trash bags, cleaning)
Personal Care: about $5 week (soap, shampoo, razors, etc)
Renters insurance: $10/month
Auto Insurance: $76/month (full coverage, 2003 Mazda)
Entertainment: A lot less than I'd like actually. I work 60+ hour weeks and don't know many people in the area. If this category were above $75/month . . . It's be a sign I was developing a social network, which I desperatley need.

Half my net monthly income safely covers the above items (excluding food), remainder going towards savings goals.

**snafu** · 03-10-2009, 05:00 PM

U of M can provide details of campus housing costs. Room & Board accom. are available for students, check on-line Wpg. Free Press; likewise renting a room or house share with use of kitchen, laundry. share bthrm.
There is good public transportation to U of M. making driving, parking pointless expense. A beater [car] won't start when it's -40C wind chill -90C, so add AMA & towi ng cost & wait time to your planning.

There are multi cookbooks for college kids and RVers, ask at your local library or peruse the next time you pass Chapters. Order your choice on e-bay. Entertainment is as high or low as you like. Lots of students work PT and keep up coursework and grades.

**whitestripe** · 03-10-2009, 05:05 PM

how old are you? male or female? what will be your income? i dont see any savings listed, which should be a part of your budget. if you plan on having a car, you should probably atleast have a small emergency fund for repairs.
i can't really comment on any of your bills expenses because i live in a different country, but i will list mine anyway:

mortgage: $215 a week
loan payment: $37 a week
savings: ~$150
petrol: $25
bills: $65 a week (includes all bills i pay calculated for a year then divided by 52)
groceries: $50-$60 a week
FUN money: $60 a week

entertainment varies from person to person - do you go out a lot? this is why i asked how old you are. an 18 year old (or whatever the legal drinking age is in canada) is going to spend waaaay more on entertainment than a 30 year old. do you drink? do you go to the movies a lot? do you buy a lot of clothes?
if you're a conservative spender, you might be able to budget $20-$50 a week on entertainment. if you have a very active social life, you will be kidding yourself if you budget that much though. be honest with yourself. a budget is never going to work if you put on paper you spend $10 a week on alcohol if really you wind up spending $100 at the pub on saturday nights.

**kork13** · 03-10-2009, 06:01 PM

Are you talking US$ or CAN$? I think these forums work mostly in US$, but I just wanted to double-check. For example, CAN$900 is only US$700, so the difference can be fairly significant.

Also, how does Winnipeg's cost of living compare to other areas? Next to San Fransisco (high), Oklahoma City (lower), or Denver (mid-ish)? That will significantly influence how much is reasonable for food, rent, fuel, water/gas/electric, and so on.

Just to echo DS, your food and "other grocery" amounts seem quite high. I've been pretty consistent with monthly food costs of $130-$150 for just myself, and I could easily go lower than that if I needed to be more frugal. That amount also includes cleaning, hygiene, and other household items.

My area just about matches the national average, so given that, here's mine.
- Food/household: $150/mo
- Rent (1br/1ba apt): $800/mo
- Water: $40/mo
- Electricity (all electric appliances): $120/mo (mild climate.... for you, maybe $200 or more)
- Car insurance (small car): $100/mo
- Internet: $45/mo
- Fuel (29mpg): $75/mo

Entertainment depends alot on the individual, so that's hard for us to give an estimate on. Just allot yourself what seems reasonable to you. $50-$100/mo is easily reasonable, but again, it depends on the person. Using a laundromat (though I don't anymore), I believe I spent about $20/mo. I would also have a "miscellaneous" category, maybe another $50/mo, just for all the little things you find yourself needing for one reason or another.

One last thing.... You're missing SAVINGS in your budget here. At the very least, you should save 10% of your income, preferably 20%. It's important that you keep some money in reserve if/when something unexpected happens. Also, you need to save up for large purchases--avoid buying things on credit.

**KTP** · 03-10-2009, 06:06 PM

Oh my! please tell me how you live on $150 a month for food??

My wife and I were spending about $1500 a month on food before we started to hunker down and save (ok, that was a bit ridiculous to spend that much, I know). Now we are spending about $600 a month cooking every meal at home and buying in bulk at costco. What do I need to do to reduce that to $300? some secret coupon website???

**disneysteve** · 03-10-2009, 06:27 PM

Originally posted by KTP View Post

Now we are spending about $600 a month cooking every meal at home and buying in bulk at costco.

