Nowhere in this budget is there savings for a rainy day.
It’s still not clear to me what the gross salary is, but if this person is employed, shouldn’t they try to fund a 401k? At least up to a company match if offered.
“Eyewear can be expensive if you want glasses and contacts. The frames drive up the cost for me. They cost about $300 to $400 or so…”
Agreed, but few people need new prescriptions every year unless they have a specific eye problem.
And honestly I’ve skipped an annual eye exam to save money (I don’t have vision insurance and I have no particular eye problems other than simply needing glasses). I don’t get a new pair of glasses if my prescription changes - only maybe once every 5 years or so.
@cbreeze, I helped buy the house for my oldest daughter. I did not buy the house. 
This is for my younger daughter. For those that don’t know, She is disabled. She has an iq of 62. Other than that, she is healthy.
I want her to enjoy what she enjoys.
My wife and I are going to talk to an attorney or two very soon. We are going to redo our estate plan or planning a little bit.
This thread has been very helpful for me. This includes the hair posts that give me confirmation about the hair care costs.
We also want a roommate for my daughter for various reasons. We are going to offer the roommate a discounted rent in exchange for making sure my daughter is ok. My daughter is pretty self sufficient. We want the renter to be someone like a teacher or a social worker… Somebody who can’t afford to live here.
Looks like $40,000 a year is doable right now for what we want.
I enjoy reading all the posts. Very helpful.
Thanks!
My mother, a widow in a high COL area, lives on about $40K. She does not have a travel budget, unless you count the 40 minute ride into Seattle to visit her grandkids. When we want her to visit us, we pay for her plane ticket. But maybe a travel budget is doable if you’re in a less expensive area and don’t have condo fees.
Our family of four nets less than $34K/year. It’s doable but not easy. Cable? Hairstylists? =))
Ds1 moves out this month and will be making in this range. I’ll be curious to see how it goes. He couldn’t find a roommate on his short timetable, though he would have liked one. Thankfully, he had a lot in savings so that made outfitting his own place doable. Some new stuff, some free stuff, no cable. His employer also will provide him a laptop and phone so he’ll be saving there. Part of my wishes we could afford to make his life easier like so many on here, but not really. We’re big on carrying your own weight. Oh, and he is getting the use of his brother’s car while he’s still in college so that’s a big cost savings, but he’ll have to get his own in another year. We’ve all agreed on that.
Yes, I agree. Getting new eyewear each year is not a must. My eyes, however, are still changing. If I chose today to forgo my eye exam and wait for a few years, I think I’d also be guaranteeing losing my license in the years to come. 
This thread had been really useful. It’s good to see how people spend and also how savings and insurance come into play. It’s never to late to tweak my budget and such.
"This is for my younger daughter. For those that don’t know, She is disabled. She has an iq of 62. Other than that, she is healthy.
I want her to enjoy what she enjoys."
Well, that’s an entirely different story. Undoubtedly her needs are different. I wonder why you didn’t clarify that upfront?? I think we were all assuming a young person who was in a first job and was saving for the future. Best of luck with your daughter.
Does she need any kind of home health care or social work visits that you need to pay for?
The savings part is crucial as many have pointed out. Unexpected expenses like out of pocket health costs, auto insurance deductibles, major car repairs (or just new tires) can wreak havoc on a tight budget without adequate savings.
S’s entertainment and travel budget is higher than some because he lives far from our home and many of his friends from school. This past year, weddings have started cropping up - increasing his spending on gifts and travel. He says dating is tough on the budget too.
For the “regular” young people starting out, my S is making less than $40k. He is living in a very low cost area (he is sharing a 2 bedroom apt and his share including utilities is $500/month) and he is fortunate enough to have a new car and no student loans, but I expect him to live just fine. He will also be maxing his 401k. His furnishings were all from a consignment shop.
I agree I expect a non-disabled person to make entertainment trade offs that I can imagine you don’t want to forego for a disabled person. Can she track to a budget, though?
@We are going to offer the roommate a discounted rent in exchange for making sure my daughter is ok. My daughter is pretty self sufficient. We want the renter to be someone like a teacher or a social worker… Somebody who can’t afford to live here.
What does this entail? Making sure she eats ok? Comes back at night after an outing? Doesn’t bring home “bad” people? Do you want this person to report into you on a regular basis? What if that person goes out of town for the weekend? Do you expect her to accompany your daughter on social outings like movies? I would think long and hard about your expectations here.
I know a family of 4 in Nebraska that up until very recently lived on just-slightly-more than $40,000 - without major sacrifices. Both mom and dad had cars, there was money for swim lessons for the older boy and a babysitter for the toddler while his mom worked (a practically minimum-wage part-time job.)
