Who thinks they have the lowest budget?

[Roland of Gilead]

(reposting this since it seems to have generated an error or bug)
I will try to rewrite this since I lost the post.  I am curious about MMM followers who live on a very low budget.  I have heard of people living on $1000 a month but wonder if there are people here who manage on even less?  If you don't mind sharing, I would love to hear about your entry into the "lowest budget contest" :-)

I think I could do a year or two with a $500 a month budget and still have a shower now and then plus stay warm and eat well.

The reason I am curious is we hear talk about "what happens if your money runs out?" for people wanting to ER on a 4% SWR.  If your 4% SWR is significantly above what the lowest budget could be, then you really have no fear of running out of money as long as you a) react to a drop in your portfolio quickly by reducing expenses and b) are ok living for several years on that level budget until things recover.

We are planning on a $40,000 a year budget with a 4% SWR actually providing around $50,000, but I think I could be happy on a $15,000 to $20,000 a year budget.   Maybe I could be happy on much less than that.

[Zikoris]

Per person or combined? My boyfriend and I spend $700-$750/month each on all our expenses except travel.

Rough breakdown for each of us:
Rent - 365
Food - 115
Phone - 30
Internet - 14
Transit - 20
Everything else - 150-200

[wtjbatman]

Rent - $335 (includes utilities)
Groceries - $150
Gas/Fuel - $120
Car Insurance - $40
Cell Phone - $20
Internet - $15
Netflix - $8
Fast Food - $20
Misc Amusement (books, games on sale, beer) - $40
Student Loan - $50

Total: $798

That's my normal monthly budget, but it's kind of a cheater budget. Yes there's room in there for some fun and going out (the fast food and misc amusement budget), but on the flip side several of those bills are "halved" due to splitting them with my girlfriend. Obviously if I had to pay the rent and internet bill on my own, my budget would go up (to around $1148). There's also no money in there for car repairs/maintenance, but since my car is surprisingly reliable and I have an emergency fund, I haven't really budgeted it out.

That said, I'm proud of how much I have cut back since I first started reading MMM back in October. At one point my monthly budget was closer to $1500, and that was with the same lowish rent.

[The Money Monk]

Jacob from Early Retirement Extreme had a budget of somewhere around 8k a year I think. Something like 6 or 7 hundred a month.

[LibraTraci]

Certainly the lowest budget would go to someone whose job includes all room and board plus a uniform (like deployed military or such).  Or someone who works on a cruise ship.  Jobs like these are usually remote enough to preclude much of any spending too.

Anyone here got a gig like this, where they've got three hots and a cot as part of their compensation package?  I say they would win hands down.

[Cassie]

I think it really depends on you & your stage of life.  Our minimum  with no debts is $40,000/gross but we both prefer to work p.t. to enjoy other things ($65,000/gross). Now that may decrease as we age but for now that makes us happy.  I think it will be different for everyone.

[Roland of Gilead]

I agree with you Cassie, but I started to think what we actually needed to live and stay healthy.

We are two, who cannot live quite as cheaply as one, but pretty close.

I can dream up all sorts of bare bone budgets but it is interesting to hear real life experiences.  Sub $1000 a month is very impressive, especially if you have to pay something for rent.  I think I could only get sub $1000 by car/van camping (or rv).

[Cassie]

We own our home & cars and are 60.  I sacrificed a lot when raising my kids & now want to have a certain standard of living.  Even though my Mom loved to travel (more then I do) once she hit 80 she did not want to anymore. So I want to do things while I can & also want to. She was able to travel until about 90 but lost the desire & she had a lot more desire then I ever had.  I guess one thing that helps is that we both are doing professional work that we love & don't want to quit entirely.   WE love doing our own thing but don't work more then 10 hours/week. If we no longer want to work we can live on what we have.

[Herbert Derp]

My spending is around $650/month, but I can't hold a candle to those guys in Korea who have all their expenses covered by their employers.

[nikki]

Certainly the lowest budget would go to someone whose job includes all room and board plus a uniform (like deployed military or such).  Or someone who works on a cruise ship.  Jobs like these are usually remote enough to preclude much of any spending too.

Anyone here got a gig like this, where they've got three hots and a cot as part of their compensation package?  I say they would win hands down.

There are a few posters here (including me!) who teach English abroad and are provided apartments and often Internet as part of employment packages. Ian, another teacher in South Korea, even gets some meals provided by his school (free? or just cheap? not sure).

