Monthly Income?

[mrodgers]

Since the OP mentioned not cutting cable or phones out, I tallied up just bills and it came to $3100. This includes heating oil and car insurance which are not monthly bills but are calculated to monthly average. This does not include any maintenance on cars, clothing, or any variable expenses that do not happen monthly. Includes only the monthly utility bills, mortgage, gas, groceries, etc.

Anything extra we spend in either expenses or luxuries come from overtime pay or extra overbudget of my wife's paycheck.

Those saying $1000/month, our gasoline for getting to work would be 60% of that number already. Groceries would be the only thing covered under that $1000 and we buy little snacks and even raise our own beef in the family.

It would change here in a few months as the car payment will be finished and this will be the first time we've ever been without a car payment. From here on out, it will be saving up and buying used cars in cash since both cars are new enough not to have one needing replaced after the other is paid off. Then again, that doesn't fall into this thread because there wouldn't be any money to save to buy a car.

Sayng all that, no one could survive on anything laid out in the way of this thread because there is always something that happens. Kids need clothes, houses and cars need maintained and repairs. You go crazy having 0 fun and luxuries.

 

[plummer925]

Wow, Wish we could survive on $800 a month. (your house must be paid for) It's just 2 of us and I have to say including rent, car payment, utilities, etc. that we couldn't live on less than $2500 to $3000 a month. Our rent alone is $1150 a month....

Yes, the house is mortgage-free (I mentioned that in a later post)...we live in a high tax area (historical 1765 farmhouse 25 feet from a river so water views) so we do have that, and insurance and upkeep.

I also updated to say that my bare-bones budget would be $908, not $800 - I COULD do $800 but I don't want to cut out some things that make life nice - my pets, internet and phone.

I do not have children (that probably really helps with cost!) - we live on 3 1/4 acres so we try to grow and can our own food as much as possible. I have hens for eggs.

But I also tithe 10% of my income and have heat expense (live in Maine), which is included in the $908.

Right now we have more than that monthly (maybe twice as much) and life is comfortable. But I do know I'd be perfectly content with under $1000.

 

[MrsPete]

Interesting question. If push came to shove -- I'm thinking job loss or other significant need -- we could live for a time on well under $1000. This assumes that we need to take care of our necessities, but we are willing to sacrafice luxuries short-term 'til we can get back on our feet.

My husband and I have talked about this numerous times: Every couple years he's threatened with a lay-off, and when we were younger and had fewer resources and small children it used to scare us badly. So we'd talk about how -- if we were suddenly to find ourselves on my teacher's salary only -- how we could slash our expenses to the bone. This is also one of the reasons we have saved so aggressively over the years; now when he says, "It's that time again", neither of us panics like we used to.

- We own our home outright, and our utilities run $400/month -- that assumes we'd get rid of cable TV but not internet, which costs almost nothing and provides inexpensive communication.
- It assumes we'd keep our cell phones because we don't have a house phone, and doing without communication altogether isn't realistic. We already have basic plans.
- Our cars are paid for, but we do need gas, maintenance, and other upkeep. If this imaginary situation lasted long, we'd get rid of all but one car, and that would save money, even without a car payment. At worst, I do work only 1.5 miles from home, and I am capable of walking.
- We have significant food stored in our home, so we could make do with a small grocery trip each week for milk, bread and eggs. If we were really hurting financially we would "make do" with eating lots of beans and cornbread until things improved. Luxury items like beer, cookies, soda would disappear from our table 'til the crisis was over. We would monitor food more closely than we do now: that is, we'd save every scrap of leftover for end-of-the-week soup, etc.
- Obviously this means we wouldn't be buying new clothes or other optional items. We have teenagers, so they aren't growing and could "make do" with the jeans, coats and shoes they already have.
- We pay our car insurance yearly in July and our property taxes in December; however, our taxes are reasonable, and I'm assuming I could pay those out of my savings, which I wouldn't be touching. I would cut back drastically on day-to-day expenses before I'd touch savings.
- Likewise, I have a college student, but we are paying her expenses out of savings, so I'm not including her tuition in our monthly needs.
- I'd assume about $100 for medication that my husband needs. We usually have a couple doctor's visits every winter during strep throat season. I'm assuming that I'd still have my medical insurance, and that would make office visits $30 each. Still, medical needs could prove to be a wildcard in this super-tight budget.
- If we were forced into super-savings mode, I would cancel things like our already-paid beach trip for Thanksgiving, and that'd put about $600 back into my pocket. I'd cash in my credit card rewards points (which I currently save to buy restaurant gift cards for vacations, etc.), and I"d look to see where else I might have small rewards coming.
- I'd search the attic and closets for Christmas presents, and I could do a small creative Christmas for my kids with very little outlay.

Clearly, we couldn't keep this number up indefinitely. We would eventually have to replace clothing, our paid-for car, etc. But we could live on $1000/month for at least a year before we'd have to dip into our savings.

However, I'm glad that this is a hypothetical question because I don't really want to live this way. I would do it before I'd go into debt. We'd probably become tired of this lifestyle in a big hurry, but that'd motivate us to solve whatever problem we had and get back to our normal, comfortable level.

 

[dizluvah]

I just did our calculation (without cutting any of the luxuries we currently have: cel phone, satelitte tv, xm radio, internet, subscriptions, etc) we are at $3100 per month.

