Cost of Living????

If you don't have a budget set and don't know how much "life" costs, I would suggest waiting another couple of months to make sure you can really afford this!

I would strongly suggest keeping a list of your CURRENT bills... all of them, including daily expenses. Keep it as a running journal and then add it all up at the end of a week and again at the end of the month. Call the cable company and ask what cable and internet cost. Again, these are basic facts you can find on your own and you should be able to estimate these with little effort on your part.

Items to consider:
- Rent
- Car maintenance
- Gas
- Electric (ask the landlord for an estimate)
- Gas (if applicable and ask the landlord)
- Groceries
- Eating out
- Clothing
- Diapers

For Us (we live in NY so keep that in mind)
- Mortgage: $2600 month
- Water/Sewer: $35 month
- Cable/Internet: $200 month
- Electic/Gas: average of $300 month (depending on season_
- Groceries: $650 month
- Cars: $100 month
- Gas: $250 month (at minimum, but I get reimbursed through work)

We have a budget spreadsheet and (including childcare b/c we both work full time) it costs us approximately $6000 per month to live our (non extravagant) lives.

Remember that it's not the "planned" costs that get you... it's the unplanned ones that will wipe you out. Do you have a savings account? Do you have health insurance? Do you have stable incomes?

Make sure that you can "really afford" to move out before you do it! Before my BIL moved out of our basement, I had him "pay" to live with us for two month to be sure he could really afford it. He "paid" rent, groceries, utilities, etc for two months (of course I gave the money to him when he left) to be certain that he really COULD afford to be on his own. If this is an option for you, do it. Not only will you realize where your money is going, you will have a nice chunk of change to start your savings!

Good luck. I hope this works out!

.

Congratulations!
Be frugal and watch your expenses (every little penny).
Don't spend foolishly so you can control & monitor your money.
Make a monthly budget now so you can see your expenses on paper.
Rent $615
Basic Cable $25-69 (depending on your area) add $25 for Internet
Gas for your cars $160/mo?
Groceries $200/mo (this can be cheaper or more)
Utilities (gas $40, electric $50-100)
Car insurance?
Car payment?
You can control a lot of bills: get basic cable, keep electric down: turn lights off in all rooms you are not using, don't subscribe to magazines, check out books from library as opposed to buying them, rent movies for your son occasionally from Redbox $1 rentals, ask for and accept clothing and toy hand me downs for your son, buy generic brand food at the grocery store, don't shop at the most expensive grocery store, frequent the cheapest gas station, no frivolous spending (xBox games, clothing shopping for yourself etc), frequent thrift stores if you need some furniture, accept furniture (beds, linens, towels etc) from family & friends, get into your new apt first before buying everything, try to do w/o some things that are not necessary,
Do your budget/figure out your bills now BEFORE you move out so you KNOW what to expect & need to live with and to ensure you have enough money to live off of.
Good luck!

Please make sure you are paying for life insurance. It's so important.

Everyone has such different bills. I'm sure it will work out. :)

Call Charter and ask what basic services are. It starts at $9 a month here for local channels and goes up to about $150 for all channels and internet. Find out how much the deposit will be. Sometimes it can be as much as $250

Then call the electric compnay in your area. Call around to several of them. Ask what the deposit will be - again, it could be as much as $250. Ask what the cost per killowatt hour will be. Where I live, I pay 9c per kwh and my bill has run an average $125-$150 per month, but that's for a 3br house. It should be less in an apartment. You can ask the electric company to give you a 3 yr average, of what the bill has been in the apartment. That will give you the best idea of what to expect. Shop for the lowest possible kwh.

Make a grocery list of things you will need. Shampoos, Laundry and dish soap, trash bags, diapers, formula, milk, eggs, bread, all the stuff you will need to keep at the house. Then get a local grocery ad and a calculator to add it all up.

Figure out how far you will be from your job and how much gas you need to budget for

I think if you live very frugally you will need at least $1,200 a month and that's if you don't eat out much and learn to make a lot of things from scratch. Eating out is the quickest, easiest way to ruin your budget!

Doesn't your apartment cover some of those costs?? Cable, water?? If not, they should have a VERY good idea of what it would cost. If not, the electric company could tell you past bills by checking the address. Same with the water bills. Before leaping ahead, write yourself up a budget, with "worse case scenerio" numbers and see how you come out. You can tweak from there. Best of luck to you!!

It is hard to put a budget together for other people, but I would think that a family of 3 in an apartment can live for $1500 to $2000 per month comfortably.

Congrats and good luck!