I spent ~$8,000 USD last year, including a trip back to the States. I imagine my spending will be higher this year, though, due to conscious changes in food spending (organic CSA = more than I spent before on produce), a trip to Vietnam this summer, and MAYBE another trip to the States at the end of the year. I still won't break $10,000.

But I must say that I'm certainly not in a remote place! It's very easy to spend money here, and a lot of expats do. Not me, of course ;-D

[nikki]

My spending is around $650/month, but I can't hold a candle to those guys in Korea who have all their expenses covered by their employers.

Pfft! Imagine if you were in Korea, though. You'd blow us out of the water. Ian's spending is much more comparable to yours than mine. I'm a bit of a fancypants compared to you guys, you know? Especially when it comes to grocery spending. Oh well!

By the way, I was about to pull up a link to Herbert Derp's thread because I'm pretty sure he has the leanest budget of frequent posters.

[The Money Monk]

My spending is around $650/month, but I can't hold a candle to those guys in Korea who have all their expenses covered by their employers.

That's incredible man.

I'd love to see a breakdown of what makes up that 650

[arebelspy]

My spending is around $650/month, but I can't hold a candle to those guys in Korea who have all their expenses covered by their employers.

That's incredible man.

I'd love to see a breakdown of what makes up that 650

It's in his thread.  $500 rent/utilities, $100-150 "other".  ;)

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/financial-independence-at-27/

January
Rent: $500.00 (includes electricity/water/sewage/trash/internet)
Other: $161.28
Total: $661.28

December
Rent: $500.00 (includes electricity/water/sewage/trash/internet)
Cell phone: $25.00
Groceries: $40.18 (mostly chicken breast, noodles, and vegetables)
Other: $27.04 (went to a bar with coworkers and lunch with friends)
Total: $592.22

November was an expensive month for me, had to stock up on pet supplies and got invited to a happy hour where I somehow managed to spend over $40 on booze...

November
Rent: $500.00 (includes electricity/water/sewage/trash/internet)
Other: $167.99
Total: $667.99

[arebelspy]

My best friend's goal for 2013 was to spend $500/mo - $250 on rent (bedroom in a house shared with multiple other people), 250 on food and everything else.  That'd be $6k/yr.  I believe he ended up spending around 10k for the year though, partly due to book purchases.

[wtjbatman]

As soon as I post my budget I start thinking about those little purchases people usually don't include in their budget, that add up. Whether it's mine, Herbert Derp's, whoevers... what about toothpaste and toothbrushes? Deodorant and shampoo? Razors? Toilet paper? Spices for the kitchen? Shoes (everyone needs new ones eventually), socks, underwear... I don't know about you guys, but that's the type of stuff that wears out after a while. My jeans my last forever, but my socks sure don't.

I'm not a smelly hairy guy with bad teeth (debatable?), so I know I'm spending money on those things. I just never seem to take it into account when I write down my budget like this, and just lump it in with "household" or "misc" or some other category on Mint.

[arebelspy]

As soon as I post my budget I start thinking about those little purchases people usually don't include in their budget, that add up. Whether it's mine, Herbert Derp's, whoevers... what about toothpaste and toothbrushes? Deodorant and shampoo? Razors? Toilet paper? Spices for the kitchen? Shoes (everyone needs new ones eventually), socks, underwear... I don't know about you guys, but that's the type of stuff that wears out after a while. My jeans my last forever, but my socks sure don't.

I'm not a smelly hairy guy with bad teeth (debatable?), so I know I'm spending money on those things. I just never seem to take it into account when I write down my budget like this, and just lump it in with "household" or "misc" or some other category on Mint.

I can see how you might miss those things if you were listing off the top of your head, but if you use Mint, how could you miss them?  They'll be categorized as something.

So like mine are all lumped with groceries.  But if you split it out into household goods (or whatever), you'll see that category when you look at your spending by category (and it'll be included in the total when you look at spending over time).

I don't see how it's possible to "miss" something when using a tool like Mint, except if you use cash sometimes and don't log it.

Things received as gifts (e.g. a new pair of jeans for Christmas) would be the only thing I can think of that isn't counted.  But every single thing you mentioned would get counted, simply because it would get purchased and automatically tracked.

I pretty much know to the penny what I've spent the last few years, and am confident nothing was "missed."

[wtjbatman]

As soon as I post my budget I start thinking about those little purchases people usually don't include in their budget, that add up. Whether it's mine, Herbert Derp's, whoevers... what about toothpaste and toothbrushes? Deodorant and shampoo? Razors? Toilet paper? Spices for the kitchen? Shoes (everyone needs new ones eventually), socks, underwear... I don't know about you guys, but that's the type of stuff that wears out after a while. My jeans my last forever, but my socks sure don't.

