Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

My electric at the last place was about $150 a month on avg - this was a 2,000 square foot place and I had 2 air conditioners in a couple of windows in the summer. I now pay about $80 a month in a similar place because I am on National Grid who are a bit cheaper (till this winter when they'll be sticking their prices up).

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

Ah, yes, winters :eek:

So maybe add Set of Snow Tires ( x2 - my set cost $800 ) to the budget - and snowplough service if you have a house with a long driveway and don't want to be up at 5am shoveling ( otherwise buy yourself a snowblower )

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

All, I decided to act on your posts so Exchequer agrees to top up the grocery budget :D,
I added 150 for electricity, it doesn't account for air conditioning, though.


Summary:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- $ 900 groceries (possibly in a range of $600 to 900)
- $ 300 car insurance - 2 cars
- $ 20 Umbrella Insurance
- $ 120 internet, phone, TV
- $ 200 propane based heating / air conditioning (avg) 3 bedroom (~2000 sq./ft.)
{oil based NE - might be as much as about $600-800 per month from November-March, overall yearly 6K - 3,000 sq ft.}
- $ 150 electricity (avg / month) 5 people - 3 bedroom house (up to $200 - 250 month)
- $ ___ extra school spendings (after school activities including sport related)
- $ 150 3 cell plans
- $ 250 (70c / litre / on avg 3050 km shared by 2 cars per month with avg 10l / 100km)
- $ ___ water (n/a if renting ? - avg / month)
- $2000 rent - 3 bedroom (~200 sq./ft.)
- $____ medical insurance - ($300 to $1500) family of 5 depending on work based benefits (if any) and an income
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GT: $4090

Pointers:
- get a job with medical insurance included,
- rent a house, with efficient / modern heating system preferably propane based,
- rent a house in the within a (even small) city area, it would lower gas costs

Any other thoughts, especially on electricity (just have had one report so far), water, school and after school spendings

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

I am now married in Alabama , just the two of us will spend $200 a week on groceries and we eat out twice a week. So that grocery bill of $200 only covers five days for the two of us :unsure:

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

When you are making sandwiches for school lunches, for 3 kids, you'll go through a loaf per day. At $4 a pop that would be around $100 a month, a sixth of their budget before you put anything in the bread.

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

OP,

I am not sure where you are getting your grocery figures from, especially for a family of five.

We struggle to keep the food budget to around $500 a month and there are three of us. We do shop at Wegmans mostly, and both of us cook fresh (I am good at making lots of pasta bakes in particular, and we don't eat out) ... unless you want to be on the 'pasta' diet like us and/or are a Gordon Ramsey type chef, you are probably going to find it difficult to subsist on that budget for a family of 5 ...

Hoffage

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

now, judging from your posts so far, we need about $50K (NET) just to get going
that's not including any medical insurance costs and with - possibly -
minimal heating / air conditioning bills, and just average rent estimate.

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

If you're currently at $4k a month for very basic living costs, then it looks as though the six figure salary mentioned as a minimum in post 3 is pretty much spot on. Well done Rusty Chainsaw! :D

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

If we followed this admonition, BE would have closed down a decade or more ago.

Hmm just noticed the missing apostrophe

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

Or clothes, or cinema tickets, or meals out, or new shoes, or holidays, or household items, or birthday presents, or.....etc, etc.

As I said above (we posted at the same time), seems like RC was spot on with his estimate for a family of five to live on.

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

In case you hadn't already got the message, food is cheaper in the UK :lol:

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

Missed a full-stop. :eek: :p

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

I've noticed that Yorkshire Gold tea bags are high over here. My son generally buys me loose tea in Waitrose and brings it over. Almost pays for his plane ticket!

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

My friend sent us over three X240 tea-bags packs of Yorkshire Tea - we are working our way through it sparingly. I love me some Yorkshire Tea :)

Hoffage

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

Years ago, American tea was just called "tea" so you knew it was crap, so didn't make the mistake of buying it. Then the US brands discovered the concept of "English Breakfast Tea", and other English sounding names (Queen Mother's Blend, etc. etc.) But it's still the same totally crap tea, just deceptively branded.

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

Will have to account for that on the monthly budget :cool:

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

Studs are worth it in northern Maine, not so much in the Dover area of NH....it's cold, but not that massively snowy, not proper stuff at least...decent tyres are worth it though and they're not cheap either.

Snow ploughing, depending on the town/state, it might be something that the landlord has to provide, so would be included in the rent.

Up in Maine, it's about $60 but down my way, it's about $200...so a decent shovel and ibuprofen it is :lol:

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

Piece of string question.

Ice hockey and you're looking at several hundred for the gear, cost of ice time for a hour every morning and a couple hours after school, plus cost of doing the actual thing, plus cost of games and competitions, so factor several thousand a year.

Skiing, would depend on the state and where you live, lot of resorts do reduced rates for town residents and restricted day/time passes could be a few hundred a season to a few thousand.

Down my way, all kindergarten/first grade sports seem to run for 4-6 week seasons and run for around $120-180 plus equipment plus cost of match/competitions. Cousins up in Maine, spend $60 for their 4th grader to do baseball and basketball for the sports season and that includes the gear.

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

Tea is a revelation here.

In fact I feel like I'm back from 9 years in a gulag all round, but this is not the place.

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

You certainly understand why they threw it in Boston Harbour back in the day.

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

:lol:

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

I'm still pacing back and forth, glimpsing the sky through the bars...
But you're right, this is not the place.