What the heck are you cooking? I can certainly see spending a ton on food if you eat out a lot and buy a lot of processed foods, but if you are cooking every meal, I can't imagine spending that much. That's $20/day for the two of you.

I have a glass of OJ ($2/64oz which is about 16 servings) and a bowl of cereal ($3/box which is about 6 servings). So breakfast costs about $0.63/day. I eat lunch at work but bring it from home. It might be leftovers or a sandwich or a frozen dinner. Let's say that averages $2/day. Dinner is one of a variety of things. Homemade pizza, tacos, grilled veggies and rice, pasta with veggies, etc. I don't generally itemize the cost of each meal, but rarely would it be more than about $3/person. That brings us to under $6/day or $180/month per person. Throw in a little more for desserts and snacks.

That isn't actually what we spend because we do eat out, especially on weekends. However, I also get a free lunch at the office several times a month which helps offset my spending. We could certainly cut back if we had a financial need to do so.

**kork13** · 03-10-2009, 06:27 PM

Originally posted by KTP View Post

Oh my! please tell me how you live on $150 a month for food??

My wife and I were spending about $1500 a month on food before we started to hunker down and save (ok, that was a bit ridiculous to spend that much, I know). Now we are spending about $600 a month cooking every meal at home and buying in bulk at costco. What do I need to do to reduce that to $300? some secret coupon website???

Wow, I'm not sure if I could spend $300/mo for food just for myself even if I tried.... Does your area have a high cost of living? I will admit, however, that I do eat out for meals (mostly lunch) about 8-10 times/mo, so to make those meals at home, it would raise my food bill a little bit.

I rarely bother with coupons or searching out deals... I just go to the store with a list of what I need, and buy based on the unit price ($/oz, $/lb, or whatever). Knowing, and going for the lowest unit price I can probably saves me at least $20/mo. On the same note, not everything is cheapest in bulk--my local store sells orange juice at 1/2 gallon for $2, or 1 gallon for $5. Ounce-for-ounce, smaller containers are sometimes cheaper.

Another thing is knowing what's generally expensive, and avoiding it altogether, or cutting back on it. I don't get snack foods, sodas, or pre-cooked/pre-prepared meals. For meats it's mostly chicken, which is generally cheaper than beef and pork. Homemade sauces, soups, and stuff like that. I'm hardly the most frugal food shopper here (I think I've seen a $1/day challenge out there somewhere), but if you know what you're doing, and plan ahead, it's not too difficult to get food costs down and still have a wide variety of meals.

**KTP** · 03-11-2009, 09:08 AM

Typical meal:

Butter basted pan seared filet mignon with rosemary and thyme encrusted sauteed fingerling potatoes and a nice spring salad with vinagar and oil.

Cost:

$10 for two prime cut 8 oz filet at Costco
$4 rosemary and thyme fresh herbs
$1 2/3 pound fingerling potatoes
$2 bag of spring salad
$0.50 olive oil and butter for basting filet and roasting the potatoes

Total: $17.50

So that leaves $2.50 for breakfast and lunch. Breakfast is cheap, probably under a buck, but wife eats lunch in caffeteria at work, typical $7. Call it $3 for my lunch, which is usually some sort of sandwich.

So we have spent $30 in one day. Some days of course there will be a simpler meal, say spaghetti and a salad. Still can cost up to $8 or so in our area just for the ground beef, sauce, salad, noodles, cheese.

I would say the $600 a month is about right, maybe a little low. I don't think I can convince her to eat beans and rice every day. We both like Gordan Ramsey's and Raymond Blanc's reality tv cooking shows and love to cook.

Started growing herbs via hydroponics, but it is turning out to be more expensive than just buying them. Fun though.

**TBH** · 03-11-2009, 09:50 AM

Well, if a typical meal is filet mignon, that's your answer then. Steve's homemade pizza or tacos is waaay cheaper.

We do spend a lot on groceries, usually about $500-600 per month for 3 people. We could easily spend more than that. We spend more because we like to buy organic when we can. If we couldn't afford it we wouldn't do it, and probably only about half our produce is organic, depending on the prices season by season and week by week.

Ways we save:
* Cut out unnecessary things like juice (only have occasionally)
* Shop the sales. I never buy brand-name cereals unless they're on sale, and then I buy 5-10 boxes of our favorites.
* We actually keep a lot of pre-made (canned, frozen, jarred) foods in the house because when we're rushed or don't feel like cooking, it's cheaper to eat $6-7 worth of pre-made foods at home than to go to a restaurant. But we try to cook from scratch as a rule.
* Eating mostly vegetarian. Beans are cheap. Rice is cheap. We buy very few meat products, and they're mostly things like frozen chicken nuggets for the kid (again, not something we give him every night, but cheaper than going to a restaurant when we need a little treat or an easy meal).