I'm not a smelly hairy guy with bad teeth (debatable?), so I know I'm spending money on those things. I just never seem to take it into account when I write down my budget like this, and just lump it in with "household" or "misc" or some other category on Mint.

I can see how you might miss those things if you were listing off the top of your head, but if you use Mint, how could you miss them?  They'll be categorized as something.

So like mine are all lumped with groceries.  But if you split it out into household goods (or whatever), you'll see that category when you look at your spending by category (and it'll be included in the total when you look at spending over time).

I don't see how it's possible to "miss" something when using a tool like Mint, except if you use cash sometimes and don't log it.

Things received as gifts (e.g. a new pair of jeans for Christmas) would be the only thing I can think of that isn't counted.  But every single thing you mentioned would get counted, simply because it would get purchased and automatically tracked.

I pretty much know to the penny what I've spent the last few years, and am confident nothing was "missed."

Sorry, I meant more of the "post to MMM forums" type of budget than a to-the-penny budget on Mint. Like my budget I posted in this thread was just me thinking off the top of my head. I know I spend a little more than that due to those smaller purchases.

Actually I did think of something that's not counted, and that's gift cards. Thanks to my CC churning (see the ever popular Loyal3 thread), I've earned a boat load of $100 CC's I've been using to buy groceries, household supplies, etc. No wonder my budget looks so great lately ;)

[arebelspy]

Sorry, I meant more of the "post to MMM forums" type of budget than a to-the-penny budget on Mint. Like my budget I posted in this thread was just me thinking off the top of my head. I know I spend a little more than that due to those smaller purchases.

Actually I did think of something that's not counted, and that's gift cards. Thanks to my CC churning (see the ever popular Loyal3 thread), I've earned a boat load of $100 CC's I've been using to buy groceries, household supplies, etc. No wonder my budget looks so great lately ;)

Ah.  I would think most people would toss on an "other" or "miscellaneous" category and throw everything else in there, so the total posted budget adds up to their total spending. 

I guess some might not do that, but I'd assume most people would look at their spending by category on mint or whatever and post according to that.

I could be wrong though.  You're obviously coming at it from a "I've made that mistake and assume others do too" and I'm coming at it from a "It wouldn't cross my mind to even do it in a way that would allow that mistake to happen" perspective, so it's harder for us to envision the other way.  :)

Tough thing to verify.

[wtjbatman]

I could be wrong though.  You're obviously coming at it from a "I've made that mistake and assume others do too" and I'm coming at it from a "It wouldn't cross my mind to even do it in a way that would allow that mistake to happen" perspective, so it's harder for us to envision the other way.  :)

Tough thing to verify.

I know I've witnessed some under-budgeting in a few of the case study/journal threads. Although unlike my quick budget in this thread, in those cases other people are relying on those budgets being accurate so they can give useful advice.

[NewStachian]

I can't compete with any of you at this point of my life (Although I did drop my monthly spending by about $2.5k after starting this blog 3 months ago, yay), but I saw someone mention the military and wanted to share my lowest budget. When my sub was on deployment my bills were close to $0. The Navy had my stuff in long-term storage since I deployed as soon as I showed up to the boat, so no housing, no bills, suspended cell phone, car insurance almost went to 0 while on deployment. The only thing I spent was money at a few bars during port visits.

That's why the military is so great for saving money. They may not pay the best, but if you take advantage of all the perks and reduced spending opportunities you can really come out ahead, especially those who deploy to a tax-free combat zone.

[Asgard01]

Hey guys.

I am certainly not going to win any prizes but mine is frugal compared to everyone I know. Remember mine is from the UK, I have put figures in dollars though.