Of course, their HOUSE cost less than $60,000. Eating out is somewhat rare because they live in an area where restaurants are few and far between (and not exactly high end or terribly tasty, either.) Vacations are usually limited to road trips and camping. This modest income even lets them save, a bit.
How they will manage to send their two boys to college is still an unanswered question. But they live an OK life on an income that’s in parts of the country considered very, very low. And those small savings will add up, so…
My S lives on significantly less than $40K gross and pays income tax and Social Security.
Millions of people do.
There was a period not too long ago when we did, also.
Where is the idea that this is come kind of unusual feat?
You can start by eliminating almost all of the entertainment/travel budget, and cutting the dental budget to almost nothing. (There are community clinics…and you don’t get big stuff done unless absolutely necessary, and you get glasses maybe once every three or four years or less often.) You can cut out cable, and reduce the phone/internet budget by half, at least. Cut haircuts to $100 per year. Cut the clothing budget in half. Cut the gifts/holidays budget in half. Cut the home furnishings budget to maybe $250: a new computer every four or five years.
Then you can take a lot of the money saved and apply it to heat and electricity, if this is a homeowner.
We live on closer to $30,000 than $40,000 for a family of 3½ (my D is a recent college grad and self sufficient, though we pay her car insurance and phone as part of our family plan. she does pay her own health insurance and car registration).
We live in an apartment complex that offers free cable tv, otherwise we wouldn’t have it.
My H and S get haircuts every 6 weeks, even though they may need them every 4 weeks. I don’t get haircuts or color my hair. My hair is long because of that. I have more time than money, so I take the time to come it out and put it up every day instead of having it cut shorter.
We do have three cars for the 4 of us to share. They are all paid off and don’t have many break downs.
I work part time for an apartment complex. Because of that I have lowish pay but I get cheap rent. I get cheaper rent instead of a raise every year. Right now, my rent is just about 40% of the market rate. It is a two bedroom, so my H and S liver here, too. D is off doing her own thing.
Our phone/internet is close to $300 a month, but we are on a family plan of 4 phones. We do not have a landline.
We also shop at Aldi and spend maybe $200 monthly total for the 3 of us. Paper products and shampoo, soap, etc would be separate.
There are ways to be frugal without denying one self of the joys of life.
PG–dstark’s pretty savvy; I’m sure he’s entertained those questions. I think the idea is to just get an idea of how incomes are divvied out and where money tends to go. She’s still a an adult young person; presumably her expenses aren’t that different from others. (I did assume it was her that he was talking about as he’s discussed her situation extensively on CC, but I don’t think he was not assuming everyone would know it, and didn’t expect answers to address it.)
Now that I’ve read the rest of the thread, I realize what situation @dstark is planning for. Not what I envisioned.
Yes, I would think that your D could live comfortably on $40K per year in the circumstances you describe. A lot would depend on potential transportation costs, if she is not in a walkable area for food shopping and the like and cannot drive for some reason, now or later. And of course the cost of housing in her/your area. Also, of course, unexpected medical expenses and the like. It would be great if you could set things up for her so that some of her $$ goes directly into savings for the proverbial rainy day.
BTW, I, too, was suffering from insomnia last night and finally gave up and got up to continue making my way through season 3 of The Good Wife, accompanied by a glass of bourbon. Went back to bed around 5:30 and didn’t actually get to sleep until almost 6AM. Strange night.
I get the whole eyes are changing thing but that still seems very steep. My eyes are pretty bad… contacts are -5.25/-5.5 and my glasses are several years old (from when I was around a -4.5). It’s pretty hard for me to see far when I use my glasses but they’re good enough for most daily tasks. New glasses don’t have to cost $300-400 though and you really shouldn’t need to get new glasses every year anyway. Just swapping out the lenses should run you about $100 (if insurance covers absolutely nothing) unless you’re getting additions to the lenses (UV protection, transitions, etc)
I’m not begrudging anyone’s choices. It’s stupid of me to have glasses this old especially when my eyes are this bad and I wouldn’t tell anyone to do it. However, I don’t think spending that much on glasses (and dental exams, etc) is something that most in that income bracket would do.
I just ordered my first pair of glasses online. They cost about $100 (rimless progressives). This is a fifth of what I paid for my current pair, which have rimless RayBan frames. (The frames are still fine, but the lenses have experienced coating failure after 5 or more years.) Will be interesting to see how they turn out!
No, new glasses do not have to cost $300-$400. That’s just how much mine tend to be and the price reflects the design and additions that I prefer. To be honest, I don’t think I want to change my frames this year. I’ve finally found a frame shape that suits my face. By all means, spend your money how you want to.
Hmmm, perhaps I need to head online for cheaper frames…have always ordered in store.
I just think most of us didn’t assume such a special situation when we commented.
I used to live in Ann Arbor. I wouldn’t call it outrageous there but it definitely goes farther there than it does here.