I'm currently budgeting and tracking my solo monthly expenses for November which will be the first full month without my former partner (of 5 years). It's hard for me to estimate exactly what my expenses are (or could be) but I have plenty of personal lifestyle bloat I can trim. My somewhat core expenses currently are:
- $800 - rent (includes water, radiant heat and "free" laundry)
$47 - cell phone
$300 - groceries
$45 - internet
$60 - natural gas & electricity
$30 - cats
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$1,282
My first goal is to reach a 50% savings rate.
I'm going to have to read more about how this calculated with my 401K contributions. My employer's match (7.5%) is fully vested next year, but I'm not sure where to count that once it's vested either. I'll adjust my payroll deductions. I think I will be switching back to a high deductible ($1250 - not that high) HSA plan next year instead of the low deductible plan ($400) that had a lower premium. But then where do I count my HSA? Perhaps my first goal should be to learn how to calculate my savings rate with all the pre-tax components.
I also posted my core expenses above because even with a few hundred in extra fun expenses, it's totally possible to live on half of my take home pay with some lifestyle tweaks. I needed to see it typed out somewhere. And I'm open to adjusting the fixed expenses above over time as well as long as I don't have to give up my cats. I know I have a lot to learn. I've been living slightly below my means for years and rationalized it of course, but haven't been doing very much at all beyond that. I've gotten back into patterns of consumption and a sedentary lifestyle that don't serve my overall well-being. And I need more accountability and community around changing this.
Currently Reading:
- ERE
Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein
The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood