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In which I am crass and discuss money
It was brought to my attention that I do not especially know how to budget1.
That's mostly okay, in that I've been a dumb privileged white kid for the last bunch of years, and one of the infinite advantages of having parents willing to pay for college is that they pay for room and board too. Budgeting for me has exclusively thus far been "do I have enough money for that event I want to go to" and I can more or less afford that on babysitting.
But I'm going to join the real world somewhere in the next 3-6 months, and not only do I not have a great grasp on how much the world is going to cost, I don't think I have a particularly good grasp on what I'm going to be spending that money on. A friend mentioned that he was paying about a thousand a month, for everything except rent and utilities, and I certainly *think* I can keep my expenses under that number2, but I don't know if I'm managing to account for everything I'll need to spend money on.
So that's what I'm really asking for: What things am I going to be spending money on that I don't necessarily realize I'll spend money on?
Sitting down and thinking about it, I know there's:
*Rent and utilities
*Groceries/eating out (which is a huge "I have no idea" since I've been living off my meal plan for three and a half years --I imagine I should be able to keep myself fed grocery-wise for a hundred a week, I think that's about what I've spent on the (very few) times when I've had to fend for myself.)
*Dance, which is non-negotiable. If I can afford it in September, I should _absolutely_ get a season pass for SCD, which changes the shape of how much dance costs per month.
(as an aside, that's one of the things I'm finding complicated about trying to write a budget for myself, in that "monthly expenses" is easier than dividing "expenses per semester" by three, or trying to work out how much a year-pass would cost and when I would need that money and such.)
*Transit, which I imagine is hugely variable. If I only ever took the T places, it would be a straight 60/month, but I also have a bike to repair and a future zipcar membership, and taxis and stuff. But on the flip side, if the bike is in good shape, and the weather is nice, I can spend maybe like fifteen dollars on the T and spend the rest of my necessary transit time riding my bike.
*Laundry, which becomes more important as I have to wear more professional clothing, since I don't have enough of said clothing, and therefore have to do laundry more often.
*Also, buying more clothing of the professional sort. I mean, I rock the thrift-store chic so hard, so I'd like to hope I wouldn't be spending too terribly much on this, but it's still a thing.
*Meds
*Other hospitaly/medical things, knock on wood. I don't think this counts as a monthly budget thing, so much as a "I should try to set aside a couple hundred(thousand?) dollars as soon as possible to be my "oh shit oh shit I just broke my leg" fund3.
And...what else? The last time I did anything like this it was in my seventh grade home ec class, where I think I was "renting" an apartment for 50 dollars a month, so it's not like I was exactly being taught accurate numbers for the real world so much as "here's how to balance your monies!"
The real world is hard, whine whine. But dammit, if I'm going to be an adult4, I might as well do it right, and not have to rely on other adults (read: my parents) for taking care of me.
Just rely on them for advice.
~Sor
MOOP!
1: I have gotten as far as "If there is money in my account I can buy things, if there is not, I can't" and seem to do okay with that, but, uh, yeah.
2: More importantly, doing some googling and finding out how much I will make as a teacher implies that (assuming I get a job), I should be making at least 24k a year, which gives me enough for rent/utilities and "everything else". Assuming that my combined rent+utilities is in the thousand dollars or less range, which I think is an okay guess considering the places I've been looking at with Ria and Lauren and Mason.
3: Although, assuming I broke my leg, I could just transfer my dance fund to medical. Gods forbid.
4: I think I've decided that I don't want to be an adult because adults are ridiculously dramatic, often uncommunicative, and generally immature. I'd like to be mature instead. It seems much easier.
Postscript: And yes, I am writing actual numbers for these in another file, in a "trying to inflate everything so I wind up with too much money rather than too little" sort of way. But I figured that would be too gauche even for me to post.
And not in the file yet, because I don't know what the shape of my life will be like yet, is the concept of long-distance travel in order to spend time with faraway friends and SOs. Which could be eighty dollars a month for train tickets, or 500plus for a cross-country plane ride. Plane tickets are definitely my most expensive regular expense.
