Monthly expense with 3 kids (Houston: low income, apartment, to rent)

[user987]

what is the monthly expense i can expect in houston with 2 infant and 1 child 5 years

[swopoe]

It totally depends. I have 3 kids. Are you using daycare? We didn’t. Are you doing activities or classes like little gym? Buying new clothes or hand me downs or used? Formula or breastfeeding the infants? Is the 5 year old in school? There are so many variables.

[user987]

No day care. yes school going kg2 but exclude schooling fee as it is covered by company. 1 is formula and the other one breastfeeding,no entertainment or gym classes. i am used to live very simple life and avoid extra expense.

[Aliana926]

Daycare is the biggest expense for parents. So, if there's no day-care expenses...I would say your biggest expense now are formula and diapers.

[cheryjohns]

....and rent/mortgage, which depends on what area of town.

[descovy]

First of all, I saw in a different post that you’re looking for a $600 1br apartment. That won’t be possible for a family of 5 in Houston. Expect to rent a 2 bedroom.

All things considered, I wouldn’t move a family of 5 to Houston for an income of less than $50,000 a year. You’ve mentioned not having a car and wanting to be close to a mosque which limits your housing even more.

A low housing budget often equals needing a car to get to the grocery store to buy food. Houston like many American cities struggle with “food deserts” where proximity to healthy food at a grocery store is hard in low income areas. To which you spend more on convenience “fast foods”.

Closer in the city, ...more public transportation. But higher rents, and less access to good food stores.

In the suburbs, possibly less money on rent. Good stores. But you need a car.

Please be careful with this decision. It sounds like you may be coming from very far away. Do you have any contacts in Houston (maybe through your employer) where you could talk directly to co workers who make the same salary as you, to figure out where they live? Many families are 2 income, so it’s not up to your employer to pay you enough to raise a family in Houston on one salary.

[Ghost Town]

Houston is not as good as Pakistan: very flat, no mountains, not so many mosques, more expensive, requires car, doesn't allow 5 people living in 1 br apartment. Is it really worthy to move to Houston? I think it is much better in Pakistan

[user987]

On average 100,000 annual income, how much i can save on hand ....any rough idea....

[user987]

anybody answer on this.

[Houston321]

There are way too many questions that need to be answered. Basically you make 8K per month or so. Is this gross? If so, after taxes and health insurance let's say you will take home roughly $5500 per month. Figure about $1000 per month groceries, cell phone/internet/cable/home utilities, that's another $1000 per month. Now you are down to $3500. Count on $1500 per month in rent for something decent. Now you are down to about 2K per month extra. You need a car, so get yourself a little toyota or honda, another $400 per month or so with insurance, another $150 per month gas. Now you are down to $1450 per month......you can fill in the rest, hope this helps get an idea.

I know there will be a bunch of smart-ass people with their 2 cents...." I use a fire stick", "you can get a cheap phone"...etc., all of this is true, I was just trying to give a rough idea.