I've been sitting here staring at the budgeting worksheet TFA sent me and trying to get a rough idea of a typical month's expenses will look like. There will be various costs associated with testing, certification, and getting set up in a new place that I can't do anything to control, but I'd like to know what my budget will look like once that's out of the way. TFA suggests a low, medium, and high cost for each expense category, and to get a first estimate I just added everything in the low and high columns. This methodology has several flaws, not the least is the failure to take into account expense sharing among roommates for utilities. The plan also clearly only applies to take-home pay since it doesn't include categories for taxes, insurance, or pension contributions.
I'm hoping to fall near the lower end of the range. I don't have any student loans or credit card debt so I can safely budget $0 for those categories, and although purchasing a newer car sometime during the next two years seems fairly likely, I'm not rushing out to buy a brand new car and take on a car payment right now. The suggestion of $100 per month for movies, drinks, dining out, etc. seems fairly high to me, and that's their suggestion for a minimum budget.
On the other hand, I don't want to do without internet access and trips home, items not allowed in the minimum budget. The suggestion that anyone could get by on $25 a month worth of gasoline in a region pretty much devoid of public transportation, even with carpooling, seems laughable. I also still have no idea how many roommates I'll end up with, which will definitely have an impact on my housing costs. It may be time to accept that obsessive planning won't do me any good right now and revisit the issue in a couple of months once I have more information.
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4 comments:
I love planning for big life changes like this, but as you said, the planning probably doesn't do a lot a good just yet.
Do they assign you roommates or do you have to find your own housing?
What an exciting adventure you have ahead of you!
We're to find our own housing, probably with a bit of help from corps members currently in the region who'll know more about what's available. That's one of the many things I'll have to accomplish in the week between arriving in the Delta for the first time and flying back to Houston for a weeklong math/science workshop. It's going to be an interesting transition.
Second the love of planning, but I suppose you could concentrate on sussing out housing options for now?
Just don't over plan how you want everything to go, it's a guideline until you're in the mix. I've made ideal budgets before and how I would like everything to be, but then it's hard to find a month that fits the template. At least you have a baseline you can follow depending on what happens.
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