Also not in the file is the general thought of "here are things I want" and taking steps to buy those things. One of the reasons I want to have some discretionary income is so that I can start scouting sales for expensive things I want/need, so that when they show up for a decent price, I can get them without stressing that I've just wrecked my budget for the month. See also, the fact that I think I want 3 TB of external storage --one for joba, one for backup, and one for media.
a: If everything stayed the same, I don't think I would _ever_ fill a TB of stuff just of assignments and resources and grades and worksheets and lessons and everything teaching will require. But things keep taking up more and more space, and inevitably I'll be teaching Skype lessons with an uberboard or something, and each lesson will be a gig and a half or something.
That's mostly okay, in that I've been a dumb privileged white kid for the last bunch of years, and one of the infinite advantages of having parents willing to pay for college is that they pay for room and board too. Budgeting for me has exclusively thus far been "do I have enough money for that event I want to go to" and I can more or less afford that on babysitting.
But I'm going to join the real world somewhere in the next 3-6 months, and not only do I not have a great grasp on how much the world is going to cost, I don't think I have a particularly good grasp on what I'm going to be spending that money on. A friend mentioned that he was paying about a thousand a month, for everything except rent and utilities, and I certainly *think* I can keep my expenses under that number2, but I don't know if I'm managing to account for everything I'll need to spend money on.
So that's what I'm really asking for: What things am I going to be spending money on that I don't necessarily realize I'll spend money on?
Sitting down and thinking about it, I know there's:
*Rent and utilities
*Groceries/eating out (which is a huge "I have no idea" since I've been living off my meal plan for three and a half years --I imagine I should be able to keep myself fed grocery-wise for a hundred a week, I think that's about what I've spent on the (very few) times when I've had to fend for myself.)
*Dance, which is non-negotiable. If I can afford it in September, I should _absolutely_ get a season pass for SCD, which changes the shape of how much dance costs per month.
(as an aside, that's one of the things I'm finding complicated about trying to write a budget for myself, in that "monthly expenses" is easier than dividing "expenses per semester" by three, or trying to work out how much a year-pass would cost and when I would need that money and such.)
*Transit, which I imagine is hugely variable. If I only ever took the T places, it would be a straight 60/month, but I also have a bike to repair and a future zipcar membership, and taxis and stuff. But on the flip side, if the bike is in good shape, and the weather is nice, I can spend maybe like fifteen dollars on the T and spend the rest of my necessary transit time riding my bike.
*Laundry, which becomes more important as I have to wear more professional clothing, since I don't have enough of said clothing, and therefore have to do laundry more often.
*Also, buying more clothing of the professional sort. I mean, I rock the thrift-store chic so hard, so I'd like to hope I wouldn't be spending too terribly much on this, but it's still a thing.
*Meds
*Other hospitaly/medical things, knock on wood. I don't think this counts as a monthly budget thing, so much as a "I should try to set aside a couple hundred(thousand?) dollars as soon as possible to be my "oh shit oh shit I just broke my leg" fund3.
And...what else? The last time I did anything like this it was in my seventh grade home ec class, where I think I was "renting" an apartment for 50 dollars a month, so it's not like I was exactly being taught accurate numbers for the real world so much as "here's how to balance your monies!"
The real world is hard, whine whine. But dammit, if I'm going to be an adult4, I might as well do it right, and not have to rely on other adults (read: my parents) for taking care of me.
Just rely on them for advice.
~Sor
MOOP!
1: I have gotten as far as "If there is money in my account I can buy things, if there is not, I can't" and seem to do okay with that, but, uh, yeah.
2: More importantly, doing some googling and finding out how much I will make as a teacher implies that (assuming I get a job), I should be making at least 24k a year, which gives me enough for rent/utilities and "everything else". Assuming that my combined rent+utilities is in the thousand dollars or less range, which I think is an okay guess considering the places I've been looking at with Ria and Lauren and Mason.
3: Although, assuming I broke my leg, I could just transfer my dance fund to medical. Gods forbid.
4: I think I've decided that I don't want to be an adult because adults are ridiculously dramatic, often uncommunicative, and generally immature. I'd like to be mature instead. It seems much easier.