**jIM_Ohio** · 03-11-2009, 10:09 AM

You could order pizza 3X a week and spend less than 300/month on food probably...

For example I eat cereal and my price point is $2/box for named brand. I buy when it is $2 and stock up for 2 months at a time.

If you like spaghetti you can do the same thing- find your price point for a box and sauce, stock up when it is cheap and eat without spending much.

**disneysteve** · 03-11-2009, 12:05 PM

Originally posted by KTP View Post

Typical meal:

Butter basted pan seared filet mignon with rosemary and thyme encrusted sauteed fingerling potatoes and a nice spring salad with vinagar and oil.

Cost:

$10 for two prime cut 8 oz filet at Costco
$4 rosemary and thyme fresh herbs
$1 2/3 pound fingerling potatoes
$2 bag of spring salad
$0.50 olive oil and butter for basting filet and roasting the potatoes

Total: $17.50

So that leaves $2.50 for breakfast and lunch. Breakfast is cheap, probably under a buck, but wife eats lunch in caffeteria at work, typical $7. Call it $3 for my lunch, which is usually some sort of sandwich.

Started growing herbs via hydroponics, but it is turning out to be more expensive than just buying them. Fun though.

You can grow fresh herbs on the windowsill for next to nothing. A flower pot, some seeds and water and you're all set.

Stop buying bagged salads. They are way expensive. Buy the fresh produce yourself and make your own salads. Have your wife start packing lunch. And start having at least a couple of meatless meals each week. It is cheaper and healthier. Just the other night we had teriyaki marinated grilled tofu and fresh veggies over brown rice. The whole meal for 3 of us was easily under $10 and we had enough left over for one of us to take it for lunch the next day so it really fed 4.

Also, my wife makes our spaghetti sauce from canned crushed tomatoes that we stock up on when they go on sale for about $.50/can or less (last month we got them for $.39/can). That and some fresh garlic and herbs and we have delicious sauce that is way cheaper than store-bought stuff. We also use that as the base to make other sauces like a vodka cream sauce or a cheese sauce. All are better and cheaper than anything that comes out of a jar.

**KTP** · 03-11-2009, 12:19 PM

Yes, you are correct on all counts. Still, I think we have done quite well reducing our food budget from ~1500 a month to $600 a month. baby steps and all that

As for growing herbs on the windowsill...doesn't work well here in the northwest. You end up with spindly little plants that don't produce much due to the lack of light. They do great with the hydroponics and 250 watts of HO flourescents, but our electric rates here are ungodly 0.10 kwh, so running the lamps 12 hours a day is $9 a month. It takes about a month to hydroponically grow to harvest size dill, thyme, rosemary and mint. Of course as I said, it is quite fun. Also, you might consider that the 250 watt lights are producing heat for the house, which is very nice in the winter considering our average temps have been in the 30s and 40s.

If only I could bring myself to like tofu except in miso soup...

To the OP, sorry for hijacking your thread a bit focusing on only the food aspect of a monthly budget. Everyone feel free to steer back to the orginal topic.

**DebbieL** · 03-11-2009, 12:42 PM

Just so the other posters know, we do pay more for food here in Canada. You should see how much more expensive things like cheese are here!!! We don't get good coupon deals either like so many of you talk about. You could probably do better than $300 for 1 person though

I do think $900 sounds high for rent for 1 person. I didn't think Winnipeg was that expensive? I am in Victoria which is a very high cost of living area and even here you could rent a bachelor or 1 bedroom for a lot less than that. I pay about that much for renting a 2 bed/2 bath condo (but I have a family so need it). I am getting a bit of a good deal since I've been in the same condo for 8 years and rent can only go up a certain percent per year here (tied to inflation). Here, most rental places include a parking space, so I don't know what a typical charge for that would be either.

I cannot answer about the cost for utilities in Manitoba. My costs here in BC aren't very expensive, but we have very mild weather year round (and our electricity rates are cheap).

PS - I was born in Manitoba (my family is from there), but we moved out west when I was only 1 year old, so I have no personal memories of the Manitoba winters - we only came back to visit in the summer when it was hot

Help me with my budget please!