Share your monthly budget/expenses please (education, shore, people)

[RJA29]

Originally Posted by nikitakolata

OP, I think you will have more luck asking people about specific budget items rather than their entire budget. Here are some numbers I am willing to share:

House - Way too damn much, but I knew that going in because we bought an expensive house (and it has the property taxes to match)

Childcare - $1850/month for one infant

Phones - $60/month for two cell phones with unlimited data; we don't have a house phone

Utilities - Again, too damn much due to the size of the aforementioned house

Cars - Maybe $100/month total for gas, but probably less. Our cars are paid off and we rarely drive.

Train Tickets - $159/month each for monthly metra passes from zone D

Food - We spend a lot on food and dining out, especially now that I own a business and I'm physically exhausted all the time. This is no different from life in the city for us.

To be honest, I'm not sure what you are expecting, OP. Most of our expenses are the same in the suburbs. Our house is more expensive because we chose to spend more on it. Our childcare costs about the same as it would in the city, maybe slightly less given that we are using a high end "school" which would probably cost even more in a nice Chicago neighborhood. I know we could save a ton of money by using an in home daycare, but I like the place we're using and it is convenient for us. We don't drive more in the suburbs than we did living in the city, so that's the same. We go out to eat about the same amount and spend the same on groceries. We didn't change phone providers when we moved.

You can spend as much or as little on a house as you want. You can chose a walkable area so you don't drive much or a remote area and drive all the time. You can go out to eat more or cook more. You can have a crazy cable package or skip that altogether. There are not huge differences in affordability between the city and suburbs and really, it's your decision how much you spend on any particular budget item.

This is a very kind bunch of info for the OP - I hope it's taken to heart.

I agree that the notion that somehow the suburbs are way cheaper is off base. With the exception of childcare, it's really very similar (gas is cheaper, too, perhaps). But there are MORE commuting costs involved. That and the (likely) need for two cars, one is likely to spend more (and get more, perhaps).

Straight across, a one bed in Wheaton will be much less than a one bed in the city. But add additional costs, and it gets much closer.

Childcare is the big outlier here. GOOD childcare in the burbs is ~1800-2000/ infant. And that's full-time, VERY good care. The best you can buy at a center. The same thing in the city will be 2600+. So, an extra 8 grand a year for childcare. And, schools in the city tend to be rather crummy.

[ChicagoMeO]

Originally Posted by chicago0311

We are on an anonymous forum and nobody is forcing you to do anything this is for people who are willing. Chill out.

Excuse me, but for all we know, you are a stalker who is trying to find out personal info.

You might not be, but it is not safe to put personal info on the internet such as you have asked. You might be ok, but a nefarious person might read it and find out info that could be bad for the poster.

I hope you understand and not be offended when people respond such as they did.

[ChicagoMeO]

Originally Posted by Vasily

Thanks for your helpful input. Anyone else want to take a shot at me?

No, i understand where you are coming from and i responded thus to the OP.

You also may have prevented some naive person from exposing their personal info on the internet by letting them think first.

[Vasily]

Originally Posted by ChicagoMeO

No, i understand where you are coming from and i responded thus to the OP.

You also may have prevented some naive person from exposing their personal info on the internet by letting them think first.

Thanks!

I worked on a 24 hour helpline years ago, and we were cautioned to reveal absolutely nothing about our location or our identities. We all had aliases we used when counseling clients. A caller talked about her problems with a certain counselor on his shift multiple times over a period of weeks -- she figured out our location from bits of information in his responses to her questions, and showed up one day at our site looking for him claiming he was the father of the baby she was carrying. Funny thing is, he was a gay man with zero interest in sexual relationships with women.

Those who think it's 100% safe posting personal information online in a public forum like this - think again. Accounts get hacked, servers get hacked, bad guys are good at tracking down information and cross correlating it with other information online. If you use the same login here as on other forums and people know your location, there's a non-zero chance they can track you down through your other social media and internet presences.

[chicago0311]

Im not asking for personal information. Im asking for relative costs of peoples expenses.

[damba]

Originally Posted by chicago0311

Im not asking for personal information. Im asking for relative costs of peoples expenses.

If you read the thread again, you even have most of that already. Ballpark is there.

Understand, many people won't be comfortable, even anonymously, listing salary info, etc. Just enter those numbers based on where you will be as you incur the other associated costs across your budget lines. Always overestimate costs 10-20% and throw in extra savings to learn how much money you truly *do not* have

cheers

[MayaLucy]

Right. Someone tell me how you can find someone's identity by posting how much they pay for cars and electricity.

Silliness.

[damba]

Originally Posted by MayaLucy

Right. Someone tell me how you can find someone's identity by posting how much they pay for cars and electricity.

Silliness.

The more pressing point is why the OP feels he cannot get a good baseline elsewhere for this info. It is trivial to find it, and not so useful to hear what folks pay here in a random, jumbled sense w/ no context.

[ChicagoMeO]

Originally Posted by MayaLucy

Right. Someone tell me how you can find someone's identity by posting how much they pay for cars and electricity.

Silliness.

That is a naive comment.

[Careless]

Originally Posted by Vasily

Thanks!

I worked on a 24 hour helpline years ago, and we were cautioned to reveal absolutely nothing about our location or our identities. We all had aliases we used when counseling clients. A caller talked about her problems with a certain counselor on his shift multiple times over a period of weeks -- she figured out our location from bits of information in his responses to her questions, and showed up one day at our site looking for him claiming he was the father of the baby she was carrying. Funny thing is, he was a gay man with zero interest in sexual relationships with women.

Those who think it's 100% safe posting personal information online in a public forum like this - think again. Accounts get hacked, servers get hacked, bad guys are good at tracking down information and cross correlating it with other information online. If you use the same login here as on other forums and people know your location, there's a non-zero chance they can track you down through your other social media and internet presences.

Oh no! someone might find out who I am! And then... they could... do nothing? What, they're so incensed at my comments about education on the North Shore that they'd try to come kill me? Are you pissing people off so much that you're really that terrified of the consequences should someone figure out who you are?