 

[Couchy]

We pay $650 monthly in property taxes along and that is with a 1700 sq ft house with about 1/3 acre so not a lot of property! Add the mortgage and mandatory flood insurance and home insurance and we pay another 1100 a month so we are already looking at 1750 a month just in housing and taxes.

all expenses now add up to about 4200 a month if we had to cut back we could probably get down to about 3200 a month

 

[Judique]

About $4000 a month.

I could eliminate some of this by ceasing to pay for some of my kids' bills.

My mortgage will be paid soon, so that will make a significant decrease also.

It costs a lot to live comfotably.

 

[scottmel]

We have no morgage anymore and no car payments but honestly you need to factor in your property tax bill, home insurance bill, car insurance bill - so on a monthly basis that is 600 right there. Just for insurance. Then cell phone, cable and lights and I am at 900 and haven't eaten a thing yet or bought a thing...

Even with no morgage etc. - EASILY 2k EASY!!! If not more...And I haven't even factored in DD's private tuition....I remember when we paid the morgage off (we did an aggressive 10 year plan!) I thought I would have sooo much extra money every month. Not really. I just put it into savings and college fund and left a few hundred extra a month for splurges or disney gift cards for future trips!!!!!! But my big spluge since paying off the morgage is staying club level every year.....but if we are talking getting by on bare bones, that would have to go!!!

 

[MrsPete]

We pay $650 monthly in property taxes along and that is with a 1700 sq ft house with about 1/3 acre so not a lot of property! Add the mortgage and mandatory flood insurance and home insurance and we pay another 1100 a month so we are already looking at 1750 a month just in housing and taxes.

all expenses now add up to about 4200 a month if we had to cut back we could probably get down to about 3200 a month

I can't believe people pay those prices. My homeowners' insurance is a little over $1000/year (and my house is 50% larger than yours), and my property taxes are around $900 -- but I have a house here in the city and 40+ acres in the country on which I plan to build my retirement house. Admittedly, we have a farm discount on the country land.

 

[TinkPirateMom]

$3100.00 would cover our mortgage and taxes and that's it

 

[forever11709]

Our mortgage alone is 900 dollars so we would need at least 2k, I have also figured what I would need to survive on my own with my daughter without my husbands income. In that situation I could easily do it on less than 1000 month, but that's extremely bare bones and a worse case

 

[Couchy]

I can't believe people pay those prices. My homeowners' insurance is a little over $1000/year (and my house is 50% larger than yours), and my property taxes are around $900 -- but I have a house here in the city and 40+ acres in the country on which I plan to build my retirement house. Admittedly, we have a farm discount on the country land.

Yeah we talk sometimes about moving 20 miles for lower property taxes but then we would add on about 30min-1hr travel time in each direction for work. It was also put us driving through a heavy snowbelt area so we stay put. Relocating to a different part of the country would be difficult for both of us to find jobs at the level and security we have now. It kills us though to pay so much for housing and taxes

 

[deezeealum]

$3100.00 would cover our mortgage and taxes and that's it

TinkPirateMom we are in a similar boat $2700/month... Darn that Garden State

 

[Donnainnj]

Just finished our mortgage this month, but it would still run about $2400 a month, if we had to pay cobra up that to about $3200 a month. Just our normal taxes, homeowners, and health insurance premiums are well over $1000. Oh and we are a family of 5 in NJ.
Donna

 

[dhardawa]

If I pay my actual mortgage (I overpay every month as it is right now), it would break down about like this.

Mortgage (Includes Tax and Insurance) - $1,000
Food/Household Items - $300
Utilities (Gas, Water, Electric) - $200
Cell Phone - $140
Cable - $80
Internet/Phone - $65
Gasoline - $200

So, about $2,000 a month.

 

[J3nn78]

At least $3500 a month and that would require cutting out things. Damn expensive NJ

 

[Jenny3]

Rough estimate would be about $3000 for us

 

[natfrac]

To keep everything status quo, we'd need about $3700 a month. Our mortgage isn't bad, but we're also supporting a second mortgage on a house we can't sell in another city. We rent it out, but for less than the mortgage I'm also still paying student loans, have a car payment, etc. Food and gas run about $1000 a month (including dining out).

 

[justakrazymom]

A friend and I were discussing what would be the lowest possible income we could survive on per month- Either as a dual income family or as a single.

The incomes we discussed covered all bills, mortgages, phones etc at current rates- so not cutting back on comcast etc.

We both found it interesting to see what variances we had in expenses, but found we could each survive "bare bones" on 3k a month- note these are not our real incomes- just what we would absolutely need to make ends meet.

Care to share yours? Actual income need not be disclosed, just trying to see how others compare to ours

Bare bones take home pay could be $2150 and we could pay all our bills and buy groceries and gas. $1700 would pay all bills.

 

[BubMunkeyBles]

Our housing allotment is just over $2100 here... Probably close to $4000 for everything.

 

[Stefjp]

In my household (just me, my bf and our cat) - our monthly outgoings are currently in the region of £1,800-£1,900 which when changed into $US (using $1.4 to £1) would be around $2,500ish a month. That includes all household bills, our mortgage , mobile phone bills, credit cards etc plus food - so we could cut back in some areas.

These kind of questions always cause debate though - everyone has a different definition of 'bare bones' when talking about expenditure.

saying that, i dont really know much about the cost of living in the USA when compared to the UK.........