Post your monthly expenses/living situation/location ITT

Sundry Chitchat
72

I’ll bite. My wife and I are in a two-bedroom condo in the inner suburbs of Ottawa.

Housing - $1800/month (about $900 on our current mortgage (just under 9 years left), $200 in property taxes, $600 in condo fees, $100 insurance)
Utilities - $90 a month on average for electricity (water is included in the condo fee)
Car - $425 a month (2018 Chevy Equinox), about $700 all told after gas, insurance, maintenance and parking. Stopped paying $150 for public transit for me to go to work, which was good. Thinking about upgrading the car soon, though.
Groceries/essentials - $800
TV/internet/phone - $400
Personal care - $300
Clothes - Was $100 a month before the pandemic, probably less since.
Medical - $1000 a month. Our biggest expense by far, psychological therapy isn’t covered in Canada and our supplemental insurance maxes out early. and we both see therapists plus a couples counselor.
Life insurance - $85 a month until the mortgage is paid off
Entertainment - $300 on eating out, used to spend another $400 on other stuff, but not lately
And we have a cleaning service which averages out to about $150 a month.

All told, probably $6000ish a month. Still saving at a decent clip, though. Extremely fortunate to have a stable government job right now.

1 Like
73

Neither of us are budget making people so there will be a lot of estimates in here.

Suburb of Minneapolis MN. Neighborhood was full of old people that had lived there forever but has slowly been changing to young families and couples. It borders Minneapolis proper so hopefully it continues in that direction and we can sell the place in a few years and move somewhere warm. 5-10 minute drive to downtown Minneapolis, same distance to the craft brewery/distillery artist, hipster area and the city lakes. You can also bike anywhere in the metro area from here, Minneapolis is obsessed with biking and has paths and trails all over the place, we live right off one of the main lines.

Wife and I live in a 2400 sq ft house with a good sized yard, no kids, 2 dogs.

Mortgage - $1900 per month plus another $750 for taxes and insurance so $2650 monthly house payment. Utilities and other house shit are probably another $300 per month (I don’t pay gas or electric so I’m not sure what those average but I’m guessing)

Health/dental/vision insurance - mine is $200 a month, not sure about my wife’s but it’s similar. Let’s say $400 between both of us

Streaming TV/apps/internet/cell phones - $250-300 per month

Cars/insurance/gas - car payments are $1000 per month for two cars, insurance is $175 per month. Gas I have no clue, neither of us put on a lot of miles so probably $100-200

Groceries - $800-1000 per month. Pre covid restaurants and bars were probably an additional $500 but now thats much lower, we’ve also both been drinking way less than we used to so that helps.

Entertainment - it was almost nothing during the early stages of Covid but during the summer I golf quite a bit, probably costs me $200-300 per month from April to Sept. Most of our other entertainment involved food or drink and I don’t know random shit like sporting events.

Total - $6300 per month. I know we spend more like $10-12k per month overall so who knows where the other money goes. Shopping, house shit, travel I guess

74

I am a bit surprised by what seems like low healthcare costs mentioned. People paying $200/month is this some super low level of care?

Reason I ask is I pay that much in Canada for my plan but it adds paramedicals, dental and meds.

I guess I always thought you guys paid much more.

75

You have to pay to call an ambulance?

76

Sometimes yes.

77

What? If someone has a bad accident at home and can’t make it into hospital what do they do if they haven’t forked out for extra healthcare?

78

Knock on wood I have never been in an ambulance but some googling tells me it’s $385 for a trip in one.

79

They have employer provided health insurance that is way way way more than they are paying a month. The fact that the status quo is tolerable for most middle class+ people is a big part of why the current system survives.

4 Likes
80

St. Louis Park?

81

Does it cover things like paramedicals (massage, chiro) dental and meds like here?

82

Golden Valley, highway 100 and 55 area

83

You North Americans are savages lol. I’d bet the native people who were genocided had much more inclusive healthcare.

85

Not dental, but yes meds. Where they really differ from your plan is going to be in how big the bills get if things go really wrong and the monthly premium paid by the employee and employer together. Most of them probably have a separate fairly scammy dental insurance plan that doesn’t really pencil out even if something goes really wrong.

1 Like
86

Wow, do they have Cadillac ambulances out there?!

It’s $45 for an essential ambulance trip in Ontario.

87

Me too :eyes: 169 side though

88

Ambulance rides cost uninsured people thousands in the US.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/ambulance-trips-can-leave-you-with-surprising--and-very-expensive--bills/2017/11/17/6be9280e-c313-11e7-84bc-5e285c7f4512_story.html

89

Mine doesn’t. I also have a high deductible plan where I contribute $1800 to an HSA and my employer contributes the rest ($2000)

90

Employer covers most of the cost, I used to pay under $100 a month for an ok plan.

91

Haha nice, I’m grabbing food from Lat 14 tonight probably right by you!

1 Like
92

I’ve been in 2 ambulances in the past 15 years, they both cost around $800 iirc. One of them I was still on my parents insurance during college, the other was 6 years ago or so