The boxes in my parents' basement are labeled in my mom's handwriting now, because she said mine looked "like a ransom note." Kitchen. Bathroom. Books. Do Not Crush. Five days until I get the keys to a studio in south Evanston, and I've spent most of this week on the one thing I can control from my old bedroom: the budget.
Here's the uncomfortable headline. My rent will be $1,295 a month. My paycheck is $1,332 every two weeks. One paycheck, almost all of it, goes to rent.
My salary is $49,800 since my raise in March. After my 401(k), health premium, HSA, taxes and Illinois's flat 4.95%, I take home $1,332 every other Friday. Across a year that averages about $2,886 a month. I also make about $250 a month from pet sitting for two families in Wilmette I'm keeping after the move.
So a normal month looks like $2,886 plus $250, about $3,136.
The monthly plan
- Rent: $1,295 (heat and water included)
- Parking spot behind the building: $50
- Electric: $38 (estimated)
- Internet: $55
- Phone line, still on my parents' plan: $35
- Car insurance, my own policy now: $131
- Renters insurance: $14
- Gas for the car: $90
- Groceries: $260
- Student loans: $550
- Emergency fund: $250
- Fun and eating out: $120
- Everything else (toiletries, gifts, subscriptions, laundry): $110
That's $2,998. The other $138 a month covers two things: 25% of my pet-sitting money set aside for taxes, about $62, and my $30-a-paycheck car line, about $65. That leaves about $11 of slack, which is to say none.
Yes, 45% is high
$1,295 divided by $2,886 is about 45% of my take-home pay. Every rule of thumb I've read says that's too much, and I agree. I'm not going to pretend otherwise.
Here's why I signed anyway. Heat and water are included, which matters in a 1920s building in a Chicago winter. The apartment is on the top floor, a short walk to the Main Street Purple Line stop and Metra, so I can get downtown or to Dan's without driving. The two cheaper-looking options I toured in March weren't actually cheaper: the Skokie one-bedroom was $1,450 with heat on top, and the $1,375 garden studio felt damp the moment I walked in. And after two years of splitting a place in Rogers Park, I wanted to live alone.
The lease is 12 months, June 1 to May 31. If the numbers don't hold, I'll know long before I have to renew.
The lines I had to shrink
Making this work meant cutting things I've gotten used to while living at home:
The student loans go from $800 a month to $550. That's the biggest change and the one I thought about longest. My balance should be around $9,740 at the end of May, down from $31,400. Paying $550 still keeps me on track to be done in about a year and a half, sooner if I add extras. I'd rather pay the loans a bit slower than build a budget I'll break.
Fun and eating out drops to $120. At home I had more room, partly because my mom's fridge was always full.
Groceries at $260 means actually cooking. The Sunday dinners I've been making for my family taught me enough to manage.
And the emergency fund, which has been sitting at $6,000 while I saved for the move, goes back to growing at $250 a month.
One more honest thing. Most months I get two paychecks, not 2.17. In a two-paycheck month, I bring in $2,664 plus side income, and my plan runs about $200 short. Two months a year bring a third paycheck, and those refill the gap.
To make that work, I opened a second checking account this month at my credit union, just for rent and fixed bills, with a $400 buffer that never gets spent. Each paycheck sends a fixed amount there. The buffer absorbs the short months, and the third paychecks top it back up. My everyday checking only holds groceries, gas, fun and everything else.
The move fund reached $4,500 this week, and the actual move costs, first month, deposit, movers and secondhand furniture, should come in a little under that. Whatever's left goes to the emergency fund.
Nolan graduated from Illinois eleven days ago and is starting his own job in the Loop in July, so my parents' house is about to get very quiet. My mom keeps saying she's fine. She has labeled nine boxes for me. I think we're both a little not fine, in the good way.
