Since you posted a budget,
someone needs to do a little facepunching. :)
My current fixed bills are:
$500/mo - rent
$160/mo - car ins
$45/mo - cell phone (Ting)
$8/mo - netflix
Estimated basic recurring costs (average of last year on mint):
$200/month gas
$50/month tolls, public transport, and miscellaneous transport (i.e. the time I landed at 3 am at the airport and needed to take a cab).
$30/month car maintenance and repairs.
~$800/month food expense. I don't track carefully since I do it mostly with cash, but I'd say it's probably quite high. $800 is my estimate.
~$600/month travel expense. My boyfriend lives in Mississauga Canada, and I fly up to see him about every 3-4 weeks. I also rent a car when I'm up there, as he doesn't drive and a car rental is actually cheaper than roundtrip cabs.
~$400/month miscellaneous spending, including clothing and other sundries.
Net income: $46k/year or about $3833/month. Expenses total $2793/month or $33.5k/year.
The thing that jumps out at me is the car-related expenses.
$200/month in gas. Assume gas is $4/gallon, that means you're using 50 gallons/month. If your car gets only 20 MPG, that implies you're driving 1000 miles/month. Assume 20 working days per month, and you average 50 miles/day, implying your job is 25 miles from where you live. (This is rough analysis - assume you don't drive anywhere but to work.)
If gas is $3.75/gal and your car gets 30 MPG, that works out to 1600 miles/month or 80 miles per working day!
You could argue that your apartment costs only $500/month, but I would argue that you have to add in all your car-related expenses, so another $390/month (gas + insurance + maintenance). Not to mention, your time is worth something.
Move closer to work, period. Your rent would have to go up dramatically to compensate for both car-costs
and your time cost. And read
Your Money or Your Life to get a better feeling of what your time costs (or how the long commute is significantly lowering your effective per-hour wage).
What about that car insurance? Are you driving a luxury car? Do you have full-on comprehensive and collision coverage, with all the goodies like roadside assistance? Even if you don't want to retire early, I see no reason why anyone should buy anything more than the legal minimum in car insurance, and drive a car that they can afford to otherwise "self-insure". I.e., you should have a big enough stache that you can completely replace your car out-of-pocket without affecting your finances too greatly. The cheaper your car, the easier this is.
As a single person with no kids and presumably no pets, you'll have a hard time persuading this crowd that you need anything more than a pretty humble, very high MPG vehicle.
One of the most eye-opening concepts MMM presented to me is just how expensive cars are. Growing up, I just thought cars were a way of life. But if you take the time to do a car cost analysis, you'll find that they are
really expensive. Luxury cars with poor MPG (and premium fuel only requirements) are
outrageously expensive, but even frugal, 10-year old MMM approved high-MPG cars are far from cheap. I have a car I now realize I should have sold years ago---it rarely gets used, and I truly haven't
needed it in a long time. Carmax offered me $2k for it. Simply keeping it legally driveable (but not actually driving it) costs me $320/year for insurance plus $100/year title renewal plus $65/year city sticker. That's nearly 25% of it's value, year after year, before I've even filled up the tank!
As for travel expenses: are you at least taking full advantage of rewards-based credit cards and/or airline programs? Plan in advance, strategically schedule to maximize points/miles, take weird off-hour flights, etc. I've never traveled much, so don't have too much experience, but I've seen a few people on this forum make some impressive posts on their creative use of credit card points and frequent flyer miles.
$800/month for food is borderline obscene. Are you including dining out in this, or just meals at home? In my own accounting I distinguish between the grocery store and dining out. If your number includes dining out, it's maybe not
as bad. But if that's a pure grocery expense, look out! I feed a family of four for less than that, and that includes an indulgent share of convenience foods. Start simple: dine out one less time per month, or start taking your lunch to work one or more times per week.
Take a little time to play with tables of numbers, where you change how much you make, spend, and save every year, and also add in the compound interest. You already know the conclusion: save early and safe often to maximize your long-term value. The "magic" of compounding is from time, so the earlier you can start saving, the more "magic" you get. But if you can save say another $500/month, what does that do to your FIRE timeline? I suspect you have some low-hanging fruit in your budget: areas where you can save with minimal or no impact to your lifestyle.