Postscript: And yes, I am writing actual numbers for these in another file, in a "trying to inflate everything so I wind up with too much money rather than too little" sort of way. But I figured that would be too gauche even for me to post.
And not in the file yet, because I don't know what the shape of my life will be like yet, is the concept of long-distance travel in order to spend time with faraway friends and SOs. Which could be eighty dollars a month for train tickets, or 500plus for a cross-country plane ride. Plane tickets are definitely my most expensive regular expense.
Also not in the file is the general thought of "here are things I want" and taking steps to buy those things. One of the reasons I want to have some discretionary income is so that I can start scouting sales for expensive things I want/need, so that when they show up for a decent price, I can get them without stressing that I've just wrecked my budget for the month. See also, the fact that I think I want 3 TB of external storage --one for joba, one for backup, and one for media.
a: If everything stayed the same, I don't think I would _ever_ fill a TB of stuff just of assignments and resources and grades and worksheets and lessons and everything teaching will require. But things keep taking up more and more space, and inevitably I'll be teaching Skype lessons with an uberboard or something, and each lesson will be a gig and a half or something.
no subject
1) Figure out taxes. Once you know where you want to live, you should be able to find on-line information on the taxes for that area. For example, a quick looks says that if you make $37k in Massachusetts, your federal taxes would be 5431.25 and your state would be 1673.15 so your post-tax amount would be around 29,895. This is a rough guess.
2) Figure out what you spend $ on now. Write down everything you spend, if you can separate it into categories, so much the better. For example, have an Excel sheet and have a column for the amount, another for the date, another for general category (transportation, food out, groceries, clothing, medications, recreation classes, entertainment, books/dvds/jewelry/etc., gifts, other) or whatever makes sense to you. If you can factor in since Dec. so much the better.
3) Figure out what you would need to eat in a month to be reasonably healthy and sane (trust me, if you are used to real food, ramen noodles dry with ez cheese WILL drive you crazy after a few days). Go to the store and get a real idea of the costs (including sales tax and getting it home). Assume inflation
4) Find out what you will be paying in health insurance (most plans are on-line somewhere), dental, vision, life insurance, etc..
5) As Whimmydiddle mentioned, budget some to put away each month. My preference is to have a slot at the front of my checkbook and put X dollars there every month so what I see in the checkbook isn't quite true. I can then transfer that lump into other savings every so often. Shorter term, that money can become a downpayment on a house, longer term it could be part of your retirement.
6) Find out what the maximum you can put into retirement is and put it in, that compound interest now will make a difference and if you never 'have' the money you won't miss it.
7) Make a budget for gifts, for example Java and I have 6 neices & nephews + his sibs + my MIL + a bunch of yankee gift exchange gifts to buy for every year. It adds up and we have $$ budgeted for gifts and we try to buy them when we can find a good deal and not get slammed all at once.
8) Get a credit card, have your parents co-sign if necessary. Charge things now and pay it off promptly every month. I got my Discover card while I was in college and put my books on it, got a check from my sire and then used that money to pay off the books or tuition. That lead to the start of a good credit rating. The interest WILL add up frighteningly fast and will compound impressively fast and will usually continue for at least one cycle AFTER you pay it off. There are good reasons to carry a balance but you have to think long and hard about it (e.g. we did when selling 2 houses so when the sale of mine fell through we still had cash for the downpayment on our house).
Add up all the necessary costs (rent, insurance, heat, electricity, water, cell phone (if you need one), union dues, phone/internet, realistic living expenses and figure out how close to the edge you will be skating on your biweekly.
If you base your budget on your bi-weekly salary the extra paychecks can be used for savings or retirement or whatever.
no subject
For furniture and so forth, some universities (including mine) have surplus property for sale to the campus (for a time) then to the general public (until it goes). You can get some serviceable stuff cheap and rent a u-haul to get it home. I have some dining services china that I bought for my SIL but she decided she wanted new as a wedding present. I can give it to you for free if you make it go away. I can even deliver it to your Mom's place if she would accept it.