Gas/electric = $133
Water bill - $41
Council tax = $187
Food = $200
Petrol = $217 (considered cheap over here)
Yearly large outgoings (car ins, tax, house ins etc) - $167
LLOYDS Gold membership (worldwide travel ins, mobile phone ins, road breakdown cover, legal expenses cover - $21
Cancer research UK - $10
Smart phone & ipad data/call plan - $51
Internet and landline $46
Disposable income/fun/outings money - $50
Total monthly - $1123

[Thegoblinchief]

Our consumption spending is pretty low for a family of 5

Food/personal care $450
Medical OOP $50
Fuel $150
Car insurance $80
Discretionary/personal (varies, but typically zero unless it is gift or side business)

Travel and educational field trips add about $150 a month

It's having a house that is killer. It is small and cheap, but there are few cheap things about home ownership. Even fully paid off it would be:

Tax $200
Utilities $250
Insurance $40
Vague capital expenses $100ish over time

[soccerluvof4]

Our consumption spending is pretty low for a family of 5

Food/personal care $450
Medical OOP $50
Fuel $150
Car insurance $80
Discretionary/personal (varies, but typically zero unless it is gift or side business)

Travel and educational field trips add about $150 a month



FAMILY OF 5 , I DECLARE YOU THE WINNER!!!  hands down!

It's having a house that is killer. It is small and cheap, but there are few cheap things about home ownership. Even fully paid off it would be:

Tax $200
Utilities $250
Insurance $40
Vague capital expenses $100ish over time

[skyrefuge]

We are planning on a $40,000 a year budget with a 4% SWR actually providing around $50,000, but I think I could be happy on a $15,000 to $20,000 a year budget.   Maybe I could be happy on much less than that.

Rephrased:

"I think I could be happy living on an amount that would be a 1.2%-1.6% withdrawal rate from my assets. Maybe even much less than that."

Sounds to me like you're going to have either an enormous bucket of money to shower up on your heirs, or you'll be spending lots of money on stuff that doesn't actually make you any happier. Why are you accumulating such a (seemingly) excessive pile of assets?

[Roland of Gilead]

Rephrased:

"I think I could be happy living on an amount that would be a 1.2%-1.6% withdrawal rate from my assets. Maybe even much less than that."

Sounds to me like you're going to have either an enormous bucket of money to shower up on your heirs, or you'll be spending lots of money on stuff that doesn't actually make you any happier. Why are you accumulating such a (seemingly) excessive pile of assets?

We don't have any heirs.

I agree with you that stuff doesn't make you happier.  I am drowning in stuff right now and the process of getting rid of it.  I do like my tools though.  They make me happy.

I watch survival shows like Naked and Afraid and see people starve themselves for 21 days just for the personal challenge (no great prize money offered).  They have a $20 knife and a $5 firestarter so their budget is $25/month (slightly more).  Imagine what you could do on $500 a month.  It makes $4,000 a month seem grotesque.

[ketchup]

Back when I shared a 500 square foot house with three other people (was until just over a year ago), I spent around $600-700 per month in total.  It was about $185 for housing/utilities, $100 for groceries, $150 for car insurance and gas, $30 cell phone, plus some "misc".  >60% savings rate on $1600/month after taxes was pretty nice.

[Roland of Gilead]

Back when I shared a 500 square foot house with three other people (was until just over a year ago), I spent around $600-700 per month in total.  It was about $185 for housing/utilities, $100 for groceries, $150 for car insurance and gas, $30 cell phone, plus some "misc".  >60% savings rate on $1600/month after taxes was pretty nice.

So if you had nixed the car and just biked, you would be in the $500 a month range?   Could very well be a winner.

[ketchup]

Back when I shared a 500 square foot house with three other people (was until just over a year ago), I spent around $600-700 per month in total.  It was about $185 for housing/utilities, $100 for groceries, $150 for car insurance and gas, $30 cell phone, plus some "misc".  >60% savings rate on $1600/month after taxes was pretty nice.

So if you had nixed the car and just biked, you would be in the $500 a month range?   Could very well be a winner.

I would have been biking 20 miles each way, but you're not wrong.  I had a bus stop 100ft from the house that would have taken me to the train that took me within a 1/4 mile of work, but that actually would have come out more expensive than driving at the time (I had my 53MPG Chevy Sprint; I miss that car every day).

[greenmimama]

Very Interesting, when we were first married we had a very small budget, I can't remember exactly but I know our rent and utilities were only $500 and our grocery was only $60.

That was before a home and 3 kids, but our salary has tripled also, we aren't winning any awards right now for sure.

[Paul der Krake]

It's not true anymore that I have my own place to furnish (the pain! it burns!), but last year I was under $1000/month.

$500 rent + utilities
$80 car stuff (gas, insurance, DIY repairs)
$100 insurance
$150 food
$50-250 everything else

[Kriegsspiel]

The first 3 months this year I was at $1,141.13, $986.23, and $898.79.