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

Bide your time.

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

Really? We did when we rented in NJ.

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

If you have a job offer but don't know the deductions and benefits yet then I would say wait and see exactly what your take home is, and then figure out what you will need to live comfortably.

Is there any reason why you want to live in the NE other than the job offer??

If you are in IT there are probably similar job opportunities in less expensive states.

You may need to rethink your strategy. Once you are here it becomes harder to cope with when you are struggling financially. And there are far fewer safety nets to fall back on.

Good luck in your adventure, but take notes. There are a lot of experienced expats here giving advise to help you avoid the pitfalls.

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

We have 2 kids that play competitive soccer...age 8 and 10, uniform $300, fees $3000 a year :eek: and a tournament entry averages at $50

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

Crazy grocery prices being quoted here. We shop at Wegmans where a gallon of milk is currently $2.49 and you can get a large basic loaf of white bread for $0.99. When we lived in California grocery prices were much higher, with milk being close if not slightly over $4/gallon. Groceries in the north east by California standards are much cheaper.

Wegmans is far from being a 'budget' grocery store either.

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

On the tea front you can get an 80 count box of Tetleys British Blend for $3.48 also at Wegmans. Not a fan of Yorkshire tea, that stuff strips your stomach lining lol :)

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

Wegmans is great...there's a couple in MA, but there aren't any in the rest of New England.

The bread ain't bad though and the milk is one of the cheapest around, but it's not as cheap as yours. The non-grocery stuff is a bit off the charts expensive though such as cleaning products, so you're having to head to far more places to find the bargains and in Dover, NH there's really not that much choice, though there is a Trader Joes past the Fox Run Mall that's between Dover and Portsmouth, small one but it's pretty decent.

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

Notes are definitely taken, thanks all for great feedback BTW.

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

Understood, I think I'll be looking for modern condo likely within "some" city boundaries for the start ...

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

So whats your take on it (family of 5 - albeit with two early - primary school children)

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

Anything on the normal school spendings books, notes, fund raising events, ... and this kind of stuff.

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

This may help show you where you fit in.
https://www.hhsc.state.tx.us/researc...ilyIncome.html

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

Quick summary, I did some research on the medical insurance bills I "estimated"
$500 for monthly premium (assuming employers contribution for the remaining
part) and another $500 for average monthly deductibles, this is assuming normal
spending for healthy family including money on seasonal related infections possibly
a visit to GP ....

Summary:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- $ 900 groceries (possibly in a range of $600 to 900)
- $ 300 car insurance - 2 cars
- $ 20 Umbrella Insurance
- $ 120 internet, phone, TV
- $ 200 propane based heating / air conditioning (avg) 3 bedroom (~2000 sq./ft.)
{oil based NE - might be as much as about $600-800 per month from November-March, overall yearly 6K - 3,000 sq ft.}
- $ 150 electricity (avg / month) 5 people - 3 bedroom house (up to $200 - 250 month)
- $ ___ extra school spendings (in school and after school activities including sport related)
- $ 150 3 cell plans
- $ 250 (70c / litre / on avg 3050 km shared by 2 cars per month with avg 10l / 100km)
- $ ___ water (n/a if renting ? - avg / month)
- $2000 rent - 3 bedroom (~200 sq./ft.)
- $1000 medical insurance - ($300 to $1500) family of 5 depending on work based benefits (if any) and an income
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GT: $5090

Pointers:
- get a job with medical insurance included,
- rent a house, with efficient / modern heating system preferably propane based - condo?,
- rent a house within (even small) city area, it would lower gas costs, sort out winters


Now, based on your estimates, it looks like family of 5 needs NET income of $60 000 dollars just to get going,
it will be probably 75K before tax. Since there will be very little difference for family of 5 and not that much
difference for family of 3 (again, I'm talking about basic spendings) I'm not sure how you guys coupe, because
you might need much more than that once Perks are included, probably 100 to 125K. Which means both parents
needs a quite decent wage in order to deliver.

So I'm asking what's happend to that beautiful country, how low income family can even
survive? -> just a rhetorical question ...

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

Thanks I was trying to look at it however this page doesn't open for me also I'm not that in to statistics,
as per statistical meaning you can drown in 5 inch deep water ...

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

We have an old saying on BE, my friend: "Same shit different bucket ."

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

OP- your figures don't include 401k contributions and although it wouldn't be immediate, funding college for three children is going to be very expensive and you would probably need to have some sort of college savings fund in place.

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

Or he could look at it this way...

Do you really want to leave the fairly comfortable life you have now with the security of medical treatment and other benefits to start somewhere new knowing you will struggle for a while??

It is do-able but it can be stressful, frightening and sometimes down right scary.
If you want to take a chance, with hard work and some luck you will get there. Just don't expect an easy ride.

Re: How much is enough – Northeast
 

Meant to add, school supplies for our 13 year old came to around $200 dollars. Luckily she's not remotely interested in any type of sports, so we don't have any huge costs there. I tend to ignore all of the cake/plant/fundraiser stuff and just make a contribution to the school at the end of the year.

Trying to fill the 11 week summer holiday can prove to be very expensive. The cheapest day camp type thing is with the YMCA which came in at $550 per week. Daughter's friend went on a 3 week sleep away camp with the YMCA which cost around $1100 per week. Most of my daughter's friends go off to a camp for part of the summer break followed by a family holiday.