The Newcomers Detailed Budget

October 10th, 2007 · No Comments

This is a guest post from Brian.

Within the past 1/3 of a year, I’ve had the pleasure of moving out for the first time.
In a city that has gone through quite the boom, even renting is expensive. I’m fortunate enough to have the financial help of a girlfriend to help make it through the bills however.

We’ve spent a few months fine-tuning our budget that’s proving its worthiness.
I’m on a yearly salary, and my girlfriend does shift work and therefore has varying paychecks. To make it even more exciting, I’m paid semi-monthly whereas she is paid bi-weekly.

To figure out who pays how much of the overall bills, we’ve implemented a percentage system. Over a month, whoever pulls in more money pays more of the bills. It was the fairest system we could devise that wouldn’t lead to arguing over who pays how much of what bill and leave me sleeping on a couch.

This percentage that goes to bills, we transfer into a joint account. The rest of our paychecks remain in our own accounts. This way when she goes on any mini-shopping sprees, I can’t argue. Likewise, she can’t argue if I suddenly come home with a new video game just because it looked awesome.

We didn’t break our budget into a percentage system like many people might. We’ve calculated how much we anticipate each of our bills to amount to, and then each of us pays our respective total %’s based on the total amount.

For example, we anticipate that our gas, electricity, water, and sewer bill will never top $275/month. During the summer months it’s nowhere near this amount, so the extra amount goes to savings. This amount was calculated after talking too many, many home owners and renters who pay full utilities.

Our HD TV and cable internet run about $105/month. This was calculated from speaking with other individuals who have the same cable package as we were planning on subscribing to.

My girlfriend and I thought it seemed unreasonable to have a land-line when we both have cell-phones. Why pay for what you don’t need right. As a result we budget about $100/month for both of our cell bills. This is usually on par.

Our rent is the largest dent in our budget at a solid $1225/month. As mentioned earlier, in a booming city rent doesn’t come cheap. We opted for a reasonably large duplex a few blocks from downtown which added to the slimmer wallet.

Budgeting for food came with some trial and error. I’m not one to say no to seconds at any meal, and am proud to admit that I have a cupboard dedicated to junk food. We put aside $600/month which is usually spot on.

In an attempt to flee the renting scene and become a home-owner, we’re putting aside $800/month to try and help understand what the term down-payment really means.

A new addition is $30/month for things like renting movies. Being a new proud owner of a 42″ plasma TV, it sounds more enticing to watch a movie in the comfort of your own home versus going out to a movie theatre with a crowd of high school kids.

Although some may view this budget as being too specific, it’s working well for my girlfriend and I. Of this total amount, whom ever pulls in the larger number has the satisfaction of paying more…sounds a lot like your taxes doesn’t it.