[skyler]

We are a family of 5, in a 2000 sf house.
Tracking spending in Mint, have 8 months of records, spending at $3600-$3800 month (includes mortgage of $1300/month, health insurance and everything else)

[griffin]

Mine's pretty low, but I'm cheating b/c I live with my parents, who won't accept rent (and any help I do provide is certainly not worth what my rent would be). January I spent ~$1,100 (yikes) February ~$650, March ~$500. Thinking April might be < $400.
Last month was:
Groceries: ~$170 (I buy mostly free range/organic things, i.e. milk/meat/peanut butter)
Public transit: $75 (I get $30 back from work, so really $45)
Gym: $30
Other: $200 (going out to eat w/ SO (ouch) and occasional drinks with friends/clothes). This should really be more like $50.
Phone is provided by work
Still nowhere near HD's levels, but I'll keep on trying. Would be nice to stay to have a yearly budget of $4k!

[danclarkie]

Certainly not the lowest :D

26 year old
Single Male.
Living alone.

My average monthly budget YTD is: $3,468

March figures break down as follows:

House
Rent	$1,475
Internet	$78
Cell Phone	$45
Netflix	$10
Groceries	$105
Total	$1,713
Food & Drink
Drinks	$335
Dining Out	$360
Fast Food	$84
Total	$779
Recreation
Misc	$580
Total	$580
Clothing
Clothes	$277
Total	$277
Transport & Travel
Gas	$11
Taxi	$101
Total	$112
Personal
Medical	$10
Other	$5
Total	$15
_	_
Total	$3,476

I still hit a 62% Savings rate in March.
Recreational expenses were much higher than usual as I had a quite a busy month.
Typically, recreational expense come in around $250-$300
The clothes budget was a bit of a luxury spend when I had some trousers made from my tailor.
The amount I spend on alcohol and dining out is way too high really, I think I can possibly shave 25% from that and save an extra $200/month.

Were I able to bring my recreational expenses down to a normal rate of $250 and shave 25% from drinks/dining spend ($200) I could have bought the monthly budget down to $3,016 and raised the monthly savings rate 5 points to 67%

I think with an upcoming pay-rise/bonus and some effort to reduce spending, I should be able to hit ~70% savings rate fairly consistently.

[Bakari]

Hey, looks like with my new living arrangements, I'm competing with the lowest!

Not counting business expenses:

Rent $225 (includes utilities)
Food $100-300
Internet/phone $60
Cell phone $12
Huluplus + netflix $7 (shared with my ex, she pays one, I pay the other)
Motorcycle insurance $6 (lump $72 payment once a year)

Total $510

Usually goes over by 100 or so from discretionary spending, eating out, books, music, something

[kolorado]

 I refrained from posting earlier since I thought surely there would be many super low budgets here below ours. I'm actually really surprised that there aren't.
 Our family of five is spending $3100 a month(everything including health insurance). That's $620 a month per person. We have a 1500 square foot house with 3 car garage, two cars(2006 and 2013)and a new-to-us camper. If we didn't have the mortgage, it'd be $460pp.
 And that's the budget, not what I expect to spend. We always come out 5-15% under budget for the year.

[Cassie]

Our health insurance premiums alone are as much as some people's budgets for the year-$9600.00.

[scrubbyfish]

$659 each (kid, me).

It's tight for us, but from it we can still pay Canadian prices for food, Canadian prices for mail, BC prices for insurance, etc. On the other hand, friends are giving us super cheap rent, the BC government pays for some of his autism services, we can get our whole salmon for $2.50 at the low-income store, etc.

[ch12]

Jacob from Early Retirement Extreme had a budget of somewhere around 8k a year I think. Something like 6 or 7 hundred a month.

7k/year

http://earlyretirementextreme.com/how-i-live-on-7000-per-year.html

http://earlyretirementextreme.com/frequently-asked-questions

Herbert Derp and the English teachers in Asia (Korea and Taiwan) probably have the lowest budgets of everyone on these forums.

[arebelspy]

Hey, looks like with my new living arrangements, I'm competing with the lowest!

Not counting business expenses:

Rent $225 (includes utilities)

Wow, how do you pay such low rent in the Bay Area?

He's the maintenance manager for the small apartment building he lives in, for which he gets "paid" with reduced rent.  Similar to how overseas teachers have low expenses, due to their job covering rent, Bakari's side gig covers a lot of his rent.

