I live in China...this was my budget when I was living in a third tier city a few years ago...
Housing: $0
Internet: $0
Utilities: $0
Transportation: $50 or less
Phone: $6
Food: $100
Miscellaneous: $50
TOTAL: $206 per month ($2472 per year)
Housing is provided by the employer and is waking distance to work and includes Internet and all utilities
Transportation is for extraneous travel like going to the import grocery store for expensive stuff like cheese. It's about $0.40 for bus fare and $1-4 for taxi fares depending on the distance you're traveling
Phone is pay-as-you-go. 100 rmb lasts me approx. 3 months, so that breaks down to 33.33 rmb per month (or roughly $5-6)
Food would have been less, but I really like cheese and peanut butter, and those are expensive. I had to forgo butter, but that's because I couldn't find it in my city.
Miscellaneous covers everything else - shampoo, soap, haircuts, clothing, etc.
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I also lived in Los Angeles for several years; below was my LA budget. I was really poor and only made $900 a month.
Rent: $325 (my portion of rent in apartment with three roommates)
Food: $100 (lots of eggs, avocados, buying fruits and veggies at the 99 cent store)
Car insurance: $100 (Geico)
Gas: $120 (drove clear across town twice a week, tried to carpool as much as possible)
Car maintenance: $30
Cellphone: $30
Miscellaneous: $50
TOTAL: $755 (annual expenses of $9060)
