jimmynoshoes

Hi all,

Hugely early days yet, and I expect things will no doubt change in the year ahead.

As things stand, if income was $60,000, what rent amount should we be budgeting for? 60 is the worst case scenario in theory. I think the 60,000 equates to about $3500 per month after taxes. I don't know what else to account for in pay slips though, so purely going by basic salary calculators online there.

The budgets I've worked out are somewhat outdated now as prices for stuff has changed. I also haven't been able to get accurate costs for gas/water/elec etc. Would we realistically be ok to look at 1500 range, and still be able to save? I don't have a trade or education that is noteworthy, so we are basing everything on partners lowest salary and me being out of work initially. The plan is for me to get a trade once in Canada.

Will be 2 people, and 3 cats (can anyone point me to a canadian online pet food shop?). Thinking Calgary area with good public transport to main city, (not sure where?). Not for a good year or so yet, but we'd like to have a rough idea on budget and affordability, and then look for ways of improving it where possible. We currently live in what equates to a studio flat, so size wise everything over there is bigger than what we have now lol (approx 340sq ft).

Thanks in advanced

Danny B

I started my 1st job at $50k per year and my mortgage was $1k per month which I found manageable.

My Son lives in Vancouver and earns $50k and pays $850 per month rent, he also pays $250 for car insurance and $150 car loan. Apparently he is broke.

scrubbedexpat091

Experts will say housing should not exceed 30% of income.

In reality in some regions of Canada this is not possible unless high income.

We live in Vancouver in one of the lower cost areas and 1bed room apt is 1,750 to rent which is about 55% of our after tax income.

scrubbedexpat091

Does he have roommates?

suzeandmatt

Hey!
My husband and I live in Calgary. When we arrived it was just on my husband’s post-doc job of $50k.
We pay $1400 a month for our decent sized 2 bedroom house in the NW of Calgary- all utilities are included.
Only extras involving the house are Internet, cable (if you do that- we just do tv over the Internet), and House insurance- though that was cheap enough so we just pay once a year.

I don’t know if you plan on buying instead- I can only speak about what we’ve found for rentals.

I was able to get a job 2 months after we arrived though- so it became even easier.

To give you an idea though- husband’s annual salary is $50k at the moment and take home each month is about $3000 (that’s with EI and everything coming off). When that’s all we were earning it was enough to live on.

Public Transit is easy enough in Calgary. Everyone told us getting around without a car in Calgary would be a total pain and some even went so far to say it was impossible but we did it for a year and honestly had no issues!! If we wanted to go further we’d just hire a car or borrow a friends. But otherwise it was honestly fine! We’d often use Uber as well which is cheap enough too as there’s so many! Compared to where we lived in the UK we think the transit system is for sure superior here!! The transit app was super useful when we first arrived and I’d recommend it!
If you are going to be getting around without a car for a while- I’d recommend looking into living somewhere near a C-train station. It just makes getting in and out of downtown so much easier- it’s cheap too!!

YoshiPal2010

Public transport in Calgary is really only within the city limits. It is not like the UK, with buses and rail service linking outlying towns and villages. And even within Calgary, bus journeys can be very long, involving changing two or three changes within a journey. The C-Train system, although bigger than it used to be, is no "London Overground".

Danny B

Yes, they pay $850 each per month.

BristolUK

Funny how people have completely different opinions on the same thing.

I can't help thinking of things back in Bristol where the bus service wasn't great, but there were bus lanes where you sailed past queues of cars and while not quite door to door, it was mostly close to door to close to door.

Traffic was really bad and drivers would convince themselves that the bus was inadequate and with their car it was door to door - ignoring a fairly major point. It was from their door and to their door at home, but unless you were one of the privileged few with parking at the workplace, the car park was either further from work than between home and bus stop or it was closer but NCP rates cost about 5 times the return bus fare.

suzeandmatt

When I was talking about transit I mean within the city. I live in the north west of calgary about a 20min walk from a c-train station. It helped a LOT! The city is big and very spread out.
It does become a different story if you want to live outside of calgary and commute in, or if you wanna live in one of the satalite towns and commute in- then it would be incredibly difficult. Before we had a car, if we wanted to go to the mountains for the day we just hired a car or borrowed a friends.
I assumed when you were asking about calgary you meant actually within the city limits which is what I was commenting on from my experience.
Also- I’m not comparing it to London. That seems weird to me because calgary is tiny in comparison and has nowhere near as many people.
I’m from by the coast, 8 miles from Newcastle and the public transit there is bus and overground metro- size wise pretty much exactly the same size/length as here. And it’s far superior here- and doesn’t stop every time there’s snow thankfully.
People here will complain about the transit - just as people do!! But my husband and I have found it really good- and we both hate traveling on public transit!! Haha

jimmynoshoes

Thanks very much for the in depth reply Suzeandmatt. It is certainly reassuring to know that the budget we've calculated is doable without causing us to be hermits who cannot afford to go anywhere lol. We've looked at some rentals in the Calgary region but were not sure on the 'better' places. If north west has better transport then i'll keep that in mind more, as we will likely use public transport initially.

The mountains are a big attraction for us and have helped sway us from Ontario region to Calgary instead, but the costs appear to be similar from what I can see.

We aim to rent initially for 6-12 months then see what our position is and hopefully buy. This is a long way off yet though, gotta get there first (and save a lot more)

scrubbedexpat091

Makes sense.

suzeandmatt

For us (both 30/31 and without kids) we like to go to the pub and out for meals and things- we really like the area of Sunnyside and Kensington for that, Inglewood is also really nice and the older part of the city. So I recommend you check out those places if you like to do that sort of thing. They’re both close enough to things- Sunnyside/Kensington for sure, it’s just a short walk across the river to downtown.
We find eating out cheaper than the UK as well.
We live near the university in the NW, close to a decent mall, jusy because my husband was working at the uni and we didn’t know the city. It’s a decent enough spot for families- certainly safe and quiet enough but kinda boring.
We’re now currently looking to move to the places I mentioned before.