[darkk2b2]

My monthly spending is $650

Rent          $420 (includes trash and water)
Electricity   $60
Food          $120
Cell            $10
Internet     $40

[Ozstache]

The reason I am curious is we hear talk about "what happens if your money runs out?" for people wanting to ER on a 4% SWR.  If your 4% SWR is significantly above what the lowest budget could be, then you really have no fear of running out of money as long as you a) react to a drop in your portfolio quickly by reducing expenses and b) are ok living for several years on that level budget until things recover.

We are planning on a $40,000 a year budget with a 4% SWR actually providing around $50,000, but I think I could be happy on a $15,000 to $20,000 a year budget.   Maybe I could be happy on much less than that.

Similar situation with me ie. A 4% SWR level supports a bit more than I planned to spend, a lot more than I am currently spending and I could quite comfortably live on about half that.

[kkbmustang]

Our health insurance premiums alone are as much as some people's budgets for the year-$9600.00.

Ditto that. Medical/Dental/Vision insurance for my family of 4: $1515.15 per month. We also put $500/mo into an HSA (that we don't touch) and budget $583 per month for out of pocket spend which we do use ($7k deductible/OOP max for our family).

[Bakari]

Hey, looks like with my new living arrangements, I'm competing with the lowest!

Not counting business expenses:

Rent $225 (includes utilities)

Wow, how do you pay such low rent in the Bay Area?

He's the maintenance manager for the small apartment building he lives in, for which he gets "paid" with reduced rent.  Similar to how overseas teachers have low expenses, due to their job covering rent, Bakari's side gig covers a lot of his rent.

That's awesome. I never knew about those kind of arrangements.

Aye.

Its hard to figure the equivalent dollars per hour, because some weeks the only thing I do is take out the trash cans on trash day, another week two people move out and units needs to be fixed up, there's a domestic dispute, and the main sewer lines back up.
Overall, I think its a pretty good deal - zero minute commute, and since it isn't really income, no tax penalty.
I started at $325, after a few months they spontaneously offered to lower it, because I've been workin hard and doing a good job, and they don't want me to quit :)

[arebelspy]

What's fair market rent the other tenants are paying?

[Ian]

I am late to this party, but I spend between $130 and $300 per month.

Rough breakdown:
Rent: Employer-covered
Utilities: $20-130
Food: $80-150
Phone: $10
Transport: $10-20
Luxuries: $10-20

My gas bill destroys my average during the winter, sadly, but the high end of the food bill mostly represents early mistakes. I'm hoping to get a string of low months spring-fall and then invest in a space heater to try to balance out electricity and gas usage (both have tiered rates). I'm pretty happy with my situation overall but it isn't for everyone.

My spending is around $650/month, but I can't hold a candle to those guys in Korea who have all their expenses covered by their employers.

What Nikki said: with your rent covered, you're doing better than us. Hats off to you.

There are a few posters here (including me!) who teach English abroad and are provided apartments and often Internet as part of employment packages. Ian, another teacher in South Korea, even gets some meals provided by his school (free? or just cheap? not sure).

I teach at two different schools. For my main school, I'm part of the lunch program, which is reasonably cheap. I only go to the second school one day a week, so they just let me eat for free.

For others reading and considering teaching overseas, I think I'm relatively lucky. I hear stories about teachers who get only rice, kimchi, and soup every meal for lousy prices. Most teachers seem to get decent meals, and my school seems to put more effort into it than some, but that's the spectrum here.

[nikki]

Ya... I was lucky with pretty decent school lunches at my previous school. Unlucky, however, with inconsistent, high pricing. Grumblegrumblegrumble.

I teach at a university now, so all three meals a day are on me. Different perks at different places. Honestly, I feel like three meals a day on me is better than two and a school-provided lunch, though.

[Bakari]

What's fair market rent the other tenants are paying?

$860 (which is already lower than most 1bdrms in this city, including worse neighborhoods.  no idea why)

But then, I am also getting free electricity, laundry, and the extra (finished) room, plus storage in the basement.  Maybe the extra room makes it more similar to the 2 bedrooms, which are $1200

[arebelspy]

You may be vastly underpaid.  We should delve into some numbers on that.

[Bakari]

You may be vastly underpaid.  We should delve into some numbers on that.

Alright, you inspired me to finally write down some numbers.
$975 rent credit
$15 monthly laundrymat cost
$10 former gym membership
$30 electric bill (est.)
$1030 savings
Would take $1211 to get $1030 take home if it were taxable pay.
Average 1-2 hours per week x 4.3 weeks per month ~ 7 hours per month.

To make the equivalent from regular hourly work, I'd have to make $173 per hour.

I was not expecting that!  I would have been happy with $20/hr equivalent.